New Releases

Illustrator Christiane Krömer Takes Us Behind the Art of King For A Day

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Just released last month, our newest picture book, King For a Day, takes readers on a colorful journey through the spring kite festival Basant. From a rooftop in Lahore, Pakistan, Malik is determined to take his kite Falcon out and win the most kite battles to earn the title of “King of Basant.”

Illustrator Christiane Krömer used paper and fabric collage to create the gorgeous illustrations you see below:

Christiane KrömerI always take photos of the many stages. That way I can see what a picture looked like earlier on, experiment with many choices and then maybe go back to an earlier option. The fun with collage is that you can always push all the paper pieces and fabrics around until they are in the right spot. But there is also a big danger that all the 1000 loose pieces go flying, so it’s a good idea to have a photo that tells you exactly how it was when it looked good. I always have real fun to look at all the stages once the illustrations are finished. I hope you do, too.

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General

Poetry Friday: Walking in Harriet Tubman’s Shoes

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In honor of Black History Month, we asked some of our authors and illustrators to reflect on the black historical figures who have meant the most to them. Today, Pamela Tuck, author of As Fast As Words Could Fly, reflects on Harriet Tubman:

Pamela TuckI was “introduced” to Harriet Tubman in history class, and her story empowered me.  As soon as people hear her name, they instantly think of an African American woman who led slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad. The courage and bravery she exerted in risking her life shows how she also empowered others to believe in themselves and the promise of freedom. Harriet Tubman’s journey proves how one person can empower a community, a nation, or even the world.

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Educator Resources

Snapshots from the 22nd Annual African American Children’s Book Fair

This past weekend was the 22nd Annual African American Children’s Book Fair in Philadelphia. The book fair is one of the largest single day events for African American children’s books in the country – and a great way to kick off Black History Month each February. Below, a few pictures from this year’s event:

African American Children's Book Fair
Participating authors and illustrators this year included Tonya Bolden, Floyd Cooper, London Ladd, E.B. Lewis, Don Tate, Pamela Tuck, and Eric Velasquez
DSC00363
Young readers browse piles of books.

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Educator Resources

How to Compare and Contrast with the Common Core in Fourth Grade

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4th grade common coreFourth grade is a significant juncture for readers because the Common Core State Standards prescribes that 50% of reading material should be nonfiction. One of the critical skills on Common Core-aligned end of year assessments is compare and contrast. By the end of the fourth grade, students need experience in comparison for both fiction and nonfiction works. Practice in comparison not only improves a student’s close reading abilities, but also enables educators to gauge student comprehension and interpretation.

In honor of Parrots Over Puerto Rico winning the 2014 Robert F. Siebert Medal for the most distinguished informational book for children published in 2013, I am comparing Parrots Over Puerto Rico with Puffling Patrol. This book comparison is useful because the books tackle similar central ideas, yet have very different text structures and presentations of information.

I have created sample questions to teach towards and check mastery of each of the three Common Core categories. These are by no means the only questions to ask in each category, but these provide an overview of the progression in question complexity and mastery of the texts.

By creating a range of compare and contrast questions across the standards, we are able to differentiate for students within a class, provide extension opportunities for ready learners, or move the whole class from literal- to higher-level thinking over the course of several lessons.

Texts:

Parrots Over Puerto Rico (level: Q)

Parrots Over Puerto Rico
Parrots Over Puerto Rico

Puffling Patrol (level: R)

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General

Publishing Advice: Pitching, Querying, and ‘We don’t know how to market this’

Stacy Whitman photoJoseph BruchacA few weeks ago, Tu Books Publisher Stacy Whitman and author Joseph Bruchac (Killer of Enemies, Wolf Mark) answered questions about writing, publishing, science fiction and fantasy, and everything in between for a special Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) session. We rounded up their best advice for aspiring authors in Part 1. Today in Part 2, we share some of their advice on pitching, querying, and marketing:

Q: Joseph, when you sit down to write a query letter, what do you think the most important thing is to get across? I’ve heard a lot of advice, from getting the character’s voice in there to making sure the plot ends on a juicy cliffhanger. What do you do that made you so successful?

Joseph Bruchac: Writing a query letter is an art in itself. You need to get across both your idea and that you are the one who is qualified to write it.

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Educator Resources

How to Compare and Contrast with the Common Core in Kindergarten

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kinder common coreOver the past several weeks, I have demonstrated what compare and contrast can look like in second and third grade. Even as young as kindergarten, early readers can learn to compare and contrast successfully within and between texts. In doing so, teachers can assess students’ abilities at close reading, comprehension, and interpretation.

Below is a comparison of two books of similar topic and genre. I have created sample questions to teach towards and check mastery of each of the three Common Core categories. These are by no means the only questions to ask in each category, but these provide an overview of the progression in question complexity and mastery of the texts.

By creating a range of compare and contrast questions across the standards, we are able to differentiate for students within a class, provide extension opportunities for ready learners, or move the whole class from literal- to higher-level thinking over the course of several lessons.

Texts:

Meat Pies
Meat Pies

Meat Pies (Level: A)

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Diversity, Race, and Representation

10 Great Resources for Writing Cross-Culturally

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Our editors often get asked for advice on writing cross-culturally, so we thought we’d round up some of the best links on the subject. Writing cross-culturally means writing about a culture that isn’t your own (and in this definition of culture, we include race, ethnicity, sexual identity, disabilities, and other identity markers). We have published many books by writers who wrote outside their cultures, and believe that it can be done well; in fact, writing cross-culturally is an essential component of boosting the numbers of books about diverse characters.

That being said, writing cross-culturally must be done thoughtfully and carefully. It requires research. Changing a core piece of a character’s identity is not the same as changing a character’s name or hair style; different cultures provide different lenses through which to view the world, and affect characters in a multitude of small ways.

Here are some good places to start if you are an author writing cross-culturally or thinking about writing cross-culturally:

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Educator Resources

How to Compare and Contrast with the Common Core in Second Grade

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second grade compare and contrastLast week, I presented how to compare and contrast in third grade. In order for second-grade students to be prepared for the increase in rigor and expectations of a formal testing grade the following year, students should practice compare and contrast. This is a complex task, but enables students to demonstrate close reading, comprehension, and interpretation of texts.

Below is a comparison of two books by the same author (Monica Brown) and with the same character (Marisol McDonald). I have created sample questions to teach towards and check mastery of each of the broad three Common Core categories. These are by no means the only questions to ask in each category, but these provide an overview of the progression in question complexity and mastery of the texts.

By creating a range of compare and contrast questions across the standards, we are able to differentiate for students within a class, provide extension opportunities for ready learners, or move the whole class from literal- to higher-level thinking over the course of several lessons.

Texts:

Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match/Marisol McDonald no combina (level: L)

Marisol McDonald Doesn't Match

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General

Advice on Getting Published from a YA Editor and Author, Part I

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Stacy Whitman photoJoseph BruchacEarlier this week our Tu Books publisher, Stacy Whitman, and author Joseph Bruchac (Killer of Enemies, Wolf Mark), took to Reddit for an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session answering questions about writing, publishing, science fiction and fantasy, and everything in between. In case you missed it (or, like me, you find Reddit overwhelming and scary) here’s some of the best advice that came out of that thread:

Q: What advice can you give for any starting writer? What is the most important thing for a writer to consider?

Stacy Whitman: 

If you want to be a writer, you MUST read in the genre in which you want to write. And read a LOT!

Too many beginning writers who try to pitch books to me at conferences respond poorly when I ask them what they’ve read in the genre (because their manuscript or pitch makes it clear they have no idea what’s going on in the genre right now): they either only name books from 30 or even 50 years ago (“I love Heinlein!”) or they actually, when it comes to YA, say things like, “Oh, I don’t read that stuff.” If you wouldn’t read it, don’t write it.

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Educator Resources

Announcing our 2013 New Voices Award Winner

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New Voices Award sealNow in its fourteenth year, our New Voices Award is given to an unpublished author of color for a picture book manuscript. We’re excited to announce the winner of this year’s New Voices Award: Sylvia Liu of Virginia Beach, Virginia for her story, A Morning with Gong Gong. Congratulations, Sylvia!

Liu’s charming and humorous story, A Morning with Gong Gong, portrays an energetic young girl named Mei Mei, as she spends time with her grandfather. When Mei Mei sees her grandfather, Gong Gong, practicing t’ai chi in the garden, she is eager to join in. He tries to teach her the slow and graceful moves, and Mei Mei, in turn, tries to teach Gong Gong some of the yoga poses she has learned in school. Although they both struggle with these new activities, Mei Mei and Gong Gong realize that it’s the time they spend together that is important.

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