The Next Big Thing: A Global Blog Tour

The Next Big Thing blog tour started in Australia but has now gone global! The object is to bring awareness of the work of children's authors and illustrators. Extra “big” thanks go to Maryann Cocca Leffler for tagging me. She is a fabulous author, illustrator, and recently turned one of her books into a musical for the stage. Can the movie be far behind?

First I'lI answer these questions, then the next book artists will be tagged.

What is the title of your next book?

It's Jack & the Hungry Giant Eat Right with MyPlate, which will be available in Fall 2013.

Where did the idea for the book come from?

An existing picture book of mine (The Edible Pyramid) was an introduction to the USDA Food Guide Pyramid nutrition education program. It had been in print for many years and had been revised once already. My wonderful editor, Mary Cash at Holiday House, saw the news story about the new MyPlate program the day it came out. She immediately emailed me and we agreed there was no feasible way to revise Edible Pyramid, so it was back to the drawing board! I chose the Jack & the Beanstalk folktale as a starting point because of the visual possibilities...the food is so gigantic compared to Jack, which makes it fun.

What genre is your book?

It's a picture book with 32 pages for young readers from 4 to 8.

Which actors would you choose to play the characters in a movie version?

For the giant, whose name is Waldorf…a big guy who could appear fierce at first yet is really a big teddy bear. Preferably a red head. Though he is now deceased, Howard Keel from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers would have been perfect. So, somebody like him...maybe Tom Selleck? For Jack, a kid version of actor Shia LaBeouf (Transformers, etc.) would be fab.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Jack climbs the beanstalk to the giant's castle…just when he thinks he's lunch, the giant cooks a wonderful, healthy meal.

Who is the publisher?

Holiday House, who was the first publisher in the United States dedicated to publishing only books for children. They've been around since 1935 (wow!)

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Since it's a picture book, I sketch and write the rough draft more or less together. I don't remember exactly how long it took, but it generally at least a month goes by while I'm making a dummy.

What other picture books would you compare this story to?

Currently there are no trade books related to the MyPlate program…there are several textbook-type books with photographs. Hopefully mine will be the first trade picture book! Jack and the Baked Beanstalk by Colin Stimpson is a take-off on the original story, so it has that in common with mine.

A few pages from Jack and the Hungry Giant

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Food, glorious food, of course! In all seriousness, I think nutrition is a fundamentally important subject—so many people are not eating properly and are unhealthy as a result. One big improvement would be to cook from scratch with actual raw ingredients, as highlighted by the illustrations in my book. And avoid eating the many highly processed factory foods that have taken over the grocery store...uh oh, don't get me started!

What else about the book may pique the reader's interest?

To my knowledge there wasn't a cat in the original story, but there is in my version! This furry feline bears a striking resemblance to a kitty from my childhood named Sandy Claws (we thought his name was so hilarious...!)

Thanks so much for stopping by...I appreciate it so much!

It's an honor to link to the book creators for Thursday, March 28th—click on their names or book covers to visit their blogs:

Patrice Barton, who illustrated The Year of the Baby and also won a Crystal Kite award in 2012:

Linda Shute, who is the Illustrator Co-ordinator of the Florida chapter of the SCBWI and illustrator of Captain John Smith’s Big and Beautiful Bay:

I'm looking forward to finding out about more children's books as the Next Big Thing blog tour continues…see you there!

Testing App-creation software: a Kwik test

Here is a short video “screen test”  I made to try out DIY software for creating picture book apps. The software is a Photoshop plug-in called Kwik, here is the link to their site. It’s nice to be able to create the art and add the interactivity all in Photoshop.

The idea is that this clip shows just the start of what will happen on this page. After the Hen and Rooster shrink down, the rest of the background elements move in. Or at least that’s the plan right now! This sequence is probably too fast, but it’s easy to make adjustments.

Thanks for watching. : )

My first ebook (sort of)

In the last couple of years the discussion about digital books and story apps in the publishing world has been steadily increasing. It has seemed to escalate in the last few months...there are conferences, workshops, seminars, articles, you name it. 

A group of authors including me had been talking about it privately on a listserv for a few months, then couldn’t resist it any longer and started a group blog called E is for Book. In less than a month we’ve had over 1,500 visitors which indicates there are many people who want to figure out how ebooks will affect the world of children’s books. The first post on the blog gives a good sense of the variety of topics we have been and will be talking about, including ereading devices, software for creating ebooks and apps, glimpses behind the scenes of making a particular title, and much more.

One of the simplest types of digital book is a straightforward conversion of the print book into a digital format without adding additional interactivity or sound. This has been available for a long time, in the form of PDFs. The question is how to get them out into the marketplace. In talking with my publishers, one of the venues they’re working with is Follett Library Resources, which has an ebook section. I don’t have the technical specs yet, but apparently they are using the PDF format. So, since I do the InDesign layouts for my books anyway, it was very easy to add the jacket front and back as single pages, add “endpapers” to page 1 and page 32, and output a PDF. This is just a sample for the publisher and I to discuss, not anything final. But, it is exciting to be moving in this direction, because it will make books more accessible for schools that prefer digital technology for whatever reason.

Poetry Friday: Prehistoric Poems

This book begins with a brand-new, molten Earth 4.5 billion years ago then takes readers on a whirlwind tour of the history of life...much of it conveyed in the form of poems, cinquains, and limericks. Exclusively for today’s Poetry Friday, here a few samples from My Teacher Is a Dinosaur and Other Prehistoric Poems, Jokes, Riddles, & Amazing Facts:

©2010 by Loreen Leedy

I had fun writing riddles in the form of limericks such as this one on page 11:

©2010 by Loreen Leedy

The answer to the riddle is...Insects! They were the first creatures on earth that could fly. 

Most spreads have a longer verse, such as this one on page 16:

©2010 by Loreen Leedy

©2010 by Loreen Leedy

Perhaps as a side effect of writing and illustrating quite a few math picture books, I felt compelled to compile some poetic statistics for this book:
Cinquains: 6
Limerick riddles: 14
Verses: 20

Some titles of the longer poems include:
The Bad Old Days
Plant Pioneers
The Fish That Wanted Legs
How to Stay Alive
Did Hadrosaurs Quack?
A Warning from the Mammals


Oh, I almost forgot to mention how many jokes are in the book...zillions! For example:
Q. Why did T. Rex eat the teacher? 
A. He was hungry for knowledge!

To see a full spread from the book plus reviews, please click here.
To see its page on Amazon, click this link: My Teacher Is a Dinosaur: And Other Prehistoric Poems, Jokes, Riddles & Amazing Facts 

Loreen
My Web Site

Sneak peek #1

I’m working on a dummy for a book that will be available next fall (assuming I get it finished, that is.) Here is a little glimpse of what may be in it (this actual image may change):

 You’re welcome to guess what the topic of the book is, but I can’t tell you yet. : )