Hi everyone, my name is Irene Chen. In Taiwan, people call me Irene or Ying-Yu, which is my Mandarin given name. This is my first blog in English introducing my experience working and reading for children's literature in Taiwan and abroad. Hope this would be both informative and enthralling. What's more important, I hope this would draw you into the very nice children's works from Taiwan/ Taiwan-born/ with Taiwan origin artists.
My first post in this blog is a belated report for Bologna Book Fair 2010.
In the USA, there are Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, Newbery and Randolph Caldecott Awards. In the UK, there are Kate Greenaway Award and Nestlé Smarties Book Prize. There are so many more awards coming out to fine works dedicated for children. However, when we look more closely, there are books that never won prize but are the best of the best, such as Curious George, Goodnight Moon, and Eric Carle's series. Why?
My first post in this blog is a belated report for Bologna Book Fair 2010.
This is about time for me to refresh my memory and share the experience with all the children's book lovers and SCBWI members.
After 6 month's preparations, trials and tribulations, we finally did it! First, please take a look at out fabulous website: http://www.scbwibologna.org/
I am the SCBWI Bologna Secretary for 2010, and there were tons of issues going on each day with the fair organisers, with participants, with website management, and finally, with excitement. This is my first time flying to Italy and working for the international conference and book fair. But luckily, with all the wonderful team (Kathleen Ahrens, Angela Cerrito, Bridget Strevens-Marzo, Mio Debnam, and so many more capable and brilliant SCBWI members), everything went on smoothly.
On 22 March 2010, it is our symposium.
Leonard Marcus: Who Takes the Prize? Inside the World of Children's Book Awards
Leonard Marcus first shared his experiences as judges for many children's book awards.Leonard Marcus is a rare bird - a distinguished children's literature scholar who is also an award-winning writer for kids. His books include Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom; Golden Legacy; Minders of Make-Believe; and, most recently, Funny Business: Conversations with Writers of Comedy. Leonard is a frequent contributor to the New York Times and other publications and writes a regular column on picture books for The Horn Book. He has served as a judge of the Ragazzi Prize, the National Book Award, and on numerous other prize committees. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Visit his website:www.leonardmarcus.com.
In the USA, there are Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, Newbery and Randolph Caldecott Awards. In the UK, there are Kate Greenaway Award and Nestlé Smarties Book Prize. There are so many more awards coming out to fine works dedicated for children. However, when we look more closely, there are books that never won prize but are the best of the best, such as Curious George, Goodnight Moon, and Eric Carle's series. Why?
Sometimes it is because the awards are set after the publication of certain works, such as Goodnight Moon, a work published in 1947 when hardly any awards are there to appreciate fine works for the young people.
Sometimes there are something dire and you may not want to know. Some of the judges may have acquaintance with the writer/illustrator, and that is why you never know whether the book awarded is indeed the best among those enlisted.
Sometimes there are boundaries for the participants. For example, for National Book Award, there is a US$150 fee to be paid for submission. It is hardly possible for individual or small publishers to pay for the award.
Another notion from Leonard is Ezra Jack Keats Book Award. This is an award from beginners whose publication are under three books and published in the USA. For people who may be interested, go for it!
Fiona Kenshole: Taking the Mystery out of Movie Deals
The next sessions by Fiona Kenshole is a highlight on how to make a book to a script and beyond. Fiona heads up the Acquisitions Department of Laika Entertainment, the Oregon- based feature animation studio owned by Phil Knight ( founder of Nike). The studio recently produced the stop-motion classic CORALINE, which was recently nominated for an Academy Award. Fiona was brought in to set up a development slate of projects for CG and stop-motion feature films, which now includes literary properties such as HERE BE MONSTERS by Alan Snow, and original projects from directors such as Jan Pinkava, creator of RATATOUILLE.
Fiona has had a prestigious 25 year career in children's publishing, commissioning fiction, picture books and non-fiction. She was previously Publishing Director at Oxford University Press, and before that at Hodder and HarperCollins. She has worked with award-winning authors such as Mick Inkpen, Michael Morpurgo and Geraldine McCaughrean, as well as series such as ANIMAL ARK. Fiona is also proud to have been the British publisher of Robert Cormier, Katherine Paterson, Beverley Cleary, Astrid Lindgren and Asterix! She was also active in organizing the Oxford Literary Festival. Fiona is passionate about good story-telling, on the page and on the screen.
Fiona, VP of development acquisitions for Laika that produced the Coraline film, mentions that a page of the book= a minute on the film= a million USD! That is a jaw-falling equation for me! What could be done when there is a 10K-page epic? Fiona later reassured that when it comes to fiction, it is not possible to do such a detailed work. If there is a 350-page fiction, there will be a translation and alternation for the new media.
Fiona further clarified that all admitted a good film is not necessary a copy of the book. From a film reviewer's point of view, when you make profit with your film, take the money and run!
Ellen Hopkins: Writer Workshop - The Young Adult Renaissance
Then it is the talk by my latest favorite author (and one of the most famous YA writer) Ellen Hopkins. Ellen Hopkins is a poet and the award-winning author of twenty nonfiction books for children, and six New York Times bestselling young adult novels-in-verse. Her latest novel, Tricks, debuted at the number one spot on the coveted NY Times list. Ellen lives near Carson City, Nevada with her husband and youngest son, plus two dogs, one cat and four ponds (not pounds!) of fish.
It is our great honor to have her in Bologna and give SCBWI symposium attendees her insights of writing YA for young adults nowadays. Her talk was about The YA Renaissance.
The first thing we need to know about YA is its difference with MG. Generally, tweens are around 9-12 years of age. The protagonists have more positive interaction with their families (reminding me of fictions by Grace Lin and Linda Sue Park). Exception? Sure there are! Lemony Snicket and J. K. Rowling are the model exceptions for this genre.
Then, why YA? First, YA grows to be a hungry market. Young adults would buy their own books instead of taking their parents' picks. It is not mainly the librarian's market for the public/private/school markets. Most important of all, these books might cross boundaries. Young adults start to face more complex life dilemmas and they have to learn dealing with all the troubles and confusion, while these things keep happening to adults as well. (I myself also love reading YA better than PB or MG, as YA offer much more insights in life and different lifestyles we may approach. )
So now, let us start with a premise / situation.
- Has it happened to you?
- Happened to someone you know?
- What if it happened to...?
Then time to build the characters. (Ellen would spend around two months forming characters in her head.) There are protagonist(s), antagonist(s), friends, foils, and adults. When forming your characters, you have to keep them REAL. The following are tips for making your own characters alive in your fictions:
- Protagonist: make your protagonists at the upper end of the age group. They should have flaws to work with.
- Antagonist: a bad guy with reasons of being what he/she is. It doesn't have to be a person at all! It could be a vampire (like what we are reading now!), a computer (what! well, maybe like what Courage the Cowardly Dog shows, a computer can be a savior, or a bad guy!), or even a diction.
- Friends: you have to confine their environment
- Foil: a human obstacle, a realistic multi-layered characters, or a philosophy, or an environment.
The Voice: you have to think visually with unusual formatting, i.e. verse, letter, journal, etc. And be very aware of the personal intrusion. For YA, mostly it is First person present tense.
Never sugar-coated your story, especially for a real-life story. No artificial dialogue, and write from your own heart.
You can make them laugh, make them cry, but you don't have to make a happy ending.
Write a story that is close to you. But also think: what do they mean to your readers?
The following is a list of authors that Ellen Hopkins recommend:
Laurie Halse Anderson: http://www.writerlady.com/
Laura Wiess: http://www.laurawiess.com/
Maureen Johnson: http://www.maureenjohnsonbooks.com/index1.html
Michelle Zink
John Green
Carrie Ryon: http://www.carrieryan.com/
Bary Leys
Neal Shusterman: http://www.storyman.com/
I will definitely go for more info after reading Ellen's works first!!
Richard Peck: The Right Books, Right Now
The final speaker and speech that I would like to share is from Richard Peck. Richard Peck's newest novel is A Season of Gifts, third in the sequence starring Grandma Dowdel. The first, A Long Way from Chicago (Il Fucile di Nonna Dowdel in Italy) was the 1999 Newbery silver medalist. The second, A Year down Yonder was the Newbery gold medal winner in 2001. Two of his novels, A Year Down Yonder and The River Between Us, were National Book Award finalists. He was the first children's writer to receive a National Humanities Medal, in a White House ceremony in 2002. His forthcoming title, in the fall of 2010, is Three-Quarters Dead.
Richard is a very humorous gentleman whose presentation is fabulous! He first shared with us that a story is an alternative reality. It is creating human beings on the page. A story is always almost something that never happened to the writer.
Contrary to most of the speakers of the day, Richard shared with us most of the NOs while writing for children:
- Don't grab the agent's attention via intense action right in the beginning of your story
- Don't be nolstalgic.
- Never start from a beautiful morning, because morning wake-up is NEVER a great thing (grinning).
- Fewer imageries on your first page, and
- Use effective, simple sentence
- No Vampires, please!!
If you are a children's book writer and would be interested in more about writing, please check Richard's talk on writing for children or SCBWI's official website: www.scbwi.org.
After a series of talks for writers, illustrators, publishers and agents, we also have First Page and First Look for participants. Both Firsts were well-received. We later had a wonderful dinner at a local bookstore: Industry cocktail-buffet-dance at the Libreria Trame, central Bologna. We had the best food in Bologna, wine, dance and all the chit-chats with wonderful people. My first step in Bologna and the industry of children's literature started from here.
You can also find more info from John Shelley's blog:
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