Penny Blubaugh

Last night we attended a presentation at 57th Street Books (fantastic indie bookstore) in Hyde Park, Chicago. Nadja Speigelman and her mom, Francoise Moulay, talked about their new line of beginning readers from Toon Books.

These books are so great. Beautiful colors and illustration,s and texts that don't insult their intended audience. Toon Books were designed to make kids want to read, not force them to, and that's exactly what they do.

Art Speigelman and Chris Ware were there, too, and the discussions about visual literacy and the importance of comics was fascinating. Words and pictures can do so much more than either one alone -- if they're used the way they can and should be!

Some comics I've loved recently: Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks; Smile by Raina Telgemeier; Astronaut Academy by Dave Roman; Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell; and Hopeless Savages by Jen Van Meter.

Comics rock, and so do Toon Books.  Read More 

I'm honored to have been given a Book Oscar by Diary of a Bookworm for Blood and Flowers. And I'm sharing it with Erin Morgenstern, author of Night Circus! We tied in the category of Best Visual Effects. Check it out by clicking on the link to the right.

Zarah Gagatiga, librarian at the Beacon School in the Philippines has made me their author of the month! Read her review of Serendipity Market as well as our interview by clicking on the link on the right.

Readteen.com is a new book/author/review/interview site. Check out my interview and while you're there read about Michelle Ray, author of Falling for Hamlet.

I'm back from AWP and it was a great conference. I spoke on two panels. The first was on censorship and self-censorship. The panel was chaired by Laura Otto from Mount Mary University. Panelists included Ricki Thompson who wrote City of Cannibals who spoke about sex in YA lit; Daniel Kraus, author of Rotters, who talked about violence; Ann Angel, author of Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing who talked about drugs and their effects; and myself -- I talked about editorial decisions and their effects on writing.

The audience was thoughtful and really added to the discussion. Special thanks to the woman who bought a copy of Serendipity Market. I'll misspell your name horribly but I hope you enjoy it! And thanks for coming to our reading!

Which leads to the next panel -- readings! Kiara Koenig read essays that came from Through the Wardrobe and A Friday Night Lights Companion; Tami Brown read her picture book Soar Elinor!; Zu Vincent, author of The Lucky Place read from a work in progress, J.L. Powers read from This Thing Called the Future; and I read The Cabeza River Run from Serendipity Market.

Again, a great audience at the last program on the last day of the conference. Thanks to all of you! Read More 

I'll be on a panel at AWP called "How Far is Too Far? Facing Self-censors and Publishing Censors When Writing About Coming of Age for Young Adults" on Friday, March 2 from noon to 1:15 p.m. My co-presenters will be Ann Angel, author of the 2011 YALSA non-fiction award winner Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing; Ricki Thompson, author of City of Cannibals; and Daniel Krauss, ALA’s 2012 Odyssey winner for his novel Rotters. For a preview of what we'll be discussing, click the link on the right and go to Pirate Tree for some comments on censorship.  Read More 

This is it! Your opportunity to promote reading and incredible books in your community for free!

World Book Night is based on a model that's been in place in Europe for several years and the idea is fantastic. Sign up to be a book giver (look at the link on the right) and give reading a boost. The titles you can pick from for your giveaway are all great. All you have to do it pick them up and hand them out on April 23rd.

Come on. You can do it!  Read More 

Peter Salomon, in his blog Peter Adam Salomon: Keyboard and Camera, does snappy Wednesday author interviews. I'm excited to be the interviewee for the week of January 18th.

Look for Peter's first book, Henry Franks, due out from Flux in September of 2012.

Take a look at this how-could-you-not-love-it video. And at the end, where it says there's nothing like a real book, you'll know (if you didn't already) how true that is! Just click on the link on the right.

I know this is sort of old news, but it was new to me and absolutely fascinating. Someone or someones have left gorgeous, intricate paper sculptures scattered around libraries in Edinburgh. They all come with a variation on the phrase "this is for you in support of libraries, books and ideas."

Right now, with all the questions about where books are going; in the light of the ebook revolution; with all the cuts in libraries -- well, right now I find this appealing and mysterious and beautiful. Click on the link at the right to read the full story. Read More