The Lerner Blog

By Carol HinzEditorial Director, Millbrook Press Did Michael Slack’s drawing lesson inspire you to draw a gross germ of your very own? Enter our contest, and you can win an original drawing from Michael Slack himself! Rules:-Open to residents of the U.S. and Canada, ages 5-14. -One entry per person. -Your drawing may be black-and-white […]Read more "Week of Grossness—Draw a Germ Contest!"

By Michael Slack Gross Body Science Series Illustrator Being a connoisseur of all things drippy, gooey, crusted, and slime covered, I was very excited when I received a call asking if I would be interested in illustrating a series of books titled Gross Body Science. Ummm . . . YES! When working on kids’ books, […]Read more "Week of Grossness—Day 4: Michael Slack and the Grumpy Viruses"

By Julie CarusoPhoto Researcher, Lerner Publishing Group Julie Caruso is a photo researcher at Lerner. She had the unenviable task of researching all five of the Gross Body Science books! Here is her take on the series: I have been researching and editing photography for almost 10 years, and honestly the Gross Body Science books […]Read more "Week of Grossness—Day 3: Disgusting Photo Research"

By Carol HinzEditorial Director, Millbrook Press Sue Marquis was the prepress operator for the book Itch & Ooze: Gross Stuff on Your Skin. She got more than she bargained for on this book! Q: When a final layout of a book (especially a Gross Body Science book) is ready, what kind of work do prepress […]Read more "Week of Grossness—Day 2: Q&A with an Itchy Prepress Operator"

By Carol HinzEditorial Director, Millbrook Press I’d like to officially kick off our Week of Grossness here on the Lerner Publishing Group Blog. This week, I’ll be sharing some behind-the-scenes info about our new Gross Body Science series and generally celebrating all things gross. Working on this series taught me the following five words, none […]Read more "Week of Grossness—Day 1: Five Cool Words I Learned from the Gross Body Science Series"

What is the best thing about editing children’s nonfiction? A lot of answers come to mind. Like lot of editors, I’m an information collector, and children’s books are filled with information. Often, while working on a project, I find out many details and stories I never knew. As a fan of folklore, I thought I […]Read more "The Best Things about Editing Children’s Books"

I’ve been thinking about covers for novels a lot lately because I’ve got a couple of books that present a challenge for cover design. I don’t design covers, but it is part of my job to help the cover designers find the right direction. I’ve had a fairly consistent procedure for kick starting cover ideas […]Read more "A Pause Before the Plunge"

Before I started working for Lerner, I never gave much thought to the nonfiction picture book genre. I think I took it for granted that picture books had to be quirky or funny or warm-fuzzy-inducing. Now, I certainly don’t say this to belittle those characteristics, because they apply to many of my very favorite picture […]Read more "Surprises"

(posted on behalf of Greg Hunter, assistant editor) I vividly remember my first comic book, as most comic nerds probably do. It was Spectacular Spider-Man #197, and I was in second grade. The issue isn’t very good in hindsight, but it didn’t matter—I was hooked on the color, the characters, the whole new way of […]Read more "GU Comics Day: Twisting a Journey—Assistant Editing"