Once upon a time, Andrew Karre and I took a fiction writing class together. From time to time, someone in the class would criticize part of a classmate’s story for containing events or details that were unbelievable. Inevitably, when the writer had a chance to respond to the critique, he or she would say, “But […]Read more "“But It Really Happened!”"

You know how you hear about baseball players who eat scrambled eggs for good luck before games or always wear red socks when they’re pitching? Well, I’m sort of the same way with editing. Now, I’m not quite as extreme as Mark Fidrych of the Tigers, who talked to baseballs during games and insisted a […]Read more "Very Superstitious"

<img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-Iv0MKTW5jJs/Tee69o_4GGI/AAAAAAAAAuc/pX21PgbpnXs/video68a735eecdd3%25255B3%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('6ef4b090-dd69-4bb5-9da3-c90aedb943b3'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = " http://www.youtube.com/v/Sbqv3MwwVd8&hl=en“;” alt=””> There was a flurry of discussion on #yalitchat last week about the indispensability (or not) of romance in YA. I think this was the match that sparked the tinder: @cafecliche: Do you think YA without a central romance can sell? I […]Read more "“Skip to the End.”"

The School Library Journal recently reviewed Detective Frankenstein by Alaya Johnson and Yuko Ota, book 17 in the Twisted Journeys series. In addition to their review, they offered some history on the interactive genre known as gamebooks. this piqued my interest, so I went searching for more information. Did you know there are three types […]Read more "Gamebooks and Twisted Journeys"

There is room on the web for all kinds of obsession, and this is one of the things I love about it. I have an RSS reader full of lovingly collected and cultivated obsessions, and not a day goes by when I don’t happily flip through them. And not a week goes by when I […]Read more "You want what for $9.99?"

My neighbor’s social studies teacher worked with some of his eighth-grade boy students to pull together a variety show about the evolution of dance. The students put it on for their school, and it was a huge hit, as you’ll hear when you watch the video below. I think you’ll agree that any teacher who […]Read more "The Evolution of Dance: T(w)een Style"

Big news, blog readers! For the past several months, my colleagues and I have been hard at work on a new brand of books for the Lerner imprint. It’s called Searchlight BooksTM, and the titles will be rolling out just in time for the fall ’11 school year. I couldn’t be more excited to give […]Read more "Sneak Peek"

I’m not at BEA this year (don’t cry for me, I’m going to ALA in a few weeks), so I’ve been living it vicariously through Twitter, and I wasn’t missing Javitz or the crowds or the stupid name badges, but then Steve Brezenoff posted this:   OK, now I’m jealous. True, he didn’t just eat […]Read more "BEA, schmEA"

Graphic Universe spent about 24 hours in Maine, which was enough time to breathe in the salt air, eat several wonderful meals, and spread the love of comics around, Johnny Appleseed style. We were in town for the the Maine Comics Arts Festival, a small but vibrant convention held on Portland’s scenic Casco Bay. MeCAF […]Read more "To MeCAF and Back"