<img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_DRH_8nTKpLY/S-xZLAq8LwI/AAAAAAAAAho/boQAh6Lp9As/video4cdbd1b23600%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('075eb8ec-5493-4bad-b746-1df39ad78be4'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = " http://www.youtube.com/v/cMOAXm94VWo&hl=en_US&fs=1&&hl=en“;” alt=””> I’ve been teaching a class about YA at The Loft for the past couple weeks, and one of the things we’ve discovered is how important waiting and boredom are in YA. Pick up any good YA novel, and you’ll find periods […]Read more "“What’s it going to be then, eh?”"

By Domenica Di Piazza, Editorial Director, TFCB I love the Guardian’s “Writers’ Rooms” online series. It’s a great collection of photos and short notes about the spaces in which writers work. Inspired by the series, I created the “TFCB Writers’ and Editors’ Rooms” photo essay below. Let’s start with my work space at the Lerner […]Read more "Inhabiting Our Work Spaces"

By Carol HinzEditorial Director, Millbrook Press The April 1, 2010 of Booklist features their spotlight on series nonfiction. The list of the top 10 new series launched in the last year included our very own Gross Body Science! Here’s what Booklist had to say about it: “You can’t squeeze pus from a wound these days […]Read more "Go, Go Grossness!"

By Sara HoffmannSenior Editor I’d like to form a new club. Or maybe I could start a group on Facebook. (Then again, I’m not sure how many people would join.) I’d call my group Editors for the Creation of a Gender-Neutral Pronoun. I see the need for such a group because, as an editor, I […]Read more "Editors for the Creation of a Gender-Neutral Pronoun"

by Erin Finnegan, NY editorial intern On April 17th our new series, Guinea Pig: Pet Shop Detective had its first official book signing event at Books of Wonder, New York City’s oldest and largest independent children’s bookstore. Our author and artist team, Colleen AF Venable and Stephanie Yue, shared a panel with Art Spiegelman of […]Read more "GU Comics Day: Signing Guinea Pigs (and Hamsters too)"

By Domenica Di Piazza, Editorial Director, TFCB I love the editorial life, but I have to say it has its drawbacks. Like stiff shoulders and hips after a day seated in front of the computer screen or hunched over a paper layout. Or tired eyes from staring at too many profitability reports for too long. […]Read more "Hazards of the Editorial Life"

By Carol HinzEditorial Director, Millbrook Press This past weekend, the Loft held a Children’s and Young Adult Literature conference. I had a wonderful conversation over lunch with a group of writers—some aspiring, some published—about creativity as it applies to nonfiction. At first blush, nonfiction might seem to require less creativity than fiction. After all, a […]Read more "Nonfiction Monday: Nonfiction, Format, and Creativity"

Blythe Woolston’s Loa has a poem for today. It just so happens that it’s by my favorite poet. Here’s a bit from Woolston’s The Freak Observer: I have to find a poem for English class. The whole class does. We have all been turned loose in the library on a scavenger hunt, an Easter egg […]Read more "“I have to find a poem for English class…”"