Earlier this month (November 3), we had citywide elections for mayor, park board, and a referendum on changing the structure of the board of taxation. Voter enthusiasm was low, so when I showed up at my polling place at 2:00 p.m., I was only the 125th person to show up for voting. All the same, […]Read more "Election Day Reading"

By Carol HinzEditorial Director, Millbrook Press Those writing fiction are often told, “show, don’t tell.” This little phrase is a reminder that the statement “Kate was mad” is far less powerful than showing us through Kate’s actions that she’s mad. (Slamming a door could be one example, but that’s a cliché. Even better would be […]Read more "Show, Don’t Tell and Nonfiction"

Author Blythe Woolston asked a good question (possibly because I was begging for it) in a comment on my last post: “Can you explain why covers for YA are always hard to do?” Several reasons: 1. I don’t think you can look for a literal narrative image in the book for an effective cover. I […]Read more "Why YA covers are hard"

As I’ve mentioned before, author Steve Brezenoff and and I have been working with a YALSA Galley Group in St. Paul called Teen Know Best to figure out the best way to put a cover on that guy’s book, The Absolute Value of –1 (|-1| for short). We’re almost done. I’ll let  Steve and TKB […]Read more "We’ve been busy."

By Sara HoffmannSenior Editor I love blogs. In fact, the number of blogs I read is probably a little ridiculous. I read friends’ blogs. I read family members’ blogs. I read blogs on random subjects that I find personally interesting. And then there are the blogs I read for work. It keeps me pretty busy. […]Read more "A Few of My Favorite Blogs"

By Carol HinzEditorial Director, Millbrook Press This weekend, I attended a celebration commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Irvin Kerlan, a University of Minnesota graduate, worked as chief of medical research for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in Washington, D.C. He began collecting children’s books after […]Read more "Happy 60th Birthday, Kerlan Collection!"

[I asked Marcia Marshall, a veteran nonfiction editor on our staff, to talk about her long collaboration with Sandra Markle.] I started thinking about how long Sandra Markle and I have worked together. On my disorganized bookshelves, I found the first title we did together: Exploring Winter, published in 1984. Sandy did the black-and-white line […]Read more "Working with Sandra Markle"

I’m kind of surprised that there hasn’t been more blogosphere discussion of the article called The Defiant Ones in The New Yorker of a couple weeks ago. It’s a piece about picture books and well worth reading (even though it’s more about parenting ultimately than about books). There was one particular facet of the author’s […]Read more "Put down that screwdriver"

by Erin Finnegan, editorial intern My name is Erin and I’m the intern here at Graphic Universe. It’s up to me to write this week’s blog entry while Carol is in Minnesota. I decided to ask several of our artists the same questions for an Artist Spotlight series. This week I interviewed Tintin Pantoja, the […]Read more "GU Comics Day: Shining a spotlight on: Tintin Pantoja"