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For years, while my publisher tried to call my books mysteries, I’ve insisted that no, they’re thrillers. It’s a lowbrow term, connoting blood, guns, and nefarious activities. Basically, thrillers tend to be about nasty people doing bad, illegal, and/or unethical things, although usually there’s also a blameless individual around as...
What makes a good translated book? When Roger Sutton asked this question of me and Cheryl Klein, the editor with whom I work on our imprint’s translation efforts, it seemed that our answer might possibly be unacceptably short: it’s the writing that makes a good translated book.What more could we...
Before the War . . .... the evenings lingered longer, and it was always summer when it wasn’t Halloween, or Christmas.Long, lazy light reached between the houses, and the whole street played hide-and-seek, called only by olly-olly-oxen-in-free and supper time.Before I could keep up, I rode my brother’s shoulders, hung...
We hear a lot about how stories should end: the ending should be inevitable, and yet we shouldn’t be able to guess exactly how it will occur (see Macbeth). It should be consistent with the story’s other elements (see Romeo & Juliet). It should make us cry without embarrassment (see...
Dear Parents,Reading is a big part of every second grader’s life. But reading can be fraught with anxiety for these new readers. Most seven- and eight-year-olds in my classroom can read, but their reading levels vary widely, and they are not yet very good at finding books for themselves. They...
I might be working with kids labeled disadvantaged or gifted; it might be librarians or English teachers (also disadvantaged or gifted). I write the same thing on the board every time:The wounded soldier staggered past the house.Then I ask what’s wrong (I use the word wrong because I’m bold and...
There continues to be a flood of books for young people about the Holocaust, even more now than a generation ago. This is partly because many survivors who for so long did not want to talk about their horrifying personal histories are now breaking their silence. Every time I get...
In his tragically short career as a picture book creator, John Steptoe received attention for his groundbreaking early books — such as Stevie and My Special Best Words — and, later on, for his lavishly detailed folktale retellings, The Story of Jumping Mouse and Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters. Published in 1988,...
The title for this article came from my daughter, Elizabeth. One day last year when I picked her up from kindergarten, she came rushing to me with a scrunched-up, angry face. Before she even said hello, she plopped down on the hallway floor and opened the George and Martha book...
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