Making Superstars
Curious City had the cookie-plated pleasure of meeting author and literary agent Ted Michael in a NYC coffee shop this summer. He had read the PW Article about the Reunited campaign and thought we might just love a teen Superstar. Ted’s book So You Wanna Be a Superstar? The Ultimate Audition Guide (Running Press Kids) is for every teen that sings in the shower, can quote Wicked at the drop of a pointy hat, and consumes celebrity stories like candy. “…is no amateurishly written instructional manual … Michael outlines...
read moreThe Good Braider Launched
When author Terry Farish was working at the Portland Public Library, she befriended a young man from the Sudan who told her “there is no word” when asked about his favorite family meal. “My mother will cook it for you,” he said. Terry Farish joined his family for a meal and from that day, began a journey of listening. Her new friends in Portland’s Sudanese community told of their tumultuous path from South Sudan to Portland, Maine. The cultural exploration that started as “there is no word”...
read moreSeeing Stars
Looking at a roomful of creator stars at SCBWI Austin. Author and web designer Samantha Clark and Kirsten Cappy of Curious City are doing a live presentation of WordPress! Look, friends, we created a post! Look for upcoming Curious City speaking engagements and workshops here. AND websites created by Samantha Clark and Curious City here. Share...
read moreStorytelling Post by Post, Page by Page
Curious City is head over pixels to be partnering with children’s author and web maven, Samantha (Sam) Clark. Since meeting each other at a SCBWI Conference in Austin in February ’12, conversations about our mutual geek passion for the website/blog builder, WordPress have turned into a partnership of building new author and book websites and converting outmoded ones. In just a few months we have built a website for middle grade author Natalie Dias Lorenzi and converted authors Jennifer Carson, Carolyn DeCristofano, and...
read moreOne Evening in Maine
We were all wide-eyed readers once–even the picture book creators that are making eyes widen today. It was grand to watch picture book creators Cathryn Falwell, Melissa Sweet, Charlotte Agell, Lisa Jahn-Clough, and Chris Van Dusen smile sheepishly and gleefully when meeting Jane McCloskey at the Maine Humanities Council’s celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the picture book, One Morning in Maine. As the celebration was called One Evening in Maine, Jane McCloskey, read a selection from her book Robert McCloskey: A...
read moreTrain Spotting with Lisa Jahn-Clough
Curious City follows the train of story to create discovery tools for children’s books and young adult. We followed Lisa Jahn-Clough’s May 2013 release of Nothing But Blue (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) right to the tracks this week. Mark Mattos Photography and I drove through back streets, visited abandoned lots, and walked down secret wooded paths, beaches, and finally train tracks to find photo locations for images for the book trailer for Nothing But Blue. Puppeteer Bela Rieger, Lisa Jahn-Clough, and Lisa’s...
read moreHades as Art Director
Nothing has pleased me more than playing the Lord of the Underworld. Curious City was once again invited by Mary Anne Lloyd to play Art Director for her class of Illustration majors at Maine College of Art. I was to assign a real world project and award a contract to an artist. Instead of real world, I went Underworld. Sirenz, a series by Natalie Zaman and Charlotte Bernnardo, features modern day NYC girls falling and and out of contracts with himself, the Greek God, Hades. Curious City previously built a blog for the series...
read moreUsing YouTube? Double-up on Vimeo
Have your book trailers and author interviews on YouTube only? Changes at Apple for the future iPad and iPhone will exclude YouTube from those devices–highly irritating. Learn why you should also have your content on Vimeo here. Curious City will be following this “not all your eggs in one basket” suggestion soon! Share...
read moreThe Bow Wow Boys
Curious City’s mission is take books from what they are about to what they can do. When handed Mary Newell DePalma’s Bow-Wow Wiggle-Waggle (Eerdman’s Books for Young Readers) to produce a trailer, we knew we could not just tell you what the book was about. We needed instead to show you that the best picture books allow the reader and listener to completely engage with the page. We headed into Mind’s Eye Production’s studios with a reading 7-year-old, an observant 4-year-old, and their book...
read moreRaj Roars Into Virginia
Having heard that Raj the Bookstore Tiger by Kathleen T. Pelley (Charlesbridge Publishing) was nominated for a Library of Virginia Whitney and Scott Cardozo Award for Children’s Literature, the fabulous Curious City summer intern, Allison Chase bundled up 50 Raj the Bookstore Tiger Story Hour Kits to send to Virginia libraries to help them celebrate. Booksellers, librarians, and educators, you can download your very own Story Hour kit with tigerish crafts, tigerish word games, and tigerish poems HERE. Share...
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