Raising Readers Selects…
Curious City’s proudest contribution to Raising Readers is preselecting 80-100 children’s books for ages 0-4 for the honorable Raising Readers Book Selection Committee to review. The committee gathers annually to rank and comment on board books and picture books. Four hours of children’s book critique with the doctors, home visiting nurses, early childhood educators, literacy specialists, parents, and others is an experience that always enlightens and surprises me. Out of those conversations and title rankings...
read moreSCBWI Intros Authors to Professional Publicists
Lynda Mullaly Hunt, fab children’s author and grand human, wrote a wonderful post about Curious City’s appearance at the Eric Carle Museum for NESCBWI’s presentation, Working with a Book Marketing Consultant. Curious City and their clients Cathryn Falwell and Anne Sibley O’Brien joined Deborah Sloan and Company and her clients to discuss the relationship between a children’s book marketing consultant and a children’s book creator. Read it HERE. Share...
read moreCurious Collaborators
Thank you to NESCBWI for inviting Deborah Sloan & Company and Curious City to talk to authors and illustrators about “Working with a Book Marketing Consultant.” It was delicious to hear about Deborah’s services and to meet her clients, author/illustrator Patricia Intriago and author, Deborah Heiligman. The unexpected delight came from the prep and delivery of Curious City’s history, mission, and projects. Out of the chatter on the snow-bound, sun-scorched road trip, the downstairs Northampton curry...
read moreMECA is Haute: An Illustration Assignment for the Gods
I had the undeniable pleasure of talking book covers and the children’s book business with illustrator Mary Anne Lloyd’s small and hearty band of Maine College of Art (MECA) Illustration students today about the mighty YA series, Sirenz. Curious City played Art Director today assigning the cover design for Sirenz (Book 3) which will appear as an e-book in 2013. Students gasped over the opening disaster featured in Book 1’s trailer in one breath and analyzed the covers of Book 1 and Book 2 in the next. Seeing no...
read moreRaising Readers Presents…Launches
Raising Readers Presents…launched on Read Across America Day with an evening of readings and activities associated with John and Ann Hassett’s picture book, Too Many Frogs!. Curious City was delighted to help plan and MC the event at the Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine. A discussion with pediatrician Dr. Osborne of South Portland Pediatrics about Raising Readers was followed by a reading by the Hassetts and a painting activity that delivered a lesson on the amazing attributes of frogs. ...
read moreA Warmer World
As the snow starts to fall in Maine during a winter that has seen so little snow, one might wonder and worry about “a warmer world.” Author Caroline Arnold brought a manuscript to Charlesbridge Publishing that outlined just that–a warmer world and how different species have been lost, have struggled, and have adapted to a globe that spins now without the insulation it so desperately needs. The manuscript landed with Jamie Hogan, an illustrator whose attention to detail reflects an innate tenderness for both the...
read moreCity of Stories (Part One, The Illustrators)
When you pop on that jet plane and trundle off to a new city for a new conference or convention, you often have very little of that city on your mind. You cannot think about the hidden glories of the city because they will most often, well, stay hidden. Between conference schedules and shuttle vans you see only the stage sets of the city. Not so, when you head to SCBWI in the City of Stories– Austin, TX (dubbed so for this blog post alone and not yet adopted by the Austin City Council) –and absorb the city through its...
read moreSamantha Clark Wins!
Children’s book author Samantha Clark has won two free hours of Curious City marketing consultation! How did she find herself in such a position? She attended our children’s book self-promotion workshop at the Austin SCBWI Conference and her list of marketing questions was pulled randomly from our sweet pile. Looking forward to her future publications and any help Curious City can be to building her readership! Cheers Samantha! Share...
read moreClone My Brain (Part 2): Q&A from SCBWI Austin
If you are just joining us…Curious City is answering submitted children’s book self-promotion / marketing questions by the ever-so-clever creators from the Austin SCBWI Conference on February 18. 2012. The conversation began in Part 1 (but you can start anywhere you desire.) This online Q&A stands as the only current affordable way to clone my (Kirsten Cappy’s) brain per conference requests. Teaching an Old Book…New Marketing Tricks Q: If you have had a hardcover out for awhile (and there seems to be...
read moreClone My Brain (Part 1): Q&A from SCBWI Austin
Pleased as pie to have spent such delicious time with the creators at the SCBWI Austin Conference. This welcoming and boundlessly productive conference was planned, encouraged, and steered by the grand Debbie Gonzales, Carmen Oliver, Mark G. Mitchell, and a bounty of clever volunteers. This Q&A is a result of my presentation and individual consults with creators. Why a Q&A a week later and 2,000+ miles from the original source? There is only so much time in a conference weekend, so I requested written questions and...
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