Lost (and Found) at Sea
Curious City has an ocean view. Or at least, if we walk out our doors and down a steep hill we found ourselves on a sheltered bay of the Atlantic. From the beach these last weeks, you can watch people squeezing the last sails of the season before high winds and cold settle in. As the refugee crisis continues to play out on the beaches of the Middle East, Northern Africa and Europe, those images screen in over my idyllic Maine view. And, of course, the image of 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi washed ashore is there. That is an image of lost...
read moreNew Orleans Still Needs Us
Author Tamara Ellis Smith, the creator of the acclaimed middle grade novel Another Kind of Hurricane (Schwartz & Wade Books) is giving New Orleans more than one gift. In addition to her deeply compelling story of two boys affected by Katrina, a percentage of her royalties will go to help the recovery of the Lower Ninth Ward. Every book sold helps lowernine.org. Buy the book and/or share this image and you too could help New Orleans. This image and marketing message was created by your friends at Curious City. Share...
read moreBoys Who Challenged Hitler: Book Trailer
Curious City was proud to partner with Farrar Straus Giroux BYR (an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group) to produce a book trailer for The Boys Who Challenged Hitler by Phillip Hoose. Curious City scripted and storyboarded the piece and then worked with the strong voice talent and audiobook producer William Dufris of Mind’s Eye Productions on narration and sound. The brilliant videography came from our partnership with James Bailey. Pleased to have paid tribute to Knud Pedersen, the brave boys of the Churchill Club...
read moreMarketing Story: Resources for SCBWI Austin (and Others)
Thank you SCBWI friends for joining Curious City for the webinar Marketing Story: Or How I was Bit by an Ora! Although, it was a little odd to talk at my laptop for 105 minutes, it was grand to know you were on the other end. I offered you some follow-up resources in those sweet minutes. Comment below if I missed any of those promised materials! Discovering Your Readers: An Exercise Use this exercise to investigate who in the reading universe will respond most to your story and how to reach them. Download here. Librarians=Amazon...
read moreWho Made You King of the Beasts?
World Lion Day 2015 comes in with a roar and a continued uproar about Zimbabwe’s Cecil the Lion being illegally killed by an American. Like all such things, America’s reaction (by animal rights activists, conservationists, hunters, cat lovers, children, and the mighty media) says more about our culture than it says about one dentist (with too much money and too little respect). And like all such things, it reveals the cultural isolation that is America – living apart from countries like Zimbabwe where lions are a...
read morePrincess Juniper Says…
Curious City is celebrating Ammi-Joan Paquette’s middle grade release, Princess Juniper of the Hourglass. In the new series from Philomel, a princess is given a summer kingdom for her birthday to practice being Queen. When her actual kingdom is invaded, Princess Juniper’s experiment may become a crash course in real leadership… Share the images below on your social media in honor of author Ammi-Joan Paquette and in honor of girls everywhere who make a brand-new kingdom (with their ideas and imagination) every day…...
read moreFake Your Own Mothman Sighting
For every sighting of a cryptozooilogical creature, there may be an equal number of FAKED sightings. Curious City will encourage this bad behavior this summer by offering readers the tools to Fake Their Own Mothman Sighting with the following print and digital tools! Doing so will celebrate Mothman’s Curse by Christine Hayes and illustrated by James K. Hindle (Roaring Brook Press), the middle grade novel Kirkus Reviews called “an ectoplasmic extravaganza”! Fake Your Own Mothman Sighting View, Download & Print Mothman...
read moreWant to See the Ghost of Mothman’s Curse?
To discover what this ghost wants, read Mothman’s Curse by Christine Hayes, illustrated by James K. Hindle (Roaring Brook Press). An ectoplasmic extravaganza…tailor-made for reading beneath the bedcovers. —Kirkus Reviews Animation by Curious City intern Amelia Waltz and illustration by James K. Hindle. Download and Share the animated gif HERE! Share...
read moreScavenge Some Summer Reads
Curious City joined Chris Lenois on Green Mountain Mornings for this discussion of Summer Reading. Listen to the podcast here. __________________________________________________________________ Book Scavenger By Jennifer Chambliss Bertman Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) Age range: 9 – 14 Years Locate at a Indie Bookstore For twelve-year-old Emily, the best thing about moving to San Francisco is that it’s the home city of her literary idol: Garrison Griswold, book publisher and creator of the online sensation Book...
read moreLesley University Picture Book Seminar
Looking forward to talking picture book engagement at the invite of the indomitable picture book personality, author and MFA in Creative Writing faculty member, David Elliott. Lesley University Picture Book Seminar Sunday, 6/21/15 Marran Theater Lesley University Mellon Street, Cambridge, MA Sponsored by the MFA in Creative Writing 10:30 AM -12:00 PM You’re an Open Book While the world of writers, illustrators and publishers focus on the craft of the picture book, others must facilitate the discovery of and engagement with the final product. ...
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