New Season, New Events.

Happy Fall!

I'm pleased to announce that Every-Day Dress-Up comes out on October 11! In this book, the heroine ditches her princess duds in favor of costumes inspired by real women.

Kirkus Reviews calls it, "a happy antidote to the princess plague". I'm so excited about this book that I both wrote and illustrated, my first since, 'I'm Your Peanut Butter Big Brother'.

Here's my Fall schedule:

Book Court Every-Day Dress-Up Book Release Party! Oct 15 @ 7 PM. 163 Court St., Brooklyn.

Wine, cheese, books & fun! For adults and kids.

MiniMax Toys & Books Story Time! Oct 11 @ 10 AM (Every-Day Dress-Up's birthday!). 152 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn.

Story time for kids & parents.

MiniMax Toys & Books Costume Making Workshop! Oct 28 @ 3:30 - 5:30 PM. 152 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn.

A reading of my book will be followed by creating original, alternative costumes for girls & boys 2-7 years old. Just in time for Halloween!

Community Bookstore Story Time! Oct 23 @ 11 am. 143 7th Ave., Brooklyn.

Story time for kids & parents.

Botanic Garden Ghouls & Gourds Festival! I'll be at the spooky book barn. Oct 29 @ 12 - 4 PM. 1000 Washington Ave., Brooklyn.
All afternoon signing & reading. Meet other great authors, too!

Books of Wonder Panel of Children's Book Makers. Nov 5 @ 12 - 2. 18 West 18th, NYC.

Brooklyn Museum Book Fair! Nov 19 @ 12 - 4 PM. 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn.

All afternoon signing & reading. Meet other great authors, too!

Boulevard Books & Cafe Dress-Up Party! Dec 28 @ 11am. 7518 13th Ave., Brooklyn.

Book reading and alternative holiday dress-up. Fun family activity during school break!

And finally, my website has been recently updated with Every-Day Dress-Up available for pre-order. Hooray! The link to pre-order is on the homepage: www.selinaalko.com.

Hope to see you soon!

Chapter Books; a whole new world!

Last week, at Books of Wonder, I was on a panel with a bunch of cool folks who write chapter books.  Until last week, I knew next to nothing about chapter books.  That evening I discovered, much to my delight, it's quite a different beast!  Like an older, more sophisticated, distant relative to children's books.  Still, like picture books, chapter books tell stories for a young audience.  I was completely captivated as my colleagues revealed tales about their characters and how they came to be.  I sat with Jackie Longstead (of the Sister's 8 series), Bruce Hale (his latest, From Russia with Lunch) and Charise Mericle Harper (Just Grace books fame).  The second coolest part of the evening for me, next to hearing all of their back-stories, was discovering that Charise Mericle Harper not only writes and illustrates books (like me!), lives in the NY area w/ her 2 kids (like me!), but is from Vancouver, B.C., (like me!), AND went to Prince of Wales high school (like me!! - only we missed each other by a year).  What are the odds of that?  I discovered I absolutely adore Charise's work.  Her main character, Grace, has the super power of empathy!  How cool is that?  I love the fact that even though I was probably misplaced on the panel to begin with (ie/ Greetings from the 50 States is not exactly a chapter book!), it was totally worth the effort to make that random connection and to learn just a bit more about the world of chapter books!  Rebecca Sherman (my agent), my daughter Ginger and I are featured above at the Cupcake Cafe in Books of Wonder.