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.
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). 
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