Sunday, July 26, 2009

Thank you again, librarians

Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman was named a Notable Children's Book 2009 (middle readers category) by the Association for Library Service to Children.

According to the announcement on Booklist, "
[l]ibrarians throughout the U.S. helped to select the titles from the several thousand children’s books published during 2008."

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Lousy at sports

Google “boys of steel” (come on now, don’t let me be the only one) and you’ll find that the majority of results have to do with a book called Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman.

According to that book, writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster were “lousy at sports.”

So I find it funny (come on now, don’t let me be the only one) that buried among those results are two related to athletics.

The first non-book “Boys of Steel” is a charity golf tournament. It’s sponsored by SME Steel (whose short web site intro, one of the few ever that I haven’t immediately skipped, strikes me as a cross between a cyborg movie trailer and an electronica rap video). It benefits a Utah school called West Ridge Academy. The logo says it’s the sixth annual but the text says it’s the seventh. Either way, it’s going strong, as steel tends to do.

In 2008, I contacted the school to see if we could partner in some way, thinking the synergy was too good to pass up. (On a secondary level, I wondered if this could also be my overdue motivation to learn to play golf.) I emphasized that I felt the book would tie in nicely with a youth competition because its central theme is the importance of persistence. That is a universal message but one with heightened relevance for athletes (and artists). The school declined this year, but perhaps for the seventh (or eighth)?

The second non-book “Boys of Steel” is a boys-only gymnastics class. It’s offered by Energyplex, a Canadian family recreation center that opened in 2009. I contacted them, too, because when you say “gymnastics,” the first thing most people think of next is “picture books.”

Joking aside, there is always possibility. I pitched them ideas including a special offer—sign up for the class by a certain date and the cost includes a copy of the book. The class is good for the body, the book is good for the mind! The owner kindly suggested that I check back in the fall, when enrollment is likely to pick up.

It’s not just the book that is about persistence.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Spot the difference

The last time I was in the Barnes & Noble in Union Square in New York City, I was pleasantly surprised to see Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman face out. This is typically a small rush for most authors, and some manufacture this rush on their own if a bookstore has not done it for them. (I don't think this is illegal.)

Can you spot the difference between these two photographs?


as first seen:

before I left:

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

"Boys of Steel" turns one, kiddos

A year ago today, Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman was released.

Thank you to everyone who has supported the book by purchasing it, borrowing it from the library, spreading the word about it, attending one of my speaking engagements, and all other ways super and small.

Most comics fans didn't need Boys of Steel to learn who created Superman—the names if not the details. One of the most rewarding aspects of promoting this book has been watching kids (with teachers, librarians, and parents alongside them) discover the story for the first time. At numerous events over the past year, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster have gone from unfamiliar to household names.


A discovery I made recently: Boys of Steel is one of the select group of titles recommended by James Patterson's Read Kiddo Read (the ages 6 and up category). Here's the site's description of the program:
James Patterson has been the number-one selling author in America for the past three years, with more than 16 million books sold in North America during 2007 alone. He is the first author to have #1 new titles simultaneously on The New York Times adult and children's lists.

Patterson is a champion of reading and for several years sponsored the James Patterson Pageturner awards, which rewarded people and organizations that spread the excitement and joy of books and reading. Through this and other efforts he has given millions of dollars to people and causes that are working to spread the joy and excitement of reading. READKIDDOREAD—which helps parents and educators connect their children with the books that will turn them into lifelong readers—is his latest innovation in this area.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Basketball and boy bands

Twenty-three (and possibly counting) people from Washington state and northern California visited my blog within the last hour. A pattern like that is usually the result of a regional link, such as an article in a local newspaper.

However, this time, it was because they had all searched the same question:

"What do Shaq, Jon Bon Jovi, and Joey Fatone have in common?"

That led them here not because I've written about basketball, hair bands, or boy bands but rather because I've mentioned that all three have Superman tattoos. (And this was not the first time this question for the ages has sent unsuspecting innocents to a blog about book publishing.)

Hope one of you won the radio station giveaway.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

The “Bad” Beginning, part 2 of 2

Mike’s insistence and my persistence call to mind the age-old question, what wins in a fight between an irresistible force and an immovable object?

Whichever of the two Mike was that day (November 21, 1987), he won. I signed up to sing (“sing”) my version of “Bad” in the talent show.

I was so nervous that I sat the whole time.


Note two things about the next photo:

1. the album cover next to the DJ
2. the gender of everyone visible in the front row


The crowd, to my relief, did indeed love it. I’d never been cheered for before. And the effect on me was immediate and profound. At the dance that followed the talent show, I went up to a cute girl I had recently met and, in front of her friends, asked her to dance. She (in front of her friends) said no, but Rachel and I did become friends, and still are today.

The next day we left. Our pre-departure ritual sounds so quaint today: we wrote our friends little notes and chaperones distributed them on our respective bus rides home. The reviews were in:

Opinions expressed at age 15 are not necessarily still in effect 20 years later.


“Bad” did more good than boosting my confidence around girls. It was a giddy reminder of how much I liked writing—and an early sign of how much I would like being before an audience.

I wrote talent show sketches or song parodies for every subsequent convention throughout high school. I won chapter and then regional BBYO board positions. I took a public speaking course and felt in my element.

And at nearly every Sweet 16 party I attended that had a DJ, I was asked to do “Bad” for the video. (Those videos may still be out there somewhere. I know my sister's bat mitzvah one is.) As will be no surprise to people who know me, I kept track of the performances—twelve total, though I did note at the time that the list was “possibly not complete.”

Here are photos from a few:

2/5/88

8/88

4/28/90

The sheet on the wall behind us covered the word "BAD" written in masking tape; I ripped it down at the start of the first chorus. I remember thinking this was feverishly exciting.

You can see a bit of the "BAD" in masking tape. My friend Seth was discreetly helping me unzip my jacket, which was on backwards in a primitive attempt to mimic one of Jackson's looks. I ripped it off at the start of the third chorus. This revealed a shirt to match that chorus, which is about someone wearing plaid. Again, high drama.

6/5/90

The last performance of "Bad," and most ill-fated, but not only because of that outfit. Separately, pink shorts and baby blue tank tops are misguided. Together, with brown shoes thrown in as a bonus offense, they are unforgivable.


In college, I joined a comedy troupe, reported for the campus TV news, and directed a play I wrote. Today, as an author, I speak often to students, teachers, and various other groups at schools, conferences, libraries, museums, and other venues nationwide. Throughout all of this, “Bad” has remained at the front of my mind.

When Michael Jackson was first publicly accused of child molestation, I was devastated because I believed those accusations. But I would have been devastated even if I hadn’t, because so serious a charge clings to you for life no matter what the truth is. Mike said he was going to stop listening to Jackson’s music.


After Jackson died, I read about the psychology of the man and the specifics of the allegations and was surprised that my opinion changed. I now believe Jackson, however perplexing he could be, did not harm children. He did things I would not do and do not condone, such as sleep in a bed with children who were not his own, but he openly admitted this, possibly because he was somehow too childlike himself to see it as inappropriate. Besides, a person of his means was likely never alone, and I want to believe that his staff would not stand by silently and let victimization happen in the next room. The rationalizations in either direction will continue to go on and on.

It may seem that I am being colored by the magnitude of his talent viewed through the permanent lens of death, but given what Jackson did to prove his innocence (and I’m not talking about the highly publicized payouts), combined with certain details of the case and trial that are beyond the scope of what I would like to get into here, his innocence is what now seems more plausible to me.

When Michael Jackson was “Bad” he was great, and if he was bad, it is beyond sad. Yet even if I am wrong about his innocence, it would not change that a defining shift in my evolution will forever be linked to him. And though I am conflicted about it, I still enjoy his music and marvel at the way he could move (which puts me in good company with, oh, most of the free world).

This troubled superstar whom I never met still occasionally influences little things in my little life. Most recently, my one-year-old son earned the nickname the “King of Poop.”

Inspiration is simple. Legacy is complex. Put another way, inspiration is a thriller and legacy is dangerous.

8/12/19 update: I watched Leaving Neverland. I now believe he did molest children.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

The “Bad” Beginning, part 1 of 2

Since June 25, I have debated posting on this topic. Coming up on a month later, I won the debate. (That’s one nice thing about debating yourself—you always win.)

I owe my writing career to Michael Jackson.

In 1987, starting my sophomore year in high school, I was a bit adrift, more withdrawn than I’d ever been. People who had been my friends in middle school had gone in a different direction without me. But people I had been friends with back in grade school were coming back into my orbit—one in particular, Mike (still one of my best friends today).

Mike saw things quicker than most people. He and these other kids I was becoming reacquainted with were members of the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, an international Jewish youth group. Since the spring of our freshman year, Mike had been trying to persuade me to join—not because he had anything to gain from it but simply because he thought I’d thrive in it. Ever the sly pitchman, he would work me, casually mentioning the aspects of BBYO he thought would most appeal specifically to me.

I resisted until the fall. The tipping point, which in retrospect should’ve been the most obvious ploy, was when Mike told me “Every weekend we have sleepovers. With girls.”

Even though this turned out to be only partially true—it was not every weekend—joining would be a step up for a guy who spent most Friday and Saturday nights home (doing what, I honestly don’t remember). So I went to my first meeting, and felt warmly welcomed by new-old friends and strangers alike.

At the same time, one of the most eagerly anticipated follow-up albums in rock history had just come out and was dominating the pop culture landscape: Bad by Michael Jackson.

I liked the title song so much that I wrote a parody of it. It was also called “Bad.” (I wrote it the nights of October 12 and 13, 1987. I just checked—those were not weekend nights. And for the record, this was a full four months before the most famous parody of the song—“Weird Al” Yankovic’s “Fat”—was released.)

I shared my parody with Mike, already my comedy-writing partner for articles for our BBYO chapter’s newspaper. He loved it.

A month later, some two hundred BBYOers from my region bused up to the frosty Catskills in New York for the annual Fall Conventiontwo nights in a hotel without parents. (Hence these conventions were anticipated even more eagerly than follow-ups to blockbuster albums.)

The programming highlight of these conventions was the Saturday night talent show. Perhaps I should write “talent” show. But still, there were always at least a couple of funny performances and watching bad ones could be just as fun.

I was still on the shy side when Mike directed me to the talent show sign-up sheet and encouraged me to sing “Bad.” Not breaking with tradition, I resisted. He assured me that the audience would love it. And to prove it, he was willing to put himself—and the other four guys in our little gang—on the line. He said they’d all come up there with me and “dance in the background.”

I thought all of this was a bad idea.

Really, really bad.

No singing ability.

No choreography.

No rehearsal.

No idea that this four-minute parody I wrote for myself was about to turn me back into the person I was and the person I was perhaps destined to be.

Part 2 (including photos) tomorrow.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Capitol Choices

Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman was named a 2009 Capitol Choices title (ages 7 to 10 category). Since 1996, this Washington DC-based group of librarians, teachers, booksellers, children’s literature specialists, reviewers, and magazine editors have annually highlighted "noteworthy books for children and teens."

Thursday, June 25, 2009

How you found me: part 3

Lots of click-throughs to this blog result from straightforward searches including "Boys of Steel" and "picture book biography."

Lots, but luckily, not all.

This is part 3 in an irregular series revealing some of the irregular search phrases—all verbatim, most strange—that have led people here:

  • topless beach Fairfield CT
  • motivational speakers superhero elementary
  • bee keeper speakers in Houston
  • some biographies than one kid did
  • students prefer non-fiction picture books
  • is their a name for books with text and some pictures
  • book steel and kindness
  • the characteristics of a noble man
  • Batman vs. Hitler
  • sticker mania
  • how you found me

Sunday, June 21, 2009

A different type of father

Today, when the creative force behind an iconic character dies, it's unthinkable that this would not be mentioned in mainstream news and entertainment publications.

Yet when Batman co-creator and original writer Bill Finger died, in 1974, no obituary ran in the New York Times...or Variety...or anywhere else...

...except two lesser-seen DC Comics publications (neither was a regular monthly comic book). One was an oversized special called Famous First Edition: Batman #1 (1975).

This is the inside front cover:

"Last February, The Batman lost a father. One of his two real fathers, that is."

The one who is never officially named as a father, despite the undisputed paternity test on record here and elsewhere.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

The query that sold "Boys of Steel"

At the Wooster (OH) Young Authors' Conference, an aspiring author (and mother of one of the Young Authors) was asking me about getting published. We've stayed in touch and this week, she e-mailed me two questions.

One of the questions: "Do you have any suggestions as to how I can sell myself to an editor when I have never been published previously?"

Every editor is different so there is no one-pitch-fits-all answer. But generally, it doesn't matter if you've been published. What matters is if you wrote a good book. (Every author used to be an unpublished writer. And every author, regardless of how many well-received books s/he's had published, can still turn out a subpar book.)

Of course an editor will not get to your good book unless you introduce it both in a professional manner and in a way that makes it irresistible. In the query letter, describe your book as if it were flap (or back cover) copy, or even a poster tease, engineered to hook that casual browser.

Here is the query I sent Janet Schulman, the editor who eventually bought Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman (which, at that time, was Boys of Steel: The Subtitle Is Undetermined):


I'm a writer who's authored over [oops—should have been "more than"] 40 books with publishers including Scholastic, HarperCollins, and Dutton. I also write regularly for magazines including Nickelodeon and National Geographic Kids. I don't work with an agent, which is why I'm contacting you directly.

May I have your permission to submit a picture book manuscript? I ask you because of The Boy on Fairfield Street. My manuscript is similar in that it focuses on the origin of another 20th century icon. Here's a one-line summary:

In the thrilling days of yesteryear, after a sleepless summer night, two shy boys create a character who will become the greatest icon in the history of pop culture.

I know the picture book market is tough right now, but this would be the first book on this subject in this format; plus the subject is as kid-friendly as they come. With all due respect to Ben Franklin, Pocahontas, Rosa Parks, and Neil Armstrong, the shelves are starving for some new blood, and my subjects are particularly inspirational. I'm confident that this book would appeal to a whole bunch of libraries, school and public. And there's a whole other active market for it which will be obvious once you read it.

If I may send it, to what address?
I didn't give the title or even specify the subjects of the book. Funnily, the book itself doesn't include the word "Superman" in the story proper. But that's off-topic.

The other question the aspiring author asked this week: "What is currently the turnaround time from putting an article or query letter in the mail to receiving the editors acknowledgment and answer?"


There is no "currently." It varies from editor to editor, day to day.

I e-mailed the above query on 2/22/05 at 11:10 a.m. I heard back at 11:26 a.m. But I e-mailed other editors queries before that...and, in some cases, have yet to hear back. So again, it varies.

(I should clarify that industry protocol typically dictates that unpublished writers not e-mail an editor unless submission guidelines or the editor him/herself has stated that is okay.)

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Magazine covers and pop culture museums

Coincidence 1 of 2

Hard as it is to believe, Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman is the first standalone biography (for any age) of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. (They’ve been a part of more involved comics histories, of course, but they’d never had a book to themselves.)

Why was I the fortunate one who got to benefit from this odd oversight?

Because my uncommon last name sounds like one of Superman’s colleagues?

Because one of my high school friends turned out to be Lois Lane’s grandson?

Because my daughter has the same name as Superman’s Kryptonian mother—though I swear I didn’t remember that when we named her?

Or is it because of March 14, 1988?

That day was a milestone for both Superman and me. It was the date of the issue of Time magazine that featured Superman’s 50th anniversary on the cover.

It was also my 16th birthday—when a boy becomes a man. Wait, that’s 13…or is it 18? No, 21…

Regardless, sixteen is significant because it’s the age You’ll Believe a Man Can Drive.

I had first become acquainted with Superman a decade earlier, but I like to believe it was on that day when our destinies synced up. Exactly twenty years later, Boys of Steel came out.

Coincidence 2 of 2

This also involves Superman and also requires mention of a(nother) high school friend, a one Mr. Barker. (Stay with me—I’m also not done with Coincidence 1 of 2.)

Unlike most of my friends, I was not able to line up a post-college job before graduating. So I went to my hometown, Cheshire, Connecticut. It’s lovely, but not a place with much opportunity for a young person who wants to work in the popular arts.

After a demoralizing summer of fruitless searching, I finally landed a position at Abbeville Press, a book publisher in New York. (This was the company at which I would publish my first book and meet my future wife.)

A couple of years later, I learned that the Barker Animation Art Gallery and the Barker Character, Comic, and Cartoon Museum opened…in Cheshire. A world-class collection of pop culture prints and obscure memorabilia, side by side…in Cheshire.

(I asked my high school friend Barker about it, and the founders are his cousins.)

My parents had left Cheshire soon after I moved to New York, so I rarely went back. When I did, if I saw the Barker comic compound, it was only from my passing car. Always in a hurry but not always with good reason, I never stopped.

Flash forward to 2008. To promote Boys of Steel, I went to the 30th annual Superman Celebration in Metropolis, Illinois, also a lovely town but even sleepier and more remote than Cheshire. Yet it does boast a pair of rather unusual tourist attractions.

Being the “official” home of Superman, it is home to the world’s only Superman Museum. It also has the Americana Hollywood Museum. I marveled at the seemingly endless array of pieces this place houses, including collectibles related to superheroes, film noir, science fiction, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, James Bond, probably Jesse James for all I know. Life-sized models of classic monsters, TV Guide issues, old board games, movie props, and more kitsch are arranged high and thick in room after room.

I was astounded that such a collection was assembled in this unassuming town. Some of the people who lived nearby probably didn’t fully appreciate the magnitude of it, or even know about it. I remember thinking that the town was lucky to have this sprawling time capsule of pop culture icons in their collective backyard and remember thinking how much I would’ve loved to have lived near a place like it when I was a kid.

Flash forward to this past weekend. It just so happened to be the 31st annual Superman Celebration and I just so happened to be not in Metropolis but in Cheshire. For the first time, I went inside the Barker Character, Comic, and Cartoon Museum. But I felt like I was back in the Americana Hollywood Museum.

It hadn’t occurred to me that they could be two of a kind—maybe the only two of their kind in the world?

And one of these rare places, a place I would’ve loved to visit as a kid and work for as a young adult, was in my hometown…just too late for me.

But not in every way.

In the fall I will be doing a Boys of Steel event at the Barker Museum…

…which, incidentally, perhaps coincidentally, displays a copy of the March 14, 1988 Time.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Library book shelving: a cautionary tale

I only recently became aware that some libraries are shelving Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman according to its Library of Congress number, 741.5—the drawing/cartoons section.

Yet I want it to be shelved with all the other picture book biographies. The picture book bios of Muhammad Ali are not shelved in sports and the picture book bios of John James Audubon are not shelved in birds...

Libraries can overrule the LOC designation, and indeed some have shelved Boys of Steel in biographiesbut, for example, only 10 out of the 130 or so libraries in my home state.

I wonder if some librarians shelved it in 741.5 only because they didn't realize it is a biography. They don't have time to become familiar with every book they process, given the volume. They see "Superman" on a cover and the shelving response is automatic. Who would figure a book with that word in the subtitle is nonfiction?

What I did not realize until this past weekend is that no picture book biographies (at least none I checked) are catalogued as biography. Therefore, it is always up to librarians (or library distributors) to determine when a book would be better served shelved in biography rather than with the subject. In other words, my original plan to try to get the Library of Congress to re-designate Boys of Steel is, mercifully, unnecessary.

The effect of the book will be limited if it remains in the drawing/cartoons section. Kids who look there typically want books on how to draw. They would not necessarily be surprised to find a biography on Superman's creators there—yet they also may not pay it much mind given their purpose in looking in that section.

I feel circulation of Boys of Steel would increase significantly if it were shelved in an area where more kids regularly browse (often because a biography assignment forces them to). Some of those kids would be pleasantly surprised to stumble upon unconventional picture book nonfiction among the multiple books each on Abraham Lincoln, Babe Ruth, Amelia Earhart, and Ashton Kutcher.

Thank you to Marc Aronson at Nonfiction Matters for helping me spread the word about this by posting a slightly different version of this post even before I did, and thanks to Betsy Bird, also at School Library Journal, for offering to do the same.

Librarians! Please reshelve! Picture book biography authors! Check your shelving!

More on this.

6/17/09 addendum: A sage poster on Betsy Bird's blog explained a detail that makes the difference: the Library of Congress adds a "B" to the catalog number if the book is a biography, meaning the librarians are explicitly signaled that the book can be shelved either with its subject matter or with biographies. Thank you, B, and thank you, BB!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

The kids have spoken

I'm humbled to report that Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman made the Children's Choices 2009 list. Here is how the list is described on the International Reading Association site:
A booklist with a twist! Children themselves evaluate the books and write reviews of their favorites. Since 1974, Children’s Choices have been a trusted source of book recommendations used by teachers, librarians, parents—and children themselves. The project is cosponsored by IRA and the Children’s Book Council.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Superman in the classroom

Columbus, Franklin, Beethoven, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Wright, Ruth, Roosevelt, Roosevelt, Siegel, Shuster, Parks, Armstrong, Obama.

Hold up—a couple of impostors snuck onto that list. All of those people are typically discussed (or at least touched upon) in history class. And all of those people (along with many more textbook names) have been the subjects of multiple picture books...except Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, creators of Superman, widely considered to be the world's first superhero.

Teaching history is a process of ranking consequences. Teaching time is limited (more than ever these days, with increased emphasis on test preparation). Therefore, plenty of people who made significant contributions to society don't get classroom coverage—those contributions are not judged to be significant enough to bump any of the "validated" names above.

Luckily, however, we are in the Golden Age of Picture Book Biography. Part of what I mean by this is that we live in a time where writers are writing and editors are publishing picture books on people who are not textbook names but could be—and, arguably, should be.

Perhaps thanks to a picture book, some of these people eventually will be.

In other words, the Wright Brothers weren't famous before the public had heard of them. I am stating the obvious, but you smell what I'm cooking.

Imagine the time before the general public knew the name Philippe Petit. Some might have said, "Never heard of him. Can't be that great of a story." After the book The Man Who Walked Between the Towers came out in 2003, many probably said, "Can't believe I never heard of him. Really glad I have now."

What writer of illustrated nonfiction wouldn't want to be the first to publish the story of the first (and only) daredevil to string a cable between the World Trade Center towers and walk between them?


Is this achievement as significant as setting a home-run record or as refusing to move to the section of the bus designated for your race? To some, emphatically not. To others, enthusiastically yes. Yet if it is a riveting story with insight into the human condition, does this matter?

Declining to publish or read a book on a person you haven't heard of is counterproductive to the purpose of publishing. It is about bringing new stories to light, or illuminating new aspects to familiar stories.

Declining to mention such figures in the classroom is similarly regretful. I have had the fortune to meet many enlightened teachers who see the value in sharing a story like Siegel and Shuster's with their students, even though it is off-curriculum. One teacher I met even made a lesson plan (complete with a Venn diagram!) about Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman
. Actually, he made two: an 8-page version for students and a 15-page teacher's edition.

Here is a review of the book by the Graphic Classroom, which advocates using comics in teaching.

Christopher Columbus : terrestrial exploration :: Babe Ruth : baseball
Franklin Delano Roosevelt : crisis leadership :: Neil Armstrong : space exploration
Ludwig van Beethoven : classical music :: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster : ?

See also: Boys of Steel as a curriculum tie-in.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

What made me cry in kindergarten

Kids sometimes ask me what I was like as a kid. Read the handwritten comment on this kindergarten report card (click to enlarge):

So same as I am now.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Nickelodeon Magazine 1993-2009

In my sixteen months of blogging, I have never been so jarred by a publishing industry news story that I was compelled to post a response immediately...until now.

Word broke today that Viacom is shuttering Nickelodeon Magazine.

The print magazine industry has been under siege for some time, so it should not be a surprise to hear of any one publication folding. Yet if there was a list of magazines that I would have said are immune to the digital invasion, I would have guessed Nick would be on it.

The apparent end of Nick Mag is sad for multiple reasons.


The magazine editors are a remarkably accomplished (and nice) bunch. I have full confidence that they will soon find (or be snatched up by) other outlets that recognize their talent. I had a rewarding relationship with Nick since my first sale to them, in 2001; thanks to my work for the magazine, I was able to segue into writing for other divisions of Nick.


For the past five years, I've made a point to praise Nick at literally every school (and most other venues) I've spoken at. Some elementary educators and librarians could not get past the celebs and licensed characters on the cover to discover the smart non-licensed content it always featured as well. It was a simple yet savvy (and, to me, defensible) strategy—hook kids with familiar faces and then ambush them with other less glam (but often more enjoyable) content inside, such as theme-based nonfiction and humor. My only quibble with the magazine was that it accepted advertising for junk food. But I understand the realities.

I know almost nothing about Nickelodeon the cable network. I know almost nothing about their characters. I have never watched an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants (and to the disappointment of many kids at the schools I visit, I can't draw him, either).

Yet I know that the passing of Nick Mag is a genuine loss for kids. It was one of the most consistently quality products (in any medium) for young people. It did die once before, in the early 1990s, but it came back. I hope that one day soon, it can pull that off again.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

We create and then we wait

Here is the article from The Daily Record of Wooster, Ohio, about the Young Authors' Conference of May 14 and 15 at which I was the honored guest:

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

What do you think of this cover?

Here is the cover for Vanished: True Stories (originally "Tales") of the Missing, due out in January through the Scholastic Book Club. (It will hopefully also be available in bookstores, but that Scholastic division has not made that decision yet—maybe I'll circulate a petition.)

The book comprises the stories of seven people who disappeared, some of whom were not heard from again; I blogged a bit more about it earlier this spring. Based only on that information, what is your opinion of the cover design?

I'll be curious to see if anyone has the same first reaction I (and my wife, separately) did. Be honest—I am comfortably used to criticism. And I will share my take shortly.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

A library with muscles

After the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators panel I sat on last month, the Coordinator of Youth Services from the Ferguson Library in Stamford, Connecticut, came up to me and shared fun news.

As I understood it, inspired by Ross MacDonald's art for
Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman, the library commissioned him to create the centerpiece images to promote their summer reading program. The theme is "Super Readers Summer."

For something else super, compare the endpaper of
Boys of Steel with this first drawing:
All images courtesy of (and not to be used in any way without permission from)
Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT, and Ross MacDonald

Monday, May 25, 2009

Winter Words

In December, I had the privilege of being one of four authors on a panel at the Fairfield (CT) Public Library, as part of Winter Words, a daylong annual conference aimed at aspiring writers. The podcast of that panel just went up:



This was the best panel I've been on to date, in terms of chemistry among the panelists, quality of questions asked, and spontaneous humor generated. Anyone interested in books would be interested in what my fellow authors had to say, yet if an hour is too long to commit to, here is one of many ways to take a shortcut...the approximate times at which my answers begin:


7:20 why I write and why for children
12:49 anecdote that gives one reason why I continue to write for children
19:37 where I get character ideas
26:41 am I in a writers' group
28:29 my research/writing process
34:42 a little joke
38:40 how I come up with original ideas
44:25 who my heroes are
52:58 what I am working on now
55:26 audience question: do we or does publisher pick book titles
58:36 audience question: how important are reviews

Again, this is not to say that my answers are any more engaging than anyone else's.

If, before I listened to the podcast, you'd asked me how many times each of us spoke during the panel, I'd have said four or maybe five times. I was surprised that it was at least double that. Now I have a greater appreciation for how much can be packed into an hourlong panel.

Friday, May 22, 2009

The woman behind "The Man Behind 'Boys of Steel'"

Note the placement of those quotation marks. If it read "the woman behind the man behind Boys of Steel," then I'd be referring to my wife (who edited 18 drafts of the book and is name-dropped in the dedication). Here I am referring to Barbara Heins, a longtime writer for the Greenwich Time.

She kindly interviewed me in October. And today, she kindly informed me that at last night's Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism Awards for 2008, her article about Boys of Steel won first place in the category "arts and entertainment article in daily newspaper with a circulation under 21,000."


"I thank you for sharing your story in such an engaging way that my peers thought of it so highly," Barbara humbly wrote me, but of course it wasn't me rambling but rather her listening and writing that earned her this distinction.

Yet being even the smallest part of someone else's journey to an award feels about as good as winning an award yourself. Congratulations, Barbara!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Young authors in Ohio

On May 14 and 15, I was the guest author at the 32nd annual Young Authors' Conference in Wooster, Ohio (also home to the annual Buckeye Book Fair, the state's largest).

Six hundred elementary and middle school students participated. Each had written (and in most cases also illustrated) their own books, fiction and nonfiction. Some of their books reminded me of books I made when I was in school—though mine were less slick, written on lined paper with a cover made of wallpaper scrap. Other books I saw at the conference were hardcover, coolly bound by a company in Kansas—I don't believe that option existed when I was a kid!

Thursday evening, I spoke in a gorgeous building they called a chapel but which looked like an auditorium.

The audience was some of the student authors, their parents, and often, their younger siblings (all of whom were quite patient for an evening event not aimed at them). Afterward, one parent came up to me for advice. She had taken a children's book writing course and wants desperately to try to publish—yet she is desperately afraid of rejection. I mean on the verge of tears desperately, with her husband nodding along near her as she emphasized her fear. I asked what she is more afraid of—trying and failing, or never trying and therefore never knowing if she would have succeeded. She is going to try.

The next morning, I spoke twice to groups of 300 each time, then signed a whole lot of books, a fraction of which was on display when I arrived:

Many of the kids asked me to also sign their custom-made books, which I would not do. My name doesn't belong on their hard work! I was happy to sign another sheet of paper (usually the cover of the event program) for them. Besides, they all got a pre-printed bookmark with my signature as well.



Sorry for the creepy blanked-out faces of the children, but you understand.

The event went so well that I volunteered to recommend other writers for the 33rd annual and beyond.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Warm front from Houston

At the end of March, I made my first trip to Houston. This week, I received a packet of feedback from the students and staff of one of the schools I visited there.

Some of my favorite comments:


"Maybe someday we will become friends and get coffee and talk about our ideas and write a book together."
— C, age 10
[I often say exactly this
—that perhaps some of the students I talk to now will one day become my fellow authors.]

"I found it quite shocking that you enjoyed Superman enough to write a book about his creators. I never knew one person could get rejected that many times."
— J, age 10
[Shocking!]


"Tell your family I said hello."
— M, age 9

"I deeply enjoyed the lecture you relinquished upon our minds. Before your talk I would give up on anything I couldn't perfect in 3 or 4 tries. You have inspired me to keep on trying and never give up, your generosity will never escape my now enriched soul of my willing to keep trying."
— A, age 10
[Three or four tries...he obviously knew about persistence before I showed up.]


"I laughed so hard my heart hurt."
— V, age 10

"You are definitely in my top 5 of heroes."
— J, age 9
[I would be the last person to call myself a hero for anything I've done, but a comment like this is, of course, beyond humbling. Most of all, I wish I knew who the other four are...]


"If Superman didn't give up then I'm not going to, either."
— a different J, age 10

"It was thoughtful for you to come all the way from Minnesota..."
— A, age 9

[I live in Connecticut. I have never been to Minnesota.]

"The school librarian read [Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman] to our class before you came. It really shows that it doesn't matter how old, smart, or popular you are—you can make a difference."
— W, age 10


Possibly my #1 favorite of the bunch:

"Your speech has opened a new door for me. Who knows, maybe you'll see me when I become a physician. All I know is if I achieve my goal you'll be the first person I contact apart from my family and friends. No promises though."
— K, age 10

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Panel of picture book authors

On Saturday 4/25/09, the Fairfield County (Connecticut) chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators hosted a panel about the craft of creating picture books on which I had the pleasure to appear.

Thank you to all who took time on the first summery day of the season to sit indoors and participate, whether in the audience or alongside me (the only male in that photo without groomed facial hair
—scruff doesn't count). Thank you also to those who supported our books afterward.