4 Success Stories - How a Children's Book Writing & Illustrating Conference Launched the Careers of Four Authors and Illustrators

Conferences are kingmakers. It’s true! Talk to published authors and illustrators, and you'll discover that more often than not an attendee’s career moved into hyper-drive after taking part in a conference. A conference is where you meet people with a shared passion, and you develop new neural pathways for craft. Ideas bubble to mind, and important connections are made. Many publishing hopefuls met their agent or editor attending breakout sessions, getting critiques, or selecting the right seat at an open-table luncheon. 

Illustration courtesy of Brooke-Boynton Huges

Illustrator Brooke Boynton Hughes attended SCBWI's International conference in California more than a decade ago. She entered her portfolio in the illustrator showcase, didn't win but got noticed. In fact, she signed with agent Marietta Zacker and landed a book deal that same year! Furthermore, Brooke signed up for the one-on-one portfolio review. She received feedback throughout the conference weekend and learned nuanced details about craft. When she returned to the event the following year (2013), she walked away as the Portfolio Showcase Honor Award winner and the Mentorship Award winner! In 2014, she received the Portfolio Honor Award at SCBWI's Winter Conference in New York. 

    Brooke's success didn't come from one conference. She says, 

I think the most important part about attending conferences is the chance to have one-on-one portfolio critiques and the opportunity to learn about your craft.  I attended six or seven international conferences and three or four regional conferences before I was published and before my portfolio was recognized in the showcase."  

Now her illustrations are published in books with Beach Lane, Disney Hyperion, and Random House.Author turned agent Ana Crespo met her editor, Kelly Barrales-Saylor who was then an editor with Albert Whitman and Co. (she is now an editor with Sourcebooks) during the regional Rocky Mountain SCBWI conference. Ana signed up for a manuscript critique and landed a feedback timeslot with Kelly. After listening to Kelly’s edit suggestions and taking ample notes during workshops, Ana was armed with ideas to improve her writing. Ana went home, reworked and edited her story, then queried Kelly who bought and published The Sock Thief. Ana went on to sell four books to Albert Whitman in a series called JP BOOKS, MY EMOTIONS AND ME. During another conference, she met Alvina Ling Executive Editorial Director of Little Brown Books. Alvina later published Hello Tree, illustrated by Dow Phumiruk.

 

I met my editor, Melissa Manlove of Chronicle Books, at an SCBWI conference, and let’s just say it involved an unofficial scavenger hunt, an Aperol Smash, and a failed pitch. But that failed pitch was part of a connection, and in the end I received a business card and an email address. A year-and-a-half later I worked on the craft points I’d learned at the conference, I worked with my critique group, I read and drafted, and then I sent a query letter about a new manuscript—here’s where I cue the drum roll and build to a frenzy—I got a YES! That’s how I sold the award-winning picture book, THE ELEPHANTS COME HOME. 

If the above three stories haven't convinced you that conferences are kingmakers, here’s one more. Author Martha Brockenbrough met the editor of her debut picture book The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy at a conference. His name - Arthur Levine of Arthur A. Levin at Scholastic (he is now an editor and founder of Levine Querido). Martha says in an interview with SCBWI, “Truly. Every picture book I’ve ever sold has come directly from my time at an SCBWI conference”. Martha has since sold many picture books and highly-praised novels. Her latest middle grade novel, To Catch a Thief, is out now!

6 Golden Rules - Advice From Top Agents and Editors in the Publishing Industry - What Publishers Say About Your First Page Behind Closed Doors

DREAM TEAM:  Nick Healy, Caryn Wiseman, Andrea Brown, Jennifer Mattson, Melissa Manlove

Writers want to know the secret sauce that makes editors, agents and readers turn a first page in a book. Some say authors must get the inciting incident on page one. 

Screenwriting books advise the inciting incident should land on page ten (or for books, the first 10% of a novel). Wendy Loggia of Delacorte Press/Random House once told me it’s hard to care about an inciting incident until we care about the character. She went on to say that many writers want to get to the good stuff first, but it all has to be good.

To further understand the art of the first page, I asked Andrea Brown, president of the

Andrea Brown Literary Agency (ABLA), to host a panel session during the Big Sur in the Rockies writing workshop held in Boulder, Colorado. On a rainy Saturday afternoon, participants submitted the first page of their work-in-progress and gathered to hear feedback from a dream-team of publishing professionals—Melissa Manlove from Chronicle  Books, Nick Healy from Capstone Publishing, and three ABLA agents: Andrea Brown, Caryn Wiseman and Jennifer Mattson.  The panel provided insight on what works and what doesn’t on the first page of manuscripts, everything from picture books to YA novels. 

Here’s what I heard:

1.  Don’t rob readers of experiencing the emotional state of the character. This is another reason agents and editors (and readers) want you to SHOW DON’T TELL. For example, writers should not write George was upset about his report card—that TELLS the emotional state. Write something along the lines of George wadded up his report card and shoved it to the bottom of his backpack. 

2.  Picture Book Writers—WATCH OUT for subjective-clause filled sentence structure. Instead, choose an appropriate sentence structure for your audience. Let sentences end so readers land on an idea. Simplify your language and let the art carry a good portion of the story's weight. (And on a sidenote, it’s a good idea to keep emotional conflict out of bedtime stories).

3.  All Manuscripts—

·        Avoid over choreography.

·        Read your pages out loud and listen for repeating words or repeating a character’s name—fix if you’re over using it and it doesn't sound natural.

·        Choose active verbs. Instead of using “to be” verbs, choose verbs powerful enough to eliminate adjective and adverbs.

·        Remember that books set in the 1980’s and 90's are now considered historical fiction.

·        Don’t lead with generic circumstances that stay generic, stay away from common storylines and add something fresh and original.

·        Don’t write a book with didactic intentions and please don’t write with a didactic tone; kids will see right through this. “We don’t go to stories for lessons,” says Melissa Manlove  (though please see Melissa’s additional feedback listed at the end of this article).

·        Be careful so that you’re not long and heavy on details. Readers don’t want to wade through the mundane to get to the good.

·        “Many editors dislike prologues and we want you to be as rejection-proof as possible so don’t use them unless you really must.” Andrea Brown

·        Some panel members are not fans of mixing anthropomorphized animals with talking humans. That’s not a rule, just a note of preferences when querying this panel.

·        The Picture Book industry is currently hot on having character-driven picture books, but characters still needs to have a motivation.   

·       

4.  Using illustration notes in picture books. Please know this varies between editors (for example, never (never ever) send an illustration note to Beach Lane Books). Per the members on this panel, illustration notes are fine, but only if it is necessary for the editor or agent to get an inside joke or a something that is not relayed in the words. Do not use illustration notes to describe your character or provide unnecessary art direction.

5.  Writing in Rhyme. If you are writing in rhyme, please take a look at any book that’s won a Geisel Award (p.s. fun fact—Andrea Brown worked with Theodore Geisel long ago!).

I’ve attended dozens upon dozens of conferences, and though many agents and editors say they don’t like rhyme, many also say it’s because they don’t like bad and forced rhyme. Furthermore, if a story rhymes in English, that doesn’t mean it’s going to rhyme in French or Spanish, so rhyming books are difficult to sell beyond the U.S.  

6.  Author/Illustrators—if you work as both an author and illustrator, you should submit a sketch dummy for your full picture book along with only a couple of pieces of finished art.

**Post workshop Melissa and I chatted, and she states there’s another side to this list of advice. To learn more, I suggest you read her interview titled “Noir and Horror for your Kindergartner” by Maggie Tokuda-Hall posted on the Boing Boing blog 

Heart in Children's Literature by Kim Tomsic

Any writer trying to tackle the art of composing a children’s story will agree—it’s tough work. Whether writing a 500-word picture book or a 75,000-word novel, writers face a juggling act of theme (without being didactic), character (without being overly cutesy), story (with the perfect pace), and more all in effort to create that sweet balance of delight, entertainment, meaning, and connection.     But what makes a story good? In

Celebrating Children's Books: Essays on Children's Literature, Arnold Lobel says, “A good picture book should be true. That is to say, it should rise out of the lives and passions of its creators.” Perhaps this statement could be pushed a step further, so it reads: A good children’s book (picture book through young adult novel) should be true. That is to say it should rise out of the lives and passions of its creators and have a placeholder for a child to insert themselves and their emotions. A good book should have heart.

In author Kate DiCamillo’s 2014 Newbery speech, she said, “…[those] working on stories, bookmaking, and art are given the sacred task of making hearts larger through story.” But what is heart and how does an author write it into a story? To figure this out, I asked three experts for their thoughts on heart in children’s books: Author Beth Anderson, Senior Editor at Chronicle Books, Melissa Manlove, and Senior Editor at HarperCollins, Maria Barbo.

First meet Beth. Not only is Beth Anderson the author of several picture books, she also writes about emotional resonance in her blog, “Mining for Heart.” Beth says, “Heart” is the treasure I’m after whenever I start a new manuscript. What will make this story more than a reporting of events? What will make the child reader think about the world a little bit differently? What will bring emotional resonance? To me, heart is not the theme or focus nugget but is much deeper and more personal. It emerges when you process the research or story through your own life experiences and passions to find a unique angle or thread. “Heart” can be nebulous, elusive, downright torture to tackle, but it’s what makes a manuscript sing!”

            Beth’s statement screams many truths, (the torture!). She also wonders, “What will

make a child reader think about the world a bit differently?” 

Kimberly Reynolds, author of Children’s Literature: A Very Short Introduction, says, “Because children’s literature is one of the earliest ways in which the young encounter stories, it plays a powerful role in shaping how we think about and understand the world.” Reynolds’ statement echoes Kate DiCamillo. In essence, they are both saying that books play a powerful role that might affect the way children understand and think about race, religion, ableism, neurodiversity, gender identity and more. No wonder DiCamillo calls it a “sacred” task.

Helping a child think about the world a bit differently happens when an author succeeds at writing a story that gets under their skin. There, inside the pulse of the story is the opportunity for a child or young adult to connect, beyond mere amusement, so that the story seeps into their pores and stays long after the last page is read. To jump-start a pulse that pushes a story beyond entertaining-but-forgettable, a book must have 💙heart💙, and to achieve heart the writer must make the reader feel something.

            The Horn Book Magazine also covers the need for children’s stories to have heart and feeling-points. In a November 2012 article titled “Making Picture Books: The Words” by Charlotte Zolotow, Zolotow emphasizes how an emotional impulse to write for children should come out of a real place and says, “Many fine writers can write about children but are unable to write for them.” She says, “The writers writing about children are looking back. The writers writing for children are feeling back into childhood.” It is the feeling-points that writers must tap into if they want to reach a child’s heart.

             The next step in my mission to understand heart took me to Senior Editor Melissa Manlove from Chronicle Books. I knew Melissa would be the perfect person to talk to, because she made me work to uncover the heart of The Elephants Come Home (Chronicle Books, 2021). Back in 2012, I approached Melissa with a true story about a man named Lawrence Anthony who rescued a herd of seven elephants in Zululand, South Africa--the elephants had broken out of every other wildlife sanctuary they'd lived at and had thus frightened many townfolk with their destruction. Now they had to be relocated again, otherwise they would be shot! Melissa and I were both captivated by the many details of this story, but something was missing—that nebulous “something” was the heart. It sat in the outskirts of my writing, but the heart was too buried to actually feel it. I had to work, to dig, to revise until I was able to identify the true piece of me that I was bringing to the story (for me, it was growing up as a military brat and being made to move from home to home, like the elephants).  Once I identified the heart I felt when I thought about this story, I knew I couldn’t shove it front and center because then the story would feel forced. Melissa says heart can’t be in the reader’s face. It needs to be like a treasure chest the reader works to uncover.

Actually, she says it more eloquently. Melissa says, “The writers I admire most tend to be ones that, as they draft, are following a feeling, a hunch, a question. They’re feeling out what seems right and what the story seems to want to be. And THEN from that, later, in the revision process, they figure out what that part of us that lives on story but doesn’t have words of its own to speak was trying to say. And when you let the story come first, and let it show you by feel where the heart is, then the heart is truly buried in it, like buried treasure, and your story becomes a map for those who will follow you.”

The Elephants Come Home written by me and with gorgeous illustrations by Hadley Hooper, released in 2021 with Chronicle Books. Melissa pushed me to dig deep so that I could leave a treasure for readers to find.

Melissa is a master of theme and thesis and if you ever have the opportunity to attend one of her lectures, it will be the best gift you ever give yourself. For this article, I asked Melissa to expand on feeling points, and she explained that, “Many [stories are] disposable. And that’s because they’re entertaining in the moment, but they don’t mean anything. There’s nothing that stays with you afterward, nothing that nibbles at your imagination and pulls you back to them.” Even if a story is fiction, Melissa says a good story makes us “feel it is true.” Melissa explains that feeling in story is “the language-brain articulating what the story-brain had already known in feeling. A storyteller must evoke a universal feeling.” Melissa says for a story to go deeper, there needs to be “a human experience at the heart of that story that we all can relate to…and a truth about that human experience in the story.”

A great example of a human experience at the heart of a story we can relate to is Charlie and Mouse, edited by Melissa Manlove, written by Laurel Snyder, and illustrated by Emily Hughes. The starred review written by Elizabeth Bird in School Library Journal starts out with a negative tone, “Only the jaded should write reviews of children’s books.” The reviewer goes on to say, “If I am a parent and there is any danger AT ALL that my child is going to ask me to read and reread and reread again a piece of tripe that calls itself a children’s book, I at least want some forewarning. I have great love for the sardonic stripe of reviewer. Anyone who has honed their teeth on the literary darlings of sweetness & light.” Elizabeth Bird says she is sick and tired of reading overly-sweet books and goes on to add, “So I sometimes wonder if having my own kids has made me more inclined towards books with a glint of true emotion amidst the adorableness. With that in mind, I guess I could be forgiven for initially thinking that Charlie & Mouse wouldn’t work for me. Heck the eyeballs of these kids take up half their heads as it is. Yet when I read this story what I found was a quietly subversive, infinitely charming, eerily rereadable early chapter book not just worth reading but worth owning.” Though Bird set out to dislike Charlie and Mouse, she felt the heart and says, “my tolerance for the cutesy is distinctly low. So it was with great pleasure that I discovered that while the characters of Charlie and Mouse are undeniably cute, they are not cloying. They are not vying for your love. They are living their lives, doing what they want to do, and if what they do happens to be cute, so be it, but that is not their prerogative.”  Heart won the day.   

            I circle back to Kate DiCamillo, because Flora and Ulysses is a great example of a book with heart, and it was a very human and universal experience that led DiCamillo to write this Newbery Award winning book—the experience of love, grief, and loss. DiCamillo says her truth rose out of her deep love for her mother who often asked who would take care of her Electrolux vacuum cleaner when she passed away. In January 2009, her 86-year-old mother fell, broke her hip, and died less than a week later. DiCamillo’s heart ached, and she grieved as painfully and deeply as anyone who loses a loved one grieves. In her 2014 Newbery speech, she says she wrote Flora and Ulysses because she “wanted to excavate that grief.” She says, “I wanted and needed to find my way to joy.” This was her truth, but she doesn’t lay it on the page so literally. The truth takes on new forms and shows up in her book through characters that would have made her mother laugh—Flora, the squirrel, the giant donut, and a vacuum cleaner (remember the Electrolux), and it’s not just any vacuum cleaner, but one that gives the squirrel superpowers!

The Newbery committee called Flora and Ulysses a story of hope, joy, and love. Through this book, readers experience real feelings filtered through DiCamillo’s characters while originating from her authentic human experience—her love and grief and also her hope to regain laughter and joy. This echoes back to what Melissa Manlove said, “there needs to be “a human experience at the heart of story that we all can relate to…and a truth about that human experience in the story.” In the end of Flora and Ulysses, readers discover that Flora’s father, George Buckman, has a capacious heart. One that is very large and “capable of containing much joy and much sorrow.” And this is parallel to the truth of DiCamillo’s heart, joy, and sorrow in her mourning process. Authentic feelings that showed up on the pages.

Senior Editor Maria Barbo from HarperCollins says, “Authenticity is key for emotional resonance. That thing you do in private that you think nobody else does—someone does it. A writer or artist has to make themselves vulnerable in that way—to share the secret, raw parts of themselves because relatability stems, in part, from specificity.” She adds a reminder, “The reader’s heart isn’t going to be in it if yours isn’t.” Maria is the editor for Bubbles...Up! a love poem to swimming, written by Jacqueline Davies illustrated by Sonia Sánchez. Each reader might find a different pulse point as they read, but without a doubt this story has heart.💙 

The experts agree—a good book should have heart. Melissa Manlove says, a “good story must feel true.” Maria Barbo says that a reader’s heart can’t be in it unless the writer’s heart shows up first. Beth Anderson challenges authors to find what will cause the child reader to think about their world view. Children’s Literature: A Very Short Introduction says, “Children’s literature can also be a literature of contestation, offering alternative views and providing the kind of information and approaches that can inspire new ways of thinking about the world and how it could be shaped in other, potentially better ways.”  Heart shows up when we process stories through life and literature experiences. Writers all have something that is deeply personal to share. We have something that, as Arnold Lobel says, “…can rise out of [our] lives and passions.” The real question is: are we willing to be vulnerable and write from an authentic place and share our feeling-points so the story can come alive for a child.

At the end of Kate DiCamillo’s Newbery speech, she said that as a child, she sat with books in her tree-house and could, “Feel the stories I read pushing against the walls of my heart.” For her, those stories traveled beyond the boundaries of mere entertainment and had a lasting pulse. Again, DiCamillo says those, “…working on stories, bookmaking, and art are given the sacred task of making hearts larger through story.” Writers can only do this if they dig deep and give of themselves so authentically that a book develops a pulse—a story that not only entertains but also has a placeholder for the child to insert themselves and their emotions. Children deserve stories that have heart. 

What is The #11111212Give

WHAT:  The #11111212Give is a daily giveaway running from November 11th through December 12th. Winners are selected by a random number generator, and then I double check that the winner followed the entry instructions (the three simple "HOWs").

THE PRIZES: are inspired by books (mine and others) **and/or** items in my books.

For example, on Friday, November 15th, the prize was a SPHERO SPRK because: (1) STEM-friday and (2) because in The 12th Candle,  Minerva's store (the eccentric shop in the story) sells SPHEROS. And (3) Megan in The 11:11 Wish loves math. Another example, the prize on Friday, November 22 : SPECDRUMS because innovating and music remind me of Les Paul and Guitar Genius (Chronicle Books, 2019).

HOW: To see the daily giveaway item, search the hashtag #11111212Give on Twitter and Instagram and follow simple instructions (usually three things: follow, share, comment).

WHO:  you can participate on Twitter and Instagram. Find and follow me here:

Twitter = https://twitter.com/bkshelfdetectiv

                        

             Instagram =   https://www.instagram.com/kimtomsic/

INSPIRATIONS (the "WHYS" other than the fact that it's fun):

• Inspired by my two novels for readers ages 8-13, The 11:11 Wish and The 12th Candle. Both books are light fantasy set in a contemporary school. They feature smart and funny characters who face impossible choices, magic, comedy, and the power of kindness.    
• Inspired by this time of year to remember gratitude, thanks"giving", and kindness. 
• Inspired by PERSEVERANCE and to have a STEM Friday prize because of my narrative nonfiction picture book (for readers ages 5-105), GUITAR GENIUS: How Les Paul Engineered the Solid Body Electric Guitar and Rocked the World! Les engineered the world's first solid-body electric guitar and created countless other inventions that changed modern music. No matter how many times Les was told something was impossible, he stuck with his vision. With a few tools, a lot of curiosity, and an endless faith in what is possible, Les brought engineering projects to life. 
• Because it's fun!
• Here's a sneak peek at just a few of the future prizes!  Specdrums pictured above, plus
  
  
  
  
  

SCBWI Unofficial Scavenger Hunt

Unofficial SCBWI Scavenger Hunt!

How would you like to show up to LA16SCBWI and and win cocktails, conversation, and a critique with Chronicle editor Melissa Manlove? In 2011, I attend the SCBWI summer conference in Los Angeles and noticed an underground scavenger hunt in the works—it was to take place during the Saturday night gala. I quickly formed a team made up of strangers (which ended up being a fast and fun way to make friends). We had a blast working the scavenger hunt, but the best part was winning—we earned a private cocktail party and pitch session with Chronicle Books editor Melissa Manlove. In that hour and a half of sipping lemon drop martinis, Melissa generously shared her knowledge and offered constructive feedback. I learned more about my story and writing than I'd ever understood before. Now I can proudly announce I have two picture book deals with Melissa and Chronicle Books and also...oh, I can't tell you the "also" right now, but here's what you need to know—I am certain that the scavenger hunt was the spark that ignited my writing career. 

It is with great enthusiasm that I say YOU can have the exact same opportunity if you are attending this year’s SCBWI sold-out conference taking place this month in Los Angeles, July 2016.

WHAT:

Unofficial SCBWI Scavenger Hunt! #SCBWIscavenger  (tweet with hashtag #SCBWIscavenger) and/or #LA16SCBWI 

HOW:

On Saturday by 4:30pm, the following will be hidden around the hotel:

a.      small plastic eggs containing scrabble titles

b.      a selection of unusual objects

c.      the indubitable Martha Flynn, who will be the keeper of four blank scrabble tiles (first four teams to find Martha secure a coveted blank tile!)

Please see Melissa Manlove’s Instagram account for photos of the unusual objects and Martha Flynn—the photos will all be posted at 4:30 pm on Saturday. Between that time and 12:00 noon on Sunday, teams will find all they can, and then spell the best word or phrase possible with the scrabble tiles they’ve collected. Post a photo of your team’s word plus any of the unusual objects you find to Instagram and tag Melissa Manlove—you must post your photo to Instagram by 12:00 noon on Sunday and remember to tag to Melissa Manlove!

Important Note: The eggs and objects will be hidden in plain sight, in public areas of the hotel. It will not be necessary to move hotel furniture or decorations to find them, or to step into areas not meant for foot traffic. Please stay respectful of the hotel’s property and tidiness while searching for them.

WHO:

Anyone attending SCBWI LA16. You may form teams with a group size of 6 or fewer people.

WHERE:

The Biltmore Hotel—particularly (but not limited to) the Red Carpet Ball

WHEN:

4:30 pm Saturday July 30^th – 12:00 noon Sunday July 31^st

Is it worth it...oh yes!!!!!!!!!!! 

THE WINNING TEAM:

Melissa will post the results on instagram.

"The winner will be determined by an utterly subjective and seat-of-my-pants assessment of the team submissions. Having collected objects will likely tip the scales if I am torn between two words/phrases, but the words/phrases themselves, as exhibiting the team’s creativity, will be the primary point of judgement."

**Each team should share this post to their social media to be considered good sportsman**.

PRIZE:

Winners will meet in the bar on Sunday at 4:30 pm for cocktails with Chronicle editor Melissa Manlove (!!!!!!). The winning team has the option to make the cocktail hour into an impromptu critique group with feedback from Melissa—if your team chooses this, each team member should bring up to 5 pages of a work, and enough copies for everyone.

Manuscript Critique with Melissa Manlove of Chronicle Children's Group #KidLitForHaiti

Kid Lit for Haiti

This auction item has closed. Thank you for participating!

Kid Lit for Haiti:  Flexible critique from Melissa Manlove

Melissa (Editor at Chronicle Children's Group) is offering a critique of up to 2000 words—and here are the exciting details—2000 words according to Melissa means she will read the first 2000 words of a novel, OR she will read up to five (5) separate picture book manuscripts!!!! (but no more than 5 manuscripts, therefore if your manuscripts are all 40-word board book manuscripts, she will not read 50 of them). 

Manuscripts for critique must be received by Melissa by June 1 2015. You can expect about a one-month turn-around time (all critiques will be given via email).

How do I bid?

Place your bid in the comment section of this blog post by increasing the previous bid by a minimum of $10 increments. Please include information about how I may contact you if you are the winning bidder; If I haven't contacted you immediately following the auction, please reach out to me at ktomsic@gmail.com . Questions can also be posted in the comment section below.

When does this particular auction item close?

**This Auction will close on December 14, 2014** at 11:59pm Mountain Time Now closed. Thank you!

What happens next?

I will contact the winning bidder (as long as you remembered to provide your contact information!). You will make your donation at this donation link and then you will email a copy of your receipt to me at ktomsic@gmail.com Then I will put you in touch with Melissa J

This is a truly unique offering! Happy bidding!

How do I know when new auction items are posted to this blog:

You can receive emails when new auction items are listed. Simply enter your email address in the upper left corner of this blog where it says "Follow by email". You will only receive an email when a new post is created on this blog.

What are other items are currently on the Kid Lit for Hait (#KidLitForHaiti) Auction?

To Visit a full list of all the auction items featured on Kid Lit for Haiti: PLEASE CLICK HERE

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Melissa Manlove is an editor at Chronicle Books in San Francisco, and she is my editor for THE ELEPHANTS CAME (Spring, 2017). Melissa is amazing, smart, thoughtful, knowledgeable, kind, and she possesses that keen ability to get to the heart of a story. I first met Melissa at an SCBWI conference in California when I won an unofficial scavenger hunt (crazy shenanigans go down at these conferences)—martinis with Melissa was my prize. In a half-hour conversation with Melissa, she was able to tell me what was working in my story, and where I was going wrong. In a few sentences she unveiled more secrets about writing than I had learned in years of study. I used her advice and edited my work—a year and a half later I got it right and landed my first sale. When I tell people Melissa Manlove is my editor, the response is usually, “She’s my dream editor!” Melissa has a true passion for children’s literature. She can often be found at her local bookstore where she’s giving a story-time reading to the gathered children.

BIO: Melissa has been with Chronicle for 10 years. Her acquisitions tend to be all ages in nonfiction; ages 0-8 for fiction. When acquiring, she looks for fresh takes on familiar topics as well as the new and unusual. An effective approach and strong, graceful writing are important to her. She has 16 years of children’s bookselling experience.

 (Want to know more about Melissa? Here’s a great interview – click here)

Eye Candy from Molly Idle

Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle offers a beautiful way to introduce your child to the art and dance of friendship.  Due out from Chronicle Books in February, this wordless book is gorgeous enough to decorate the walls of a princess's bedroom. I wouldn't be surprised if Land of Nod or Pottery Barn Kids wanted to offer Flora decor in the future.  But for now, Flora and the Flamingo is pure eye candy as well as the celebration of building friendships.

• ISBN-13: 9781452110066
• Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
• Publication date: 2/7/2013
• Pages: 44

Book trailer: