Marilyn Singer

Other Publications

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Original Poems:

“Rainbows in a Cage,” A Universe of Rainbows, edited by Matt Forest Esenwine (Eerdmans, 2025);  (“Last Flower,” Forty Poems for Forty Weeks, edited by David L. Harrison and Timothy V. Rasinski (Routledge, 2024); “X’s and Oh No’s,”Schoolapalooza, edited by Ryan Van Cleave (Bushel & Peck, 2024); “The Boulevard Montmartre on a Christmas Morning,” Christmas Is Coming! , Metropolitan Museum of Art (Abrams, 2019); “On the Fourth of July,” The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog, edited by Paul Janeczko (Candlewick, 2019); “Tumbleweed” and “Roadside Stand,” The Poetry of Us, edited by J. Patrick Lewis (National Geographic, 2018); “Paint Me,” World Make Way, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins (Abrams, 2018); “Word of the Day,” Resisting Arrest, edited by Tony Medina (Jacar Press, 2016); “Body Art,” Catch Your Breath, by Laura Purdie Salas (Capstone Press, 2016); “Grampa’s Barn,” One Minute Till Bedtime, edited by Kenn Nesbitt (Little, Brown, 2016); “Breakfast Cereal,” Lullaby & Kisses Sweet, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins (Harry N. Abrams, 2015); “Nobody’s Birthday,” The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations, complied by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong (Pomelo Books, 2015); “Photosynthesis” and “Lift,” The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science, compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong (Pomelo Books, 2014); “Year of the Tiger,” The Arrow Finds Its Mark, edited by Georgia Heard (Roaring Brook, 2012); “Disagreeable Fleas,” Nasty Bugs, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins (Dial, 2012); “And Then There’s Air,” Dare to Dream edited by Jill Corcoran (Kane Miller, 2012); “Tricera-flops,” Dizzy Dinosaurs, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins (HarperCollins, 2011);”In My Hand” and “Spinners,” Falling Down the Page, edited by Georgia Heard (Roaring Brook Press, 2009); “In Here, Kitty, Kitty,” Incredible Inventions, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins (Greenwillow, 2009); “Making Soup,” “Best Friend,” and “Singing Down the Sun, Lessons for Climbing Inside a Poem, edited by Georgia Heard and Lester Laminack (First Hand Heinemann, 2008); “Beach Time” and “Stargazing,” Here’s a Little Poem, edited by Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters (Walker, 2007);”Diamond Dark,” Faith and Doubt edited by Patrice Vecchione (Holt, 2007); “Clay,” Behind the Museum Door, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins (Abrams, 2007); “For Me,” Poetry Aloud Here! by Sylvia Vardell (ALA Editions, 2006); “Haircut,” Oh, No! Where Are My Pants? edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins(HarperCollins, 2005); “Heart Art,” Valentine Hearts, edited by Lee Bennnett Hopkins (HarperCollins, 2005); “Kumquats,” Food Fight, edited by Michael Rosen (Harcourt, 1996).

Reprinted Poems:

The following poems from Turtle in July are featured in these books: “april is a dog’s dream,” Lou Peacock’s The Dog Is Full of Love (Nosy Crow, 2025) and Sylvia Vardell’s A World Full of Poems (DK, 2020); “april is a dog’s dream” and “Cat,” Lee Bennett Hopkins’s Sharing the Seasons (Simon & Schuster, 2010); “Deer Mouse,” Laura Whipple’s A Snowflake Fell (Barefoot Books, 2003); “april is a dog’s dream” and “Turtle in July,” Jack Prelutsky’s The 20th-Children’s Poetry Treasury (Knopf, 1999); “January Deer,” “March Bear,” and “Beavers in November,” Jack Prelutsky’s The Beauty of the Beast (Knopf, 1997) and in J. Patrick Lewis’s National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry (National Geographic, 2012); Cow” and “Timber Rattlesnake,” Paul B. Janeczko’s Poetry from A to Z: A Guide for Young Writers (Bradbury Press, 1994). The following poems from Footprints on the Roof (Knopf, 2002) can be found in these books: “Desert” and “Dormant Dragons” in J. Patrick Lewis’s National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry, (National Geographic, 2015); “Rain Forest” and “Prehistoric Praise” in Mary Ann Hoberman and Linda Winston’s The Tree That Time Built (Sourcebooks, 2009). “Ants” from Fireflies at Midnight is in J. P. Lewis’s National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry. “Fog,” from Sky Words is in Paul Janeczko’s Seeing the Blue Between (Candlewick, 2002). “Nothing on a Bulldog’s Face” from It’s Hard to Read a Map With a Beagle on Your Lap is featured in Dilys Evans’s Weird Pet Poems (Simon & Schuster, 1997). “Tanya” and “Sophie,” from All We Needed to Say are in Poems Are Teachers by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater (Heinemann, 2018). “Nobody’s Birthday” is reprinted in Sylvia Vardell’s A World Full of Poems. “Toasting Marshmallows” from Central Heating (Knopf, 2005) has been reprinted in Paul Janeczko’s The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog (Candlewick, 2019).

Original Short Stories:

“Shattered” in Shattered:  Stories of Children and War edited by Jennifer Armstrong (Random House, 2002); “Word of the Day” in Twice Told: Original Stories Inspired by Original Artwork (Dutton, 2006); Scott Hunt, illustrator; “First Position” in SPORTS SHORTS edited by Tanya Dean (Darby Creek, 2005).

In addition, Marilyn has written innumerable teacher’s guides, catalogues and program notes on films and filmstrips. Among these are guides for Jacob Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man, David Attenborough’s The Tribal Eye, The Originals: Women in Art, and a number of films from PBS’s Nova series. She edited and wrote the introduction to A History of the American Avant-Garde Cinema, published by The American Federation of Arts in 1976. She has also written scripts for The Electric Company, including an original lyric she sang on the TV show, and the narration for several shows of Video and Film Review (WNET). She was the curator of Superfilmshow!, a series of avant-garde films selected for children. She studied screen-writing at N.Y.U. with Terry Southern. Her poems have also been published in several magazines, including Yes, Encore, Corduroy and The Archer.

Her article on dog obedience trial judges, “The Mind of the Judge,” can be found in the AKC Gazette, March 1998. In October, 2000, the AKC Gazette featured “Raising the Bar,” her piece on Puppies Behind Bars, a unique program in which prison inmates raise pups to become guide dogs for the blind. She has also written six articles featured in Click magazine: “Paper Houses,” about wasp nests (February, 1999), “A Farmer’s Best Friend,” about sheepdogs (May/June, 1999), “A Dad Who Has Babies,” on seahorses (February, 2000); “Never-Ending Journey,” about the Serengeti migrations, October, 2000; “A Safe Place,” about Kruger National Park (March 2001); “Clay Castles,” about African termites, February 2002; and “Pests and Pollinators,” about insects and other garden animals, July/August, 2002.

About Marilyn

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Marilyn on her office

Marilyn in Brooklyn
Marilyn In CT

When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a teacher, a dog kennel owner, and a writer. When I grew up, I taught high school English for four years, owned as many as three dogs at one time, and began to write books. By now I’ve written over ninety of them—picture books, novels, short stories, nonfiction, and lots of poetry. Where do I get my ideas? From experiences, events, suggestions, travels, dreams, articles, people I’ve met—everywhere!

My family inspired me to love words and stories. My grandmother told marvelous folk tales. My parents read to me every day and sang hit tunes, which had great lyrics by wonderful lyricists such as Cole Porter, Ira Gershwin, Johnny Mercer, etc. Nowadays, my husband, Steve Aronson, encourages me by listening patiently to what I write and giving me tough critiques.

Steve and I live in Brooklyn, NY and Washington, CT. We don’t have children, but we do have a lot of pets: a standard poodle named Oggi, a cat called August, and three rescued birds. When I’m not writing, I like to go swing and ballroom dancing, train my dog, bird watch, take walks in the woods, see plays, play computer and board games, garden, and read.

How would I describe myself? “I’m persistent and persevering. I love to laugh. I’m sociable, but I also like to be alone. Although my house may be messy, I’m quite organized. I’m a night owl and not a lark.”

I currently co-host the Poetry Blast, a reading by children’s poets, at the American Library Association conference and other venues. Visit the Fans of the ALSC Poetry Blast page at Facebook.

Biography

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Marilyn by Sonya

Winner of the 2015 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry, Marilyn Singer was born in the Bronx (New York City) on October 3, 1948 and lived most of her early life in N. Massapequa (Long Island), NY. She attended Queens College, City University of New York, from which she received a B.A. in English, and for her junior year, Reading University, England. She holds an M.A. in Communications from New York University.

In 1974, after teaching English in New York City high schools for several years, she began to write – initially film notes, catalogues, teacher’s guides, and film strips. Then, one day, when she was sitting in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, she penned a story featuring talking insect characters she’d made up when she was eight. Encouraged by the responses she got, she wrote more stories, and in 1976, her first book, The Dog Who Insisted He Wasn’t, was published by E.P. Dutton & Co.

Since then, Marilyn has published more than one hundred books for children and young adults. Her genres are many and varied, including realistic novels, fantasies, mysteries, short stories, non-fiction, fairy tales, picture books, and poetry. She likes writing many different kinds of books because it’s challenging and it keeps her from getting bored.

Her book, Mirror Mirror has garnered many awards, including: the Cybil Award for Poetry, 2011, an ALA Notable 2011; an CLA/NCTE Notable, 2011 and six starred reviews. In addition, it was a nominee for the Texas Bluebonnet Award and has been listed as a Capitol Choice Book, one of the year’s best books by the Washington Post, Horn Book, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, the New York Public Library, the Chicago Public Library, Scripps News Service, and blogger Betsy Bird’s list.

She has won several Children’s Choice and Parents’ Choice Awards, as well as the following: Echo Echo, NCTE Notable, 2017 and SLJ Best Books of the Year and NYPL Best Books of the Year, 2016;  Rutherford B., Who Was He?, Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor Book and NCTE Notable, 2013; Follow Follow, NCTE Notable, Columbus Dispatch’s 20 Best Books of the Year, and Bank Street College’s Best Books of the Year, 2013; A Strange Place to Call Home, IRA Teachers Choice and NCTE Notable, 2012; A Full Moon Is Rising, Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best, 2012; Twosomes; Beehive Award, 2011;  Eggs and First Food Fight This Fall, Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best, 2009; Venom, Orbis Pictus Honor Book, 2008; New York Public Library’s One Hundred Best Titles for Reading and Sharing, 2007; City Lullaby, Time Magazine’s Top Ten Children’s Books, 2007; What Stinks?, NSTA-CBC Outstanding Science Trade Book, 2007; Science Books & Film Best Trade Books, 2006; Central Heating, ALSC Notable Book, 2005; Creature Carnival, Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor Book, 2005; Tough Beginnings: How Baby Animals Survive, NSTA-CBA Outstanding Science Trade Book, 2002 and Society of School Librarians International Best Book for Science, 2001; A Pair of Wings, Animal Behavior Society Children’s Book Award, 2001; I Believe in Water: Twelve Brushes with Religion, New York Public Library’s “Best Books for the Teen Age,” 2001; Stay True: Short Stories for Strong Girls, Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, 2000 (YALSA); On the Same Day in March, Booklist’s Top Ten Science Books of 2000 and NCSS-CBC Notable Book, 2000; Deal with a Ghost, finalist, YA category, Edgar Award, 1998; It Can’t Hurt Forever, Maud Hart Lovelace Award, 1983; The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth, ALA Best Book for Young Adults, 1983; Turtle in July, NCTE Notable, N.Y.Times Best Illustrated and Time Magazine Best Children’s Books of 1989; Turtle in July was also a Reading Rainbow review book.

Marilyn currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband Steve; their standard poodle, Bizzy, their cat, Benito, and two collared doves named Jubilee and Holiday. Her interests include ballroom/Latin dancing, dog training, reading, hiking, bird-watching, gardening, and going to the theatre. She’s also a major Star Trek fan.

To find out more about Marilyn’s writing and her life, see her interview in Poetry People: A Practical Guide to Children’s Poets by Sylvia Vardell (Libraries Unlimited, 2007); Speaking of Poets 2 by Jeffrey S. Copeland and Vicky C. Copeland (NCTE, 1992); and her autobiography in Something About the Author, Autobiographical Series, Volume 13 (Gale Research, Inc., 1992).

Marilyn was the host of the former AOL Children’s Writers Chat and currently co-hosts the Poetry Blast at various conferences.

Twosomes: Love Poems from the Animal Kingdom

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TWOSOMES: Love Poems from the Animal Kingdom

(excerpts)

BATS
Good morning! How the nighttime flew!
Now, may I hang around with you?

HORSES
Nose to nose, hip to hip,
ours is a stable relationship.

EARTHWORMS
We’re perfect together, I guarantee
that I dig you and you dig me.

Reading Rockets: A video interview with Marilyn Singer

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“Marilyn Singer has written all kinds of great books for children and young adults — picture books, fairy tales, mysteries, non-fiction, and novels — but poetry is her favorite. Singer is on a mission to “knock poetry off its pedestal” and to introduce kids to the pleasing rhythms and powerful emotion of poems, but also to encourage kids to express themselves through verse.”

What Is a Short Story?

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At the time I compiled this, I had edited two collections of short stories: STAY TRUE: Short Stories for Strong Girls (Scholastic) and I BELIEVE IN WATER: Twelve Brushes with Religion (HarperCollins). Contributors to these two anthologies and several editors from different publishing houses attempted to answer this perennial question.

Marilyn Singer

“The Magic Bow” (Stay True) “Fabulous Shoes” (I Believe in Water)

A short story is, in some ways, like a photograph–a captured moment of time that is crystalline, though sometimes mysterious, arresting, though perhaps delicate. But while a photo may or may not suggest consequences, a short story always does. In the story’s moment of time something important, something irrevocable has occurred. The change may be subtle or obvious, but it is definite and definitive.

In addition, while it is the audience that supplies the backstory for a photo, it is the writer who must give the audience a beginning, middle, and end of a short story. Without that structure, the piece is not a short story at all but a scene, a vignette, a fragment–evocative, yes, but not emotionally or psychologically satisfying.

Gregory Maguire

“Chatterbox” (I Believe in Water)

About twenty years ago I heard someone say that if the novel was a feature film, the short story was a snapshot. I liked that, as a snapshot itself, but when asked to comment, I add that the short story, to me, is a blurred snapshot by an incompetent chronicler, who cannot be trusted as a novelist should be. But the blur, the things one can’t see but can only infer, has implications, too: of movement, of cause and effect outside the range of the print. The snapshot catches a moment in time, but the blur proposes an extension beyond the margins. Emotional, spiritual, psychological, as well as (one hopes) narrative and event.

Jacqueline Woodson

“On Earth” (I Believe in Water)

For myself a short story is fiction that is more immediate and urgent than a novel. I think of it cinematically–the camera zooming in on this one climactic moment, then pulling back on either side of the moment to show all that leads up to and comes after it.

Donna Bray

Editor at HarperCollins, Balzer & Bray

A short story is like the illumination of a match. All the details have to work toward that illumination.

Peni Griffin

“The Truth in the Case of Eliza Mary Muller, By Herself” (Stay True)

A character whose conflict is resolved in under 10,000 words preferably, in the modern market, in under 5,000.

I’m sure your audience would like something more poetic, but there are so many right ways to write a short story that only technical definitions are really useful. Without the character/conflict element, it’s not a story it’s a mood piece, a joke, a vignette, an essay, or maybe a prose poem.

Jennifer Armstrong

“The Statue of Liberty Factory” (Stay True); “The Martyrdom of Monica MacAllister” (I Believe in Water)

A short story is only one of many narrative structures. We create narrative with jokes, ballads, tales, novels, poems, anecdotes, etc. The short story form has been opened up dramatically with experimentation in adult venues, but remains very true to its traditional European roots in children’s and young adult venues. While there are many satisfactions to be found in the conventional beginning-middle-end narrative that is common in short fiction for kids, I believe young readers can respond to many other forms of short narrative. I await the kind of creative fiddling in this form that I’ve seen in novels by writers such as Avi, Karen Hesse, Virginia Euwer Woolf, Walter Dean Myers, etc. So, my answer is that the short story, when we talk about juvenile literature, is a traditionally plotted narrative, which rises to a climactic denouement and resolves in fifteen pages or less.

Virginia Euwer Wolff

“Religion: From the Greek Re Legios, to Re-Link” (I Believe in Water)

I’ve tended to tell my literature students that a short story is probably under 80 pages. (The Old Man and the Sea, clocking in at 94 pages, cannot be a short story; it explores in greater breadth and depth the potential meanings of that fishing trip than a short story could probably do.)

My favorite short story, Nikolai Gogol’s “The Overcoat,” is 32 densely-packed pages in one of my Gogol books.

Easier–of course–to say what a short story is not. It is usually not a profound character study. And it is usually not a one-liner stretched thin like bubble gum. There are the temporal unities, too. See Aristotle.

When I reach my arms way out to my sides and then bend them upward, I can encompass a short story, even such fine, analysis-defying works as Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” or Eudora Welty’s “A Piece of News.” But with my arms in that position I can’t possibly reach around Uncle Tom’s Cabin or War and Peace or David Copperfield.

I’d suggest that the richness of a short story is what may come back to us in car-stopping flashes, weeks or years later, whereas the richness of a novel is the kind that never truly leaves us.

But it’s important to add, too, that short stories can change lives as surely as novels can. J.D. Salinger’s “For Esme, with Love and Squalor” added dimensions to the lives of kids of my generation in ways that the great novels did not. I believe that that story and Gogol’s “The Overcoat” are two of the things that let me know in some utterly pre-verbal way that I’d be a writer someday. (If I’d known how to say the words out loud, no one would have believed me.)

M.E. Kerr

“Guess Who’s Back in Town, Dear?” (Stay True); “Grace” (I Believe in Water)

The biggest difference, to my mind, between a short story and a novel is that after you’ve finished a short story, you and your life haven’t changed.

I think a short story is usually about one thing, and a novel about many… A short story is like a short visit to other people, a novel like a long journey with others.

Marian Bray

“The Pale Mare” (Stay True)

Short stories are like Quarter horse racing. Bang! Out of the starting gate as fast as possible and across the finish line before the audience can assemble their thought. The story blindly races forward. But, the author, the horse trainer, has trained very hard ahead of time.
Novels are like Thoroughbred racing. The starting gate snaps open and they’re off, but with more style and grace and planning. Those longer races take a lot of mental grit during the race.

Matt Rosen

Editor, formerly at HarperCollins

The short story is hard to define well. I remember reading a collection of short stories by Jack London, at around age eight, and what thrilled me about some of those stories was not just the fast-paced action and exotic, though not impenetrable, locales, but their digestibility. I could go to bed feeling like I’d completed a whole adventure-very satisfying for just a half-hour of reading. However, what I think I liked the most about them was the fact that there was always something left to the imagination. I valued the room that the author had left for me, the reader, to explore.

Drew Lamm

“Stay True” (Stay True)

A short story is a story that I don’t get or is too short when I do get it and I’m into it! I have never liked them! They bug me. Either I don’t get them and I feel like a kid in school unable to figure out the hidden meanings or I’m totally into it and can’t bear to have it end so soon with so many possible pathways untrod. Like being given only three delicious potato chips out of a whole bag! (For sweet lovers that would be only one lick of an ice-cream cone!)

Sharyn November

Editor, Viking Penguin

A short story collection is the literary equivalent of a Whitman’s Sampler. The reader pokes around to see what’s interesting — reads some stories the way you’d snap up the Truffle or Caramel, flips past others the way you’d put back the Bad Mint Cocoanut Swirl. A short story is bite-sized. Like good chocolate, it’s intense. It’s long enough to make you care about the characters — but it resolves in a way that’s satisfying, rather than seeming unfinished or overdone.

Andrea Davis Pinkney

“Building Bridges” (Stay True)/Editor, Scholastic

A short story is like a good meal–it gives you flavor and just enough to chew on, but leaves you completely satisfied.

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BEST NEW SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS FOR YOUNG ADULTS

Compiled by YA specialist Patty Campbell, who writes “The Sand in the Oyster,” a regular feature about young adult books, for The Horn Book.

Story, n. – A narrative, commonly untrue.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

·    Dirty Laundry: Stories about Family Secrets, Lisa Rowe Faustino, ed. Viking, 1998, Eleven original stories by acclaimed young adult writers like Graham Salisbury, Chris Crutcher, and M.E. Kerr. (J, S)

·    Doing Time: Notes from the Undergrad by Rob Thomas. Simon & Schuster, 1997; Aladdin, 1999. Ten stories by this popular author about high school seniors who meet epiphanies while doing required community service hours. (S)

·    From One Experience to Another, M. Jerry Weiss and Helen S. Weiss, eds. Forge, 1997; Forge, 1999. Avi, Joan Bauer, Joan Lowery Nixon, Susan Beth Pfeffer, Virginia Euwer Wolff and other YA authors share real-life experiences through fiction. (S)

·    Ghost Town: Seven Ghostly Stories by Joan Lowery Nixon. Delacorte, 2000.
Mysterious tales based on actual western ghost towns. (M)

·    Gone From Home by Angela Johnson. DK Ink, 1998. Twelve poignant vignettes on loss and abandonment, courage and tenderness, by the winner of the 1994 Coretta Scott King Award. (M, J)

·    Help Wanted: Short Stories about Young People and Work, Anita Silvey, ed. Little, Brown, 1997. These twelve stories by authors such as Michael Dorris, Ray Bradbury, and Judith Ortiz Cofer deal with an important rite of passage for teens-the first job. (J, S)

·    I Believe in Water: Twelve Brushes with Religion, Marilyn Singer, ed. HarperCollins, 2000. A dozen well-known YA authors craft stories from a wide variety of spiritual traditions. (J, S)

·    Kissing Tennessee and Other Stories from the Stardust Dance by Kathi Appelt. Harcourt, 2000. Touching stories about the lives of the kids at the Dogwood Junior High School dance. (J)

·    Leaving Home, Hazel Rochman and Darlene Z. McCampbell, eds. Harper, 1997; Harper, 1998, pbk. Fifteen distinguished authors like Amy Tan, Sandra Cisneros, and Toni Morrison explore personal journeys. (S)

·    Lord of the Fries and Other Stories by Tim Wynne-Jones. DK Ink, 1999. Fast food for the imagination by this master of quirky little tales. (M, J)

·    No Easy Answers: Short Stories about Teenagers Making Tough Choices, Donald R. Gallo, ed. Delacorte,1997; Laurel-Leaf, 1999. Sixteen short stories by YA authors about teens facing hard ethical and moral dilemmas. (J, S)

·    Odder Than Ever by Bruce Coville. Harcourt, 1999. Outlandish stories from a witty SF author, including the delicious title story from Am I Blue? in which the world is in for some surprises when everyone gay turns blue for 24 hours. (J)

·    On the Edge: Stories at the Brink, Lois Duncan, ed. Simon & Schuster, 2000. The queen of YA suspense brings together some literary and psychological cliffhangers. (M, J)

·    145th Street Stories by Walter Dean Myers. Delacorte, 2000. A YA master writer tells us about the folks who live on one block in Harlem. (J, S)

·    Petty Crimes by Gary Soto. Harcourt, 1998. Stories from life on the hard streets of the barrio. (M, J)

·    Places I Never Meant to Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers, Judy Blume, ed. Simon & Schuster, 1999. YA writers who have been under attack each contribute a story and comment on how it feels to be censored. (J, S)

·    Stay True: Short Stories for Strong Girls, Marilyn Singer, ed. Scholastic, 1998; Scholastic, 1999, pbk. Stand on your own two feet and act on your convictions! say these short tales. (J, S)

·    Time Capsule: Short Stories about Teenagers Throughout the Twentieth Century, Donald R. Gallo, ed. Delacorte, 1999. In this eighth collection by an award-winning editor each of ten YA authors–Bruce Brooks, Richard Peck, Chris Lynch, and other YA luminaries–draw a story from one decade of the century. (J, S)

·    Tomorrowland: Stories about the Future, Michael Cart, ed. Scholastic, 1999. Lois Lowry, Katherine Paterson, Jacqueline Woodson, and other distinguished YA writers explore the future in ten short stories. (M, J)

·    Twelve Shots: Outstanding Short Stories about Guns, Harry Mazer, ed. Delacorte, 1997; Laurel-Leaf, 1998. Stories drawn from the way we are with guns in the real world, by Walter Dean Myers, Richard Peck, Rob Thomas, and eight others. (J, S)

·    With All My Heart With All My Mind: Thirteen Stories About Growing Up Jewish, Sandy Asher, ed. Simon & Schuster, 1999. The cultural and religious traditions of Judaism provide a rich inspiration for these YA authors. (J, S

·    Working Days: Short Stories about Teenagers at Work, Anne Mazer, ed. Persea, 1997, pbk. Fifteen stories about teens in a variety of work situations. (J, S)

·    Zebra and Other Stories by Chaim Potok. Knopf, 1998. Stories of teen struggles against the adult world’s rules and regulations, by the distinguished author of The Chosen. (J, S)

KEY: M (middle school); J (junior high); S (senior high)

 

What Makes a Good Poem?

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In 2002, I asked a group of authors, editors, and other book people this question. Here are their responses, along with some of their recommended titles.

A poem is a communication from one soul to another that makes one or both hearts sing.

Walter Mayes. Valerie & Walter’s Best Books For Children: A Lively, Opinionated Guide. Avon, 1998.

What is a good poem?
A good poem is a slip-of-a-thing
that celebrates language, that takes
you on a short journey and touches your heart,
turns on your imagination, or tickles your funny-
bone somewhere along the way.

Nikki Grimes. A Pocketful of Poems. Clarion, 2001. Danitra Brown Leaves Town. HarperCollins, 2002.

A good poem is a blind date with enchantment.
Above all, no matter what its subject matter,
it must possess perfect verbs and no superfluous
words. It must be an antidote to indifference.
The acid test is that you want to read it time and
time again, and not only to yourself. A good poem
begs to be shared with others.

J. Patrick Lewis. Freedom Like Sunlight: Praisesongs for Black Americans. Creative Editions, 2001. A World of Wonders: Geographic Travels in Verse and Rhyme. Penguin Putnam/Dial, 2002.

When I think of a good poem :

Many things come to mind but a few specifically: A good poem makes you feel like you’ve been there before, or want to go. A good poem takes you to the city, to the sea, to the heart of any and all matters; you see it, taste it, belong to it. A good poem is a menagerie of craft; a spinning of sound, word choice, alliteration, rhythm and often rhyme. A good poem is the arrangement of enchantment, or as J. Patrick Lewis says, a blind date with enchantment.

Rebecca Kai Dotlich. Lemonade Sun and Other Summer Poems. Boyds Mills, 1998. When Riddles Come Rumbling: Poems to Ponder. Boyds Mills, 2001.

What makes a good poem? Brevity, terseness, spareness, viewing something new for the very first time, creating an image like no one has ever been blown away by before in their entire life.

Lee Bennett Hopkins. Pass the Poetry, Please, 3rd Edition. HarperCollins, 1998. My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States. Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Love and care for elemental details, for chosen words and their simple arrangement on the page… and a way of ending that leaves a new resonance or a lit spark in the reader or listener’s mind—that’s part of it.

Naomi Shihab Nye. Come with Me: Poems for a Journey. Greenwillow, 2000. 19 Varieties of Gazelle. Greenwillow, 2002.

A good poem creates a world that somehow touches the reader. That world is built of images that come to the reader through vivid sense details and the music of vivacious language.

Paul Janeczko. A Poke in the I. Candlewick, 2001. Seeing the Blue Between: Advice and Inspiration for Young Poets. Candlewick, 2002.

For me, good poems, ones that I like to read over and over, can bring delight in many ways. Wit, word-play, unexpectedness of word and thought, depth of feeling, word-music, vivid images, the shape of the poem on the page, all bring me joy.

I think poetry should come from the heart of the writer—whether it is light and funny or deeply-felt. Caring—about the subject, the emotion, the act of making the poem—is, I believe, essential.

It seems to me a good poem can rhyme or not rhyme, use similes and metaphors or not, be metrical or free, be as complex as a Shakespeare sonnet or as seemingly simple as a statement by William Carlos Williams. It can be anything the writer wants it to be—as long as it reflects true feeling. And that “feeling” can be just the joy of using words!

Strong, accurate, interesting words, well-placed, make the reader feel the writer’s emotion and intentions. Choosing the right words—for their meaning, their connotations, their sounds, even the look of them, makes a poem memorable. The words become guides to the feelings that lie between the lines. Just-right words make the poem reverberate—and give the reader the joyful shivers!

Patricia Hubbell. Black Earth, Gold Sun. Marshall Cavendish, 2001. City Kids. Marshall Cavendish, 2001.

“Prose = words in their best order; Poetry = the best words in their best order”—Coleridge said it, and I believe it. Poetry IS about words—their precision, texture, beauty (and ugliness). Prose is about words, too, but not in the same way. Prose is about the bigger picture. The canvas is bigger and so are the brushstrokes. A good poem, whether narrated by a character or by the poet her/himself, uses words wonderfully, and it uses them to capture specific moments in a fresh way, a way that makes the reader exclaim with delight, “Yes, that’s it! That’s right!”

A good poem may also ask philosophical questions. In its condensed form, poetry gives these questions an immediacy, a great power to startle and grab the imagination. Poetry is great for asking—and sometimes answering—those questions that come to you just as you’re falling asleep.

Marilyn Singer. Footprints on the Roof: Poems About the Earth. Knopf, 2002. The Company of Crows. Clarion, 2002.

A good poem surprises your senses, shakes you awake, stirs your emotions, and startles your imagination. Each poem is an act of discovery. Poetry helps us widen our vision and our hearts.

Joan Bransfield Graham. Splish Splash. Houghton Mifflin, 1994. Flicker Flash. Houghton Mifflin, 1999.

A good poem awakens the senses, allowing me to see, touch, experience something in a powerful way.

A good poem makes the ordinary and familiar seem extraordinary.

Michele Coppola, former editor, Dutton Books

Personally, I’d say a good poem makes me see something in a new way. It’s fresh and eye-opening. And it’s also compact and intense. One of my favorite quotes about poetry is this one from Arnold Adoff: “I really want a poem to sprout roses and spit bullets; this is the ideal combination…” I think it’s partly the compactness of a poem that, if the poet has a strong vision and command of language, will let it both “sprout roses and spit bullets” at the same time. A good poem doesn’t waste words; it uses them sparingly and meaningfully.

Rebecca Davis, editor, Greenwillow/HarperCollins

A poem for children—what makes it good? Perhaps it comes down to an original voice saying something that sounds almost as if we had never heard it before. Rhythm is the skeleton that holds a poem together, so a strong but still interesting rhythm pleases the ear and tongue. Rhyme, if it is not old tired rhyme, can be funny, explosive or just a neat way of completing a thought in a poem for the young.

Rhyme is also great for reading aloud, and some attention needs to be devoted to the sounds of the words themselves. Last, or possibly first, is the thought, idea, that centerpiece around which the poem is built. Maybe I can boil my answer down to sense and song, a helping of each. And always new and therefore a little surprising.

Karla Kuskin. Dogs and Dragons, Trees and Dreams. HarperCollins, 1980. Moon, Have You Met My Mother? HarperCollins, 2003.

A good poem captures a certain moment, or memory, like a “word photograph.” In one quick reading, hardly more than a glance, a poem can give us a reminder of how Uncle Al never learned to use chopsticks, of how it feels to breathe water, like a fish, in a dream, of how a mother uses her hand to shield a baby’s eyes. A good poem is a photograph capturing the most forgettable and the most unforgettable moments in our lives.

Janet S. Wong. Behind the Wheel: Poems About Driving. McElderry/S&S, 1999. Night Garden: Poems from the World of Dreams. McElderry/S&S, 2000.

A poet is a little like a photographer who shoots a subject from an unexpected angle. Even when its subject has been written about many times (how many new subjects are there?), poetry invites you to consider it from a new perspective. The language a good poem uses is similarly fresh, surprising, memorable—a flavor that lingers on the tongue.

Alice Schertle. A Lucky Thing. Harcourt, 1999. I Am The Cat. HarperCollins/Lothrop, 1999.

I think a good poem is like a vitamin. It’s an encapsulation of a feeling, an image, a new relationship. Packed with energy, it might be playful or serious, but a good poem is always nourishing.

Bobbi Katz. We the People. Greenwillow, 2000. A Rumpus of Rhymes: A Book of Noisy Poems. Dutton, 2001.

Answering that question is like cooking calamari: either do it in five seconds or for five hours.

Any short (or even long) answer to what’s a good poem worries me, as it begs other questions: good for whom? good for when? good for what? I love poems to know and say to myself, silly poems to read once and giggle over, poems that touch my soul even if they hover outside my rational understanding. Of course, there are matters of form, meter, rhyme, scansion, but all the mechanics can only enhance and facilitate a thought, a feeling, an expression of being that needs to be articulated.

So, I don’t know any recipe for a good poem, only a taste test: does it touch someone, sometime, somehow? Then, it will be savored by that person and nourish him or her.

Judy O’Malley, editor, Charlesbridge Press.

There are at least a hundred different ways to respond to that question. Like a good poem, it says more in a few words than some novels do in three hundred pages.

But, here’s a thought I had recently about poetry:

A good poem is like medicine. It can be made up of almost anything, but only when its ingredients are put together in the right proportions–neither too much nor too little—can it affect your life.

Taking that medicine analogy even further, just a little dose of good poetry is sometimes all you need to be helped and even healed.

This, of course, ties into some very old ideas. My Abenaki ancestors said that words have power, that a song can be medicine, can restore balance, can bring back joy after sorrow. Words of power make things happen. Good poems touch that sort of power.

Joseph Bruchac. No Borders. Holy Cow! Press, 1999. Above the Line. West End Press, 2003.

By a good poem, I take it that you mean a great poem. Like “Ode to a Nightingale” or “Howl” or etc…

I think a great poem touches through all layers of existence and does it singingly.

Liz Rosenberg. Children of Paradise. University of Pittsburgh, 1994. These Happy Eyes. Mammoth Books, 2001.

A good poem stays with me.

I like the way it hangs out somewhere in the back of my mind coming to the front on occasion to remind me it’s there: “‘You are old, Father William,’ the young man said…”

It leaves me an image: Robert Frost is icy blue and white.

It turns words around, letting me see them from a different angle: e.e. cummings.

Valerie Lewis. Valerie & Walter’s Best Books For Children: A Lively, Opinionated Guide. Avon, 1998.

The most simple way I define what poetry is to children is: A poem is a picture made of words.

Good poems can tell us what we already know in our bones but had never seen or heard or even put into words before. For a poem to be good it needs the element of surprise. That comes to the reader both in content, line break, sound, and voice. You read the opening line, are carried (or jolted) to the last line, and then wonder, how did I get here? There you are standing in this new place but feeling that, yes, you too, belong here.

A good poem is like a simply wrapped package that appears unremarkable at first glance. Until you read it. Then stars glow where there was never light before. Something sparkles. It might be you. It might be the dark. It might be the woman two rows ahead of you on the bus.

Good poetry gives us ourselves as if we’ve never had who we were before. It also gives us each other, shortens the gap between one and another. And good poems give us the world as if for the first time.

A fine poem needs mystery too; it doesn’t say everything. If you were to compare a poem to a simple math equation, say 1 + 1 = 2, then a poem is butterfly + jagged scar = his warm breath on your neck. It’s another way of knowing that makes perfect sense, but not logical, linear, rational sense. It’s the way the heart knows, and the soul, the logic of dreams. It’s how we know when we love or when we are afraid.

Poetry works on us not only through content but through sound. And for a poem to be well written it must remember that element as well. It needs to sound right. There’s not just one right sound, but many, and each poem has its own that needs to be incorporated in order to be a thing of strength and beauty.

Patrice Vecchione. Writing & the Spiritual Life: Finding Your Voice by Looking Within. Contemporary/McGraw-Hill, 2001. Truth & Lies. Holt, 2001.

First, I’ll mention that I consider a poem “good” if it stays with me; a memory of the words, images, feelings, or ideas will nudge me hours or even days later. “Great” poems are ones I somehow know I’ll remember all of my life. For me, this singular magic happens when I sense that the poet wrote deeply and with great care about a strong emotion. Good poems, as well as great poems, vibrate with a passion and energy that can’t be forgotten or ignored.

Kristine O’Connell George. Toasting Marshmallows: Camping Poems. Clarion, 2001. Little Dog and Duncan. Clarion, 2002.

When I have my editor’s hat on and I’m choosing selections for an anthology, I look for poems with energy but focus, poems with emotional weight, poems that tickle me with their word play and cleverness, poems that delight me in the way that structure and words have meshed, or poems whose content makes my mind tingle. When I’m writing my own poetry, I would love to incorporate all of these at once!

Betsy Franco. You Hear Me? Candlewick Press, 2000. Things I Have to Tell You. Candlewick Press, 2001.

Assuming that all the technical things are done right, I guess the hallmarks of a good poem are a combination of freshness of vision—seeing the world in a new or unusual way, and being able to convey that to the reader—-as well as a fresh and unique use of language.

Beyond that, it’s all in the eye of the beholder, or reader, in this case.

Judy Whipple, former editor, Marshall Cavendish

I want poetry that children can understand, that helps them to see something in a new way.
I like surprise endings that take their breath away or make them say,”Oh, that’s the way it is.”
I like poems that tell stories. I like poems with fascinating word play or words that jingle and bounce or words that ask a riddle.

A good poem for children is a poem children love.

Bee Cullinan, Consulting Editor, Wordsong, poetry imprint of Boyds Mills Press. Easy Poetry Lessons that Dazzle and Delight, with David Harrison. Scholastic, 1999. Literature and the Child, 5th Edition, with Lee Galda. Wadsworth, 2002.

What makes a good poem? A good poet.

X. J. Kennedy. An Introduction to Poetry, 10th edition, with Dana Gioia. Longman 2002. Exploding Gravy: Poems to Make You Laugh. Little, Brown, 2002.

My answer to your question comes in part from a poem of mine called “What Is A Poem?”

Hard work.
Emotion surprised.
Throwing a colored shadow.
A word that doubles back on itself, not once but twice.
The exact crunch of carrots.
Precise joys.
A prayer that sounds like a curse until it is said again.
Crows punctuating a field of snow.
Hard work.

Jane Yolen. Take Joy: A Book for Writers. Kalmbach/The Writer Press, 2003. Wild Wings. Boyds Mills, 2002.

No More Piranhas!: Editors’ Thoughts on Conferences

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Published in Children’s Writers and Illustrators Market, 2003

Have you heard the one about the editor at a writer’s conference? She’d been “on” for hours and was enjoying a much-needed moment of privacy in the bathroom. Then, from the adjacent stall, came an eager voice. “Hi,” it said. “I’m so happy to finally meet you. Let me tell you about this picture book I’ve written…”

Truth or urban legend? Well, maybe a bit of both. But the fact is with more and more publishing houses closing transoms to unsolicited manuscripts and more and more “pre-published” writers desperate for entrée, this kind of story isn’t far-fetched. Only slightly less dramatic stories have been verified, and they demonstrate the real frustration editors have with conferences. Because of these tales, I decided to ask a number of editors what they like and dislike about these events. It’s my hope that both writers and organizers will benefit from their responses.

The Ambush

All editors expect to receive queries and manuscripts after a conference. They welcome the opportunity to discover new authors and material. But there isn’t an editor alive who likes to be accosted immediately after a presentation or during a lunch break. Several editors have likened this onslaught to a “feeding frenzy.” They say that some writers even foist manuscripts or portfolios on them. As Melanie Donovan of HarperCollins says the ambush “is more likely to hurt rather than help an author’s chances of getting published and manuscripts stand more chance of being mislaid than if they were submitted via the usual means.”

Translation: writers should make pitches and send manuscripts via traditional mail. At the conference, an editor will supply an address and any necessary instructions (writing “SCBWI attendee,” for example, on the envelope) so that the query or work will arrive safely. A conference moderator may want to repeat these instructions-or, better yet, put them in a hand-out for attendees to take home.

The New York Minute

Many editors will critique manuscripts during a conference. Critiquing is another good way to discover writers and to show them what immediately grabs an editor. But because these critiques are so brief, all an editor can really give is a first impression. Stephanie Lurie of Dutton, says one of her pet peeves is when “people expect to have an in-depth discussion of a manuscript they brought along or submitted recently.”

Atheneum’s Ginee Seo once got hate mail in response to such a New York minute critique: “Anonymously, of course, so I had no way of letting the poor person understand that what s/he witnessed was really NOT editing. Editing is not about negativity-it’s about trying to figure out why something isn’t working. But, of course, in a public forum it’s hard not to take any kind of criticism personally.”

Perhaps the critiques should be confined to smaller conferences where editors can have prescheduled one-on-one sessions. The danger with these-with conferences, period-is over-scheduling. Editors and other speakers have sometimes been run ragged with critiques, panels, speeches, etc. Good pacing is a must. In addition, Judy O’Malley of Cricket Books suggests giving the speaker a “‘keeper’ who runs interference, plays time-keeper for critiquing sessions, makes sure I get time to eat and even a break here and there, a cup of coffee, water, etc. This can really help…Pacing the schedule and giving speakers that bit of TLC can mean that more authors/editors/agents who really do value these opportunities to interact with writers and illustrators can do it more often, and more sanely. ”

The Quick Fix

Everyone agrees that a good panel or Q&A session is invigorating. Editors enjoy thinking about and discussing a wealth of important topics related to children’s books, especially with, as Greenwillow’s Rebecca Davis puts it, “people who are passionate about the subject.” “I love Q & A time,” says Harold Underdown of ipicturebooks.com, “especially when people aren’t censoring their questions. I remember being on a panel of editors in Philly and getting asked, ‘What do editors really think of agents?’ This prompted nervous laughter and a great discussion.”

A good discussion can be made even better when the moderator is talented. As Timothy Travaglini of Walker Books suggests, “Audiences can be shy on occasion; they might not think of the right questions until days later; or they might never know exactly the right questions. A good moderator will not only broach new topics…but will ensure that the panelists cover everything that will be of the most use to the attendees.”

But what is truly useful and what the attendees want to know is not always the same thing. Some writers are really interested in perfecting their craft, and their questions demonstrate it. Others, unfortunately, are too concerned with format or are interested in the quick fix, and their questions reflect that: “Will colored paper catch your attention?; “Do you want things double-spaced, with one- or two-inch margins?”; “How many words should a novel be?”; “Do I need to use a fixed vocabulary for a picture book?”; “Do I need to hire an illustrator for a picture book?”; “What’s hot these days?”; “Are you interested in rhyming picture books?”; “How about a novel about a really stupid kid who time travels back to the Gold Rush and strikes oil instead?”

The answers to many of these questions can be found in numerous books about children’s writing or on the Internet (for example, check the FAQ, written by Anne LeMieux, David Lubar, and myself, on my website). As for the “Tell me what you want, what you really, really want” type of questions, editors tend to give the same response over and over: I want something great.”

Prior to going to conferences, writers need to do their homework. They need to learn about format and something about the industry, about what a publishing house actually publishes and how it works. They should also spend some time finding out what types of books different editors edit by researching the editors on the Internet (hint: search for the editor’s name, in quotes, and a keyword such as “editor” or “books”). The conference hand-out should also list what types of books editors do or don’t publish (example: “Betsy Blue Pencil edits picture books and middle-grade novels, but not YA or poetry. She is partial to realistic or historical fiction and dislikes fantasy.”). After learning these basics, writers are free to focus on the essence of writing: craft. Stephanie Lurie has actually met folks who want to know how to get published, but haven’t yet written a thing. “I think conferences should concentrate more on technique and less on the pot o’ gold at the end of the rainbow,” she says.

The Center of the Universe

How can writers develop their technique? By reading good books, by writing a lot, and by learning from good teachers. Most editors feel that the best teachers are not editors, but established authors. Conferences used to feature stellar line-ups of these, but now the emphasis is increasingly upon Editor as Idol – a situation that doesn’t please the Idol her/himself. As Scholastic’s Dianne Hess put it, “I don’t deny that it’s important to have small doses of business people. But this is putting the cart before the horse. The real bottom line of publishing is being able to publish great writers. And you can learn much more about how to write from other great writers than from listening to endless chatter about what publishers are looking for.”

Editors want to get off the pedestal! At conferences, they’d like to see more master classes, workshops, and critiques conducted by established authors and attended by serious-minded writers. “We aren’t the center of the universe,” says Harold Underdown.

And it’s true. Editors are not gods. Sometimes, they even need to use the bathroom – preferably in private.

Frequently Asked Questions about Children’s Writing

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Q: How long is a picture book?

A: The number of words is not the crucial issue. Books range from several words to several thousand (compare Goodnight Moon to The Polar Express). More important is whether or not your book READS like a picture book–succinct, musical, pictorial. A key issue is the fact that picture books are 32 pages (storybooks, which are often fairy or folk tales, are sometimes 48 pages). Leaving space for titles, copyright, etc., your manuscript should break naturally into 28 to 30 pages, or 14-15 “spreads.” Some publishers appreciate authors “dummying” their manuscript–breaking the text into these spreads. Each page should be a “scene.” This is a useful exercise because it shows you whether or not the text has drama and is illustratable.

Q: How long is a middle-grade or young adult novel?

A: As long as it needs to be–mostly. Granted, it might be a bit tougher to sell a story that is especially long or short, but it is even tougher, if not impossible, to sell a book that has been padded or chopped for the sake of hitting a preselected length. A book can be shorter than Sarah, Plain and Tall, or longer than Hitty, Her First Hundred Years. The typical range is 35-65 pages for a chapter book, 45-90 for a low-middle-grade, 90-120 for a middle-grade, 150-250 for a young, young adult, but these are just averages. If you have questions about specific series of books, do some research–read the books, check the catalogues, contact the publisher, etc.

Q: Should I send illustrations with my manuscript?

A: Not unless you are a professional artist. In general, the industry believes that only a rank amateur submits someone else’s art with a picture-book manuscript. A few rare folks have done this and succeeded, but most have not. If a publisher accepts your manuscript, your editor will choose the illustrator. There is NEVER a need for you to hire one.

Q: Is there a good vocabulary list for beginning readers?

A: Some writers and editors think the concept of restricted vocabulary is abominable and most trade publishers do not require a fixed vocabulary. One of the best ways for children to learn new words is by reading them. As long as the difficult words can be understood in context or through other clues, there is no reason not to challenge the reader a bit.

Q: Should I write my picture book in rhyme?

A: It often seems to writers that children love rhyme–and publishers don’t. The truth is that good rhyme is extremely hard to write. Publishers are flooded with bad rhyme. If you can write brilliant verse, you’ve got a chance. If you can’t, chances are you don’t.

Q: What if my story needs a scene about sex, death, etc.?

A: Don’t throw anything in just to flout standards or to shock the reader. But if a scene is true to your story and necessary, put it in. Older YA novels are generally more appropriate for sophisticated scenes. Bear in mind that the response is not always something you can expect. A scene that worries you might be met without comment, while something you perceive as totally innocent can draw an adverse reaction.

Q: What do I put in a cover letter?

A: Keep it simple. Introduce yourself, mention other things you’ve published or a few appropriate credentials (NOT a resume), include the title of the manuscript you’re submitting and, if you wish, a very brief description (“a middle-grade novel about a boy with a problematic nose”) and any special information (“an interactive non-fiction work that could include gatefolds and scratch-and-sniff panels”). Publishers do not want a shopping list of your other manuscripts–just choose one (two at most) and send it.

Q: What do I put in a query letter?

A: Some publishers want advance queries about novels or non-fiction, but rarely about picture books. Other publishers are not interested in advance queries at all. They want you to send the novel or non-fiction book (or proposal), period.  Agents usually do want query letters to see if they’re interested in reading the entire manuscript.  Think of a query letter as a sales pitch.  Be succinct, but intriguing. Include the title and type of manuscript, the number of pages and a short, compelling description. You should also include your credentials. Many publishers and agents prefer a chapter or two with a query letter as well. The publishers and agents will then decide if they want to read the rest of your book.

Q: What goes into a proposal?

A: A proposal is a way of trying to get a contract without writing the whole book. It is generally for a non-fiction book. It consists of a few chapters or spreads and an outline of the rest of the book. Some publishers will consider a non-fiction proposal instead of the whole book. A proposal for a novel may include anywhere from three to six chapters and a synopsis of the remainder of the book. Fewer publishers will consider a proposal for a novel unless you’ve already published with them. For a series proposal, you may usually send one complete book and synopses for others in the series.

Q: How about a fancy presentation?

A: Forget it. A leopard skin cover is more likely to turn off the editor than turn him/her on. Likewise, how you mail the manuscript will not impress the publisher–although, if it’s by FedEx or UPS it may get the work there faster.

Q: How do I know where to send my manuscript?

A: Go to libraries and bookstores and send for publishers’ catalogues. Check out their web sites. Visit the Children’s Book Council web site (www.cbcbooks.org/) and look at the Members list. If you join the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (www.scbwi.org), you can get a PDF or hard copy of “The Book,” which includes a complete list of publishers that tells you what they’re looking for and if they’re accepting unsolicited submissions. Attend conferences. Join listservs on the Net. Buy or take out of the library Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market and/or Literary Marketplace. Gather as much information as you can to learn where your book would make the best fit. Each publisher has a different submissions process, so you will need to research that, as well as their list. A publisher that produces mainly picture books about animals is probably not interested in a young-adult romance. Your book may be unique, but the publisher still has to be able to envision a marketing plan for it.

Q: Will my unsolicited manuscript be read?

A: Probably, if the publisher is accepting unsolicited manuscripts. Research this before you send out your work. Publishers sometimes employ readers and they definitely employ editorial assistants, so don’t expect that your work will necessarily be read by an editor, especially if you send it generically–to the “Children’s Book Dep’t”–or to the editor-in-chief, who rarely has time to read. If you meet an editor at a conference,  it’s wise to send your work directly to her/him.

Q: I sent my book in (unsolicited) two months ago and I haven’t heard a word. What should I do?

A: Only two months? Seriously, although a few publishers claim to have a turn-around time of thirty days, and more say two to three months, a growing number list four-six months in their guidelines. Believe or not, established authors often wait six months or more to hear from their editors. Publishers are not deliberately trying to hang on to your manuscripts. The increased turn-around time is due to swelling submissions, decreased staff and general overwork. Research the publisher to find out the projected turn-around time. If that time has passed and you still haven’t heard from the house, you can try the following: send e-mail, a self-addressed stamped postcard or envelope with a note asking whether or not the manuscript is still under consideration. Some writers send a check list on the postcard or return letter: Did my manuscript arrive? Is it still under consideration? Has it been returned? You can also try phoning to ask for a status report. Some publishers don’t mind a phone call; others would prefer a letter.  In general, these days you will hear from a publisher only if the publisher is interested in your manuscript.  You’re not likely to get said manuscript back.  If you receive no reply or if you are told something vague, you are free to send the manuscript elsewhere–if you haven’t already done so.

Q:  What about simultaneous submissions?

A: Some editors won’t look at simultaneous submissions. However, with the increased waiting time and the cutting of many lists, most will.  You may want to check beforehand, if possible. If you do submit to more than one publisher, the current ethical standard is that you inform each one that this is a simultaneous submission.  If you sell the book, it’s polite to let the other publishers know.

Q: Do I need an agent?

A: The juvenile area is one of the few places left where some publishers will look at material that doesn’t come from an agent. However, these days, many publishers will look only at agented submissions (or submissions from published authors). You can find out which will look at unagented or unsolicited material by regularly consulting the membership list at the Children’s Book Council web site or SCBWI’s The Book.   Editors will often read manuscripts submitted by attendees of conferences, particularly those held by the Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators.  Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America is a useful resource for finding an agent:  http://www.sfwa.org/real/  So does the Authors Guild, though you must be a member to access some of their articles:  https://www.authorsguild.org/member-services/writers-resource-library/all-about-literary-agents/.

Q: An agent has offered to read my book for a fee. Is this a good idea?

A: No, no, a thousand times no. Agents make their living selling books.

Q: An agent loved my book, and offered to make it even better for a
fee. Is this a good idea?

A: It’s a great idea for the agent. It’s a bad idea for the author.

Q: What about self-publishing my book?

A: Self-publishing is a tricky business. Even if you have the money to produce a book that reads and looks good enough to compete in today’s market, do you have the time to promote it? It is true that nowadays authors do have to put in some time in self-promotion, but the publishers still have reps that go to bookstores; they put ads in magazines, journals and newspapers; they produce a catalogue that is available nationwide; they have booths at ALA, NCTE, and countless other conventions. Ask yourself if you can do as good or better a marketing job before you consider self-publishing or you may face a basement full of boxes of unsold books. Bear in mind, too, that most self-published books do not get reviewed or receive awards. There are, however, a few success stories–books that sold well or led to other book sales. The choice, ultimately, is yours.

Q: I haven’t read any kids’ books recently, but they must be simple to write. Wouldn’t it be pretty easy to knock off a few while I’m learning to write real adult stuff?

A: #$%@@%#$%#!!!

Q: Can I make a lot of money doing this?

A: Who knows? If you become a writer to get rich, you’re probably doomed to grave disappointment. However, the possibility to live off your writing always exists. Just remember that if you sell a manuscript today, that book will most likely not be on the shelves for at least a year. Royalty statements arrive every six months after publication. You get to keep your advance no matter what (make sure that’s in your contract), but you will receive no royalties if the advance doesn’t earn out.  And once it is out, depending on its sales, it may not stay in print for long, meaning it may never earn out.

Q: Is there any easy way to break in?

A: Are you the boss’s son or daughter? Are you married to the boss’s son or daughter? Then maybe. Otherwise, the answer is a resounding no. Perseverance, timing, luck are all factors in what is currently a difficult market. We all like to think that good writing will always get published. Sadly, this is not always the case. But things run in cycles and the publishing business is no exception. Be persistent. Be smart. And write the best damn book you can!

Q: What about magazine markets?

A: Magazines are a great place to break in. Learn the basics of marketing. Some magazines buy all rights. That means you can never sell the story again unless you get the rights back. Some magazines pay on publication. That means you won’t be paid until your story appears in print. This could take a year or more.

Q: What about classes and critique groups?

A: A good idea. Harold Underdown has a list of them on his site.

Many colleges offer classes as well.

Q: I’m thinking about taking a correspondence course from the Institute for Children’s Literature. Does anyone know anything about them?

A: The organization is legitimate. Opinions on the value of the lessons varies.

Q: What is the SCBWI?

A: The Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators is a national organization for writers and artists. Anyone can join. The society publishes a newsletter and other resources, which members may obtain online. It is especially well-known for hosting conferences all around the country.

Q: Is there a good book on writing for children?

A: There are many, including:

How to Write a Children’s Book and Get It Published – Barbara Seuling

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Children’s Books – Harold Underdown and Lynne Rominger

It’s a Bunny-Eat-Bunny World– Olga Litowinsky

The ABC’s of Writing for Children – Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff

Writing for Young Adults – Sherry Garland

The Business of Writing for Children – Aaron Shepard

The Art of Writing for Children – Connie Epstein

A Sense of Wonder – Katherine Paterson

Writing for Children – Catherine Woolley

Writing for Children and Teenagers – Lee Wyndham

Writing Books for Young People – James Cross Giblin

Guide to Writing for Children – Jane Yolen

Writing Young Adult Novels – Hadley Irwin & Jeanette Eyerly

The Children’s Picture Book (How to write it and sell it) -Ellen M. Roberts

How to Write and Illustrate Children’s Books and Get them
Published – Bickwell and Trotman

Career Starter – Laura Backes and Jon Bard
(they also publish Children’s Book Insider; for subscription rates go to: https://writeforkids.org/about/)

Don’t restrict yourself to books on writing for children. A good writing book covering any area is worth reading. Some of the best are:

The Art of Fiction – John Gardner
On Becoming a Novelist – John Gardner
The Art of Dramatic Writing – Lajos Egri
Creating Unforgettable Characters – Linda Seger
A Writer’s Time – Kenneth Achity
The Writer’s Journey – Christopher Vogler
Writing for Story – Jon Franklin
The Elements of Style – Strunk & White
Writing Down the Bones – Natalie Goldberg
Plot Workshop and Character Workshop – Katherine Ploeger

Q: What are some useful web sites for children’s writers?

Children’s Literature Web Guide: https://wiki.ucalgary.ca/page/ChildrensLiteratureWebGuide.html

Harold Underdown’s site

Children’s Writing Resource Center from Children’s Book Insider

Susan Raab Associates

Children’s Book Council

SCBWI

Moira Allen’s Writing World

Children’s Literature

Cynthia Leitich Smith

 

The Former Children’s Writers Chat Gang:

Marilyn Singer–Host

Chuck Galey—Host
Joan Holub–Logger
Donna O’Donnell Figurski–Greeter and Host

Sue Avon –Greeter
David Lubar— FAQ Co-Author and Guest Host
Roland Smith —Founder and Host
Anne LeMieux–Founder and Host

The AOL
Children’s Writers Chat no longer exists, but we remember it with fondness.

This FAQ was written by Anne LeMieux (Swan522), David Lubar (DLubar) and Marilyn Singer (WriterBabe) for the AOL Children’s Writers Chat. Permission to reprint it is granted for non-profit use only, as long as credit is given.