Today, I do the first in a series of audiobook surveys of the vast frontier of awards from the grand ALA Youth Media Awards.  Read “Grounded for Life” here.

It was was with loud cheers and bright tears that children’s literature enthusiasts met the news that Melissa Sweet had won The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal for her visually stunning, playfully funny, and meticulously researched, Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade.

In honor of Melissa’s brilliant work and in memory of puppeteer Tony Sarg who she so lovingly portrays, readers around the country are making small donations to No Strings International, an incredible UK charity.

No Strings teams the wonderful talents of puppeteers from the original Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock with development aid specialists to create life-saving educational films for vulnerable children and communities around the world.

No Strings programs include peace building in Southeast Asia, gender equality and Aids awareness in Sub-Saharan Africa, landmine education in Afghanistan, and other amazing endeavors.

Say, “Hurrah!” for Melissa and the grand daddy of puppetry by making a wee donation.

You can also celebrate with the children in your circles by making puppets in the style of the grand Tong Sarg with Melissa Sweet’s puppet kit which can be downloaded here.

On entering the sound studio at Mind’s Eye Productions you are confronted with a pile of shoes (as producer and narrator Bill Dufris welcomes only those that tiptoe into the sound booth on stocking feet).

William Dufris, Mind's Eye Productions

Cowboy boots kicked off, striped tights hiked up, and my script in hand, I was ready to work on another book trailer audio with Bill and his merry band of voice actors.  Actor Brent Askari followed me in with his copy of the script (marked with all the inflections taught to him by his Italian friends and from hours spent watching interviews with Italian director, Roberto Benigni).

Voice Actors Brent Askari & Kate Davis

Brent was intrigued by the idea of book trailers both as an actor and as the author of the well received novel, Not Ready for Prime Time, that was thrown into the murky assignment of self promotion.  That a YouTube about a book is easier to encounter than the book itself, made perfect sense to him.

One hour later and much hilarity consumed, I walked out (NOT in another man’s shoes) with a MP3 ready to merge with artist Lois Rosio Sprague’s illustrations from The Sandal Artist.

With the storyboard I had laid out, my partner Mark Mattos (wearing Doc Martins) took over weaving sound and image until he exported the trailer you see above.

Curious City may not have “walked a mile in another man’s shoes” for a production, but many pairs of fine shoe-clad and fashionable folks from author Kathleen T. Pelley who approved our script based on her picture book to the art director at Pelican Publishing who exported Lois Rosio Sprague’s fine illustration to producer Willaim Dufris to actor Brent Askari to Curious City’s wizard Mark Mattos to my scribblings and storyboard’s in knee-high Vegan motorcycle boots…all walked and worked to get this small piece happily shod.

Authors Charlotte Bennardo & Natalie Zaman

In Greek myth, the Sirens were said to be impossible to resist.  I found the Sirenz creators to be equally tempting.

How is this for a first client meeting?  Pop to the front of the line of Alexander McQueen’s Savage Beauty show at the Met with a snap of author Natalie Zaman’s manicured hand and then off to Alice’s Tea Cup to nibble scones with Zaman and classy co-author Charlotte Bennardo.  We all had “The Nibble” (and were stuffed for a week).

Charlotte and Natalie write in the alternate voices of Shar and Meg, two modern teen girls whose momentary act of girlish greed land them in a contract with the Greek God of the Underworld, Hades.  The first book in the Sirenz series chronicles the girls’ fight to complete their assigned task (bring NYC’s top fashion designer down to Tartarus) while resisting the charms and temptations of a haute (and haughty, well and naughty) Hades.

Curious City envisioned a website/blog for the series where characters Shar and Meg could play out their love of fashion and their loathing of certain intruding Gods.  We built a WordPress site, www.the sirenz.com and made Shar, Meg, and Hades the site’s creators by creating fake user accounts for all three.

Where are the real authors in this scenario?  Together we built the backstory that “the contract” with Hades forbids Shar and Meg from telling the public about him.  The girls find a loophole, though.  They enlist two authors to spin the true tale of their Greek encounters as FICTION.  Bingo.  Now both the authors Charlotte & Natalie  and the characters Shar & Meg are real.

Authors Natalie Zaman and Charlotte Bernnardo have filled those blog/web pages beyond our wildest dreams inventing snippy hilarious conversations in the comment fields between Hades and his Sirenz, Meg and Shar.

Our recent outreach to YALSA Librarians about the series featured an invitation from Hades.  The god of bargains asked librarians what they wanted badly enough that they might be willing to spend just a single day as one of his Sirens.  The answers from librarians and follow-up quips from Hades have been delightful and devilish.

Lesson learned here?  A writer’s world does not and should not stop at the page.

Next up?  Feathers Haute or Not?  Comment on Shar and Meg’s text conversation and you might just win your own copy of Sirenz.

Let me clarify.  20 free copies of the new picture book 10 Turkeys in the Road (and clown noses) have hit the road and are headed to the winning libraries below thanks to Marshall Cavendish and author Brenda Sturgis.

Didn’t Win a Free Book?
No worries!  There are free story hour and classroom activities for 10 Turkeys in the Road on Brenda’s website!

And the Winners Are…
• Zeb Vance Elementary School, Kittrell, NC
• South Main Street School, Pleasantville NJ
• Milton Library, Rye, NY
• Dewey L. Carter Elementary School, Effingham, SC
• Aurora Academy Charter School, Aurora, CO
• Hawthorne Elementary LMC/REACH, Madison, WI
• Pebble Creek Elementary, College Station, TX
• St. Gabriel Consolidated School, Cincinnati, OH
• East Elementary, Minden, NE
• Israel Loring Elementary School, Sudbury, MA
• Patrick Henry Elementary School, Chicago, IL
• C. P. Smith School, Burlington, VT
• Villa Duchesne Library, Saint Louis, MO
• North Elementary, Prince George, VA
• The Gillispie School, La Jolla, CA
• Gray Public Library, Gray, ME
• Bedford Branch Library, Temperance, MI
• Kohrs Memorial Library, Deer Lodge, MT
• Brenda Higgins, Houlton, ME
• Long Lake Public Library, St. Agatha, ME

Congrats to the Kohrs Memorial Library in Deer Lodge, MT who will get 30 extra clown noses for Story Hour!

Life is, indeed a circus.

It is November and time to talk turkey.

Marshall Cavendish and author Brenda Sturgis are giving away 20 copies of their new picture book, 10 Turkeys in the Road as well as clown noses!  Clown noses and turkeys??

You have to see the hilarious book to imagine this combo.

“The turkey tableaux are deliriously silly…Slonim’s bright acrylics amp the loopiness of Sturgis’ verses. A cute combo sure to bring many smiles. –Kirkus Reviews

GIVEAWAY
Simply email your MAILING ADDRESS to giveaway@curiouscity.net to be entered to win!  One grand prize winner will get a book and 30 clown noses for story hour!

(Drawing on 11/11/11 at 11:11AM-hopefullt a lucky time for you!  Neither your email nor your address will be used for anything but this gobbling giveaway.)

FREE ACTIVITIES:
To create a silly story hour or classroom activity using 10 Turkeys in the Road, visit Brenda’s website for free downloadables!

Author Craig Moodie (former fisherman, now author) is giving away 4 live lobsters to be delivered on New Year’s Eve.  Or rather his character is giving away lobsters.  Let me explain…

Moodie has decided to continue the storyline of Into the Trap (Roaring Brook) in a (quite funny, quite content rich) blog written by the teen lobsterman character, Eddie Atwell (aka Lobster Boy).  For kids that love action adventures, the book and blog are a sweet match.

“…an action-packed tale…” –SLJ

LIBRARIANS are invited to enter to enter to win the lobsters here!

READERS are invited to write reviews of the book to receive a FREE MAP drawn by the character of his island AND to be entered to win a grand prize in June of a L.L. Bean gift certificate here.

After a year of hard work and creative solutions the City of Portland, Health and Human Services Dept, Public Health Division, the Portland Public Library, and Portland Recreation unveiled a StoryWalk for the picture book, The Bugliest Bug by Carol Diggory Shields and illustrated by Scott Nash (Candlewick Press).

What’s a StoryWalk? Picture book pages spread through an outdoor space to create an active, engaging read aloud experience for kids.

Here is a kindergartener waiting to unveil a StoryWalk page.

Here is a kindergartener revealing a page of The Bugliest Bug.   Each spread of the book is enhanced on the bottom of the signage with a physical activity that allows a reader to act out the story.

Why a physical activity?  Because StoryWalk (as originally envisioned by the StoryWalk Project in Vermont) combines healthy literacy with healthy movement.  This StoryWalk was funded by a portion of the $1.8 million Communities Putting Prevention to Work grant the city received in 2010 to implement strategies to reduce obesity.

The talented and quite funny actors from the Theater for Kids at Portland Stage performed the spreads from the story for the gathered audience of kids and led them in the activity.  Charge!

After the story, kids gathered on a hillock to watch illustrator Scott Nash show off his drawing tricks.  The kid’s favorite part?  When Scott Nash drew a mustache on a baby.

With the grant all of the gathered children danced away with their own signed copy of The Bugliest Bug.

How does all this happen?  Well, that is for another day.  For now, I will simply say that Curious City is proud to have worked alongside Pete O’Donnell, Program Coordinator
for Communities Putting Prevention to Work at Portland Public Health…

Mary Peverada, the children’s librarian at Portland Public Library…

And designer Marty Braun…

Today Portland, Maine became an even better place to be a kid (or a bug).

What’s a StoryWalk?  Picture book pages spread through an outdoor space to create an active, engaging read aloud experience for kids.  The concept originated with these fine folks.

Want to visit?  You can see them year round in Portland’s Payson Park and Riverton Park.  Come to the unveiling events (below) and you might get a free book!

The City of Portland, Health and Human Services Dept, the Portland Public Library, and the Portland Housing Authority invites you…

And Here’s To You StoryWalk
Thursday, 11/03/11
3:00 PM
Riverton Park
(Behind  Boys & Girls Club at 53 Riverton Drive)

• Unveiling with Mayor Mavodones
• Performance of And Here’s To You by the book’s author David Elliott
• Book give away and signing with author David Elliott
(books given away to first 100 children)

VIEW a slideshow of the StoryWalk signage for And Here’s To You.

(Isn’t the design fabulous?  Had the delight of working with designer Marty Braun on this project.)

Illustrator/Author Jamie Hogan

Long ago I decided to only post when a project was complete.  Complete?  Whenever is the messy, compelling work of engagement work around children’s lit complete?  What about the ideas that bubble up every day?  The sweet progress and frightful road blocks?  Each day we have brainstorms around manuscripts, galleys, and F&G’s–things happening now that will not happen to readers until months or years from now.

Illustrator Jamie Hogan’s Jamie Peeps blog is endlessly compelling because it is about the rich creative life she is living now.  Is there room for Curious City’s now?

Strangely what has really pushed me to thinking about the way I work and write about it is a wee set of sketches that Jamie Hogan showed me by her MECA Illustration student Zoe Reifsnyder.  Now Jamie Hogan was meeting me for lunch to talk about the promotion of her work, but the majority of the time she was showing me instead the work of her students.  Jamie was just back from a rainy day sketching trip to Maine Audubon with her students where they all sketched from Audubon’s extensive taxidermy collection.  (See Jamie Peep’s post about trip here.)

Zoe’s mind bloomed characters from those animal sketches.  Stories TBD.  Who will write them?  When will they be read?  Or is all the story we need right here?

I am trying to let ‘complete’ go.