jama rattigan's alphabet soup

mood: chipper

from kandeland's photostream.


Happy November!

As crisp autumn leaves dance and swirl outside, these things are making me smile:


1. alphabet soup was named one of the 100 Best Book Blogs for Kids, Tweens, and Teens by Online Universities. We are very honored to be listed in the Picture Books and Younger Readers category!

2. Grace Lin's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Little, Brown, 2009) has been selected for Al Roker's Book Club for Kids! You may remember how much I raved about this book when it was released in June. I am thrilled for Grace and can't wait to see her NBC television appearance on December 4th, when the Book Club Kids will ask her a few questions. School Library Journal recently published a really lovely article about Grace's life and work,"A Touch of Grace," which is a must read for its thoroughness, depth and sheer inspiration.

3. Diane deGroat and Shelley Rotner's Dogs Don't Brush Their Teeth (Scholastic, 2009) was just awarded an Oppenheimer Toy Portfolio Platinum Book Award! Hooray for those kooky canines! My review/short interview with Diane is here.

4. Big growls of approval for Old Bear by Kevin Henkes, which just received a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor citation in the Picture Book category. The alphabet soup kitchen helpers were especially elated with this news, because Mr. Henkes's bear artistry is sublime in every way. My review of Old Bear is here.

5. Every month I can hardly wait for Maira Kalman's next Pursuit of Happiness picture essay. She always makes me so happy, and this time there's a turkey dinner, floors shined to the point of ecstasy, bipartisan bathrooms, and spiffy elevator operators. Read E Pluribus Unum here.

6. Have you seen YA Author Holly Cupala's Book Cook Series? She's posted a raft of delectable author recipes, including Chris Eboch's Graveyard Cookies, Janet Fox's Nesselrode Pudding, and Megan Frazer's Goat Cheese Pizza! 


photo by master fighter.

Hope you had a great Halloween weekend, and that the week ahead is fun and productive with a nice surprise or two tucked in. Good luck to those of you participating in NaNoWriMo! ♥

Copyright © 2009 Jama Rattigan of jama rattigan's alphabet soup. All rights reserved.

Tags: announcements

Posted at 06:02 am | Link | Leave a comment | 12 comments | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

mood: busy

           

Where will you be on Saturday, October 17, 2009?

I'll be at the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel in Arlington, Virginia, attending my very first Kidlitosphere Conference!

In the two years I've been blogging, I've only been able to meet a handful of the many people I've connected with online. It'll be fun to compare online personas with in-person personalities. What do their voices sound like? Do any of them have accents? Are they really as nice as they seem online? And how do some of them manage to read and review so many dang books and still lead normal lives?

Yes, I'm quite curious about the attendees, but I'm also excited about the great sessions Pam (MotherReader) has lined up. There's still time to register and lock in the discount hotel rate of $109/night, so if you'd like to join us, please do!

Here's more from Pam:

For authors, illustrators, editors, and publishers in the area of children’s and Young Adult literature, the KidLitosphere Conference on October 17th in Arlington, Virginia, offers an incredible opportunity to learn more about online reviewers, blog book tours, blog writing, and social media. Participants will also talk to forty book reviewing bloggers one-on-one about their books in a Meet the Author session. The dinner gives everyone a chance to socialize, talk, network, and collaborate. And all for a low $100 registration fee that includes breakfast and dinner.

Featured sessions for authors/illustrators include:

• It’s Not All About Your Book: Writing Ideas for Author Blogs
  
• Social Networking for Fun (and Profit?)
  
• Building a Better Online Presence with Blogging
  

And several more sessions in the 8:00–5:00 p.m day. Attending authors will have the opportunity to set up a table and show their books to bloggers and promote fall titles. The small conference size allows for more chances for interaction among attendees.

Registration has been extended, so for more information and to register visit the conference page. Discount hotel rates are also available.

-------------------------------------

I really hope you're going. I would love to meet you!!

Click here for a more detailed post about the conference from MotherReader.

Tags: announcements, kidlit con

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mood: good

photo by amber in norfolk.

♥ Don't miss the August Carnival of Children's Literature, hosted by Sarah at In Need of Chocolate. She's arranged all the posts according to a Back-to-School subject theme. Click through for a delicious variety of reviews (children's/YA books), thoughts about writing/publishing and more.

  ♥ Elvis's Banana Pudding is the perfect way to top off the month. Cakespy.com has a delicious post with the recipe and a little Elvis trivia.

  ♥ Booksigning Alert: Kristy Dempsey will be signing her new picture book, Me with You, at Hooray for Books! in Alexandria, Virginia, this Sunday, September 6th, at 2 p.m.! You may remember we celebrated this book's release with a Soup of the Day post. Now I'm looking forward to meeting Kristy in person. Hope to see you there!

Tags: announcements, taste of summer

Posted at 05:11 pm | Link | Leave a comment | 11 comments | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

mood: good

 
photo by Afrodita B.


Don't miss these sweet, sweet thangs:


Friday, August 14th, is the deadline to enter Liz Scanlon's drawing to win a signed first edition of her new picture book, All the World (illustrated by Marla Frazee). Release date is September 8th; it's a gorgeous book that's already earned three starred reviews, and has been selected for the Autumn 2009 Indie Kids' Next List! Don't miss your chance -- leave a comment here.

Friday, August 14th, is also the deadline to bid on this Small Graces original painting by Grace Lin. All proceeds benefit the FCB (Foundation for Children's Books). With lots of folks out of town/on vacation, this might just be the perfect time to nail a sweet deal! Click here to place a bid on Ebay.

Saturday, August 15th, is the last day to nominate your favorite blogs for Book Blogger Appreciation Week (September 14-18, 2009). Here's your chance to tip your hat to your favorites in lots of categories, like, Best General Review Blog, Best Kidlit Blog, Best Literary Fiction Blog, etc. See all the categories here, and add your blog to the master blog directory.

  The Color Me Brown Challenge, sponsored by Color Online, runs through the entire month of August. Now's the time to post your reviews of books by or about POC (People of Color). Click here to leave your link, and you may be one of three reviewers selected at random to win a drawing!

The third annual Kidlitosphere Conference is scheduled for Saturday, October 17, 2009, at the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. This is open to authors, illustrators, teachers, librarians, book reviewers, editors, publishers -- all bloggers or wanna-be bloggers in children's and YA literature. Panel discussions to be held on such topics as, Building a Better Blog, Social Networking for Fun (and profit?), and Book Reviewing. Click here for full schedule and details about registration, hotel reservations, etc. MotherReader (Pam Coughlan) is organizing the event and is maintaining a list of attendees here.


Cherry cups by Pillsbury.com (recipe here).

Happy weekend!

Tags: announcements, taste of summer

Posted at 05:31 pm | Link | Leave a comment | 4 comments | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

mood: excited

          
        photo by kko19652001.


Have you heard?

Uber talented author Jo Knowles is celebrating her soon-to-be-released young adult novel, Jumping Off Swings, with a cool contest!
 
There are lots of ways to enter -- by submitting a picture of you jumping off a swing or sitting on a swing, by helping to spread the word via your blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc., by telling your librarian or friend about the book, or by leaving a comment at the contest post. Each thing you do = one entry.

  

Jo will be presenting three lucky winners with a set of both her books -- Jumping Off Swings and a paperback edition of her first novel, Lessons from a Dead Girl, which will also be released on August 11th!

Get thee over to her blog right now to read all the details. She's posted a great slideshow of lots of entrants swinging. Wanna be one of those swingers? Send Jo your photo by the contest deadline of August 10, 2009.

Tags: announcements, jo knowles

Posted at 07:58 am | Link | Leave a comment | 4 comments | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

mood: busy

  
   photo by amy_eggsonsunday.


I was craving a chocolate strawberry tartlet today, and thought you might like to have a little bite. While you're wrapping your lips around this luscious beauty, check out these other tidbits:

 Thank you to Candice Ransom (uber prolific author of a million books, fellow teddy bear collector and antiques junkie), for awarding alphabet soup the One Lovely Blog Award. I love reading her Live Journal blog, Under the Honeysuckle Vine -- we've been slowly discovering that we have similar tastes in bears, old children's books and china, and of course, food. I'm honored Candice found my blog worthy of recognition. Bring on the tea parties!

 I'm also tickled to report that Becky Levine has awarded alphabet soup the Love Ya Award. The criteria for this award is as follows:

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated."

Wow! *beaming* Thanks so much, Becky! I appreciate your taking the time to stop in regularly, in between blogging here on Live Journal and at your website blog, "Moving Forward on the Writing Path."

 Congratulations to Cynthea Liu on the recent release of her second book, a middle grade novel called Paris Pan Takes the Dare (Putnam, 2009)! For the past couple of weeks, she's been hosting an extended online Launch Party -- yes, there's plenty of food, games, and fun, but there's also an awesome auction to benefit Tulakes Elementary School in Oklahoma. You can bid on fabulous prize packages as well as critiques by published authors, editors and agents! The auction deadline has been extended to midnight (EST) July 8, 2009. 

 I've mentioned before that one of my absolute fave food blogs is Cakespy.com. This is where I get my daily fix for all things dessert -- and it's calorie free! Just wanted to point you to two especially delicious posts -- "Malasada Madness: The Portuguese Doughnut That Took Over Hawai'i," and "Cinema and Sugar: Movies to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth."  The first post is about a place in Seattle that sells malasadas; it includes mouthwatering tidbits about the history of this island favorite, and the cinema post has a great list of movies with storylines featuring some form of dessert. I'm going down the list, and adding anything I haven't yet seen to my Netflix queue. The perfect summer diversion!


  

Finally, in case you didn't have a chance to stop in at Grace Lin's Launch Party yesterday for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, I wanted to remind you about her contest. All you have to do is take a picture of yourself with the book and post it on her Facebook Fan Page. She will draw winners at the end of July, August, and September for a $25.00 gift certificate, good for purchases at her new online store. Then, on October 1st, she will draw a grand prize winner -- and the prize is your name or likeness in one of her upcoming books! Eeeee! 

Oh, and there's one more thing:

photo by shotsi.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

Have a great Fourth of July weekend, and I'll see you next week!

Tags: announcements, taste of summer

Posted at 06:36 am | Link | Leave a comment | 12 comments | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

mood: good

While sipping a cool beverage of your choice, check out these noteworthy things:

♥ It's Small Graces time again! Look at the gorgeous painting Grace Lin has up for auction this week:

        

As before, this one is approximately 5" x 5", gouache on Arches watercolor paper, a signed, original unpublished gem that will go to the highest bidder on Ebay. All profits from Grace's year-long charity auction will benefit the Foundation for Children's Books, which serves underprivileged schools in the greater Boston area. Read more about Small Graces here, and click here to place a bid!

♥ Susan Taylor Brown is offering more online classes in Social Networking for Authors and Illustrators. Here's your chance to learn about blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc., and how using them can support your promotional efforts and enhance your web presence. There's a new session starting up next week, June 22-26, and another one July 13-17th. Click here to get the full scoop!

♥ You know I'm crazy about cakes. In case you missed it, click here to see Susan Kusel's post at Booklights, featuring "Books Good Enough to Eat." Trés cute!

♥ Via Kerry Madden's blog, I learned about a couple of online petitions in support of releasing American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee ASAP. You probably know they were recently convicted of trespassing on North Korean soil and sentenced to 12 years in a labor camp. They've already been detained (wrongfully, in my opinion) for 3 months, and the longer they're there, the harder it will be to sort things out and secure their safe release. Sign the petition!

♥ Don't forget, there's only about 2 weeks left to head on over to your nearest Kohl's store to purchase Jackie Urbanovic's New York Times Bestsellers, Duck at the Door and Duck Soup, and plush versions of main characters Max and Brody. Only $5 each for a book or toy, and all profits support health and education programs for kids in your own community! Read what Jackie has to say about Kohl's Cares for Kids® here.

    
                TAKE US HOME AND HELP SOME KIDS!!


♥ BTW, you look so good today. You really should wear that color more often!

Tags: announcements, small graces, taste of summer

Posted at 07:32 am | Link | Leave a comment | 8 comments | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

mood: chipper

My banbury cakes arrived! Remember when I blogged about them for Poetry Friday awhile ago? Well, they finally appeared in my mailbox, no worse for the wear after their long journey all the way from Oxfordshire, England.

They came in little packages, like this:

   

The teddy bear tasters in the kitchen pronounced them officially yummy. They loved the currant filling -- not overly sweet, but perfect with its flaky crust. Thought you'd like to nibble on one with a cup of tea, while I share some cool links from around the blogosphere that have made me happy recently:

♥ Tarie at Into the Wardrobe interviewed me!! She's doing a wonderful series in honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, which includes chatting with people like Lisa Yee, Dom Lee, and Cindy Pon. For the first time ever on any blog, me and my sugar daddy! Thank you for including me in your celebration, Tarie!

♥ Have you been following the Summer Blog Blast Tour? I'm loving all the interviews so far -- especially interesting: Carrie Jones at Writing and Ruminating, Jo Knowles at HipWriterMama, and Maya Ganesan (an amazing 11-year-old poet) at Miss Erin. The full week's schedule can be found at Chasing Ray.

♥ I don't know if you follow Haven Kimmel's fabulous blog, but the other day she answered some questions from her readers -- about all kinds of strange and wonderful stuff. Should one wear shoulder pads? What 10 CDs would you recommend for a road trip? Could one get arrested for trying to repair a stuffed owl? And my favorite: Which stuffed animals and dogs make the best surrogates for socializing with people? It doesn't matter whether you care about these things or not, what matters is that this woman can write the pants off anyone within miles. An enviable talent, indeed.

♥ The Bridget Zinn Auction is closed to donations, but still open to bids until May 30th. Check out the cool offerings, and take a few minutes to reflect on the awesome generosity of people in the kidlit community.

♥ Have you signed up yet for MotherReader's 48-hour Book Challenge (weekend of June 5th)? Lots of cool prizes and a legitimate excuse to do nothing but read and blog the whole time!

♥ Foodies, don't miss Becky Ramsey's post about Lunch Boxes at Wonders Never Cease. The dabbawallas and a cute video featuring Bento Boxes are worth the price of clicking through!

♥ Cari at Bookscoops reviewed my Hawaiian folktale, The Woman in the Moon! Thanks for the kind words, Cari!

♥ Finally, an update: Two weeks ago, I posted about the Mid Atlantic SCBWI New Member Welcome and Get-together, mentioning Erica Perl's Q&A and her new book, Chicken Butt. Well, she is no longer accepting manuscripts because she resigned as Editor-at-Large at Abrams. She just accepted a new position as Senior Director at the non-profit organization, First Book.

       

Hope you enjoyed your banbury cake, and have a lovely Wednesday!

Tags: announcements, may days

Posted at 07:13 am | Link | Leave a comment | 7 comments | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

mood: chipper

 



Hot off the press! Dip your spoon into the coolness:

From Tricia of the Miss Rumphius Effect: 100 Places to Connect with Other Bibliophiles Online, an article by Laura Milligan at the Online Education Database. Great collection of links by category:  Book Collectors, Blogs, Librarians, Social Media, Recommendations, Organizing and Sharing Titles, Novelists and Writers, Sites for Children and Teens, Trading and Selling, and For Those Who Love to Read.
Anti-Craft Book Literary Glossary of Writing Terms by Carrie Jones in Through the Tollbooth. The ABCs of writing served up with side-splitting wit. A must read, since it's the only place to get your feet licked.
Check out Oprah's Book Club Kids Reading List. So happy to see Linda Sue Park's Keeping Score, Cynthia Kadohata's Cracker: The Best Dog in Vietnam, Jackie Urbanovic's Duck Soup, and Laura Vaccaro Seeger's Dog and Bear: Two Friends, Three Stories on the list. Check out my interviews with Jackie, here and here, and Laura, here!
    Don't forget that the Second Annual 2008 Portland Kidlitosphere Conference is a little over a month away. Find out how to register here. If you can't go, you can still support the conference by scoring some cool shwag at Cafe Press, like T-shirts, mugs, and bags. Look what I ordered (thanks to Jen Robinson for whetting my appetite):

          

Isn't it delicious? 

Enjoy and stay cool!                                                                  
 

Tags: announcements

Posted at 08:35 am | Link | Leave a comment | 2 comments | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend