• From the Mixed-Up Files... > Giveaways > WIN A Skype Visit By Your Favorite Middle-Grade Author!
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    March 28, 2013: Big at Bologna

     

     

    This year at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, the focus has shifted to middle-grade.  “A lot of foreign publishers are cutting back on YA and are looking for middle-grade,” said agent Laura Langlie, according to Publisher's Weekly.  Lighly illustrated or stand-alone contemporary middle-grade fiction is getting the most attention.  Read more...

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    March 10, 2013: Marching to New Titles

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Check out these titles releasing in March...

     

     

     

     

     

    March 5, 2013: Catch the BEA Buzz

     

    Titles for BEA's Editor Buzz panels have been announced.  The middle-grade titles selected are:

     

     

    A Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates #1: Magic Marks the Spot by Caroline Carlson

     

     

    Counting By 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

     

     

    The Fantastic Family Whipple by Matthew Ward

     

     

    Nick and Tesla's High-Voltages Danger Lab by Bob Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith

     

     

    The Tie Fetch by Amy Herrick

     

    For more Buzz books in other categories, read more...

     

     

     

    February 20, 2013: Lunching at the MG Roundtable 

     

    Earlier this month, MG authors Jeanne Birdsall, Rebecca Stead, and N.D. Wilson shared insight about writing for the middle grades at an informal luncheon with librarians held in conjunction with the New York Public Library's Children's Literary Salon "Middle Grade: Surviving the Onslaught." 

     

     

    Read about their thoughts...

     

    February 10, 2013: New Books to Love

     

     

     

     

     

    Check out these new titles releasing in February...

     

     

     

    January 28, 2013: Ivan Tops List of Winners 

    The American Library Association today honored the best of the best from 2012, announcing the winners of the Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz awards, along with a host of other prestigious youth media awards, at their annual winter meeting in Seattle.

    The Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature went to The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. Honor books were: Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz; Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin; and Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage. 

    The Coretta Scott King Book Award went to Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America written by Andrea Davis Pinkney and illustrated by Brian Pinkney.

    The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, which honors an author for his or her long-standing contributions to children’s literature, was presented to Katherine Paterson.  

    The Pura Belpre Author Award, which honors a Latino author, went to Benjamin Alire Saenz for his novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, which was also named a Printz Honor book and won the Stonewall Book Award for its portrayal of the GLBT experience.

    For a complete list of winners…

     

    January 22, 2013: Biography Wins Sydney Taylor

    Louise Borden's His Name Was Raoul Wallenberg, a verse biography of the Swedish humanitarian, has won the Sydney Taylor Award in the middle-grade category. The award is given annually to books of the highest literary merit that highlight the Jewish experience. Aimee Lurie, chair of the awards committee, writes, "Louise Borden's well-researched biography will, without a doubt, inspire children to perform acts of kindness and speak out against oppression."

    For more...

     

    January 17, 2013: Erdrich Wins Second O'Dell

    Louise Erdrich is recipient of the 2013 Scott O'Dell Award for her historical novel Chickadee, the fourth book in her Birchbark House series. Roger Sutton, Horn Book editor and chair of the awards committee, says of Chickadee, "The book has humor and suspense (and disarmingly simple pencil illustrations by the author), providing a picture of 1860s Anishinabe life that is never didactic or exotic and is briskly detailed with the kind of information young readers enjoy." Erdrich also won the O'Dell Award in 2006 for The Game of Silence, the second book in the Birchbark series. 

    For more...

     

    January 15, 2013: After the Call

    Past Newbery winners Jack Gantos, Clare Vanderpool, Neil Gaiman, Rebecca Stead, and Laura Amy Schlitz talk about how winning the Newbery changed (or didn't change) their lives in this piece from Publishers Weekly...

     

    January 2, 2013: On the Big Screen

    One of our Mixed-up Files members may be headed to the movies! Jennifer Nielsen's fantasy adventure novel The False Prince is being adapted for Paramount Pictures by Bryan Cogman, story editor for HBO's Game of Thrones. For more...

     


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WIN A Skype Visit By Your Favorite Middle-Grade Author!

Giveaways

The bus is here! The bus is here!

 

The school bus?

No, it’s the Fall Mixed-Up Middle-Grade Skype Tour Bus! And you and your class, group, club, or troop can win a visit from a fantastic (if I do say so myself) middle-grade author.

 

We’ve loaded the Mixed-Up Tour Bus with a whole new batch of middle-grade authors. Who exactly?

Tami Lewis Brown (The Map Of Me),

Erin Moulton (Flutter),

Kathy Erskine (Mockingbird),

Tricia Springstubb (What Happened On Fox Street),

Sarah Aronson (Beyond Lucky),

Uma Krishnaswami (The Grand Plan To Fix Everything),

Jennifer Nielsen (Elliot and the Pixie Plot),

and

Bruce Hale  (Chet Gecko Mysteries)

Here’s how you can win a visit for your school, library, scout troop or group of readers-

Leave a comment on this post. Then spread the word. For every retweet and/or Facebook reposting you’ll get another entry. To increase your class or group’s chances invite other adults- parents, teachers, or group members– anyone eighteen or older– to leave comments here, too. Be sure to come back and tell us in a new comment… so we can count every one of your chances to win. Each entry must be made in a separate comment.

On October 3 we’ll draw a winner for each Skype author visit and make the big announcement on October 4.

You’ll have six months from October 4 to schedule and conduct the visit.

Authors and winners are paired randomly- you don’t enter to win a visit from a particular author. But we all write books appropriate for a middle-grade audience and we all do GREAT SCHOOL VISITS. You’ll hear more about our fantastic visits in monthly interviews. In fact the first author is dropping in to tell us about her school visits later this week.

What will you need for a Skype visit? A computer, an internet connection, speakers, a winning entry and most of all an excited audience of middle-grade readers. If you’re not familiar with Skype our experts here at the Mixed-Up Files can help set you up.

It’s all Easy Peasy.

What’s that? I hear the rumble of the Mixed-Up Tour Bus right now…

Don’t worry I’m in the driver’s seat.

 Okay. Maybe you should worry.

Uma Krishnaswami 

 

and Erin Moulton   are in the first row. Erin! Get out of the woods and on the bus!

And here’s Kathy Erskine 

 

Jennifer Nielsen

 

 

 

and Tricia Springstubb 

 

Then Bruce Hale  and wouldn’t you know it…

There’s Sarah Aronson   causing trouble in the back seat.

Would you like Tami, Uma, Erin, Tricia, Jennifer, Kathy, Bruce or Sarah to visit your class?

Each winner will receive a full Skype author visit and a copy of the author’s featured book. Check out the official RULES here.

Who can enter? Anyone 18 or over – a teacher, parent, librarian, friend… anybody as long as your school or group has specifically agreed to host a Skype author visit if you win.

Hey! Jump on the bus! We’re heading out NOW!

Tami Lewis Brown, the author of THE MAP OF ME, is driving the Mixed-Up Middle-Grade Skype Tour bus. She’s not quite sure why anyone trusted her with the keys.

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