During the 2017-18 school year (which, I’m defining as ending on June 30th – therfore, beginning today, on July 1st), a lot of fun stuff happened.
Three books I wrote were released:
I had readings, signings, & events at:
11 Public Libraries
11 Conferences & Festivals
16 Book Stores
I visited 108 schools
8 in-person visits
99 virtual visits
one of the visits was a double-visit – two school in the same districut skyped in at the same time
Dear Dragon was named a 2018/19 Missouri Association of Librarians (MASL) Show Me Award Nominee AND a 2018/19 Indiana Library Federation (ILF) Young Hoosier Book Award Nominee.
It’s Not Jack and the Beanstalk was named to the 2018 Wisconsin State Reading Association (WSRA) Picture This Recommendation List.
How to Code a Sandcastle was selected to the 2018 Summer Indie Next List by the American Booksellers Association.
And for 2018-19 … who knows what’ll happen? Have a fabulous summer everyone!
Next spring (in 2018), I’ve got two new books coming out: Albie Newton (5.1.18) and How to Code a Sandcastle (6.5.18). And in the past week, both covers were revealed!
Yesterday, Pernille Ripp (award-winning teacher, author, and founder of the Global Read Aloud) revealed the cover of Albie Newton, illustrated by Ester Garay.
Last Thursday at School Library Journal, Fuse 8 – AKA Betsy Bird (author, editor, podcaster, librarian extraordinaire) revealed the cover of How to Code a Sandcastle, illustrated by Sara Palacios.
The Lady Pancake & Sir French book launch at Porter Square Books was fabulous. We sold out of books, including both all that PSB had ordered AND the 30+ I was stockpiling in my car.
Brace yourself: this post is gonna be long. If you’re like me, you might want to just look at the pictures.
I spent last Monday and Tuesday at nErDcamp in Michigan. What is nErDcamp? It’s a conference for educators focused on reading and literacy founded by members of the Nerdy Book Club (if you don’t know what that is, stop reading this and go here now). Over 900 educators from all over the U.S. and Canada attended the two day conference.
So let me tell you what happened with pictures.
Sunday morning I flew from Boston to Detroit.
Early Morning jetBlue flight
After chilling at the airport for a bit, I hitched a ride with educators Lesley Burnap, Jason Lewis, and Debbie Ridpath Ohi (author/illustrator of Where Are My Books?, illustrator of I’m Bored and Naked – two separate books). We stopped at Bob’s Big Boy for a snack on the way from Detroit to the Hampton Inn in Jackson.
After checking in at the hotel, we met up with my good friend Jess Keating (author of How to Outrun a Crocodile When Your Shoes are Untied, How to Outswim a Shark without a Snorkel, this October’s How to Outfox Your Friends When You Don’t Have a Clue, and next February’s Pink Is for Blobfish, AND member of #TeamKrush) and her husband who shall henceforth be referred to as #NerdyPhotographer. Along with Debbie, we headed over to the high school where nErDcamp would take place starting the next day. We stopped by the rock for this photo:
While hanging out in the Hampton Inn ‘bar’ for the evening, I shared Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast with several new friends who hadn’t seen it before. I also took the opportunity to share Dear Dragon and Pirasaurs! sketches, and it was a blast to see these readers’ reactions. And then I went to bed…
only to be woken up at 6:30 by the fire alarm which quickly shut off. When it came back on for the second time three minutes later, I headed to the lobby to check it out and it (apparently it was a malfunction), but I stayed to eat breakfast, only to receive this at 7:17:
Followed by the #joshdidit hashtag starting to trend (for the record, I didn’t do it). While the alarms continued to blare on and off (until about 8:30), I split a waffle with Debbie,
Sharing a waffle with Debbie
and I had a nice chat with debut author Cassie Beasley (Circus Mirandus).
Cassie Beasley drawing an elephant’s butt
We arrived at nErDcamp and headed to the ‘Green Room’ for presenters where everyone had a fantastic gift bag filled with homemade boutonnieres that Mrs. Sharp made out of an old Robinson Crusoe text, along with a bunch of other great stuff. I met several awesome authors over the next few hours including authors Edith Cohn (Spirit’s Key), Kristen Kittscher (The Wig in the Window), Tracy Holzer (The Secret Hum of a Daisy), Erin Soderberg (The Quirks, Puppy Pirates), Aaron Zenz (Chuckling Ducklings), Ruth McNally Barshaw (Ellie McDoodle Diaries), Louise Borden (Baseball Is …), Leisl Shurtliff (Rump, Jack), Laurie Keller (Arnie the Doughnut), Tricia Springstubb (Cody and the Fountain of Happiness), Jerzy Drozd (Warren Commission Report), Lisa Graff (A Tangle of Knots), Lauren Castillo (Nana in the City), Philip C. Stead (Jonathan and the Big Blue Boat), Erin E. Stead (A Sick Day for Amos McGee), Matthew Cordell (Wish).
me with Lisa Graff, Lauren Castillo, Philip C. Stead, Erin E. Stead, and Matthew Cordell
I wasn’t scheduled until session 2, so I grabbed a quick bite to eat in the teacher’s lounge and hung out with Donalyn Miller’s awesome family. And then I led the “Picture Book Panel” featuring NINE Picture Book Pros: Miriam Busch (Lion, Lion), Larry Day (Nanook & Pryce), Matthew Cordell, Philip C. Stead, Erin Stead, Debbie Ridpath Ohi, Lauren Castillo, Deb Pilutti (Ten Rules of Being a Superhero), and Matt Faulkner (A Taste of Colored Water).
Busch, Day, Cordell, P. Stead, E. Stead, Ohi, Castillo, Pilutti, Faulkner
[Photo by Aliza Werner twitter.com/alizateach]
And there I am standing at the edge of Debbie’s view from between the pair of Team Caldecott:
What a thrill it was to lead this panel with such a stellar cast! And it went very well! Everyone got a chance to speak, and we even had a few laughs (I think it was with me, not at me…).
After session 2, I went to see Mr. Schu talk about his favorite books of the year so far. He started with picture books, and had so many on his list, he got as far as … some of the picture books (sorry Non-Fiction, Middle Grade, Graphic Novels).
…
So this post is taking forever to write, and I’ll bet almost nobody is actually reading this far, and it’s Saturday night, and my wife wants to spend some time with me (yay! she loves me!), so I think I’ll just post some pictures with captions for the rest of the way.
#Team81 (Colby, Lauren, Schu, & Travis Jonker)Publishing PanelPublishing Panel Closer Up (I’m drinking water)Ruth McNally Barshaw’s amazing sketch of everyone on the publishing panel! We got #Barshawed!Jennifer L. Holm, bunny ears, and me
Nerds in a Car (me, Lauren Castillo, Debbie Ohi, Jason Lewis, Melissa Guerrette, Lesley Burnap)Melissa Guerrette & Jillian Heise being suspiciousEveryone at Dinner After Day 2
So, all in all, nErDcamp was amazing. I met so many awesome educators and authors and friends.
I’ll end with this tweet (you may recognize one of the images):
This summer, on Monday, July 6th and Tuesday, July 7th, I’ll be attending nErDcamp 2015 in Parma, Michigan. Founded by Colby Sharp, his wife, and the Nerdy Book Club, nErDcamp is an (un)conference with a focus on literacy in learning along with over a few dozen authors & illustrators, hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of teachers, librarians, educators, book lovers, readers, and students.
Jess Keating as Lauren Castillo’s Troublemaker
