Regional Good News!

If you've got something to crow about, contact Martha Brockenbrough at Martha@marthabee.com

Spring 2009 Good News

Bonny Becker won a Golden Kite for her most recent bestseller, A VISITOR FOR BEAR, and Anastasia Suen’s popular site for children’s writers featured Bonny in her new “Thursday Book to Know” series. BEAR is the first book Anastasia highlighted, describing it as an example of a book that can mentor us all. (Those of us lucky enough to hear Bonny at our February meeting learned that firsthand.)

Annie Gage was named Author of the Month for March by Highlights and received an engraved plate for the honor, to boot! The award was based on Annie’s story, “Talent Night,” which was printed in the March issue.

Do you hear the yeehawing, pardners? That’s because Justina Chen Headley’s publisher, Little, Brown, sent her to the Texas Library Association in Houston and hosted a dinner in her honor with fellow YA author Sara Zarr. The organization Justina co-founded, readergirlz, conducted its second Operation Teen Book Drop in April, delivering 8,000 free books to teenagers stuck in hospitals. Fellow readergirlz divas Lorie Ann Grover and Dia Calhoun attended, as well.

Illustrator Kathleen Kemly is flying high because YOU CAN’T DO THAT, AMELIA!, written by Kimberly Wagner Klier, has been selected as a winner for the 2009 Amelia Bloomer Project. She’s also launched a new website.

Kirby Larson writes, “I’m happy to share that the book I co-wrote with my good friend, Mary Nethery, TWO BOBBIES: A TRUE STORY OF HURRICANE KATRINA, FRIENDSHIP AND SURVIVAL, is a 2009 IRA Teachers’ Choice winner.”

Andrea Helman’s latest book, CARIBOU CROSSING: ANIMALS OF THE ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, was released by Sasquatch Books in April. Illustrated with photos by Art Wolfe, the book profiles 23 animals from the refuge, from bearded seals to beluga whales.

Good news has been piling up for Susan Marlow. A home-school publisher, Media Angels, has picked up her REACH FOR THE STARS young author’s writing workbook. It will be released next month. To see a video trailer and to download sample pages, click here.  In addition, Kregel Publications, the publisher of Susan’s CIRCLE C ADVENTURES series for middle-grade readers, has recently bought book five, ANDREA CARTER AND THE TROUBLE WITH TREASURE, and book six, ANDREA CARTER AND THE PRICE OF TRUTH. She hopes the fifth book will release by Christmas, with the sixth in spring 2010.

Paul Schmid will be illustrating a new work by Newbery Honor Author Gail Carson Levine titled THIS IS JUST TO SAY. The book is a collection of poems based on William Carlos Williams’ famous poem of the same name. The editor is Rosemary Brosnan at HarperCollins, and Writers House agent Steven Malk secured the deal. This will be Paul’s fourth book for HarperCollins. He recently finished illustrations for Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s THE WONDER BOOK and is busy illustrating two of his own manuscripts, HUGS FROM PEARL and PERCY’S BIG IDEA.