What started out as vignettes and poems ended as a novel in verse for Guadalupe Garcia McCall. McCall, the author of the award-winning young adult novel, Under the Mesquite, was a guest speaker at our monthly SCBWI chapter meeting at Barnes & Noble on Saturday, March 17. Her talk was on “Literacy and Our Roles as Writers and Illustrators for Young People.” She pointed out the need for diversity in books. She challenged us to strive to write stories that are authentic and well researched and to immerse ourselves in the culture we are writing about. She is already at work on her second novel, which is due out in October of this year.
 |
| Texas Bluebonnets |
Did you know that one of the classics, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, almost wasn’t?According to a post on the NPR blog, “The Unlikely Best-Seller: ‘A Wrinkle In Time’ Turns 50, L’Engle’s book “almost didn’t see the light of day. Although the author already had six books to her name, publishers were perplexed by her latest.” Read the entire post to find out why it was first rejected.
“I believe that good questions are more important than answers, and the best children’s books ask questions, and make the readers ask questions. And every new question is going to disturb someone’s universe.” –Madeleine L’Engle