Some Random pics

How to know when you've been cooped-up too  long. She's fabulous.

Me with the wonderful Bruce Coville. What a joy.

A bird on the head is worth . . .
Dottie the Chicken.

It Really Does Take a Village

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Here’s the thing, it takes a village—for many things—especially a writing career. This morning I was thinking about ALL the people who had a hand in making Cake a success. It’s some village. I could go ahead and make a huge, long list but that would get a little loooooonnng. Suffice it to say if you know me, know my name or mentioned Cake in some way YOU are on my list.  All my Twitter buds, FB friends, Librarians, Teachers, Editors, Illustrators, Publicists (phew!) and of course the Readers. O my, I have the best and most loyal readers included. I am sometimes astonished at the number of people who were clued into Cake just from a simple short Tweet, or a FB mention or a friend’s suggestion, an article, an advertisement. It’s astounding. And so, it’s pretty fair to say that Cake is a hit because of YOU. Even some folks across the ocean! Criminy! So I just want to take a moment to say thank you. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of Cake.
It’s an awesome village.
Oh, and we're NOT done yet. There is till more Cakey goodness to come so keep the talk going!

Top Ten Questions Kids Ask Me




Q:        How much money do you make?
A:         I just smile and laugh, inside, ruefully

Q:        When will the book be made into a movie?
A:         Someday, maybe

Q:        Did you write all the books in this store?
A:         Nope

Q:        How long does it take to write a book?
A:         About 18 months from start to finish. This is usually when the student looks at me with bugged out eyes.

Q:        Did you draw the pictures?
A:         No, but some really nice, talented people did. This is usually when a look of disappointment passes over the child’s face.

Q:        Are you famous? Do you know J.K. Rowling?
A:         No, I am not really famous except around here and no, never met J.K.

Q:        How about the Diary of Wimpy Kid guy?
A:         Nope, but I met Colonel Sanders once. This is usually when the child looks at me like I just spouted broccoli out of my ears.

Q:        Did you have to read the book when you wrote it?
A:         This is a very interesting questioning. Yes, I say, I read the book about ten times. This is usually when the students look at me like I have just sprouted broccoli out of my ears.

Q:        Are you rich?
A:         (Shaking head) Nope. This usually confuses the child because they really think all writers are loaded down with bags of money.

Q:        What’s the best thing about being a author?
A:         Meeting great kiddoes!




I Get Mail

Love this note from one of the kids who participated in the Sweet and Sassy, Creepy, Crawly Character Kitchen Funshop at the Helen K. Furness Library.  He is one smart kiddoe whom I expect to hear a lot about in the future. Thanks, Pierce!
Dear Mrs. Magnin,
Pierce is in the blue and white stripes
The workshop at the Helen Kate Furness Library was VERY FUN! One of the coolest things was that I got to meet YOU.  I also loved how we got to create a new story together with all the other children who came for the workshop.  One of the best parts was that after the presentation and you read a chapter of your book “Cake-Love, Chickens and a Taste of Peculiar” we even got to have real cake!!!!  It would be nice if all authors would bring cake at the end of every workshop!
Another great part of the day was that if you bought a book, that you personalized a note in the front of the book.  It was really nice too that I got to talk to you about my books that I am writing and hopefully will one day have a book of my own at the Helen Kate Furness Library just like your dream and now it is on the shelf!
Love,
Pierce

Why I Write for Kids

“You have to write whichever book it is that wants to be written. And then, if it’s going to be too difficult for grownups, you write it for children.”
—Madeleine L’Engle
 
Why do I write for kids?

What a great question.
Here's the thing, here are several reasons I enjoy and appreciate this age group. From a writerly standpoint it's because middle grade and even younger literature is some of the best literature available. Authors know that children crave concrete images, things they can see and hang their hats on. But authors also know that this a strange and wonderful time between childhood and adulthood. A time when kids can be so utterly child like in their manners and thoughts and yet in the next instant more profound than imaginable. This is what I like to capture in my middle grade books. The concrete fused with the abstract and thoughtful, with a touch of whimsy. Children are still willing to believe in magic even though they know it’s not real. I hope that through the use of magic in my books children will also learn something about faith. Because what is faith but believing in things unseen.

Reading Cake to the kiddoes
But, writing for children is serious business Psychologist, Bruno Bettelheim wrote in The Uses of Enchantment, "In order to master the psychological problems of growing up... a child needs to understand what is going on within his conscious self so that he can also cope with that which goes on in his unconscious. He can achieve this understanding, and with it the ability to cope, not through rational comprehension of the nature and content of his unconscious, but by becoming familiar with it through spinning out daydreams."

Occasionally, although thankfully not often, I am asked if I will ever graduate to writing for adults. This obviously from folks who don’t know about my books for grown-ups. And I usually respond by saying that first of all writing for children can be more difficult than writing for grown-ups in many ways and that it’s not fair to assume that children’s literature is in any way dumbed down or written in a childish way.

E.B. White said, "anyone who writes down to children is simply wasting his time. You have to write up, not down. Children are demanding. They are the most attentive, curious, eager, observant, sensitive, quick, and generally congenial readers on earth." Who wouldn’t want to write for that kind of audience?


Cake, Love, Chickens and a Taste of Peculiar is a fun, magical book but it also deals with issues important to this age group. In Cake, 12 year-old Wilma Sue has moved to yet another foster home. But this time it's different. This could be for keeps. Except, all isn't what it seems to be.
More than frosting filled those cakes…
When Wilma Sue arrives at her new foster home, she keeps her head down as usual, anticipating the next move. But strange things are happening at the home of the oddball sisters, Ruth and Naomi. Was that really a goldfish swimming in the lemonade? Did butterflies really come out of the cake? As Wilma Sue bakes and delivers cakes, she begins to wonder if she might truly be welcomed into this “home,” as Ruth and Naomi keep insisting. Just as her heart begins to soften, a string of neighborhood crimes point to Wilma Sue. Will the sisters turn her out, or will she get her own much-needed dose of love, trust, and faith? 


The magic in Cake is that Wilma Sue learns that she is eminently worthy of love--no matter what. To give love and receive love. 

First Line Fridays

Do you know which book? It's one of all-time favorite novels.

"In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since."


Celebrate National Library Week


When I was a girl, the library was housed in the old farm house
Here’s the thing, it is National Library Week. Please visit your local library. I’m sure they have many events scheduled to celebrate. I have the honor of participating in two events to help celebrate libraries in my community. I love libraries. Don’t you? Do you have a favorite library? When I was a girl I could usually be found crawling the stacks of the Seller’s Memorial Library in Upper Darby. It truly was a haven, a safe place for me. A place of wonder and delight and discovery. It is where I discovered Ray Bradbury, Sherlock Holmes, Harriet the Spy, Virginia Woolf, Mark Twain, Robert Heinlein, Tolkien, Hemingway, E.B. White, etc. etc. etc.  I remember sitting in the window seat with a book in hand and staring out at a rainy day thinking about what it would be like to have a book I had written in the public library. It seemed so far away but a dream I refused to give up on. I dreamt about returning to the library one day and reading from my book. Gee, it’s a dream come true. I am often astonished at this.  I thought having a book in the library would be the greatest of all delights. And it is truly. Truly a delight. But something happened the other day that is even better. I was in the Youth Room of a local library and I saw a kid pick up a copy of Cake. She kind of looked through it and then sat at a table and started to read it. My heart, needless to say, sped up just a bit as I watched her turn the pages. A few minutes later she brought the book to the counter and checked it out. Now that’s the stuff dreams are made of.