Book launch: Marching for Freedom interviews

It turns out the book launch for Marching is not just a magical release date. It's also an audio interview and reading  by me on Teaching Books on School Library Journal's website.

I read one of my favorite parts, when Lynda Blackmon Lowery is jailed for three days with a group of other teens, and what happens when the girls ask for help.

Want to hear Lynda talk about her experiences? Here's an absolutely wonderful video about Bloody Sunday.

Book designers: unsung heros of my world

One of the biggest thrills for me in illustrating non-fiction books with photos is finding little-known  or never published photos, and seeing what parts of the story the photos can carry. I can get seriously euphoric over finding beautiful, revealing photos. For my new book, Marching for Freedom, I found two photographers, Matt Herron and John F. Phillips, who had done incredible photos of the Selma to Montgomery march for the vote in 1965. They were both awesome about letting me look through their archives.

So now picture this: I have a manuscript in pretty good shape, thanks to the hard work of my editor, Catherine Frank at Viking.. I have lots of photos from the two photographers, and many others I've uncovered. I am also getting pretty tired at this point in the process. I am losing traction as we begin the rush to meet our deadline.

Enter Jim Hoover, brilliant designer. He scoops up all my photos, reads and rereads the manuscript, begins sorting out which photos are the very best. We talk. We shoot messages back and forth. Jim lays out the pages. We try one photo then another. Jim finds photos. More talking and emailing. Catherine runs back and forth from her office to Jim's to weight in, provide fresh eyes. The shape of the book begins to emerge. Jim begs the powers that be for more pages, so that the book will have breathing room for the photos. He gets an okay, we slip in more photos, agonize over what we can't include. Jim chooses paper, tries different fonts, finds a spot for one last photo.

We wrap the whole thing up. Jim pushes some sort of magic electronic button and the book heads off for printing. I collapse on my bed for about two weeks. Jim gets on with his other work that's been stacking up.

So six months later the book gets reviewed in time for the pub date, October 15. I was just sent a copy of the Hornbook review. Here is my favorite part: "Partridge once again demonstrates why she is almost peerless in her photo selection. The photographs have a moral impact as well as a visual one: the stirring cover depicting two high school students, one with an American flag draped over his shoulder, the other with the word VOTE written on his forehead; a four-image sequence in which a young boy is confronted and arrested for holding up a voting rights sign; black men filling out applications to vote in front of a sign enumerating the offensively ridiculous obstacles placed in their way."

Of course I love being "almost peerless" in my photo selection!  But I have to say, take a bow Jim Hoover, peerless book designer.

Odd book titles, finishing touches on Big Cat Pepper

My blog today should be "read, write, laugh."

One of the things I don't do well is come up with titles. I admire people who do short snappy titles -- Laurie Halse Anderson is incredible at this with titles like Speak and Chains. I seem to prefer ten words or more....

So here's a contest for oddest book title of the year, started at the international Bologna Book Fair. Read to the end (it's a short article) for a good laugh.

We're getting down to the details on Big Cat Pepper. Melanie Cecka at Bloomsbury just sent me flap copy to check over, and asked for my dedication. Lauren Castillo's artwork is all done and is absolutely gorgeous.

Illustrator at work

One of the most wonderful things about writing a picture book is seeing what the illustrator brings to life. It's the most exciting sense of anticipation... what will my main character look like? Where will she live? Will she be made of delicate water colors or carefully cut paper, or combinations of art supplies that only illustrators and art directors know how to talk about?

My manuscript, Big Cat Pepper, is in the hands of illustrator Lauren Castillo. Her drawings are delicate and whimsical and touching all at the same time. She's posted a few incredible cat sketches on her blog as she finds her way into the manuscript. Which one will turn into my beloved Pepper?

People often don't realize that the editors get to choose the illustrators. There are a lot of good reasons for this. Editors see lots of portfolios, know who is fun to work with, who gets their work in on time, and all kinds of things I know nothing about. But if you are really, really lucky, your editor will ask you how you feel about someone they are thinking of approaching. When Jill Davis told me she was considering Lauren, I went to her website and starting shouting, "Yes! Yes! Ask her!"

And Lauren said yes, and here I am, eagerly waiting to see what Big Cat Pepper looks like, where he lives, and the boy and his mom who love him.

Just what do sales reps do, anyway?

I belong to a small on-line reading group. There are just four of us -- two authors and two illustrators. Our ostensible goal is to read books, mostly kids and YA with an occasional adult book, and figure out what makes them good or bad or popular or overlooked. We read. We pore over cool illustrations. We also talk about the publishing industry, juicy gossip (OK, there isn't THAT much in children's book publishing), and whine and laugh about tough work and family issues -- mostly raising kids and caring for elderly parents.

An agent suggested to one of the illustrators that she make something for the sales reps when her next book came out. It started us into a big discussion: what do sales reps do, anyway? What's a good sales rep? How do you know if they are saying lovely things about your book to the book store buyers?

I found lots of info on a recent Shelftalker post, Alison Morris' fantastic blog on Publisher's Weekly. It's a well-deserved love fest for reps, and if you scroll through the comments you'll see a couple from the reps, sharing the love back.

There are a bunch of really, really hardworking people out there, getting our books into the hands of readers. I join in the love fest: thank you reps and booksellers both!!