The Keynote speaker was Deborah Wiles who has won, among others, E.B. White Read-Aloud Award, Bank Street Fiction Award, Coretta Scott King/Steptoe Award, Ezra Jack Keats Award, the Golden Kite Honor, and the Simon Wiesenthal Award. Her books include Each Little Bird That Sings, Freedom Summer, and Love, Ruby Lavender.

Deborah told us of her writing journey. She told about how she took from the loss in her life and how she used Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs to come up with realistic, compelling characters. She also told about how the hens in Love, Ruby Lavender were patterned after the aunts she visited in Mississippi during her childhood summers.

Editors:

Robin Tordini:
Robin Todini, Associate Editor with Henry Holt, seems to have a great sense of humor. She showed us some of her favorite picture books and told us what she liked about them.

Her list of nicely done picture books includes,

Arnie, the Doughnut~written and illustrated by Laurie Keller

Rosa~written by Nikki Giovanni, illustrated by Bryan Collier

The Stupids Step Out ~written by Harry G. Allard, illustrated by James Marshall

Did Dinosaurs Eat Pizza?: Mysteries Science Hasn’t Solved~written by Lenny Hort, illustrated by John O’Brien

I Am Too Absolutely Small for School ~written and illustrated by Lauren Child

Cowboy and Octopus~written by Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith

The Scrambled States of America~written and illustrated by Laurie Keller

And Robin’s favorite PB of all time. . .
The hugely hysterical,

Benny and the Binky~written by Barbro Lindgren, illustrated by Olof Landstrom, translated by Elisabeth Kallick Dyssegaard

So if you want to pitch to Robin, beg, borrow, or buy these books and get a feel for what she likes. Quirky and funny, for sure.

Jennifer Wingertzahn:
Jennifer Wingertzahn, Editor with Clarion Books, was witty, interesting, and came across as warm and approachable.

She gave us a fun writing assignment—write a first sentence to a book and then re-write it in various ways. I can’t remember the exact order of her exercises but they went something like this:

1. in third person
2. in first person
3. in past tense
4. in present tense
5. with onomatopoeia
6. in omniscient using kind of a highbrow tone (she read from Jane Austin’s Sense and Sensibility)
7. in verse
8. using similes and metaphors
9. using a Tom Sawyer type voice
10. using alliterative language

It was a very fun exercise and it also told us some things about Ms. Wingertzahn—she likes fine writing. She likes to have fun with writing. She likes her writers to stretch and come up with fresh stuff.

Jennifer also told us she likes the book, Not Like You, by Deborah Davis. One reason she likes this book is that the characters are so fully realized.

Also at the conference was Martha Rago, Associate Creative Director with HarperCollins. I’m sorry I didn’t take very good notes on her talks. I’m not an illustrator. She gave an interesting talk taking us through the making of a picture book, from time of purchase, through the illustration stage, and all the way to the printing press.

Diane Capriola, owner of an indy children’s bookstore in DeCatur Georgia, Little Shop of Stories, gave us some tips from a bookseller’s perspective.

Add to all this the wonderful writers you can meet and chat with, and the great food and skits and awards presentations, and you can easily see why you don’t want to miss the next SpringMingle, or the next local SCBWI conference in your region. These are perfect, inexpensive ways to network, to learn about craft and publishing, and to fellowship with other weird people who love to read children’s books more than anything.

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Books listed in this article:
Each Little Bird That Sings
Freedom Summer
Love, Ruby Lavender
Arnie, the Doughnut
Rosa
The Stupids Step Out
Did Dinosaurs Eat Pizza?: Mysteries Science Hasn’t Solved
I Am Too Absolutely Small for School (Charlie and Lola)
Cowboy and Octopus
The Scrambled States of America
Benny and the Binky
Not Like You