What About Moose?

When my daughter Jordan was little, she was incredibly bossy with her younger brother.  One day when they were two and three, Josh was putting supplies away in the art cabinet. Jordan looked over his shoulder and said, "Not like that, Joshy!"

Josh turned to me and said sadly, "I never do anything right."    

Poor little guy!

Later on, Jordan was watching a Franklin episode on TV and it happened to be about bossiness.  

I watched... extremely interested to see how it would play out    Franklin was being bossy, so his friends all decided not to play with him anymore.  Naturally, he "learned his lesson" and apologized and promised not to be bossy anymore. It was so didactic.

I said to my writing partner Becky, "Let's write a story about bossiness that is not preachy."

And WHAT ABOUT MOOSE? was born. 

Moose is building a tree house with a bunch of friends.   He is so busy ordering everyone around that he doesn't realize that he is getting boxed inside. 

I am thrilled to announce that this story was recently acquired by the lovely Emma Ledbetter at Atheneum (Simon & Schuster).  

And in case, you already knew that, here is some new news-  it will be illustrated by Keika Yamaguchi!  

We are super excited to see Keika bring this story to life!

Why I Don't Blog Anymore

When I started to blog in late 2008, I was madly in love with it.  One might even say "obsessed."  (Especially if "one' happened to be a neglected member of my family)

I got 169 posts up in my first full calendar year, and must have read and commented on literally tens of thousands of others.  In 2010, I was down to 84 posts, and in 2012, I set a goal of 24 and sadly, couldn't even manage that. 

I used to get so many benefits from blogging.  A sense of community.  A feeling of connectedness and support. A way to procrastinate doing laundry.  

What happened?  I asked myself.

Did I have burn out?  Had I run out of things to say? Was it because my kids were older and were not giving me as much funny material?

How could I have stopped blogging?

And that's when I realized.... I haven't stopped. 

It is just now called-- Facebook.  Posts are shorter (and referred to as "status updates").  But the essence is the same. (just ask the neglected husband and kids)

And so, my days of posting here are pretty much behind me. However, since I can't update my web site myself, I will use this blog as the dynamic portion of my site. It'll kind of be my "News and Events" section.

And speaking of news... I have a LOT of it! 

So stay tuned.

The 2012 Picture Book Oscars

And the awards go to...


BEST MALE CHARACTER

Big Mean Mike in BIG MEAN MIKE





BEST FEMALE CHARACTER

Goldilocks in GOLDILOCKS AND JUST ONE BEAR

 



BEST MALE SUPPORTING CHARACTER

The dinosaur from Norway in GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE DINOSAURS

 


BEST FEMALE SUPPORTING CHARACTER

Gran in ME WANT PET





BEST CHARACTER IN A NON-SPEAKING ROLE

The carrots in CREEPY CARROTS!
 




BEST FULL CAST ENSEMBLE

Davy, Petey, Mike, Stu, Mickey, Carl, Pip, Ralph, Tate, Lenny, Gil, Ned, & Bob in ANOTHER BROTHER

 


BEST FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

Dog in DOG IN CHARGE





BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

THIS MOOSE BELONGS TO ME




And finally....

BEST PICTURE BOOK

BOY + BOT

Happy 2013!

Wow, I haven't blogged since the summer!

Here are the last four months
in a nutshell:

SEPTEMBER

Book Launch

OCTOBER

Hurricane Sandy

NOVEMBER

Atlantis

DECEMBER

Holidays

And there you have it.

See you in May.

 (just kidding :)

Move Over Avengers!

Move over avengers!

There are some new super heroes in town!   

The Three Ninja Pigs

If you see a wolf in your area, just call 1-800-555-KIYA!

In stores, September, 27th.

What's Orange and Crunchy and ...Coming for You!

Huge congrats to Aaron Reynolds whose cute, quirky CREEPY CARROTS just hit #7 on the NY Times bestseller list.  This clever story, with fabulous art by Peter Brown, is a must-have in any picture book collection.

And lucky for you, I accidentally pre-ordered it twice!  So I am giving away a copy.  Just "like" my Facebook author page:  Corey Rosen Schwartz- PB Ninja.   Leave me a comment there and you are entered.

I'm a Crammer

Last year, I challenged myself to read 52 books in 52 weeks.  Some time in late August, I realized I had only read 11 books.  So I put the pedal to the metal.  In the end, I reached about 43.  I was short of my goal, but I had a good final stretch there.

In 2012, I signed up for Julie Hedlund's 12 x 12-  write 12 picture books in twelve months.  Well, we are more than halfway through the year, and I am at... uh, let me see here... um, that would be zero.  (Okay, my writing partner would argue that we have one very rough first draft. but I don't like it enough to count it)

Can I still do it?  It's possible.  I wrote many a term paper in the wee hours of the morning.

 But then again, there was no Internet in 1986.