The Doors Sing "Reading Rainbow"

Jimmy Fallon does his impression of Jim Morrison here, reimagining the theme from Reading Rainbow as the Doors might have done it--complete with allusions to childhood favorites including Horton Hears a Who, Goodnight Moon, There's a Wocket in my Pocket, The Indian in the Cupboard, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

I fell asleep and missed this IRL. Happily, it's on Hulu and YouTube!

And for you young folks who don't know the Doors, check this out: When The Music's Over

Library of the Early Mind

My son is taking a college course called The Golden Age of Children's Literature. It sounds so fascinating, I often wish I could sneak in and sit in the back of the class! Today he told me about a new documentary they watched: Library of the Early Mind. According to the website, the film explores "the art and impact of children’s literature on our kids, our culture, and ourselves." My son described it as a series of interviews with well-known authors and illustrators of children's books, covering a range from the earliest picture books through middle grade and YA.

The interviewees include Mo Willems, Jeff Kinney, Lois Lowry, Mary Downing Hahn, M. T. Anderson, Brian Selznick, editor Arthur Levine, Natalie Babbitt, Jane Yolen ... and many more!

Here's a link to the trailer.

I'm thinking about asking for the DVD for Christmas. You can also rent it via streaming video.

Missouri SCBWI Conference

Just returned from the wonderful Missouri SCBWI conference in St. Charles.

Speakers included:

•  Heather Alexander, editor at Dial Books for Young Readers
• Quinlan Lee, agent for Adams Literary
• Suzanne Morgan Williams, author of Bull Rider
• Louise Jackson, author of Exiled
• Freelance author Sue Bradford-Edwards
• Rich Davis, children's book illustrator for Viking.

I especially enjoyed Suzanne Morgan Williams' workshop, Make Your Writing Shine. She showed us a revision technique that involves indicating dialogue, action, description, and internal thought with different colored markers--a good way to visually check what's happening in each scene. Ideally, there will be several colors next to a given paragraph. If there are large, unbroken blocks of description or internal thought, it's probably a good idea to work in some action.