For all aspiring authors, the Highlights Foundation is a wonderful workshop resource. They have unique, inspiring theme ideas and impressive experts. I haven’t gone to one yet, they’ve been too far away for us, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to attend. This one was just forwarded on to me, so I thought I’d share an example:

In the beginning, a book is no more than an idea: a dancing pig, a talking spider, or a series of unfortunate events. As we consider what that idea can become, our job as the writer grows ever more important. We develop our idea so that it can resonate with readers, leaving them satisfied and, we hope, in love.

What makes readers fall head over heels in love with a book? It is never as simple as connecting with a character or liking the plot. No, the books that make their hearts beat in hurried little rhythms have something more, something that makes them rise above all others on the shelf. But what is this something that draws readers again and again through the very best books?

Books That Rise Above: A Children’s Book Colloquium will help us answer that very question. This colloquium is for writers, librarians, and academics wishing to learn from an exquisite panel of children’s book experts about what makes an award-winning, heart-stirring book come to life.

Linda Sue Park will lead us through the best in middle-grade and young-adult literature. She will draw on her own Newbery Award-winning book, A Single Shard, as a shining example of that extra something that hooks the older reader (and award committees) into reading a book again and again and again.

Michael L. Printz Honor winner and National Book Award finalist Deborah Heiligman will speak about the common threads that pull nonfiction from the dark shadows of the bookshelf and into the light of top honors in the field of children’s literature.

Leonard S. Marcus will share his experiences as critic for The New York Times and The Horn Book and as a member of the selection committees for the National Book Award, the Caldecott Award, and the Ezra Jack Keats Award. As the author of Candlewick’s popular Conversations With . . . series, Leonard will also share what he has learned in interviewing hundreds of children’s book historians, authors, editors, and illustrators.

Author and seasoned editor Patricia Lee Gauch will share her expertise in the picture-book format and her experiences editing three Caldecott-winning books, including Owl Moon by Jane Yolen.

Elizabeth Bird, noted blogger for School Library Journal, contributor to The Horn Book, member of the Newbery and National Book Award committees, and children’s librarian at the Children’s Center at the Forty-Second Street branch of the New York Public Library, will talk about making books that teachers and librarians reach for.

Seats are limited, so if you would like to pull up a chair next to one of these experts and understand what makes an award-winning, heart-stirring book come to life, call Jo and reserve your spot now.

For more information about this workshop (taking place near Honesdale, Pennsylvania), or to request an application, please visit our Web site, contact Jo Lloyd at 570-253-1192, or e-mail Jo.Lloyd@highlightsfoundation.org.

Please feel free to share this e-mail with others who might have an interest, or to include the information in blog posts or through other social networking forums.

The Highlights Foundation is a public, not-for-profit 501©3 organization. We dedicate our efforts to connecting, nurturing, and inspiring children’s book writers and illustrators.

Filed under: Writing Tips & Hints