SCBWI Announces 2019 Crystal Kite Awards
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The results are in! Here are your choices for the best fifteen books of the year by SCBWI members. Given to books that exhibit excellence in the field of children’s literature, the Crystal Kite Awards are voted upon by SCBWI members, the only peer-given award in our field. Congratulations to our wonderful 2019 winners for books published in 2018, listed here by regional division.
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Atlantic
(Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Wash DC, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland)
Hawk Rising
by Maria Gianferrari; illustrated by Brian Floca
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Mid South Division
(Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana)
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Mid West Division
(Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio)
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New England
(Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island)
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South East Division
(Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama
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South West Division
(Nevada, Arizona, Utah, southern Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico)
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Western Division
(Washington, Oregon, Alaska, northern Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota)
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Return of the New and Improved Reading List
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With its publication in November of this year, the SCBWI Reading List takes another step forward to provide marketing exposure for our members’ books. This year, the distribution of the Reading List will be supported by a major marketing campaign expanding our reach to even more librarians, booksellers and consumers who are potential book buyers. The goal is to make our reading list a go-to resource those those who purchase books.
The Reading List is one of our key benefits for SCBWI PAL members because it directly targets those "connectors" that influence which books young readers will discover. This list is distributed to librarians and booksellers throughout our regions as a way to showcase the wide variety of categories, genres, and subject matters of our members’ books. In order to better target our message to those most interested in the books, we will purchase a list of booksellers, public children’s librarians, and K-12 librarians.
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Golden Kite Awards Now Include Cash Prize
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In an exciting addition to the prestigious award, SCBWI announces that the Golden Kite Awards will now include a financial component. The Golden Kite winner in each category will receive $2,500, plus an additional $1,000 to donate to a non-profit organization of their choice. Each honor winner will receive $500 plus an additional $250 for donation. This prize will be given in addition to the statue, seals, press release, and appearance at the Golden Kite Gala that previous years’ winners have received.
Submissions are
now open
for the first wave of the 2020 Golden Kites. If you have a traditionally published book coming out between January 2019 and June 2019, you have until June 30 to apply. The second wave, for books published in the second half of the year, will begin on July 1.
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LA19 Early Registration Ends July 17
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Time is running out to register for the LA19 Summer Conference. This year’s event will include keynotes from Pura Belpre and Caldecott Honor winner
Yuyi Morales
, National Book Award winner and
Feed
superstar
M.T. Anderson
, Newbery Medal winner Meg Medina, and a rare U.S. appearance from picture book legend
Mem Fox
.
The conference also features 72 breakout sessions that give authors and illustrators the opportunity to learn the craft and business of children’s book publishing directly from acquiring agents and editors.
Nearly 700 members have already claimed spaces, so act fast while tickets remain.
Early registration ends on July 17
.
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A book fair in Michigan. A concert in New York. A monster-themed bash in Virginia. These are just a few of the literary events featured this June in SCBWInvite. This comprehensive listing of member-hosted events launched on May 15, and already has promoted dozens of our members’ events, both in-person and online.
Our aim in creating SCBWInvite is to foster a strong literary community that goes beyond SCBWI-run events. This is a way to find your people, to celebrate the work of your fellow artists and invite them to support your work in turn. If you are planning a book tour across multiple cities, SCBWInvite is a crucial way to let members know when and where to find you. Conversely, if you are at home with an empty social calendar, consider SCBWInvite your “in” to the vibrant world of children’s book creators.
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Lesléa Newman Revisits Legacy of
Heather Has Two Mommies
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June is Pride month, which means it's the perfect time to celebrate books that explore sexuality, gender identity, and all identities under the LGBTQ+ umbrella.
As we celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, let's take a look at a historical landmark in children's literature. In 1989, SCBWI member
Lesléa Newman
published her first picture book, a tale of love and acceptance about a little girl with two moms. The book quickly became a beacon of lesbian representation and sparked a nation-wide debate about LGBTQ+ content in children's books. Thirty years on,
Heather Has Two Mommies
is regarded as a classic, and an important step forward for an industry--and a culture at large--that is still evolving on LGBTQ+ issues.
Lesléa Newman is a nine-time Lambda Literary Award finalist and has authored over seventy books, including
Ketzel, the Cat Who Composed
;
Too Far Away to Touch
;
Sparkle Boy;
and
Gittel's Journey: An Ellis Island Story
. This Pride month, Newman revisits the legacy of
Heather Has Two Mommies
and what it meant for LGBTQ+ representation in the children's book industry.
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Three Cheers for K-Fai Steele!
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Steele describes her SCBWI journey in her own words:
I think everyone should make a book. Getting into the business of Being a Professional Book Maker is a entirely different thing.
When I joined SCBWI in 2015, I had what I thought was a good portfolio (full of pigs) and a few book dummies. But I totally lacked knowledge of the current book industry. Through SCBWI I got a sense of the culture, community, people, and business side of picture book making. And, equally importantly, I met my agent (aka business partner), Erica Rand Silverman. I credit so much of my learning-the-ropes through SCBWI, and still consult notes regularly from conferences I’ve attended.
Trying to make a career as a picture book author and illustrator in our economy can be devastatingly hard. As long as I do this work, I will forever be a freelancer/small business owner; something I didn’t realize I was signing up for. There’s no one roadmap to success so it’s critical to be scrappy and nimble, and to listen to/learn from other people. SCBWI continues to be a great resource on my path.
Three Cheers is an
Insight
feature in which we periodically select SCBWI members who have had a phenomenal success story to share. If you have realized a dream through your involvement with SCBWI, please send your story to
threecheers@scbwi.org
.
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SCBWI Exclusive with...
Erika Turner, Editor, Versify
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Erika Turner
is a children's book editor at
Versify
, the new imprint helmed by Kwame Alexander at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. She loves unexpected concepts, surly middle grade protagonists, and queer YA fantasy. In her spare time, she looks up real estate listings for fun, obsesses over home décor, and wanders the city petting other people’s dogs.
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Draw This! is our monthly prompt word for illustrators.
Congratulations to the May winners! The May prompt word was
"Alone"
Click
HERE
to view the May Gallery
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June's prompt word is:
"Camp"
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