Blog
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Eighth Annual Children's Choice Book Awards Winners Announced During the 96th Annual Children's Book Week
New York, NY — May 4, 2015 – The Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader announced the winners of the eighth annual Children’s Choice Book Awards (CCBA) at …
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Favorite Children's Authors Come Together To Get Kids Reading This Summer
NEW YORK, NY – Recent research from The Kids & Family Reading Report indicates that 91% of kids say that their favorite books are the ones they picked out themselves1 – and summer is …
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Children's Book Week 2015 #storylines: Janet Wong
Janet Wong let’s us know it’s book time with this rhyme from The Poetry Friday Anthology (Pomelo Books, 2012): See other quotes in the series, and share your favorites! Quote …
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Children's Book Week 2015 #storylines: Allen Say
Great quotes are transporting. Let Allen Say take you along on his Grandfather’s Journey (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers, 1993): See other quotes in the series, and share …
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Children's Book Week 2015 #storylines: Rebecca Stead
Snuggle up with a great weekend read and this quote from Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me (Wendy Lamb Books/Random House Children’s, 2009): See other quotes in the series, and …
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Happy 96th annual Children's Book Week (May 4-10)!
Celebrate the best week of the year! Visit bookweekonline.com now through May 10 for official Children’s Book Week events in all 50 states, activities, and much more! Tell your friends! …
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Children's Book Week 2015 #storylines: Matt de la Peña
Celebrate family and quiet beauty with this quote from Matt de la Peña’s picture book Last Stop on Market Street (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers/Penguin, 2015): See other …
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HarperCollins Publishers Announces Changes to Leadership at HarperCollins Children’s Books
New York, NY – HarperCollins Publishers today announced that Susan Katz, President and Publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books, will retire this summer after 28 years with the organization. Suzanne Murphy, currently Vice …
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Judy Blume Shows Support for the New York Public Library
You can show your support by signing this letter. Librarians are the protectors of intellectual freedom. They are the defenders of books and imagination and thought. They are on the …
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President Obama to Announce New eBook and Library Initiatives
As part of the president’s ConnectED program, the White House has reached out to major book publishers to provide over $250 million in free eBooks to low-income students. In addition, …
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Children's Book Week 2015 #storylines: Kate Milford
You’re in for a treat with this quote from Kate Milford’s middle-grade mystery Greenglass House (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers, 2014): See other quotes in the series, and …
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North Shore Music Theatre & Friends of Dane Street Playground to Host ‘Smash the Guinness World Record’ Fundraiser Event
WHAT: On Sunday, May 17th, the North Shore Music Theatre will host a fundraiser to benefit the Friends of Dane Street Playground and to break a Guinness World Record: “Most parents reading to their children simultaneously.” …
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Humble Bundle Supports Children's Book Week
Humble Bundle teams with the Children’s Book Council in launching kids comics bundle San Francisco, Calif. – April 29, 2015 – In celebration of Children’s Book Week this year, Humble …
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Neurological Study Supports Reading Aloud to Young Children
After the children’s caregivers provided information on reading practices in the home, the subjects underwent fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) scans while listening to stories. The kids whose guardians read …
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Children's Book Week 2015 #storylines: Grace Lin
Here’s a heartwarming proverb from Grace Lin’s Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Hachette, 2009): See other quotes in the series, and share your favorites! …
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Atheneum Books For Young Readers to Launch New Imprint: Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
New York, NY – Esteemed children’s book editor Caitlyn Dlouhy will launch an eponymous imprint, Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing announced today. The newly formed imprint will reside within …
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There's a Party in Your Head and Everyone's Invited
Contributed to CBC Diversity by Melissa Grey
There are seven narrators in The Girl at Midnight – a fact I wasn’t very open with during the querying process because I was worried the number might scare off potential agents. My thinking was that by the time someone read enough of the manuscript to discover just how bonkers I went with the number of point-of-view characters, they would either be invested enough in the story or they’d already soured on it. The gamble paid off.
Because there are so many narrators, I’m often asked how I approach writing a single story with so many PoV characters. I’m not always fastidious when it comes to writing methodology but these are a few points to keep in mind when writing different perspectives (especially when they’re different from you in terms of sex, gender, race, culture, etc.).
It is not a single story
You’re the star of your own life, right? Well, that’s how your characters feel about their lives, even if they’re not the book’s main character. Every character is the hero of their own story, even the villains. No one thinks of themselves as the side dish. So, even if a PoV character has only a single chapter in a book of sixty, they should still have their own perspective on the story. They need their own motivations, their own desires, their own outcomes. When I was plotting out The Girl at Midnight, I made a list of what each character wanted more than anything and what they actually got in the end (so often, the two are not the same). Each character thinks the story is theirs. It’s important to be mindful of that.
Research, research, research
Research is key. It’s always critical, no matter what you’re writing, but it’s absolutely essential when you’re writing an experience different from your own. I am not a gay man, but there is one in my book, so I did my homework. I’m dealing with mostly nonhuman characters in The Girl at Midnight trilogy but ideas of racism, bigotry, and prejudice are still a part of it, so I did that homework too; even though I have personal experience with prejudice (I’m a woman and not white), my experience is not universal. Reading fiction and nonfiction about and, more importantly, by people different from you is so, so, so important. It will inform how your characters approach the world of your book and the problems in it.
Write outside the box (or book)
One of the strategies that really helped me get inside the heads of so many characters was writing stuff that was never going to be in the book. I used to write fan fiction (ain’t no shame in it!) and one of the common types of fic is called Five Times Fic. It’s basically short stories like Five Times Harry and Draco Kissed and One Time They Didn’t. Each ‘time’ is usually short, maybe 100-200 words depending on the writer, so it’s all about those slice-of-life moments that show you the heart of a character. I wrote drabbles like that for several of the characters in The Girl at Midnight when they were proving elusive (Caius was a bit slippery sometimes) and it was such a fun way to get to know them. I didn’t have to worry about building a whole plot or impressing my writing partners or wowing an editor. Those little side stories were for my eyes only and they really, truly helped. I find they’re also a great way to combat writer’s block. And they’re just plain fun. Fun is so essential. Writing a book is hard, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun!
Melissa Grey was born and raised in New York City. She wrote her first short story at the age of twelve and hasn’t stopped writing since. After earning a degree in fine arts at Yale University, she traveled the world, then returned to New York City where she currently works as a freelance journalist. To learn more about Melissa, visit melissa-grey.com and follow @meligrey on Twitter.
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Jumpstart and Candlewick Press Partner to Celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Jumpstart’s Read for the Record®
BOSTON, MA (APRIL 28, 2015) — Jumpstart, a national early education non-profit organization, and Candlewick Press, an independent children’s publisher, have announced their partnership in honor of the 10th anniversary …
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Children's Book Week 2015 #storylines: Roald Dahl
Here’s a morsel from Roald Dahl’s confectionary classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Puffin Books/Penguin Young Readers, 1964): See other quotes in the series, and share your favorites! Quote #1: …
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Scholastic to Sell Educational Technology Business to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for $575 Million
New York, NY – Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHL) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Educational Technology and Services (“EdTech”) business to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company …
