Category Archives: Harry Potter

September 14, 2016   Stacey   advice, children's books, editors, Harry Potter, imprints, middle grade, picture books, Stacey, writing, YA  
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The inside scoop on writing for kids

All you aspiring writers out there – don’t you sometimes wish you could sit down with an experienced editor and ask a book’s worth of questions about children’s book publishing? Well, your wish has been granted in the form of a new book written by children’s book editor and author Cheryl B. Klein.

Her site alone is full of good information for aspiring authors but it’s her new book, THE MAGIC WORDS: WRITING GREAT BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND  YOUNG ADULTS that is really going to give you the inside track.

In case you don’t know, the publisher she works for as the Executive Editor, Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic, published a little series called Harry Potter. Arthur Levine is the genius editor who recognized its market potential and bought it for the U.S. market. Their list is incredible and it’s a very small team that acquires and edits all of their books. She’s worked on a range of books, from picture books to YA, and she even worked on the last two books in the Harry Potter series.

THE MAGIC WORDS  itself has been generating good response and positive reviews. Booklist, a trade publication, gave it a starred review.  They describe it like this:  “For anyone wishing to write for young readers, Klein’s remarkable new book will be a sine qua non, an indispensable, authoritative guide to the act, art, and craft of creation. An editor for 15 years, Klein clearly knows her apples about the writing—and publishing—process and demonstrates an extraordinary gift for analyzing it, breaking it into its constituent parts, and reducing those parts to other parts until an essential kernel of truth is uncovered.”

Seems to me it’s more than a worthwhile investment (of under $20!) to learn about the unique craft of writing fiction for children from one of the best and brightest in the business. How she had time to write this book is beyond me, but I’m very glad she did so I can share it with all of you!

August 03, 2016   Stacey   bestsellers, buzz, characters, children's books, culture, fun, Harry Potter, Stacey, theater, word of mouth  
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Potter mania!

I know I’m not the only one talking about Harry Potter these days. The new “book”, which is really the published version of the play currently running in London (oh, how I wish I could go!) went on sale this week and the frenzy is out of control.

Publisher’s Weekly reports here that sales have already topped 2 million copies, in North America alone. I admit I’m one of those who preordered the book as soon as I heard it was becoming available. I actually realized that I did it twice so now have 2 copies on their way! Midnight parties across the country attracted kids and adults of all ages.

I just love how a fictional character has caused such a stir in popular culture. It’s such a positive reminder of the lasting impact books can have in a time when there is so much negativity being put out into the media. It’s incredible and practically unfathomable to me that a published play could achieve this level of success. I love theater so it’s heartening to me to know that this medium can generate big numbers, as evidenced by this new Harry Potter as well as the huge success of Hamilton (my other current obsession, more exciting news to come on that in a later post).

We’ve had our own version of Potter fever around here lately. While my oldest daughter is away at sleepaway camp, her younger sister dressed up as Harry for Halloween in July at camp (photo below). I was impressed with how she put the costume together with adult glasses and the scar drawn on a piece of scotch tape, and it helped we still have our wands from our amazing visit to Potter World at Universal in Florida last November.

Have you ordered your copy of Cursed Child yet? If you have and you’ve read it, please let us know what you think. Michiko Kakutani’s review in the New York Times was very positive and she’s one tough critic. She actually refers to it as “a compelling, stay-up-all-night read.” I’m so excited to dive back into the wonderful world of Harry Potter and read it with all the girls when Sam’s back from camp. Will let you know how it goes!

ps- my first copy arrived while I was writing this post, and it’s a beautiful book:

March 04, 2016   Stacey   children's books, fantasy, fiction, Harry Potter, length, middle grade, Stacey  
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REALLY lengthy middle grade fiction

Since I have two middle grade readers in my house, and two teetering on the brink, I was intrigued by this article from an editor at The Booklist Reader suggesting that middle grade novels have gotten longer over the last 40 years, and not just longer, but 173% longer (!), in large part because of Harry Potter. It’s pretty cool research.

I have a 5th grader who is pretty obsessed with Harry Potter, having read the entire series three times over. Not to mention we all just finished reading the beautiful illustrated edition of Book 1 that released last year. So, I get it. Sort of. Harry Potter changed the book world, for the better without question (having just seen Hamilton, I feel like that show changes the theater world the way Potter changed books, but I digress. Just go see it. It really is that good). The thing is that culturally we’ve gone in the complete opposite direction. We have shorter attention spans, want immediate gratification, and live on tidbits and snippets of news and entertainment (i.e. twitter, as one good example!). So, it seems a bit of an oxymoron that books are getting longer.

I see the challenges in my own kids. My oldest, the Potterhead, is ok with longer books although she certainly doesn’t seek them out. And honestly, while she does tons of reading for school, it’s been hard to find a book or series that has excited her the way Potter did. We’ve tried all the usual suspects and nothing has captivated her imagination in the same way.

My middle daughter who’s in third grade is more of a grazer when it comes to reading. She doesn’t like fantasy and prefers more contemporary books, often with humor. She’s very visual and likes books that have illustrations so she likes series like Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Personally I feel like there is a great deal of diversity in middle grade fiction now and from what I’m seeing on the selling side, much more to come over the next few years. The books that are selling are full of a broad range of characters, plots and, yes, lengths. The fantasies tend to be longer and run through more than one book, usually a trilogy to start. And the realistic stories tend to be shorter and can be contained in one book. I suspect the majority of books will continue to be published this way.

I’d also like to see the industry shift more to even shorter form fiction. Short stories and novellas for kids who like to read but might feel overwhelmed or intimidated by a book as long as Harry Potter. Something for everyone.

What do you think of this change in the middle grade category? Yay, nay, want to see more or less? Shorter or longer?