Dog-Eared Publications Publisher

Dog-Eared Publications is a Nature Publisher for Children. I spoke with Nancy on the phone last week after discovering her website http://www.dog-eared.com/index.html

Publisher Nancy Field's dedication to environmental education for children began when she co-chaired the first Earth Day at South Dakota State University in 1970. At that time, she realized the necessity of educating young minds in order to change the way adults perceive environmental problems.

Today, 37 years later, Nancy Field presides as publisher of a nationally known and respected nature publishing company, Dog-Eared Publications. She writes, designs, and publishes interactive books to expand children's knowledge and understanding of the natural world and to foster an environmental ethic within them. The books are engaging, thought-provoking and broad in scope. The works introduce ecological principals and concepts, current issues, and environmental problems: they open children's eyes to the world in which they live. Young readers see scientists as role models actively involved in research. Activities are designed to involve children's minds, helping them process information. The activities provide opportunities to develop skills in critical thinking, cooperative learning and creative problem-solving. Through interaction with the materials, readers retain what they have learned. Nancy?s books take children a unique step beyond simple awareness to actions appropriate for their age.

Degrees in science enable Nancy to design books employing sound principles of science education. She has B.S. in biology science education from the Univ. of Wisconsin and a M.S. in wildlife biology from South Dakota State Univ. She has been certified by the Wildlife Society as an associate wildlife biologist. Over the years, Nancy lived in different communities, including Seattle,WA and Corvallis, OR. Nancy taught biology and environmental science at colleges in the various areas, such as Bellevue Community College, Western Oregon State College and Oregon State University. In 1988, Nancy moved to Middleton, WI with her husband Donald R. Field, a professor in forestry at U. of Wis., Madison.At that time, Dog-Eared Publications became a full time business.

Dog-Eared Publications has created 26 titles, written for the 3rd to 6th grade reading level. Field discovered a national park service niche and has books in most national parks around the country. The books are also successfully sold in U. S. Forest Service areas, wildlife refuges, museums, aquariums, and zoos Teachers also find the books excellent supplements to science texts. Nan's most recent title, Discovering Sharks and Rays, took home the prestigious 2004 Ben Franklin Award for Best Juvenile-Young Adult Nonfiction from Publishers Marketing Association. The book was also a Finalist in ForeWord Magazine?s Book of the Year Award competition. And it was named one of the "Hottest Products of 2004" by iParenting Media.Another title, Leapfrogging Through Wetlands won three awards in 1999: a Ben Franlkin Award in the category of science and the environment, a Parent?s Guide to Children?s Media Award and a Parents? Choice Silver Award. Several other books have been best sellers. For example, Discovering Northwest Volcanoes is the best selling children?s books at both Mt. St. Helens visitor center and at Mt. Rainier National Park. Over 70,000 copies have been sold. Her timely Discovering Endangered Species book, published in 1990, sold 18,000 copies in just the first year and now has more than 80,000 in print. Discovering Wolves was the first book written in Wisconsin and includes numerous Midwest examples. The newest book is Discovering Black Bears. Nancy's books are having a profound effect on the breadth of children's environmental awareness.


Check out her latest book.
Discovering Black Bears By Margaret Anderson, Nancy Field andKaren Stephenson
ISBN: 978-0-941042-37-6

This engaging book explores the natural history of the American black bear, its behavior and habitat. It covers bear/human conflicts and how problems can be resolved. Written by scientists, this book contains 20 clever activities designed to stimulate children's minds. It contains a full sheet of biologically accurate black bear stickers.

**Nancy sent me a copy for review. Well, I have to say my kids were all over it. The book is engaging. The quality of pictures is terrific. The stickers are fun and realistic. My daughter loved them the most. My son wanted to color in the bears.
Overall the book passed the toughest critics -- my kids.

SUMMER BOOK PARTY 2

YACWW 2nd ANNUAL SUMMER BOOK PARTY!

Come keep cool with this summer's hottest authors at YACWW! And be entered in the SUMMER BOOK PARTY contest. *

Check out last years line up for the 1st SUMMER BOOK PARTY.


MIRROR, MIRROR by Chloe Michelle
Publisher - Mardi Gras Press ISBN - 1-934329-56-8
YA - Manga / Fantasy 240 pgs
I didn’t plan to spend my last summer vacation before college kidnapping the future Emperor of Japan. And I didn’t expect to be chased, attacked, or seduced by sword wielding samurai or put on the marriage market by an ancestor who died a century before I was born, but I was. And it all started with a shabby old mirror I found after publicly humiliating myself…


DEE DAYS by Adelle Laudan
Publisher - Mardi Gras Press ISBN 1-934329-20-7
Tween - Mystery (series) 120 pgs
Deedee is twelve years old and taller than all of her friends. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they had to move, which meant a new house, a new school and new friends. Her life was over!! Soon after they moved Deedee met Anita and they became fast friends. They were told not to go into the Arena at the end of the street. It had been boarded up for years and wasn’t safe. Curiosity got the better of the two girls and they made plans to explore the old skating rink. What would they find? Was it really as dangerous as they said? Would they regret not listening to all the warnings? They would find out soon enough…



I WAS A TEENAGE POPSICLE By Bev Katz Rosenbaum
Publisher: Gerkley Jam ISBN: 0425211800
YA - Sci-fi/ Chic Lit 256 pgs
Floe Ryan was frozen—well, ‘vitrified’—when she was sixteen. She’s just been thawed, and guess what, it’s ten years in the future and she’s still a teenager. And her parents are still, shall we say, chilling out. Floe’s little sister is now her older sister (and guardian!), and payback’s a beyotch. On top of that, Floe has to get used to a new school, new technology, and a zillion other new things that happened while she was napping in the freezer. Luckily, she has Taz Taber–the hottie sk8er boy who used to make her melt before she was frozen—to reintegrate with. But now they’re trying to close the Venice Beach Cryonics Center—with Floe’s parents still in it! Now that’s cold. It’s up to Floe to save the clinic and her parents—so she can finally have a chance at a somewhat normal life…

*Rules for SUMMER BOOK PARTY contest:
To be entered in the contest simply read one of the books by any of our authors and give a review of the book to your librarian or post the review here in comments. All who submit a review are eligible to chat live online with our authors in August via a live chat function on www.yacreativewriting.blogspot.com.


Participants who write a review are eligible to be included in a random raffle to win an autographed copy of a book by one of our authors.

Interview with Adelle Laudan

Adelle Laudan is no stranger to this blog. She generously took part in a chat we hosted between her and a fourth grade class in NY and has been a wonderful supporter of YACWW efforts.

It is so great to have her here today, especially since she has some great news to share about her book, Dee Days. But I'll let you find that our for yourself. Enjoy.

Thank you Patrizia and Sasha for having me here today.

Can you tell us about your journey to become a writer/author?

I think it began in my early teens. I started writing my thoughts down on paper. Writing was my great escape from the harshness of life, a place where being hearing impaired had no relevance. I’d only let one other person read my stories up until five years ago when I met the love of my life. January 2006 is the first time I entered a writing contest, in doing so, gave me the desire to try and publish something. At first I was just going to self publish, but the more my friends pushed as well as the positive feedback I received whenever I posted something online gave me the courage to submit my first book Juliana, a story of my heart, which was very well received.

The rest… is history in the making.

You're making a splash with contemporary/mainstream romantic fiction. What made you turn your hand to tween fiction?

I love both genres and think I can have the best of both worlds. My girls are ages almost 12 and 13, so they were always bugging me to write something they could read. I really enjoy writing Tween fiction. For me, it is fun and I will to continue writing books for Tweens, for as long as they are reading them.

I see a definite motorcycle motif running through your writing and websites. What's the story behind that?

I was sort of bouncing from genre to genre, trying to find my niche. A wise woman told me, to write what I know. Since I’ve lived the lifestyle, most of my adult life, it just made sense to write about it. People have the wrong impression of Bikers in general. The majority of us are working class, family orientated people who just happen to share the common bond of riding. It is my hope to change the image of Bikers, one book at a time.

Tell us about Tween Time. Where did the idea come from? What's the motivation behind it? How is it succeeding?

Tween Time originated from my desire to keep my Tween Fiction separate from my Adult Fiction. I also think that kids in their Tween years tend to get lost in the shuffle. They are not kids anymore and not quite young adults either. I wanted a place that was all about Tweens. How different my life might have been if I’d had support and encouragement with my writing at this age.

Give us a brief description of Dee Days.

Dee Days is a Tween mystery with a tWiSt. It is the story of Deedee and how she coped with having to move, after living in the same neighborhood her whole life. Deedee is a bit of an ‘outsider’ amongst her peers. She is taller than most of the kids her age and her strict father, forbids her to wear jeans like the other kids her age. Exploring her new neighborhood with new friend Anita, they find an old abandoned skating arena at the end of her street. In spite of being forbidden to go near the arena, Deedee and Anita venture inside. What they find will have you sitting on the edge of your seats…

How did the idea behind Dee Days come about?

There was an actual arena like the one in my book at the end of my street at that age. Although I never ventured inside as a child, I often imagined all sorts of things happening behind the boarded up windows. Dee Days offered me a way to explore these daydreams and make them a reality of sorts. I am very excited to see Dee Days coming out in print in June 2007.

What other tween books do you have in the works?

I have just signed a Series Contract, making Dee Days the first book in the Dee Day Mystery series. The second book will be out October 13th and in print November 2007!!

I am also doing research for a Tween Fantasy. I’ve never written one before but am having a ball putting it all together. Hopefully it will be ready to submit later this year.

If you could be any character in a book or movie, who would you be and why?

Hermione Grange from Harry Potter. It would be incredible to play a part in such a fascinating world such as the one JK Rowling created for this series.

What is the toughest part of writing for tweens?

Maybe it’s because my girls are in their tween years, but I don’t have any difficulty writing as a tween. I think the hardest part is getting the word out to tweens about my books. There is a serious lack of venues to do so which is why places like this are greatly appreciated.

What advice can you give to young adults wanting to write?

Learn as much as you can about the craft of writing. Read as much as you can in the genre you’d like to write in. Remain teachable; finding a mentor is always a good thing. Most importantly, write… just do it, and don’t force yourself to write something your heart isn’t in. In other words, don’t worry about the trends in writing. A good book will always be a good book, no matter what the trend is this week.

I wish you all Miles of Smiles J
http://adellelaudan.com
http://mardigraspublishingya.com

Review of Thirteen Reasons Why

If you'd like to read a review for Jay Asher's debut novel Thirteen Reasons Why click here.

Feedback on the Chats

We mentioned below that at the end of April through the beginning of May, we held aseries of chats where we hooked up six YA authors with five 11th grade English classes form a Lake Charles, LA high school.

There were glitches as you might expect. Because of firewalls and blocking software on the school's computers we couldn't use a chat forum and ended up using the comments of the blog posts introducing the authors. This meant that everyone had to refresh their screen constantly as they chatted. All the authors were very cool about this though they noted that it was a drawback. We are trying very hard to figure out a way that we can have the chats work as we would like them to.

While we hope to have another post giving you feedback from the high school end soon, this post will share some of the comments from the authors and tell you who they are. Do take the time to check over their books. There's quite a variety in subject matter and tone. There's bound to be a story here that you'll want to read.

In response to "What questions surprised you or impressed you the most," our authors said this and a bit more:

Julie Harford: Click here to see the chat.
I had some (the usual “what inspires you” and “what age did you start”) but some of them really caught me off guard (like “are you intimidated by other books” and “which authors are you most like” and “do you ever think it’s pointless to make another piece of literature.”




Jenny Han: Click here to see the chat.
One student asked me how it felt, as a writer, to be immortal. I never heard that one before! I just enjoyed chatting with some very sophisticated students—I got a kick out of a student who said he couldn’t think of a question and asked what I wanted to tell him.


Greg Neri: Click here to see the chat.
A poet asked what advice I had for poetry. I was just getting started and could have easily chatted for another 30 minutes to get into some real discussion. I know it’s limited to class times but an hour is best.





Judy Gregerson: Click here to see the chat.
One kid mentioned that I worked as a kid. I found it interesting that she/he picked up on that. [The chat] gave me a sense of what kids want to know about authors.




Bev Katz Rosenbaum: Click here to see the chat.
I had looked over one of the other chats, so I was prepared to talk about what books I liked as a teen, where I got my ideas, and how I went about writing a novel. Somebody asked which character in a novel I'd like to be. Showed imagination!





Jay Asher: Click here to see the chat.
Someone asked whether I’d had suicidal thoughts, and if that inspired me to write Thirteen Reasons Why. Honestly, I enjoyed the straightforwardness of that question, because usually people tap-dance around that subject even though it’s the main subject in my book that ties all the characters together.

We hope to have further chats between schools and authors. If you're an author and are interested in participating in such a forum, please don't hesitate to let us know. And if you're a teacher who would like to set up such a chat for your class, drop us a line and we'll see what we can do.

Cheers!

Journey To India Essay Contest

New York Life offers a unique opportunity for 18 -23 yr olds!




New York Life Insurance Company
&
Air India

Present

"Bharat Yatra 5": A Journey to India

An Essay Competition

TO U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY


The Essay must consist of approximately 1,500 words and must be written in English on the topic below. All essays must be the original sole work of the entrant. You must be between the ages of 18 and 23 to participate and possess a valid passport.

Topic: Wildlife conservation in India: Present day challenges and measures required for positive action.

Successful candidates will have the opportunity to visit Karnataka, India. The group will study the importance of ecological security in India and the significance in maintaining natural life to sustain culture and national balance. Fifteen contestants will be chosen to participate in the Bharat Yatra. The group journeying to India will depart from New York City on July 21, 2007 and will return to the United States on August 3, 2007. The all-expense-paid trip to India includes national and international transportation, housing and meals. A panel of three judges will evaluate the essays. Decisions of the judges are final and binding. The winners will be announced on or before June 21, 2007 by the news media, as well as by telephone.

A panel of three judges will evaluate the essays. Decisions of the judges are final and binding. The winners will be announced on or before June 21, 2007 by the news media, as well as by telephone.

Send all Essays to:

Essay Competition
India Tourism Office
1270 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 1808
New York, NY 10020


Essays must be postmarked no later than May 21, 2007. All participants must submit the following with their essay:

• Application form, resume and photo;
• Release and Authorization forms.

To participate fill the forms below, sign, print and mail them to the address above. All entries will become the property of New York Life Insurance Company and will not be returned. This competition is subject to change and may be cancelled or modified at any time. All Federal, State, and local laws apply. Taxes, if any, are the sole responsibility of the winner.

Again, to participate fill out both pdf forms below, sign, print, and mail them to: Essay Competition, India Tourism Office at 1270 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 1808, New York, NY, no later than May 21, 2007. Please remember to submit along with the forms, your essay, a copy of your resume and a photo (passport size).

Bharat Yatra Entry Form (PDF file); Click here to see the form
Bharat Yatra Release and Authorization Form (PDF file); Click here to see the form

The Bharat Yatra is sponsored by New York Life Insurance Company.

More Info go to New York Life Insurance

Check out the Chats

We've had three chats so far and three still to go. If you're interested in seeing who the authors are and what they talked about visit here.

Enjoy!