If you want to learn more about Spanish-language storytimes and some great books to get you started, Booklist just published an article featuring my debut picture book Abuelita and I Make Flan in this article!
It's a super long URL, though, but here is the link to the online version.
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Tagged Books, children's books, Language
I wanted to share the pronunciation Guide for Readers of ABUELITA AND I MAKE FLAN. Here I read the glossary which includes all the words in Spanish in case you or your readers want to know how we say them.
For more Flan-related activities, scroll down to the activities here on my site.
Or access all my book related activities here.
Adriana Hernández Bergstrom is a Cuban-American artist and children’s book author-illustrator. She loves languages and literacy and is the author-illustrator of ABUELITA AND I MAKE FLAN (Charlesbridge, 2022), TUMBLE (Scholastic, 2023) and COUNTDOWN FOR NOCHEBUENA (Little, Brown, 2023).
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Tagged Books, children's books, kidlit, Kids, Language
I went to my first NErDCampCT in March over in West Hartford, CT. It was the first in-person one I'd been to, and I wanted to share my experience. I think this event is a really wonderful way for librarians to connect with each other as well as authors in the area.
The way it works is really up to the attendees. Upon arrival and registration, you mingle and together with the others present, create a schedule for the day. It is that informal!
It was such a whirlwind of information and connection with educators, librarians, and other authors and illustrators.
We (child and I) learned to make 'zines and learned about nonfiction books.
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Tagged art, children's books, kidlit
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Tagged children's books, kidlit, travel
Confession time: I sometimes feel lost in the publishing industry. Even though I've been an artist and designer for decades, it wasn't until 2017 that I got serious about kidlit and 2022 that my first book as author-illustrator came out. Currently, I'm trying to make new work to sell another book while simultaneously marketing existing books, and it's a challenge!
Publishers shoulder some of the outreach responsibilities, but most titles on their lists do not get the kind of marketing that their "lead" titles do. Lead titles are the ones that get the big posters, cardboard cutouts, commercials, billboards, etc. And, as many authors will tell you, most books don't get the red carpet treatment and most books' marketing and outreach falls on the shoulders of the author.
But all is not lost. What can you do to help? I'm so glad you asked! There are things people like you, dear reader, can do to help a book succeed.
Here a few FREE ways that you can help get the word out about a book without spending a single penny. Here are just a few:
Here's the information you'll likely need to do any of those tasks (title, ISBN, ordering info)...
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Tagged Books, children's books, kidlit
There's just one more month until TUMBLE 'tumbles' onto bookshelves everywhere, and I am so proud of this little book! It received a Starred Kirkus Review and was positively received by many beta readers.
So where did the idea come from?
TUMBLE's origins are kind of sad, but it's a story of survival and so I'll share it with you. Rewind to Fall of 2020. COVID lockdowns. My family had traveled to be closer to my mom and stepdad who was in the final stages of cancer. As they were in home hospice at my stepsister's, we were doing the best we could e-learning at my mother's condo. Zoom school with first graders who had already missed half of the social skills from kindergarten was not easy.
After e-learning one day, kiddo turned to me at the table wanting to write a story about "tumble." Tumble? I asked if he wanted me to write the words for him as I'd done previously, and with an emphatic "NO!" said he wanted to challenge me to a duel... a story duel! I don't know where he got the word from, but we got to work. He on his version. Me on mine... I started with some thumbnails that came quickly, and the words followed.
A bit later I brought it to my online critique group and they thought it was great. They were so encouraging! They helped me polish the text into the rhyming couplets you see in the final.
You can find the book here on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61780003-tumble
Giveaway ends June 08, 2023.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
Also, there's currently a giveaway for TUMBLE! Entries opened today and anyone in the U.S. can enter until it closes June 8.
TUMBLE goes on sale June 6 wherever books are sold.
I hope you win!
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Tagged art process, children's books, Giveaway, kidlit
Back in 2017, when I started writing ABUELITA AND I MAKE FLAN my story looked like a list of ingredients (literally) and a recipe. I took this to my first writing critique group (!!Qué pena!! but you have to start somewhere). I had a hazy vision in my head for a story about a grandchild and grandparent making flan together.
The story changed shape many times between 2017 and it's publication in 2022.
In between, I realized the story was missing 'the heart'. So I combined a memory of baking with my own Abuelita with that feeling where you think everything's going wrong, but you're still safe and loved and accepted as an imperfect child deserving of love. This was a big step in learning to write for kids. There needs to be some kind of heart or hook or something for kids to relate to.
I needed to add more tension! Here are some of the people who saw it and offered editing thoughts: critique partners, mentors, teachers from various courses and organizations, professional/industry critiquers, peers, and my mother*. And this jogged a memory of me breaking my mom's wedding plate while we were moving back in with my grandparents.
*For my second and third books, I did not have to take it so far and wide for editing. It took a lot for me to grow confident in my writing abilities! Also, sometimes your family doesn't know what makes a good children's book!
And that was the key! Once I added that broken plate, it all came together and we sold the manuscript to Charlesbridge in 2020, and it finally came out in August of 2022.
These days, my process for writing is more like a yes/no flowchart: outline or list, then a test draft in prose (does it work? yes/no), if no, a draft in lyrical language. When I think something's working, I'll exchange with a critique group (love/hate/boring?)... rinse repeat until it's feeling ready-ish enough to submit to my agent.
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Tagged art, art process, Books, children's books, Writing
I think one of the nicest children’s books about MV is “Chappaquiddick Lullaby – a song of Martha’s Vineyard” written in 2006 by Stacy Elizabeth Hall and illustrated by Judith Pfeiffer.
The book also includes a CD by Kate Taylor and Taylor Brown.
The book is basically about the activities and daydreams that children have during the summer. The illustrations are abundant with Island landmarks and places… you need to read the book several times before you’ve picked out everything included in this rich and lovely book.
One of the things that drew us to this book is that we had our own Chappaquiddick in the family, a Boykin spaniel we called Chappy, and when we found out that there was a Chappy song, sung no less by Kate Taylor who we, and Chappy, have had the pleasure of meeting, we had to have the book, which was autographed to my daughter Deb and her Chappy by the author Stacy Hall and her dog, Cala 
(Chappy passed away a few years ago but these precious memories linger on and I’m always happy to share them).
I also want to mention Stacy’s first book…
“The Legend of Katama” is a beautifully told story of Katama, a brave young Wampanoag woman and how she changed her world.
Interestingly our first Boykin spaniel was named Katama (Katy)… do you see a pattern here
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Tagged Books, Boykin Spaniel, Chappaquiddick, children's books, dogs, Family, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Native Americans, New England, Pets, Photographs