Pendred Noyce's The Ice Castle Wins a Mom's Choice Award

Scarletta is excited to announce that Pendred Noyce's second book in the Lexicon Adventure series, The Ice Castle: An Adventure in Music, has won a Gold Award from Mom's Choice Awards® in the category of Juvenile Level 2 (ages 9-12)!
The Mom's Choice Awards® honor the best in products and services for children and families. Evaluating in over 150 categories, the Mom’s Choice Awards® use an esteemed panel of judges including educators, media and other experts, parents, children, librarians, performing artists, producers, medical and business professionals, authors, scientists, and others. "The program is globally recognized for establishing the benchmark of excellence in family-friendly media, products and services," and the result is a list of materials that parents and educators can feel confident using. (-Mom's Choice Awards®)
Noyce's first book in the series, Lost in Lexicon: An Adventure in Words and Numbers, was also a Mom's Choice Award® Gold winner, and the second book continues that tradition. The Lexicon Adventure series provides young readers with entertaining and exciting stories that are rich in language play, description, complex themes, and multiple points of view. Not to mention its embedded explanations of science, math, language, and music make the series a great educator's tool for use in cross-curricular learning.
We're proud to have The Ice Castle: An Adventure in Music recognized as one of the best in family-friendly media!

Middle Grade or YA? A Mother Writes for Advanced Readers

When your first grader (or third grader) gobbles up Harry Potter, what’s next? When your eager reader begins to look past the chapter book section in the library to the middle-grade section and beyond, how should you steer that child? In a society that pushes early sexualization of children and treats tweens as consumers controlling parent purse strings, is it possible to help children grow their brains without cutting short their childhoods?

Twin Cities Book Festival 2012

First was Heartland Fall Forum, and then last Saturday, we hauled all of our books to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in  St. Paul for Rain Taxi Review's annual Twin Cities Book Festival.

This year was a little different as the festival wasn't held downtown at MCTC, but that just meant more space and WAY better parking. The weather ended up being pretty dreary, but the atmosphere inside was full of energy and excitement. Between the people stopping by our booth to buy books and the children in the children's pavilion across from us running around with painted faces and masks, it was a fun--and busy--day. Here are some of the pictures we managed to take throughout the day:

The sea of people browsing

Lost in Lexicon: A Great Tool for Teachers

We've been talking a lot lately about Penny Noyce's newest book, The Ice Castle: An Adventure in Music, but we don't want to forget the first book in the Lexicon Adventure series, Lost in Lexicon: An Adventure in Words and Numbers, which we published in 2011. In fact, Lost in Lexicon is such a great book and tool for teachers to use in the classroom that the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics reviewed it this month in their Teaching Children Mathematics magazine. Now the bad news is that you need a subscription to read the entire magazine, but fortunately we've posted the review here for you:

"Two thirteen-year-old cousins travel through an imaginary land called Lexicon, searching for clues to help them locate and return children who have gone missing from their villages. As the cousins, Ivan and Daphne, use a compass and Cartesian plane to make their way across Lexicon, they encounter a village overrun by punctuation, are joined by a four-legged thesaurus, and use mathematical formulas to help repair a town. In their travels, the cousins use words and numbers to gather clues that eventually lead them to the location of the missing children. Here they call on their growing confidence and knowledge of language and mathematics to rescue the children and help them return to villages.
Noyce’s imaginative, playful use of words and numbers keeps readers engaged throughout the story. Most tween and teen students will likely recognize an underlying message about the dangers of mindlessly watching television and playing video games. This book also answers the age-old question asked by students: “When will I ever use this in real life?” The charming story, along with the focus questions and extension activities at the end of the book, make this an entertaining selection for student-led reading discussions at the upper elementary and intermediate level."
—Jennifer Geoffroy, D.C. Public Schools, Washington, D.C.

A big thank you to Jennifer and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics for saying such great things about Lost in Lexicon.
And if you're a teacher or educator, we want to know, what do you look for when picking books to use in your classroom?

Reviews for The Ice Castle

The official release date of Pendred Noyce's newest Lexicon Adventures book was only yesterday, but already the praise is piling up! We're so excited that everyone is loving this book as much as we do that we thought we would just highlight some of the lovely things people have had to say.



In a 4-star review, Marilyn at Compass Book Ratings said:
"THE ICE CASTLE, the second book in the Lexicon Adventures series, has many necessary ingredients that would entice young readers, i.e. adventure, fantasy, family member who don't get along, social commentary and a unique emphasis on music....Young adults will recognize that it reflects the real world they live in and will be able to see the social implications." Read the rest of the review here.

***** Teresa Bateman from Keen Readers said:
"There are puzzles to solve, traitors to catch, and friendships to forge. This is a well-written, thoughtful fantasy book that addresses issues of equality while providing interesting musical insights. Besides, it’s a great adventure!" You can read the rest of the review here.

***** And Denise LeBlanc, Director of Learning Experiences at The Discovery Museums called The Ice Castle:
"a beautiful symphony in which Ivan, Daphne, and Lila face various challenges and come to learn about themselves, one another, and human nature. This beautifully orchestrated book will delight and captivate readers of all ages."

You can find The Ice Castle: An Adventure in Music on Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, or through your favorite independent bookstore on IndieBound. Happy reading!

Let's Hear a Hip-hip-hooray for ALA!

We're so excited for ALA's annual conference in California this weekend--or at least we will be as soon as we finish the million and one things we need to do to prepare! This week is proving to be crazy as we finalize travel arrangements, make sure all our lovely books are shipped correctly, pack our posters and press releases, and try to figure out if there's time in the schedule to visit Disney. This last one seems doubtful with all the other cool stuff going on.
If you're also going to be in Anaheim for ALA, make sure you remember to visit us! We'll be part of the Publisher Group West booth (#2566) and we've got plenty of stuff going on make it worth your while.

Celebrate Children's Book Week!

In case you haven't heard, it's Children's Book Week! And we're celebrating with a Nalah and the Pink Tiger event this Saturday at Boneshaker Books in Minneapolis. Local puppeteer and children's book author/illustrator Anne Sawyer-Aitch will read from her new book, Nalah and the Pink Tiger. Afterward, everyone will make wild and crazy animal puppets, and Anne will sign books. The event starts at 11:30 am.

If you're interested in finding more Children's Book Week events, you can check out the Children's Book Council's official events list here.
Back in March, we blogged about the decline of picture books in favor of young adult books (you can read it here) and about how sad that made us feel. So, we're proud to announce that Scarletta Kids will be releasing two more picture books in the near future.
The first is a storybook that focuses on lake activities for children. It uses sensory and rhyming techniques to describe a typical day at the lake. The second book is for a slightly older age group (6 to 10) and is about a grandfather sharing his love of baseball with his granddaughter.
We're also excited to announce that a musical is being created about our first children's book Lost in Lexicon, and we hope to see it performed as early as spring 2013 at Meadowbrook School in Massachusetts. The first song of the Lost in Lexicon musical has already been produced. Watch our Twitter during Children's Book Week (May 7-13) to find out how you can receive a free download of the song "Girls Can't Do Math."

Lost in Lexicon goes to Discovery Museums in Acton, MA

Trends in Children's Literature

You've probably heard...we love kid's books. Which is why we created Scarletta Junior Readers and Scarletta Kids, so we can spend a lot more time with children's literature! Because this is still a new adventure for us, we decided to do some basic digging in children's lit trends.
First, how much are kids reading? Turns out they're reading less than ever. The reasons? Homework and standardized testing are taking up a lot of their free time. And this has some seriously negative effects. Studies have shown that:

• Kids who are readers do better at school and in life
• Children and teens who read for pleasure on a daily or weekly basis score better on reading tests than infrequent readers
• Frequent readers also score better on writing tests
• Advanced readers accrue personal, professional, and social advantages
• Literary readers are more likely than non-readers to engage in positive civic activities, such as volunteering

The Future of Publishing

At this year's Digital Book World Conference in New York, a panel filled with publishing CEOs talked about what they learned in 2011 and how that affects what they plan on doing differently in 2012. Scarletta listened to what they had to say, and then we thought about how that affects us, as a small publisher.
Dominique Raccah, CEO and publisher at Sourcebooks, spoke of 2011 as the "Renaissance of the book," because more people than ever are once again thinking of books.
Ellen Archer, president of Hyperion, added that "the book is now elastic and dynamic." She went on to tell a story of mixed media, and how the television show Castle (about a writer who helps solve crimes) helped prompt the idea of an unlikely partnership. It's hardly news that books are created about popular TV shows, but the producers of Castle wanted the book to be "penned" by the fictional character in the show. Hyperion worked with them to release the first half of the book online, chapter by chapter, the summer before the show was renewed for a second season with the plan to release the book in print once the TV series was renewed. It was a hit, making the NYT bestseller list.
John Donatich, director of Yale University Press, also mentioned the digital book age as an era for previously unseen manuscripts to be made widely available.
Which left John R. Ingram, chairman of the Ingram Content Group, asking "Where do you get the money?" and expressing the need for balancing relevance and profitability.

What's the deal with Kindlegraph?

Evan Jacobs, the creator of Kindlegraph, is a big fan of book readings, but realized after he got his ebook reader that he had nothing for authors to sign. He could go hear a favorite author speak and have a great time, but he had nothing tangible to take away from the experience. So he created Kindlegraph: a program that lets authors send personalized inscriptions and signatures directly to the electronic reading devices of their fans. And the best part is this service is free.

To date, Kindlegraph has partnered with over 2,800 authors and offers users inscriptions for over 12,000 books. And it's really user-friendly. Simply sign up (you can even sign in with your twitter account) and start requesting personalized inscriptions and signatures from your favorite authors. Authors will receive an email the day you send your request and in no time, your e-book will be one-of-kind with a note from the author.

Jacobs doesn't want the interaction between authors and readers to stop there. He's working to make it possible for authors to be able to send out sample chapters from upcoming books to fans who have signed up as part of a paid subscription service.

Two Scarletta authors have already jumped on the bandwagon because they love the idea of having another way to connect with their readers.

Pamela Cory, author of Hassie Calhoun: A Las Vegas Novel of Innocence, can be reached here.

Pendred Noyce, author of Lost in Lexicon: An Adventure in Words and Numbers and this summer's Ice Castle, can be reached here.

Students Add More Illustrations to Lexicon

Last November students started sending author Penny Noyce the drawings they made while their teacher read Lost in Lexicon to their class. And since we love seeing how students interact with the story we decided to share more drawings with everyone!

To the left we have a drawing of spiderwebs and the quote that inspired it:"Ivan and Daphne walked through the woods finding spiderwebs festooned with tiny droplets." (pg 16), and underneath, an image of aunt Adelaide's barn: "The barn now stood in the middle of a pond with water reaching halfway up its side." (pg 29).

To the left here, we have a drawing of Lexicon: "Just a broad expanse of rolling meadow strewn with wildflowers under a cloudless blue." (pg 29), and underneath, some of Lexicon's flowers: "On either side, purple wildflowers ducked their heads in rippling grass." (pg 33).

These pictures made our day, and we're so glad the students decided to share them with us. If your students or children have done any drawings of Lexicon, we ask that you either send us an electronic copy to info@scarlettapress.com or a hard copy to Scarletta Press 10 S. 5th Street #1105, Minneapolis, MN 55402. We'd love to add them to our collection!And if you're looking for other ways to get your students to interact with Lexicon, make sure to check out Penny's Lost in Lexicon Villages Event.

Libraries pick Lexicon

The Virginia Beach Public Library recently named Penny Noyce's Lost in Lexicon a VBPL Staff Pick. They weren't the first, and they certainly won't be the last because Lost in Lexicon has something in it for all kids.

In spite of its somewhat obvious goal of encouraging reluctant children to enjoy and understand the many uses of words and numbers, Lost in Lexcon is actually an enjoyable fantasy.
In the course of their travels Daphne learns to use a compass and navigate on the Cartesian plane. She has some other mathematical successes and discovers she enjoys solving these problems.
Meanwhile, Ivan discovers that he needs to use words, sometimes in critical situations. Naturally he learns to enjoy the power of words and recognize their usefulness.

Lost in Lexicon is perfect for kids who love math, as well as writing and reading. But the story isn't solely educational, kids get so swept up in the adventure to find the lost kids of Lexicon that they forget they're learning.

Students Bring Lexicon To Life With Drawings

Students recently sent author Penny Noyce pictures they had drawn of Lexicon while their teacher, Cary Sneider, read Lost in Lexicon to them aloud.

On the top we have a drawing of Aunt Adelaide's barn and the quote that inspired it: "The barn now stood in the middle of a pond with water reaching halfway up its sides." (pg 29), and to the right, an image of the pig that lives in the barn: "The pig lay on her side in a stall, with her eyes half-closed, the fine hairs on her side quivering as she breathed." (pg 23).

To the left here, we have another drawing of Lexicon: "Sheep grazed in the distance, far off at the horizon, steep white-and-purple mountains cut into the sky." (pg 29), and underneath, we have an image of Daphne and Ivan's adventures: "The two cousins built a raft of branches and rode out onto the river below the bridge, where the raft promptly sank." (pg 15).

These pictures are fantastic and we're so glad the students decided to share them with us. If your students or children have done any drawings of Lexicon, we ask that you either send us an electronic copy to info@scarlettapress.com or a hard copy to 10 S. 5th Street #1105, Minneapolis, MN 55402. We'd love to add them to our collection!

Thoughtful Reflections

Lost in Lexicon author Pendred Noyce recently opened up about a plethora of issues in an interview conducted by Thoughtful Reflections host Sylvia L. Ramsey. She addressed the difficulties of naming her characters, what it's like to be published in today's industry, writing for yourself vs writing what you think others want to read, and more. Here's a taste of some of her answers:
How do you come up with the names of places and characters in your books?
"It is funny, but I always have a hard time writing until I know the names of my main characters. I need a name that sounds like the picture I have in my mind, and I really do not know how to find those names. It is sort of like figuring out what to name your baby: you flounder around until suddenly you know."
Are there any problems in getting children’s’ books published?
"Editors are always looking for what is hot right now. They told me Lost in Lexicon was too old-fashioned or too didactic for today’s kids. In the end, I decided the only way I could prove them wrong was by publishing the book myself, and making a success of it. I pulled together a great team – an editor, an artist, an art director, and a designer – then published a book that has won awards and enthusiastic followers. While I was doing a radio interview and bookstore visits in Minneapolis, I finally ran across a publisher, Scarletta Press that understood what I wanted to do in providing challenging, thoughtful fiction for kids. Scarletta acquired Lost in Lexicon to anchor their brand new line of children’s books."
To read the interview in its entirety, click on this link.

For Lovers of Lexicon

If you haven't already purchased Lost in Lexicon here's one more reason why you should: Compass Book Ratings has featured the novel in their 2011 Holiday Gift Guide! When discussing the books they've compiled, Compass Book Ratings says "The books in our gift guide represent the best clean reads we've read all year, and we think that our readers will enjoy giving and getting these titles!"
In other news about Lexicon, the Mom's Choice Award blog is currently featuring an interview with author Penny Noyce about what it's been like winning the Mom's Choice Award, what she's been up to since then, and where her inspiration comes from:
Q: So where did you get such an idea of magical lands and lost children?
A: When I was a child, I wanted more than anything to go to C.S. Lewis’s land of Narnia. My sister and I probed dark closets, leaped over rivers, and ran down hills with our eyes closed, calling on Aslan to transport us to that magical world.
We at Scarletta couldn't be more glad that C.S. Lewis inspired Penny all those years ago! And you can read the rest of her interview here.

Sweet on Books

Did you know Sweet on Books is sweet on Lost in Lexicon? Sweet on Books is a locally-based initiative with reviews written exclusively by mothers as part of the ABC7 Learning Section. Each week they bring readers the latest reviews of books geared toward children in grades K-5. Here are some of the wonderful things they had to say:

"Under the guise of an adventure novel, Lost in Lexicon expertly incorporates educational elements into the storyline to deliver a true learning experience. Just as The Phantom Tollbooth…did years ago, this book pushes readers to see the familiar from a new perspective and to open their minds to fresh ideas."

"Both The Phantom Tollbooth and Lost in Lexicon serve as reminders that we are all equipped with a perfect cure for boredom—our own brains. I hope that this story inspires many young readers to observe, think, have open minds, and most important, to rely on themselves for entertainment."

You can find the rest of the review here!

The Awards Roll In

Have you heard the great news? USABookNews.com announced the winners and finalists of THE USA "BEST BOOKS OF 2011" AWARDS on November 1, 2011. And two of Scarletta's books received a total of three finalist awards!
Hassie Calhoun: A Las Vegas Novel of Innocence, a women's literary fiction and first in a trilogy, is an award-winning finalist in the Fiction: Chick Lit/Women's Lit category.
Lost in Lexicon: An Adventure in Words and Numbers, an adventurous middle-grade fantasy and first in a series that brings a world of concepts to life, is an award-winning finalist in both the Children's Fiction and Children's Educational categories.
USABookNews.com is an online publication providing coverage for books from mainstream and independent publishers to the world online community. You can find a complete list of the winners and finalists of The USA "Best Books 2001" Awards here.

Books, More Books, and a Twin Cities Book Festival!

This year's Twin Cities Book Festival was once again held at MCTC and the place was packed from when the doors opened at 10 am to when they closed at 5 pm. And just like previous years, this book fest did not disappoint. It was certainly the place to be in a weekend packed with other great literary events such as the launch party for Paper Darts' first book, John Jodzio's Get In If You Want To Live, Milkweed Editions' Book Lovers Ball, and FallCon 2011 with the Midwest Comic Book Association.
The Twin Cities Book Festival, like usual, offered something for everyone. Most of my day was spent upstairs in the wonderfully creative Children's Pavilion with author Penny Noyce. We set up a Lexicon Villages Event and had a blast with the kids. It was great watching them get into the activities whether they were feeding Emily the thesaurus/llama synonyms, creating flower sentences out of word petals, making tangrams of Lost in Lexicon images, and measuring EVERYTHING they could get their hands on with our non-standard measuring units of erasers, paperclips, and pennies.

Catch us at the Twin Cities Book Festival

A new world of entertainment awaits you at the Twin Cities Book Festival in Minneapolis! We hope you’ll stop by to visit with Scarletta Press & author Pendred Noyce!

 

Rain Taxi Review of Books will proudly sponsor the 11th Annual Twin Cities Book Festival this coming Saturday, October 15, at the Minneapolis Community and Technical College in downtown Minneapolis from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

The book festival is open to the public, and hosts a wide array of publishers, bookstores, and other industry members for a day of children’s activities, used book fairs, spectacular authors, and panel discussions.

 

This year, Pendred Noyce has been invited to host a Lexicon Villages event at the festival’s children’s pavilion. The Lexicon Villages will be a featured event that children and adults of all ages can dive into from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. You’ll travel from village to village, and puzzle over fun and engaging concepts together as the land of Lexicon comes to life. Don't be surprised if you walk away with a keepsake from Lexicon!

 

Lost in Lexicon is a literary fantasy for kids age 9-12. It tells the tale of two cousins on a journey through a magical land full of mixed up words and numbers, with a quest to return the lost children of Lexicon to their homes. It is the first in a four-part adventure series. Lost in Lexicon has won numerous awards, to include a Mom's Choice Gold Award, a Parents’ Choice Recommended award, a ForeWord Book of the Year Awards Honorable Mention, and an IBPA Ben Franklin for Interior Design.

 
And DON’T FORGET to stop by the Scarletta Press table in the main exhibit hall to purchase both new and old books at a discounted price. If you can’t make it to the book festival (although we hope you can!), Scarletta Press books are also available from your local bookstores, and from many large outlets as well. Check out our website to find out about all our books!

 
Author Biography

Pendred Noyce is a doctor, education reformer, and writer. Penny has practiced internal medicine, supervised medical residents, and become a leader in Massachusetts mathematics and science education reform. She serves on a number of nonprofit boards, including that of the Noyce Foundation, and she chairs the boards of Maine’s Libra Foundation and the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy. Lost in Lexicon: An Adventure in Words and Numbers is Penny's first full novel and is the first in a four-part adventure series.

For more information on Lost in Lexicon: An Adventure in Words and Numbers, please visit www.lostinlexicon.com.