Announcing the Release of Nalah and the Pink Tiger!

We're happy to announce that the day has finally arrived! Our very first picture book, Nalah and the Pink Tiger by Anne Sawyer-Aitch, is officially available online and in bookstores across the country. 

In this adorable picture book, Nalah is a rambunctious little girl who lives so intensely in her own imagination that grownups view her as a troublemaker. Things come to head when—in addition to all of the other exotic animals Nalah has placed in the house—a pink tiger "follows" her home from the zoo, and creates havoc. 

Here are some of the great things people have been saying about Nalah and the Pink Tiger:

"… A great book for kids, and one that parents will enjoy reading more than once as well." — Open Hands Blog

"What a gorgeous book! The vibrant illuminated illustrations draw the reader into the playful story. A mischievous young girl, Nalah creates an array of imaginary animals including Tico the Pink Tiger, who might be as lively as she is.Nalah and the Pink Tiger is great to read aloud. It's also a wonderful book to pore over and enjoy the intricate artwork again and again." — Elizabeth Larson, Youth Services Librarian Hopkins Library, Minnesota

"A charming story...Nalah has populated her world with whimsical and expressive playmates who may be wild, yet not scary....Sawyer-Aitch's energetic color palette makes this fun book a gem." — Carol Frisch, Retired Director of Motheread Fatheread, MN Humanities Commission

"Anne has found a way to contain her vibrant performance creativity between the covers of a book—Open any page and you'll hear the story calling your own imagination to stretch as wide as Nalah's!" — Debra Frasier, Author & Illustrator of On the Day You Were Born

“The story reminded me a bit of Sarah Weeks’ If I Were a Lion or even Where the Wild Things Are…” — Proper Noun Blog

"My 7 year old daughter and 10 year old son both read this one repeatedly. The story is funny and lively and transgressive, and the densely gorgeous illustrations reward a lot of close attention." —Sara, on Goodreads

"This is a wonderful story of an imaginative young girl. We were given the book as a gift and my two kids (ages 7 and 9) loved it! The illustrations are amazing and the story is fun and engaging. We then got the iPad app and love that too! It is great fun listening to both the English and Spanish versions of the book. If you and your kids enjoy fun characters, vivid pictures, and unique stories you will truly love this book. I know we do!"—Allison on Goodreads

"My son loves this book. His favorite is to be the voice of all the imaginary animals in Nalah's life. I love the illuminated illustrations--they're beautiful and one of a kind." —Zoe on Goodreads

"A fun book about imagination.  Very vivid." —Sara, Page Appropriate 

We're so excited to share this great picture book with everyone. Happy reading! 

Picture Books and Ebooks: A Winning Combination?

Ebooks are the new frontier of publishing in a fast-paced industry (hello, Amazon’s “used ebooks”). As digitizing becomes more common, new obstacles and innovations unique to the ebook abound. For publishers of titles for both children and adults like Scarletta, the books that pose the most exciting challenge in going digital are picture books.

From the beginning, picture ebooks demanded new technology that adult fiction and non-fiction did not. It was only in 2011 when color display readers were developed and the first picture ebooks were published. Though the picture quality doesn’t compromise the vividness of the illustrations, some aspects can be lost when a print picture book is transferred to ebook form. The two-page spread, for instance, which is a panoramic-like illustration that reaches across two pages, can be accommodated by Apple’s iPad, but can’t be fully appreciated in readers like the NookColor or the Kindle. Fold-out spreads, end-paper art, and different book sizes (think a tall, skinny book about giraffes) are among the embellishments that are unique to print picture books.

And what are the effects of this digital shift on our young readers?

We've Got New Interns!

As spring creeps closer, bringing a new crop of exciting titles from Scarletta, so too have there been a few changes around the office lately. The other staff members and I were sorry to see our fall intern, Lexy, go. But allow me to introduce one of our new spring editorial interns, Emily.

***

Hello! My name is Emily, and first I just want to say that I’m really looking forward to this opportunity to be a part of Scarletta. This season is an especially exciting time to join Scarletta as books from the new imprints are going to press. As we pioneer Scarletta Kids, Scarletta JR, and Red Portal, the last being a new hybrid model for self-publishing, a new vision for the future of what books can be is taking shape.

It was this willingness to innovate in the face of a quickly changing publishing world that initially drew me to Scarletta. While continuing to publish the inspiring stories that are a hallmark of their titles for adults, I was impressed by both the educational and literary quality that Scarletta’s upcoming children’s books promised. The experience and knowledge that I bring to Scarletta is, I hope, equally comprehensive. While my undergraduate education focused on English literature, I have also worked as a literacy tutor and student teacher in elementary school classrooms. I’ve learned that children are unique as readers go; not only do they deserve enthralling stories that will ensure they are lifelong readers, but books that also keep in mind how they are developing as learners. Because of our work at Scarletta, such books are making their way into the hands of young readers.

I look forward to being a part of Scarletta’s evolving vision as a press through editorial support and sharing the latest news here in our blog. Next month, we’ll begin a year in which we’ll publish more titles than ever before. The first title is Nalah and the Pink Tiger, a book I’m particularly enthusiastic about, and one that brought a puppeteer to our author list! Amazing things are happening every day at Scarletta. I look forward to sharing them with you!

--Emily

Nalah and the Pink Tiger, It's an App!

A couple of weeks ago, we discussed storybook apps and how they are made. As you may remember, we used the app version of Nalah and the Pink Tiger by local puppeteer Anne Sawyer-Aitch as an example. At the time, the app was still going through conversion and approval, but today we are excited to announce that the Nalah and the Pink Tiger app is available in the App Store for only $4.99!
With interactive illustrations, music, and the ability to read and listen in English and Spanish, this app is just the thing to make story time both exciting and educational!
Check out the trailer, and you'll see why everyone is talking about the Nalah and the Pink Tiger app!


For more information on the book, a schedule of Nalah and the Pink Tiger puppet shows and events, and free downloadable activities from Anne, visit the Nalah and the Pink Tiger website!

How Are Book Apps Made?

People are always looking for the next thing--the next trend, the next technology, the next market--and for a lot of people, the next thing is apps. Apps for everything. And picture book apps are getting more popular. They move, they play, they read aloud...the possibilities are endless. Okay, they're not endless, but you get the point. There are some seriously amazing things you can do with apps.

Children's books are the perfect print medium to take the plunge into app conversion. They're image based, playful by nature, and full of imagination. Not to mention, the interactivity is great for exploration and discovery. With all of that going on, it's no wonder children's book apps are the new thing we keep hearing about.

And as you may have heard, Scarletta is publishing our first picture book this spring. And not only that, but the book is also in the process of becoming an app. That's right, Nalah and the Pink Tiger will be available as a bilingual app, in English and Spanish, for the iPad! But as exciting as that is--and it's pretty darn exciting--I found myself wondering just what goes into making an app. And since we're lucky enough to have the people who do this sort of thing in our same office, I only had to walk about twenty steps to find the Nalah app designer, Kelly, and ask her some questions.


First things first, there are multiple programs that you can use to develop apps. We happen to use a version of Adobe called DPS (or digital publishing suite) that allows you to create the layouts and animations right in Adobe. So we take the inDesign files originally created for printing, and within DPS we can add all the animations and sounds right to the original pages. We just have to make sure that the spreads are proportionate to the iPad screen, and off we go.

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

Help Donate Books to Children

Anne Sawyer-Aitch needs your help!
On September 23rd, children's book author and puppeteer Anne Sawyer-Aitch will be completing a marathon! Sure it's great exercise, but her motivation comes from somewhere else. Here's what she had to say:

Will you walk a mile to give a kid a book? I will. In fact, I’ll walk twenty six. In the winter and spring of 2013, I’ll be touring the Spanish puppet show version of Nalah and the Pink Tiger to social service agencies that serve Latino children. Kids will not only get to see the puppet show, they’ll get to make a puppet too. Afterwards, each child will get their own copy of Nalah and the Pink Tiger to take home. Have I applied for a grant to do this? You bet. But Metropolitan Regional Arts Council grants require matching funding. For this project, I need to raise $2,400. To do this, I’m walking in the Community First Fox Cities Marathon in Appleton, WI, on September 23rd. You can help make this project a reality by sponsoring my walk.

Why do this? Because I want to get my book Nalah and the Pink Tiger into the hands of kids who may not have access to lots of books at home. If you need more reasons, read on.

Puppets at the Minnesota State Fair!

Here in Minnesota, the State Fair, or the "Great Minnesota Get-Together," is a pretty big deal. For two weeks at the end of the summer, millions of people flock to the fairgrounds in St. Paul for rides, exhibits, and good old-fashioned deep-fried food on a stick. Walking around, you'll see a lot of interesting things, but this year, one thing you might just come across is a giant fat cat puppet made by Nalah and the Pink Tiger author Anne Sawyer-Aitch. "Every once in a while, a really fun assignment walks in the door," Anne said, "This bad boy is made of papier-maché, muslin, and bubble-wrap, and requires four people to operate him. It took about 60 hours to complete."


So if you're in the Midwest―and heading to the fair before it ends on Labor Day―see if you can find fat cat! And if you do, snap a picture and send it to us!

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."

Nalah and the Pink Tiger Book Review & Giveaway

Nalah and the Pink Tiger just received its first review from a mommy blogger! Here's what she had to say:

"We have read this book a couple of times now and my oldest loves it. It's not wordy at all, so even my 13 month old will sit through it."

"The book is so cute and my oldest thinks it is really funny. And it even gave me a few giggles."

"I think this is a great book for kids, and one that parents will enjoy reading more than once as well. :)"

We'd like to thank the Open Hands blog for such a sweet review! You can read the rest of it here.

And DON'T FORGET to sign up for the book giveaway by Friday, April 13, 2012!

Why reading aloud to kids is so adorable

Author Anne Sawyer-Aitch's picture book Nalah and the Pink Tiger is read to her niece for the first time. Such an adorable reaction. We dare you to find a cuter kid! No seriously, just try to.

Book Release & Puppet Show Premiere

It's here! The book release and puppet show premiere of Nalah and the Pink Tiger, Scarletta Kids' first foray into picture books! The party starts at 10 am this Saturday, March 17, 2012 at the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre. The show will be performed again at 12 pm.
Nalah and the Pink Tiger is about a rambunctious little girl, Nalah, who lives so intensely in her imagination that grown-ups view her as a troublemaker. To illustrate the book, author Anne Sawyer-Aitch developed a style that she calls illuminated illustration, featuring multiple layers and backlighting that create vibrant, textured pages.
To accompany the book, Anne has created a traveling, one-person, shadow puppet show following the book’s story line. This was made possible with various partnerships with local artists.

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