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

Building Author Relationships Online

Was it just us, or did authors used to have an air of mystery about them? Maybe you saw them once at a book signing, but mostly they were just names on the covers of your favorite books. You felt a connection to them because of the words they wrote, but it didn't go far beyond that. Now things are different. With social media and the internet, authors, like everyone else, are searchable, followable, and accessible to everyone (not just those able to come to a signing). So what does that mean for readers?

I sent a tweet last winter that said my plan for the night was to curl up with some takeout food and a new book I had gotten. With Twitter, I usually expect my tweets to get lost in the chatter, but not long after, the author of said book tweeted me back to say it sounded like a perfect night. Did she have to do this? Not at all, and not every author does. But it certainly made me excited to read the book, and more willing to check out her other titles. And obviously, it made me want to talk more about her and her book to friends. And we can all agree that these things are important for an author. That's why it seems like more and more authors are taking the plunge and getting involved online.

Scarletta authors, and the authors of our imprints, get involved in different ways as well, and we do what we can to support whatever avenue they choose to take. Some of our authors run blogs and websites, which you can find by going to the authors section on the left side of this page, and some are on social networking sites*. We even feature our new authors on this blog so you can read about them before their books have even come out. (Have you read the interview we did we Betsy's Day at the Game author, Greg Bancroft? Or the guest blog written by The Mighty Quinn author, Robyn Parnell?)

We want readers to get to know our authors and be as excited as we are about their books. So we want to know, in this day and age of accessibility, how much to you like to connect with authors online? And what is your preferred outlet--reading a blog, chatting on Twitter, getting updates in your Facebook newsfeed, or maybe all of the above?

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Click here for Pendred Noyce's Facebook page for Lost in Lexicon: An Adventure in Words and Numbers and here for her Twitter profile

Click here for Anne Sawyer Aitch's Facebook fan page for Nalah and the Pink Tiger

Click here for Bob Macdonald's Twitter account

Click here for Pamela Cory's Facebook page

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!

The Ice Castle Activity Fair

We just finished editing our new promotional video for Pendred Noyce's second book in the Lexicon Adventure Series, The Ice Castle: An Adventure in Music, and we must say, it looks pretty cool!
The book is out on August 9, and it comes with discussion questions and activities to get kids involved with music and science. What's even cooler is that we've put together a set activities so that you can host your very own Ice Castle Activity Fair at your local school, library, or museum.
So check out our video to get an introduction to the book and the activity fair, and if you want to host an event, email our publicity director, Desiree .

Why We Love Books in a Series

There is always talk about what the big trend is in YA literature. Right now it’s vampires and dystopias, but soon it will probably be mermaids and cyborgs, or maybe it will be dinosaurs. Who knows? It fluctuates, and despite anyone’s claim, it can’t really be predicted. But what does seem to be a lasting trend is the popularity of books in a series.

Flavorwire posted a list the other day of what they deemed to be 10 of the greatest YA series of all time, and it made us wonder, what is the appeal of a series over a single book? We’re not arguing that there aren’t great single books out there, or that they can't be as popular, but you have to admit that when you think of the best-selling books of the time, they are all series: The Hunger Games, Twilight, Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings. The list could go on. And books continue to be bought by publishing houses not just as a single title, but in groups of three or more. There's always a discussion of whether the soon-to-be acquired book could be turned into a series.
And we're no different. We have a few new series in the works, and book two of Scarletta Junior Readers’ Lexicon Adventure series, The Ice Castle: An Adventure in Music, hits shelves in August. (The series follows cousins Ivan and Daphne and their exciting--and sometimes dangerous--adventures in the land of Lexicon. If you haven’t read them yet, you definitely should.)
But back to series as a whole, what’s so great about them? Here’s our list so far:
1. Kids grow up with the characters. When I read the first Harry Potter book, I was the same age as Harry. As the books continued to be published, I stayed roughly the same age as the characters, and it made me identify with them even more.

We're Building a Castle!

With the holiday this week, it’s been pretty dead in the office. In fact, there’s only been a few of us here. So to keep our spirits up, we decided to build a castle out of our inventory of Pendred Noyce’s forthcoming book The Ice Castle. Fun, huh?
But it's not just for fun. We need to make a video for an upcoming virtual conference, and rather than film our publicity director, Desiree, simply talking about the book in our conference room, we wanted to make the background a little more interesting. And yes, we're always looking for an excuse to build a book castle and call it work.

This arched doorway didn't hold up very long, so we needed to try something else.

It's still a work in progress, but it doesn't look too bad for our first attempt.

It's also National Music Week!

There’s been a lot of talk this week about Children’s Book Week, but did you also know that it’s National Music Week? First observed in 1924 and sponsored by the National Federation of Music Clubs, this week is marked by concerts, festivals, and musical events of all sorts in libraries, businesses, and schools across the country. In the words of National Music Week’s founder, Mr. Charles M. Tremaine,

“Music Week is, to some extent, different from all the other special ‘weeks.’ It is a ‘drive’ for music by the friends of music, but is also the occasion for participation in and receiving of pleasure, thus making it independent of any propelling force from behind. It gathers its momentum as it goes along from the enjoyment it brings…. Music, permeating the atmosphere, enters many new places where it is welcome.”

In celebration of National Music Week, we thought it only fitting to provide some fun facts about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the most influential composers in history. It’s also especially fitting because Mozart happens to be featured prominently in Pendred Noyce’s upcoming book, Ice Castle. In the latest book of the Lexicon series—out this August from our Scarletta Junior Readers imprint—Daphne and Ivan, along with their cousin Lila, travel to the Land of Winter where social status is based on musical talent. The three children must endure slavery, hunger, illness, and injustice before they can spark a revolution to return spring to the Land of Winter.

Why You Should Preorder Your Favorite Books

Why do people preorder books? Are they just too lazy to go to a bookstore the day the book arrives? Actually, people preorder books because they love their authors! Each book you preorder tells Amazon/Barnes & Noble/whoever that one more person needs this book so badly that they're willing to pay for it long before they'll actually receive it. Maybe you're thinking, well what does that change? It changes the number of books those same companies (Amazon/Barnes & Noble/etc) will purchase for their shelves (or in the case of Amazon, their warehouses).
The more buzz and preorders an author can get, the more likely booksellers will promote that book. Because there's already proof that it's something people are interested in.
And you're not just helping out your favorites authors by preordering their books, you're also helping out your checking account. How's that, you ask? Most preordered books are discounted.

Lost in Lexicon goes to Discovery Museums in Acton, MA

The Role of Social Media in the Workplace

Sheyna Galyan of Yotzeret Publishing insists that "you have to approach social media as a tool, not a toy." That's the best way I've heard it described so far. I've worked at companies that are convinced Facebook is just a way to "pretend" to do work—so their solution is to block workers from accessing the site. And they followed suit when Twitter became popular! It made me want to pull my hair out! Yes, Facebook and Twitter hold thousands of distractions for workers, but that doesn't mean pretending they don't exist is the right way to go.

For authors AND publishers, social media sites are invaluable as free, easy ways to get word out about yourself. You can post events on Facebook, like book signings and radio interviews. You can share reviews, display your latest blog post, and interact with readers.

And with Twitter, it's even easier to connect with thousands of people who might never have known about you otherwise. All it takes are a few well-placed hashtags. You can keep it general, with #fiction, #booknews, and #litchat, or you can go after people who might be interested in specific aspects of your book, such as #fantasy, #legalthriller, #modernart, whatever seems relevant.

From a publisher's viewpoint, the thing we've had the hardest time convincing our authors on is the importance of blogs. Blogs can be a place where reader's learn more about an author's personal interests, or maybe the author takes them through the steps of how they're writing their next book. Maybe the blog is from the viewpoint of one of the main characters, or maybe it has nothing to do with the book and instead is a place where the author can share a love of photography or traveling. Whatever the content of a blog, it serves the purpose of keeping readers thinking about the author. Blogs are also a great place to ask for reader feedback.

You don't have to use every social media site you come across, start small. You're impact can still be great. Check out Scarletta authors that have jumped into the blogosphere. You can also find many of our authors on Facebook and Twitter!

The Inside Look by Lindsay G. Arthur, Jr.

A View from the Windowseat by Penny Noyce

The Pamela Cory Blog

The Leonard Borman Blog

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.

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.