Tom Angleberger is the author of "The Strange Case of Origami Yoda," coming Spring 2010 from Amulet.
Sam Riddleburger is the author of The Qwikpick Adventure Society and co-author of Stonewall Hinkleman & the Battle of Bull Run.
You can e-mail us at:
sam(at)riddleburger.com
or
tom(at)riddleburger.com
Cece Bell
Cece Bell, writer and illustrator of the Sock Monkey series, Bee-Wigged, Itty Bitty and much more, is frequently featured here. Sock Monkey himself appears from time to time, too.
Visit Cece's Website
I gave OrigamiYoda.com a soft launch a while back. http://www.origamiyoda.com
Lately, I’ve been posting a lot of stuff on this blog and the new one, but they definitely serve different purposes.
I almost lost the domain name. In fact for a while it was lost.
Somehow the name of the book leaked out before I got around to registering the Website. (It may have been one of my own blog posts orone of those publisher’s round-ups.)
Anyway, someone must have heard about the book and bought the name just in case.
Then fate played it’s fickle hand. The book was delayed by an entire year.
A year passed and nothing happened, so the domain-grabber dropped it. As you can imagine, I didn’t dawdle this time around.
So, the moral of the story is: register your Website before your book title is made public.
As you may have heard, I love the O.Y. cover and one of the things I love is the fact that the handwriting is actually handwritten! That’s a great touch!
But who did it? Turns out its the same person who drew the X-wings, TIE fighters and Death Star on the cover.
And that person it turns out is a totally kung-fu fantasy artist. I mean this guy is really, really good!
To see for yourself, visit Jason Rosenstock at http://jasonrosenstock.com
I just learned from my editor that Barnes & Noble stores should have Origami Yoda for sale starting March 5! Hopefully, you’ll be able to find it easily by looking for this nifty book display:
This is really awesome — it looks like a kid’s book report on “The Strange Case of Origami Yoda.” Pretty darn good book report if you ask me! MAJOR SPOILERS, THOUGH!
Here’s a non-spoiler highlight: This book relates to me because I sometimes do thing that I shouldn’t do.
YA author Dawn Metcalf has posted the nicest piece about “The Strange Case of Origami Yoda.” I’m overjoyed by her appreciation of the book and thrilled by its effect on the kids in her family.
There are so many ups and downs in this business, that sometimes you have to wonder what it is you really want. Well, her descriptions of her nephew reading the book at a restaurant AND the family folding their own Yoda puppets just about covers it.
Well, that went off like wildfire & suddenly his sister, my daughter, my sister-in-law and myself were talking in garbled alien Jedi and making more origami yodas.
You can read the whole post at: http://dawn-metcalf.livejournal.com/61431.html
Hard to believe, but someone has actually reviewed Origami Yoda already. I mean, it was less than a month ago that I got an ARC for the first time. And really not that long ago that I was finishing up the artwork.
The best part is: they liked the book!
Lazygal — who clearly isn’t all that lazy — gave it 4 out of 5 stars and ended her review with these magic words:
Still reading Shirley by Charlotte Bronte. Still have no idea who Shirley is.
Once you get over the fact that this isn’t another Jane Eyre, the story is oddly interesting. The writing gets rather purple at times, but sometimes you find a little gem, such as this one from the scene where Caroline goes to visit an old maid named Miss Mann:
To avoid excitement was one of Miss Mann’s aims in life. She had been composing herself ever since she came down in the morning, and had just attained a certain lethargic state of tranquillity when the visitor’s knock at the door startled her, and undid her day’s work.
———————–
Meanwhile, I’m amazed to find out what a good show Laverne and Shirley was. A lot of it had to do with the two stars, of course. Here’s a little moment from very early on — the pilot, I think. They’re still getting the hang of it, perhaps, but the comedic timing is spot on. From 0:23 to 0:47.
Yeeha! Homer P. Figg grabbed himself a Newbery Honor medal! That’s awesome. Congratulations to author Rodman Philbrick!
I’m not ignoring the Newbery winner (When You Reach Me), but having Homer P. Figg win an honor is great because Figg and Stonewall are in the same, narrow, very odd genre — “funny” Civil War books.
We all know that the Civil War is serious business. No war is funny, especially not this one.
But that doesn’t mean that a Civil War book must be humorless. Homer P. Figg and his Newbery Honor medal are proof that it can be done!
He whistled a cheery stave, which did not, however, prevent a broad drop or two (much more like the “first of a thunder-shower” than those which oozed from the wound of the gladiator) from gathering on the lids of his gray eyes, and plashing thence to the threshold.
