On January 11, 2011 · Comments Off on Hereville interview on The Book of Life!
Heidi Estrin — a librarian who knows more about Jewish kids books than pretty much anyone on Earth — interviewed me for her podcast, “The Book of Life.” It was a really fun interview for me (and only the second interview I’ve done face-to-face, rather than via email or phone), and considering the depth of her knowledge, I’m super-flattered that Heidi has been supporting Hereville.
You can listen to the interview here, on Heidi’s website. It’s about 19 minutes long.
The Sydney Taylor Book Award is given once a year by the Association of Jewish Libraries for the best Jewish kid’s book. It’s given in three categories: younger readers, older readers, and teen readers.
The AJL blog has just announced the winners, and Hereville is this year’s winner in the “books for older readers” category!
This is the first time a graphic novel has ever won a Sydney Taylor, incidentally. I’m sitting here grinning from ear to ear.
My deepest thanks to the AJL committee — I am honored and thrilled. And moziltov to my fellow winners, Howard Schwartz and Kristina Swarner for their book Gathering Sparks (younger readers), and Dana Reinhardt for her book The Things a Brother Knows (teen readers).
From the AJL blog:
Deutsch will receive the 2011 gold medal in the Sydney Taylor Book Award’s Older Readers Category for Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, published by Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams Books. This is the first graphic novel to win the Award. Committee member Aimee Lurie noted, “Mirka is a clever, headstrong and imaginative heroine who will appeal to a wide audience. Teens who feel like they don’t fit in will have no trouble relating to her balancing what is best for her family versus her desire to fight dragons. Grounded in her religious beliefs, she is willing to put her fantasies aside to celebrate Shabbat. The illustrations strike the perfect balance of showing a realistic Orthodox community, while creating the perfect backdrop for a fairytale.” […]
A blog tour, featuring interviews with winning authors and illustrators, will take place in early February, with participation from a wide range of children’s literature, family interest, and Jewish blogs.
What a way to start a Monday morning!
On January 7, 2011 · Comments Off on A Bunch Of Fifty Dollar Sketches
I have an ongoing offer to do a $50 dollar sketch for people who buy a copy of Hereville from me. It’s fun for me to do, and I think people enjoy having a one-of-a-kind drawing done just for them.
With only a couple of exceptions, these were drawn entirely on computer, and then printed out with a high-quality art printer. (This is the same way I draw Hereville; I hardly ever draw directly on paper nowadays!). Some of these were requests (“draw Mirka in Tom Baker Doctor Who’s scarf,” for example, or “draw Mirka playing hockey”), others were just me drawing whatever I felt like (which turned out at least twice to be Mirka in a tree).
Click on any of the drawings to see them bigger.
On January 5, 2011 · Comments Off on Please Don’t Read This Book! on Hereville: “the more I look at the illustrations, the more they impress me”
The terrifically-named “Please Don’t Read This Book!” blog has a review of Hereville! (I’m a bit late in posting about this, because… well, to tell you the truth, I’m just like that.)
The format is very neat — it’s sort of a dialog between two bloggers. Here’s a bit that I was particularly fond of:
I have a confession to make. Even if I’d never read and enjoyed a single graphic novel, I would’ve suggested that we consider HEREVILLE. Why? Because of its tagline: “Yet Another Troll-Fighting 11-Year-Old Orthodox Jewish Girl.” Who could resist that? Even my seventy-five-year-old businessman of a father–who is *never* tempted by children’s literature–picked HEREVILLE up off my coffee table when he saw that tagline. And started reading. And didn’t stop until he’d finished–at which point he proclaimed it marvelous! I so enjoyed that moment.
Awesome! 🙂 Please click through to read the rest of their review (which did include some criticism, by the way — in particular, they found the ending rather abrupt).
On January 4, 2011 · Comments Off on Books 4 Your Kids reviews Hereville!
Thanks to Tanya of Books4yourkids.com for this terrific article about Hereville. I’m very glad to be recommended by Books4yourkids, and had a really fun interview with Tanya when she was prepping to write the article.
