Reach For It!

It's a hot, dusty summer evening.  Parents, siblings and friends linger, lounge and watch from the sidelines.  Your knees are bent and your feet are poised for action.  Your eyes move from the pitcher to the plate and then to a runner at second base.  Your left hand rests easily near your left knee before you bring it up to your right hand wearing the mitt.  The pitcher winds up and releases the ball.  It flies toward home plate in perfection.  The batter taunt with anticipation swings and drives the ball just inside the line toward you.  Heart pounding, breath quickening and legs and feet moving, you reach for it!

Those moments after a pitch, a swing and a hit are nearly frozen for an immeasurable amount of time before the entire ball diamond bursts into action.  If that ball comes toward you, no matter your position, there is only one thought on your mind.  You have to snag that ball as if it's metal and your mitt is a magnet.  I Got It! (Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, April 3, 2018) conceived and illustrated by David Wiesner cleverly captures, without benefit of more than three words, the thoughts of one ball player intent on making a catch.

After the endpapers and the turn of a page, we see a boy dressed in a red t-shirt, khaki shorts and red tennis shoes standing behind a fence as other players gather on a ball diamond.  His arms are crossed behind him.  On one hand, his left, he wears a mitt.  Gathering his courage he moves inside to the field.

After speaking with one of the leaders, he is assigned a position in the outfield.  The first batter swings and hits the ball toward him.  He runs, reaching upward and calls

I got it!

What follows is a series of scenarios where catching the ball seems impossible.  It's the stuff of ball player nightmares.  Birds watch as tree roots appear in the field, tripping the boy.  The results are decidedly not good.  Suddenly the strength of those roots is magnified and trees grow where there were none.  It's hard to catch a ball when you've run into a tree trunk.

Even more bizarre possibilities unfold as the sizes of elements in the illustrations are altered.  Tension mounts as readers wonder at the outcome.  Will the ball fall into the mitt?  Will the boy's endeavors be rewarded?  The birds know the answer.


Rendered in acrylic, gouache and watercolor the enchantment David Wiesner creates through his art begins on the dust jacket.  The arm of the boy outstretched, aligned to catch the ball will have you holding your breath whether you intend to or not.  The blue sky and clouds extend over the spine to the left on the back.  There in the upper left-hand corner three birds fly toward the ball, the glove and the boy.  The title, the ball, the mitt and arm are varnished.

On a canvas of shiny white the book case tells a story not seen in the book.  It presents another potential problem for the boy.  His hat has fallen to the ground and is a nest for three sparrows.  So many birds have gathered they are able to lift the boy into the air.  And the ball . . . you'll have to read the book to see where it lands.

The opening and closing endpapers are a bright golden yellow.  David Wiesner wastes not one opportunity to tell this story.  Beginning with a single page image, he then portrays a double-page spread for the verso and title pages and then a series of five horizontal pictures divided in panels over two pages continue the tale.  Each illustration size enhances the pacing. 

When the boy begins to imagine the potential outcomes, full pages and double-page visuals reveal his worst fears.  Emotion is etched on his faces and the faces of the other players.  The presence of the birds will promote discussion (as all of David's books do).  Readers will be fascinated by the attention to detail, the masterful brush strokes and the use of shadow and light.  There will be more than one instance of gasps after a page turn.

One of my many favorite pictures is the second one showing three of the ball players including the boy.  He is placed in the foreground.  All of them are reaching for the ball.  The concentration and intense desire is highly visible on all their faces.  The tension in this moment is palpable.  David Wiesner only shows the upper portion of their bodies, faces and outstretched arms.  He has placed them as if they are running from the lower, left-hand corner reaching toward the upper, right-hand corner on this single page.  The background is blue sky with white clouds.


You don't have to be a fan of the game to appreciate the imaginative seconds suggested in this nearly wordless wonder, I Got It!, by David Wiesner.  You can literally feel the rise and fall of action as each inventive alternative is presented.  This title is certain to enhance an author illustrator study, an exploration of wordless books, a baseball-themed story time or a swing into spring and summer sports display.  I highly recommend this for your professional and personal bookshelves.

To learn more about David Wiesner and his other work, please follow the link attached to his name to access his website.  There is a link there to his blog.  The publisher has a site devoted to David Wiesner and his titles.  I think you'll enjoy a page honoring David Wiesner created by the Central Rappahannock Regional Library.  David Wiesner is interviewed by students at Kid Scoop News.

A Sweet Sixteens' Visit, Guest Posts

It is indeed an honor to host Jenn Bishop and Abby Cooper here today.  They are both members of The Sweet Sixteens, a group of middle grade and young adult debut authors this year.  You'll want to take some time to visit the website to learn a little more about them, their books and events related to their titles.  The site also matches you to authors living near you and contains a great list of associated links.

The Distance to Home, Jenn Bishop's book, celebrated its book birthday on June 28, 2016.  In this story a family is trying to form a new sense of normal after the death of their oldest daughter and Quinnen's sister.  Baseball is integral to Quinnen's sense of who she.  Will her love of this game help her when she needs it the most?

On July 12, 2016 Abby Cooper's title Sticks & Stones was released into the world.  Magic blends with reality in this story of Elyse, a twelve-year-old girl with an unusual condition.  When people call her names or speak about her, those words appear on her arms and legs. Middle school is tricky as it is.  How will Elyse navigate through the school year?

The more you know about these two authors and their books, the more you will want their titles on your TBR (to-be-read) piles or, in my case; you'll be moving them to the top.  Both Jenn Bishop and Abby Cooper have worked as a librarian which, in my humble opinion, is pretty great.  Today they shine the spotlight on teachers who made a difference in their writing lives.

Looking back on the teachers who inspired us---

a back to school giveaway with Abby Cooper and Jenn Bishop

Abby Cooper:

I first saw my name in print when I was eight years old.  My third grade teacher, Mrs. Huntley, had submitted a poem I'd written to an anthology of work by young writers, and it had been accepted.

I couldn't believe it.  Me?  Published?  I'd always liked to write, but I never expected anything like this would happen.  But Mrs. Huntley expected it.  She believed in it.  When I entered third grade and proclaimed that I wanted to be an author, she didn't laugh or give me one of those "okaaay" kinds of looks or anything else.  Instead, she gave me a journal and asked me to write in it every day.  She read books like Frindle, the one that turned me into a reader.  She gave choices.  We could show what we learned in all kinds of ways.  Presenting, drawing, writing, interpretive dance, you name it.  She supported, she nurtured, she encouraged.  And she took all of it a step further, and she made things happen.

The best part of being published (besides, you know, being published), was realizing what you could do if you believed in someone or something the way Mrs. Huntley believed in me.  I wondered what could happen if I believed in myself and my writing that same way.  Now, almost twenty years later, with the publication of Sticks & Stones, I know.

And now, straight out of the Anthology of Poetry by Young American, 1998 edition, a poem by eight-year-old Abby:

Rosemary Jane

Rosemary Jane, I do complain

You always watch TV

And never pay attention to me

Your gym teacher says

When you should be listening to him

You are watching the basketball rim.

The principal says when he asks you to talk,

You just pretend you have chicken pox.

Oh, Rosemary Jane, you always watch that darn TV

And never look at me.

Oh, Rosemary Jane, did I tell you about the farm?

The farmer said you caused so much harm.

Oh, Rosemary Jane, I do complain.

Jenn Bishop:

As a thirteen-year-old, I loved babysitting, especially reading to the kids.  They knew that if I was putting them to bed, there'd be some serious bedtime reading.  My favorite was Jon Sciezka's Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales and I'd need a glass of water to get through the whole thing, but every time it was worth it.  So when my seventh grade English teacher Mrs. Haggerty announced a writing contest where the prize was to visit the elementary school and read to the kids, I was game.  Plus, it felt like the kind of thing, a real author did.  

Now, I'd never met a real author before, but I was always a stickler for realism.  That meant my book had to have Library of Congress cataloging sub-headings, a copyright date, an actual NYC-based publisher, author bio, etc.  The contest didn't say your book had to be a part of a preexisting series, but I decided mine was and adhered to the form of the American Girl books.  Each character had a Changes For... book, so mine was Changes For Hannah.  Each American Girl book had ten chapters, so mine had ten chapters.  It is entirely possible that I thought Pleasant Company might offer to buy my book, publish it, and make a doll of Hannah.  (What can I say?  I was entrepreneurial.)

I probably don't have to say it, but none of the other kids in my grade took the contest nearly as seriously, and I was among those chosen to read to the elementary students.  Mrs. Haggerty's kind notes on all my work---even when it was clear I had "borrowed" plotlines from my favorite books---and encouragement bolstered my sometimes iffy middle school ego.  Importantly, she taught me that successful writing has a target audience, something I've always tried to keep in the front of my mind as a writer for children.  

As a special thank-you to the incredible teachers and librarians who inspire future authors every day, three winners will receive a signed copy of 

The Distance to Home and Sticks & Stones.  

Enter by Thursday, September 8, 2016.

a Rafflecopter giveaway