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December 31st, 2009
slayground
 | 07:44 am - The Baby-Sitters Club is Back in April 2010
Thank you, Scholastic!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB® IS BACK
WITH A NEW NOVEL AND RE-ISSUES OF THE BELOVED SERIES
BY BESTSELLING AUTHOR ANN M. MARTIN
"The Summer Before,"
a prequel to the phenomenally successful Scholastic series,
to be published in April 2010
New York, NY (December 31, 2009) - Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education and media company, announced today that it will publish an original new novel in the beloved bestselling series The Baby-sitters Club® by acclaimed author Ann M. Martin. "The Summer Before" (ISBN: 978-0-545-16093-3; $16.99), a prequel to the first book in the series, will be released in hardcover in April 2010.
Scholastic also announced plans to re-issue new paperback editions of the original The Baby-sitters Club books starting in April 2010 with "Kristy's Great Idea" (ISBN: 978-0-545-17475-6; $5.99) and "Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls" (ISBN: 978-0-545-17476-3; $5.99), followed by "The Truth About Stacey" (ISBN: 978-0-545-17477-0; $5.99) in June. Additional titles will follow in fall 2010.
The Baby-sitters Club is one of the most successful series in publishing history with more than 176 million books in print. Ann M. Martin spent the latter part of the 1980s and most of the 1990s working on the series, which was supposed to debut in 1986 and end in 1987, and to consist of only four titles. Instead, it ended 15 years later, with four additional related series, approximately 250 titles, spawned a TV series as well as a feature film, and prompted girls around the world to start their own baby-sitters clubs.
"The stories about children who discovered a love of reading when they read The Baby-sitters Club are the ones that have had the greatest impact on me as a writer," said author Ann M. Martin. "Writing about these characters and stepping back into the world of Stoneybrook was like having a reunion with old friends-friends who truly haven't changed a bit. I'm very excited about introducing The Baby-sitters Club to a new generation of readers."
The BSC series, which dealt with topics about friendship, sibling rivalry, and peer pressure, also tackled serious issues including divorce, diabetes, and death. The acclaim and success soared. The Baby-sitters Club became the first children's series to appear on the USA Today bestseller list. The New York Times Magazine hailed Martin as a, "genius in communicating with girls when and after they slip behind the glass curtain of preadolescence…Martin gets children to read." Time magazine wrote, "Adventures in baby-sitting…must-read literature for preteen girls," and Parents magazine praised, "Girls can't get enough of The Baby-sitters Club…aren't these the kinds of role models we want for our daughters…we all need friends like that." Publishers Weekly proclaimed, "Ann Martin rules the paperback roost" and USA Today exclaimed, "Young readers love ‘Baby-sitters.'" In 1998, The Baby-sitters Club was named one of the "Books of the Century" by the New York Times Book Review.
"I grew up at Scholastic working on The Baby-sitters Club, starting in 1992 as an intern," said David Levithan, Vice President, Editorial Director, Scholastic Press, who now oversees the editorial direction of the series. "One of the amazing things to witness over the past twenty years has been how many other people grew up on the BSC, too – as readers. The series truly got an entire generation – especially the girls – to read. And it's a thrill to be able to introduce that excitement about books to a new generation."
"The characters in The Baby-sitters Club could be any kids, living anywhere, whether in America or abroad, and the universal theme of friendship rings true for an audience of the 80s, 90s, now and beyond," said Debra Dorfman, Vice President and Publisher of Paperbacks, Cartwheel and Licensed Publishing, Scholastic, who oversees the paperback publishing program for the BSC re-issues. "Some of the millions of girls who grew up devouring these books are now mothers, teachers, and perhaps writers themselves. We look forward to sharing the stories of Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, and Stacey with both old and new fans of the series."
About "The Summer Before":
Before there was The Baby-sitters Club, there were four girls named Kristy Thomas, Mary Anne Spier, Claudia Kishi, and Stacey McGill. As they start the summer before seventh grade, each of them is getting ready for big changes. Kristy is still hoping that her father will return to her family. Mary Anne has to prove that she's no longer a little girl. Claudia is navigating her first major crush. And Stacey is leaving her entire New York City life behind in order to find new friends in Stoneybrook, Connecticut . "The Summer Before" is a moving novel about four girls on the edge of something big-not just the club that will change their lives, but also the joys and tribulations of being a girl.
About Ann M. Martin:
Ann M. Martin is the bestselling author of the momentous series The Baby-sitters Club, as well as the Main Street series. Her other acclaimed novels include "A Dog's Life," "Belle Teal," "The Doll People," and the Newbery Honor Book "A Corner of the Universe." She lives in upstate New York . For more information, visit http://www.scholastic.com/annmartin/bsc
For more information about Scholastic, visit http://mediaroom.scholastic.com
###
Contact: Charisse Meloto
cmeloto@scholastic.com
(212) 389-3785
Read other posts related to The Baby-Sitters Club at Bildungsroman, including What the BSC Means to Me and my initial post about the prequel news.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/anksadg.gif) thirsty
Current Music: Feed Me, Seymour! from Little Shop of Horrors Film Soundtrack
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jbknowles
 | 10:05 am - Almost there
Browsing LJ there are a lot of decade in review type posts. They are lovely and heartbreaking, just like the past ten years have been for me. I think mostly, other than the birth of my child, the biggest events are painful enough without having to revisit them here. And so, I'm happy to be ringing in a new year. A new decade.
On the other side of midnight, I see hope waiting for us. I see all the possibilities. I see the dreams we dare to dream. I can't wait to step over with all of you and work together to make them all come true.
xo
p.s. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) bgliterary has just informed me that I, along with many, am mistaken and this is not really the start of a new decade. However, I reserve the right to treat it as one. :-)
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/opiummmm/foxies/happy.gif) hopeful
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metteharrison
 | 07:27 am - 09 highlights
In triathlon:
2nd place overall Provo Tri (June)
3rd place AG Utah Half (August--5:05)
Honorable Mention in USAT top athletes AG (score 81 again)
Finished 50 miler every step with my husband
1st place Olympic Relay Jordanelle Triathlon with 15 (August)
4th overall in both Orem Rec triathlons this year (Nov 1:00 faster)
5k in 20:10 on a treadmilll at 0 incline
learning how many A races I can do in a year, and how to hold back on a non A-race
getting a print outlet for triathlon writing
In writing:
The Princess and the Bear came out with a mixed floor display at Barnes and Noble
I sold a three book deal, on "proposal," to Harper (Two Princesses comes out in 2010)
I sold another short story to IGMS (Through the Blood, January 2010)
Got a starred review from Kirkus (probably caused its demise)
Discovered two more books waiting to be told in the Hound Saga
realized that I sometimes think I am making a bigger fool of myself than I actually am
In piano:
Arrived at both spring and winter recitals, complete with all digits intact (though one of them still lacks sensation from the time I cut off the tip two years ago, nervous for a recital, and chopping potatoes)
Played in church once
Heard 14 asking to play two of the songs I had learned, despite complaints that she couldn't stand to listen to either of them again
In crafting:
Made 4 quilts
2 afghans
3 sweaters
And without complaint pulled out an entire skein of yarn from a sweater knit with two sleeves on one side
Taught a class on knitting
Taught 4 classes on quilting
Pitched a book on knitting (again--and it was rejected, again!)
Thought about a book on quilting (wrote supplies off on taxes anyway)
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December 30th, 2009
slayground
 | 07:27 pm - A Lost One
Two nights ago, a young man named Brendan unexpectedly passed away in his sleep.
When the news reached me last night, I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it.
This gentle soul was one of my friendliest customers; every single time I saw him, he had a smile on his face and two (yes, two) hats on his head. I first met him two years ago, and we bonded quickly over books. He was always eager to tell me the title and plot of the latest book he'd read. I told him about Bildungsroman, GuysLitWire, and readergirlz. He, in turn, shared links to his artwork and his blogs, where he frequently offered music recommendations.
He enjoyed speculative fantasy and good literature, so I recommended The Menagerie novels by Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Sniegoski. Not only did he track down the first three books in the series quickly, but he beat me to the last one! I think I'll obtain another set of the books and donate them to Operation Teen Book Drop this coming spring. It's the least I can do in honor of his joy, his potential, and his love of books.
If you have a Twitter account, please join his friends in using the #mlarg tag in honor of his online handle.
This is nearly ten years to the day that Missy passed away. That fact was not lost on me last night. Even the time I was informed was nearly the same as it was before.
Those lost shall be remembered fondly, and missed forever.
Current Mood: sad
Current Music: Pitter-Pat by Erin McCarley
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slayground
 | 05:45 pm - Hello there!
Hello there! Bildungsroman's visitor and viewer statistics have skyrocketed over the past week, and though I don't know why - since LiveJournal's programming does not allow my tracker from eXtreme Tracking to access referral links and such - I am quite flattered. I'd love to hear from new readers and learn what brought you here. Please leave a comment below introducing yourself and letting me know what or who pointed you to Bildungsroman!
Also, many thanks to strangerface for inspiring me to finally secure a paid account for this book blog. Thank you for the nudge, even if it was unintentional. I created this blog over six years ago, on September 30th, 2003, and should have ensured its stability long ago.
Current Mood: thirsty
Current Music: Law & Order: Criminal Intent score music
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metteharrison
| 12:47 pm - Julie and Julia
Since 12 is so into cooking (we had an Alton Brown Christmas this year), I thought when I was out looking for movies, that this would be the one for him. He did, in fact, like it a lot more than I think other 12 year old boys would have, since it is about two middle-aged women, well, cooking.
For me, it was a good time for self-reflection as I watched Julie Powell obsess over something that was, in some sense, completely unimportant, emotionally collapse over it, and nearly destroy her marriage. It made me think about my own life and my own writing and how it must look to those looking in. I mean, what is it about writing that is so "important?" It's words, on a page. It's made up people, with magic that doesn't exist. I'm sure the people who read it could survive without it if I gave up writing.
And yet the end of the movie didn't seem to suggest that it was, after all, unimportant. It was also the story of two women who were doing something that seemed impossible, and succeeded. That part of the story was told truly alongside the story of the costs of the dream. I liked that a lot.
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sararyan
 | 09:34 am - Some balancing acts I’m thinking about at the end of the year and decade
– The comfortable and familiar with the unknown and surprising
– Deliberate plans with serendipitous spontaneity
– Solitude with company
– Travel with home
– Online with offline
– and of course the usual: day job with writing, sleep with writing, exercise with writing, etc.
At this time when a certain amount of reflection seems obligatory, what’s on y’all’s minds?
Originally published at sararyan.com. You can comment here or there.
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December 29th, 2009
metteharrison
 | 09:25 am - December presents week #4
Forgot to post these.
15:
Harry Potter in Latin
Tamar by Mal Peet
14:
Thirsty by M.T. Anderson
12:
Powerless by Matthew Cody
10:
Beyond Spiderwick 1, 2, 3 by Holly Black
7:
Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel
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December 28th, 2009
metteharrison
| 09:32 am - killing your darlings
I just deleted a sentence from a novel I've been working on. A reader had written "this is a perfect sentence" over the line and I kept trying to figure out a way to preserve it while trimming around it, but I never did. I guess this is what they mean when they say you have to kill your darlings. I am still hoping I might find some place else for it in the novel, but I know the likelihood is small.
RIP, perfect sentence.
The sentence was:
"She licked her own wounds."
Doesn't sound like much out of context, does it?
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jbknowles
| 09:34 am - Daring to dream, and an assignment
Have you ever noticed how memories change with distance? I recently wrote an essay for a friend about last New Year's Day and how blackholly made a group of us write out our dreams for the year. In this essay, I remembered starting out small, but then putting down some BIG dreams. In fact when I got the list out, this seemed to confirm that. But just now, I found my journal entry about that day, and I said I didn't dare to dream too big.
Weird.
I guess I am a big fat liar.
But either way, the lesson is there. That it's OK to reserve a tiny piece of paper to hold dreams that are just for you. It's a special secret between you and you. The you of January 1, 2010, and the you of January 1, 2011, when you look at the list again. Because you will be the same and different. You will be a whole year's worth of some of those dreams coming true, and some of them not. But just imagining them for a moment will make you smile, or sit a little taller. There will be a whole year of possibilities in front of you. Enjoy the moment of sitting and dreaming about them. Sometimes in order for good things to happen, we have to be brave enough to imagine them first.
And here's to dreams that are bigger than all of us, but that demand our participation nonetheless. Dreams for a more peaceful and caring world. It seems so far out of our control, especially after the year we just had. But it can come true if we all do our part. By sharing our light, by remembering it's there, by caring every day for each other and for our planet, we can make a difference.
But we have to care. That's the key. Care. I know you do.
Thanks so much to all of you for sharing your light with me. :-)
Happy New Year!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Make a list of your dreams on a piece of paper. Fold it up and put it somewhere safe until next year.
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December 27th, 2009
sararyan
| 11:30 am - Salvaging cooking fail
In case you were wondering:
If you have made an assay at banana frosting, but have managed to use a disproportionate amount of bananas and butter in relation to the amount of powdered sugar in the house, resulting in a texture not remotely similar to frosting, if you:
Add flour, baking soda, and spices of your choice, then
Bake the concoction at three hundred fifty degrees for a half an hour or so
…you will come out with something remarkably close to a banana bread pudding.
And if you are, for the first time, roasting a boneless turkey breast on the theory that it will be easier and less messy than a whole bird, but have managed to miss that the recipe you are allegedly following is in fact only for half a turkey breast, thus rendering details such as the stated cooking time wholly inaccurate, you can:
Roast it for a while longer, basting assiduously
Check it with a meat thermometer and see that it is still nowhere near 165 degrees
Cut it in half and roast the halves further
Realize after having taken them out of the pan and put them on a cutting board to rest that they are still alarmingly pink in parts
Put one half back in the oven
Dice the other half into bite-sized chunks
Sauté them in the gravy you’ve been making from the pan juices
Microwave a package of the extremely convenient Trader Joe’s Organic Brown Rice
Throw the rice in
and call it good.
Probably I should make some analogy to the writing process here. I suppose following a recipe is not unlike following an outline, though I’d like to think I pay more attention to outlines (once I’ve painstakingly constructed them) than I apparently paid to the recipes above. But it is certainly the case that even when I’m following an outline, scenes and characters shift in surprising ways, resulting in a story that in parts bears little resemblance to the initial conception, so maybe it’s a fair comparison after all.
Originally published at sararyan.com. You can comment here or there.
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December 25th, 2009
literaticat
 | 07:09 pm - The Persimmon Pudding Incident of '09
I promised my sister I would make dessert for our holiday feast (since she always does most all the cooking, because if it was up to me we'd have Chinese take-out and call it a day.)
I decided on Persimmon Pudding because it was a childhood favorite and the thing my mom always made for holidays. And because it is delicious. And because I have made it before (granted, with my mom's help and many years ago, but still! Sense memory, right?)
Note: You should use the big orange Hachiya variety persimmons, like what grows all over in southern California, extra-ripe & soft - if you must use Fuyu persimmons, you'll have to skin and blend first because they are not soft enough.
Here's the recipe:
1 1/2 c sifted flour
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t cinnamon
1 c raisins
1/2 c chopped nuts
2 beaten eggs
1 1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 sieved persimmon pulp
1/4 c melted butter
3/4 cup milk
Mix dry ingredients in bowl. Mix eggs, sugar, persimmon & butter in a mixer. Add stuff in bowl & milk. Mix. Put in well greased mold. Set in a pan of water and bake at 325 for at least 1 hour 1.5 - 2 hours (? - This is where it gets a little dicey). Serve with hard sauce.
HARD SAUCE = 4 Tbs soft butter, 1 c sifted powdered sugar, 1 egg yolk, dash salt, whip, add 1/4 c brandy, blend.
OK, sounds easy enough, right? Well, first of all it is a terrific mess and uses WAY more bowls and things than anything else EVER. Second, my mom told me "cooking takes longer than the recipe says". Sadly, she told me this after I was well into making it.
Anyway, I put it all together, I pop it in the oven, I leave the thing in for an hour and a half. After all, my mom said it would take longer than expected! I peek. Looks done. Put a toothpick in. Seems done. Take it out.
Flip it over onto a plate.
OY! NOT DONE! The bottom (now top) is in the shape of the pan, but still liquidy. It is like nothing I've ever seen before. So, I decide that it should go back in the oven. But how?
Our bundt pan is not simple, it is a Fleur-de-lis. I carefully position each pan spike over the appropriate cake spike.
I flip the cake back in. But oh no! My judgment was off by an eighth of an inch and now the whole thing is crooked and half of it looks collapesy! But no matter - we are the only ones who are going to eat it, right? I let the thing bake another half hour and wash all the dishes. (It is remarkably difficult to get persimmon pulp out of a sieve, btw.)
At this point the top of the thing is starting to look a little TOO brown. I decide it has had enough, so I take it out. I flip it over onto a plate. The bottom (now top) is STILL not done, and the top (now bottom) is burny. So I cut off the top and the bottom. The remaining chunks I put into a little silicone mini-loaf pan. I'll bake for a few minutes just before serving and top with the sauce.
This is what the dish is supposed to look like:
This is what mine looks like:
( Surprise! )
I prefer to think of it as "rustic" or "wabi-sabi" rather than looking like "a dog's dinner."
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theoblack
 | 01:06 pm - Merry Xmas
Merry Xmas everyone. Let us give thanks to the aliens who left the radioactive glowing baby known as Jesus Christ and let the three rich men to his birth place with their hypnotic rays. Nacbar Voneekra and Merry Xmas everyone.
Current Location: United States, New Jersey, Long Branch
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/aliens/energetic.gif) bouncy
Current Music: Bond Tracks
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miss_pryss
 | 12:36 pm - OMG MY YULETIDE STORY!!!!!
Guys, my yuletide writer wrote me an AMAZING story!
The fandom is From Eroica With Love, and the story is called Breaking and Entering, and I cannot even begin to express how much I love it.
But I'll try!
It's long, and plotty, and beautifully angsty, and so perfectly in character. AND, and and and! It's full of details like totally convincing lock-picking, and Dorian referring to Klaus as "shouty," and hurt/comfort, sorta, and that slow bloom of understanding on Klaus's part, and the steady devotion on Dorian's part, complicated and strengthened by his wonderfully complex ethical code.
AND, Klaus looking at Dorian's rear end.
I LOVE IT SO MUCH THANK YOU YULETIDE FAIRY YOU HAVE MADE ME THE LUCKIEST YULE-GIRL OF ALL!!!!!
Current Music: Red Alert - Basement Jaxx
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December 24th, 2009
miss_pryss
 | 11:04 pm - Too sleepy for Yuletide
Last year I stayed up so late until the archive opened! The whole world was asleep except for all of us, remember? And all of those stories! In the dead of night!
But tonight I think I am toooooo sleepy. So I'll drift off with the pleasure of knowing the great Yuletide machine, powered by its astonishing army of mods and coders and pinch-hitters, is wending its way through the internet, like Santa in the sky, and there'll be eighty million gajillion amazing stories to read in the morning: presents in the intertubes.
G'night, kids. Happy Yuletide.
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metteharrison
| 09:35 am - most embarrassing part 2--#1
These are embarrassing moments from my supposedly adult life.
When I went to visit grad schools during my "senior" year of college, I had pretty much already made up my mind that I wanted to go to Princeton. But they didn't know that and what they also didn't know was that, in fact, I did not get accepted at any of the other grad schools that I had applied to. Yale was a no. Stanford was a waiting list. This made no sense of to me since at the time Princeton had the #1 German program in the country. But I didn't care.
I was so excited to visit the campus, meet some of the students, and most of all to meet the professors. One of them was a white-haired man, not much taller than I was, whose office was under the eaves of the top floor of the building. It was a cozy, quaint place and he spoke with a rather odd accent that I couldn't place, half Brooklyn, half British. He asked me about my interests. I told him I loved women writers and poetry and Goethe, which at the time was true. Then he asked me what interested me most about Princeton. I giggled.
Yes, I giggled.
I was nineteen at the time, and I giggled when I was nervous.
I don't remember if I tried to say anything else coherent. I only remember that he stopped asking me questions about my background and asked me instead how old I was. I told him the truth and he was surprised, to say the least. I said I thought that my age was one of the reasons that Princeton had accepted me. After all, I only had two years on my transcripts. Surely no one could have missed that.
He apparently had not been on the search committee and finally said something about perhaps if I stayed a few extra years I would get the maturity I needed. He said that I was very "cheerful." I went away wondering if they would take away my acceptance, but they didn't. It was many years before I stopped giggling in nervousness. Mostly, I tried to avoid interview situations like that.
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