by Matthew | Mar 25, 2015 | Make Your Own Book, Media, Reader Submitted |
It is old news to many of you that this year’s Bobbledy Books “make your own” book winner has been announced. This happened nearly two months ago, in fact, but for reasons that will soon be clear, we have been unable to tell you about her until now.
Meet Maia Blackie, the youngest published author in the history of Scotland, pictured here with her very own book, Rosie and the Bees.
Maia is this year’s winner.
Because mail travels slowly to Scotland, and especially big boxes full of many extra copies for all of Maia’s family and friends, we had to wait to tell you that Maia had won the contest until Maia herself discovered that she had won the contest. But books eventually arrived, triggering great excitement in Glasgow and leading to the taking of the photo above.
Such furor resulted from the news of Maia’s win that it captured the notice of The Herald, a Scottish newspaper. You can follow this link if you’d like to read the whole story. It’s really quite wonderful.
If you take nothing else away from the article, I want you to know that Rosie and the Bees is a “really lovely, simple wee tale, full of humor and fun.”
Keep in mind that the unfinished book we sent out for club members to complete with their own stories and drawings was called The __________ Adventures of the ____________ Piggy Bank. We made it clear that club members were allowed to change the name if they liked.
Maia certainly took us up on the offer.
Given that we love the cover, we urge you to judge this book by it.
Robbi had a lot of fun adding speech bubbles and colored backgrounds to make Maia’s wonderful drawings and layouts really come alive.
We love how well Maia worked with the illustration prompts that Robbi left for kids to build their stories and drawings around. For example, in the unfinished book we sent out, the page below was blank except for the illustration of a band-aid.
Maia’s decision to put it on Rosie’s nose was just right.
In the course of working with Maia’s book, we learned a thing or two about Scottish culture and language. For example, did you know that “knickers” is the Scottish way of saying “underwear?” We did not. But now we do. (Please take note of the pink knickers with red hearts; I am going get myself a pair.)
Although Rosie and the Bees is an overwhelmingly heartwarming tale, there is one moment of dramatic tension when Maia’s friend Lilly wields a saw and threatens (with a wicked gleam in her eye) to cut down a tree.
Lilly is well-intentioned, of course. Her aim is dispersing the menacing swarm of bees that has already resulted in Rosie’s being stung on the nose.
But Maia (Maia the character in Rosie and the Bees, not Maia the author; this is all very meta, of course) stops her friend, saves the tree, and finds another solution. As any heroic figure should. Maia the character is one heck of a character.
And Maia the kid is one heck of a kid. Here is her self-portrait (with the aforementioned Rosie).
Already an accomplished writer and artist at the tender age of six, Maia is also a great fan of all animals, from her good pal Rosie to the lowly cockroach.
I want to give a shout-out to all the other kids who sent us books this year. There were so many great stories and so many amazing drawings that it was REALLY, REALLY hard to pick just one to publish. We wish we had a trunk of gold and an army of designers so that we could publish each and every one of them. But for now, we had the fun of picking one illustration from each book to publish in the back of Rosie and the Bees.
Look at all this wonderful stuff.
Aren’t kids amazing?
We are already looking forward to next year’s contest. We have decided to throw a twist into the mix the next time around. Stay tuned, Bobbledy club members everywhere. And for all of the rest of you, please join me in a round of applause for Maia, the youngest published author in the history of Scotland.
We couldn’t be more proud of her, and we couldn’t be any happier to have her in our club.
by Matthew | Apr 2, 2014 | Media |
Imagine our delight today when this Tweet came in yesterday.
We followed the link and found this review of Bobbledy Books by writer/blogger/small press enthusiast Jacke Wilson.
The above is just a snippet of the full piece. Have a read if you have a moment. And if you’ve been meaning to sign up or have let your club membership lapse, know that Even Ninjas Eat Asparagus is going to be sent out by the end of this week. Perhaps I am slightly biased, but I can say in good faith that I don’t think you’ll want to miss it.
Click here to join the club or here to renew your membership.
by Matthew | Dec 13, 2013 | Media |
They say that any publicity is good publicity, but some kinds of publicity are better than others. And when a Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic for the Washington Post decides to say nice things about your books, it might be the very best kind of publicity there is.
Yesterday’s Post featured a review of our not-for-kids book Ten Thousand Stories.
If you are, say, at least 9 years old, and if your parents believe you to be of sufficiently mature mindset, perhaps you would enjoy flipping through the pages of this book, but I am not endorsing it as a holiday gift for the young and impressionable (on account of various “adult themes”). But in the course of this review, which was flattering beyond our wildest dreams (and, so you know, our dreams get pretty wild from time to time), the reviewer, Michael Dirda, talked about Bobbledy Books. Because, as you know, we are not one-trick ponies (perhaps I should have said, “we are not one-headed donkeys”).
Here’s what he had to say on the Bobbledy front:
While “Ten Thousand Stories” is, by its subject matter, intended for grown-ups, Swanson and Behr may be best known for the children’s titles they publish under their own imprint, Bobbledy Books. These are available through subscription and arrive in garishly bright envelopes of green and red, inscribed with the words “Read Write Draw Sing.” Inside, one finds wonderfully imaginative paperbacks such as “The Girl With Frogs in Her Ears.” Because little Vera has “frogs in her ears,” she can’t quite make out what anyone says, so when the mayor of her town shouts, “We are looking for someone to conquer the big-headed ogre of Eggplant Mountain using only a toothbrush and a bent playing card,” she simply gives a deaf little nod. Vera’s thrilling adventure leads to the discovery of a new friend.
Mr. Dirda has been a champion of ours since we met him at the Chestertown Book Festival a few years back. Here we are together way back then.
A few months ago, also in the Washington Post, he wrote this of Bobbledy:
Bobbledy Books is my favorite small press publisher for kids. Matthew Swanson writes the words, and his wife Robbi Behr creates the pictures, and together they are silly, poetic, surreal, and incredibly cool.
Bobbledy Books is also my favorite small press publisher for kids, but I’m decidedly more biased than Mr. Dirda, so I’m pleased to hear him say it.
On the strength of Dirda’s praise, we added a BUNCH of new members to the Bobbledy club, yesterday, so welcome to all you new Bobbledy kids!
As for you adults out there, if you are the sort that is moved by endorsements from high places and are eager to purchase Bobbledy memberships as holiday gifts for the kids in your life, click here, and we will take care of the rest.
And for all of you friends, club members, and other supporters out there, please know that the biggest thrill of yesterday was not the high praise of Mr. Dirda, but the overwhelming outpouring of love and excitement you heaped upon our little enterprise. The thing that makes Bobbledy a club is all of you. The thing that makes all we do worthwhile is the fact that you seem to appreciate it.
So thank you.
by Robbi | Jun 22, 2013 | Media |
Yesterday we got yet another exciting thing in the mail – our very first magazine advertisement. Yes, I know, this might not SEEM like a big deal, but when you’ve be resting comfortably in obscurity for the past 10 months or so, it’s quite exciting to see your name in lights. We took out an ad on the back cover of the summer issue of Brain,Child magazine. We had met the folks who run Brain,Child (a friendly, passionate, wise bunch) when our Idiots’Books and Bobbledy Books booth was fortuitously assigned to be next to theirs at the AWP Bookfair.
Brain,Child is a parenting magazine in the sense that it is written for parents about parenting and kid issues, but it’s heavy on memoir, opinion and fiction and avoids articles like “5 Things You Must Do to Keep Your Kids From Becoming Sociopaths (Hint: They all have to do with weird fad diets!)”. It’s called “The Magazine for Thinking Mothers” but thinking fathers probably enjoy it too.
Anyway – Marcelle sent us some copies and it was so very exciting to see our first [very] big ad.
So – for those of you who are coming to us via Brain,Child – WELCOME! The reason this is so exciting to us is that we are literally a mom-and-pop shop around here. And, seriously, this is what we REALLY look like, RIGHT NOW:
So the thought of some 35,000+ sets of eyes looking at our silly mugs out there in the ether is both thrilling and humbling. We’d love to hear from any of you (email Matthew here) – since we are a mom-and-pop operation, that means at least one of us will be up late at night responding to emails (and since I gave you Matthew’s email address, it will be him, not me, ha ha!) (he IS the writer, after all).
We also do weekly drawing/writing prompts, which you can SIGN UP FOR HERE.
AND we do a weekly auction of original illustrations, so if you’re interested in being alerted to those by email, you can SIGN UP FOR AUCTION ALERTS HERE.
Anyway. Thanks to new folks for stopping by, and thanks to all you stalwarts out there who continue to support us in our grand, grand adventure.
by Matthew | Sep 17, 2012 | Appearances, Media |
One of the reasons we love living in a small town is that people get excited about things that would be overlooked in a big town. When our community marching band is practicing on High Street, people come out of their houses to listen and watch. When there are artists showing their stuff in the park, people show up and see what’s going on.
Such is the case with Bobbledy Books. We started a new venture, and our local online paper wrote this nice article about it.
For those of you who like to plan ahead, we’re going to have the first official Bobbledy Books event at Bookplate on December 7. It will be a reading of our first few books, a bit of discussion about what we think we’re up to, and a chance for kids to ask questions about how we write, draw, and make books. We’re hoping to get a bunch of real, live kids there, so if you know any kids or parents, please spread the word. We’re not exactly sure of the timing, but it will probably be in the 5:00 – 6:00 range.
More details will be posted as they are revealed, but we’d love to see you there. And we’re guessing that there will be cake.
