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August 2011
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October 2011

Baltimore!

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At the Baltimore Book Festival (thanks to Susane for the photo!) -- here in order of height (shorter to taller) you see:

Maryrose Wood, Sarah Mlynowski, me, Susane Colasanti and Joanna Pearson. 

You can't tell, but Joanna and I are wearing the SAME SKIRT, hers in brown, mine in gray. 
We had fun. It was pouring rain. I revealed myself to be bitter, sarcastic and full of bile -- but possibly in a good way. Thanks to everyone who came out, and to these women of YA for being such fun conversationalists.  


Esther Freud's Lucky Break, and Therapy in YA Novels

Over at The Millions, an article all about Ruby's Doctor Z! Well, only kind-of. But it is all about therapy in YA fiction, and uses Roo's definitions as a way of structuring the essay, in part, and talks about The Boyfriend List at some length. 

Also, lots of people have emailed or tweeted me about the cover to Esther Freud's Lucky Break, which comes out in the USA in October. (It's British. Freud is a seriously respected novelist, author of Hideous Kinky which was a film with Kate Winslet, and she's related to Lucien and Sigmund and lots of other interesting Freuds.)

Lucky Break by Esther Freud: Book CoverDramarama by E. Lockhart: Book Cover

The answer is that yes, they can do that. The image is a stock photo. That means that a photographer has it represented through a stock agency, and publishers (or others) can buy rights to use it. Those rights aren't exclusive.  Then they can manipulate it (you can see the cover designer for Dramarama tinted it). 

It's not surprising that such a lovely dressing room photo was chosen by two designers for very similar books.  Lucky Break is about three drama school students in London, and the way their fortunes pan out over 14 years. Here's an excellent review from The Guardian. I am dying to read it. And here, if you don't know it yet, is all the scoop on Dramarama, which is the most autobiographical of my books. 

A bit of inside news: The black line across the girl's face on the cover of Dramarama was put there at my request. Sadye in the novel has a large, distinctive nose. The model's nose was so obviously not that -- I felt that seeing her nose made it impossible to believe she was my character.

Scroll down to see my tour dates for Toys Come Home. 

Happy Fall!
XO


Tour Dates

October through December, I am doing eventsfor Toys Come Home (written as Emily Jenkins) -- plus a few teen events. (Real LIve Boyfriends comes out in PB Dec 28).
Here are the events, as I know them now. Most of them are with my illustrator, Caldecott-winner Paul O. Zelinsky. A lot of my events are school visits, but below I'm listing the PUBLIC EVENTS. Please come out and see me! Bring the kids.

Wednesday, October 19: Madison, WI

Wisconsin Book Festival with Paul O. Zelinsky

Thursday, October 20: Naperville, IL
7:00 pm: Anderson's Bookstore with Paul O. Zelinsky

Saturday, October 22: Austin, TX
Texas Book Festival Texas State Capitol, room E2.016 with Paul O. Zelinsky, 1:00 PM
(Paul is also on at 10 with Marla Frazee and other artists!)

Monday, October 24: Petaluma, CA
Copperfield's bookstore: 3 PM with Paul O. Zelinsky

Tuesday, October 25: Menlo Park, CA
Kepler's Books: 7 PM with Paul O. Zelinsky 

Wednesday, Oct 26: Seattle, Washington
Secret Garden Bookstore 6:30 PM  Teen Book Club (but all ages welcome) 

(Note: this is an E. Lockhart event!)

Thursday, Oct 27th: Seattle, Washington
Village Books:  5pm in-store event

November 5: NYC

Bank Street Bookstore, 11 AM

November 12: Shelburne, VT
Flying Pig Bookstore, daytime in-store event with Paul O. Zelinsky

Nov 19: NYC

Books of Wonder, noon, with Paul O. Zelinsky

Dec 3:NYC

Books of Wonder, 2pm The Pajants Extravaganza! An E. Lockhart event. If you don't know about the Twitterhood of the Butt-lifting Pajants and why all the cool authors are wearing them, click here. This is a star-studded, bedazzled, fabric-paint event at BOW. 

Dec 4: Brooklyn

Powerhouse Books in Dumbo, holiday party!

December 10: Brooklyn
Boulevard Books, 11 AM with Paul O. Zelinsky

xo

E

 


Toys Come Home

Toys Come Home, written under the name Emily Jenkins, comes out today. Preview it here.  It's for 5-10 year-olds, and it's the third in the series that started with Toys Go Out -- but it's a prequel, so you could read it first if you want to.

Happy Fall!

XOE

Toys Go Out cover

"Who could imagine the introduction of a self-conscious stingray could lead to such great things?... This enjoyable trio deserves its rightful place away from the confines of any toy chest."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review 

"The empathetic characters, gentle drama, and occasional, full-page, black-and-white drawings create a timeless story of adventure and friendship to treasure aloud or independently. Wholly satisfying, this may well leave readers expecting to see the Velveteen Rabbit peeking in the bedroom window and smiling approvingly." 
—School Library Journal, starred review