The New Seussville Website is launched

ENTERPRISES LAUNCH AN ALL-NEW SEUSSVILLE.COM,

THE OFFICIAL ONLINE HOME OF DR. SEUSS

Seussville.com brings Dr. Seuss books to life in an interactive world

New York, NY (August 17th, 2010)—Random House Children’s Books and Dr. Seuss Enterprises are thrilled to announce the launch of the all-new Seussville (www.seussville.com) the official online home of Dr. Seuss. The enhanced interactive site showcases the wonderfully whimsical books and classic characters of the beloved Theodor Seuss Geisel, a.k.a Dr. Seuss. The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and

Ham, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, and all of Dr. Seuss’s books leap to life in this completely new website, designed to ignite a child’s creative thinking and imagination.

Seussville.com is home to a dazzling array of entertaining and educational features that will delight Seuss fans young and old for hours on end. Lush animated environments offer an exploratory experience, and visitors to the site will uncover a wealth of innovative games and information—including a comprehensive character guide, searchable book catalog, an authoritative author section featuring a new biography and galleries of Dr. Seuss’s early sketches and artwork, robust parent and teacher resources, a customizable avatar activity, and more.

Dr. Seuss, believed that books and learning to read should be fun and exciting for children. Seussville.com maintains this spirit of fun and honors the tenets of his work: discovery, imagination, and creativity. “Seussville is the definitive online resource for children of all ages to play with, learn about and explore their favorite Dr. Seuss characters and books, and to discover new ones,” said Judith Haut, Senior Vice President, Communications and Marketing, Random House Children’s Books. “Dr Seuss created over 400 illustrated characters and with Seussville our goal was to bring those characters to life.”

Random House Children’s Books collaborated with Big Bad Tomato Interactive Agency, based in Los
Angeles, to develop the new online experience. “We strived to create a site that would introduce Dr.Seuss’s classic books to a generation of children who are immersed in digital media,” said Robert Bruza, Principle at Big Bad Tomato. “Seussville is a place where children can discover the magic of Dr. Seuss, and at the same time, it will inspire a sense of nostalgia and rediscovery for the adults who grew up reading the iconic books.”

Random House is also partnering with Big Bad Tomato to create a new Facebook game, set to launch in September. Similar to Farmville, the game will allow players to accumulate votes by completing a variety of Seuss-themed activities in pursuit of becoming the Mayor of Seussville. Fans can sign up on Seussville.com or by “liking” the Seussville fan page (Facebook.com/DrSeussBooks) on Facebook.

Fans can also follow Seussville on Twitter at Twitter.com/Seussville

RANDOM HOUSE CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Random House Children’s Books is the world’s largest English-language children's trade book publisher. Creating books for preschool children through young adult readers, in all formats from board books to activity books to picture books and novels, Random House Children’s Books brings together award-winning authors and illustrators, world-famous franchise characters, and multimillion-copy series. In 1957, Random House pioneered the beginning reader genre when it launched the Beginner Books series with Dr. Seuss’s classic The Cat in the Hat. Each year, Random House Children’s Books, along with Dr. Seuss, proudly supports the National Education Association’s Read Across America initiative, which calls on America’s children to celebrate the joys of reading in conjunction with Dr. Seuss’s birthday, March 2. Random House Children’s Books is a division of Random House, Inc., whose parent company is Bertelsmann AG, a leading international media company.

ABOUT DR SEUSS ENTERPRISES
The primary focus of the Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. is to protect the integrity of the Dr. Seuss books while expanding beyond books into ancillary areas. This effort is a strategic part of the overall mission to nurture and protect the relationship consumers have with Dr. Seuss characters. Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr.Seuss) said he never wanted to license his characters to anyone who would "round out the edges." That is one of the guiding philosophies of Dr. Seuss Enterprises. Audrey S. Geisel, the widow of Dr. Seuss, heads Dr. Seuss Enterprises as President.

An interview with Keith Szafranski

Keith Szafranski is the author of a wonderful new series of picture books starring Barrington, a bear who loves to travel and who takes photographs of the things he sees. You can read my review of the first Barrington book, Barrington visits the Emperor on the Through the Looking Glass Book Review website.

This is what Keith had to say about his books and his work:

Where did you get the idea for your Barrington Bear stories?
About 2 1/2 years ago an artist friend of mine suggested I use my photographs to do a children's picture book. She had recently come out with one using her artwork and was doing very well with it selling them at the various
art shows she did around the country. The idea intrigued me but is was almost two years before I came up with an idea that I liked. One day, in April 2007, my wife and I were walking the dog and this idea of having some sort of stuffed critter take my place on all of my travels came to me literally out of nowhere. I really liked the idea and started working out some of the details. Less than a year later the first Travels With Barrington Bear book was released.

Is he your bear and where did his name come from?
Yes, Barrington is my creation. I designed and sewed Barrington and all of his clothes. I really did not want a bear at first because so many people used bears in their stories. But eventually I succumbed and Barrington was 'born.' When it came time to name my bear I went to babynames.com. At first Barrington was going to be a photographer just like me. I wanted his name to go with either 'bear' or 'photographer' so I looked through boys names under 'b', 'f' and 'ph'. I listed about 60 names I liked and then started the process of elimination. I soon decided against having Barrington be a photographer as such and just have him be a bear that liked to take photographs. That eliminated all of the 'f' and 'ph' names and just left the 'b's'. I then started going through the list again, checking online to see if anyone else had used a particular name for a bear. I always passed over 'Barrington' because I really liked it and eventually quit the elimination process and went with Barrington.

How did you incorporate the image of Barrington into your photos so well?
Each of the first two books has only one image where Barrington was actually in the shot as taken. In all of the rest I used Photoshop to place him in the image. This is the most fun aspect of doing these books for me. Like most Photoshop
skills that I possess, adding Barrington to a scene so it looks like he is really there just took practice. I learned as I went along. I do everything pretty much by 'hand'. I know there are faster and perhaps easier ways to incorporate the little bear into the original photos but I don't think they work as well. I even draw Barrington's shadow like the one on the cover of Emperor by hand.

Clearly you went to see the Penguins in the Antarctic. What was it like?
I have been to Antarctica twice. Once was pretty much just for the Emperor penguins. That's the trip the first story is based on. The other time was for several species of penguin as well as seals, albatross and many other birds and animals. It's a gross understatement to say that Antarctica is an amazing place, especially the penguins. The Emperors see very few people during the year and so are quite 'tame'. While we as tourists are not allowed to approach the birds closer than 15 feet, it is okay for the penguins to come closer to us and they often do. I had literally thousands of penguins going about their daily routine of eating, sleeping, preening and taking care of their young within arms length. I hope I can see them again someday.

You have written one more book about Barrington's adventures. Do you have plans for many more?
After I first came up with the idea of Barrington, I quickly wrote down about ten book titles for the series and have since added two or three more that came to mind. I could probably go on ad infinitum with the series but will most likely limit the total to somewhere between twelve to fifteen books. Assuming they sell well enough that is. I have already begun work on book three in the series, Barrington Bear's Yellowstone Adventure.

When you are not writing about Barrington you are a professional photographer. How did you get interested in this field?
Well, to tell you the truth, the traveling actually came first. I always like to travel and see new places, especially the mountains. My wife and I took the kids out west a few times while we were living in Wisconsin. I was usually unhappy
with the photographs that I returned with from these trips. I was using an inexpensive instamatic camera at the time. Then, in 1979, a few months before a vacation to Arizona I decided to buy an inexpensive 35mm camera. It was almost love at first click. I really enjoyed the control I now had over my photographs. I practiced all the time. Four years after picking up the 35mm for the first time my wife and I quit our jobs and moved to Montana so I could pursue a career in wildlife photography.

What are you trying to do with your Barrington Bear books besides giving your readers something to smile and laugh at?
I really want to teach the reader something about the world around them. Not just information about places and animals but also the seemingly unimportant things like how you get from Montana to Antarctica. I want to do this in a fun
way so the kids (no matter what age) will not realize they are actually learning something along the way. I try to make my stories as true to life as possible with a little whimsy thrown in. Most of the things that happen to Barrington on his travels really happened to me. Of course, I didn't get to dance with penguins. There are some advantages to being a bear!

Please visit Keith and Barrington at the Barrington Bear Website.

Interview with Jackie Morris illustrator

I'd like you to meet Jackie Morris, the talented artist who illustrated a beautiful fairy tale called Singing to the sun.

What did you think when you were first sent the text for Singing to the Sun?
I first heard the story of Singing to the Sun at a children’s book festival in Swansea. Viv was doing an evening event and I went along to listen. The story made pictures dance in my head, and after the event Viv asked me if I liked it. When I said yes she replied “Good, because I wrote it with you in mind.’ And from there we began to look for a publisher together. The story was originaly published in a collection of stories and the others in the collection are equally beautiful.

What do you think of the message that it imparts to young, and not so young, readers?
There are so many messages in the book if you want to look for them. For children one message is that maybe love is better than wealth and power, but it is a thing to be freely given. For fathers a reminder that daughters have free will and are fed up of being given away as prizes in stories. For parents the message can be that arguing is frightening for children, for women, that it is always a good idea to keep your wolves close, if you have a wolf, and that cats are smart and music can often have the answer.

The artwork that you created for the story has a magical, ethereal quality. What inspired you to create these pictures in this way?

I love medieval manuscript, textiles, animals and birds. I suppose really the words inspired the images. Each book that I do is different, each a response to a different text

How were the illustrations created?
The illustrations were created with watercolour on hot pressed paper, after 27 years of practice and much blood sweat and tears. Firstly I did small thumbnail drawings and sketches trying to catch the characters, then went on to the finished work, which is larger than the published work. Some pieces flowed easily, others I had to work on a few times. I loved the wolves who are very much a side issue in the text, so I brought them down from the golden mountains to be beside the princesses, ready for when the princes get the answer wrong.

This is not the first fairy-tale that you have illustrated. Do you have a fondness for this genre?
I have a fondness for story. I love listening to storytellers. I love the way a really good story can live in your heart and mind and grow with you and help to make sense of the mad world we live in.

What do you think fairytales give children?
Hope. Understanding. Courage. Insight. Pleasure. Passion.Music. A connection through history to all the people in the world who have ever told the story before, who have ever listened to it. A place in the world and in time.

Did you like to read when you were a child, and if so what did you like to read?
I struggled to read when I was a child and only persisted because I knew that what was hidden in books behind the code of the alphabet was worth knowing, worth breaking through to. What I love to read now is stories that have magic, not necessarily witches and wizards, but that magical power where an author can make you believe, make you care, for a character whose bones are paper, whose blood is he letters on a page. Discoveries this last coupe of years have been Robin Hobb and The Book Thief and Stardust. Two of my favorite books I read as a child were White Fang and The Call of the Wild.

You have created illustrations for many charitable organizations. What do you like about doing this kind of work?
I like to use the work I do for good. I do not want to advertise cars, do illustrations for banks and big business. I always felt very priveleged to be able to work for Amnesty International and Green Peace and Oxfam.

You often use one of your cats as a model for your paintings. What does he think of this?
Max is a private kind of cat who likes to sleep in cupboards. He does not often come to sit on a lap and tends t keep out of the limelight, unlike the ginger brethren who dominate the house. But I think he is secretly quite pleased. He is very handsome and dark like midnight with emerald eyes.

If you could travel anywhere in the world to paint where would you go and why?
I would go to Venice in Spring. The colours of the buildings, the madness of the waterfilled streets, the crumbling decay are all inspiring. I would go to the arctic where the colours play in the sky and on the land and I would wait and watch for polar bears. I would go to Bhutan or Nepal and sit quietly and watch cranes fly over high mountains and hope a snowleopard would be watching me. I would go beneath the sea where great whales sing and see them swim and leap from the water, before it is too late, before there are no more and I would go to a jungle in India and wait for a tiger to burn the emerald forest bright. And for now I will go to my studio and paint some more.

You can find out more about Jackie on her wonderful website. If you are a cat lover do take the time to visit the blog written by her cat companions. Her journal will show you what the life of an illustrator is like.

DianeZ. Shore Book Blog - Day Two

Children's author and storyteller, Diane Z. Shore says her favorite thing about writing for children is meeting the kids. She writes picture books, early reader chapter books, poetry, short stories, games/puzzle pages, and non-fiction. “Humorous stories and non-fiction are my favorite things to write," says Diane.

Her work has been published in a variety of magazines including Highlights for Children, Cricket, Spider, Ladybug, Humpty Dumpty, Jack & Jill, Turtle, Children's Playmate, Boys' Quest, and various teaching magazines. Her poetry has won national awards and has appeared in several anthologies, including Miles of Smiles, If Kids Ruled the School, and Rolling in the Aisles. Her nonfiction piece "Presidential Dentures" was awarded the 2002 History Feature of the Year Award given by Highlights Magazine. Diane’s award-winning books include This is the Dream, illustrated by James Ransome, This Is the Feast (HarperCollins), illustrated by Megan Lloyd, Bus-A-Saurus Bop, (Bloomsbury) illustrated by David Clark, Look Both Ways (Bloomsbury), illustrated by Teri Weidner, Rosa Loves to Read (Scholastic), illustrated by Larry Day and How To Drive Your Sister Crazy (I Can Read! Level 2, HarperCollins), illustrated by Laura Rankin, inspired by and written for reluctant readers.

Diane lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and two children, Jennifer and Sam. Scampering about the house are Skruffy, a Jack Russell Terrier who holds the record for most bad hair days, and Punkin’, an orange tabby. Diane says her family, including Skruffy and Punkin’, have inspired her writing, but she adds, “The kids I meet at schools inspire me the most!” To find out more about Diane, visit her at her website.

Book Book Tour with Jeanne DuPrau - Day Three

For this third day on the Jeanne DuPrau blog book tour I have two things to share with you. One is a bio of Jeanne, and the other is book giveaway. If you are interested in a SIGNED advanced reader's copy (ARC) of The diamond of Darkhold please drop me a line with your name and your address. Two winning entries will be chosen at random. Please remember that ARCs should not be sold or quoted from. If you win one of these giveways keep it and treasure it.


Jeanne DuPrau's bio:
Jeanne DuPrau was born in San Francisco, California. She credits her mother with inspiring her to read and write well. Jeanne’s mother would read her school papers and help her clarify and organize her work. Her mother encouraged her to look hard at her work and express herself clearly. At the age of six Jeanne wrote her first story, “Frosty the Snowman.” Jeanne still has the illustrated five-page story bound with yarn and written in crayon. Another influence in her early life was a seventh grade teacher who encouraged her love of the English language, grammar, vocabulary, and word usage. But she says that her imaginative side of writing comes from her love of reading. All through school she wrote and wrote. Some of the writing was for school but she also assigned herself other types of writing to do on her own: poems, stories, journals, and letters.

After graduating college Jeanne DuPrau worked as a high school English teacher, a technical writer for Apple Computer, an editor in educational publishing companies, and a freelance writer. Jeanne used her experiences, the people she knew, the books that she had read, and ideas that occurred to her as her subject matter.

Jeanne DePrau has lived in Menlo Park, California for over 23 years. She likes playing the piano and growing a big vegetable and flower garden. Jeanne and her small cairn terrier named Ethan enjoy long walks, naps, car trips, and working in the garden together.


To find out more about Jeanne please visit her website.