When a Publishing House Dies

“Tricycle is dead, ”  the e-mail said. 

I gasped.  Grief overwhelmed me.

How could this be? 

It happened to soon. 

I’m not ready for it.

I thought of the amazing books out of this quirky and unique small publishing house.   The hysterical George Hogglesberry Grade School Alien by Sarah Wilson,  the lyrical and moving Hugging the Rock by Susan Taylor Brown.  And who can forget Adventures of COW by COW?

 Tricycle Press’ sudden demise shouldn’t have come as such a shock.  After all, when Random House bought them, we knew anything could happen.  When a small publisher is gobbled up by a large one . . . who knows what the big guys are thinking?  

They wanted to buy Ten Speed, the adult publishing branch and they ditched the children’s division.  Isn’t that just like the world?  Giving second thought to kids? 

When I was in children’s theater, the “real” theater department considered children’s theater “second class” because we were “only” for kids.  Ha.  They didn’t get it.

Pretty soon we’ll have one or two gigantic publishers owning everything.  Every author will have the same voice.  There will be no choice in the world. 

So let’s “get it.” 

Right now, go to your bookstore and buy a quirky, unusual, fabulous book for kids.  Read it yourself!  Give it as a gift!  Don’t have a kid in your life?  Donate it to a local elementary school library.  Every school library is in need these days! 

Let’s promote small publishers,  unique independent bookstores,  unknown authors, well-done ANYTHING for kids!  Let’s have MANY voices instead of a few brands.  Join together to promote reading. 

Let us use this death to promote action.  Rest in Peace Tricycle.

Video Book Trailer Scholarship Contest For Kids 13 – 18

Create a video book trailer for the novel “Hugging the Rock” by Susan Taylor Brown.

Put together a cast and act it out, create an animation, or use photos with text set to music – it’s up to you. Be creative. Have fun. Make people want to read the book.

More details can be found at the Freshbrain.org website: http://tinyurl.com/rocktrailer
SUMMARY OF RULES
– U.S resident only between 13 and 18 years of age (as of the close of the contest)
– 30 seconds to 2 minutes in length and in a standard video format (.wmv, .mov, .avi, .mp4)
– Your own creation, NO copyrighted material
– Include a brief description of the process you followed
– Deadline for entries is 12/15/09

JUDGING
Judging will be based on the following criteria. Please see the official rules for more details.
– Creativity (50%)
– Consistency with the book (25%)
– Fit and finish (25%)

AWARDS
– The winner will receive a $1000 scholarship!
– The winner will ALSO have their trailer featured on the Random House website.