Namrata Tripathi Moving to Atheneum...

Just read this on Anastasia Suen's Children's Book Biz News blog (which you all should bookmark):

Namrata Tripathi, currently Senior Editor at Disney/Hyperion, will move to Atheneum as Executive Editor in December.

Here's a little on Namrata from my August SCBWI conference post about a panel she participated in with other emerging editorial voices:

Namrata Tripathi describes herself as part analytical and part nurturing. She works on picture books through YA fiction and describes her style as eclectic/literary. She learned from Brenda Bowen that “interesting people make interesting editors.” Her interests are varied, including picture books, nonfiction, fiction, and funny, quirky, truthful, and heartbreaking all appeal to her.

Lunch with Anastasia Suen...

Anastasia Suen came to the Westside room at the end of my session and we decided to have lunch together. (She missed me talking about her great blogs and exhaustive list of links.) We had an interesting conversation, sort of a continuation of what I talked about in my session. She told me about how she keeps up with her blogging (she uses an editorial calendar) and we tossed around some ideas for CWIM.

She told me about an upcoming conference for kidlit bloggers that takes place in Portland September 27--the theme: "Bridging the Worlds of Books and Blogs." What an awesome idea--kidlit authors and book reviewers getting together to talk about what they do, share tips, and meet one another.

Rolling Through Stop Stop Signs: Stop the Madness!...

This may be a rant apropo of nothing, but here it goes:

Why why why why why does no one stop at stop signs? WHY? I'm a pretty laid back kinda gal. I go with the flow, roll with the punches, all that stuff. But numerous times each day during my 3-mile round trip commute, none of the other driver seem to ever stop at stop signs. And at the 4-way stops--they don't take turns! It's anarchy! Today on my way to lunch the lady coming the other way didn't even bother to slow down, even a little. I'm on the brink of road rage.

I have a vivid memory from Kindergarten of the very first time in my entire life that I ever raised my hand in class to answer a question. (This was a big deal; I was painfully shy.) We were talking about stop signs and traffic lights and my teacher Mrs. Hill asked why it's important that cars stop at red lights and stop signs when they are supposed to. It was quiet for a spell and when no one else answered, my tiny hand tentatively went up. "Because a car might be coming the other way and you could get in an accident," I said. How very wise I was. If 5-year-old me can figure this out, why can't everyone in the greater Nati area who is on the road when I am?

Perhaps if all teachers go over this stuff in Kindergarten and each subsequent year of school and parents start talking about traffic laws at an early age, I'll be a happier commuter. I've spent a little time on Amazon to see if there are any kids books that would be helpful, and I found a few to share with all of you (who I'm sure are very good and conscientious drivers). I might have to stop in a bookstore soon to check these out, so I can start to read to Murray about the rules of traffic. He'll remember it all when he's 16, right? (At this point I'm sure he's onto the stop sign thing--he generally witnesses my rants to other drivers from his car seat).