It's Pub Day for Marilyn's Monster!

Know what is super exciting? When a book you've been working on for a long time is finally released into the world. And today is the day that happens for my new picture book Marilyn's Monster! It has beautiful, beautiful illustrations by the amazing and wonderful Matt Phelan. Here is the cover so you can begin to see what I mean:

And here is what reviews have been saying so far:

"Rich with feeling, it’s a warm, gently funny reminder to chase down one’s dreams, rather than waiting for them to appear on the doorstep." —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"A surprising spin on monsters with nicely effective artwork—and heart." —Kirkus

"Knudsen’s charming story is a great fit for Phelan’s gentle watercolor-and-pencil illustrations. With just a few lines and brushstrokes, he depicts the wide range of Marilyn’s emotions, from wary hopefulness to sullen grumpiness to, finally, utter joy. The whimsical, friendly monsters are equally expressive, and their supernatural antics in the background will tickle funny bones. Little ones feeling lonely or worried about making friends will be empowered by Marilyn’s determined, take-charge attitude." —Booklist

"Knudsen’s brilliantly simple narrative and Phelan’s whimsical pencil and watercolor drawings speak to the universal need for belonging and the anxiety born of impatience ... Every one of Phelan’s monsters is wonderfully weird, and readers will have fun noting similarities between them and their human friends." —School Library Journal

"A charmer ... Ms. Knudsen has packed a surprising amount of relatable emotion into this story of humility and derring-do." —Wall Street Journal

Also, it is a Junior Library Guild selection!

You can read and/or download a fun Q&A with Matt and me on the Candlewick Press website. 

And you can see some of Matt's early sketches for the book on his blog.

Finally, see yesterday's post for how you can get a signed copy! It's too late to pre-order (now that the book is out, you'll just be, you know, regular ordering, but that is also good!) but you can still order a signed/personalized copy from Word Brooklyn, and/or you can come to the launch party at Children's Book World on March 14 to meet Matt and me and have cake and stuff!

Argus review by Violet the Telekinetic Puppy

Violet the Telekinetic Puppy has posted a lovely review of Argus over at Bigfoot Reads. Please go on over and take a look!

More Argus reviews!

The pub date for ARGUS is fast approaching (are you coming to my birthday/book launch party on February 22?) and some more reviews have come in! Excerpts:

"With clean lines and muted colors, the ink-and-watercolor artwork illustrates the story in a most engaging way, magnifying the humor but keeping the absurdity in check. This pleasing picture book is fun for reading aloud." —Booklist

"Wesson’s lanky, gawky watercolor and ink caricatures capture the fragility of childhood, and the understated telling provides space to grapple with one’s own navigation through episodes of unenlightened authority. Children will relate to the drama while enjoying the humor found in both text and illustration." —School Library Journal

And Roxyanne Young just posted a truly lovely review on smartwriters.com.

I shared excerpts from the Publishers Weekly and Kirkus reviews in December; you can see them here.

I'm so happy that reviewers and early readers have been liking Argus so far! Can't wait until he's released into the wider world later this month. :)

Look, it's Argus!

I just realized I never posted the wonderful cover for Argus! Behold:

ARGUS received a lovely starred review from Publishers Weekly, which concluded: "Knudsen (Library Lion) never overplays her hand, but lets the story's laughs unfold naturally from the characters and circumstances. Her grasp of the life of the elementary school classroom is spot-on; this should become another favorite."

And here's an excerpt from the Kirkus review: "Kudos to unflappable Mrs. Henshaw, Knudsen and Wesson . . . naughty Argus will capture attention and hearts." (Mrs. Henshaw is a character in the story.)

ARGUS comes out in stores on February 22. Which is also my birthday. Yay!

In the meantime, you can get yourself a copy of the Dragon of Trelian paperback on January 11!  :)

Five reasons why there isn't a real Friday Five today

1. VCFA Packet 3 deadline April 19.

2. Trelian sequel revision deadline May 24.

3. Appointment with tax guy today at 3pm.

4. Spent most of the past week doing activities related to the above (mostly, sadly, #3).

5. Okay so I only have four reasons but really #1 should count twice at this point.

Bonus random #6: Since my blog didn't take up much of your time today, go over to books i done read and read this review of The Dragon of Trelian!

I Fooled You!

This week I got my author copies in the mail for I FOOLED YOU—a middle-grade anthology edited by Johanna Hurwitz and containing short stories by Johanna herself, David A. Adler, Eve B. Feldman, Douglas Florian, Matthew Holm, Ellen Klages, Carmela A. Martino, Megan McDonald, Barbara Ann Porte, and yours truly. Mine is called "The Bridge to Highlandsville," and is actually my first-ever published short story, which is very exciting to me.

Also very exciting: look what Kirkus had to say(!):

"...Hurwitz has asked a group of ten writers to create stories that include the line, 'I fooled you,' a concept that, she reminds readers, is a common feature of most folk and fairy tales. Matthew Holm provides a funny, nearly wordless graphic tale. The final two stories, a new take on the troll guarding a bridge by Michelle Knudsen and a story with a satisfying surprise ending by Ellen Klages, are the best. Douglas Florian contributes a bouncy poem, and stories by Johanna Hurwitz and Eve B. Feldman offer gentle messages about the sometimes-questionable behavior of middle-grade students."

The book releases in hardcover and paperback on March 9, 2010. Visit Indiebound.org to order a copy from your favorite independent bookstore.

Blog Tour, Day 2

The Dragon of Trelian Blog Tour continues!

(edited since this morning to include interviews/reviews posted during the day)

New interviews:
Becky's Book Reviews
Reading Is my Superpower
Through the Looking Glass

New reviews:
Abby (the) Librarian
All About Children's Books
Cafe of Dreams
A Christian Worldview of Fiction
Dolce Bellezza (SPOILER ALERT - this review includes some plot surprises you may not want to see if you haven't read the book yet.)
HomeSchoolBuzz.com
Small World Reads
Through a Child's Eye

Dragon of Trelian Update

I had a wonderful time at the First Annual Hudson Children's Book Festival yesterday. It was lovely to see so many author and illustrator friends and to make some nice new ones. Thanks to everyone who came out for the event and bought books and chatted with authors and illustrators and listened to stories and attended panels and participated in activities!

When you run into author friends you haven't seen since the last conference or festival, two questions often come up:

(1) How's the new book doing?
(2) What are you working on now?

It's been just over a month since The Dragon of Trelian came out, and I'm really happy about its reception so far. I still need to add a lot of this information to the book page on my website, but here's a roundup of some of the responses to the book...

First, I am so excited to say that The Dragon of Trelian has been selected for The Summer 2009 Children's Indie Next List!

It has also received nice reviews from some of the print journals. Here are excerpts:

“Appealing characterization” and “charmingly honest portrayals of family life, the dizzying heartbreak of first romance, the insecurities of loneliness and the rewards of scholarship....[T]he narrative moves at a brisk clip to a satisfying conclusion, with a broad hint of sequels. A promising start.” —Kirkus

“Calen and Meg’s easygoing, entirely believable friendship is the core of this adventurous first novel. Meg is gutsy and impulsive, while Calen is thoughtful and steadfast; and they make an appealing duo....[A] solid addition to the fantasy genre.” —Booklist

“[T]his strong debut novel should find a welcoming audience among Gail Carson Levine and Shannon Hale fans.” —Horn Book

Readers have been saying absolutely lovely things about it on Goodreads and LibraryThing. I can't tell you how good that makes me feel, to know that people are reading and liking my novel!

Several bloggers have also posted reviews, including:

Janet Fox at Through the Wardrobe
Marcus at The Rad Librarian
Greg Leitich Smith at GregLSBlog
Sheila Ruth at Wands and Worlds

Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to write a review and put it up to share with other readers. I'm not usually comfortable responding directly to reviewers; the etiquette rules are fuzzy on this, I think. As far as I know, it is rarely if ever considered appropriate for authors to respond to print reviews, but some authors do seem to feel okay about responding to online reviews. I still feel odd about that, though, so I wanted to say a general and public thank-you here, to all of you. The first few months after publication can be a very weird and scary time for an author—the book is out there, in the world, on its own...people are reading it(!), or maybe they're not(!!).... Hearing back from readers is so important, and of course it's especially wonderful to hear positive things! :) So thank you again, and I hope to hear back from more of you, either via email or blog comments or through the reviews you post in public forums.

(Incidentally, I'd be very interested to hear other opinions on the responding-to-reviews issue. Are the rules changing? Were they never rules in the first place?)

I'm also participating in a blog tour June 1–3 with KidzBookBuzz.com; stay tuned for more links and information about that!

As for that other question, the what-are-you-working-on-now one...the answer is a sequel to The Dragon of Trelian as well as another, completely unrelated YA novel. And more picture books. Always more picture books! :)