Children's Literature Connection

Lois Miner Huey’s five middle grade non-fiction books have been published by Marshall Cavendish/Benchmark. The books are part of a series called “American Archaeology” and include “Uncovering the Dutch” Uncovering the Vikings” Uncovering the Early English Colonies” “Uncovering the Underground Railroad” and “Uncovering the Westward Movement.” Lois is a professional historical archaeologist for the State of New York and has published over 20 non-fiction magazine articles. She has a new website: www.loismhuey.com.

Part of CLC’s mission is to encourage and support the professional development of one of our members, as they strive to contribute to the world of children’s literature. To do this, the CLC Fellowship Award was created.

One of the exciting events to take place at this year’s annual membership dinner was the awarding of the 2010 CLC Fellowship Award. This grant includes CLC membership dues and entrance fees to all CLC events during the fellowship term of two years, plus a $1,000.00 cash award. In return the recipient is asked to share their experiences utilizing the grant with the CLC membership at the end of their term.

This year, the Fellowship Award Committee was pleased to present this award to Matt Laiosa. Learn more about Matt from the biography in this newsletter.
This year’s Fellowship Committee was made up of  CLC members Laura Gagnon, Liza Frenette, and Meta Reid and Fellowship chairperson Meg Seinberg-Hughes. Within the committee’s  ranks, members represented authors, school and public librarians.

Congratulations to Matt. We look forward to seeing him at CLC events, and hearing about his work at our membership meeting in 2012.

More About Matt Laiosa

Matt graduated from Parsons the New School for Design in Paris with a B.F.A. this past May 2009.  He was awarded a full scholarship for painting, but maintained illustration electives in  his pursuit for a career in children’s literature.   Last fall one of his illustrated haikus was selected for the Bologna Book Fair;
Matt plans to use the Fellowship Award funds for supplies such as: sketchbooks, inks, paints, papers, brushes, etc. as well as travel expenses to get to NYC for portfolio drop-offs, and publisher interviews. He will also be able to professionally print his work to create professional looking dummy books, using them as he networks between publishers, authors, designers, and editors, as he pursues his goal of becoming a professional children’s book illustrator.
“I work to create themes in my work that are engaging for both children and adults that most importantly expand our imaginations.  It is my goal to create stories that encourage giving, learning, discovery, adventure, and fantasy.”
We can be proud to support the work of this up and coming illustrator via our Fellowship Award.

Children’s author and teaching artist, Carol Parenzan Smalley, has been selected by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to create arts-in-education lesson plans for the Center’s Artsedge web site. In addition to writing for Kennedy, four of her books were published in 2009 (green living and hamsters for an educational publisher and two centennial celebration books for Milton Hershey School) and three science fair project books are scheduled for release in 2010. The science fair books will be the basis of her summer “SPLASH” reading program workshops. Additionally, she was selected by Arts-2-gether as a lead teaching artist for its winter Big Brothers/Big Sisters program. www.CarolSmalley.com.

Coleen Paratore (Sunny Holiday) and Alex Siy (Cars on Mars: Roving the Red Planet) have books on the NYPL list of Children’s Book 2009- 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing.

NEHST STUDIOS Inks Production Deal with Little, Brown Co Publishing

Popular Matt Christopher Book Series to Hit the Big Screen

(May 13, 2009) – Larry Meistrich helmed NEHST Studios, a film production, financing and distribution company, has acquired production rights to the popular Matt Christopher sports book series.  Meistrich plans to start by developing films based on the books, beginning with “The Kid Who Only Hit Homers” and “The Basket Counts.”

Nehst signed the book rights agreement with Little, Brown and Company Publishing.  Little, Brown inked similar deals with their successful book series “Gossip Girl” and Twilight.”   The Matt Christopher Sports books have been printed in more than 30 countries and sold more than 36 million copies world-wide.  These books feature athletics as a vehicle to tell morality and character-building stories.

Ari Friedman and Larry Meistrich will produce the films.  Wayne Chesler has been tapped to direct and pen the screenplays.  Chesler has produced and directed both sports and children’s programming for 15 years.

“My favorite books as a kid were the Matt Christopher sports books.  Thirty years later, my fourth grade son, came home with a book and a smile, telling me how much he loved the series,” said Chesler.  “This is a great opportunity to create family entertainment and companion programming for teachers and parents to keep kids reading while teaching them lessons in character through sports.”

Dale and Duane Christopher, sons of Matt Christopher, expressed their excitement about the production deal, “Larry Meistrich, Ari Friedman and Wayne Chesler are our creative dream team!  We look forward to the Matt Christopher characters coming alive and entertaining families of all ages.”

Nehst Studios is producing Kevin Grevioux’s “The Pale Horsemen” and will launch its next venture, GI Films, within the month.