Jennifer Laughran

The Prize: One critique of the first five-pages of your double-spaced manuscript for a middle grade or young adult novel. Please note: Jennifer will request to see the first 20 pages of your manuscript to see if the story engages her further. HOWEVER, your critique will be limited to the first five pages of your manuscript.

The Darer: Jennifer Laughran is an associate agent at Andrea Brown Literary Agency. She represents authors of Middle Grade and Young Adult fiction. Her favorite writers are offbeat and funny and straddle the line between literary writing and a commercial hook. She’s always on the lookout for great new talent!

Jenn likes funny, sharp, voice-driven YA as well as lush romantic stories that the reader can get lost in (fantasy or realistic), and she loves awesome female heroines!

The Dare: Place a minimum bid of $35 by leaving a comment, then outbid the highest bidder until you win! *All winners must take the solemn critiquee oath.*

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Having once been a teacher, I’ve seen first-hand the positive impact reading has on teens. Books rule!

Jen Rofe

The Prize: One critique of a fiction picture book (1000 words max, double-spaced) or the first five pages of your fiction middle grade or young adult novel (double-spaced).

The Darer: Jennifer handles children’s fiction projects only, from picture books through young adult, and is particularly interested in literary, multicultural, offbeat, paranormal, and commercial-with-heart material. She enjoys magical-realism and reality-based fantasy; ghost stories (though not gore); stubborn characters who learn lessons the hard way; and unassuming heroes and underdogs.

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Books lift up the mind, and the soul. Every child deserves free access to a variety of books, to a world beyond their own.

The Prize: One critique of the first five double-spaced pages of your fiction middle grade or young adult novel.

Jill Corcoran

The Darer: Jill Corcoran is an Associate Agent at Herman Agency representing Chapter Book, Middle Grade and Young Adult authors. Jill is a huge fan of humor. If you can make her laugh or crack a smile, you are her kind of writer. Even in a serious literary book, there is room for humor. Jill prefers realistic and paranormal to high fantasy. A commercial hook with a literary bent. Some of her favorite books are Frindle, Stargirl, Speak, Stuck in Neutral, How I Live Now, Millicent Min, Good Enough, Seeing Emily, Things Left Unsaid, Flipped and Because of Winn Dixie.

For more about Jill Corcoran please see the Herman Agency website and Jill’s blog.

The Dare: Place a minimum bid of $35 by leaving a comment, then outbid the highest bidder until you win!  Value: Priceless. *All winners must take the solemn critiquee oath.*

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The Prize: One critique of the first five double-spaced pages of your fiction middle grade and young adult novel.

Andrew Karre

The Darer: Andrew Karre is the editorial director of Carolrhoda Books, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group. Carolrhoda has published fiction and nonficiton for all ages since for four decades. Andrew acquires all types of kidlit, but he’s particularly interested in YA and single-title middle grade now. Before moving to Carolrhoda, Andrew Karre was the editor at the YA imprint Flux, where he edited Maggie Stiefvater, Laurie Faria Stolarz, Carrie Jones, Simone Elkeles, Emily Wing Smith, Micol and David Ostow, and A.S. King among many others. He is an admitted sucker for first-person YA.

The Dare: Place a minimum bid of $35 by leaving a comment, then outbid the highest bidder until you win!  Value: Priceless. *All winners must take the solemn critiquee oath.*

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The Prize: One critique of the first three chapters of reasonable length AND a query letter for your picture book, middle grade, or YA novel.

The Darer:

Stacy Whitman

Stacy Whitman specializes in fantasy and science fiction for children and young adults, and related genres. She spent more than three years as an editor for Mirrorstone, the children’s and young adult imprint of Wizards of the Coast in Seattle. She holds a master’s degree in children’s literature from Simmons College. Before that, she edited elementary school textbooks at Houghton Mifflin, interned at the Horn Book Magazine and Guide, and spent a brief stint working as a bookseller. Stacy edited such favorite fantasy titles for children and young adults as the highly acclaimed YA series Hallowmere, the middle grade fantasy adventure series that debuted with Red Dragon Codex, and The New York Times best-selling picture book A Practical Guide to Monsters.

Stacy provides all phases of editorial services to publishers, including developmental editing, line editing, copyediting, and proofreading. She also provides a critique service for writers and teaches occasional community seminars on writing science fiction and fantasy for children and young adults.

The Dare: Place a minimum bid of $30 by leaving a comment, then outbid the highest bidder until you win!  Value: Priceless or $50 if you go to Stacy directly, but remember THE CAUSE! *All winners must take the solemn critiquee oath.*

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The Prize: One full manuscript critique of your fiction middle grade (244 pages, double-spaced max) or young adult novel (double-spaced, up to 100,000 words – DANG!).

The Darer:  Prior to becoming a full-time fiction writer, Phoebe Kitanidis was a Contributing Writer at Discovery Girls magazine for six years. (She’s also the author of the DG book Fab Girls’ Guide to Friendship Hardship.) A former creative writing and Language Arts teacher, she holds a Masters degree in Communication and has often spoken on Communication issues at literary conferences, conventions, and professional meetings. She and her husband live in Seattle, where she’s been exploring Pacific Northwest hobbies such as coffee drinking, zone 8 gardening (after growing up in California), and open water swimming (brrrrrrr!). Her teen paranormal Whisper comes out in April 2010.

About WHISPER

About WHISPER (Harper Collins, April 2010):

I’d love a cup of coffee. I wish she knew how pretty she was. I wish I could drop this kid in the dryer sometimes. I just want her to be happy. I hope she didn’t find out what Ben said about her. I wish I knew how many calories were in a bite of muffin…

Joy is used to hearing Whispers. She’s used to walking down the street and instantly knowing people’s deepest, darkest desires. She uses this talent for good, to make people happy and give them what they want. But for her older sister, Jessica, the family gift is a curse, and she uses it to make people’s lives—especially Joy’s—miserable. Still, when Joy Hears Jessica whisper: I want to kill my Hearing dead, and kill me too if that’s what it takes, she knows she has to save her sister, even if it means deserting her friends, stealing a car and running away with a boy she barely knows—a boy who may have a dark secret of his own.

The Dare: Place a minimum bid of $35 by leaving a comment, then outbid the highest bidder until you win!  Value: Priceless. *All winners must take the solemn critiquee oath.*

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I care because my own twelve year old son attends a Title I school and I am aware of the many needs a school like this has.

Kathryn Fitzmaurice

The Prize:  One critique of the first fifteen pages of your double-spaced fiction middle grade novel AND your synopsis (2 pages, single-spaced maximum).

The Darer: When Kathryn Fitzmaurice was thirteen years old, her mother sent her to New York City over the summer to visit her grandmother, who was a science fiction author. After seeing how her grandmother could make the characters in her books into whomever she wanted, Kathryn decided that she, too, wanted to become a writer someday. Years later, after teaching elementary school, and taking many classes, she now writes full time and lives with her husband, two sons, and her dog, Holly, in Monarch Beach, California.  Kathryn was born in New York City, but grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona. She holds a Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Chapman University. Her favorite thing to do is walk her dog, Holly, who, she says is so smart, she can practically empty the dishwasher. She also likes organizing absolutely anything, including messy garages, closets, and even cluttered junk drawers. If she could, she would eat the same thing for lunch everyday, which would be a ham, Swiss cheese, and tomato Panini, a green apple, and a chocolate soufflé. Learn more about Kathryn.

“Kathryn Fitzmaurice is as beautiful person both inside and out. And her debut book–one destined to br a classic for every kids’ bookshelf, demonstrates that you, too, can break out, and breakout BIG. Let Kathryn show you how to revise your manuscript in a way that will produce a story that can withstand the test of time.” – Cynthea Liu.

The Year The Swallows Came Early

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Plain and simple: I love kids and as an advocate of education in my own community I have seen the power of education.

Elie Wiesel said: “Words can sometimes, in moments of grace, attain the quality of deeds.”

The gift of words can never be underestimated.

The Prize: A full manuscript critique of your middle grade novel (244 pages double-spaced maximum.) HELLO!

Jennifer Cervantes

The Darer:  Jennifer was born and raised in San Diego, CA. but spent many summers in New Mexico as a child. She didn’t think there was much to do there so she made up lots of adventures and read countless books to pass the time. Somehow, she found her way back to New Mexico (temporarily) to attend college and then she met a great guy, which lead her to make New Mexico her home (permanently). She lives with her husband, and three daughters (who are great at giving their opinions) spending much of her time writing, teaching English at the university, enjoying sunsets, and eating chile fresh from the family farm.

Jennifer is inspired by her daughters Alex, Bella, and Jules, their silly friends, amazing stories, and real issues concerning kids who need hope and a place to call home. Through her books she wants to inspire children to read, to dream, and to hope.

Her first novel, TORTILLA SUN will be published by Chronicle in spring 2010. She is currently working on her second novel, REMEMBER ME BLUE.

About Tortilla Sun

Tortilla Sun is a tender, magical story about 12 year old Izzy Roybal who is sent to spend the summer in her nana’s New Mexico village where she is soon caught up in the foreign world of her own culture, from patron saints and soulful food to the curious and magical blessings Nana gives her tortillas. In Nana’s village she meets Mateo, the adventurous, treasure seeking thirteen year old boy who lives on the other side of the bolted door in Izzy’s bedroom and six year old Maggie, who is raising her cat, Frida, as a dog and sees marshmallow ghosts float out windows.

When the wind begins to whisper to Izzy, she is soon led on an adventure to learn about her father’s mysterious death, who she really is, and to connect the hidden pieces of her past.

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The Prize: First chapter critique of the first ten double-spaced pages of your fiction middle grade or young adult novel (2500 words max).

Angie Frazier

The Darer: Angie’s debut historical fiction YA novel, EVERLASTING (Scholastic Press, June 2010), is the result of an overactive imagination, an addiction to historical research, and dozens of vintage travel posters plastered to the ceilings of a cottage she rented one long, snowbound winter. Her first middle grade novel, SUZANNA SNOW AND THE MYSTERY OF THE MIDNIGHT TUNNEL will be released by Scholastic Press in Spring 2011. www.angelafrazier.com

“Angie is not only an MG author but she is YA author, too! That’s all I need to know to know to understand how flexible and skilled she is.  Not only that, but she can do historical and historical fantasy. Now that’s what I call talent! If your historical fiction needs help, call on an expert. Angie knows.” – Cynthea Liu

About EVERLASTING

After Camille Rowen’s father dies in a shipwreck, she refuses to return to her home in San Francisco and the fiance she isn’t sure she loves. How can she, when the wilds of Australia offers her everything she desires? Secreted away by an extinct race of immortals, and cursed by Death himself, is the legendary Umandu—an enchanted stone brimming with the power to return life to the dead. With the sailor Camille is undeniably falling in love with, and an Australian card shark acting as their guide, she races her father’s adversary to the stone, eludes murderous bushrangers, traverses dangerous highlands, and unravels the mystery behind her mother’s disappearance sixteen years earlier. When another death shakes her conviction to resurrect her father, Camille must choose what—and who—matters most.

The Dare: Place a minimum bid of $35 by leaving a comment, then outbid the highest bidder until you win!  Value: Priceless. *All winners must take the solemn critiquee oath.*

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The Prize: One critique of your middle grade series proposal. Wow! That includes a sample chapter, an outline, and your pitch letter.

Anne Mazer

The Darer: Anne Mazer grew up in a family of writers in upstate New York. Intending to be an artist, she studied at the School of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. She then went to Paris for three years where she studied French and French literature and where she began to write.

She is the author of almost forty books, including the picture books, The Salamander Room, a Reading Rainbow Feature selection and a 1993 ABC Children’s Choice book, The Yellow Button, and most recently, The No-Nothings and Their Baby. She has also written seven novels, including Moose Street, a Booklist Editor’s Choice for Best Book of 1992, and The Oxboy, an ALA Notable Book and a Notable 1993 Children’s Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies. Her short stories have been anthologized in a number of collections, and she has published a collection of her own short stories, A Sliver of Glass. She is also the editor of four anthologies: America Street, a New York Public Library Best Book for Teens; Going Where I’m Coming From, a New York Public Library Best Book for Teens; Working Days, a 1998 ALA Best Book for Teens and a New York Public Library Best Book for Teens; and A Walk in My World, which are widely used in elementary through college classrooms.

The Amazing Days of Abby Hayes

Anne is the author of the bestselling “The Amazing Days of Abby Hayes” series, which has extended over eleven years and twenty-two books. She has also written the “Sister Magic” series for young readers.

In 2010, Roaring Brook will publish Spilling Ink: A Handbook for Young Writers, co-authored with Ellen Potter.

The Dare: Place a minimum bid of $35 by leaving a comment, then outbid the highest bidder until you win! *All winners must take the solemn critiquee oath.*

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