Member News is a monthly feature on the EasternPennPoints blog. We want to celebrate our Eastern PA SCBWI members’ good news and help spread the word far and wide. Send us your children’s book–related news—book deals, releases, awards,author or illustrator events (signings, launch parties, appearances), etc. If you’d like your news to be included in next month’s column, please email Laura Parnum atepa-ra2@scbwi.orgbefore May 20, or fill out our “Good News Survey.”

Here’s some exciting news from our members this month:

Crystal Kite Award Finalists

Congratulations to authors Katey Howes and Alison Green Myers for advancing to Round 2 of the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award selection for the Atlantic region. The Crystal Kite Award is a peer-given award to recognize great books from15 SCBWI regional divisions around the world. SCBWI members are asked to vote in two rounds to determine the award for each division. Rissy…

Hello world!

Instead of my usual Q & A with authors regarding their new books, here’s a fun post about the Fall Writing Frenzy contest I co-host with Kaitlyn Sanchez. Author Jolene Gutiérrez won with her entry, and she won a special prize: a collaboration with musical artist/writer Annie Birdd. Here’s their conversation, and don’t forget to check out the wonderful song they created together!

Jolene: I “met” Annie Lynn in KidLitLand a few years ago. If you’ve been a member of the KidLit community for any time at all, you know that it’s a wonderfully supportive and generous group. Annie is an important part of this community. She’s always cheering others on, sharing resources, and creating and sharing songs about books. When I heard the song that Annie, Megan Lacera, and Jorge Lacera created for the Laceras’ book Zombies Don’t Eat Veggies, I set a goal of…