Please join MWPA for an online conversation with Newbery Award winner and author Paul Fleischman and Caldecott Honoree and illustrator Melissa Sweet about their new book, Alphamaniacs (Candlewick, 2020). The book is a parade of figures who’ve sailed to language’s most distant shores, retelling On the Road using vanity license plate texts, writing novels without the letter e, removing words from The 9/11 Commission Report to reveal an entirely different work within. It is a stunningly illustrated collection of mini-biographies about the most daring and peculiar of writers and their audacious, courageous, temerarious way with words. Alphamaniacs is listed as teen and young adult nonfiction but will surely appeal to word nuts of all ages.
About the book, Publishers Weekly notes, “Each individual is given a brief chapter recounting their word-related exploits, interleaved with colorful, collaged illustrations by Sweet that look like stray pages from an artist’s overstuffed sketchbook, incorporating relevant quotes and amplifying Fleischman’s themes of abundance and possibility.”
On April 30, Fleischman and Sweet will read from Alphamaniacs and show some of the amazing art that went into the making of the book. They will take questions from the audience and talk about their storied careers.
All of the seats for this event are reserved, but please email director@mainewriters.org to be added to the waiting list.
Go here to order a copy of Alphamaniacs signed by Melissa Sweet from PRINT: A Bookstore.
Go here to order a copy of Alphamaniacs signed by Paul Fleischman from Hicklebee’s in San Jose, CA.
Paul Fleischman is the author of many books for children and adults. His works include plays, poetry, novels, picture books, and nonfiction. His awards include the 1989 Newbery Medal for Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, the 1994 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction for Bull Run, the 2002 California Young Reader Medal for Weslandia, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award honors for Joyful Noise and Saturnalia, and the PEN Center USA Literary Award for The Dunderheads.
Melissa Sweet is the author and illustrator of many books. Most recently, she wrote and illustrated the New York Times Best Seller Some Writer! The Story of E. B. White and illustrated How To Read A Book, which was written by by Kwame Alexander. She has won several awards for her illustrations, most notably a Caldecott Honor in 2009 for A River of Words and in 2015 for The Right Word, both by Jen Bryant. Sweet lives and makes art in Portland, Maine.