New study suggests praise hurts your child's development.

Oh you're so smart! You're so talented!

A gold star for you! We all love to hear praise. It is the main staple of our egos and we certainly don't hold back feeding our kids a daily diet of “your so wonderful.” But a new study suggests that praise is more junk food than food for thought. So why do we feed our children praise? Ostensibly, we praise them so they will keep on trying and approach challenges in life with confidence. Makes sense, right? Wrong, according to a study by psychologist Carol Dweck. The study found labeling your child “smart” actually causes them to try less!

In this study conducted at a dozen New York schools, two groups of 5th grade students were given the same nonverbal test, but each group was rewarded with very different types of praise. The first group was told, “You must be smart at this.” The second group was told, “You must have worked really hard.” Researchers then challenged both groups to take another test in which the students could choose either a harder or an easier test. 90% of the group that was praised for their effort chose the harder test. The kids who had already been labeled smart took the easier route. According to Dweck the reason is simple. Dwecks says, “emphasizing effort gives a child a variable that they can control. Emphasizing natural intelligence takes it out of the child's control, and it provides no good recipe for responding to a failure.” Read more.

I was really encouraged to read this study because it ties directly into the theme of my language arts presentations that I am giving at schools in April - June. I have my box of tricks prepared to created mnemonic devices for all the tough vocabulary in my book. I have also planned silly drawings of the brain and its many nerve endings. My goal is to show how vocabulary is built by making connections in the brain and not something that you are born with. It was only until fairly recently that scientists discovered that we really do grow our brains.

When I was a teen, I asked my father why I had to go to college. (I was going through this artsy ego-centric phase where I believed I was plenty smart enough.) My father replied in two words, “Mental Gymnastics”. Use it or lose it was my dad's wisdom and I always liked to be challenged. Kids need to understand that they are in control of becoming stronger readers. And just like building the muscles in your biceps, or playing a sport, building vocabulary can be fun if you make it into a game. It's a brain game. But it does require some hard work and a lot of heavy lifting.

To book an author visit at your school. Contact Carlyn's booking agent, Susan Katz at KatzConnects.

PROJECT CICERO needs books!

Can you imagine growing up without books? I certainly can't. Books were my escape from the world around me. So please support Project CICERO this month.

PROJECT CICERO (www.projectcicero.org) is a partnership of independent, public, and parochial schools, private and public organizations and corporations whose primary goal is to supplement or create classroom and school libraries for children in under-resourced New York City public schools through an annual citywide book drive. PROJECT CICERO also puts books into homeless shelters, juvenile detention facilities, community centers, and wherever else there is a need. This past year, its sixth year of operation, PROJECT CICERO distributed 125,000 books. To date, PROJECT CICERO has placed 800,000 books into 4,500 classrooms and school libraries reaching 150,000 children in under-resourced schools in New York City.

PROJECT CICERO collects new and gently used books for children and young adults. Books must be in new or excellent condition. Most needed are early readers through teenage fiction and all non-fiction (including biographies and science), both hardcover and paperback. Picture books are also welcome. Non–fiction and reference materials should not be more than five years old. PROJECT CICERO does not accept discards from school libraries, textbooks or books for adults.

Books can be sent to this address:
PROJECT CICERO
53 East 79th Street
New York, NY 10021

OFF WITH THE HEAD OF THIS GREAT QUEEN OF SCOTLAND

I have been struggling with creative (yet not too grisly) ways to show Mary Queen of Scots’s execution. Now, I am not saying being an executioner is easy with that whole black mask on your head and angry fishwives yelling at you, but Mary’s executioner really botched the job. It took three swings. Ouch. Two I can understand. But three makes you an Executioner School Drop Out.

Here is a sneak peek at a new painting. The illustration is for my next book, titled Royal Raucous, The True and Untrue Rumors of Royalty due to be release in 2008, Houghton Mifflin. I refer to it as tabloid magazine meets history lesson. I am shameless. I will pull any trick to make history fun for kids. Even grosse tricks. I want this book to be a gateway drug to history. Stand back Paris Hilton! Kids may think your life is exciting, but they never read about Mary the Stuart Drama Queen and the rumors that became her downfall.

Speaking of drama….tick tock. The dummy is due in two weeks and I have one area that I have been really struggling with. It’s the subtitle. It’s too long and I am not sure if it accurately describes the book. Wait a minute... I realize what is wrong with it. I have done it again. The Deadly Disease of the “OF” has struck my innocent story…of Mary. Make it stop.

I think I have Grammar Disease of the OF. of is word vomit. It even spews out of my mouth every time I sit down to type the blog of the month. Ugh . Isn’t it much clearer to write this month’s blog? Which brings me to my useless tip for the month…..

Off with the “of”. If any writers have stumbled on this blog, then I know you are shaking your head saying, “I never abuse the “of”. fess up OF junkies! We all abuse the “of”. So in memory of the great head of Mary Queen of Scots. OFF with her OF!

I want to thank Edna (http://www2.blogger.com/profile/12709772808838891790) for suggesting that I call my platform for Who put the B in the Ballyhoo? “circus artistry”. I like it. I have been calling it the “art of the circus poster”. I will never learn.

Someone give that Little Person a Platform

I keep hearing that authors should have a "platform". If you write a book about a beagle then you better be the president of the beagle society. Writing a book about Egyptian excavation? Well, you better spend your free time mummifying your relatives. I generally ignore buzz words unless they make me feel inadequate. This one makes my 5.6 (with favorite heels on) self feel especially short.

My next book, Who put the B in the Ballyhoo? is about the circus. I can't juggle, I am terrified of clowns, and my last name doesn't end with Barnum or Bailey. What's a circus-loving girl to do without a platform?

I know my publisher realized that I didn't have a platform before they signed the book. I was not at the acquisition meeting, but my active imagination has vividly recreated it:

Publisher: what is this author's platform? (publisher has that delighted "I just used an industry buzz word" look)
Editor: Well, I believe her third cousin, twice removed, trained big cats until an unfortunate incident with a hungry Bengal tiger. Oh, and she can paint.
Publisher: hmmm...can she perform any circus tricks?
Editor: um well no...no wait.. I think she mentioned a hidden sword swallowing talent. She is also very handy with a paint brush!
Publisher: Will she swallow swords to sell books?
Editor: I could certainly ask.
Publisher: well, if she will swallow swords then sign her up. And if not, then maybe we could count on that painting thing.

And there you have it. A sad tale of a midget circus girl with a lonely paint brush and no circus tricks. What will be her book's fate????? (insert dramatic organ music here)

Someone out there give me some ideas, hope, sage advice, or maybe just a stepping stool. How do you promote a book without a platform?

THE POD PEOPLE: A LOVE STORY

For the last three years, I have been having a secret love affair. We first met in my art studio behind easels and freshly stretched canvases. Our tumultuous love affair was frustrating but always exciting. At a recent SCBWI conference, I decided it was time to stop hiding and go public with our affair. It was time to say the three little words that would forever change our relationship. So armed with the liquid courage of two vodka tonics, I blurted out the brave declaration of my undying love. "I work digitally".

As soon as I said it, I felt the scarlet D burning through my SCBWI nametag. Everyone would know my dirty secret now. No, the paintings were not created with a mixture of blood, sweat, tears and India ink. No, I didn't stay up late with the smell of turpentine burning my nostrils and destroying the logical side of my brain. Instead, I sat in an ergonomically correct office chair equipped with my pressure sensitive tablet and my most beloved of all...James my computer.

James the Butler is his full name. I christened James with this name because he cost so much that I truly believed he would do laundry, wash dishes, and on occasion split DNA.

We are a scorned pair. I heard many negative remarks about digital artists while at the conference. One very talented artist commented that the only tool he used to create his work was his "hand". Ouch. The implication was understood. It is true. Digital artists sprout tentacles when in contact with their computers. Their eyeballs pop out of their head along with some stale smelling slime that spawns what we call "digital art".

Why is digital art viewed as such a detached way to create art? James has yet to create a single piece of art without the help of my "hand". Maybe it is because there is a lot of bad digital art? But there are also some equally scary watercolors, oil painting, and pastels floating around. (Aunt Elma this is not directed at you...your watercolor lighthouses are beautiful) Maybe it is just that digital art is misunderstood? Maybe we just need some understanding of why so many artists mix a little computer into their oils. Here are some of the finer points that keep James and me together.

1. If I had to do it all over again...
Imagine having the power to go back in time and undo mistakes. Splash some red on that tree. Go ahead...you can always undo it with two clicks. You now have the power of "control z" at your fingertips. Control Z that extra bunny. Control Z that mustache. Control Z that experimental use of black. Control Z your college boyfriend. Ok maybe not that.

2. No messy endings
I was always a messy painter. Half of my painting would end up on the white sofa. Not any more. Now, I clean up with just one click of a button. So in some ways, James does save on cleaning bills.

3. Love Hurts
It was my junior year in college, when I came home to my roommate cutting her boyfriend's head out of a picture. If she had owned Photoshop, she could have not only cut out his head, without the use of a sharp object, but also replaced it with her new boyfriend...Brad Pitt. Today's digital artists are doing something similar to my roommate's lobotomized memories. Composition is a large part of whether a painting works and the ability to easily rearrange, scale, rotate and even distort objects in space can only create a stronger composition.

These are just some of the top reasons why I use a computer. But it is not the tool that creates a great painting. It is the artist. So if you are a traditional artist, be kind to a digital artist's strange taste in partners. Our tentacles can reach far when angered.

The Fiji Mermaid

Here is the rare and beautiful Fiji Mermaid captured from the Fiji islands:

I had the opportunity to see one of these creatures in the Dime Museum in Baltimore, MD. It looked like this:

Although it certainly is an interesting tale, The Fiji Mermaid was actually captured from one of P.T, Barnum’s skilled taxidermist. Barnum paid his taxidermist to sew a fish tail on to an orangutan’s torso and voila the Fiji mermaid was born. To read more about the Fiji Mermaid and other famous circus stars, you will have to wait for the book titled Who Put the B in the Ballyhoo being released in May of 2007.