mini view kendra levin

MINI-VIEW: KENDRA LEVIN

MINI-VIEWS:

Pint-sized interviews that leave you smiling.

Kendra Levin is an assistant editor at Viking Children's Books (an

imprint of Penguin Putnam USA), where she has been for two years.

Prior to that, she interned at Scholastic Trade Paperbacks and worked

for their Book Club Department. Kendra is an award-winning playwright

whose work has been produced off-Broadway. I had the pleasure of

meeting her at the 2007 SCBWI Ventura/Santa Barbara Writer's Day in

Thousand Oaks, CA.

What is the most common mistake you've seen in manuscripts from the

slush pile?

A really common mistake many slush pile writers make is trying to

capitalize on trends in the hope that editors will be attracted to

whatever is "hot". But I always tell people that even if I signed up

your book tomorrow, penguins or pirates or any other trend will be

long gone by the time the book comes out. The best books are timeless,

and nine times out of ten, whatever is lurking around in your own

imagination is more interesting and original than a Harry Potter or

Eragon imitation.

What is the number one piece of advice you would give to someone who

is just getting into the field or writing for children?

My number one piece of advice to beginning writers is do your

homework. That could apply to anything from finding out whether there

might be a market for the kind of book you want to write to making

sure there isn't already something just like it to figuring out which

publisher or editor would be a good fit for your manuscript. You can

save yourself a lot of headaches and heartaches by doing the research

that will serve you and your manuscript.

What's your favorite children's joke?

This joke used to crack me up so much when I was a kid that I told it

to anyone who would listen:

A cop stops a lady driving down the freeway with six penguins in the

car. The cop says, "Lady, what are you doing? Take these penguins to

the zoo!"

The next day, the cop stops the same lady on the freeway. She's still

got six penguins in her car, but now they're all wearing sunglasses.

The cop says, "Lady, I thought I told you to take those penguins to

the zoo!"

And the lady replies, "I did, and we had so much fun, today I'm taking

them to the beach!"