It’s that time of year again—time for the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! It’s an annual video contest I founded in which kid filmmakers create supershort movies that tell the entire stories of Newbery-winning books in just a few minutes—preferably with a fun twist. (Want to see some of the all-time best videos? I’ve collected a bunch of them here.)

We’re in our thirteenth year! In 2024 we’ll be doing live screenings in New York City, Chicago, Boston, San Antonio, Rochester NY, Ogden UT, Tacoma WA, and Gig Harbor WA. These screenings are always a blast, co-hosted by me and other well-known children’s authors . . . and they are always FREE! We consistently draw audiences of hundreds of folks, so make your reservations now:

Saturday, February 10, 2024
The BROOKLYN, NY screening, co-hosted by me and Rita Williams-Garcia (Newbery Honor winning author of One Crazy Summer and more). In the Dweck Auditorium at the Brooklyn Public Library (10 Grand Army Plaza). 1 pm. Get your FREE tickets here.

Saturday, February 17, 2024
The OGDEN, UTAH screening, co-hosted by me and Keir Graff (author of Minerva Keen’s Detective Club and more). At the Treehouse Children’s Museum (347 22nd Street). 6 pm. Get your FREE tickets here.

Saturday, March 9, 2024
The CHICAGO screening, co-hosted by me and Mary Winn Heider (author of The Stupendous Switcheroo and more). In the Cindy Pritzker Auditorium at the Harold Washington Library Center (400 S. State Street). 2 pm. Get your FREE tickets here.

Saturday, April 6, 2024
The BOSTON screening, co-hosted by me and Rebecca Mahoney (author of The Memory Eater and The Valley and the Flood). In Rabb Hall at the Central Library in Copley Square (700 Boylston Street). 3 pm. Get your FREE tickets here.

Saturday, April 20, 2024
The ROCHESTER, NY screening, co-hosted by me and Bruce Coville (author of The Unicorn Chronicles, My Teacher is an Alien, and more). In the Dryden Theater at the George Eastman Museum (900 East Avenue). 2 pm. Get your FREE tickets here.

Saturday, May 11, 2024
The SAN ANTONIO screening, co-hosted by me and Nikki Loftin (author of If You Get Lost, Wish Girl and more). In the H-E-B Performance Hall at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts. 11 am. Get your FREE tickets here.

Saturday, May 18, 2024
The GIG HARBOR, WA screening, co-hosted by me and another TBA. At the Galaxy Theater in Gig Harbor (4649 Point Fosdick Dr). 3 pm. Get your FREE tickets here.

Sunday, May 19, 2024
The TACOMA, WA screening, co-hosted by me and Tacoma’s own Doug Mackey. At the Grant Center for the Expressive Arts (2510 N 11th St.) 3 pm. Get your FREE tickets here.

Thanks so much to my co-hosts Rita Williams-Garcia, Keir Graff, Rebecca Mahoney, Bruce Coville, Nikki Loftin, and Doug Mackey for being part of this.

Hey! It’s not too late to make your own movie for this year’s 90-Second Newbery! It’s open to young filmmakers up to 18 years old, and adult help is okay. The early deadline for submissions to the Brooklyn, Ogden, and Chicago shows is January 26, 2024, but there is a later deadline of March 8, 2024 if you only care about submitting to the shows in Boston, San Antonio, Rochester, Tacoma, or Gig Harbor. Here’s how to submit a movie.

In any case: if you want to make a movie for this year’s film festival, get busy now! (Want technical help and moviemaking advice? We have video resources and how-to guides.)

Want to get inspired? Check out the video at the top of this post, in which kids from the Treehouse Museum in Ogden, Utah make a movie based on Kate Dicamillo’s 2014 Newbery Medal Winner Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures . . . in the style of Star Wars! I loved the go-for-broke performances of the various actors, especially their commitment to the crazy battle scenes. You can read the complete write-up about this movie on the 90-Second Newbery website.

(Want to bring the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival to your town? Drop me a line at james@90secondnewbery.com.)

The 90-Second Newbery relies entirely on private donations and grants to keep going! It’s only through your generosity that we can continue bringing our free public screenings and book-to-movie workshops to libraries and schools nationwide. You can make your (tax-deductible!) donation here. Donations are handled through our fiscal sponsor Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization.

It’s been a few weeks since I posted here, but don’t worry, I always come crawling back in the end. (I do tend to be more active on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook these days.)

The biggest news: the Chicago Tribune named Bride of the Tornado as one of their “Ten Best Books of 2023.” Yes, really! I’m just as surprised as you. (If you want to read the article, the Tribune site is paywalled, but the article was syndicated to the unpaywalled Detroit News.)

Thanks to Chris Borrelli for describing Bride as the kind of book that is like “like intoxicated karaoke performances so bracing, you sit up straighter with each heartfelt moment” (if you’ve ever done karaoke with me, you might recognize such a description) and putting me on the same list as heavyweights like Zadie Smith, Dennis Lehane, Jill Lepore, Victor LaValle, and my old friend Daniel Kraus, whose blockbuster Whalefall is a big hit this year—I love this success for him, good fortune like this couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy. (Do you remember when he and I, with Adam Selzer, were The Brothers Delacorte?)

Let’s cover all the as-yet-unmentioned places that I visited on my book tour! Since Powell’s bookstore named Bride of the Tornado as a “Pick of the Month” for August, I paid a visit to one of their stores in Portland . . . in conversation with one of my favorite authors Laini Taylor, whom I met long ago when she gave a glowing review to The Order of Odd-Fish, and with whom I’ve co-hosted the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. It was great catching up with her and picking up a copy of her new very funny and satisfying graphic novel that she made with her artist husband Jim Di Bartolo, Billie Blaster and the Robot Army from Outer Space.

I also caught up with my other Portland friends, including Joe Fusion, who now writes episodes of Andy Richter’s podcast The Novelizers, in which “classic films are novelized by TV comedy writers and narrated by your favorite comics & actors.” As an exercise in adaptation and creative interpretation, it’s not unlike the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! The first season “novelizes” Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Joe wrote “Chapter 8,” which is in Episode 4) and the second season “novelizes” Independence Day. It’s funny! Check it out! And here are Joe and I being served by a robot waiter in Portland:

After that it was off to San Francisco, where my bookseller friends Summer and Kat rolled out the red carpet for an event at Books Inc., and many friends old and new showed up.

Check out the bridal veils Summer and Kat provided for us to wear when they interviewed me!

That weekend my friend Alisha took me to a live version of the Rocky Horror Picture Show at Oasis, a drag nightclub in San Francisco. Alisha and I have been there many times before, and the show was beyond amazing:

Then it was off to Philadelphia, where I finally met my editor Jhanteigh Kupihea in real life for lunch, and did an author event at Head House Books, attended not only by my great friends Emily and Jules (with whom I was in a band back in college) and Sam and Chen (with whom I was on the JET program in Japan back in 2004-2006) but also folks from Quirk Books!

That same weekend I got to speak on a panel at New York Comic Con, which was a real thrill. The other authors were Richard Kadrey, Meriam Metoui, and Trang Thanh Tran and moderated by Delilah S. Dawson (who went out of her way to mention Bride of the Tornado in an interview, and she even provided a blurb!) I was really thrilled to be on this panel at such a high-profile gig!

Not long after that, I headed to my birthplace of Royal Oak, Michigan (right next to my hometown of Troy, Michigan: City of Tomorrow, Today!) for an author event at Sidetrack Books. A lot of family and friends showed up for this one!

Finally, I ended my Bride of the Tornado tour where I started it: again in Chicago, again at an event with Cynthia Pelayo! She and I teamed up with authors After-words, a very supportive bookstore downtown. I appreciate that they always have lots of copies of all of my books on hand to sign!

I did a bunch of other things in the past few months, too—I had adventures at and around an eccentric mansion in rural Illinois! I spoke at the Speculative Literature Foundation! I wrote some fun articles! Matt and I recorded some new podcast episodes!—but this post is already too long. More to come soon in this new year of 2024!