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Alvina Ling

@alvinaling

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A children's book editor living in Brooklyn. My posts are my own.
Check out our Book Friends Forever podcast!

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Congratulations to Kate McKinnon and her incredible New York Times bestselling Millicent Quibb series! The third book, THE JUNGLE OF CARABANANA is an instant NYT and USA Today bestseller!! 🎉🎉🎉 by @alvinaling

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2 days ago

It's Grace Lin day! Happiest of book birthdays to THE LITTLE STONE BUDDHA by @pacylin. This beautiful book has been years in the making, and I'm so glad it's finally out in the world! Inspired by both The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton (one of Grace and my faves from childhood) and the true story of the Oakland Buddha, this is a heartwarming story about community, and how small actions can help create big changes. This book has received FOUR STARRED REVIEWS, from PW, The Horn Book, SLJ, and Kirkus.

Also out today is the PB of Grace's most recent middle grade novel, the magical THE GATE, THE GIRL, AND THE DRAGON, as well as an adorable board book edition of the winter classic A BIG BED FOR LITTLE SNOW! by @alvinaling

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4 days ago

Full episode available on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Grace and Alvina discuss a recent Hidden Brain+ podcast episode that discussed some of the potential negatives of goal setting. Linear goal setting may cause people to skip the exploration stage, and it might be more beneficial to use “tiny experiments” to learn what actually works. They talk about how in the scientific world, you ask a question, and the only goal is to learn. Two recent Happiness Lab episodes reinforced this, talking about how small changes can be the most effective.

For the Fortune Cookie segment, they talk about Generative AI, and the new guidelines that SCBWI recently released, banning AI use for any part of the creative process.

Then, Alvina tells Grace about a backlist title SHARK VS TRAIN by Chris Barton and Tom Lichtenheld, which was recently featured in the New York Times. And, then end as always with what they’re grateful for.

#bookfriendsforever by @alvinaling

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6 days ago

Happy happy book birthday 🎉 to the wonderful A BOOK FOR EVERYONE by @hayleyroccobooks and @roccoart! This is the second book featuring book-loving chipmunk Piper who first appeared in ALL THE BOOKS, and in this one she's trying to win her beloved library's reading challenge, while her best friend Gregory would rather do anything but read. But in the end, Piper realizes that while not every book is for everyone, there is a book for everybody, including Gregory.

My goal as an editor that I'm also bringing to Alvina Ling Books is to publish books that are at least one reader's favorite book, and I love that this book is on my launch list, sharing the same message.

#ABookforEveryone by @alvinaling

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11 days ago

Happiest of book birthdays 🎂 to the hilarious and wonderful final book of the Millicent Quibb trilogy by the astounding, brilliant Kate McKinnon. In the JUNGLE OF CARABANANA, the Porch sisters are going on a trip, to the beautiful city of ParisToo. But, the evil KRA are also there to do dastardly deeds. Can Gertrude, Eugenia, and Dee-Dee and their dear mentor Millicent Quibb stop them?! Read this book to find out!

Oh, and the audiobooks for this series (narrated by Kate and her sister) are also exceptional, as are the beautiful illustrations throughout by Alfredo Cáceres.

Thanks to my cat Sweetpea for her help with the photos! There may not be a giant cat in this book, but there are plenty of wacky and somewhat terrifying creatures in the Jungle of Carabanana! (And it’s also fun to say!)

#millicentquibb by @alvinaling

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11 days ago

Full episode available on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Grace and Alvina discuss a bunch of book publishing news, including the Anthropic Settlement, the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature long list, a study about how library eBook lending hurts sales, how Libro.FM is planning to expand into the eBook market, and they talk about some of the new words that have recently been added to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, including words such as looksmaxxing, yacht rock, shishito, chili crisp, and glow-up.

For the Fortune Cookie segment, they talk about eight different “play personalities” and which ones they are—Grace is a creator, and Alvina is an explorer. And, they both have dreamer energy. And they end as always with what they’re grateful for.

#bookfriendsforever by @alvinaling

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14 days ago

This is belated but wanted to post this before summer actually ended! Over Labor Day weekend we gathered at @libbykoponen home in Stonington and it felt like a family reunion! So lovely to all be together over two days, to walk and talk and swim and dine and beach-go!

Happy end-of-summer, everyone! by @alvinaling

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21 days ago

Full episode available on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Grace and Alvina take on two topics. They talk about sabbaticals, and a recent Happiness Lab podcast episode about how life changing sabbaticals are. Grace talks about the challenges of taking a sabbatical as a freelancer, and Alvina shares how life-changing her sabbatical was, even though it was just four weeks. They talk about the different types of sabbaticals you could take: as an achiever, an explorer, or a healer. And, how to plan a sabbatical. They also touch on the different ways to be retired as discussed on a recent Gretchen Rubin podcast: a relaxer, a reinventor, or a reinvigorator.

For the second topic, Grace talks about how she was asked to contribute a life lesson to her alma mater for a publication. She is supposed to reflect on one true thing she has learned from life. They talk about the different things they’ve learned over the years, including that you need to be your authentic self, that everything will turn out okay in the end, and more. They end, as always, with what they’re grateful for—old friends who feel like family!

#bookfriendsforever by @alvinaling

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21 days ago

Full episode available on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Grace’s audio/microphone is finally fixed!! 😅

Grace and Alvina have an odd-and-ends Chop Suey episode where they discuss various topics. Since Grace is just back from the Boyd’s Mills Asian American Voices retreat, they talk about retreats in general, the community benefits that come from attending retreats, and different kind of retreats.

Then they discuss procrastination—Alvina is a somewhat “recovered procrastinator” and Grace talks about procrastinating on chores that she isn’t good at doing. They talk about tips for not procrastinating, including “temptation bundling” and gamifying tasks. Then they talk about the Fall season in publishing and why it feels so busy, and they discuss whether editors acquire more in the Fall.

For the final segment, children’s literature specialist Alison Morris (@kidlitgirl) joins to share some book recommendations. And, they end as always with what they’re grateful for.

#bookfriendsforever by @alvinaling

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a month ago

Full episode available on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Grace and Alvina discuss how publishing and writing is hard, and why it should or shouldn’t be. They talk about the stereotype of the tortured artist, and while the act of creating art doesn’t have to be hard, but that the publishing part perhaps does need to be in order for it to be a true accomplishment. They talk about how if things are hard now, things may be easier later, while other things may be easy now, but make things harder later. They talk about what things should be hard, and what things should be easier (like taxes and healthcare). They talk about how the sense of accomplishment comes from doing hard things. And, how balance in your life is important.

For the Fortune Cookie segment, they talk about how they currently use (or don’t use) AI in their own lives, and what is ethical vs unethical usage. They talk about a recent article about AI usage amongst Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists. And they end as always with what they’re grateful for.

#bookfriendsforever by @alvinaling

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a month ago

How is it September already?! Summer flew by! Here’s a photo dump. by @alvinaling

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a month ago

Full episode available on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Grace Lin and Alvina Ling are joined by Danielle Render Turmaud, host of the podcast You, Me, and the Writing Journey podcast to do a crossover episode! Danielle is a therapist and a kidlit author, and You, Me, and the Writing Journey meets at the intersection of all thing literary + mental health, so they discuss anxiety and stress in the writing industry. The distinguish between the anxiety and stress involved with the actual writing vs publishing. They talk about the potential joy of the doing/writing, but the stress and anxiety that’s introduced once you share your work with others, try to get published, and then actually get published! Danielle talks about how your writing can change, and your relationship to writing can change, once you decide that publishing your writing is your goal. They talk about how publishing brings the market and capitalist element into your art. They also talk about how uncertainty in publishing contributes to anxiety, as well as the personal nature of writing, and the danger of comparison.

Danielle shares a few factors that research has found that are highly likely to contribute to stress: lack of control, suddenness, and ambiguity. They discuss how these three factors are intrinsic in the industry. They also talk about how stress and anxiety manifest in their lives and bodies (like insomnia, rumination, and “stress eating”), and what things they’ve done to help alleviate their work stress and anxiety. Danielle talks about how to “Feel, release, and accept.”

For the Fortune Cookie segment, they each share what they’re obsessed with right now. Grace is obsessed with seeing the Dambo Trolls, Alvina talks about her recent TV and book obsessions, and Danielle is obsessed with their new firepit. And they end with what they’re grateful for.

#bookfriendsforever by @alvinaling

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a month ago