Alan Silberberg, Sid Fleischman Award winner for MILO: STICKY NOTES & BRAIN FREEZE

Alan Silberberg holds the paperback version
of Milo: Sticky Notes & Brain Freeze

Sid Fleischman was one of the founders of SCBWI and a master of comic invention. He died about a year and a half ago, and the award continues in memory of Sid and in honor of humorous writing.

Lin Oliver, no slouch herself when it comes to funny, introduced us to the delightful and warm-hearted Alan Silberman, who won this year's award for his book MILO: STICKY NOTES & BRAIN FREEZE, about a 12-year-old boy who loses his mother, sneezes on the girl he secretly loves, and learns to live with both.

"Like all great comedy, it has its basis in the human heart," Lin Oliver said. "From the moment we meet Milo we know we're in the presence of a hero who teaches us that humor and hope are the antidotes to grief and isolation.

He shared episodes from his writer's journey with us.

"My first book was pond scum," he said, not clarifying that POND SCUM was the title of the book and not his own personal post-publication review.
 
After that, he had a couple of false starts. He felt waves of panic until a bookseller asked him why he hadn't tried combining his cartooning and writing. Sort of like that little Wimpy Kid series.

That's when Milo was born. To get into the headspace of a 13-year-old, he had to travel back into his own memories ... to the time when he had braces and ate a forbidden Baby Ruth (with disastrous results), and to the death of his mother when he was 9 years old.

That's when he got the idea to combine humor and heartbreak so that he could tell the story of a funny kid living in a fog-filled emotional world. He wanted kids to laugh even as Milo dealt with that sadness, and to win a humor award for that means the world, he said.

For a description of his working relationship with editor Liesa Abrams, check out our recap.

He dedicated the award to his mother, Audrey Silberberg. And then we all cried.

• Visit Alan's site.
• Follow him on Twitter.

Sid Fleischman Humor Award Winner: Allen Zadoff

The Sid Fleischman Award is an award for exemplary writing in the genre of humor. The 2010 Award goes to FOOD, GIRLS AND OTHER THINGS I CAN'T HAVE author Allen Zadoff.

He said, it wasn't so funny being a 275 pound high school student like he was. When he wrote about FOOD, GIRLS he didn't write it to be funny, he wanted it to be the truth. He wanted to share the lessons, as an adult, that he learned from his adolescence. He said his character learned in two weeks what it took him 35 years to figure you.

He advises everyone to keep at it and to come to the SCBWI conference and meet people. And if you win an award, make it the Golden Kite, so he can get the Sid Fleischman again next year. He thanked his editor Elizabeth Law at Egmont (who had invited him to a past conference and introduced him people in the industry).

Look for Allen's next funny book MY LIFE, THE THEATER, AND OTHER TRAGEDIES (Egmont, May 2011).

DONNA GEPHART: "12 3/4 Ways to Tickle Young Readers' Funny Bones"

DONNA GEPHART: "12 3/4 Ways to Tickle Young Readers' Funny Bones"

Some hilarious higlights from 2009 Sid Fleischman Humor Award winner Donna Gephart's panel:

-- She provided handouts for everyone with a list of techniques and details to hone one's humor skills.

-- She advises taking risks. "Mine your embarrassment," she said, discussing how writers should not be afraid to talk about real life embarrassing moments.

-- "Embarrassment is funny but humiliation is not," she said. "You want to empathize with your character. Readers want to laugh, not cringe."

-- She gave a writing exercise in which conference goers had to do: List embarrassing things that happened to you or list things that embarrassed you as a kid.

-- She suggested paying attention to the "sound of language" as another tool to write humor. For example, the "K" sound is funny, such as "Chicken is funny. Roast beef is not. Pickle is funny. Cucubmer is not. Twinkie is funny. Pie is not."

-- She also advised using exaggeration and understatement as tools for writing humor. Examples included "Exaggeration: referring to a tropical breeze as a hurricane" and "Understatement: referring to a hurricane as a tropical breeze."

-- Ultimately, she says writers should not TRY to be funny. "Forced humor is no fun for anyone."

-- She also gave a handout listing funny picture books, early readers, chapter books, and MG/YA novels.

It was a packed room where people participated with a lot of enthusiasm to Donna's writing exercises. And yes, there was much laughter!

Yet another shining example of great lectures provided by award-winning writers at the SCBWI national conference.

Posted by Paula Yoo

Golden Kite Awards: Sid Fleischman Award Winner Donna Gephart

GOLDEN KITE AWARDS: SID FLEISCHMAN AWARD WINNER DONNA GEPHART

Donna Gephart's middle grade novel, As if Being 12¾ Isn't Bad Enough, My Mother is Running for President!, won the 2009 Sid Fleischman Award. This award is for authors whose work exemplifies the excellence of writing in the genre of humor.

Although Sid Fleischman wasn't able to attend today's award, he wrote a speech in her honor that Stephen Mooser read out loud. Fleischman wrote, "This year's recipient knew at age 14 that she wanted to be a writer. She saved her babysitter money to buy a typewriter."

Fleischman praised Gephart's "irrepressible humor" which was not simply full of "ornamental quotes." He said she understood the true aim of comedy, that it was "tragedy wearing a putty nose."

Fleischman joked that Gephart "... also wins the award for the longest title."

Here are some highlights from Donna Gephart's speech:

-- She screamed so loudly after getting the congratulatory phone call from Lin Oliver and Stephen Mooser that "... I lost my voice for three days."

-- When describing herself growing up, Gephart said, "I was the quintessential nerd... and I still am."

-- "This is the only award of its kind to honor humorous children's books, and it's pretty special. Even though I've been writing humor of different sorts for over twenty years, sometimes it's nice to be taken seriously."

-- Her advice? "If you've ever heard the words 'never' or 'can't,' I have three words for you. 'YES YOU CAN!'"

Posted by Paula Yoo