Friday, August 3, 2012

Sylvie Frank MG Pitch Contest

It is time for our Middle Grade pitch contest with Holiday House editor Sylvie Frank! Click here to read the announcement post and find out more about what Sylvie is looking for.

Remember, only the first 30 pitches will be accepted for the contest. I will try very hard to close comments as soon as that happens, but I can't guarantee that will happen because I have no idea how fast this will go.

Only one entry per person is permitted. If you mess up your entry, delete your comment and post it again. This contest is for Middle Grade ages only! Your manuscript must be complete, polished, and ready for an editor to read!

To enter:

Post the following info in the comments of this post:

Title
Your name
Your email
Word count
Genre
35-word pitch. (don't go over or you risk the chance of being disqualified!)

Sylvie will choose one winner to submit his/her full manuscript for consideration. The winner will be announced at YAtopia within a week.

If you have any questions, please email Sarah or send her a tweet. DO NOT post questions in the comments of this post.

Note: If you have an agent, you can still participate, but please communicate with him/her before pitching.

30 comments:

  1. Title: Seven Riddles to Nowhere
    Name: A.J. Cattapan
    Email: teach67la (at) yahoo (dot) com
    Word count: 44,000
    Genre: Middle Grade Mystery

    Pitch: In this “39 Clues meets The DaVinci Code,” seventh grader Kam must solve seven riddles tied to religious artwork in order to become heir to a fortune and save his Catholic school from closing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Title: The Actual & Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher
    Name: Jess Lawson
    Email: lawson.jessica.s@gmail.com
    Word Count: 50,000
    Genre: MG Retelling (of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)

    To fulfill a secret promise to her deceased brother and win a morally-shaky bet involving the reclusive Widow Douglas, 11-year-old Becky and her best friend must outsmart murderous outlaws and ditch town tattle-tale Tom Sawyer.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Title: MIRROR OF SAND AND FLAME
    Name: Jenn Brisendine
    Email: jennbrisendine@comcast.net
    Word Count: 43,000
    Genre: Upper MG adventure with fantasy elements

    Through abandoned coal mine tunnels in the smoldering ruins of the hometown he destroyed, twelve-year-old Zeb Reardon enters the eerie setting of his father's novel to save his cousin and mend his own guilty heart.

    (Thanks!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. CODENAME: EDDIE RED
    Marcia Wells
    wells_marcia@hotmail.com
    WC 35,000
    MG Boy Mystery Detective Adventure

    Eleven-year-old Edmund becomes Eddie Red, spy kid. Job: NYPD sketch artist. Mission: Crack the art heist of the century, fight off alley cats with taser, go undercover as Girl Scout. Survive the sixth grade.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Title: THE SECRET ORDER OF EXTRAORDINARY OUTCASTZ
    Name: Jessica Wisniewski
    Email: wisniewskijb@gmail.com
    Word: Count: 63,000 words
    Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary


    Joey Tate is surviving the seventh grade by drawing a comic book world where she’s always got the perfect comeback to deal with Madison and her Glamour Minions. Now, it may be invading her reality.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Title: IN THE MIDST OF MONSTERS
    Name: April Wall
    Email: aprilewelch@gmail.com
    Word count: 55,000
    Genre: MG adventure/fantasy

    Becoming a monster protector at twelve is crazy enough, but when Jonathan Vygil’s creature-teacher goes missing, he must find him—and fast—or his guide won’t be the only one in danger – his family’s next.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Arthur and the Washing Machine That Ate Him
    By Ryan Greenspan

    Fantasy

    Hoping to escape his homelife, ten-year-old Arthur is duped into being eaten by his dastardly washing machine, only to find himself fighting his way out of its treacherous bowels as it tries to digest him.

    E-Mail: ry.green@hotmail.com
    Words: 37,000

    ReplyDelete
  8. Pitch
    Title: The Piano Box on Middle School Island
    author: Susan T. Paxton, stpaxton@aol.com
    genre: mystery
    word count: 32,480
    Three seventh-graders on “Middle School Island” discover that the secrets of a shadowy face in the window, a terrifying black bird, and a magic key all lead to The Piano Box in the woods.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Title: Strawberries and Sweetgrass
    Your name: Nadine Labelle
    Your email: labelle(dot)nadine@gmail.com
    Word count: 36,000
    Genre: First Nations Fantasy Middlegrade

    A Spirit Tree who grants wishes allows 9-year-old Bayley to transform into a horse to bring home her grandmother's horses. Along with her new friend Kwe, she learns about friendship, courage and love.

    ReplyDelete
  10. DISCOVERING ISAAC
    Elaine Vickers
    elainebvickers (at) gmail (dot) com
    42,000 words
    Contemporary Middle Grade

    Eleven-year-old Isaac Sanchez is searching for his place in the universe. Here’s what he finds: one mysterious book, two not-so-evil stepsisters, three secret mathematical codes, his MIA mom, and awesome/sorta freaky ties to Isaac Newton.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Title: CHRONICITY
    Name: Lori Tays Eastep
    Email: leastep@hcu.edu
    Word count: 54,000
    Genre: MG Fantasy

    Grim Grinnert must discover why he’s stuck as a Timbukker – an illegal – in Chronicity, Town of Time, before the watch strapped to his arm hits zero, or they’ll send him someplace horrible… like 1932. Forever.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Title - BBFF - Belly Button Friends - Forever Young
    Your name - Amy Evans
    Your email - AmyEvansClicks@gmail.com
    Word count - 30,000
    Genre - MG paranormal

    35-word pitch: BBFFs - Belly Button Friends Forever til their thirteenth summer when everything’s changed. An obsession and a wish on a song puts Liza her mom’s past where she learns true friendships can stand skips in time.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Title: The Ethan Project
    Name: Andrea Mack
    Email: mack.andreaL@gmail.com
    Word count: 40,000
    Genre: MG contemporary

    Twelve-year-old Molly thinks she'll have the perfect family if she can persuade her six-year-old cousin to talk, but she soon finds that fixing his problems won't fix her own.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Title: Weaving a Net is Better than Praying for Fish at the Edge of the Water
    Name: Ki-Wing Merlin
    Email: kiwing(at)yahoo(dot)com
    Word Count: 32,000 words
    Genre: multicultural middle grade mystery (think Millicent Min meets Sammy Keyes)

    Allen Mak is enrolled in school legally this year, so even though a thief pursues her, her grandmother suspects her, and a bully targets her, Allen is determined to quit hiding.

    ReplyDelete
  15. GRETEL
    Rachel Schieffelbein
    rachelmarybean@yahoo.com
    22,000 words
    MG fantasy

    To save her brother from becoming dinner, Gretel must make a deal with a witch, and risk turning into a wicked witch herself.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Title: Word Swallowing
    Name: Cheryl Dale
    Email: cheryldale@sundown.org
    Word count: 40,000
    Genre: MG contemporary

    Cage McFadden discovers his best friend is homeless but like everything else he doesn't tell because he doesn't want to say the wrong thing like he did before his brother died.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Title: PELE AND YO-YO
    Name: Kathi Morrison-Taylor
    Email: kmorrisontaylor@gmail.com
    Word count: 55,000
    Genre: Upper MG, Contemporary

    Yo-Yo is Ramon's good-luck dog, until Ramon's uncle gives him away, just days before Ramon's cello audition. When new-girl soccer-star Anna Peterson adopts Yo-Yo and renames him Pele, the injustice stings Ramon into action.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Title: TEMPLE FALLS
    Name: Ella Schwartz
    Email: ella(at)ellaschwartz(dot)net
    Word count: 50,000
    Genre: MG Fantasy

    Nara, 14 year old banished princess, must work with her nemesis, a mere commoner, to decipher the cryptic clues sent by the Gods and end the plagues battering the kingdom.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Name: Melanie Conklin
    Email: melanie dot conklin at Mac dot com
    Word count: 31,000
    Genre: MG adventure
    Pitch: When an odd circus gift turns out to be a wishing book, ten year old Perry's boring spring break turns into a pirating, flying adventure and wish-using dilemma.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Title: THE MAGICIAN'S NOTEBOOK

      Sorry, my phone will not let me edit my comment above! Thank you :)

      Melanie conklin

      Delete
  20. Lilly Washington’s Presidential Adventure
    Laurie Litwin
    hagergirl@yahoo.com
    33,000
    Contemporary MG

    After discovering a diary dating back to the 1860s, history buff Lilly Petunia Washington goes on an adventure of a lifetime in search of a forgotten time capsule, to the chagrin of everyone around her.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Title: Witch Country
    Name: Elizabeth Prats
    Email: eprats1 (at) gmail (dot) com
    Word Count: 35,000
    Genre: Upper MG Light Fantasy

    Fourteen-year-old Lucas is forbidden contact with the witches. But when he finally meets his first crush, a witch, he’ll be forced to betray her or lose the mother he’s been searching for.

    ReplyDelete
  22. THE TRANSPARENTS
    Vicki Tremper
    vtremp at yahoo dot com
    37,000 words
    Magical MG mystery

    When eleven-year-old Daniel sneezes during math class and temporarily turns invisible, he must forget his fear of the spotlight—and jealousy of his older brother—to solve the burglaries he knows his brother didn’t commit.

    ReplyDelete
  23. CAN'T BUY ME LOVE
    Jennifer Malone
    Jenmalone1 at comcast dot net
    54,000 words
    Upper middle grade commercial

    When 13 year-old Marnie inherits a fortune from her great aunt, she'll learn being a teenage heiress is one mixed bag of crazy, especially when mean girls and first kisses factor in.

    ReplyDelete
  24. A Place to Call Home
    Linda Jackson
    linda@jacksonbooks.com
    35,000 words
    MG Contemporary

    Twelve-year-old Stacey Graham is not happy when she finds out the only person willing to take her and her two younger siblings in is their uncle, who lives in the back of his funeral home.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Harold – The Kid Who Ruined My Life and Saved the Day
    Dana Edwards
    Edwards15@comcast.net
    33,000 words
    MG, contemporary


    Harold has ruined twelve-year-old Jake’s life for the last time, but his baseball knowledge helps Jake’s team beat the undefeated Comets and Jake learns that friends come in all sorts of packages.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Title
    Alex Daily: Sometimes Superhero

    Name
    Ashley Keene

    Email
    keeneay@gmail.com

    Word count
    82,000

    Genre
    Adventure / Fantasy

    Pitch
    Timid ten-year-old Alex Daily wakes up with a different superpower every day. With best friend Melanie, he sets out to discover where the powers come from and how best to use them.

    ReplyDelete
  27. FOOTPRINTS 'ROUND THE SYCAMORE
    Kenda Turner
    bturn(at)fuse(dot)net
    48,000 words
    Middle Grade Historical Fiction

    A young pioneer girl battles fear when her family moves deeper into the wilderness yet shelter in an ancient hollow sycamore soon shows how courage grows with a helping hand, and friendship comes with caring.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Dale S. Rogers
    DaleSRogers.gmail.com
    30,000 words
    MG Adventure

    Thrust into a plot fifty years in the making, Dee Robinson strives to rescue two historic relics, fighting forces which dominate the entire island of Saint John.

    ReplyDelete
  29. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU CONJURE
    Sarah Nelson
    sarahgwendoline.nelson@gmail.com
    65,000 words
    Middle Grade fantasy

    Twelve-year-old Damien Eldridge is a reject, born into a magical family without powers of his own. But he has a plan to change everything. The catch? It's just a little illegal.

    ReplyDelete