Book Giveaway: HEY, HEY, HAY! by Christy Mihaly

Author Christy Mihaly has a new picture book titled HEY, HEY, HAY!. She has agreed to share a copy with one lucky winner. All you have to do to get in the running is to leave a comment. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link and you will get additional chances to win. Just let me know the other things you do to share the good news, so I can put in the right amount of tickets in my basket for you.

Sharing on Facebook, Twitter, reblogging really helps spread the word for a new book. Thanks for helping Christy!

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

A joyful rhyming story about a girl and her mother and the machines they use on their family farm to make hay.

Mower blades slice through the grass./A new row falls with every pass./Next we spread the grass to dry./The tedder makes those grasses fly!

A girl tells the tale of making hay as Mom uses a mower for mowing grass, then a tedder for aerating the grass, and eventually a baler. Told in rhyme and illustrated with fabulous art by JOE CEPEDA, each part of the process is a celebration of summer, farming, and the mother-daughter relationship. Back matter includes a glossary.

BOOK’S JOURNEY:

Hey, Hey, Hay! was inspired by the hayfields surrounding my home. I’d been writing children’s magazine pieces, primarily nonfiction, for a few years. I was starting to write picture books. I was working on a pair of picture book biographies when my family moved out of town and into the country. There, in between bouts of research and writing for my biographies, I watched the beauty of the changing seasons in the fields and forests around me.

The hayfields were particularly captivating. ​When the grass grew high enough, on a dry and sunny summer day, it was time to cut the hay. I found the haymaking process fascinating and charming. First, the big tractor pulled the giant mowers to cut broad swathes up and down the field, leaving the long grasses flat on the ground. Next the whirring tedders “wuffled” the cut grass to aerate it and facilitate drying. Then the big hay rake rolled up and down the field to form long windrows—piles of hay running the length of the field. And finally, the baler created neat bundles of hay. The process had an air of magic to it – making hay was storing summer’s grasses so they’d feed the animals all winter long. The rhythms of the haying machines seeped into my mind, and I started to hear these lines running around in my head:

​“Listen and I’ll tell the tale/of storing summer in a bale.”

At first, I thought this little ditty could be the beginning of a nice poem. It soon became clear, though, that HAY wanted to be a book—a rhyming picture book. I researched children’s books and couldn’t find any others about haymaking. Clearly, I needed to write one! My book would be informational, and include the facts about hay—because, after all, I’m a nonfiction writer. But I invented a young narrator to tell the story of how we make hay.​

It didn’t take long to write a first draft, but then I did a great deal of research and fact-checking to make sure that everything was accurate. I asked some farming friends to review it, too. I revised and revised.

I had just finished the manuscript when I attended a conference where I met Holiday House executive editor Grace Maccarone. Grace was lovely and I liked what she said about Holiday House. I knew they published a lot of farm-oriented books. I listened carefully when she described the kinds of manuscripts she was looking for, and I was pretty sure that HAY might fit the bill. A few months later, after some more anxious revising and polishing, I sent the manuscript off to Grace, and crossed my fingers.

The word came: Grace liked it! She took it to acquisitions and in July 2015, we had a contract. I was thrilled, thrilled, thrilled. A few months later, I attended the SCBWI conference in New York and met Grace at her office. (Squee!) She told me that she’d signed the talented Joe Cepeda to illustrate HAY. When the art came through, it was such a delight. Then we had a flurry of adjustments in art and text to make it all perfect. And now at last, a book. I’m looking forward to sharing the story of hay—and switchel—with kids, both rural and urban, and their families. Hey, hey, hay!

CHRISTY’S BIO:

Christy Mihaly started writing for young people after 25 years of legal writing. She finds writing for kids is more fun and writes children’s books, articles, stories, essays, and poems. Her 2018 picture book, “HEY, HEY, HAY!” tells the story, in rhyming verse, about how by making hay we can store summer in a bale.

She is particularly drawn to nonfiction — all kinds of nonfiction! Recent nonfiction titles include “California’s Redwood Forest,” “Getting Paid to Make Cosplay Costumes and Props,” “Moose,” “All About Apps,” “Elephants,” and “Using Math in Fashion.” Christy is a founding member of GROG, the group blog for writers and readers of children’s literature. She has at various points made her home in eight different states and in Spain, and is now

Christy has a nonfiction book for ages 12-18, Diet for a Changing Climate: Food for Thought, releasing October 1. Diet was co-written with Sue Heavenrich and is being published by Lerner/TFCB.

Christy has published a half-dozen books in the educational market. She writes articles about science, nature, technology and history for children’s magazines, as well as poetry and short stories. Two of her poems are included in the spring 2018 poetry anthology, Imperfect: Poems about Mistakes, an Anthology for Middle Schoolers.

Christy enjoys walking in the woods with her dog, and playing the cello (though not simultaneously). A founding member of GROG, the group blog for writers and readers of children’s literature, Christy blogs about writing and books. (http://groggorg.blogspot.com.) She is represented by Erzsi Deak, of Hen&ink Literary Studio. Please stop by her website at www.christymihaly.com..

Thank you Christy for sharing your book and journey with us. Your text and Joe Cepeda’s illustrations are sure to make this big seller. Good luck with the book.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy