jacob packaged goods

Ellen Jacob

jpgadmin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:00:11 +0000

Ellen founded jacob packaged goods in 1998 after a successful career as a creative leader for some of the foremost companies in the children’s market. In her role as Vice President/Brand Marketing and Creative Direction for The William Carter Company, she headed creative development, brand position and all marketing for this leading children’s clothing and accessories firm. As VP/Creative Director for Golden Books, she set the visual direction for over 1,000 books, including re-branding the books for Disney, Star Wars, RL Stine’s Fear Street series, and Children’s Television Workshop. She was creative director for the inaugural adult list and two of her initial efforts, Steven Covey’s The Seven Highly Effective Habits of Families and Maria Shriver’s What’s Heaven, landed on the New York Times Best Seller list. As Design Director for Scholastic, she created Agenda magazine, distributed to corporate and government opinion leaders. She also launched G*I*R*L magazine, and developed Futures magazine, distributed to every high school senior. Her interactive experience includes being asked to set the creative strategy and branding for the interactive division of The Walt Disney Company. Her fi rst book as an author, You’re the Best Mom Ever, and its sequel, You’re the Best Friend Ever, were published by Andrews McMeel. The Starry, Stripy Blanket, a picture book created by jacob packaged goods, was published by Barnes and Noble. Her awards include a Ford Foundation Grant, honors from The Society of Publication Designers, The Art Director’s Club, Edpress, and Creativity. She also has received a Silver Gavel Award from The American Bar Association and several Parent’s Choice Awards.

Kirk Cheyfitz

jpgadmin — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:59:19 +0000

Kirk is a journalist, writer, media expert and pioneer in non-traditional marketing. In addition to his work with jacob packaged goods, he is the CEO and Chief Editorial Officer of Story Worldwide, a unique brand storytelling company with offices in New York, London, Seattle, South Norwalk and Hong Kong. Kirk was an assistant director for 20^th Century Fox in Europe at age 17. He moved to journalism, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist at the Detroit Free Press. He has written one children's book, published by Backpack Press, and co-authored another for HarperCollins Chilren's Books. A life-long entrepreneur, Kirk has operated daily newspapers, weekly and monthly magazines and advertising agencies, working for himself and for large media corporations such as Knight Newspapers and McCann WorldGroup, a unit of The Interpublic Group of Companies. Along the way, Kirk also wrote a business book for Simon & Schuster, Thinking Inside the Box, which now appears in five languages, including Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Kirk is married to Ellen, who runs jacob packaged goods and Bookerella, which helps explain why he got the chance to write for children.

Beth Middleworth

jpgadmin — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 12:46:58 +0000

Beth is a designer, art director and illustrator who creates digital and print materials for projects that have included album covers and promotional pieces, book jackets and interiors, product catalogs and marketing materials and, most recently, book-apps. Her use of scanned objects, natural and man made, is especially striking. Beth has produced work for Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, Penguin Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Capitol Records, Sony, The Dave Matthews Band and many others. Her designs have won numerous honors, including the Graphis Awards, the American Advertising Federation's ADDY Awards, PDN's photographic awards and more. Beth lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Deborah November

jpgadmin — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 13:20:06 +0000

Deborah November is a freelance editor and writer who lives in New York City. As the former Editorial Director of children’s books at Sesame Workshop, Deborah has worked on every possible children’s storybook and activity format for the trade and mass market. She also writes and edits leveled fiction and nonfiction readers for the educational market. Deborah started out as a writer for Marvel Comics specializing in Spiderman’s alter ego, Spidey, in the long-running series, Spidey Super Stories, which was created for reluctant readers.

Mary Kay Carson

jpgadmin — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 23:07:47 +0000

MK, as her friends call her, wrote Bookerella's first book-app, Bats! Furry Fliers of the Night. An award-winning children’s nonfiction author, she began her writing career working on the classroom magazine SuperScience at Scholastic in New York City. She's been a full-time freelance writer for the past 15 years.

MK has written more than 30 books for young people about wildlife, space, weather, nature, and history. In addition to Bats!, some of her recent nonfiction titles include The Bat Scientists, a 2011 Notable Book for Children (the prestigious award from the Association for Library Service to Children), and the Rhino Scientist, about the Cincinnati Zoo's famous rhino mom.

MK gives presentations at schools and libraries about space, animals, history, and writing. She and her photographer husband Tom Uhlman live in Cincinnati’s Northside neighborhood with their dog, Ruby.

For more information, visit her website.

Cathy Hapka

jpgadmin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 23:24:21 +0000

Cathy wrote Bookerella's first series for girls, Horse Magic. She has published numerous books for children and young adults, many about horses. She has contributed to several popular series, including The Saddle Club and Chestnut Hill series. A lifelong horse lover, she rides several times each week. Magic, the horse in this story, is based on a very special lesson horse she once knew named Lance. Cathy currently keeps two horses on her small farm in Pennsylvania, along with several goats, a small flock of chickens, and too many cats. In addition to writing and riding, she enjoys animals, reading, gardening, music, and travel.