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ENTRY TYPE: new
WORK TITLE: THE CASE OF THE MISSING CHEETAH
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.veronicamang.com
CITY: Jersey City
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Female.
EDUCATION:Parsons School of Design, B.F.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, illustrator, and educator. Macmillan, New York, NY, illustrator; Scholastic, New York, NY, illustrator; Parsons School of Design, New York, NY, instructor; New School, New York, NY, lecturer.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2021, review of The Case of the Missing Cheetah.
School Library Journal, December, 2022, Ellen Sulzycki, review of The Case of the Musical Mishap, p. 80.
ONLINE
New School website, https://www.newschool.edu/ (May 30, 2023), author faculty profile.
Reporter Online, https://www.thereporteronline.com/ (September 24, 2021), Bob Keeler, author interview.
Veronica Mang website, https://www.veronicamang.com/ (May 30, 2023).
VERONICA MANG is the author and illustrator of the Secret Spy Society series published by Viking Children's Books. She grew up in the small town of Perkasie, Pennsylvania and later moved to NYC to attend college at Parsons School of Design. Veronica works with messy materials like graphite and paint, and she loves creating stories for children of all ages. She currently lives in Jersey City, NJ and teaches in the Illustration Department at Parsons School of Design.
Veronica also designs middle grade and young adult book covers and interiors. Previously, she worked at Macmillan and Scholastic. You can see her work here.
Veronica is represented by Andrea Morrison
at Writer's House (amorrison@writershouse.com)
For freelance inquiries, questions, or hellos, please write to veronica.mang.art@gmail.com
For school visit inquiries, please email veronica.mang.art@gmail.com and penguinauthorvisits@gmail.com
FAQ for writers & illustrators:
I have an idea for a book. What should I do?
How exciting! Now you should nurture it: keep working at it and thinking about it and writing/drawing. If you want to write picture books but don't illustrate, that’s okay! Most children’s books are written and illustrated by two different people.
I think I’m ready for a publisher to look at my project. What now?
Editors are the multi-talented superheroes who acquire books, but they can be hard to get in touch with (and for good reason—they’re super busy!). The best next step is to get an agent. I’m represented by Andrea Morrison at Writer’s House, but there are lots of literary agencies. I suggest poking around SCBWI’s website—it’s a great starting point for all things children’s book-related.
Well, what does an agent do?
A good agent will work with you to make your project the best it can be and help you navigate a career in the book world. When your project is ready to send to publishers, your agent will strategize the best way for editors to see and hopefully acquire it. They’ll help you negotiate your payment and rights, too (that part can be confusing). That said, a good agent is worth waiting for: make sure you’re excited about your agency before you commit! It’s also worth noting that an agent is not a golden ticket to a book deal: there are often several rounds of submissions before a book finds its home.
Can I hire you to illustrate my book?
If you’re a designer or editor: Yes! Please get in touch with me & my agent Andrea Morrison (amorrison@WritersHouse.com)
If you wrote a book that you hope to have traditionally published, you do not need to hire an illustrator. Your publisher will do that, and you won’t pay a dime. Instead, you should focus on writing the best manuscript you can. If you’d like, you can add “art notes,” which describe what you imagine happening in the pictures. You don't need to have your manuscript illustrated in order to get a book deal!
Pennridge grad Veronica Mang releases first book in ‘Secret Spy Society’ children’s series
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"Secret Spy Society: Case of the Missing Cheetah" is written...
Veronica Mang, a 2015 Pennridge grad, wrote and illustrated the...
"Secret Spy Society: Case of the Missing Cheetah" is written...
Veronica Mang, a 2015 Pennridge grad, wrote and illustrated the...
"Secret Spy Society: Case of the Missing Cheetah" is written...
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Veronica Mang, a 2015 Pennridge grad, wrote and illustrated the children's book "Case of the Missing Cheetah," The book is the first in what will be the "Secret Spy Society" series.
By BOB KEELER | bkeeler@montgomerynews.com |
PUBLISHED: April 14, 2021 at 11:28 a.m. | UPDATED: September 24, 2021 at 9:27 a.m.
PENNRIDGE – Veronica Mang says she was always interested in storytelling and drawing and took a lot of art classes in school.
At the time, though, the 2015 Pennridge High School graduate, who attended Guth Elementary and Pennridge South Middle schools, wasn’t planning on making a career in children’s books.
Then she got a scholarship to and started studying at Parsons School of Design in New York City.
“I knew I wanted to study illustration, but I didn’t really know I wanted to do children’s books. In fact, I was actually a little bit hesitant about it because it’s drawing a lot of the same characters over and over,” the now Jersey City, NJ resident said in a telephone interview.
After taking some children’s book classes, she started getting more interested.
“Secret Spy Society: Case of the Missing Cheetah,” which was released about a month ago by Viking Books for Young Readers, started as her senior thesis project at Parsons, Mang said.
“It’s kind of a first book that a kid might read on their own, which is awesome. It’s really short. It’s 96 pages and has three cute little chapters,” she said.
It is classified as being for children ages five through nine, she said.
Mang did all of the illustrations and writing on the book which is part of what will become the “Secret Spy Society” series.
“There’s two more already signed up,” Mang said.
“I didn’t expect that to happen, especially not for my first book,” she said. “I’m in the works on the second one right now, just finalizing the manuscript and then we’ll get started on the art.”
The book and series are described as being “about three delightfully mischievous young girls and some of the most enigmatic women in history who worked as spies.”
The real life women depicted include Josephine Baker and Noor Inayat Khan who are mentors to the young girls in a story about adventure and an exciting journey, Mang said.
“It’s an empowering story for particularly girls to read,” she said, “but I think boys would like it too and I hope that they do like it.”
The book provides a fictionalized version of the true-life women, she said.
“I’ve extrapolated a lot of the little details from their life and made them into characters,” she said, “but they are real people and their stories are absolutely amazing.”
Each of the books will spotlight a different real-life woman, with some reappearing later in the series, she said.
Mang said “Case of the Missing Cheetah” is the type of book she would have liked to read when she was a kid and other people have told her the same thing.
Along with working on the books she writes and illustrates, she is also a book designer for Macmillan Publishers after having previously worked for Scholastic.
“I actually got my first job offer to work in book design and the offer for my book deal within the same week, which was crazy,” Mang said, “so now I’m doing both.”
Since people have heard about her book, some have told her they, too, have an idea for a book, she said. Although it’s not easy to get a book published, she encourages those people to stick with it, she said.
When she started on the book, writing was new to her and it made her a little nervous, she said.
“Telling the story seemed like the right thing to do and then it kind of took on a life of its own,” Mang said, “and here we are now.”
Veronica Mang
Part-time Lecturer
Email
veronicamang@newschool.edu
Office Location
G - 80 Fifth Avenue
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Veronica Mang
Profile
Veronica Mang is an author, illustrator, and designer. She grew up in Perkasie, Pennsylvania and graduated from Parsons School of Design. She writes and illustrates the Secret Spy Society series (Viking Books for Young Readers/Penguin Random House) and is represented by Andrea Morrison at Writers House. In addition to her work as an author, Veronica designs middle grade & young adult books with Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group (previously Scholastic). She lives in Jersey City, NJ with two cats and an engineer.
Degrees Held
BFA - Illustration, Parsons School of Design
Portfolio
https://www.veronicamang.com/
Future Courses
Experimental Children's Book
PSAM 2706, Fall 2023
Past Courses
Language and Letterform
PUIL 2070, Fall 2022
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Mang, Veronica THE CASE OF THE MISSING CHEETAH Viking (Children's None) $13.99 3, 23 ISBN: 978-0-593-20435-1
Three girls stumble upon a group of lady spies and convince them to let them join their group.
In this series opener, Peggy, Rita, and Dot are frustrated spies without a case. One dark and stormy night, they are bored and decide to venture out of their clubhouse when they see a mysterious figure walking the streets in the middle of the night. (Why these seemingly parentless children find that peculiar when they themselves are also up way past bedtime is anyone’s guess.) It turns out to be Miss Khan, their teacher, who invites them inside for hot chocolate but is twitchy when Dot opens a door and sees a group of women gathering secretly. The next morning Rita sees a woman in the newspaper she recognizes from Miss Khan’s, and they rush back to the teacher’s home. That woman? Josephine Baker, the famed dancer suspected of being a spy. The girls confront the women and express their desire to be sleuths and spies as well, and Josephine conveniently has a mystery for them to solve: Her pet cheetah has been kidnapped. The girls eagerly take on the job. Delightful pencil illustrations with spots of bright yellow appear on every spread, but they can’t save this poorly paced story. All the lady spies are based on real people (even the cheetah!), though they were not contemporaries, as the brief bios in the backmatter attest. The attempted noir tone feels ungrounded because of its slippery connection to time and world history. Rita presents Black and Peggy White; Dot appears to be a girl of color.
All the ingredients are there, but something went wrong in the cooking process. (author's note, guide to Morse code) (Mystery. 6-10)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Mang, Veronica: THE CASE OF THE MISSING CHEETAH." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2021. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A650107585/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=422d9f2c. Accessed 15 May 2023.
MANG, Veronica. The Case of the Musical Mishap. 96p. (Secret Spy Society: Bk. 3). Viking. Mar. 2023. Tr $14.99.'ISBN 9780593204412.
Gr 2-4--Three young "spies in training" are set on solving a mysterious occurrence at their school. As the school band prepares for their big concert, musical instruments start disappearing left and right. Peggy, Rita, and Dot respond to this call to adventure enthusiastically! This early chapter book, with illustrations on every page, will be a quick read for advanced readers, but will deter some with the complex situational vocabulary throughout the text (clandestine, diminuendo, mustachioed). A cameo by Josephine Baker, a real-life "lady spy," is exciting for the characters in the book, but there is no context for her existence in their time line or description of her life experience. VERDICT Aside from some gendered terms and ambitious vocabulary, this fast-paced series will be enjoyed by many, as each book can be read as a standalone. --Ellen Sulzycki
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Sulzycki, Ellen. "MANG, Veronica. The Case of the Musical Mishap." School Library Journal, vol. 68, no. 12, Dec. 2022, p. 80. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A729548028/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=ab0233ea. Accessed 15 May 2023.