new posts in all blogs
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Picture book month, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 26 - 50 of 58
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: Picture book month in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
When Picture Books and Adult Literature Collide at Cultivating Culture deals with the issue of picture books for adult readers, which I was talking about yesterday. It doesn't go into the subject very deeply, covering mainly parodies (I have a copy of Goodnight iPad) and adult writers writing picture books. It doesn't address straight picture books written on subjects of interest to adults rather than children or using vocabulary or a voice that adults will appreciate more than children will.
I hope that before the end of Picture Book Month I'll find some more on this subject.
I received
It's a Book by
Lane Smith for my birthday. I recall it getting a lot of attention when it was published in 2010, and I can remember something else, too, though I'm having some trouble putting my finger on it. Was there just a little bit of controversy over this thing? Maybe because of the text on the last page? Because some considered it too adult?
I think the whole book is kind of adult. It's all about a monkey trying to get through to a jackass that a book is a book, not an electronic device. The whole issue of children being too plugged in too early seems to be a very adult concern to me, not one that children are even aware of. You could make the argument that that is the point, to make children see this before they become too enamored of electronics. But if kids haven't yet become enamored of electronics will they understand terms like "text," "tweet," and "Wi-Fi?"
There's an overt message in
It's a Book, I think, one that adult readers concerned about keeping reading a traditional book-centered activity will embrace. That's okay. I'm a big fan of picture books for adults. In fact, it could be a fun read-aloud for them with their little ones. I don't know how many young picturebook readers will get this on their own, though.
I've had
The Dark by
Daniel Handler writing as
Lemony Snicket, with illustrations by
Jon Klassen. floating around the house for a little while because, quite honestly, I didn't quite get the first volume of
A Series of Unfortunate Incidents by L.Snicket. Life is short, time is limited. Should I spend any of it reading another Snicket book?
Why, yes, I should.
What I particularly liked about
The Dark was its coherence. It both seems to lead you astray, suggesting this is going to be a creepy piece of fluff or a clever joke, and then with that same material makes clear that all this time this was a very straight story. Anthropomorphizing the dark could mean turning it into a monster or it could mean turning it into a logical, calming follow.
Which way did Handler/Snicket go?
The Dark is a
Cybils nominee this year in the fiction picture book category.
The Falling Leaves Master Class Retreat sponsored by SCBWI Eastern New York alternates its topics among novels, nonfiction, and picture books. Next year it will be time for another picture book retreat.
Last month's
Carnival of Children's Literature included
Playing by the Book's post on a new edition of
Richard Scarry's
Best Word Book Ever. I'd been planning to share that this month, anyway, but a quick conversation with a family member earlier this week made me decide to blog about it sooner rather than later. The family member didn't remember Richard Scarry, possibly because his mother didn't care for the author and moved him out of those books as fast as she could.
What was my...er...her objection to the Scarry books? No narrative. She was a story person and needed something happening to somebody with her reading.
No harm was done, but in thinking about Richard Scarry recently, I realized that this is another situation in which adult gatekeepers and children aren't necessarily going to be interested in the same things. And do adult interests have to trump
every time?
Sometimes, I decided, when you're sitting with a two- or three-year-old, you just have to suck it up and look at random pictures of bears dressed in clothes and riding around in vehicles. There are worse things you can be doing.
Okay, so you remember
a few days ago I said I was going to do a blog post about a discussion I had with
David Johnson at the Connecticut Children's Book Fair? And you've been waiting and waiting for me to get around to that? Well, wait no longer.
David pointed out that his book,
The Boy Who Drew Cats, was published by
Rabbit Ears Entertainment, a Connecticut company. Rabbit Ears, Rabbit Ears, I thought. I started accessing my memory files. David is telling me that Rabbit Ears made children's videos with
narrators such as Meryl Streep. Rabbit Ears...Rabbit Ears...goes the google search in my mind.
"Theater?" I may have said out loud.
David had done the art work for some of the Rabbit Ear videos,
The Boy Who Drew Cats being one of them. And now Rabbit Ears had published the story as a picturebook with the art David had done for the video and perhaps more. I was busily going Rabbit Ears? Rabbit Ears? and wasn't as mindful with my listening as I should have been.
You all know I am just obsessive enough not to have left this alone. And after seeking out the
Rabbit Ears website, I found what I was trying to remember, not Rabbit Ears Theater but Rabbit Ears Radio, a program on public radio distributed by Public Radio International in the 1990s. It sounds as if the radio productions were the audio of the video productions. Rabbit Ears Radio brought a marvelous and really different angle to public radio, which is news and arts for adults.
Rabbit Ears Entertainment appears to be publishing picture book versions of its videos, which is interesting because usually it goes the other way--
the book comes first and then a film version.
My library is running a little project in which the staff is asking the public's opinion about culling some picture books from the collection. We get to vote on specific titles, one of them being
George Shrinks by
William Joyce. I am a Joyce fan, so I expected to vote to keep it just on principle. Come on. Joyce.
It turns out, though, that
George Shrinks is better than I remember, mainly because I remembered nothing about it. It's a Kafkaesque tale about a child who wakes up, not a bug, but tiny. And he manages just fine on his own, thank you very much.
Though why is he on his own? Merely an adult question, or is it significant here?
In addition to being a good book,
George Shrinks inspired a
PBS series that's still running. I'm a big believer in connecting series like that to their print versions. It seems like a golden opportunity to encourage a littlie with reading.
So you can guess how I'm voting.
I just met Aaron Becker on Saturday, and here he is again at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. It's a beautiful post packed with images. And what did I notice? Aaron meditated two hours a day for eight years.
I'm sure that
Journey by
Aaron Becker is probably viewed as being about creativity because it involves a young girl using a red marker to create the devices she needs--a door, a boat, etc.--to function in a world she has found. What I like about it is that, like
Bluebird by
Bob Staake, it's really all about narrative even though the story is told without words, just images. I think that narratives are almost stronger in these silent picture books.
Becker says at his
beautiful website, "My debut children’s book,
Journey, follows the adventures of a young girl who escapes the boredom of home to find a magical realm – in which she can control her destiny with her imagination." The question of whether or not we can control our worlds has become a favorite theme of mine in my own writing. I love seeing it in a picture book.
Aaron Becker was one of the authors and illustrators at the
Connecticut Children's Book Fair today. I'll be posting about my journey there tomorrow.
Today I'm directing your attention to Loula is Leaving for Africa by Anne Villeneuve by way of Julie Danielson's review at Kirkus. Quite honestly, what caught my attention here is the author's name, Villeneuve. I have Villeneuve cousins in Ottawa. No connection whatsoever, but I thought, what the heck, this is an opportunity to recognize a writer and a picture book from outside the United States as well as Julie, who has been showcasing children's book illustrators, and therefore picture books, at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast for around seven years.
A touring Maurice Sendak Memorial Exhibition hits Connecticut this weekend. This is the fourth children's literature event planned for the weekend of November 9th, which is either brilliant planning or a really impressive lack of communication.
"Maurice Sendak" opens on Saturday at my favorite Connecticut museum, the New Britain Museum of American Art. It continues through February 9th.
Related events:
- Mon., Nov. 11, A Family Day developed around the exhibit will be held from 11 AM to 3 PM
- Wed., Nov. 2o, "Dr. Seuss and Mr. Sendak," a talk geared toward adults, will take place at 1 PM
An exciting event for
Picture Book Month, though I'll probably have to wait until after Christmas to get there.
What Do We All Do All Day carried a neat post on
science fiction picture books back in August. My favorite, and not just because it's the only book on the list that I've read, is
Company's Coming by
Arthur Yorinks with illustrations by
David Small.
I read
Company's Coming to my sons the day before I got the idea for my first book,
My Life Among the Aliens. It was the jumping off point for that book.
Facebook Friend Hazel Mitchell recently did an interesting guest post at Cynsations. She wrote about illustrators finding their style and at one point used the word "voice," something writers look for.
Hazel also mentioned having been in the Royal Navy. There's something I don't see every day.
When I was in sixth or seventh grade, I was a big fan of
The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes. No idea how I stumbled upon that in one of my
one-room schools. I was on Team Bess. I remember next to nothing about the highwayman, except, of course, that he came "riding--riding...up to the old inn door." "Bess, the landlord’s daughter, Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair" was so clearly the hero of this thing.
Many years later, I would read a critique that suggested that
The Highwayman wasn't high art. I was stunned,
stunned I tell you.
You can understand, therefore, what drew me to
The Highway Rat by
Julia Donaldson with illustrations by
Axel Scheffler. Get it? Highway
man? Highway
Rat? The book is about a...well, highway rat...who rides a horse and steals food. The story is told in verse with some of the same style as
The Highwayman. "I am the Rat of the Highway, The Highway--the Highway..."
There's no Bess, though. There's no romance for junior high readers to get excited about. Yes, that's probably because this is a picture book for much younger children.
If you want to overthink this, and I do,
The Highway Rat is quite a deep book. Highwaymen were thieves and murderers, not romantic heroes. The rodent highway rat is probably more true to life in that sense than the human highwayman of the poem.
I have made two attempts at writing a picture book. The first time, the editor I submitted it to said the humor was more appropriate for middle grade students, suggested I rewrite and resubmit it. That became my first book, My Life Among the Aliens. When I tried again, a writing group partner suggested that effort would work better as a chapter book. My editor agreed with her. That evolved into A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat.
My take away from these two experiences is that not every idea is appropriate for a picture book. Unfortunately, I've got nothing on what exactly is a workable picture book idea.
I have another take away on picture books from a teacher's conference I attended in 1999. Cecilia Yung explained that the pictures in picture books don't just illustrate text. They actually carry part of the story themselves. Things like setting, characters' emotions, some action don't appear in the text. They appear in the illustration. A reader takes in the whole story at once through text and image. The illustrations in a picture book can even have their own storyline.
This was kind of mind boggling to me. It's one thing for author/illustrators to create a picture because they can work both aspects of the story at the same time. But how do writers working on their own create a story that doesn't include large amounts of the information that goes into the illustrations but isn't so bare bones that agents and editors don't find it uninteresting?
Clearly, I've never been able to work that out.
Okay, people, Octoberfest is over and Picture Book Month begins today. No, I'm not a picture book writer, but I enjoy a picture book as much as the next person. Plus we have family members who are into them. So Original Content is supporting Picture Book Month with links to articles, blog posts, and the like on the subject, as well as my own reader responses to picture books.
Today I'm directing to you to the article Persons of Interest: The Untold Rewards of Picture Book Biographies by Barbara Bader, which was published in the September/October issue of The Horn Book. I tend to obsess about definitions and to me a "biography" has always been the story of a whole life. So what's with calling these nonfiction picture books that can't possibly cover decades "biographies?"After reading Bader's article, I'd have to say that these bits and pieces or flash overviews of lives are biographies because all lives are made up of a whole array of stories, not just one lengthy one. As Bader says, "Why one picture book biography after another about the same person?...Because, especially in picture-book form, it's always possible to tell a different story, to express different feelings."
A story is the point here. We're not looking for the story.
I am proud to be a 2013 Picture Book Month Champion!
My guest post for the month-long celebration will be featured on November 7th at www.picturebookmonth.com, and I’m truly honored to be participating in this important initiative alongside so many of my picture book heroes.
Schools, libraries, booksellers, and book lovers around the world will come together throughout the month of November to celebrate print picture books. Now in its third year, the event has become a viral phenomenon. Thousands join the celebration, from the United States to Australia, Hungary, India, Jamaica, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Bloggers write about their favorite picture books using the daily themes on the Picture Book Month Calendar, created by Elizabeth O. Dulemba. Last year, a school in Budapest, Hungary, read over 6,000 picture books during the 2012 Picture Book Month celebration!
PictureBookMonth.com features daily essays from thought leaders in the children’s literature community. My fellow 2013 Picture Book Month Champions are: David Adler, Dianna Aston, Rick Anderson, Larry Dane Brimner, Julie Danielson, Carmen Agra Deedy, Tomie dePaola, Rebecca Emberly, Sue Fliess, Zarah Gagatiga, Candace Fleming, Lee Harper, Jannie Ho, Steve Jenkins, Daniel Kirk, Jesse Klausmeier, Mercer Mayer, Bobbi Miller, Wendell Minor, Hazel G. Mitchell, Jerry Pinkney, Robert Quackenbush, April Pulley Sayre, Rob Scotton, Laura Vaccaro Seeger, Michael Shoulders, Wendi Silvano, Heidi Stemple, and Rosemary Wells.
Downloadable certificates, posters, and bookmarks created by Joyce Wan are available on the website, along with a new Teacher’s Guide created by Marcie Colleen. The initiative is supported by the American Booksellers Association, the Children’s Book Council, Reading is Fundamental, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, among others, as well as industry trade journals such as Hornbook and School Library Journal.
To top it off, Katie Davis’s “Brain Burps About Books” Podcast – the #1 kidlit podcast on iTunes – is dedicating the entire month of November to Picture Book Month… and Katie has created a lovely video celebrating what picture books mean to a number of beloved children’s authors and illustrators. Join the celebration!
.jpeg?picon=2982)
By: Caroline Starr Rose,
on 12/7/2012
Blog:
Caroline by line
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
goals,
brainstorming,
Nerdy Book Club,
reading goals,
novel-in-verse,
Picture Book Idea Month,
Picture Book Month,
picture books,
creativity,
Add a tag
- Idea generating is like any other part of writing: it must be practiced to be strengthened.
- Playing with ideas without drafting means deeper, broader, more outlandish concepts; fresh perspective; and creative freedom...things will lead to some pretty fun writing.
- With my picture book read aloud years essentially done, I have some gaps in my knowledge I need to fill in. Here are three great places I've found to brush up on my studies:
- PiBoIdMo Day #7 -- Tammi Sauer (books in the picture above are taken from this post)
- Nerdy Book Club Awards Picture Book Award Nominees
- The Picture Book Month website
What are my writing goals for December?
- Study, study, study to fill in some picture book gaps
- develop a few manuscripts based on my month of brainstorming
- line edit my most-recent verse novel for agent Michelle
What about you? What do you plan to accomplish this month?
At the beginning of November's Picture Book Month, I posted several picture books that resonate with me. Now that the month is almost over, I'd like to write about one that leaves me, well, let's just say underwhelmed. No, it's not
The Giving Tree, a book that many parents either love or hate. While I don't care for that book's premise--a tree gives and gives of herself until nothing is left--it was never a book I read. No, my least favorite picture book is the much beloved
The Little Engine That Could.
I know, I know. It's a classic and the illustrations, I agree, are charming. But I've never been a fan of its message. Oh, I guess I enjoyed the book as a kid--or was it the pictures of all that luscious candy?--but as an adult I find it way too didactic and its moral questionable. Yes, I realize that it's important to always try and that a positive mindset can get you over humps. But guess what? Sometimes you can give your all and still fail. As a child I practiced dance steps over and over, but no amount of positive thinking will ever make me a ballerina. So I resent being told that if you try really, really hard, you're bound to succeed.
Naturally, I never purchased the book for my daughter. When her aunts found out, they fretted that their niece would grow up deprived and one of them gave her the book as a present. Once in her hands, I had no choice but to read it to her--again and again. Another thing--is that book long or what! Now--full confession--she did grow up to perservere in her chosen field, undertaking three grueling years in grad school and she's currently working at a very demanding job with an extremely long commute. Does she get through her day thinking, "I think I can. I think I can."? If so, then all those endless hours reading a book I didn't much like paid off.
Well, I'm glad I got that off my chest. Now it's your turn. What picture book sticks in your craw?
HAPPY PICTURE BOOK MONTH!
I can’t believe it’s already November! PiBoIdMo, 12X12 and Picture Book Month are all in full swing, proving that the venerable picture book has merit and value. It is because of because of you, writers and lovers of picture books, that we have reason to celebrate! So I begin this post with a thank you. Thank you for your passion and commitment to picture books.
Now on to the subject of my post. The Space Between. It sounds like some ethereal place that might exist in a Lois Lowry book but it is a very real place that exists, especially in picture books. Joe Wos, a friend who is a cartoonist and curator of the Toonseum in Pittsburgh, Pennsyvania, once taught me about “the space between” in comic strips. It’s that blank space that exists in between each comic box. What is so important about The Space Between are not the words before and after it, but the words and actions that are left unsaid.
I thought about it. As writers, we all rely on The Space Between without even realizing it. In novels, you’ll see two passages divided by a set of asterisks. The moment you see it, you know moments, actions, and words have passed, all shrouded in The Space Between. The writer leaves it up to you to decipher what happens between one scene and the next. The device is also used in movies. Movement from scene to scene relies on The Space Between to create a smooth transition.
So how does this fit into writing picture books? For picture book writers, The Space Between is the page turn. It is the breath or the pause between pages. It can be dramatic and full of suspense, ushering the next bit of action in the book. Eric Litwin’s New York Times best-selling book, Pete the Cat does this so brilliantly that listening audiences automatically chime in the answer when the page is turned.
The Space Between can also be subtle and gentle. In the nearly wordless picture book, Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathman, the device is used ingeniously. The Space Betweeen becomes the thread that ties every scene together, creating a story so seamless, you don’t even notice what is not shown. On one page, the zookeeper’s wife wakes up. On the next page, she is on the lawn, walking the animals back to the zoo. What happens in between needs no explication.
The Space Between can also be intentional. Stories that are poems have a natural break between stanzas such as those in Dr. Seuss books. In the book, Z is for Moose by Kelly Bingham and illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky, The Space Between is used to create deliberate tension. Moose vies for a spot in the alphabet and Zebra is the referee trying to corral Moose and keep him from ruining the procession of letters. At one point, Zebra says, “No! Now, move off the page.” The page turn reveals whether or not Moose moves and what his next antics might be.
The next time you are reading or writing a picture book, think about The Space Between. Think about the words and actions you commit to paper as well as the ones you don’t. Think about that pause, the breath that is the page turn. What does your “space between” say?
November is Picture Book Month. Read * Share * Celebrate!
Dianne de Las Casas is an award-winning author, storyteller, and founder of Picture Book Month, who tours internationally presenting author visit/storytelling programs, educator/librarian training, and workshops. Her performances, dubbed “revved-up storytelling” are full of energetic audience participation. The author of twenty books, her children’s titles include The Cajun Cornbread Boy, Madame Poulet & Monsieur Roach, Mama’s Bayou, The Gigantic Sweet Potato, There’s a Dragon in the Library, The House That Witchy Built, Blue Frog: The Legend of Chocolate, Dinosaur Mardi Gras, Beware, Beware of the Big Bad Bear, and The Little “Read” Hen. Visit her website at diannedelascasas.com. Visit Picture Book Month at picturebookmonth.com.
November is a busy month for literacy, with NaNoWriMo and PiBoIdMo both going on. Something else that is happening is Picture Book Month. Here is what their site about page reads:
Picture Book Month is an international literacy initiative that celebrates the print picture book during the month of November.
Founder, Dianne de Las Casas (author & storyteller) storyconnection.net, and Co-Founders, Katie Davis (author/illustrator) katiedavis.com, Elizabeth O. Dulemba (author/illustrator) www.dulemba.com, Tara Lazar (author) taralazar.wordpress.com, and Wendy Martin (author/illustrator) wendymartinillustration.com, put together their worldwide connections to make this happen.
Every day in November, there is a new post from a picture book champion explaining why he/she thinks picture books are important.
Come join me as an ambassador to celebrate the print picture book for the month of November!
Read *Share *Celebrate!
It has NOT been a quiet week since getting back home. Of course I added the previous
Creative Spaces post from my lovely friend
Katie Davis for her blog tour. That was heaps of fun. And in case you didn't hear me you might want to visit
Katie's podcast where she spoke to all of us who were part of her tour, about something memorable to do with book launches. I am up early on the podcast and reflected on a launch with one of my pythons.
But now to catch up:
Last Saturday was
Kids Day Out at Glebe Library - their first event for
2012 National Year of Reading, for which I am one of the National Ambassadors. I spent a delighful few hours at the library, first opening the days' programme and then later conducting a
SOUNDS SPOOKY reading session. It was really a joy (I lurve reading my own book) and while I was reading
Sounds Spooky I noticed a very young bub cradled by her mum quite close to where I was sitting on the floor. As anyone who has read the book knows, there is a part where there is a scream, so when it came time to scream I did screanmed very, very gently watching out of the corner of my eye the mum nad bub. BUT my gentle scream wan't quiet enough ... and they both jumped which was followed by quite a few giggles! I would love to add a photo here of the gathering masses but as I was presenting and my camera swas still tucked in the bag ... there is none to show.
2012 National Year of Reading has begun ... well sort of. The official kick off is next Tuesday in Canberra (ACT) at the National Library of Australia and I will be zapping on down for the day! As National Ambassador already I have been at the Glebe library Kids Day out and written a few articles and blog posts. I feel very privileged and thrilled to be one of the National Ambassadors.
0 Comments on Back on Track - catch up 1 as of 1/1/1900
<A HREF="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_cw&ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Fdevotionalbyd-20%2F8010%2F49bb763d-e56b-4823-88b5-fe74e8d775d3&Operation=NoScript">Amazon.com Widgets</A>
Dixie Phillips began writing seasonal plays for children in 1987. These ministry resources
View Next 7 Posts
When Picture Books and Adult Literature Collide at Cultivating Culture deals with the issue of picture books for adult readers, which I was talking about yesterday. It doesn't go into the subject very deeply, covering mainly parodies (I have a copy of Goodnight iPad) and adult writers writing picture books. It doesn't address straight picture books written on subjects of interest to adults rather than children or using vocabulary or a voice that adults will appreciate more than children will.
.jpg?picon=3333)
.png.jpg?picon=3765)
.jpeg?picon=3282)
That family just had the wrong Richard Scarry book. The one that was about different countries had a story on every spread.
Clearly an author I should be brushing up on.