How to use this Page

There’s something fetching about a giant dog, isn’t there?

Many of us still remember Clifford the Big Red Dog, and the wonder of that so-simple idea: a really, really big dog.

Well, this guy has the same issues.

Except his dog is a goldendoodle, like ours here at Chez Preller, the lovely Daisy. They are, I think, a goofy but lovable breed. And so fun to look at.

It is possible, however, that the photographer here, Christopher Cline, is just having a blast with Photoshop. I’m saying: This might not be a real dog! Don’t believe everything you see on the internet, folks. But in this case, well, wouldn’t it be awesome? In 1817, the poet Samuel Coleridge first wrote about the “willing suspension of disbelief,” and I think that’s where I’m going to live for a while longer. Marveling at this amazing dog. Believing. I think Norman Bridwell would approve. To read more about Chris and his photos, click here.

These reindeers created by Christine Brallier are getting ready to take off on their Christmas Eve trip to help Santa deliver his gifts. It is from her children’s book, The Night Before Christmas.  The illustrations were created by Christine using stained glass mosaics. http://www.cbmosaics.com/book/

Creator of Clifford the Big Red Dog Norman Bridwell, 86, died last Friday at a hospital on Martha’s Vineyard. Scholastic says his over 150 titles have 129 million copies in print worldwide. Scholastic CEO Dick Robinson said, “Norman personified the values that we as parents and educators hope to communicate to our children – kindness, compassion, helpfulness, gratitude – through the Clifford stories which have been loved for more than fifty years.”

Jama Kim Rattigan on her blog, Jama’s Alphabet Soup, featured H CATCH THAT COOKIE. I feature the book written by Hallie Drand (A.K.A Holly McGhee) and illustrated by David Small in August. You can click their names to view those posts. But Jama’s post are so much fun. She always ties books in with recipes.

I think I am going to try the recipe for the cookies in the post and show them off like she did with the book during Christmas.

Below is a list of the Ingredients, click the Directions at the bottom to jump back over to Jama’s blog to read the rest and see her fun display of her cookies and the book.

GINGERBREAD CUTOUT COOKIES

Total Time: Prep: 30 minutes + chilling. Bake: 10 minutes/batch + cooling.

Yield: 60 cookies

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup molasses
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Vanilla frosting of your choice
• Red and green paste food coloring

Directions:

Children’s writer Jennifer Reinharz reported a few months ago that she became a contributing writer at Mamalode. Her second article, A Letter to my Palestinian-American Muslim Friend has been posted. They track the number of unique views, likes, comments, and shares and they base her success on this, so if you get a chance take a minute to read her new article.

Jennifer says, “My path to Kidlit author has yet to be a straight line, but I can’t help but think that getting a chance to connect and share one of my stories with the Mommies, etc. is an example of heading right direction.”

This is a goods lesson for all of us. You just never know where your next success will come from and how one little thing can lead to another.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Norman Bridwell, creator of Clifford the Big Red Dog, died last Friday at the age of 86.

Clifford, the Big Red Dog, is 50 years old!  Yikes!!! That is one old puppy - to say nothing of BIG!  So go to Scholastic.com and send Clifford a birthday card.  Play Clifford-y games.  Print out Clifford coloring pages.  Enter the Clifford Sweepstakes.  That's our Kids Book Website for today.

Scholastic Publishers had a BIG birthday party yesterday for the best dog ever!

Finding videos of the Voldemort vs. Mary Poppins nuttiness online was surprisingly difficult.  Finally I found a sort of recap of the Olympic 2012 opening ceremonies with reference to the rise of the great children’s literature villains (The Queen of Hearts, a Disney-esque Cruella de Ville, Captain Hook, and Voldemort) and their destruction at the hands of 30 Mary Poppins.  “A sweeping rambling narrative” is as accurate an interpretation of what happened as any I could come up with.  You’ll see the references at 1:00 in this video.

And since we’re already on the topic of Harry Potter (admittedly we are almost always on that topic) I sure hope you guys had a chance to see the first installment of Harry Potter and the Ten Years Later.  I thought it was rather well done.  Sort of makes me want to see the whole series now.

Thanks to Boing Boing for the link.

And now for a bloody effective book trailer.  If the point of such trailers is to cause the reader an immediate and almost impossible to resist urge to pick up the book and read it, Leave Your Sleep as edited by Natalie Merchant (yes, that Natalie Merchant) now has that hold on me.  It does not hurt that the songs featured here, paired with Barbara McClintock’s illustrations, are a delight.  A sheer, as they say, delight.

Resist it if you can.  And, might I say, this is one of the more logical uses of a celebrity getting involved in children’s literature that I’ve seen.  I was seated next to Ms. Merchant at a BEA lunch and to my delight she turned out to be a huge Barbara McClintock fan long before this book.  She said this, so I decided to quiz her by asking what she knew.  Without missing a beat she rattled off everything from The Gingerbread Man to Adele and Simon to the Aesop’s Fables Ms. McClintock did years ago.  Woman knows her stuff.

Okay, gear switch.  Obviously if I’m showing a Louis CK video then this is not going to be workplace friendly, though honestly aside from one off-white phrase this is downright pure for Louis.  When I read in a recent Entertainment Weekly article that he hated Clifford the Big Red Dog with a passion that eclipses the white hot sun I knew I had to find video proof.  Proof I found, and I love how he pairs Clifford with Narnia.  If Louis put out a CD that was just children’s book rants . . . okay, that’s a ridiculous dream.  But a dream I now have!

And now Louise Yates interviews Quentin Blake.  Because I can.

Thanks to Watch. Connect. Read. for the link!

And for the final off-topic video, awwwwww.  Baby goats.  Manic, remorseless baby goats.  Sadly adorable.

Thanks to mom for the link.

On Thursday, May 5, 2011, Pamela Paul of The New York Times wrote an article entitled “New Study Finds Gender Bias in Children’s Books.” Paul sheds the spotlight on the study “Gender in Twentieth-Century Children’s Books: Patterns of Disparity in Titles and Central Characters” published in the April issue of Gender & Society. According to the study “there has been a bias toward male characters — men, boys and, yes, animals — in children’s literature over the last century.”

Janice McCabe, the study’s lead author, examined approximately 6,000 children’s books published from 1900 to 2000. “Of those, 57 percent had a central male character compared with only 31 percent with female protagonists.” In addition, “at most one-third of children’s books published per year included central female characters that are adult women or female animals. But male animals or male adults appeared in 100 percent.”

For those of you who are avid readers of children’s literature, like myself, this is certainly not a revelation. I will be the first to admit that I grew up reading Clifford the Big Red Dog, Curious George and Winnie the Pooh, to name a few. What do they all have in common? Well, a quick survey shows that the protagonists in each are male. This in no way diminishes these books as classics in the canon of children’s literature but it does illustrate that a fundamental disparity exists.

In truth, whether they realize it or not, girls and young women long for female protagonists in the books they read. I know I did. Hermione Granger is one of the many reasons I adore the Harry Potter series. She is a brilliant, courageous and strong young woman. It’s incredibly empowering to have a female character that is not only equal to but also excels beyond her male counterparts. How often can you say that? Unfortunately, not often enough. And that, dear readers, is the problem.

Now more than ever girls and young women need protagonists that speak to them. Protagonists whose characteristics they can emulate. Hermione Granger‘s brilliance. Olivia the Pig‘s feistiness. Katniss Everdeen‘s strength.

The audience is waiting. It’s time to answer the call.