Sometimes the act of shopping for holiday gifts is more stressful than any act of love should ever be, which is why the Buy Books for the Holidays campaign begun by a group of blogging bibliophiles is so very heartening.
I worked in a bookstore for years and the mood there during the holiday season was truly wonderful. When people buy books as gifts, they consider the recipient in a way that doesn’t happen when they buy the latest electronic gizmo or luxurious status symbol.
Books are a way to show people you love that you have entered their hearts and minds and souls to find what will interest them, touch them, delight and enthrall them–for years perhaps, not only for the passing moment. Perhaps the most effective way of doing this is to give them children’s books–a beautiful new edition of a book that your husband loved when he was a child, an out-of-print book that your mother read and reread as a girl, the anthology of verse that guided the vocation of the poet in your life, a copy of Eloise for your favorite fashionista friend…
Think about it–what better gifts to give than children’s books to everyone you love?
The Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards are given annually to children’s books published in the preceding year that effectively promote the cause of peace, social justice, world community, and the equality of the sexes and all races, as well as meeting conventional standards for excellence. On October 17th, winners of the 55th Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards received their awards, gave their acceptance speeches, and signed copies of their books at the United Nations Plaza in New York City.
PaperTigers congratulates:
WINNER - Books for Younger Children Category
The Escape of Oney Judge: Martha Washington’s Slave Finds Freedom, written and illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully
WINNER - Books For Older Children Category
We are One: The Story of Bayard Rustin, written by Larry Dane Brimner
HONORS - Books for Younger Children Category
One Thousand Tracings: Healing the Wounds of World War II, written and illustrated by Lita Judge
HONORS - Books for Older Children Category
Rickshaw Girl, written by Mitali Perkins with illustrations by Jamie Hogan
Honors - Books for Older Children Category
Elijah of Buxton, written by Christopher Paul Curtis
Honors - Books for Older Children Category
Birmingham, 1963, written by Carole Boston Weatherford
You can read Mitali’s acceptance speech and see photos of the event on her blog. Check out Larry Brimner’s Write. Write. Written! — A Writer’s Journal and Lita Judge’s blog as well!
In November our PaperTigers website will focus on the theme of “war and peace in children’s books,” featuring original essays by Lita Judge (One Thousand Tracings) and Jo Montie, former member of the Jane Addams Award committee.
Finding Miracles
Milly Kaufman is the typical American high school girl, pretty, popular, part of a happy family in a small town. So why, when asked to write two truthful details about herself, does she say, “I have this allergy where my hands get red and itchy when my real self’s trying to tell me something,” “My parents have a box in their bedroom we’ve only opened once. I think of it as The Box,” and why does the appearance of Pablo, a new student from Latin America make her feel so uncomfortable? What is Milly’s secret–the one she has divulged only to her best friend?
Julia Alvarez, long acclaimed as an outstanding novelist for adult readers, turns her focus upon a young adult audience in Finding Miracles with the same skill that has made both In the Time of the Butterflies and How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents modern classics. While exploring Milly’s odyssey from the security of the family and community that she knows and loves to the unknown territory of a whole new world, Julia Alvarez creates a character and a novel that extends beyond age categories into the realm of fiction unlimited, while sensitively examining issues of identity and culture.
Please join us this month as we read and discuss Finding Miracles.
Sometimes the act of shopping for holiday gifts is more stressful than any act of love should ever be, which is why the Buy Books for the Holidays campaign begun by a group of blogging bibliophiles is so very heartening.