It is WAY too late in the day for me to be only starting a Fusenews post now. All right, guys. Looks like we’re gonna have to do today double quick time. Sorry, but I’ve a ticking time bomb in the other room (sometimes also known as “my daughter”) and I gotsta gets to bed before midnight. Here we go!
- February means only one thing. The Brown Bookshelf has resumed their 28 Days Later campaign. So stop complaining about the fact that black writers and illustrators aren’t better acknowledged and actually read all about them! This is your required reading of the month. And no, I’m not joking.
- Some sad Obit news. Diane Wolkstein, storyteller and picture book/folktale author passed away after heart surgery in Taiwan.
- Happier news. My mom, the published poet, gets interviewed by Foreword Magazine. Note the copious Little Women references.
- The happiest news of all. This will, if you are anything like me, make your day. Delightful doesn’t even begin to describe it. Thanks to Robin Springberg Parry for the link.
- Were you aware that there was an offensive Flat Stanley book out there? Nor I. And yet . . .
- Hat tip to the ShelfTalker folks for actually putting together the top starred books of 2012. Mind you, only YA titles can get seven stars because (I think) they include VOYA. Ah well.
- My new favorite thing? Jon Klassen fan art. Like this one from Nancy Vo. Cute.
- Meet Eerdmans, my new best friend. Look what they put on their books for the last ALA Midwinter.
Thanks to Travis Jonker for the heads up!
- Hey! Public school librarians and public library librarians! Want money? The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation is giving away grants. Free money! Take it, people, take it!
- The Battle of the (Kids’) Book Contenders are announced and nigh. I’m a little bit late with that info. Ah well.
- One of my children’s librarians has been getting twenty different kinds of attention because she circulated an American Girl doll. Now try and picture how many donations she now has to deal with. Yup.
- An interesting use of the term “whittle”. As in, “I think I’m going to whittle off all the toes on my feet”. Except more drastic, less cosmetic.
- Travis Jonker and the very fun idea to create a Children’s Literature casting call. I’d counter that Josh Radnor is more Jarrett Krosoczka (though I may be just a bit confused since Jarrett was actually in the background of an episode of How I Met Your Mother in the past), Lisa Loeb is more Erin E. Stead, Neal Patrick Harris as either Mac Barnett or Adam Gidwitz, Stanley Tucci as Arthur A. Levine, and maybe Jeffrey Wright as Kadir Nelson, except that Kadir is better looking. Hm. This will bear additional thought.
Fair play to The College of Creative Design. I do like this new ad campaign of theirs.
Thanks to The Infomancer for the link.
Two authors of children’s books passed away recently, one on the American side of the equation and one across the sea in Britain. For the Yanks, Bill Wallace has been on our shelves for any number of years. You can read a lovely SLJ obituary for him here. As for the other person, that would be Mr. Samuel Youd. That name, I suspect, raises few flags but if I were to tell you his pen name, John Christopher, that might be a different story. Practically Paradise offers a great encapsulation of tributes to the man behind the tripod series (periodically we receive announcements that it will be a major motion picture, and then nothing ever occurs). There is also a nice remembrance in Timothy Kreider’s Artist’s Statement (more than halfway down) where he puts Christopher’s writing in context, highlighting its real strengths.
- Great great, great great great great piece from Marjorie Ingall on the sticky tricky territory of teaching your kids about the Holocaust through books. The advice offered from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. in the second to last paragraph of the piece should be printed out, laminated, and handed out to every parent there is. Re: the recommended reading list in the final paragraph, ditto.
- New Blog Alert: In other news the CBC (Children’s Book Council) recently celebrated their Diversity Committee “dedicated to increasing the diversity of voices and experiences contributing to children’s literature.” The members of this committee are from children’s book publishers across the board. Some great posts currently exist on the committee’s blog, all of which I recommend. The piece on Felita is particularly noteworthy since the sheer lack of middle grade novels starring Hispanic American children gnaws at my entrails every year.
- There was a recent article in the most recent American Libraries that got the juices flowing in my gray matter this week. In O Sister Library, Where Art Thou? author April Ritchie asks what it would be like if big public libraries with lots of funds paired with little libraries that need a leg up. “A new model for enhancing library services in these more vulnerable areas is emerging in Kentucky, a state with libraries at both ends of the economic spectrum.” Awesome piece and an even better idea. Go check that out.
I’m sure I’m not telling you anything new when I inform you that The Brown Bookshelf has again started its yearly initiative 28 Days Later, a celebration of African American authors and illustrators. It is THE #
My morning has been spent reading through The Brown Bookshelf’s “month-long showcase of the best in Picture Books, Middle Grade and Young Adult novels written and illustrated by African Americans.” 
If there are schools and libraries out there, looking to diversify their shelves, and not just during the month of FEBRUARY – you’ll definitely want to start HERE at THE BROWN BOOKSHELF. Kudos to TBB for this treasure trove!
* Do you want boys to write? Start a blog! A primary school in Greater Manchester, England, claims that getting students to blog has helped make writing “cool.”
Pupils at Heathfield County Primary in Bolton regularly write blogs which are published on the school’s website.
Formerly, boys especially were not interested in writing, said the school.
But the number of students blogging has flourished while their results have risen almost seven-fold.
“The enthusiasm levels of the children are really, really high,” said deputy head David Mitchell who has pioneered online teaching at the school which includes blog writing.”
* Eight fights not worth having with your children (Check out #2). Judith Ancer writes:
2. It’s not worth fighting with your kids about what they’re reading, unless they’re not reading at all.
* Local football players visit classrooms to inspire boy (and girl) readers. Reports Linda Stein:
Photo: Geoff Patton.
TOWAMENCIN — Not even shoulder surgery could keep T.J. Smink from reading to students at General Nash Elementary School.
Smink, a center for the North Penn High School Knights who’s also a baseball player, was one of 70 football team members who fanned out to elementary schools in the district to read to younger children for the annual Reading Super Bowl on Thursday.
Cheryl Neubert, a parent who spearheaded the event in 2005, said the event has grown over the years to include all 13 elementary schools in the district.
<snip>
“A lot of kids look at football stars as their ideals,” [reading specialist Stacie] Moseley said. “A lot of boys, reading isn’t their priority.”
* The Brown Bookshelf, an absolutely great blog, recently ran a terrific interview with author Torrey Maldonado, a public school teacher who has some things to say about boys and reading:
“If we want better men, we must get more boys reading, period. Boys from A to Z connect to Secret Saturdays. I joke and say I use a few magic tricks to grab the interest of guys. Here’s one secret: I wrote Secret Saturdays so alpha male teens wouldn’t feel soft carrying it. And they do. On one hand, a maximum security jail for high school boys asked me to visit because their inmates LOVE my book and, on the other hand, honor roll student-fans phone i
February has arrived and with it Black History Month in Canada and African American History Month in the USA. To see some of the 
celebrations planned in the USA click here and in Canada click here. In honor of the month, many websites and bloggers are highlighting the richness of children’s literature that focuses on Africa, African Americans, African Canadians and the African diaspora. Here’s a small sample of what’s being offered:
The Brown Bookshelf has launched 28 Days Later, a month-long showcase of the best in picture books, middle grade and young adult novels written and illustrated by African Americans.
Margo Tenenbaum’s blog The Fourth Musketeer specializes in historical fiction for children and teens, and throughout the month of February will focus on reviewing African American titles.
Reading Rockets.Org has just updated it’s Black History Month section where you’ll discover great online resources for the classroom and for family discussions. I’ve just spent the morning watching the video interviews with award-winning writers and illustrators.
The Canadian Children’s Book Centre has compiled a list of Canadian books that are recommended reads for Black History Month.
Check out School Library Journal‘s Places in the Heart: Celebrating Black History Month article in which top children’s authors were asked to choose their favorite children’s book about the black experience. Rick Margolis says “The title could be for kids of any age—fro
It’s almost that time again for The Brown Bookshelf’s annual campaign, 28 Days Later.
During the month of February, The Brown Bookshelf showcases the best in picture books, middle grade, and young adult novels written and/or illustrated by African Americans.
Be sure to check out the daily spotlights starting on February 1st. It should be an interesting month and a great opportunity to discover some books for kids and teens.
You can also go to the Brown Bookshelf blog and download the 28 Days Later poster.
Last month we posted an open invitation to youth media and marketing folks on Twitter, encouraging them to add their own or others' account names to the abridged list of "tweeps" we posted. We were happy to see so many of you take us up on the... Read the rest of this post
Yesterday Cynthia Leitich Smith celebrated the 10th anniversary of her wonderful “Children’s and YA Literature Resources” website (congratulations, Cynthia!). Now I wonder… how come we were the ones to get a gift?
In honor of “Book Blogger Appreciation Week” (Sep 15-19) Cynthia decided to highlight blogs that “focus on underrepresented perspectives in the field of youth literature.” PaperTigers has made her short list, and now we find ourselves in the very good company of Mitali’s Fire Escape, The Brown Bookshelf and other great blogs. Thank you, Cynthia! Please know that your contributions as a writer, blogger and promoter of good literature are much appreciated too—this week and always!
Taye Diggs isn’t quite good looking enough, either, but he’s another possibliity.
Betsy,
I am very sad that Dr. Zetta Elliott feels the need to move away from the world of children’s literature but understand her reasons all too well. Perhaps what we need more than a “read these books” campaign is a “buy these books” push. I want to adapt the Room of One’s Own bookstore (Madison, WI) campaign to challenge readers of your blog and elsewhere to pledge to buy two more books this year that are written by people of color than were purchased last year.
On a completely different note, I hear that there may be a mother daughter signing in Kalamazoo in April! Don’t completely fill up your schedule until we have a chance to chat! Cheers!
You should do more posts late in the day and in a hurry as this one is pretty darned good. Lots of good links and the “If someone offers you art school, just say ‘No’ ” ads are hillarious.
Me, too, Ed. Maybe we can add a twist to the challenge of buying two more books by people of color… what if we also asked for our money back on one with racist images?
Flat Stanley at Mount Rushmore (Betsy linked to my critique) is one option. So are the LITTLE HOUSE books. Yesterday, Ebony Thomas pointing me to an illustration of Pa in blackface in LITTLE TOWN ON THE PRAIRIE. I added that illustration to my post about Pa remembering how, as a kid, he’d imagine himself hunting Indians (http://goo.gl/oXb3f). Every time I think about that idea being in a children’s book, I’m blown away.
Some years ago, I asked people on child_lit and elsewhere to tell me of another children’s book in which a character expressed that idea (hunting Indians or any people) and the only title anyone could remember was a short story sometimes read in high school English classes.
So—what if we bought two books and returned two others at the same time? Or bought two books and deselected two and wrote to the publisher letting them know we were deselecting the two books and why… Or bought two books and blogged about two we were pledging not to use anymore with children (saving them, perhaps, for use in a high school Social Justice class or the like)…
One thing I learned in my Collection Development class is that by deselecting (weeding) books from a library shelf, there is room for new books. We need room for new books—not just on the shelf—but in our hearts and minds, too. We’ll need to be willing to admit that some books gotta go!
[...] 8′s Elizabeth Bird declared Eerdmans her “new best friend” after the ALA Midwinter [...]