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Picture Book Month

American Indian Heritage Month~ USA

National Year of Reading~ Australia

The Children’s Bookshow: Stories From Around The World~ ongoing until Nov 8, United Kingdom

Lee and Low Books’ New Vision Award~ submissions accepted until Nov 14, USA

Telling Tall & Tiny Tales Interactive Book Experience~ ongoing until Nov 24, Dublin, Ireland

The Illustrators’ Journey Art Exhibition Featuring Art by Shaun Tan, Matt Ottley and More!~ ongoing until Dec 31, Fremantle, Australia

Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award 2013~ submissions accepted until Dec 31, United Kingdom

2012 South Asia Book Award~ submissions accepted until Dec 31

SingTel Asian Picture Book Award 2013~ submissions accepted until Dec 31, Singapore

Exhibits of Winning Entries from the 2011 Growing Up Asian in America Contest~ ongoing until Feb 2013, USA

Nami Island International Illustration Concours for Picture Book Illustrations~ submissions accepted until Feb 15, 2013, Korea

Tall Tales & Huge Hearts: Raúl Colón~ ongoing until Mar 28, 2013, Abilene, TX, USA

Skipping Stones Youth Honor Awards Celebrating Multicultural Awareness, International Understanding and Nature Appreciation~ submissions accepted until June 25, 2013, USA

 Kaleidoscope Children’s Literature Conference~ Nov 1 – 3, Calgary, AB, Canada

Kuala Lumpur Children’s Book Festival~ Nov 1 – 6, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

YALSA’s 2012 Young Adult Literature Symposium~ Nov 2 – 4, St. Louis, MO, USA

Singapore Writers Festival~ Nov 2 – 11, Singapore

Children’s Laureate Niamh Sharkey’s Gigantic Illustration Workshop~ Nov 3, Dublin, Ireland

Penang International Kids Storytelling Festival (PINKS)~ Nov 3, Penang, Malaysia

Children’s Africana Book Awards Ceremony~ Nov 3, Washington, DC, USA

OKI (Ohio Kentucky Indiana) Children’s Literature Conference~ Nov 3, Crestview Hills, KY, USA

4th Global Conference Bullying and the Abuse of Power~ Nov 4 -  6, Salzburg, Austria

Once Upon a World Children’s Book Award Ceremony~ Nov 4,  Los Angeles, CA, USA

Kyun Kyun Ladki, a Play Based on Writer Mahashweta Devi’s Book, The Why-Why Girl (Tulika Publishers)~ Nov 4 and Nov 15, Mumbai, India

22nd Annual Children’s Illustration Show~ Nov 4 – Jan 15, Northampton, MA, USA

16th Annual Rochester Children’s Book Festival~ Nov 5, Rochester, NY, USA

Reading Association of the Philippines (RAP) National Convention~ Nov 8 – 10, Manila, Philippines

The 19th Annual IBBY UK / NCRCL MA Children’s Literature Conference~ Nov 10, London, United Kingdom

Children’s Literature Council Fall Gala: From a Book to e-Books: The Many Ways to Access Children’s Literature~ Nov 10, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Connecticut Children’s Book Fair~ Nov 10 – 11, Storrs, CT, USA

Children’s Day Celebrations Hosted by Tulika Books~ Nov 11, Pune, India

41st Annual IASL Conference Incorporating the 16th International Forum on Research in School Librarianship. Theme: The Shifting Sands of School Librarianship~ Nov 11 – 15, Doha, Qatar

National Young Readers Week~ Nov 12 – 16, USA

Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable Presents: A Night with Authors Susin Nielsen and Susan Juby~ Nov 13, Vancouver, BC, Canada

National Book Awards~ Nov 14, New York, NY, USA

3rd Annual Children’s Poetry Festival~ Nov 14 – 16, San Salvador, El Salvador

National Black Storytelling Festival and Conference~ Nov 14 – 18, Atlanta, GA, USA

Children’s Literature Assembly Events at the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention~ Nov 15 – 19, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Bookamania~ Nov 17, Chicago, IL, USA

Kahaani Festival~ Nov 17 – 18, Delhi, India

Istanbul Book Fair / IBBY Turkey Announces Children’s Books of the Year~ Nov 17 – 25, Istanbul, Turkey

SCBWI British Isles Annual Conference~ Nov 23 – 25, Winchester, United Kingdom

Northern Children’s Book Festival~ Nov 24, United Kingdom

Bookaroo in the City~ Nov 24 – 25, Delhi, India

22nd Annual International NAME Conference: Realizing the Power of Movements through Multicultural Education~ Nov 29 – Dec 1, Philadelphia, PA, USA

The Literature Centre (formerly Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre) Exhibits and Programs~ Fremantle, Australia

Dromkeen National Centre for Picture Book Art Exhibits~ Riddells Creek, Australia

Books Illustrated Events and Exhibitions~ Middle Park, Australia

International Youth Library Exhibits~ Munich, Germany

Tulika Book Events~ India

International Library of Children’s Literature Events~ Tokyo, Japan

Newcastle University Programme of Talks on Children’s Books for 2011-2012~ Newcastle, United Kingdom

Seven Stories (the National Home of Children’s Books in Britain) Events~ Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Discover Children’s Story Centre~ London, United Kingdom

Arne Nixon Center’s Children’s Literature Book Clubs for Adults Events~ USA

Events Sponsored by The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress~ USA

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art~ Amherst, MA, USA

The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature Exhibits~ Abilene, TX, USA

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Events

The 2nd Children’s Poetry Festival was celebrated in El Salvador, November 16 – 18, 2011. Talleres de Poesia hosted the event at the National Library in San Salvador where a number off well-known poets including Jorge Tetl Argueta, Francisco X. Alarcon, Margarita Robleda, and Holly Ayala worked with Salvadoran children, youth and teachers in a blend of poetry readings and workshop presentations. The  theme of the workshops this year was the importance of reading and significance of peace for Salvadoran children and youth. The event was a resounding success; check out the smiles on the participants’ faces and the video of the event.

Edited by Debjani Chatterjee and Brian D’Arcy,
Let’s Celebrate! Festival Poems from Around the World
Frances Lincoln, 2011.

Ages 5-11

Let’s Celebrate is an effervescent anthology of diverse poetry put together by poets Debjani Chatterjee and Brian D’Arcy. It invites young readers to share in the exuberance of a wide array of festivals celebrated around the world. Starting with “The Chinese Dragon” bringing in the Chinese New Year, ending with “Kwanzaa” in December, and visiting different cultures, countries and religions in between, the book takes children on a journey whose unifying thread is the happiness that each of the festivals awakens. Children will likely find poems relating to festivals that are familiar to them, and their curiosity will be aroused to find out about the rest. Endnotes about each festival give relevant background; and again, children may want to know more after reading them.

The poems themselves come in a variety of forms – some with regular patterns of rhyme and meter, others in free verse. There are choruses that just have to be chanted aloud, like “Carnival! Carnival! Everybody shout out – Carnival!” in Valerie Bloom’s wonderful poem “Carnival”. There are also translations, like the selection of Japanese “Cherry Blossom” haiku; “Dance, Dance: A Poem for Rangali Bihu” from Assam; and extracts from Pablo Neruda’s “Ode to Tomatoes”, used to commemorate the Spanish Tomatina Festival. Illustrator Shirin Adl’s exuberant splashes of red paint certainly get the message across here!

In fact, the illustrations are a joy throughout. Adl uses an effective blend of painting and paper/fabric/photographic collage (I especially love the seeds, pulses and herbs illustrating Chatterjee’s acrostic “Diwali”). Plenty of authentic contextual detail helps to bring the celebrating to life, and lots of happy children and their families are an open-armed invitation for young readers to join in the celebrations too, whether it’s helping to scrape pancakes off the ceiling while “Tossing Pancakes” (by Nick Toczek), running to “get your skates on” for the “Ice Festival” (by D’Arcy), or counting out the significance of each candle for “Hannukah” (by Andrea Shavick).

So yes, let us indeed celebrate – you can’t help but be caught up in the joyous spirit of this anthology. And with every day being a festival somewhere in the world, as Chatterjee and D’Arcy point out in their introduction, if there isn’t a poem for their particular festive day (or indeed, even if there is), Let’s Celebrate! will doubtless inspire young readers to compose one of their own.

Marjorie Coughlan
November 2011

To kick off the Merced County Arts Council’s Demand the Arts campaign author Francisco X. Alarcón will host a book reading on Saturday, July 30th from 11am – noon. The event will take place at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center 645 W. Main Street, Merced, CA, USA. Mr. Alarcón will read from his bilingual book for children Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems / Jitomates risueños y otros poemas de primavera. Publisher Children’s Book Press’ overview of Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems reads:

From the imagination of poet Francisco X. Alarcón comes this playful and moving collection of twenty poems about spring in English and Spanish. Tomatoes laugh, chiles explode, and tortillas applaud the sun! With joy and tenderness, delight and sadness, Francisco’s poems honor the wonders of life and nature: welcoming the morning sun, remembering his grandmother’s songs, paying tribute to children working in the fields, and sharing his dream of a world filled with gardens. Artist Maya Christina Gonzalez invites us to experience the poems with her lively cast of characters—including a spirited grandmother, four vivacious children, and playful pets who tease and delight. Follow them from page to page as they bring the spring season to colorful life.

Alarcón is an award-winning poet, educator and author of 12 volumes of poetry.  Raised in Mexico and California, he refers to himself  as a “bi-national, bicultural, bilingual poet” and writes for children and adults in English and Spanish. His children’s books vividly paint pictures of Latino culture, family, fun, and flavor and have won such prestigious awards as the American Library Association’s Pura Belpré Honor Award and the Américas Award Commended Title. Alarcón was a featured speaker at Talleres de Poesia’s inaugural  Children’s Poetry Festival held last November in El Salvador

Merced Arts Council Executive Director Staci Santa encourages children and their families to come down and enjoy the event. She says “Francisco seamlessly weaves language, art and diversity in an accessible and joyful way that makes everyone who meets him happier. The arts council is excited to bring Mr. Alarcón to Merced to share the beautiful languages and images in his children’s books to kids young and young at heart.”

To download the event poster click here.

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This week’s Poetry Friday is hosted at Book Aunt  – head on over.

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2011 Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award Winner Announces~ Newcastle, United Kingdom

Book Launch and Signings: The Grand Plan to Fix Everything by Uma Krishnaswami~ USA

Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre Exhibits and Programs~ Fremantle, Australia

Dromkeen National Centre for Picture Book Art Exhibits~ Riddells Creek, Australia

Screenings for Library of the Early Mind: a documentary film exploring childrens literature~ Canada and USA

International Youth Library Exhibits~ Munich, Germany

Seven Stories (the National Home of Children’s Books in Britain) Events~ Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature Exhibits~ Abilene, TX, USA

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Events

Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences 2011: Coasts and Continents: Exploring Peoples and Places~ ongoing until  June 4, Fredericton, NB, Canada

The Guardian Hay Festival: A Festival for Tots, Teens and In-Betweens~ ongoing until June 5, United Kingdom

Singapore Book Fair~ ongoing until June 5, Singapore

Skipping Stones Magazine’s Youth Honor Award Program – Multicultural Awareness and Nature Appreciation~ entries accepted until June 25

Golden Kite, Golden Dreams: The SCBWI Awards Exhibit~ ongoing until June 24, Hattiesburg, MS, USA

Museum of Childhood Exhibit: Author and Illustrator Judith Kerr~ ongoing until Sep 4, London, United Kingdom

Meet Your Friends From Japana! An Exhibit at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art~ ongoing until Sep 20 Amherst, MA, USA

Mirror, an Exhibition by Children’s Author and Artist Jeannie Baker~ ongoing until Oct 11, Ipswich City, Australia

2012 South Asia Book Award~ entries accepted until Dec 31

Exhibits of Winning Entries from the 2011 Growing Up Asian in America Contest~ ongoing until Feb 2012, USA

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