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You know what’s even better than serving on an award committee?  Having someone else write about it.  As I’ve mentioned in the past, I was on the judging committee for this year’s Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards alongside Chair Joanna Rudge Long and Roxanne Feldman.  It was Roxanne who reported on our discussion, and even took photos of where we met (Joanna’s gorgeous Vermont farmhouse), what we ate, and more.  There is also a particularly goofy shot of me that is impressive because even without knowing that there was a camera pointed in my direction, I seem to have made a silly face.  I am nothing if not talented in that respect.

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Speaking of listening in on committees and their discussions, ALA is next week (she said, eyeing her unfinished Newbery/Caldecott Banquet outfit nervously) and that means you have a chance to sit and listen to one particular committee talk the talkety talk.  I am referring, of course, to the ALA Notables Committee.  This year they’ve released the list of books on their discussion list online for your perusal.  A lot of goodies there, as well as room for a lot of books I hope they get to eventually.

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I was very sad to hear about the passing of Lois Duncan. Like many of you, she was a staple of my youth.  When Jules Danielson, Peter Sieruta, and I were writing our book Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children’s Literature we initially had a section, written by Peter, on why Lois stopped writing suspense novels for teens.  It’s a sad story but one that always made me admire her deeply.  She was hugely talented and will be missed.

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Speaking of Wild Things, recently I was sent a YA galley by Marcus Sedgwick called Blood Red, Snow White.  But lest you believe it to be a YA retelling of the old Snow White / Rose Red fairytale, it ain’t.  Instead, it’s about how Arthur Ransome (he of Swallows and Amazons) got mixed up with Trotsky’s secretary and a whole lotta Bolsheviks.  What does this have to do with Wild Things?  This was yet ANOTHER rejected tale from our book.  Read the full story here on our website where we even take care to mention Sedgwick’s book (it originally was published overseas in 2007).

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As I’ve mentioned before, my library hosts a pair of falcons each year directly across from the window above my desk.  I’ve watched five eggs laid, three hatch, and the babies get named and banded.  This week the little not-so-fuzzyheads are learning to fly.  It’s terrifying.  Far better that I read this older Chicago Tribune article on the banding ceremony.  They were so cute when they were fuzzy.  *sigh*

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In other news, Harriet the Spy’s house is for sale.  Apparently.

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Sharon Levin on the child_lit listserv had a rather fascinating little announcement up recently.  As she told it, she’d always had difficulty finding a really fast way to catalog her personal library.  Cause let’s face it – scanning every single barcode takes time.  Then she found a new app and . . . well, I’ll let her tell it:

“Shelfie is a free app for iOS and Android (www.shelfie.com) where you can take a picture of your bookshelf and the app will automatically recognize your book spines and generate a catalog of your library. In addition, the team behind the app has made deals with over 1400 publishers (including HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Hachette) to let you download discounted (usually around 80% off) or free ebook or audiobook edition of your paper books (right now these publisher deals cover about 25% of the books on an “average” shelf). The app also lets you browse other readers’ shelves. Shelfie will also give you personalized book recommendations based on how readers with similar taste in books to you organize the books on their shelves. The founder of Shelfie is named Peter Hudson and he’d love to hear any suggestions about how he can make the app better. Peter’s email is [email protected].“

Thanks to Sharon Levin for the heads up.

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I leave NYPL and its delightful Winnie-the-Pooh toys and what happens?  The world goes goofy for the story of A.A. Milne and Christopher Robin.  Now we just found out that Domhnall Gleeson (a.k.a. Bill Weasley in the Harry Potter films) has just been cast as Milne in an upcoming bio-pic.  Will wonders never cease?

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Are you familiar with the works of Atinuke?  An extraordinary storyteller, her Anna Hibiscus books are among my favorite early chapter books of all time.  They do, however, occasionally catch flack of saying they take place in “Africa” rather than a specific country. Recently, K.T. Horning explained on Monica Edinger’s recent post Diversity Window, Mirror, or Neither that Atinuke did this on purpose so that kids in Africa could imagine the stories as taking place in their own countries.  That makes perfect sense.  The ensuing discussion in Monica’s post is respectful, interesting, and with a variety of different viewpoints, all worth reading.  In short, the kind of talk a blogger hopes for when he or she writes something.  Well done, Monica.

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Big time congrats to the nominees for the Neustadt Prize.  It’s a whopping $10,000 given to a children’s author given on the basis of literary merit.  It may be the only children’s award originating in America that is also international.  Fingers crossed for all the people nominated!

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Hooray!  The Children’s Book Council has released their annual Building a Home Library list.  I love these.  The choices are always very carefully done and perfect for clueless parents.

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In other CBC news, I got this little press release, and it’s worth looking at:

“For the second consecutive year, the Children’s Book Council has partnered with The unPrison Project — a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to empowering and mentoring women in prison — to create brand-new libraries of books for incarcerated mothers to read with their babies at prison nurseries. Fourteen of the CBC’s member publishers answered the call by donating copies of over 35 hand-picked titles for children ages 0-18 months for each library. The books will be hand-delivered and organized in the nurseries by Deborah Jiang-Stein, founder of The unPrison Project and author of Prison Baby. Jiang-Stein was born in prison to a heroin-addicted mother, and has made it her mission to empower and mentor women and girls in prison.”

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You know who’s cool?  That gal I mentioned earlier.  Julie Danielson.  She’s something else.  For example, while many of us might just say we were interested in James Marshall, she’s actually in the process of researching him.  She even received the James Marshall Fellowship from The University of Connecticut’s Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. As a result she spent a week looking through the James Marshall Papers there. Their sole stipulation?  Write a blog post about it.  So up at the University’s site you’ll find the piece Finding the Artist in His Art: A Week With the James Marshall Papers. Special Bonus: Rare images you won’t find anywhere else.

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Daily Image:

I take no credit to this.  I only discovered it on Twitter thanks to Christine Hertz of Burlington, VT.  It may constitute the greatest summer reading idea I’ve seen in a very long time.  Public libraries, please feel free to adopt this:

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Thanks to the very generous folk at Walker Books I got to do something which makes me very happy earlier this week – read aloud lots of fabulous picture books with friends and their kids, and then give the books away, all part of a Picture Book Picnic…

The day started early, baking “Walker Bear” Gingerbread biscuits…

With the first of our “emergency supplies” ready for scoffing, we got to to the main business of the day – reading together!

We started with The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? by Mo Willems, humorous take on why it’s so nice to be polite.

Full of chocolate chip cookies (we used this recipe) and cold milk I then read How to Get a Job by me The Boss, actually by Sally Lloyd-Jones & Sue Heap. After a long conversation about what everyone wanted to be when they grew up, I interviewed the kids for the post of Explorer. All the kids sailed through their interviews (Do you like being outdoors? Yes! Are you afraid of snakes? No! Do you like climbing trees? Yes!) and so we got down the map of our local area and off we set on our bikes to have an adventure.

We set up our first camp by a sunny stream, perfect for a reading of Arthur’s Dream Boat by Polly Dunbar.

After the story we made paper boats and floated them off down the river.

Then we climbed up a hill to one of my favourite climbing trees, and in we all clambered to read Anna Hibiscus’ Song by Atinuke and Lauren Tobia.

Anna Hibiscus’ Song is an exuberant, joyous book about what makes people happy – just perfect for me on a day doing what makes me happy!

Anna Hibiscus (yes, the very same character as in the fabulous early chapter books also by

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Atinuke, illustrated by Lauren Tobia,
Good Luck, Anna Hibiscus
Have Fun, Anna Hibiscus
Kane Miller, 2011.

Ages: 5 – 9

Atinuke, a Nigerian-born storyteller, is the author of the award-winning Anna Hibiscus series. Anna Hibiscus is a precocious, curious young girl who lives in a “big white house” in “Africa…[a]mazing Africa” with her big, sometimes overbearing, but always loving, family. While Atinuke has not identified a specific African country for the setting of her books, she has successfully captured the beauty of the African continent through her playful short stories.

Good Luck, Anna Hibiscus and Have Fun, Anna Hibiscus both focus on Anna as she prepares to visit her grandma in “Canada…[c]old Canada.” Both books are divided into short chapters, each of which is like participating in an intercultural exchange. From cuisine to familial hierarchy and even linguistics, Good Luck, Anna Hibiscus and Have Fun, Anna Hibiscus present a glimpse into the life of a child who is discovering two different cultures while also identifying her place in the world.

Each chapter also has a lesson to be learned, from the power of forgiveness to the unconditional love of family to more difficult topics, such as the breaking down of stereotypes and the prejudice and poverty that is present in both African and Canadian society. Atinuke doesn’t look in-depth at these issues, but she frames it in such a way so young readers can understand it and note its importance to Anna and her friends and family.

The illustrator, Lauren Tobia, has created what look like rough sketches to depict certain scenes throughout the book. She doesn’t use color, but instead opts for small details, such as small animals hidden within the plants or adding patterns to items of clothing to complement Atinuke’s colorful descriptions and storytelling.

The Anna Hibiscus series will tickle the senses of both young and old readers thanks to the colorful writing of Atinuke and the drawings by Tobia. Readers will take away not only a better understanding of the world, but also a better sense of what it means to live in an increasingly diverse world.

Keilin Huang
May 2012

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Although things may have appeared all cool, calm and collected on the blog front this last month (ha!), I’ve been feverishly beavering away behind the scenes acting as a judge for The Cybils. The Cybils awards are given each year by bloggers, for the year’s best children’s and young adult titles published in the US.

Yesterday the winners were announced! Three hearty cheers for the following books which won in their respective categories:

Elementary & Middle Grade

Book Apps

The Monster at the End of This Book
by Callaway Digital Arts, Inc
Nominated by: Sheila Ruth

Fiction Picture Books

Me . . . Jane
by Patrick McDonnell
Little, Brown
Nominated by: Kerry Aradhya

Nonfiction Picture Books

I Feel Better with a Frog in My Throat: History's Strangest Cures
by Carlyn Beccia
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
Nominated by: Mary McKenna Siddals

Easy Readers

I Broke My Trunk! (An Elephant and Piggie Book)
by Mo Willems
Hyperion
Nominated by: Becky

Early Chapter Books

Have Fun, Anna Hibiscus!
by Atinuke
Kane/Miller Book Pub
Nominated by: Madigan McGillicuddy

Poetry

4 Comments on The best children’s books chosen by bloggers aka The Cybils winners, last added: 2/15/2012

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Happy V Day to All! And here's another reason to celebrate a holiday devoted to love. The Cybils judges have made their final pick. Huge congrats to all the winners.

As a first round judge in the Easy Readers/Short Chapter Books category, I am especially pleased to see Have Fun, Anna Hibiscus! by Atinuke selected for top chapter book. This is a wonderful story about a young African girl leaving her extended family to visit her grandmother in Canada. Atinuke is a natural storyteller who will have you cheering for Anna as she navigates this new, snowy world, so different from her native Africa.

And Mo Willems does it again. I Broke My Trunk!, a laugh-aloud romp that has Gerald explaining to Piggie the reason why his poor trunk is bandaged, is the winner in the Easy Readers category.

Be sure to check out the full list of winners. There are some surprises, along with books that have appeared on other yearend roundups. Anya's Ghost, a graphic novel, is now at the top of my TBR list.

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When I recently got the chance to interview Atinuke, author of the Anna Hibiscus and the No. 1 Car Spotter books we’ve fallen in love with, I also asked her if she would share with us 8 books that reflect pivotal moments in her life so far, with particular reference to her journey towards becoming a published author. Here’s what Atinuke had to say…

Thank you, Zoe, for a very special question. I have spent a gorgeous morning delving in my memory and bookshelves and revisiting these dear old friends.

Milly Molly Mandy by Joyce Lankester Brisley

I had four Milly, Molly, Mandy books in a box set that I loved. (The printed price on them is £1.45!!!) Anyone who has read both Anna Hibiscus and Milly Molly Mandy will know what a huge influence those books had on my writing. J.L.B showed me that wonderful stories could be written about the ordinary doings of an ordinary family. Especially as they might not be so ordinary to someone else!

Katie Morag by Mairi Hedderwick

I had very few books as a child – there were very few available in Nigeria in the early 70s – and I often felt starved for them. Then when I was at University in the UK I had neighbours with an enormous collection of children’s picture books. I gobbled up those wonderful books – as delighted to discover them at 19 as I would have been at 5! Katie Morag was my favourite. More stories about an ordinary-extraordinary family.

Buffalo Woman by Paul Goble

Again I only discovered Paul Goble’s picture books as an adult. I love them, I could practically eat them, every single detail of the illustrations and every single careful word. I remember the first time I had one in my hands – giving it back to its owner was so hard! Those books showed me how important children’s books can be, as an expression of love, and as a record of cultures that are practically gone.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Reading this book was very important for me, as a young African teenager recently moved to live in white, western culture. And as important wa

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When I recently discovered the books of Atinuke it was one of those bright moments you hold on to; it’s not every day you stumble on treasure that touches your heart, treasure that you want to share with everyone you meet.

And so it is with great pleasure that today I can bring you the first part of an interview I recently did with Atinuke, author behind the Anna Hibiscus and the No. 1 Car Spotter stories.

Playing by the book: Thank you Atinuke for sharing your time with me and my readers on Playing by the book. I’m really delighted to get a chance to spread the word about your great books!

So for my first question I wanted to ask you about storytelling – you are an oral storyteller as well as a written author. Do you create the stories you tell eg Tipingee, Monkey and Shark, or are they traditional stories you grew up with?

Atinuke: The stories I tell are all traditional oral stories from Africa and the African Diaspora. I am especially fond of Haitian tales. These stories are all centuries old – tried and tested by generation after generation of storytellers and story lovers. I love the fact that they have not needed the written word to survive.

Playing by the book: What are the differences for you between oral and written storytelling? What aspects of each do you enjoy the most?

Atinuke: Written storytelling is the play of one person’s mind and heart and imagination. I love making up stories, playing and playing with them, and then sharing them in my books. Oral storytelling is sharing a story that has been “worked” on by centuries of storytellers. I love the fact that when I get up on stage to tell stories I am telling a story that humans have been telling to each other for centuries, that has been proved to be important. I don’t have to worry if the story is any good! I also love the fact that each audience brings out different aspects of each story though its responses. A story is never told the same way twice, because the audience is never the same twice.

Playing by the book: Why did you choose “Africa” (rather than a specific African country/town/location) as the setting for No 1 and Anna Hibiscus?

Atinuke: I chose Africa because I did not want to write specifically about Nigeria [Atinuke's country of birth]. I wanted to inhabit a more fictional world. And for people to know that Anna’s happy middle class world exists all over Africa.

Playing by the book: You’ve said “I wrote about what I was missing… I wrote Anna Hibiscus” – to what extent are your Anna stories autobiographica

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Yesterday we had a fabulous Children’s Literary Salon at the library with Jules Feiffer, Laurie Keller, Nick Bruel, and Dave Roman.  Afterwards we swapped stories and someone started to tell me that once Maurice Sendak paired with the Pilobolus Dance Theater for a theatrical presentation.  And since this is the 21st -century I was able to assess the veracity of this thanks to a handy dandy site going by the name of “Youtube”.  As you can see, tis true.

I heard about this next video at a work holiday party this week.  Hanging out with reference librarians has its advantages.  For example, I might not have paid attention to this video featuring one of our resident Cullman scholars had it not been for the fact that the man is translating something utterly unique.  It seems that back in the day Anton Chekhov wrote a Jules Verne parody.  Yep.  He wrote a story where he claimed to have found a lost Jules Verne tale, and then he had his brother illustrate it.  Mighty fun and silly and not the kind of thing you might expect from the guy behind The Seagull.

Ed Spicer has a regular series where he interviews various authors and illustrators (with the full list here).  And one of those folks is Atinuke, the woman behind the Anna Hibiscus and The No. 1 Car Spotter books.  I seethe with envy that Ed got to meet her.  That voice . . . oh, that voice.  She also covers why she doesn’t call the location in her books “Nigeria” rather than “Africa”.

Zoe, fear not.  I’m looking forward to your interview with the woman as well.

Just think.  There are 21-year-olds out there who can drink and drive and vote and have lived their entire lives without ever knowing a world in which The Simpsons did not exist.  Just take that in for a moment.  I heard that Neil Gaiman was on an episode and though The Simpsons ain’t what it once wuz, I took a gander.  Yeah, I’m one of those people who feel the show jumped the shark 13 seasons ago.  In this particular episode it’s a pity they still can’t tell the difference between children’s and young adult literature, but I’m kind of loving the take on writing books for kids.  The barely obscured Alloy Entertainment reference is pretty amusing and there’s an R.L. Stine joke.  Bonus.

(How’d The Apothecary get a shout-out amongst those fake books in the screen shot here?)

Finally, for our off-topic video, I may not be running out to buy its app anytime soon, but this brand new and second Marcel the Shell with Shoes On video just sorta, kinda, in a way makes my day.  Yep.  It really does.

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The majority of early chapter books feature protagonists very much like their readers. Yes, Clementine might live in a basement apartment in Brooklyn and Stuey Lewis in a suburban house, but their day-to-day experiences are a reassuringly mix of  recognizable families, friends, and routines. The name of Oluwalase Babatunde Benson, the hero of Atinuke's latest chapter book, provides a strong clue that readers will be entering new territory.

Benson lives with his extended family in a compound in a rural village somewhere in Africa. There are many chores to be done, and he's kept busy fetching water for the cows, collecting firewood, and running errands for family members. His free time is spent not playing video games or watching TV or throwing a baseball, but spotting cars. Not many cars pass by the village, but of the one that do, Benson spots before seeing them, recognizing the different makes from the sounds of their engines. His prowess earns him the nickname, No. 1 Car Spotter, or No. 1, for short.

Atinuke, a Nigerian-born storyteller now living in the UK, shares several stories about No. 1. The first, my favorite, begins with a calamity. The family's cart breaks, and now there is no way to bring the produce and goods to market the next day. No. 1 gets a brilliant idea, one that features an old, dilapidated Toyota Corolla, and the whole community gets together to make his vision a reality.

The other stories in this collection take readers to the market place, where they see an embarrassed No. 1 attempt to buy lipstick for his busy aunt, and to stay with his best friend, 7 Up, where he so enjoys his friend's mother's cooking that he forgets to come home. The final story deals with the illness of the family's grandmother and the very real worry of not having enough money to get her the medicine and help she needs. Throughout this book, the humor of each situation shines through, as does the bond between the members of this large and boisterous family.

All four stories introduce young readers to a world way different from theirs. But although the setting and customs may be foreign, the way families unite to help one another in bad times and to rejoice in good will, hopefully, be very familiar indeed.  

This book was nominated for the 2011 Cybils Awards in the Easy Reader/Early Chapter Book category. I am a first-round panelist in this category, and this review reflects my opinion only.

The No. 1 Car Spotter
by Atinuke
illustrations by Warwick Johnson Cadwell
Kane/Miller, 112 pages<

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The No. 1 Car Spotter
By Atinuke
Illustrated by Warwick Johnson Cadwell
Kane/Miller (a division of EDC Publishing)
$5.99
ISBN: 978-1-61067-051-7
Ages 7-11
On shelves September 1st.

When I discovered the amazing, remarkable, one-of-a-kind, never before seen Anna Hibiscus books by Atinuke last year I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. It just didn’t seem possible. A contemporary early chapter book set on the continent of Africa? To understand how rare this was visit your local library sometime. Ask for fiction about Africa that takes place today for early readers. Specify that you’d rather not take out a work of older fiction that’s deadly serious, but rather something light and fun. And while you’re at it, why don’t you ask for the moon as well since you’re just as likely to get that as what I’ve just described unless it’s Anna Hibiscus (in America anyway). Now Anna is joined by yet another Atinuke character. No. 1 lives in a rural village with his family and friends and his stories, like those of Anna Hibiscus, linger in your brain long after you’ve read them.

Meet No. 1. He’s what you might call a car spotter. If there’s a car driving past his village, you can be sure he’ll not only spot it but identify it and long before anyone else. Life in No. 1’s village isn’t easy, of course. If a cart breaks down then everyone’s got to figure out how to get the produce to the market (it’s No. 1 who comes up with a brilliant solution). If a woman wants to get lipstick at the market she sometimes will have to send a boy (No. 1 ends up doing the right thing entirely by accident then too). If people need chores done they have to rely on the kids (a problem when No. 1 wants to only help the auntie who makes the best food). And if someone gets seriously sick… well, sometimes it’s not always No. 1 who comes up with the solutions to problems. But he’s always around to help out.

I adore Atinuke’s ear for language. This book just begs to be read aloud as you go through it. Pitch perfect bedtime reading fare, that’s what you have here. You get such magnificent lines out of it too. For example, there’s the section where No. 1 aids a single particular mama in the hopes of getting some of her delicious akara. At one point the author just writes, “As I was an able-bodied boy in the vicinity of a shouting mama I started to run around as well.” Something about the construction of that sentence just pleases me to no end. Later No. 1 explains to Coca-Cola that he can’t risk helping him out anymore because he might end up with a name like 7Up. Coca-Cola, visibly upset, points out that his own nickname is from a soft drink. I love No. 1’s method of comforting his friend. “That… is because Coca-Cola is the number one soft drink. Some people prefer Fanta. It is true. And some people prefer Sprite. Some people don’t touch Coca-Cola. But Coca-Cola is still number one.” As pep talks go, I’ve never heard on

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The African proverb "It takes a village to raise a child" is demonstrated again and again in Anna Hibiscus, an early chapter book by Atinuke. Set in Africa in an unnamed country (that sounds a lot like Nigeria), the book features its eponymous character, a young girl who lives with her extended family "in an old white house with balconies and secret staircases."

Anna can't image a life not surrounded by grandparents, aunties, uncles, and many, many cousins. So when, in the first story, Anna's father announces that only the immediate family will be going on a beach vacation, Anna is incredulous. And rightly so. For without the help of their relatives, the workload is overwhelming, and Anna's twin baby brothers, Double and Trouble, prove a handful. Father returns home to fetch the aunties to help with the work, then the cousins to amuse the twins, then the uncles to keep him company, and finally his parents for their wisdom and their ability to restore order to the squabbling household.    

With all its dozens of family members, the household would seem to be complete. But it's not. Auntie Comfort lives far away in America on the other side of the Atlantic. Anna can't wait until she is strong enough to swim right across the ocean to see her aunt. Luckily, she won't have to make such an arduous journey because the family learns that Auntie Comfort is coming to visit. Preparations begin at once, with everyone doing his or her part. Anna notices that Grandfather is worried that his youngest daughter might have forgotten "the proper African way" of doing things. With the help of an uncle, Anna sends messages to her aunt, reminding her of their customs. When Auntie Comfort arrives, dressed in traditional garb, Anna is reassured.

Anna learns an important lesson in the third story about work, money, and class. Bored with the quiet life in the family's comfortable compound, she yearns for the excitement of the city outside its walls. She's especially enamored of the girls who sell fruit and vegetables from baskets on their heads. Anna longs to be one of them, and begs her grandfather to allow her to do so. When he ignores her, she fills a basket with oranges and marches off. Because her oranges are freshly picked, they sell quickly. At the end of the day, Anna has a handful of coins in her pocket. The other girls do not fare as well, and Anna learns that they and their family will go hungry. She confesses to her grandfather, and the next morning he has Anna work for the girls. All day she walks back and forth to the market to fetch the girls the fruit that they sell. When evening falls, Anna's feet have blisters and she is sore through and through. But she knows "what it is to work hard."

The final story involves Anna's desire to "set her eyes, her feet, her hands, on snow." In her family, only her mother, who was born and raised in Canada, has experienced its frosty delight. Anna goes about the compound trying to recreate snow and failing. It's only when a letter comes from Granny Canada that Anna gets an inkling how to make her dream come true.

Anna Hibiscus is a finalist in the 2010 Cybils awards and deservedly so. Beginning readers are rarely given the opportunity of reading a book set in a world so different from their own. Luckily for them, Atinuke has a storyteller's natural voice. She brings Anna and her family to life through snatches of spot-on dialogue and by showing what it really means to be part of a large, loving family. Sometime

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