A lot to say and so little time to say it. Let’s get started!
Today, if you are at all feeling blue, I suggest you read The Toast piece Jaya Catches Up: A Little Princess which is a killer breakdown of what is inarguably a problematic book. The Marie Antoinette portions are particularly choice.
Next, the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award Winners were announced. What does that mean for you? It means you should be boning up on your international children’s book knowledge, of course. Commit the names “Rotraut Susanne Berner of Germany” (who won for Illustration) and Cao Wenxuan of China (who won for Writing)” to memory. For more info on the books and the winners, go here.
If you were speaking to the man on the street (or woman, or child, or what have you) and they said, “Boy, those children’s books took the hardest left turn a series ever took”, what series would you assume the person was speaking about? Here is your answer and it’s a heckuva amusing post to boot.
Seven Impossible Things features Gareth Hinds. And all is right with the universe.
Oh. In a weird way this makes sense. They’re turning The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll, the biography of Dare Wright, creator of the Lonely Doll book series, in to a film with Naomi Watts and Jessica Lange. You know what that means, don’t you? Lonely Doll fever is poised to sweep the nation. Be wary. Be warned. And buy stock in frilly underwear.
Remember when J.K Rowling said she had this “political fairytale” that was going to be her next non-Harry Potter children’s book? Looks like it’s kaputski. Which is to say, about 30 years after Ms. Rowling’s death someone will pull it out of that drawer and publish it anyway. So it goes.
This next one’s roundabout three years old but I only just found it. The mom from the Cat in the Hat finally speaks. Quite frankly, I always found that polka-dotted dress of hers rather fetching (to say nothing of her keen shoes) but that may just be me.
If you had the great good fortune to see the NYPL exhibit The ABC of It then you would have noticed one section was dedicated to a fascinating array of Soviet children’s art. I remember helping curator Leonard Marcus locate these books (of which NYPL owns a goodly number) and he picked and chose the best amongst them. But where did they originate? Having recently finished M.T. Anderson’s Symphony for the City of the Dead, I took the little bit of context I’d acquired and applied it to this fabulous piece on tygertale called Revolutionary Russian Children’s Books. Now I’m just beginning to understand. Thanks to Phil Nel (I’m pretty sure) for the link.
Growing up my mom had a machine in the attic that could type out braille. I don’t know why we owned it but I liked it a lot. Braille children’s books available in a mass market context have always been difficult to obtain, though. With this in mind, I’m very pleased to see DK is now releasing a braille board book series. Wow. Way to go, DK!
All right. My four-year-old is upstairs asleep and in her room are all my Harry Potter books. Otherwise I would check this myself. You see, they just released the first look of the new Jim Kay illustrated Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. And I am staring and staring at this cover and I need your help. Look at the cover right here:
Am I crazy or is that car chock full of Weaselys? And doesn’t Harry drive to Hogwarts with just Ron? At least that’s what the old British cover told me:
So . . . huh? [Note: Interestingly the Buzzfeed article has plenty of comments but no one is pointing this out so I may just be completely and utterly wrong about everything]
In other news, the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy longlist was just released. Frances Hardinge made the cut!!! Wooty woot woot woot!!
Seriously Wicked, Tina Connolly (Tor Teen)
Court of Fives, Kate Elliott (Little, Brown)
Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge (Macmillan UK 5/14; Amulet)
Archivist Wasp, Nicole Kornher-Stace (Big Mouth House)
Zeroboxer, Fonda Lee (Flux)
Shadowshaper, Daniel José Older (Levine)
Bone Gap, Laura Ruby (Balzer + Bray)
Nimona, Noelle Stevenson (HarperTeen)
Updraft, Fran Wilde (Tor)
Oh, I absolutely love this. Children’s art. Not art for children, mind you, but art by children and its ramifications when studying history. Again, I think I have Phil Nel to thank for this one. He finds all the good stuff.
Daily Image:
The Make Way for Ducklings statues are nothing new (nor are they the only ducklings as my old post on all the public children’s literature statues in America attests). Nor is it new to put hats on them. That said, this recent yarnbombing goes above and beyond the call of duty. That’s some seriously good knitting!
Read more about them here.
Ack! Too many good videos, too little time! We’ve an embarrassment of riches today. The only question really is where to start. And the only natural answer is with Obama’s nominee for the Librarian of Congress. Not much of a question there, really.
Next up, there is beginning to be a bit of a tradition of authors and illustrators recording videos of how they got “the call” when they won the Caldecott or Newbery (I almost wrote and/or Newbery, which is an interesting near flub). Last year we had Dan Santat’s video. This year, Sophie Blackall’s:
At this rate it may behoove us to just give the medals to people who are good at making videos. And the Newbery Medal goes to . . . Tyler Oakley!
Now let’s get down to brass tacks. People, there are awards out there that go beyond the mere borders of this great nation of ours. And the Hans Christian Andersen Award is the greatest of these (though the Astrid Lindgren Award gives it a run for its money). Now they’ve made a video for us that goes through the 2016 nominees. I adore this. I just want to meet all these people. Suzy Lee!!! Now, weirdly, I want her to adopt me. And Iran! How cool is that?
This next book trailer seemingly has an international flavor to it, but is homegrown Americana through and through. It may also be the most beautiful trailer of 2016 thus far.
Thanks to educating alice for the link.
Earlier this week, Phil Nel posted a killer post called Seuss on Film. The piece is “a brief (but far from complete) collection of Seuss on film!” Turns out, it was somewhat tricky getting Mr. Geisel on the old camera. Phil’s a trooper, though. He found newsreel after newsreel and has posted them on YouTube for our collective enjoyment. You should really read his posting yourself. In fact, I insist upon it. And just to whet your whistle, here’s a jaw-dropping 1964 discussion with Seuss in New Zealand where he improvises answers to kids’ questions.
As for our Off-Topic Video of the week, I give this to you because I love you. Really, truly, deeply love you.
This year’s Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Eve Pownall Award for Information Books forms an impressive list. Four of the six titles focus on an aspect of Australian history. Emu (one of the ‘Nature Storybooks’ series from Walker Books) is natural history, however, and upholds the quality of last year’s Crichton and Queensland Literary […]
Peter Sis won the Hans Christian Andersen Award! for best illustrator in 2012. Congratulations, Mr. Sis! The best thing about the Hans Christian Andersen Award is that the award includes authors and illustrators from around the world. This award is presented each year by the International Board on Books for Young People. Winning is a huge honor.
The 2012 Han Christian Andersen Award winner for writing is Maria Teresa Andruetto from Argentina. Andruetto won this award not only because of her novels for young people but also for her work promoting literacy among children and teens.
So one of today's Kids Book Websites is IBBY - The International Board on Books for Young People.
Check back in an hour or two for another Kids Book Website and a book review. This post should stand alone.
Sun Youjun, translated by Lily L. Shi,
The Adventures of a Little Rag Doll
Better Link Press, 2011.
Ages 8-10
“Once there was Little Butou. Little Butou was a tiny rag doll. Now I will tell you about his adventures, that is, his encounters with many interesting and exciting people and situations…” So begins The Adventures of a Little Rag Doll, originally published in 1961 in China, the first book by the prolific and beloved Hans Christian Andersen nominee, Sun Youjun, best known for his magical fairy tales. The book’s availability in English is an adventure in itself: 13-year-old Lily Shi of Lewiston, Maine loved it so much that she wanted her friends to enjoy it too, so she spent the summer translating the book for them to read. Thanks to her perseverance, an English translation is now available for the first time, published by Better Link Press.
The Adventures of a Little Rag Doll is part The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, part Toy Story, and part Scheherazade coming-of-age tale – of a doll, that is. Although Little Teacher made Little Butou with love and care out of scraps of rag, he was a little selfish, had a little bit of a temper, and was more than a little bit cowardly. After his original child owner, Dou Dou, rejects him, a warmhearted girl named Ping Ping takes Little Butou in. But when Little Butou twice spills Ping Ping’s rice all over the ground, even after she tells him how every grain has value and must not be wasted, Little Butou runs away. He feels angry with Ping Ping for scolding him, and decides to find Dou Dou, who won’t care about things like rice grains.
Thereupon follows a tale of happenstance, adventure, misery, and miracles, as Little Butou winds up hundreds of miles from both Dou Dou and Ping Ping. Danger and near death, new friends and recurring rat enemies help Little Butou not only learn to find courage, but also to value love – the love that goes into every grain of rice, and the love that people like Ping Ping show everyone around them. The accomplished translation captures the rhythm and pacing of Chinese speech and sentence structure, imbuing a sense of the country into the words themselves. In addition, the highly entertaining cast of characters and their magical realism-studded adventures keep the values within the story– selflessness, bravery, and gratefulness for kindness and love – from feeling preachy or forced.
Sara Hudson
July 2011
With Book Expo going full-blast in town and my library celebrating its Centennial all at the same time, blogging is possible but slightly more difficult than usual. I am amused to find that when I skip a day some folks worry that I might be in labor. Fear not. I’ll find a way to update the blog with that news, come hell or high water. Tonight, meanwhile, is also my final Kidlit Drink Night (at least for a while) so if you’d like to view my largess (or, rather, largeness) here are the details. Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . .
- So I go into the administrative office the other day to pick up my room’s checks and WHAM! Two gigantic Lego statues of Patience and Fortitude (the library lions) are just sitting there, chewing their cuds (or whatever it is Lego lions chew). I showed them to a class of second graders on a tour a day or so later (they’re on display in our main hall, if you’re curious) and one kid said that looking at them was like looking at a computer screen. He had a point. They’re mighty pixilated.
- Wow. That’s pretty cool. The organization Keshet (“a national organization working for the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Jews in Jewish life”) is releasing posters of LGBT Jewish Heroes. One of the posters available? Leslea Newman of Heather Has Two Mommies and my favorite LGBT board books Mommy, Mama and Me and Daddy, Papa, and Me. Thanks to Marjorie Ingall for the link.
- Do you have what it takes to take on the Sixth Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge? I don’t want to hear your excuses! I want to see you reading. You’ve some time to prep so get those eyeball stalks limbered up.
- Recently I attended SLJ’s Day of Dialog (slooooow emerging blog post to come on the subject). The keynote speech was delivered by Katherine Paterson who began, much to my delight, with some praise of New Zealand children’s book superstar Margaret Mahy (who would be a superstar here if they just friggin’ republished The Changeover *coughcough*). Anyway, it seems she recently won in the picture book category of the 2011 New Zealand Children’s Book Awards. What would you like to bet me that someday they’ll rename those awards “The Mahys”? I give it ten years, tops.
Today, if you are at all feeling blue, I suggest you read The Toast piece Jaya Catches Up: A Little Princess which is a killer breakdown of what is inarguably a problematic book. The Marie Antoinette portions are particularly choice.
Oh. In a weird way this makes sense. They’re turning The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll, the biography of Dare Wright, creator of the Lonely Doll book series, in to a film with Naomi Watts and Jessica Lange. You know what that means, don’t you? Lonely Doll fever is poised to sweep the nation. Be wary. Be warned. And buy stock in frilly underwear.
I think the scene on the front of the Potter cover is after Fred, George and Ron rescue Harry from Privit Drive. And now I need the book.
Yep, that’s the Burrow down there. The bigger problem is that it’s a Ford Anglia and Harry’s in the driver’s seat.
Maybe he’s in the backseat?
Oh, you’re completely correct. That’s the Burrow and not Hogwarts. Looking even closer, I think Harry’s in the backseat (it’s an oddly placed shot). Can’t speak to the Ford Anglia though.
A MOVIE of THE LONELY DOLL??? Are they going to reenact the spanking scene? https://booksatmiddlemayfarm.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/020.jpg
Or how about the one where she’s tied to a tree? https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/bd/40/90/bd40903c7bb7dc8742df7e6925c1019a.jpg
Looking forward to any movie of The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll. I read the book, and what I remember most was that she would make all her dates “meet” the Lonely Doll before taking her out, and that if I remember she had an odd relationship with her brother as well as her mother. Beverly Cleary she was not!
Oh it’s a movie about the AUTHOR. Now I get it!
Yeah, but it’s not any less disturbing, I suspect.
When I worked at The Children’s Center at 42nd Street in the main branch of NYPL we had a killer set of old autograph books. Over the decades the children’s librarians would have authors and illustrators sign the books when they attended events at the library. I was paging through one of them one day, not paying much attention, when the tiny signature of “Dare Wright” struck me. To this day I still cannot figure out why she was at NYPL. I doubt very much the library carried her books when she was alive. Utterly baffling but it was like an electric shock to hold a book she’d once held and signed.
Those Lonely Doll books scared the bejesus out of me when I was a kid. Maybe I had watched the Talking Tina episode of Twilight Zone too many times… but maybe not.
Maybe you didn’t watch the Talking Tina episode enough times!
I wish Dare Wright was alive to reap the benefits of her works. She died alone and in poverty –something to think about when book artists are left to swing in the wind without a safety net or any union and our industry leaders tell us to spouse up with someone with insurance — wth?