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I think everyone knows someone who's been affected by this volcano. My daughter had a trip scheduled to leave Florence and go to Sardinia for the weekend last Thursday. Luckily, however frustrating it was for her at the time, events conspired to keep her from going. She is home in Florence, thank goodness. I didn't know this until Sunday when I received an email and discovered she hadn't gone to Sardinia like she planed. Lots of her friends are stranded in the UK, Morocco, Slovakia/Austria, and Sicily. She and I talked this morning and I found out that the kids in Morocco hopped a boat for Spain but are unable to get a train back to Italy because everyone is trying to take a train somewhere. Buses too. The kids [um, they are 19 and 20 yr. olds] in Sardinia are still stuck. And of course they all have a big project due tomorrow. A friend's parents have been visiting Big Sur for the past few weeks and can't reschedule a flight back home to The Netherlands for another 10 days.


Which leads me to today's question...

Yesterday, after scurrying about all day on errands, etc..., I decided, dang it, I'm going for my run even if it's raining and nearly dark outside. So I hopped into my running gear grabbed a flashlight and ventured out jogging happily past the national park gates, closed to traffic. The gates open at sunrise and close at sunset. No words for the beauty of a stormy sky with enough clearing in the west to make the purple darkness that much darker. Large raindrops caught the unnatural light sparkling silver like Christmas decorations. A person had paused down the way on the deserted road. Pretty soon the woman with a white pooch emerged from the darkness.

"Hello." I said all cheery on a high from getting my butt out to exercise.

"Hi. How far are you going?"

I paused to talk, something I don't usually do on a run, I must admit. "I usually run on the dirt trails, so much kinder to my knees, but with this storm I'll stick to the road. Probably run to the ranger's building and back."

"Oh, because something, um, something big is out there."

"Like a deer?"

"Ah, I don't know. You saw me standing there right?" She pointed down the winding road. My scrappiness sunk into my stomach.

"Yes, I did."

"You know how sometimes you just have to go with your gut?"

I nodded. "Yup."

"Well, that's as far as I got. I decided to turn around. My dog pointed too, like he saw something out there. I heard something else but when I turned around it I knew it was human, you running."

"Oh, ah, sorry about that." I wasn't turning around. I was out and loving life and while seriously creeped out I wasn't going to go back home without getting my run in. No. Way.

She saw the determination in my eyes and said, "Yeah, you know people get that feeling for all kinds of reasons. Maybe I left the stove on, or, maybe a light. Anyway, it will be great you all alone out there."

"Yeah, well, take care," and we parted ways. I mean, seriously what a buzz kill. And of course I was freaked, potential headlines running through my head: 'Nice gal eaten by something big in the Santa Monica Mountains' but I turned my flashlight on and kept running. I didn't run as far as usual, but something is better than nothing and after I ran through all the possible headlines in my head, I didn't feel scared at all just awed by the beauty of the passing storm.



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On a lighter note, I ran out of hot Paprika. Now, a lot of people don't even know that there are two kinds of Paprika, unless you were brought up on Bohemian cooking outside of Chicago. But, there it is. I was all set to make Hungarian goulash after my run but discovered that little black bugs had infested my hot Paprika. Another casualty of life on the road. Dang.

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Our VHS died, a while back I think. Not being home very much this year I truly didn't miss it, until the other day. All our Christmas movies are on VHS. So yesterday I joined the 21st century and bought DVDs of some favorite movies. Can't wait to watch them.

We arrived last night and hit the town:



Me and Mx

Had my first frozen hot chocolate [YUM!] at Serendipity3. [As seen in a movie with John Cusak] and the PLEASURE of having Mx's friend S. join us for dinner.



Toured the sound exhibit at The La Monte Young Dream House Amazing. Mx heard about it from one of her friends who is in a band here.

Loved walking in the rain. Here's a random shot:



Looking up at the ceiling of the The Mac Cube on 5th Ave. in the rain last night

Joe and I have been in lots of "hot" spots this year. Today we woke up in NYC to discover that our former [...as of last Wednesday] bank failed and had been bought by JP Morgan Chase. Somehow, hearing the news here in New York made the whole thing that much more dramatic. Not that there hasn't been a lot of financial and political drama the past few days.

Off to have a little wine before we go to the Guggenheim. In all my trips here, I've never been. Out to a show tonight. Happy Friday!

It all started at Buddy Guy's Legends [I know a lot of stories that begin this way...wink-wink]:



Mt Rushmore of the Blues at Legends hangs by the pool tables

My dad loves to play. This and a remote control dragonfly kept us laughing:



The skittles/diet coke geyser [You know how I love geysers!]

Then...a little later. Well, you know what they say about best laid plans? Um, the walking wounded that is our family tossed in the towel on the whole fancy-smancy-dinner at The Renaissance Hotel [scene of our rehearsal dinner] and hung at home for a fun celebration with take-out pizza from Connie's. Here's the Round-up: Mom-a little episode of heat exhaustion-Dad: Shingles in his eyes and ears and face-Mark: dislocated shoulder with a torn rotator cuff-Me: Um...I think it was food poisoning-Mx: healthy by day, but later that night would burn her hand with the hot tea water [and, across the pond, showing solidarity with the family Mike: my oldest bro while touring London visited the hospital for a possible Deep Tissue Thrombosis, but he turned out to be fine:)]



Mom Turns 80!



Make A Wish!

Fun at Millennium Park on Venetian Night:





Took an El ride to The Second City for an awesome show "No Country For Old White Men" HAVE to check it out! SO funny and after the show they stayed and did a bunch of Improv. Mx and I didn't get back to our hotel until 2.

View all birthday pics here.

Going back home. No feeling like it in the world. And I literally got to stroll through my old home, now in the throes of a major renovation. The new owners were so sweet and took Mx and I on a tour. I took pictures of things I didn’t get a chance to before Mom and Dad moved. Pictures of things I only now wish I had.
Here’s one:



My three-year-old hand print covered up now, but my name is still in the concrete and Suzy’s is beside mine. I guess sometime after 3 I became a Laura. The best part of the trip? Sitting around and sharing stories with each other-new ones and old ones. Never fails that there is always some new story that Mom and Dad tell when we are together. That and getting some new SHOES...oh, yeah.

Happy 4th!!!!! Woohooo! Have a WONDERFUL, relaxing weekend! Here’s to good friends, great bbq and good war movies.

Still no buildings lost at the Ventana Inn. Firefighters continue to battle the blaze at the Inn today. Updated photos of the fire here. Now that we’ve had a good night’s sleep at home and the first of the smoke-scented clothes are in the wash, I’ve had a little time to reflect on some of the funny things that have happened over the past few days.

When I’m nervous/anxious I engage in the sport of hampstering, activities that neither improve my plight nor bring me closer to resolving my situation yet keep me distracted, much like a hampster. I began hampstering on Wednesday night, the night of the evacuation. I did things like flossing my teeth, twice. I rubbed lotion all over my body, every inch, making sure I didn’t miss a spot [wish I could say I do the same with sunscreen, but alas, I’m doomed to be called “spot” for the rest of my life for the artwork I create every summer “sunscreen on and not-on skin” my favorite medium]. And then came the weirdest part. I put on my pajamas. As I pulled them over my face I smelled the smoke. I took a deep breath. I took another breath. I wanted to write down exactly what I smelled. Exactly. What. I. Smelled. I didn’t want to forget the smell, like I ever could. But I wanted to describe it fully. I kept whiffing and writing like I was a lunatic. I finally boiled it down to a couple sentences and then, only then, did I collapse on the comfy Marriott bed.

When Joe was sick this week he wasn’t hungry for anything. So I set out in search of soup on the smoky almost deserted night that was last Monday. One restaurant had ginger carrot. Hmmm. Another restaurant had curried lentil. Really? Really? Can’t we just get a simple soup for a guy who isn’t feeling well? Our fave soup, most amazing chicken soup on the planet, wasn’t an option as the Bakery and many restaurants closed due to the fire. People stood on the porch of the Bakery to get a better view of the flames and the water-dropping helicopters. In the spirit of the birth of our country, and getting poor Joe a descent soup, I soldiered on. The Roadhouse had tortilla soup, just right. So Goldilocks, or should I say amber-shimmer locks went back to the Inn and Joe had the soup that helped get him feel a little bit better.

About the last thing we feel like doing is smelling any more smoke. But, Joe's picking up a few steaks tonight and we will prolly go check out the local fireworks up on a hill somewhere close by.

Here it is. My first wall review, ever. As I taped each page to the wall I had this A-Beautiful-Mind feeling. Not the genius feeling, but the oh-my-gosh-she-must-be-insane-tapping-weird-sh*t-to-the-walls feeling. I'll let you know when I find strange conspiracies in magazines and begin tapping them to the wall. Joe came in the room and moved some furniture so I could get them all up.

So after I taped 30 pages to the wall, I sized the words up like a contractor might a renovation project. I'm loving the process. Makes synopsis writing a little easier. I like the big-picture view of the novel, looking at the wall and knowing that my first 30 pages consist of one page more than 8 chapters, doing the math and figuring that my chapters average about four pages each. I like seeing my novel's rhythm, the beats on the page.

Maybe I'll try writing on windows next.

What is it about summarizing what I've written that is so incredibly difficult? I have to say that getting this different perspective is making it easier for me because as I write I can "flip between chapters" by eyeballing the wall. The process is slow, but fascinating. If you are having trouble summarizing your work, maybe give this a go? I have to give a lot of thanks to C, my crit group friend who suggested this in the first place.

Don't forget today is the day the postal rates change to 42 cents a letter! Wouldn't want those queries coming back a cent short. Egads!

Happy writing!

Want to learn more about how to be an advocate for library issues?  The ALA Washington Office is offering its first “Speaking Up!” webinar on Thursday March 6th at 4:00pm eastern.  Although the training will be generalized for the various advocacy issues, we all know that we need to speak up for children and their library needs. If you want to improve your advocacy skills, this may be a great opportunity for you.

You can learn more and register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/442300631. This is a free training opportunity. Webinars don’t require that you travel any further than your computer so they are a great way to get staff development in small doses. Generally all you need is a computer that can access the Internet and a phone that can dial a toll free (or occassionally a toll) number.

Download the podcast.

Just One More Book!! is one of the ALSC Great Web Sites for Kids, filed under Literature & Languages’ Favorite Children’s Stories category. Advertising- and sponsorship-free, Just One More Book!! (JOMB) is a podcast powered by passion. Mark and Andrea, a husband and wife team, both work full-time jobs and squeeze in a recording session during their morning coffee ritual after dropping their eight-year-old and six-year-old daughters off at school and before heading to work themselves. They publish four shows a week: Mondays being interviews; Wednesdays and Fridays are book chats; Saturday’s content varies.

During their conversation for this approximately 15-minute podcast, Andrea and Mark answer my questions. Mentioned are:

1. Podcasters Across Borders
2. Kidlitosphere Conference
3. Dennis Lee, poet
4. JOMB’s interview with Henry Winkler
5. JOMB’s Interview with Simon James
6. Stuart McLean, storyteller

Episode 2

Just One More Book!!

Colleagues,

Did you know that one of ALSC’s listed organizations will hold an exciting conference in Atlanta, Georgia, from March 26 – 29, 2008?

The Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) Annual International Conference and Exhibition: Beyond Standards: Reaching Every Child’s Potential has much to offer librarians who serve youth.

With over 225 sessions, 30 exhibitors, and inspiring and knowledgeable keynote speakers, including literacy professor and researcher Richard Allington, librarians can learn a great deal alongside our ACEI colleagues who also serve the literacy needs of young people.

Check out the conference information found at:
http://www.acei.org/annualconfex.htm

I encourage you to consider networking and learning alongside other attendees at this event.

Yours in service to youth,

Judi Moreillon
ALSC Liaison with National Organizations Serving Youth Committee

Sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) the Week of the Young Child (WOYC) is a time to celebrate children and raise awareness of their needs.  This year — between April 13-19, 2008 — NAEYC affiliate groups across the nation will be drawing attention to our youngest citizens with this annual event.  The NAEYC website provides a number of valuable tools for to assist in planning celebrations and alerting the public to the needs of young children. The planning handbook offers some great ideas for programs and events during this week.  (www.naeyc.org/about/woyc)

Viki Ash, a member of ALSC’s Liaison with National Organizations Serving Children and Youth Committee, reminds us that if we haven’t made contact with our local NAEYC affiliate, we should do so now. Find your affiliate contact information at www.naeyc.org/affiliates/complete.asp.  Libraries and NAEYC are natural partners in the effort to foster the  development of young children.

Greetings!

The Public Awareness Committee of the Association for Library Service to Children needs your input! We would like to expand our Kids! @ your library® Campaign, which kicked off in 2006 and currently focuses on children in grades K-4, their parents and caregivers. (See www.ala.org/kids for more information.)

In phase two of the campaign, we would like to add materials to the campaign tool kit for children in grades 5-8. We are seeking your input before we proceed with the development of materials for this age group. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey. Your feedback will help us in developing the most relevant and needed tools for promoting your library to kids in grades 5-8.

Access the survey here. Deadline for response is February 29.

Thank you in advance for taking time to share your opinions regarding the Kids! @ your library® Campaign!

Mary Fellows
ALSC Public Awareness Committee

As a children’s librarian I support programs like Reading Is Fundamental, as a volunteer, donor, and partner. We know that children, especially in low income families, need to own books that they will treasure.

The President’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2009 eliminates the Inexpensive Book Distribution Program, which is the RIF Book Distribution Program. Unless Congress reinstates funding for this program, RIF would be unable to distribute 16 million books annually to the nation’s youngest and most at-risk children. Please consider writing a letter or email to the President and your state senators and representative asking that funding for this program be reinstated. Visit the RIF site, http://www.rif.org/get-involved/advocate/what/,  for more information and a link to contact your legislators in Washington.

The American Library Association’s Social Responsibility Round Table and The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Round Table are co-sponsoring the Rainbow List, an annual bibliography for young readers from birth through age 18. According to the official Rainbow List myspace presence, the Rainbow List will create a recommended list of books dealing with positive Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Trangendered and Questioning issues and situations for children up to age 18. The 2008 list is the first list and took into consideration books published from 2005 through 2007. Future bibliographies will cover 18 months of publication, from July of the previous year through December of the current review year with selection completed at the ALA Midwinter Conference.

The committee writes in its introduction to the list:

an examination of over 200 books reveals that glbtq books are heavily
weighted toward upper grade levels and that many glbtq characters in
fiction take a peripheral position. Other concerns are public
censorship and the lack of ready accessibility to these books. The
members of the Rainbow Project encourage the publication of more books
with characters validating same-gender lifestyles and cataloging with
subject headings that describe these glbtq characters in children’s
and young adult fiction.

Here are the selected Beginning Readers:

Considine, Kaitlyn. Emma and Meesha My Boy: A Two Mom Story. Il.
Binny Hobbs. 2005. unp. Two Moms Books.

Gonzalez, Rigoberto. Antonio’s Card/La Tarjeta de Antonio. Il.
Cecilia Concepcion Alvarez. 2005. 32p. Children’s Book Press.

Jopling, Heather. Monicka’s Papa Is Tall. Il. Allyson Demoe. 2006.
unp. Nickname.

Jopling, Heather. Ryan’s Mom Is Tall. Il. Allyson Demoe. 2006.
unp. Nickname Press.

Lindenbaum, Pija. Mini Mia and Her Darling Uncle. Trans. Elisabeth
Kallick Dyssegaard. 2007. unp. R&S Books.

Richardson, Justin and Peter Parnell. And Tango Makes Three. Il.
Henry Cole. 2005. unp. Simon & Schuster.

Here are the Middle/Early Young Adult titles:

Fiction

Burch, Christian. The Manny Files. 2006. 296p. Atheneum.

Hartinger, Brent. The Order of the Poison Oak. 2005. 211p.
HarperTeen.

Howe, James. Totally Joe. 2005. 189p. Atheneum/Ginee Seo Books.

Larochelle, David. Absolutely, Positively Not. 2005. 219p. Arthur
A. Levine Books.

Limb, Sue. Girl Nearly 16, Absolute Torture. 2005. 216p.
Delacorte..

Peters, Julie Anne. Between Mom and Jo. 2006. 232p. Little,
Brown/Megan Tingley Books.

Selvadurai, Shyam. Swimming in the Monsoon Sea. 2005. 280p.
Tundra.

Non-Fiction

Marcus, Eric. What If Someone I know Is Gay: Answers to Questions
about What It Means to be Gay and Lesbian 2007. 183p. Simon Pulse.

Miller, Calvin Craig. No easy answers: Bayard Rustin and the civil
rights movement. [Portraits of Black Americans Series]. 2005. 160p.
Morgan Reynolds.

When I Knew. Ed. Robert Trachtenberg. Il. Tom Bachtell. 2005.
120p. Regan Books.

The complete 2008 Rainbow List is available here.

The ALSC legislation committee is urgently requesting your aid in support of the SKILLS (Strengthening Kids Interest in Learning and Libraries) Act in the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. For more information and to take immediate action, please go to the ALA Legislative Action Center site: http://capwiz.com/ala/home/ . (It’s so easy — it’s harder not to take action.)
Also please consider hosting a “I Love My Library” or “I Love My Librarian” Valentine’s Day program, during which kids, teens, parents and teachers can make valentines for their Senators and Representatives that support legislation that impacts libraries.

This is the single most important piece of legislation concerning school libraries that will come before Congress this year. Reauthorization of this bill is critical to the future of school libraries, and you can make it happen!

Make this election year, the year of the library!

submitted by Brandy Morrill, ALSC Legislation Committee

Technology plays an important part in your role as a children’s librarian, school library media specialist, or other stakeholder in providing quality library service to children. Do you feel the need for easy access to updates and information about cutting-edge technology and its use with the kids you serve?

The ALSC Children and Technology Committee needs your input. Please complete the brief survey we have created for you. The survey will be available until Saturday, March 1, 2008.

Thank you!

Christopher J. Borawski, MSI
Chair, ALSC Children and Technology Committee

Hello. This is my first blog post here (or anywhere). I’ll be posting news and information from the world of publishing.

Today, I’m pleased to share the very exciting news from the Children’s Book Council and the Library of Congress that Jon Sciezka has been named the first National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. There was a wonderful celebration this morning at the Mulbery Street Branch of the New York Public Library, including librarians, publishers, media, and a couple of classes from area schools. You can read articles in The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Washington Post, and more today and in the days to come.

 Here’s the text of the press release:

January 3, 2008

LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS APPOINTS AUTHOR JON SCIESZKA INAUGURAL NATIONAL AMBASSADOR FOR YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE Program To Be Run By Library’s Center for the Book, Children’s Book Council, CBC FoundationLibrarian of Congress James H. Billington has appointed children’s book author Jon Scieszka as the first National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. The position was created to raise national awareness of the importance of young people’s literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education, and the development and betterment of the lives of young people.

“The Library of Congress has long provided free, primary-source educational material for K-12 on the Internet,” said Billington. “The position of National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature is a natural extension of that role. Jon Scieszka will be an articulate emissary, promoting reading and literature among young people, which are important for the health and creativity of our democratic society.”

“Jon Scieszka’s platform will spotlight the diversity and breadth of children’s literature available today and in so doing present a solution to what can be done to change the state of reading in this country,” said Robin Adelson, executive director at Children’s Book Council.

Born in Flint, Mich., Jon Scieszka earned a bachelor’s degree in writing from Albion College and a master of fine arts degree from Columbia University. He held a number of teaching positions in the first through eighth grades before taking a year off to develop ideas for children’s books. He is the author of several bestselling children’s titles, including “The Stinky Cheese Man,” which won a Caldecott Honor medal, “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs” and the Time Warp Trio, a chapter book series. Scieszka is the founder of Guys Read (www.guysread.com), a nonprofit literacy organization.

The National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature is named by the Librarian of Congress for a two-year term, based on recommendations from a selection committee representing many segments of the book community. The selection criteria include the candidate’s contribution to young people’s literature and ability to relate to children. The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, the Children’s Book Council (CBC) and the CBC Foundation are the administrators of the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature initiative. Financial support for the National Ambassador program is provided by Cheerios (leading sponsor), Penguin Young Readers Group, Scholastic Inc., HarperCollins Children’s Books, Random House Children’s Books, Houghton Mifflin Company, Macmillan Publishers, Harcourt Children’s Books, Holiday House, Charlesbridge, National Geographic Children’s Books, Candlewick Press, and Marshall Cavendish Publishers.

The appointment was announced today at the Mulberry Branch of the New York Public Library by Center for the Book Director John Y. Cole.

“Cheerios is truly delighted to help launch the post of National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature,” said Ricardo Fernandez, marketing manager for Cheerios. “Providing children with access to books and fostering their ability to grow up to be readers is important to all of us.”

Through its Spoonfuls of Stories program, Cheerios puts books into the hands of children and encourages families to read together. Over the past six years, Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories has distributed more than 30 million books—free of charge—inside cereal boxes and donated more than $2.5 million to First Book, a national children’s literacy organization.

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress was established in 1977 by Public Law 95-129 to use the resources of the Library of Congress to stimulate public interest in books and reading. With public and private sector support, the center carries out its mission through a national network of affiliates in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and in cooperation with more than 80 national reading promotion partners such as the Children’s Book Council. The center plays a key role in the Library of Congress’s National Book Festival, held each year on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. For more information about the center, go to www.loc.gov/cfbooks.

The Children’s Book Council, established in 1945, is the nonprofit trade association of publishers of trade books for children and young adults in the United States. The CBC promotes the use and enjoyment of trade books for young people, most prominently as the official sponsor of Children’s Book Week, the longest running literacy event in the country. The goal of the Children’s Book Council is to make the reading and enjoyment of books for young people an essential part of America’s educational and social goals, as well as to enhance the public perception of the importance of reading by disseminating information about books for young people and about children’s book publishing. The CBC Foundation’s “Every Child a Reader” program seeks to harness the collective power of the children’s book publishing industry to create a positive social impact in the nation’s communities. For more information about the CBC and the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, go to www.cbcbooks.org.

# # # 

by Ann Crewdson

Print Awareness is one of the six early literacy skills that focuses on noticing print everywhere.  Print is in the sky.  It’s on the bottom of your shoes.  It’s on someone’s arm as a tattoo.  And what do you know?! Print is all over the books!

Here are some new and classic books to get your kids looking around for print:

Hurry Hurry by Eve Bunting

Chicken starts mass hysteria at the farm with her hurrying, rallying animals to see something big going down.  It’s a big rush of colorful words spilling out from page to page full of barnyard banter.

Bounce by Doreen Cronin

Unique presentations of the word “bounce” decorate the pages.  Hop, leap, pounce and bounce in ways your toddler may never have thought of before.

Snowballs by Lois Ehlert

Winter is almost here–the birds are expecting snow and the seeds are almost gone.  Flip through this book at 90 degrees and read about each member of the snowmen family.

Beetle Bop by Denise Fleming

Beetles on every page, doing everything imaginable from chewing, swirling, flashing, flip-flopping until they go “bop!”

Black Meets White by Justine Fontes

Black and White collide and become polka dots, a checkerboard and wiggles.  Alternating pages of black and white words bring interest to bold print, touching on gray areas.

Cover Art Not Available

I Walk and Read by Tana Hoban

Pictures of words everywhere in every day life are captured in photographs of roads, cars, stores, poles and signs.

Wake Up Me! By Marni McGee

Waking up is easier to do following words, one step at a time.  Bouncing words will show you the way…out to the playground to play.

Baby Goes Beep by Rebecca O’Connell

Baby honks the horn, messes up the kitchen, sings and flips the books around.  Here’s a book with words that expresses baby’s feelings.

Smash! Mash! Crash! There Goes the Trash! By Barbara Odanaka

A garbage truck wakes up two little piglets with words that follow its every move, smashing and chomping until black smoke belches indicate the truck’s belly is full. 

Clip-Clop! by Nicola Smee

Who wants to ride on Horse? The animals go clip-clop clippity, faster and faster on Horse’s back until ploppity-plop they all fall down and cheer, “Again!”

Who is Driving? by Leo Timmers

Elephant, Cat, Rabbit, Pig, Giraffe, Hippopotamous, and Stork are all in a hurry to get to their destinations with various vehicles while words zoom, putt and swoosh.

Overboard! by Sarah Weeks

Baby bunny goes “overboard” over and over again with fun–flinging peaches, wipers, diapers and paint.

This is just a sampling of the wealth of books out there that demonstrate print awareness.  When I do my story times, I like to tell my parents to celebrate print awareness by finding some more titles in the library.  I say, ”Look around and you’ll be surprised by where print hide and reside!” Young children are especially amused by the print in their daily lives.  Activities like pointing to words while they’re brushing their teeth, shopping for groceries are taking a walk down the street all help to reinforce the skill of print awareness.  Suggesting that parents make a book out of the creative fonts available through Microsoft Word or the internet can be quite amusing.  Then urge them to read them out loud once they’re done and have fun!

by Debbie A. Reese (Nambé Pueblo)

As a professor, it is important that I publish my research in academic journals, but as a Native parent and former schoolteacher, I know that those journals are not readily available to people who work with children on a daily basis. With the growth of the Internet, I thought an Internet blog was the way to reach practitioners. In May of 2006 I launched “American Indians in Children’s Literature.” Using it, I reach parents, teachers, librarians and others who have Internet access. Through the blog, I provide information about American Indians—whether that information is a review of a children’s book, or a new source for teachers, or, an announcement about something like the National Endowment for the Humanities “Artrain” that is currently on tour.

Artrain is precisely what its name suggests: a train filled with art. The work exhibited in this particular Artrain is contemporary art by American Indians. Titled “Native Views: Influences of Modern Culture,” it has been touring the country–on railroad tracks–since 2004. I was especially intrigued by the exhibit because it includes the work of Judith Lowry, a woman who illustrated the outstanding children’s picture book, Home to Medicine Mountain which is about Lowry’s father and uncle. They are of the Mountain Maidu and Hamawi Pit-River tribes in northern California. As boys, they were among the thousands of Native children taken to boarding schools developed in the late 1880s to “kill the Indian, save the man.” Missing home, the boys ran away from the school, getting home by riding atop a box car. These schools had a devastating effect on Native communities across the United States, but it is among the too-many topics that are not taught in our classrooms.

On my blog, I write about books like Home to Medicine Mountain and others by Native authors who write books that provide children with accurate information about American Indians. And, I link to websites maintained by Native writers and illustrators like Sherman Alexie, Cynthia Leitich Smith, and George Littlechild.

Research shows, however, that it is not enough to provide children with better information. Teachers must also actively work towards helping children develop an ability to identify racist, biased, and outdated information about, in this case, American Indians. These depictions—whether they appear in children’s books, television programs, movies, as school mascots, or in products at the grocery store—far outnumber the factual and realistic portrayals of American Indians. For decades, Native scholars have addressed these problematic images. Many have written about the racist, biased, and erroneous presentation of American Indians in Forrest Carter’s The Education of Little Tree and Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie. Through my blog, teachers can find those critiques.

My blog is listed on websites of the leading teacher and librarian organizations and associations, social justice organizations, and, sites maintained by American Indian tribes and organizations. The content of the website is designed to help people develop a critical stance when evaluating American Indians in children’s books. This means recognizing negative and positive stereotypes, both of which stand in the way of seeing and accepting American Indians as people of the present day.

As I write this blog post, we are entering the month of November. By Presidential Proclamation, November is Native American Month. Ideally, teachers and librarians would be providing children with information about American Indians all year long, but it is often left for this month, partly due to Thanksgiving. It is this holiday during which a lot of “teaching” about American Indians takes place. I placed the word teaching in quotation marks for a reason. Sadly, a lot of what is taught around this time of the year is superficial and laden with error and stereotypes.

Last week, I visited our local library to read the Thanksgiving picture books they have on their shelves. As a teacher, a mother, a Native woman, it is disheartening to see one book after another that uses the words “Pilgrims and Indians.” And, it is troubling to see the illustrations of the Indians. For the most part, they are little more than the stereotype that stands in for all Indians… You’d be able to describe it: fringed buckskin, feathered headdresses, tipis, totem poles, “tom-toms”… That attire and housing is common to a specific group of Native people: the Plains Indians. Totem poles are not made by Plains Indians, and “tom-tom” is not what any Native nation or tribe calls their drum. The word “tom-tom” comes from scouting organizations.

In reality, the clothing, housing, and other cultural artifacts of Native peoples varies with their location. Too often, though, illustrations in picture books clump artifacts together with little regard for the fact that they do not belong together!

The thing is, U.S. schools, from pre-school through college, do a poor job of educating Americans about American Indians. It isn’t a deliberate effort to mis-educate, and there is no point in laying blame on anyone, or feeling guilty if you’re doing something in your classroom or library that is stereotypical. The point is to start doing things differently.

Through my blog, I try to share a lot of information that I think helps my readers understand the diversity that exists across the 500+ federally recognized Native tribes (let alone the 200+ state recognized tribes and the many groups who are completely unrecognized by the state or federal government). I am confident that more and more people are learning how to look critically and let go of problematic books, and instead, select books that present American Indians as we are—not savages and not heroes—but people with good and bad qualities.

I invite you to visit my page. Take time to read and think about the content of my site. In good faith and hard work, we can all effect change in the way today’s society views American Indians. American Indians in Children’s Literature is located at http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com. And, I welcome your feedback and comments.