I've only popped open this exquisite work and already have quotes to share:
"Art-making at its best is a confrontation with the mysterious and the irrational. If we listen to the people concerned mainly with classification or marketing, we end up not making honest and true works of art, but only product, rubber-stamped and made to fit into a prefab box that might as well be a casket." David Small
"Without quite realizing it, these indie artists and writers had invented a new art form--a new kind of book for which people at first did not have a name. By the early 2000s, the books were everywhere." Leonard S. Marcus
Whether you call them graphic novels or comics, the current creators are a force in the publishing industry. Comics Confidential, Thirteen Graphic Novelists Talk Story, Craft, and Life Outside the Box, compiled and edited by Leonard S. Marcus, is a documentary treasure of the creative contribution from thirteen viewpoints. Each interview includes a comic and sketches or manuscript pages about "the city." Those nest among personal stories of out of the box artists, including Harry Bliss, Hope Larson, and Sara Varon.
Thank you, Leonard, for stopping and sharing so beautifully the backstories, practices, and thoughts of this group. And thanks, Candlewick Press!
Comics Confidential
Thirteen graphic Novelists Talk Story, Craft, and Life Outside the Box
compiled and edited by Leonard S. Marcus
Candlewick Press, 2016
~Lorie Ann Grover
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Blog: readergirlz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Blog: Galley Cat (Mediabistro) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Kwame Alexander has been named the Dorothy Carter Writer-in-Residence by the Bank Street Center for Children’s Literature.
From early April through mid-May, the recently crowned Newbery Medal winner will work with kids (ages 9 to 10) on their poetry curriculum. Alexander (pictured, via) will be the first writer to inaugurate this program. Bank Street will host a conversation event between Alexander and his father, Dr. E. Curtis Alexander, on April 6th. Leonard S. Marcus, a famed historian, has been brought on to serve as the moderator.
Here’s more from the press release: “Bank Street College is establishing an endowment to continue this residency in the name of Dorothy Carter, a children’s book author, a Broadway actress, the first African-American member of the Bank Street College graduate faculty, and a leader of the Bank Street Writers Lab. We lost Dr. Carter in 2012, but her legacy will live on through the Dorothy Carter Writer-in-Residence program. It is fortuitous that Kwame Alexander will inaugurate this program–not only because he is the winner of the 2015 Newbery Medal, but also because his father, Dr. E. Curtis Alexander, who graduated from Bank Street College Graduate School of Education in 1970, worked directly with Dorothy Carter in the Harlem Institute for Teachers.”
Add a CommentBlog: Teaching Authors (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Here on the TeachingAuthors blog, we've been discussing the classic children's books we never read till adulthood. The series was inspired, in part, by Esther's interview with Leonard Marcus in honor of the release of The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth last month. When Esther first told me about the new book, I felt a twinge of guilt--I'd never read the original Phantom Tollbooth. So I suggested this topic to motivate me to finally read Norton Juster's masterpiece. If you're wondering what classics and must-reads you may have missed, be sure to check out the links in the Writing Workout below.
I'm happy to report that I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The wordplay and puns are great fun, but the Math geek in me was especially happy to see the book's celebration of numbers. I was also impressed at how Juster wove important themes about the value of education and action into such an entertaining read. One of my favorite paragraphs (among many) was:
"You must never feel badly about making mistakes," explained Reason quietly, "as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons."I believe the combination of entertainment and enduring themes contributed to making The Phantom Tollbooth such a classic. I'm grateful to Leonard Marcus for bringing this book back into the spotlight. In case you missed the short video in which Norton Juster, Jules Feiffer, and Leonard Marcus discuss the book's creation, I've embedded it below, or you can watch it at YouTube here.
Are there any classic children's/young adult books you missed reading as a child or teen? If so, please share their titles in the comments below. And if you need suggestions of children's/YA books now considered "must reads," see the Writing Workout below.
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Blog: Teaching Authors (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Hi Everyone,
As promised, we're hosting Kidlitosphere Interview Wednesday here today! Below are links to recent interviews related to children's/young adult literature. If you have an interview you'd like to share with us, please post a comment containing the url. The interview should meet the criteria listed at the end of this post.
Here's the round-up so far. I'll check back later to add more links as they're submitted.
- Tabitha at the Writer Musings blog shares a link to her interview with author Greg Fishbone on the release of his humorous middle-grade novel The Galaxy Games: The Challengers.
- Myra at the Gathering Books blog shared a link to her interview with Ken Spillman, author of the young adult novel Love is a UFO.
- TeachingAuthors' follower Lois Barr suggested we take a look at the Whole Megillah blog, which recently featured an interesting three-in-one interview with the author, editor, and illustrator of the picture book Sadie’s Sukkah Breakfast, written by Rabbi Jamie Korngold, edited by Joni Sussman, and illustrated by Julie Fortenberry.
- Yesterday, the Cynsations blog featured Lena Coakley's intriguing interview with Hadley Dyer, the newly appointed executive children's editor at HarperCollins Canada.
- Bruce Black at the Wordswimmer blog shares an interview with author Eric Kimmel on his writing process.
- Did you know that November is
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Blog: Teaching Authors (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Blog: Lori Calabrese Writes! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Golden Legacy: How Golden Books Won Children's Hearts, Changed Publishing Forever, and Became An American Icon Along the Way (Deluxe Golden Book) by Leonard S. Marcus; Golden Books, 2007.
Ages 9-12
I'm sure many of us have memories of those metallic spines of Little Golden Books. I always love looking at the -This Little Golden Book Belongs To page and checking out my penmanship as a child. THE YEAR 2007 marked the 65th anniversary of a bold experiment: the launch of the Little Golden Books during the dark days of World War II. At a time when the literacy rate was not nearly as high as it is now - and privation was felt by nearly all - quality books for children would now be available at a price nearly everyone could afford (25 cents), and sold where ordinary people shopped. Golden Legacy is a lively history of a company, a line of books, the groundbreaking writers and artists who created them, the clever mavericks who marketed and sold them, and the cultural landscape that surrounded them.
The Children's Museum of Manhattan is offering an exhibit on Little Golden Books from July 4 until August 28. View 60 masterpieces of original illustration art by legendary artists from American publishing's best-loved and most consequential picture-book line - Little Golden Books.
Watch the video, The Little Golden Milestone, from ABC News.
Hop over to Anastasia Suen's picture book of the day blog for the Nonfiction Monday roundup!
I love, love, love this book and have probably read it 30 times with various classes through the years. It makes me happy when some one picks it up!
Thanks for sharing your enthusiasm, Caroline. :-)