By: David Elzey,
on 11/10/2009
by Beatrice de Regniers1959 Pantheon edition illustratedby Reiner Zimnik1989 Lothrop, Lee & Shepard editionillustrated by Bernice MyersToday, a little compare and contrast between two editions of the same book separated by three decades.Snowed in on and old farmhouse in the Dakotas, a lonely woman begins to fantasize about having a little company. The man, her husband, points out that they don't
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By: Sara Lewis Holmes,
on 12/24/2008
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 8/27/2008
Today, on the first anniversary of the death of Grace Lin's husband Robert Mercer, I wanted to write up a post about a very special gift I received in the mail from illustrator Annie Patterson last December. Annie was one of approximately two hundred children’s picture book illustrators who created beautiful snowflakes for the 2007 Robert’s Snow auctions that raised money for the Jimmy Fund and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. I fell in love with Annie’s snowflake of a young girl holding a white rabbit painted on the background of a snowy winter scene.
Annie, who lives in Alaska, is the illustrator of Whale Snow, which was written by Debby Dahl Edwardson. Fortunately for me, I won Annie’s snowflake in the auction. After learning I had won her beautiful work of art, I left the following comment at this post on her blog Imagine and Create:
Jules & Eisha of 7-Imp
Robert Mercer and Grace Lin
By: Matt Phelan,
on 12/8/2007
A big thank you to everyone who bid on a Robert's Snow snowflake (whether you won an auction or not). My unscientific observation of the bids seems to indicate the auction was successful. And now...Go, Science!
By: Susan Mitchell,
on 12/3/2007
Week three for Robert's Snow
This is your last chance to catch your own snowflake. All the proceeds will go to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Bidding starts today and ends Friday, 7th December at 5pm. Robert's Snow
By: Heidi Estrin,
on 12/1/2007
Click the play button on this flash player to listen to the podcast now:
Or click MP3 File to start your computer's media player.
SHOW NOTES:
This episode marks the 2nd year anniversary of The Book of Life! In this show, we celebrate the holiday of Hanukkah.
> Illustrator Ann Koffsky describes her snowflake "Jerusalem of Peace," created for Robert's Snow for Cancer's Cure. We also learn about her illustrations for My Cousin Tamar Lives in Israel by Michelle Shapiro Abraham, and her new Joyfully Jewish 2008 calendar.
> Author Sarah Marwil Lamstein and illustrator Neil Waldman discuss their picture book Letter on the Wind: A Chanukah Tale.
> Kenny Ellis, cantor and performer, riffs on his CD Hanukkah Swings! You can also check out Kenny's MySpace page, and download "Swingin' Dreidel" as a ringtone.
> Author Barbara Bietz talks about her chapter book Like a Maccabee, as well as her kidlit blog and her new position on the Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee, where she'll help choose the best Judaic children's books of the year.
NEWS:
Here is a special Hanukkah treat for you: a complete online version of the holiday classic, Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins by Eric A. Kimmel, provided by Lookybook. To hear from Eric himself about the inspiration for Hershel, you can read this post from my Library Blogathon or you can listen to the very first episode of The Book of Life from December 2005, when Eric was a featured guest. Enjoy!
Background music is provided by The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band.
Books and CD's mentioned on the show may be borrowed from the Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel. Browse our online catalog to reserve books, post a review, or just to look around!
By: Matt Phelan,
on 12/1/2007
The third and final auction for Robert's Snow 2007 starts this MONDAY, DECEMBER 3 and ends FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7 at 5PM!!! Check out the original works of art that can be all yours... just for fighting cancer...HERE!
By: Susan Mitchell,
on 11/25/2007
Robert's Snow auction week two
Here is another chance to own unique pieces of artwork created by children's illustrators. All the proceeds got to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Happy bidding: Robert's Snow
Things have been pretty quiet around here - lot's and lot's of work to do. Lately, I have been listening to Librivox while I paint. Volunteers have recorded books for your listening pleasure. I get completely transported while I paint. So far, I have got through Jane Eyre, Little Women and The Secret Garden. Some books are read by just one person and others can have each chapter read by a different person, so it can make for entertaining listening.
In between work, I have been trying to do a little Christmas shopping on Etsy. I haven't got time to make any of my own gifts this year or to go shopping. There is such a wide of variety of unique and lovely things to choose from, and I can browse while I am sitting in my cosy house. I just have to remember that I am shopping for other people and not for myself!
And it was exciting to see our book in the Scholastic flyer today!
It's time for auction one! Can you stand it? Check out the links to the previews of the snowflakes, and start the bidding, folks!
It's time to start bidding on the Robert's Snow Snowflakes!
Here are the links that showcase the snowflakes for Auction One!
By: Wendy in Editorial,
on 11/11/2007
Tim Coffey is the latest Albert Whitman illustrator to be featured online for the annual Robert’s Snow art fundraiser. Tim illustrated the award-winning books Red Berry Wool, by Robyn Eversole, and Mabela the Clever, by Margaret Read MacDonald. He also wrote and illustrated Christmas at the Top of the World, and if something about his style looks familiar, it’s because he also has a line of scrapbooking products. Today he’s being profiled by Pam Calvert at her blog The Silver Lining.
Once again, the Robert’s Snow auctions begin November 19th, and we’ll let you know when you can bid on snowflakes by your favorite Albert Whitman illustrators to raise money for cancer research.
By: Wendy in Editorial,
on 11/8/2007
Last week the children’s book podcast Just One More Book talked to Diane Greenseid about her contribution to the Robert’s Snow art fundraiser. Diane is the illustrator of Teeny Weeny Bop by Margaret Read MacDonald and Waynetta and the Cornstalk by Helen Ketteman, and she has a great blog, too. She painted her snowflake back in July—children’s book illustrators are always having to conjure up different seasons—and she discussed the process and showed her sketches in this fun entry. Listen to the podcast to hear her talk about Robert’s Snow, working under pressure, “singing colors,” and more.
We’ll be posting more about other Albert Whitman illustrators participating in Robert’s Snow as they’re profiled around the web. The auctions to buy these terrific snowflakes and raise money for cancer research begins November 19th.
Behold J.Lo, in all his snowflakey glory!
Adam Rex is on of the illustrators who has donated a snowflake to the wonderful Robert's Snow auction to benefit the Dana-Faber Cancer Institute. He happens to be one of my favourite illustrators, and I was very happy that I snagged him when the ladies over at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast (also big fans...see here and here) were organizing this whole affair!
I think I first came to Adam Rex's work through Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich. The second I spied the cover, I knew I had to have it. As a collector of Halloween picture books, I was so pleased not only with the art, but with the smart and funny poetry within. It's a killer for my Halloween read alouds with all kids loving the illustrations, and the kids with that sense of humour (you know the ones) splitting their sides over the content.
My next encounter (after searching for more) was with the Lucy Rose series. An early chapter book, featuring a feisty protagonist (what's not to love?). After that, I just wanted to read, and own everything. Fandom? Maybe...but I have yet to be disappointed.
Adam graciously agreed to answer some of my questions, as well as some questions from The True Meaning of Smekday loving kids at my school. So here we go.
Stacy: How did you get involved with Robert's Snow?
Adam: They tracked my email address down and got in touch in 2005–I think Grace Lin had seen my first book, The Dirty Cowboy (written by Amy Timberlake), and thought my work would compliment the collection.
Stacy: Did you always know that you wanted to be an illustrator? How did you figure out that writing and illustrating for children was for you?
Adam: I always knew I wanted to be an artist of some kind. I didn't think about writing and illustrating kids' books until I was in my teens, and working in a bookstore. When I became familiar with some of the titles coming out in the late eighties like The True Story of the Three Little Pigs! and A Day With Wilbur Robinson, I realized there was a place for my sense of humor, and for the sort of art I wanted to make.
Stacy: How long were you cooking up The True Meaning of Smekday?
Adam: Oh, off and on for four or five years. At first it was just the fun project I worked on when I wanted to avoid my real work. So I started slowly. Then my agent sold it based on maybe the first third, and I worked more in earnest then. But I think some of the ideas go back further than that–I've long thought an alien invasion would be a good way to address our own history.
Stacy: How did you come up with the Boov Speak? I found that when I was reading Smekday, Boov speak stayed in my brain quite easily. Did you find yourself rearranging your words while you were writing?
Adam: Boovspeak comes kind of naturally to me–it's kind of an exaggeration of how I talk when I'm being lazy and there isn't anyone but my wife and me around. As I was working on Smekday I reached a point at which J.Lo's (my Boov's) speech came as quickly for me as did any other character's. I have not had for writing this way recentlies, so I am possibly notso much a Boovspeak Superstar as to before now. Hm.
Stacy: My students were asking about the "secret cover" on Smekday. The dust jacket image is different than the image that is physically on the book. What's the story?
Adam: No big story, really - I just came up with a number of images that I thought would make different covers for the book, and wanted to use as many of them as possible. People can peruse my July postings on my blog to see a little of how the cover evolved. I don't like to waste ideas, so I stuck runner-up covers beneath the dust jacket and on the title page. My books Tree Ring Circus and Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich have "secret covers" as well, for various reasons.
Stacy: I have read that there is a sequel to Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich in the works. How is that going? Is the writing process for a collection of poetry vastly different than for a picture book?
Adam: It's written! Now I'm just figuring out the art. It will be called Frankenstein Takes the Cake. I've reported in other places that I thought it was going to be called Frankenstein Makes a Sequel
, but I was eventually talked out of that.Stacy: And here are some questions from my students who have been reading and loving The True Meaning of Smekday...
From an 8th grade reader: When you wrote the book, and didn't tell the readers some of the horrors of the aliens, did you know yourself? Or was it a mystery to you as well as the reader?
Adam: I don't know what details you're thinking about specifically, but I can definitely say that some things in Smekday were as much a mystery to me as I wrote as they will be to my readers. I wrote a lot without knowing exactly where the story was going, or how it would end, and trusted that I would figure it out eventually. That meant I had to go back from time to time and change some passages I'd written earlier so they'd fall in line with some plot detail I'd only just discovered. I didn't know at first, for example, that Gorg is not the name of the alien race, but rather that every member of the race is named Gorg. But it struck me at some point that having your planet invaded by, say, the Todd (a huge group of people who are all named Todd) or whatever would be funny.
From a 7th grade reader: How did you think of the characters and planets in The True Meaning of Smekday?
Adam: I thought a lot and drew a lot. When I felt like I had a good idea what the aliens were going to look like, their appearance helped me figure out what kind of people they were.
From another 7th grade reader: This book has so many characters and contraptions...it had a crazy plot. What or where did all of those ideas come from?
Adam: I was inspired by a lot of other books and movies and so forth, particularly the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy by Douglas Adams. But my ideas come from the same kind of places everyone's ideas come from -- you all the stories you've read, the movies and TV shows you've seen, things other people have old you, then maybe you mix it up with some other stories and ideas that don't seem to have anything to do with the first stories and ideas, then you run it all through the dirty coffee filter of your brain and, if you're lucky, it comes out looking and smelling like something brand new.
Stacy: Since it's Halloween and all, could you let us in on your favourite candy? Is it the same as when you were young or has your palate evolved?
Adam: I like gummi a lot these days, and it didn't really exist in America, as far as I knew, when I was a little kid. My earliest memories of Gummi Bears are from 6th or 7th grade. And yet Wikipedia tells me they've been around since the twenties. I don't know. I also love good dark chocolate, which as a kid I lumped in the same category as wine or coffee or kissing in movies -- things that only the mental illness of adulthood could cause you to like. When I was a kid I liked Butterfingers.
If you just can't stand it and you need some more, Adam Rex can be found all over the web. Here's a list of a few of the places that I found!
And for the CONTEST! Just use the comments to tell me what YOUR favourite Adam Rex title is, and you will be in the running for a brand new shiny hardcover copy of The True Meaning of Smekday! Woot!
By: Tracy Grand,
on 10/26/2007
Wow! We're nearing the end of week 2 of the fantastic multi-blog effort promoting the Robert's Snow Auction. I just did a search for Robert's Snow in the JacketFlap Blog Reader, and there have been an incredible 465 blog posts mentioning Robert's Snow. As many of you know, there are 4 to 5 regularly scheduled "official" blog posts across the kidlitosphere featuring the work of the wonderful illustrators contributing snowflakes to this year's auction. But 465 blog posts means that this effort has inspired numerous other people to blog about Robert's Snow, and that's really fantastic!
Click here to search for Robert's Snow in our Blog Reader and read the 465 blog posts for yourself. I'm sure you've read many of these posts, but as you can see, there are plenty to read. Have a great weekend!
Tracy
By: Erik Brooks,
on 10/23/2007
My Robert's Snow creation is featured today in the Blogging for a Cure "tour" over at Bildungsroman by Little Willow. A great reminder for a terrific fundraiser and a fine way to create some awareness.
My particular snowflake will be auctioned off November 19-23. Find your checkbooks!
By: Carol Baicker-McKee,
on 10/15/2007
By: Sylvia Vardell,
on 9/21/2007
I had the opportunity to meet the talented and effervescent author and illustrator Grace Lin this spring when we were on a panel together at the Texas Library Association conference. Her husband, Robert Mercer, was desperately ill and sadly passed away a month ago at the too-young age of 35. My good friend Nancy also lost her husband to cancer this summer. Grief has been weighing on many I care about recently, so I sought a poem for solace, of course.
Poem
by Langston Hughes
I loved my friend.
He went away from me.
There’s nothing more to say.
The poem ends,
Soft as it began—
I loved my friend.
Hughes, Langston. 1994. The Dreamkeeper and Other Poems. New York: Knopf, p. 12.
I would also like to join in the promotion of Robert’s Snow: For Cancer’s Cure, the fundraising effort that Grace initiated several years ago. From the Web site: “Own a piece of art from your favorite children's book illustrator while helping to fight cancer” by buying an original snowflake ornament created by children’s book illustrators. “Since 2004, this online auction has raised over $200,000 for Dana-Farber, and with your help, we can continue this holiday tradition in 2007.” The auction begins in November. And for more information about Robert himself, check out the Blue Rose Girls blog.
For the whole Poetry Friday roundup, go to Sara Lewis Holmes' blog Read Write Believe.
Picture credit: http://bluerosegirls.blogspot.com/
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By: bryn,
on 9/17/2007
I was sitting in church yesterday as our pastor was reading names of prayer concerns. Recently there seems to be quite a few names of those who are battling cancer, battling its vicious spread despite even amputations, miraculously recovering and, for some, miraculously passing. I suddenly had a memory of the first person I ever knew to die of cancer. Her name was Sherry Nicholson and she was our church's youth music director. She died when I was maybe 7 or 8. I remember watching her husband and her two kids, my friends, at the "Celebration of Life" party we had at church in her memory. We, the kids, sang a song, and I have never felt so helpless and guilty for wanting to "celebrate" a life while her kids just stared at the floor. As is the way with this disease, Mrs. Nicholson would be the first of many victims and survivors with which I had/have a personal connection.
I need a muse :) Happy holidays
shelli
http://www.faeriality.blogspot.com/
Perfect.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
Happy New Year!
your angel is beautiful. May she bless your family and your home this holiday season.