I've finished the inks and the tone for the first part of the story. I've mucked about briefly with a logo and the lettering too.

Posted by  Heidi Estrin to The AJL Convention Blog

LIBRARIANS’ CONVENTION LUNCHEON FEATURES ILLINOIS AUTHORS

Association of Jewish Libraries Serves Up Authors at Sheraton Chicago on July 7

(Chicago – May 20, 2009) Teachers, librarians, educators and booklovers are invited to attend a gala Jewish Author Luncheon on Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers at 12:00 noon. The event will feature over thirty-five authors and illustrators who create books for adults and children. A book signing and reception will follow the luncheon, which is being held in conjunction with the annual Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) national convention.

During the luncheon and reception, authors and illustrators will circulate among the attendees to highlight their works, ranging from children’s picture books, adult fiction and non-fiction, poetry, and short stories to cookbooks and scholarly works.  Several of these authors will also present sessions during the AJL convention.  On Monday, July 6, Esme Codell (Vive La Paris, Hanukkah Shmanukkah), Ilene Cooper (Sam I Am, Jewish Holidays All Year Round), Brenda Ferber (Jemma Hartman, Camper Extraordinaire, Julia’s Kitchen), and Esther Hershenhorn (Chicken Soup By Heart) will explore “Writing the Jewish Children’s Book” and Simone Elkeles (Perfect Chemistry, How to Ruin My Teenage Life) will discuss “Bat Mitzvah & Beyond: Jewish Girls Coming of Age in Fiction.”  On Tuesday, July 7, Peter Ascoli will speak about his book about his grandfather, Julius Rosenwald: The Man Who Built Sears, Roebuck and Advanced the Cause of Black Education in the American South. 

Local authors will be joined by authors and illustrators from across the United States and Israel.  Richard Michelson (Northampton, Massachusetts) and Raul Colon (New City, New York), author and illustrator of As Good As Anybody: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Amazing March Toward Freedom, the 2009 Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner for Younger Reader, Aranka Siegal (Williams Island, Florida), author of Memories of Babi, the 2009 Sydney Taylor Honor Award Winner for Older Readers, and Anna Levine (Jerusalem, Israel), author of Freefall, the 2009 Sydney Taylor Honor Award Winner for Teen Readers, will all present during sessions on Tuesday, July 7 and will also be recognized during the awards banquet on Tuesday evening.  Pearl Sofaer (San Francisco, California), author of Baghdad to Bombay: In the Kitchens of My Cousins, will speak about the gems of Mizrahi liturgy on Monday, July 6.

“The AJL convention will draw over 200 Judaica librarians from synagogues, day schools, community centers, seminaries, universities, and research institutions from across North America and around the world,” explains Rachel Kamin, a member of the local planning committee and chair of the Jewish Author Luncheon. “We want to showcase and celebrate the wealth of Jewish literary talent in the metropolitan Chicago community during the convention.”

Tickets for the Jewish Author Luncheon and Reception are available for $75.00 and include an elegant kosher meal and delicious dessert reception.  Copies of the participating authors’ works will be available for sale.  To purchase tickets, or for more information about the Association of Jewish Libraries and its Chicago convention, contact Marcie Eskin at [email protected] or (847) 676-1480, or visit www.jewishlibraries.org.

For more information, contact:

Rachel Kamin, Planning Committee

Association of Jewish Libraries Annual Convention

(847) 432-8903 x242

[email protected]

www.JewishLibraries.org

  The first AJL Northwest Regional Conference took place February 15th in Seattle. The event was organized to generate interest in the upcoming annual convention being planned for July , 2010. The regional conference had teachers, librarians and others interested in children’s literature for a full day workshop featuring guest speakers Lisa Silverman and Rivy Poupko Kletenik. The conference was titled “From Word to Deed: Teaching Our Children Through Literature.” AJL Chapter Relations Chair represented the National Association of Jewish Libraries Council at the conference.

The event was planned by Toby Harris, Janet Heineck, Rita Frischer, and Tessa Benion, Publicity was sent to local schools, synagogues, and libraries and attendees received credit from the Bureau of Jewish Education.

To see pictures of the event, click here.

Congratulations to everyone invloved in planning this outstanding event!

B’shalom,

Susan Dubin

AJL President

by Cassie, Publicity Assistant

I was lucky enough to be able to attend a day of New York Comic Con this year, and let me tell you, it was amazing! It was my first time attending a con like this, and I felt right at home among my fellow geeks. I got tons of free loot, and a few things I was happy to pay for. And panels! And heroes! And costumes! Here’s my (kind of late) recap.

When is it normal to see Stormtroopers in full armor wandering around? Why, at Comic Con, of course! Members of the 501st Legion were definitely in attendance this year, and I was so excited to see that I completely forgot to take any pictures.

Turns out that was kind of the theme of the day—my head was so busy looking this way and that that the camera rarely came out of the bag. As a result, I don’t really have awesome visuals to share, but I did get a picture of a guy drawing an amazing and huge piece of chalk art, and of course, the ghostbusters!

Even without pictures to remind me, Comic Con was an event I will never forget. Being in the book industry, my favorite part was, of course, getting to stop by all the different publishers’ booths and see what they have coming up. And get free loot, of course! Michael, another OUPer who went, and I each took home a pretty decent haul, along with a few purchases.

Publishing has a huge presence at Comic Con, and I know I missed a few booths, but one that I absolutely made sure to stop by was the Tor booth, because they have something coming out soon that I’ve been anticipating for YEARS: A Memory of Light, the last book in the Wheel of Time series. Still no official date, but I’m told that yes, it really will be coming in the Fall of this year.

The poor kids at the Bantam Dell booth spent most of their days telling people that yes, the next George R.R. Martin novel really is scheduled to come out this fall, yes, September is correct, yes, it will be arriving soon. And of course, that was the question I asked too. But hey, I got my answer! A Dance with Dragons will arrive in time for me to give it to my brother for Christmas.

Frank Beddor, the author of the awesome Looking Glass Wars series was on hand signing books. I was sorry I hadn’t brought my copy of the first book to get signed, but he and I had a great chat about the fact that I had just finished Seeing Redd on the Kindle, and he had no idea they were even available electronically! He was lovely and signed a poster for me and gave me a free cd of music inspired by the series, as Sunday was also my birthday. He told me he just sent off a manuscript to his editor, so the next book in the series should be coming soon.

The best of the loot I received, in my opinion, is a galley of the sixth book in the Ranger’s Apprentice series from the Penguin booth. Why, exactly, was this a great score? Well, I literally just picked up the first book in the series last week, and as soon as I had book six in hand, I went home and devoured the first one. Now, I’m off to the bookstore to pick up the other four books so I can get to my shiny prize. (Sidenote: Yes, the first one really was that good. I’m a sucker for good YA lit. Luckily I have a giftcard. Additional sidenote: I did go to the bookstore after I wrote that last night, and bought the next three books. I have devoured two of them already.)

Of course, there were tons of other publishers’ booths that I visited, and all sorts of comics, video games, and toy booths as well. But you can tell that I’m in the right industry—the books are what stick out in my mind.

For more complete roundups of Con events and activities, here are some links. Publishers Weekly has a nice recap, and their own blogger Barbara Vey was in attendance. Blog io9 has, of course, a great post about con costumes, and there are great roundups at the Tor blog and Suvudu, the Random House sci-fi/fantasy blog.

As a closing note, I wanted to share with you this brief line from the con guide book: “8 Hours of Sleep + 3 meals a Day + 1 Shower = A Happy and Healthy NYCC Atendee.”

At the Midwinter meeting of the Board and Council of the Association of Jewish Libraries held in New York January 11 and 12, we voted to support the Convention with national funds so that the registration fee could be held at last year’s price of $450 even though actual costs will be somewhat higher this year. The hotel rate will be $159 per night which is much cheaper than the ALA rates the following week. In addition to subsidizing the registration fee, we also our Convention subsidy budget to $30,000 to provide funds for those who need them. Forms for convention subsidies will be online very soon. If you need funding to get to the Convention this year, please be sure to apply!

Besides increasing budget lines to help our members, the Council voted to establish an advocacy award for the decision makers in institutions who support their library programs. A new committee will work on the details and present them at the annual meeting at Convention. It is our hope that recognizing those who support libraries will encourage more support.

Two regional conferences are planned for February – 

 Western Regional Children’s Literature Conference on using Holocaust literature will be held at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance on February 1st. Contact Lisa Silverman at [email protected] for information.

Northwest Regional Conference “Teaching Values Through Children’s Literature” will take place on February 15 in Seattle. Contact Tessa Bennion at [email protected] for more information.

Ten AJL members will be presenting as part of two panels at the World Jewish Congress this August. We also are planning a joint program with ALA this summer. If you are planning to present at any upcoming conferences, please list AJL as one of your organizations. It is great PR!

The Blog tour with Sydney Taylor Award winners is underway. Congratulations to all the award winners and thanks to those hosting them on their blogs. The schedule is below:

Monday, January 19, 2009
Richard Michelson
Author of As Good As Anybody, Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Younger Readers Category
and
Author of A is for Abraham, Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category
at The Well-Read Child

Monday, January 19, 2009
Ron Mazellan, illustrator of A is for Abraham
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category
at Tales from the Rushmore Kid

Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Jane Yolen, author of Naming Liberty
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category
at The Boston Bibliophile

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Anna Levine
Author of Freefall, Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Teen Readers Category
and
Author of Jodie’s Hanukkah Dig, Notable Book in the Younger Readers Category
at Abby (the) Librarian

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Jim Burke, illustrator of Naming Liberty
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category
at The Page Flipper

Thursday, January 22, 2009
Jacqueline Jules, author of Sarah Laughs
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category
at Chicken Spaghetti

Friday, January 23, 2009
Deborah Bodin Cohen, author of Engineer Ari and the Rosh Hashanah Ride
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category
at Becky’s Book Reviews

Friday, January 23, 2009
Shahar Kober, illustrator of Engineer Ari and the Rosh Hashanah Ride
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category
at Into the Wardrobe

 AJL actively promotes Jewish literature through its various awards. In the field of Children’s Literature, the Sydney Taylor Awards are well-known to highlight the best in Jewish literature for children. Awards are given in three categories — younger readers (up to 8 years old), older readers (9-12), and teen (12 and up). This year AJL celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the Sydney Taylor Awards at the annual Convention in Cleveland with a full day of special presentations.

  Sarah Gershman, winner of the Sydney Taylor Award for The Good Night Shma shares her story at one of the presentations.

The Association also gives awards for Bibliography and Reference works.

To encourage new Jewish writers, the Association also gives out a Manuscript award to an unpublished writer. Several of the Manuscript Award winners have gone on to have their books published and win a Sydney Taylor Book Award.

 Yael Mermelstein, winner of the Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award 2007.

Brenda Ferber was a Manuscript Award winner for Julia’s Kitchen and then went on to win the Sydney Taylor Award in 2007.

An upcoming event for those on the East Coast is the Jewish Literature for Children Conference organized by Anna Olswanger. It takes place at the 92nd Street Y and features authors, editors, publishers, and agents interested in Jewish literature for children.

For people who can not make it to New York, there is a West Coast Jewish Literature for Children Regional Conference coming up February 1st in Los Angeles and a Northwest Regional Conference in Seattle on February 15th. More to come on these events as they get closer!

‘Til Next Time,

Susan Dubin

AJL President

Purdy, Director of Publicity, is in LA this weekend at Book Expo America. He will be reporting from the action for those of us left in NYC.

Live from the convention floor of BEA in LA. For those not in the know BEA stands for Book Expo America, the largest convention of publishers, media, bookstore owners, librarians and book lovers in the US and abroad. Super rep George Carroll from the great northwest just entered the OUP booth to say hello. Always great to see George! So far the floor is media lite, but we are encouraged by a steady stream of booksellers, librarians, authors et al who have passed through the booth to pick up an OED 80th anniversary tote with a copy of Reading the OED by Ammon Shea tucked inside. I am happy to say we have some great neighbors here in the 1700 aisle, with Harlequin across the way, HarperCollins a row away, the Perseus Group around the corner.

Darren Shannon, former OUP senior publicist cum Publicity Manager of Cambridge University Press was seen in the OUP booth earlier this morn all shorn and suited. I barely recognized him is his respectable guise. I had to cut our visit short when Donna Freitas, author of Sex and the Soul, made a booth appearance to express her great satisfaction with coverage of her book to date. Kudos to Kelly Hughes and our own Claudia Dizenzo for their great good efforts.

That’s BEA today, baby. More later.

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