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Morning, folks.  Let’s see, let’s see.  After yesterday maybe it would be a good idea to do a post on rainbows and unicorns and cute little puppy dogs cavorting in the sun.  I’m a little exhausted after yesterday’s post so let’s just do a quickie Fusenews of wonderfullness instead.

• First up, The Toast knocks it out of the park.  If you read nothing else today (pay no attention that blog post behind the curtain) read A Harry Potter Where Hermione Doesn’t Do Anyone’s Homework for Them.

• Do you read Real Simple?  A familiar name might have snuck her way onto one of the pages.

• Calling Caldecott addresses an issue that has always fascinated me. Why do some illustrators who have amazing illustrating chops never ever get Caldecotts?

• Maybe 100 Scope Notes has the answer. In terms of publication dates, what month births the most Caldecotts? Travis Jonker finds the figures.  Be sure to read the statistics in the comments.  Truly we are living in the Age of Aquarius.

• Maybe it’s just clickbait, but as titles go The Guardian’s article
  Children’s author Cressida Cowell scoops philosophers’ award for fight against stupidity sort of takes the cake in terms of interesting concepts all jumbled together into one place.

In case you missed it, 215 candidates from 59 countries are currently nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2016.  The Yanks are of particular interest.  There are the usual standbys and then there are folks like oral storyteller Anne Pellowski.  Wow!  Well done there.  I’m also going to check out Children’s Literature New England (CLNE) & The Examined Life (EXL), Friends of African Village Libraries (FAVL), and Room to Read. I’m feeling a bit embarrassed that it took this nomination to learn about their work.

• By the way, a show of hands.  How many of you knew about The Arnold Adoff Poetry Awards, which “seek to recognize excellence in multicultural poetry for youth, for readers at the primary level, middle level, and teens”?  Be honest.  It’s new to me too.  But it’s out there and they could do with some proactive publishing houses, large and small, sending in their nominees.  If you fit the bill, tell your publisher today.  You have until December 1st.

• An interesting Pew Survey finding that teens are reading more than adults these days.  They do not ascribe any particular reason for the YA surge.  We know it cannot exist in a void, however, so I’m just going to congratulate the YA librarians out there.  You guys are doing a stellar job.  Keep up the good work.

• “Please Don’t Agree with Me: the Need for Disagreement in Debates About Literature for Young People.”  That talk?  Given by Christopher Myers recently and recapped by Phil Nel.  I’m particularly interested in the part where Chris says that agreement can efface difference, whereas “Disagreement recognizes an actual difference.”  I think we can safely say that no differences were effaced in the last two weeks at this site.

• Daily Image:

And Shannon Hale goes for the fancy fingernail book release win!

Here are some literary events to pencil in your calendar this week.

To get your event posted on our calendar, visit our Facebook Your Literary Event page. Please post your event at least one week prior to its date.

The Epic Reads summer tour will kick off with a panel at Books of Wonder. Join in on Tuesday, April 21st from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. (New York, NY)

Award-winning children’s books creator Christopher Myers will discuss his new book, My Pen, at Barnes & Noble (86th & Lexington Ave.). Meet him on Thursday, April 23rd starting at 1 p.m. (New York, NY)

The next session of the Book’d in Burbank event will take place at Theatre Banshee. Check it out on Thursday, April 23rd from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. (Burbank, CA)

Firebird

By Misty Copeland; illustrations by Christopher Myers

Role models. How important are they today for young people growing up? Very. And yet, what we see in the culture as role models for our youth are very often rock stars and sports figures in the 24/7 news cycle. Our culture has claimed mere celebrity as justification for fame. Wrong.

A role model seems to be someone you should look to for inspiration. It is someone who sets an example for the behavior and achievement you would hope to emulate in some field of endeavor – or just in life in general.

Misty Copeland is one of those people for whom mere celebrity is not nearly enough. And the path to her momentous achievement in her area of talent and achievement, seemed blocked on so many levels.

She came to ballet late for one. She was thirteen; a seemingly difficult hurdle to overcome when many ballerinas start out at the ballet barre at very young ages. And for another, she was African American, where past is prologue, at least as far as big roles were concerned in the world of ballet.

“Firebird” is Misty Copeland’s signature role. And it is through that avenue of her own flight into a role in ballet, that this amazingly passionate dancer chooses to mentor a young girl. Side by side with Misty, together they mirror the journey of Misty and the beginnings of another.

In very simple verse, brimming with the bold color and vibrancy of Christopher Myers and his Coretta Scott King Award winning art, “Firebird” literally takes off in flight.

It is a flight born of enthusiasm, challenge, hard work, resilience and inner toughness that will not be denied. In “Firebird,” Misty mentors a young dancer both in the ardor and arduous path she will need to make her dreams a reality – in ballet – and life.

These are the role models, like Misty Copeland, that our young readers need to hear more about, as nothing is more powerful or compelling than the journey of a single soul to an all but unreachable goal.

Misty has met and exceeded hers as only the second African American in American Ballet Theater history!

But beyond her own achievements, she continues to inspire in children what is possible; never forgetting her own journey. Someone once told me, “ We stand on the shoulders of the people that came before us.” Misty Copeland continues to honor that in her book, “Firebird.”

She has been honored with induction into the Boys and Girls Club National Hall of Fame as an indicator of her level of commitment to future generations that need to see what is possible.

“the space between you and me is longer than forever

and I will show them that forever is not so far away”

Illustrator Award Winner: Christopher Myers for Firebird

Firebird: Ballerina Misty Copeland 
Shows a Young Girl How to 
Dance like the Firebird
by Misty Copeland; 
illus. by Christopher Myers
Primary Putnam 40 pp.
9/14 978-0-399-16615-0 $17.99 g

Think you can simply write off celebrity books? Think again. American Ballet Theatre soloist Copeland is just as graceful with words as she is with her body. Here she addresses the next generation as she imagines a dialogue between herself and a young female African American ballet student who claims she is “gray as rain / heavy as naptime, low as a storm pressing on rooftops.” Copeland reassures the girl that she had the same self-doubts, and “darling child, don’t you know / you’re just where I started.” Myers’s stunning collages layer strips of thickly painted paper to echo the wings of a firebird (Copeland’s signature role), whether they are illustrating the stage curtains or a cloudy sky. His deep, rich colors make even the portraits of the dancers at rest dramatic, and when the dancers are on stage, they seem to fly. The words of the girl appear in italics and the dancer’s words in boldface to clearly differentiate between the speakers. In an author’s note, Copeland tells us that, as a child, she never saw herself in ballet books; this book encourages today’s aspiring dancers of all colors and backgrounds. KATHLEEN T. HORNING

Illustrator Honor Winners:

Christian Robinson for Josephine

Josephine:
The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker
by Patricia Hruby Powell; 
illus. by Christian Robinson
Intermediate, Middle School Chronicle 104 pp.
2/14 978-1-4521-0314-3 $17.99

To describe Josephine Baker’s life as “dazzling” is not an exaggeration. In this incomparable biography both Powell and Robinson convey the passion, exuberance, dignity, and eccentricity of their subject through words and pictures that nearly jump off the page. There is a surprise at every turn as we learn how Baker, at fifteen, hid inside a costume trunk to stow away with a dance troupe. We see how she managed to stand out in a chorus line by crossing her eyes and acting goofy to win over audiences. We find her walking down the Champs-Élysées with her pet leopard, Chiquita, who wore a diamond choker. You think her life couldn’t get any more interesting? Wait until you hear about her years as a spy for the French Resistance. Or about the twelve children she adopted from all over the world (her “rainbow tribe”), to prove that people of different races could live together. Matter-of-factly introducing the racism her subject encountered throughout her life, Powell doesn’t shy away from the challenges Baker faced, but she makes clear that Baker never let them overwhelm the joy she got from performing and living life to its fullest. Robinson’s highly stylized illustrations, using bold colors and a flat perspective, are at once sophisticated and inviting to young readers. Even the few pages without pictures are made visually interesting by the broad strokes of acrylic paint in the background and by the clean typeface that judiciously uses uppercase to accentuate important words or lines in the text. Direct quotes from Baker — translated from the French, of course — are interspersed throughout. C’est magnifique! KATHLEEN T. HORNING

Frank Morrison for Little Melba and Her Big Trombone

Little Melba and 
Her Big Trombone
by Katheryn Russell-Brown; 
illus. by Frank Morrison
Primary Lee & Low 40 pp.
7/14 978-1-60060-898-8 $18.95 g

From the time she was a little girl, Melba Liston loved music, especially the jazz music that surrounded her while she was growing up, first in Kansas City and then in Los Angeles. Given the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument at age seven, she chose the trombone. It was not a traditional choice for a girl, especially a small girl whose arms weren’t even long enough yet to push out the slide. But Melba wasn’t a traditional girl. She persisted, and with the support of her family and her teachers, she excelled. By age seventeen, she was ready to tour as a member of jazz trumpeter Gerald Wilson’s new band. She played with the greats, including Dizzy Gillespie and Quincy Jones, and was almost always the only woman in the band (except on her tour with Billie Holiday). As a woman, she faced as many barriers and challenges as she did as an African American musician traveling through the mid-twentieth-century South. But Melba was highly sought out, as a band member, session musician, composer, and arranger. Russell-Brown’s account of her subject’s early life is as smooth and stimulating as a Liston trombone solo, and will leave readers wanting to know more about the woman and her music. Morrison’s oil paintings, in his trademark elongated, angular style, perfectly convey the jazz scene and, of course, Melba’s amazing horn. KATHLEEN T. HORNING

The post Reviews of the CSK Illustrator Award winners 2015 appeared first on The Horn Book.

Is it possible for a guy who has won three BGHB Honors, four Coretta Scott King Honors, and one Caldecott Honor (in 1998, for Harlem) to be underrated? Why yes, yes it is. Christopher Myers continues to fly under the radar every year when it comes to Caldecott buzz, but I’m guessing the real committee will take a good look at this one.

Julie Danielson interviewed illustrator Myers and author/ballet dancer Misty Copeland at Kirkus a while back; it’s a great piece that is definitely worth a look. In it, Myers talks about how he decided on collage because it allowed him to “choreograph across the page,” using color and texture to reflect the juxtaposition of the “riotous energy” and “careful attention to detail” that constitutes the essence of dance. Keeping this in mind when reading Firebird, I would contend that Myers nailed the “appropriateness of style” criterion…but I would argue that he scores nearly as well with the other criteria, too.

Myers’s illustrations are like intricate puzzles for the reader to take apart and put back together, over and over again. For instance, look at the first full-page spread: the young, unnamed dancer gazes up from the bottom left corner as adult ballerina Misty leaps across a night skyline. In the background, buildings twinkle above a frothy-looking river spanned by a bridge. Misty’s white outfit makes a striking contrast against the lovely midnight blues and deep purples of the sky and river. But don’t stop there: look closer. Note first the texture of the collage, the overlapping pieces of cut paper used to make the night sky, the white-washed blues and blacks of the river below. Now zero in on that skyline. The building above Misty’s outstretched right calf…is that a picture of someone’s hand resting on a gray table, cut into a building shape? And the building above her right knee looks to be a shadowed photo of a brick wall… or is that a fence? All of this is barely noticeable when viewing the spread as a whole, but the bizarre (yet lovely) details become apparent when you lean in for a better look.

In Jules’s piece, Myers talks about how he focused mostly on color and texture to show emotion, and to my mind he succeeded completely. To give just one example, the endpapers are a fiery mix of reds, golds, and oranges, extending that Firebird motif from the front cover. This is some abstract stuff, but young readers will no doubt respond to the hot colors (forget that they are normally referred to as “warm”; these hues are habanero-smoking hot) and texture. To be sure, reading Firebird is an extremely tactile visual experience. Looking closer at the endpapers, I see feathers, the bumps of a diamond-studded (I think) strawberry, a fabric of some sort, and either a shag carpet close-up or a sea anemone. And here, as throughout the book, the reader can clearly see where each piece of cut paper ends and the next begins.

I hate to bring up the typography because I find the book to be practically perfect in every way, but the two fonts are not perfectly chosen. The text is a dialogue between the two characters, with the young girl’s words appearing in a bold italic font and Misty’s words appearing in a bold Roman font. I wish there was more differentiation between the two type styles, because I had to look twice on many occasions to see who was talking. It’s a lovely text, though, and Myers does a fabulous job with his interpretation.

Speaking of interpretation, my own interpretive skills aren’t terribly great, so I’m always curious to hear what others think. What do you all think is going on in some of those spreads? Especially intriguing to me is the final spread, where Misty and the young girl dance together wearing matching white tutus. Silhouetted dancers leap and twirl in front of multi-colored backgrounds, including what I believe is a male dancer to the extreme right. The spread itself is a stunner — it’s absolutely gorgeous — but I don’t completely understand it. Thoughts? And in more general terms, what does everyone think? Are you all high on Firebird, too?

The post Firebird: A Guest Post by Sam Bloom appeared first on The Horn Book.

Here at First Book, we love books (surprise, surprise) and love sharing great books with friends like you.

Starting today, we’ll share a new list of the books each month that our book enthusiasts on staff can’t stop raving about!  You’ll find books full of rich illustrations, diverse characters and compelling tales that span multiple age ranges.

And if you serve kids in need, you can access these books through the First Book Marketplace by signing up.

PreK-K (Ages 2-5):

My Big Barefoot Book of Wonderful Words  written and illustrated by Sophie Fatus

The Palabra family has a busy day ahead of them, and this jam-packed picture book (available as a First Book special edition!) allows readers to follow along while exploring over 700 words, each serving as a label for a corresponding image. There is an infusion of useful vocabulary on each page, but the magic of this book is in the charming illustrations, which transform it into an interactive adventure through a multicultural world.

Grades 1-2 (Ages 6-8):

Viva Frida written and illustrated by Yuyi Morales

You have never read a book like Viva Frida. This sparsely written bilingual picture book employs a unique art style – a mix of painting and photographs of hand-made puppets – to celebrate the life and emotional depth of Frida Kahlo. While not a traditional biography, the author’s profound tribute to the famous Mexican artist will leave readers hungry to learn more.

Grades 3-4 (Ages 8-10):

Firebird written by Misty Copeland and illustrated by Christopher Myers

Misty Copeland’s life is a story of its own, from “nonexistence as a young girl,” to the second African-American soloist in the history of the American Ballet Theater. Copeland wrote Firebird in order to empower young girls to follow her example and achieve impossible dreams. Christopher Myers’s dramatic use of color through paint and collage captures Copeland’s bold personality and her unwavering determination in the face of discouragement from critics.

Grades 5-6 (Ages 10-12):

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson was born into the world of the Civil Right movement, raised in the Deep South and then the packed city blocks of New York. She lived her life for the written word, from the first “J” she ever wrote to the stories that became the air she breathes. Brown Girl Dreaming is the story of that life, told in the same verse style as many of her novels. By choosing to share her childhood memories through poetry, Woodson creates a personal story that allows readers to explore her depth, warmth, and uniquely perceptive eye for the beautiful world around her.

Grades 7+ (Ages 13+):

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

Combining the emotional impact of traditional poetry with the power of modern hip hop, The Crossover is an unputdownable novel sure to engage even the most reluctant of readers. Kwame Alexander gives teens a window into the mind of Josh “Filthy McNasty” Bell: a 13-year-old basketball superstar navigating the social realities of school, the crumbling foundation of his family, and his passion for the game that ties it all together. Few books are able to say so much with so few words.

The post Five First Book Favorites appeared first on First Book Blog.

by Misty Copeland and Christopher Myers (Penguin Young Readers Group, 2014)

When you open a book to sweeping, fiery endpapers, it’s almost as if you can hear the symphony begin. The author, Misty Copeland, is a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theater. The illustrator, Christopher Myers, is a Caldecott Honoree for Harlem and the son of the legendary Walter Dean Myers.

We are in stellar storytelling hands.

(image here // Copeland dancing the Firebird)

(image here // Copeland dancing the Firebird)

Christopher Myers’s art captures the lines and shapes of a dancer’s movement. Intricate, suspended, and dizzying.

Misty Copeland’s words are fire and poetry to a timid youngster’s soul.

I adore the anticipation in this spread, the dancer waiting for the curtain to rise, and I imagine a lump in her throat and a belly full of as many swoops as the folds in the curtain.

Each page turn reveals a composition that is even more striking than the last. This is a pairing of musicality, movement, and a jaw-dropping array of colors and feelings. The way her words and his pictures create an animated harmony is exactly how music and movement do the same in the ballerina’s world.

A perfect pas de deux.

For more on Misty Copeland, take a look at this. She is a lovely storyteller, both in her books and with her body.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

According to a study by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin, of the 3,200 children’s books published in 2013 in the US, just 93 were about black people. The UK fares little better by all accounts.

Leila Rasheed has blogged about the importance of non-issue based children’s books featuring children from ethnic backgrounds, and why she finds it hard to write about non-white characters.  http://leilarasheeddotcom.wordpress.com/2014/03/20/permission-to-write-my-experience-of-being-a-british-asian-reader-and-writer-of-childrens-books/

Tanya Byrne has written about this on the Guardian books blog where she calls for more books featuring children of colour. https://href.li/?http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/mar/20/tanya-byrne-top-10-black-characters-in-childrens-books?CMP=twt_gu

The dearth of non-white characters was raised by Dean Myers, in his article: Where are the People of Colour in Children’s Books. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/opinion/sunday/where-are-the-people-of-color-in-childrens-books.html?_r=1

And then again by his son Christopher Myers in The Apartheid of Children. https://href.li/?http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/opinion/sunday/the-apartheid-of-childrens-literature.html

There is now an increasing debate and demand for more diversity in children’s literature to reflect our increasingly multi-ethnic and multi cultural society.

Almost thirty years ago Verna Wilkins set up Tamarind Press in an attempt to redress the lack of books with children from non-white backgrounds being published in the children’s market. But ‘mainstream’ publishers have yet to catch up, and there is clearly still a huge lack of such books.

As a British Asian, who is 100% Indian in terms of heritage, but who is essentially more British than Indian, and as a big reader during my childhood, it was always a surprise when I found a book about a child who shared my skin colour. A nice surprise. Yes, often those kids were beset by problems such as racial abuse and stereotyping, but that wasn’t a problem for me because growing up in the UK at the time did in fact necessarily involve having to face those issues to a greater or lesser degree.

What bothers me now is the fact that, as all of the above authors have pointed out, there are still very few books that feature children of colour, whether or not they are issue-based or are 'normal' non-issue based stories .

Children are growing up in a society which is far more culturally mixed and diverse. But, for today's children, not much has changed from when I grew up, in terms of seeing and reading about a diverse range of children like themselves and their friends in literature.

That’s a problem.

I completely agree with Malorie when she talks about diversity of multi-cultural voices in children’s literature being of paramount importance, not least because it would promote awareness and understanding, and tolerance.

On a personal level, as a writer, I have written books featuring all white characters. People have often said that The Long Weekend could have been written by a white Anglo-Saxon. That’s fine. I find it quite amusing. It’s my fully Indian name on the spine. In another novel, Amnesia, the main character is an English boy, but his best friend is Indian and his girlfriend is half Italian. The book I have just completed is about an Asian girl and features predominately Asian characters of different backgrounds. I don’t feel that because I’m Asian I have to write about Asian characters all the time, or that I should feel obliged to.

What’s important in children’s literature is that a diversity of characters in terms of ethnicity and culture is depicted, and that their voices are heard, and that a child is no longer surprised when they find more than one book featuring someone of their ethnicity, culture or colour. Sadly, that’s not happening yet.

Oh, what fun we shall have now that the weather is better.  Here in New York spring sprang yesterday and all the New Yorkers, as one, exhaled in relief.  We are perfectly aware that it can’t last (can anything?) but we’re enjoying it while we can.  So sit back and glue your eyes to a computer screen instead of enjoying the respite.  Unless you have outdoor wi-fi, of course.  Then go wild.

• I don’t think I can go any further without bringing up the dual Myers pieces in the Times this past Sunday.  As Walter Dean Myers says in his article Where Are the People of Color in Children’s Books?, “There is work to be done”.  That may be so, and certainly we’re hardly at a reasonable level, but I’ve been very impressed by what I’ve seen in 2014.  As I mentioned in an earlier post this year, I’m already seeing an uptick in the number of African-American kids not just in books but on the covers as well.  Then I looked at Scholastic’s fall list and saw five different middle grade novels with black kids front and center.  Five is nice, but that hardly means we’re out of the woods.  Note that Walter Dean Myers wrote a somewhat similar piece for the Times in 1986 called I Actually Thought We Would Revolutionize the Industry (thanks to Debbie Reese for the heads up).  In it he basically says that there were only 450 books on the black industry in the mid-80s.  One shudders to think what the number is at this precise moment in time.  Oh wait.  According to the CCBC it’s 93.  Now go read The Apartheid of Children’s Literature by Chris Myers and think upon that a bit.

• I don’t like to pick favorites, but if I had to select my favorite blog post from the last few days, the vote would have to go wholeheartedly to the 100 Scope Notes piece The 33%: 2014 Books from Newbery Winners.  The premise is simple.  After doing the math Travis determined that a full 33% of Newbery winners go on to win again.  He then goes the logical next step and collects all the middle grade novels out this year by previous winners.  There was stuff I had no idea about in there (a new Christopher Paul Curtis?!?!).  Required reading of the day then.

• New list time!  So it would seem that the National Science Teachers Association has come up with their list called Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K–12: 2014 (Books published in 2013).  Not a common topic but a necessary one.  I was happy to see a lot of favorites on there.  Well done, winners!  Now go ye, my pretties, and spread this info to every science teacher struggling with Common Core that you know.  Thanks to Amie Wright for the link.

• Speaking of lists, the site List Challenges came up with their 50 Best Books for Kids.  I was all set to pooh-pooh it when I saw they’d included Anna Hibiscus AND The Arrival.  Shoot.  They did their homework really well.  I’ve read all but two (and it won’t be the two you think).  How did you do?

• Meanwhile, it’s an interesting list and well worth looking at.  They’ve released the contenders for the 2014 E.B. White Read-Aloud Award.  Lots of good books there, but you probably know who I’ll be supporting.  It’s a tough call but I’m Team Unicorn.  Go team!

This has absolutely nothing to do with anything else, aside from the fact that everyone’s clamoring for children’s books on WWI this year thanks to the 100 year anniversary.  With that in mind, here’s a sense of what it would have looked like If WWI Was a Bar Fight.  Or you can just do what I’m doing and wait for the latest Nathan Hale book Treaties, Trenches, Mud and Blood.  Can’t wait to see that one!

Utterly fascinating piece in Arcade this week equating the changes happening at the main branch of NYPL with the movie Ghostbusters.  It’s not as nutty as it sounds.  Check out Para-Library Science at the NYPL if you don’t believe me.

• Then, to wash the academe from your gray cells, you can read eharmony’s 15 Reasons to Date a Librarian.  It’s a rather optimistic view of our profession (while I would love to believe that we ALL have predictable hours . . .) but still cute.  Thanks to Amie for the link.

• Looking for a summer job?  Have a MLIS degree (we’re all about the librarians today, folks)?  Well SUNY Maritime College is looking for a Ship’s Librarian aboard the Training Ship Empire State VI during the 2014 Summer Sea Term.  Need a summer job?  Want to see the world?  You’re welcome.

• Daily Image:

If you haven’t seen this already then I’d like you to guess as to the identity of this children’s book author dressed up as his favorite children’s book character.

A hint: The character is Badger from The Wind in the Willows. And no. This isn’t Alice Cooper.  *pictures what an Alice Cooper children’s book might consist of* The answer is here.

Christopher Myers and Walter Dean Myers have recently launched their website Who Is America in celebration of their gorgeous nonfiction picture book WE ARE AMERICA, which has already received two starred reviews.  We recently had the chance to talk to Chris and Walter about the book, and here is what they shared:

Walter:

This book started out as a journey to rediscover America, and what it means to be an American. I traveled abroad after 9/11, and was struck with the desire to redefine what America means to me. I set out to re-read the texts that built this country–the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and more, some of which I haven’t read since high school–and to re-understand these ideas and apply them to what America was, what America has been, and what America is. And I didn’t want to just start and end the conversation with my re-imagining–I wanted to start a conversation that continues once you’ve read the language and seen the images.

One of the themes that I think comes across in the book is that of inclusion–it’s not “I am America,” but rather, “We Are America.” I find that kids respond to the theme of inclusion, which has been a part of many of my books. We are all America and we all participate in the conversation defining our country, whether we realize it or not. The new website gives kids a chance to actively participate in this conversation by describing what America means to them, and we have found that they are so talented and poignant in their descriptions.

Chris:

America brings together many different histories, cultures, languages, and that is where my mind was at when I started with the illustrations for WE ARE AMERICA. One particular painting doesn’t just portray one moment in America’s history; rather I tried to blend various figures, time periods, happenings, to show the pieces of the American puzzle. America is really a collection. This book is our love letter to America, and it isn’t complete without adding more voices to the conversation.

When Dad and I presented in Naperville, IL to young students, we found that they were eager to be included in the conversation about what America means to them. It’s so interesting to watch kids embrace and relate to America, sometimes in ways many of us would never have thought to do. That’s why we started the website–so kids can express what being an American means to them by uploading a video. They can sing a song, recite a poem, or just speak from the heart. It’s very moving to hear these kids speak about America in this way.

In addition to the Who Is America website, listen to Walter and Chris discuss what it’s like working together on WE ARE AMERICA:

FRIDAY, JUNE 24

5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Veronica Roth (DIVERGENT)

SATURDAY, JUNE 25

9:00 am-9:30am
Thanhha Lai (INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN)
Carolyn Mackler (TANGLED)

9:30 am – 10:30 am
Alex Flinn (CLOAKED)
Jack Gantos (GUYS READ: FUNNY BUSINESS)

10:30 am – 11:00 am
Kelly Milner Halls (SAVING THE BAGHDAD ZOO)
Bobbie Pyron (A DOG’S WAY HOME)

11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Kadir Nelson (HEART AND SOUL posters)

11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Katherine Hannigan (TRUE…(SORT OF))

12:00 pm – 12:30 pm
Patrick Carman (DARK EDEN galleys)

12:30 pm – 1:00 pm
Katherine Hannigan (BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA)

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Dan Gutman (THE GENIUS FILES: MISSION UNSTOPPABLE)

SUNDAY, JUNE 26

9:00 am – 9:30 am
Bob Shea (I’M A SHARK)

9:30 am – 10:30 am
Christopher Myers (WE ARE AMERICA)

10:30 am – 11:30 am
Rita Williams-Garcia (Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Author Winner for ONE CRAZY SUMMER)

11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Kevin Henkes (JUNONIA; LITTLE WHITE RABBIT)

1:00 pm – 1:30 pm
Claudia Gray (FATEFUL)
Maureen Johnson (THE LAST LITTLE BLUE ENVELOPE)

1:30 pm &

photo by Vadim Lavrusik www.flickr.com

*Picture book for preschoolers through third graders, contemporary
*Young boy as main character
*Rating: Looking Like Me is a rhythmic self-esteem-builder journey for young children by father/son duo Walter Dean and Christopher Myers.

Short, short summary: Looking Like Me is basically a list of all the things that a boy/girl can be. For example, in the beginning of the book, Jeremy says: “I looked in the mirror and what did I see? A real handsome dude looking just like me. He put out his fist. I gave it a bam!” Then along comes, Jeremy’s sister and tells him he is a little brother. She puts out her fist and he says, “I gave it a bam! Jeremy and brother, That’s who I am.” Thus the book continues as Jeremy takes the reader through every title that makes up who he is from son to writer to runner. And of course, each time, he gives the person a BAM! Looking Like Me by Walter Dean Myers is a book to read aloud to children over and over again.

So, what do I do with this book?

1. This is one of those books that would be a great activity for the beginning of the school year. Students could write at the top of a piece of paper, “I AM. . .” Then they could make a list of all the “titles” or “people” they are from family relationships to interests to everyday titles such as student or neighbor. You could also cut some letters out of magazines and build the words underneath the I AM with magazine letters instead of written letters to make the list more in the style of Christopher Myers’s illustrations.

2. Speaking of illustrations, the pictures in Looking Like Me are something to study. Each page has a photograph (at least one) under a multi-colored boy. Once you have read the book out loud to children, go back and study the pictures with them. Maybe even make a list of the photos and the words to see if there is any pattern. For example, on the page about being a runner, there’s a picture of an upside-down ketchup bottle and then a drawn illustration of a boy running. Students can even make their own illustrations in Christopher Myers’s style to go with their I AM lists.

3. Looking Like Me is an example of good word choice (one of the 6 traits of writing.) Discuss the specific words that jump out at students and why those are the perfect words to use in this story. Ask students if they think Walter Dean Myers just sat down and got these exact perfect words onto paper the first time he wrote the story. Did he have to play around with the word choice? Why does it make a better book?

Anybody who wants to share an I AM list here. . .feel free!

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