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As a friend pointed out to me, K.T. Horning literally wrote the book on reviewing children’s literature. So her review of The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch for the Reading While White blog would have meant a lot to me no matter what. But I especially appreciate Horning’s recognition of the honesty and authenticity […]

Elizabeth Bird, librarian extraordinaire, had a lot to say this week about The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch on her School Library Journal blog. This book has received some great attention, but there’s nothing quite as rewarding for an author as knowing without a doubt that someone has made a point of thinking deeply […]

Here are the most timely and intriguing items about Reconstruction that I found this past week. (What did I miss? Let me know in the comments…) From The Chronicle of Higher Education: For scholars of African-American studies, the police killings of unarmed black men in several cities over the past year have been personally searing […]

Says the Library of Congress: Every year, a list of books representing the literary heritage of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands is distributed by the Library of Congress’s Center for the Book during the National Book Festival. The pick for Mississippi this year is The Amazing Age of […]

Here are the three most notable items pertaining to Reconstruction that I found this past week. Or, at least, two notable items preceded by one blatantly self-promotional one. (What did I miss? Let me know in the comments…) In advance of this month’s inaugural Mississippi Book Festival, this interview with me from Jackson’s Clarion-Ledger: Question: […]

Here are the most timely and intriguing items about Reconstruction that I found this past week. (What did I miss? Let me know in the comments…) From the University of South Carolina Beaufort: The University of South Carolina Beaufort (USCB), in partnership with the City of Beaufort, Penn Center, and the University Of South Carolina […]

I’m excited to the see the word get out — and the favorable reviews come in — for my book with Don Tate, The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers). Here’s a sampling of the latest batch:

From Kendal Rautzhan’s nationally syndicated column:

“This inspirational story of John Roy Lynch, going from a teenage slave to a U.S. Congressman in just 10 years, should not be missed.”

From librarian Tasha Saecker’s Waking Brain Cells blog:

“An important book focused on an important figure in a dynamic time in American history, this picture book biography will inform new audiences about the potential for both progress and defeat during [Reconstruction].”

From the Mississippi Library Commission’s MLC Reference Blog:

“Growing up in Mississippi, we remember learning about John Roy Lynch in history class. We wish this book had been around then, because it is truly amazing.”

From WCMU’s Children’s Bookshelf:

“[A] powerful story … Chris Barton’s descriptions of the time period in which John Roy Lynch lived and the challenges and heartache that he experienced may have a profound impact on young people.”

This past week has brought a couple of happy developments for my new book with Don Tate, The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers).

First, the book has received a Silver Honor from the Parents’ Choice Awards. Thank you, Parents’ Choice!

And another big thank you goes to Colby Sharp and Jon Samuelson for including The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch (along with Bob Shea’s Ballet Cat and Victoria Jamieson’s Roller Girl) in the latest episode of the Booklandia podcast.

I love the surprise in Jon’s voice when he realizes that the story of Lynch’s 10-year rise from slavery to the U.S. House of Representatives during Reconstruction is nonfiction rather than historical fiction. I also appreciate the thorough notes on this episode — very helpful, guys.

“[F]our reasons why most of us need to read this book” sounds pretty terrific to me. Thanks, APAC!

The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch is featured on the Children’s Book Council’s April 2015 “Hot off the Press” list.

“This unique online bibliography features anticipated bestsellers, either recently released or forthcoming, published by CBC members.”

I do like the sound of that, and I love the looks of this excerpt from the full list:

I’m excited to be returning this week to the fantastic Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival this week at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.

Much of the festival requires registration, but the Hattiesburg American reports that there are exceptions, and my session is one of them:

First panel open to the public: Chris Barton, Don Tate and Kathleen Merz discuss “The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch,” a picture book biography of the Mississippi slave-turned-congressman, 11:30 a.m. April 8, Thad Cochran Center ballrooms.

(Kathleen is the editor of The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch, and I’m delighted that she’ll be joining Don and me. On only one other occasion in my career have I gotten together in person at the same time with both the editor and the illustrator of one of my books, so this will be special.)

Another open-to-the-public panel ends the festival on Friday, with David Levithan and Deborah Wiles discussing their relationship as editor an author.

Whether you’re able to make it to the beginning of the festival, the end, or the whole thing, you’re in for a treat. If you see me, won’t you please say hello?

(Narrated by yours truly.)

Many thanks to Don Tate and Eerdmans Books for Young Readers for their work in putting this together, and to John Roy Lynch himself for the inspiring quote at the end.

You’ll find lots more about the book here.

“Citizenship, rights, democracy — as long as these remain contested, so will the necessity of an accurate understanding of Reconstruction.”

That quote comes from “Why Reconstruction Matters,” a new, short essay by Eric Foner, author of Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877 and the Pulitzer-prize-winning DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University. I can’t recommend enough taking a few minutes to read it.

While Don Tate was working on the illustrations for The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch, our publisher asked Professor Foner to have a look at the text. Here’s what he had to say about our picture book biography of this young man who went from teenage slave to U.S. congressman in ten years:

Like adults, young readers should know about the era of Reconstruction and the remarkable individuals who struggled to give real meaning to the freedoms blacks achieved during the Civil War. John Roy Lynch was one of them and he is brought vividly to life in this book.

I’m thankful to Foner not only for those kind words about our book, but especially for all the work he’s done to shape our modern understanding of the Reconstruction era.

“Preoccupied with the challenges of our own time,” he writes in this New York Times essay, “Americans will probably devote little attention to the sesquicentennial of Reconstruction, the turbulent era that followed the conflict.”

Not if I can help it.

This month, at least one subscriber to my Bartography Express newsletter — maybe more! — will win a copy of my new brand-new book.

To celebrate next week’s publication of The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch (illustrated by Don Tate, and published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers), the children’s department staffers at Austin’s BookPeople came up with several questions for me to answer. I hope you enjoy my answers as much as I appreciate their questions.

If you’re not already receiving Bartography Express, click the image below for a look. If you like what you see, click “Join” in the bottom right corner, and you’ll be in the running for the giveaway next week. Good luck!

You know, when you spend the better part of a decade working on a 50-page picture book, I suppose it’s OK to get a little excited when Publishers Weekly both gets and appreciates what you were going for all those years:

The whole thing is available here, but this is my favorite part:

Barton offers an immersive, engaging, and unflinching portrait of the difficulties of the Reconstruction era, while Tate’s cartoonlike artwork softens moments of cruelty and prejudice without diminishing them.

…and a copy of the book! But you’ve got only a few days to enter. Get the details here.

Winner:

Mikis and the Donkey
by Bibi Dumon Tak; illus. by Philip Hopman; trans. from the Dutch by Laura Watkinson
Primary, Intermediate   Eerdmans   93 pp.
10/14   978-0-8028-5430-8   $13.00

Setting the stage on the island of Corfu, Hopman’s atmospheric opening illustrations pan in from aerial view to village to Mikis’s grandpa under a sycamore tree with his cronies. Grandpa has just gotten a donkey to haul wood — “they don’t guzzle gas, and they usually start the first time.” Soon Mikis is making friends with Tsaki and becoming the animal’s advocate. Concerned about the chafing caused by heavy loads, the boy seeks medical attention for Tsaki (from an MD, to general amusement); he also arranges a visit with another donkey in case Tsaki is lonely. This is a huge success; as classmate Elena discreetly observes, the two donkeys “were getting along really well back there…really, really well.” Fortunately, the old man is kind as well as gruff; though “Mikis had to give his grandpa donkey lessons,” he eventually builds Tsaki a cleaner, airier stable with Mikis’s help. The Dutch creators of Soldier Bear (rev. 11/11) bring a lovely simplicity to this affecting picture of a close-knit Greek community where a teacher’s boyfriend can give her class motorbike rides to general contentment. The generous number of loosely drawn illustrations capture windswept landscapes, village life, and human character and diversity with equal aplomb. Visually inviting and easily read, this would also make a fine read-aloud for younger children. JOANNA RUDGE LONG

From the November/December 2014 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.

Honor books:

Hidden: A Child’s Story of the Holocaust
by Loïc Dauvillier; illus. by Marc Lizano; color by Greg Salsedo; trans. from the French by Alexis Siegel
Primary, Intermediate    First Second/Roaring Brook    78 pp.
4/14    978-1-59643-873-6    $16.99

In this graphic novel for younger readers, Elsa wakes up in the night and discovers her grandmother sitting in the dark, feeling sad. When Elsa asks why, she hears for the first time the story of her grandmother’s childhood in Nazi-occupied France. Young Dounia’s parents try to explain away the yellow star she must wear by calling it a sheriff’s star, but she quickly realizes its true meaning when she begins to be treated very differently at school and in town. When the Nazis come to their apartment, her parents hide Dounia but are themselves taken away, and the terrified little girl is saved by a neighbor. A chain of people help her escape to the country, where she lives as a Catholic girl, with a new name. The graphic novel format helps reinforce the contrast between the dark, scary moments and the happier times in the countryside. The artists use small panels to tell most of the story, with words in the bottom right corners emphasizing Dounia’s inner thoughts; large panels occasionally punctuate the big moments. While not disguising the ugliness of the events, the art also helps focus attention on the loving moments between Dounia and her parents, Dounia and the people who help her, and Dounia, Elsa, and her father (who also hears the story for the first time) all hugging one another at the end.

From the July/August 2014 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.

Nine Open Arms
by Benny Lindelauf; trans. from the Dutch by John Nieuwenhuizen
Intermediate, Middle School    Enchanted Lion    256 pp.
6/14    978-1-59270-146-9    $16.95

It takes a while to realize that the main character in this Dutch import is a building, the eponymous Nine Open Arms, a rundown, back-to-front, peculiar brick house situated beyond the cemetery “where names came to an end.” The story opens when a family of nine — hapless dreamer and cigar-maker father, tough grandmother, four almost-grownup sons, and three younger daughters — moves into this house and tries to figure out its mysteries, including the tombstone in the cellar, the forbidden room, and Oompah Hatsi the homeless man who moves into the hedge. While the setting is specific (the Dutch province of Limburg in the 1930s), the whole thing feels more like a folktale, with a folktale’s harshness. (The bully girl at school, Fat Tonnie, is said to have bashed a dog to death with a hammer.) Halfway into the tale we travel back to the 1860s to a doomed love story between a villager and a young woman of the Traveler people, and we start to figure out the origins of the steeped-in sadness of Nine Open Arms. Then back to the main narrative, where kindness, courage, and truth-telling redeem the tragic past. Up to a point. This is a strange, somber, and oddly compelling narrative, a different combination of flavors than we would find in a book originally published in North America. SARAH ELLIS

From the September/October 2014 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.

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

This month, one subscriber to my Bartography Express newsletter will win a copy of Burning Nation (Scholastic), the second book in Trent Reedy’s Divided We Fall YA trilogy

If you’re not already receiving Bartography Express, click the image below for a look. If you like what you see, click “Join” in the bottom right corner, and you’ll be in the running for the giveaway at the end of this week.

I don’t remember how I spent Christmas of 2006, but according to the files on my computer I spent at least part of the day doing my very first bit of documented work on what would become The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch.

Eight years later, look what arrived as a late Christmas/early New Year’s gift! It’s my very first finished copy of that book, and it’s gorgeous. Illustrator Don Tate and the folks at Eerdmans Books for Young Readers have done a marvelous job, and I’ve so enjoyed getting to show the book off to friends and family over the holidays.

The publication date is April 2, so there’s not much longer to wait for this book. And, really, having already waited more than eight years for it, three more months isn’t long at all.

Over at his blog Watch. Connect. Read., librarian John Schumacher has unveiled the cover of my spring 2015 picture book biography, The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers).

So please go, feast your eyes on Don Tate’s artwork, and enjoy a few words from me about the unusual journeys of our subject and our book alike.

Illustration by Adam Gustavson
from Fab Four Friends

Inspired by Greg Leitich Smith’s annual list of books from our Austin writing community, I thought I’d start compiling the picture book biographies scheduled for publication in 2015 (including a pair of mine).

I know there are lots more picture book biographies on their way from publishers recognized by SCBWI, so if you’re interested in helping keep this list reasonably complete and up to date, please let me know in the comments which ones ought to be added. I’ll update and republish this post on a regular basis.

The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch (Eerdmans), written by Chris Barton and illustrated by Don Tate

Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), written by Margarita Engle and illustrated by Rafael Lopez

Earmuffs for Everyone!: How Chester Greenwood Became Known as the Inventor of Earmuffs (Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books), written and illustrated by Meghan McCarthy

Elvis: The Story of the Rock and Roll King (Henry Holt), written and illustrated by Bonnie Christensen

Emmanuel’s Dream (Schwartz & Wade), written by Laurie Ann Thompson and illustrated by Sean Qualls

Fab Four Friends: The Boys Who Became the Beatles (Christy Ottaviano Books/Henry Holt), written by Susanna Reich and illustrated by Adam Gustavson

The Founding Fathers! Those Horse-Ridin’, Fiddle-Playin’, Book-Readin’, Gun-Totin’ Gentlemen Who Started America (Atheneum), written by Jonah Winter and illustrated by: Barry Blitt

The Hole Story of the Doughnut (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), written by Pat Miller

The House that Jane Built: A Story about Jane Addams (Henry Holt/Christy Ottaviano Books), written by Tanya Lee Stone and illustrated by Kathryn Brown

In Mary’s Garden (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), written and illustrated by Tina and Carson Kugler

One Plastic Bag (Millbrook), written by Miranda Paul and illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon

Pioneers & Pirouettes: The Story of the First American Nutcracker

Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton (Peachtree), written and illustrated by Don Tate

Step Right Up: The Story of Beautiful Jim Key (Lee & Low), written by Donna Bowman Bratton and illustrated by Daniel Minter

Trombone Shorty (Abrams), written by Troy Andrews and illustrated by Bryan Collier

Vivien Thomas – The Man Who Saved the Blue Babies (Lee & Low), written by Gwendolyn Hooks

by Bibi Dumon Tak spot illustrations by Philip Hopman translated from the Dutch by Laura Watkinson Eerdmans Books edition 2011 A cgarette-eating, beer-drinking, ammunition-carrying bear? Only warfare could create a story so improbable. During World War II as Russia and Germany fight to claim Poland for their own the citizens caught in the middle are taken as prisoners in their own

Last year I did a Poetry Friday post on an anthology of children’s poems that featured a book called Inner Chimes.   I excerpted a snippet of a poem I liked by British writer Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965) and as a result became curious about her.  After reading her biography, I sought out her books.   Our local library did not have lot of her books available for loan.  Many are out-of-print and some, in fact,  were housed in the juvenile reference section which require special permission to view. One book, however, of her most famous hymn-poem “Morning Has Broken” was available in a picture book format illustrated by Tim Ladwig (Eerdmans, 1996)  I took it out and read it to my daughter, and then showed her a Youtube of Cat Stevens‘ famous rendition of the hymn.  It was a great way to enjoy the poem!    I was also able to take out Kaleidoscope (illustrated by Edward Ardizzone, Oxford University Pres, 1963.)  Kaleidoscope is a collection of short lyrical sketches about a young boy named Anthony and his childish but deeply poetic perceptions of the world.  In her Foreword, Farjeon explains how the character of Anthony was based on a poet acquaintance of hers who had grown up in the countryside.  As writers, they shared memories of their past childhood  — hers of a girl growing up in London and he as a boy in Somerset.   I was impressed by these prose sketches by Farjeon, seemingly lighthearted in tone, but profoundly perceptive at the same time.  She seemed to capture that essential childish awe and wonder that is of the nature of the poet, who perceives and then delights in words.   As old as the book is, it does not feel dated; the observations are not sentimental nor trite.  I enjoyed reading these sketches, mostly for myself although I did try reading a couple to my daughter.  If you can find Farjeon’s books in your library, I’d recommend seeking them out.  They are little treasures from the past, well worth savoring today.

This week’s Poetry Friday host is Laura at Writing the World for Kids.

Extraordinary Ernie & Marvelous Maud
By Frances Watts
Illustrated by Judy Watson
Eerdmans Books
ISBN: 978082853639
$5.99
Grades 2-3
In Stores

Quality low-level series don’t grow on trees. Well actually, Extraordinary Ernie and Marvelous Maud doesn’t either – it hails from the UK – but I think you get where I’m going here. Light fun for kids who are a step above easy readers, yet are still in the early stages of chapter books, Extraordinary Ernie is the first book in a series that will charm scores of youngsters.

Ernie is not extraordinary. Remove the “extra” part and you’re getting closer to the truth. When the local branch of the Superhero Society holds a tryout for some new blood, Ernie is the only applicant, so he’s welcomed into the group and given a talking sheep sidekick named Maud. With the help of the other heroes our unlikely duo learns the ropes of becoming super, before striking out on their own local adventure. Ernie and Maud realize they may not have superpowers, but they work pretty well as a team.

Watts does a good job of bringing the concept of superheroes down to earth, an approach that brings out humor as these invincible men and women talk and act like everyday Joes and Josephines. Through it all Ernie is likeable as a kid who wants to be more, but isn’t quite sure how to get there.

Really, this book had me within the first couple pages. You have to love a setup like this:

The idea of a child being chosen for a life as a superhero will delight many a young reader. And the comedy of “winning” a sheep as your sidekick will make them laugh.

Sketchy pen and ink illustrations add a nice touch, guiding the reader through key moments. Watts tells a story that humanizes superheroes, and Watson’s illustrations reflect that – there are no superman-esque physiques to be seen here.

A nice start to a series that is easy to love, Extraordinary Ernie and Marvelous Maud will make a solid addition to the ranks of your early chapter book fare.

Review copy from publisher.

Find this book at your local library with WorldCat.