- This news comes to us less than a week after Coldplay (yes, that Coldplay) hid something in one of the books in my Children’s Center at 42nd Street. Apparently the doors opened that day and people tore into the room demanding, ultimately, Jeff Belanger’s Who’s Haunting the White House? One wonders what Jeff Belanger thinks of all this. Or if sales of his book have gone up. Six copies of the books are now checked out of my system, I see.
- Oh, and it only took a year but The Paris Review finally made it over to NYPL to check out the current children’s book exhibit The ABC of It. They liked it, which is good when you consider that it’s up and running until September now.
- May as well seek out the Secret Libraries of New York City as well, if you happen to be in town. I knew some of these but others (the Conjuring Arts Research Center?!) who wholly new unto mine eyes.
- Unless you resided under a Wi-Fi free rock you may have missed the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign that went wholly and totally viral. PW summed the whole thing up with its piece BookCon Controversy Begets Diversity Social Media Campaign. At the time, I didn’t think to alert NYPL to the campaign, but as it turned out the folks there were already on board with it. They whipped a Celebrate Diverse Children’s Books list out of some of the titles that have appeared on our 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing lists over the last three years. It’s a nice list too. Good show.
- There are, of course, children’s awards out there that remain under the radar, no matter how many diversity campaigns spring up. Such is the case with the Children’s Africana Book Award. Their history? According to their site: “In 1991 the Outreach Council of the African Studies Association accepted a proposal from Africa Access to establish awards for outstanding K-12 books on Africa published in the U.S. The awards are designed to encourage the publication of accurate, balanced children’s materials on Africa, to recognize literary excellence and to acknowledge the research achievements of outstanding authors and illustrators. Collectively CABA winners show that Africa is indeed a varied and multifaceted continent. CABA titles expand and enrich our perspectives of Africa beyond the stereotypical, a historical and exotic images that are emphasized in the West.” I was pleased beyond measure to see that Monica Edinger’s Africa Is My Home: A Child of the Amistad won in the Best Book for Older Readers category. Well played, Monica!
- In other news the Tomás Rivera Book Award Winners which honors, “authors and illustrators who create literature that depicts the Mexican American experience” were announced and amongst the winners was Diego Rivera: An Artist for the People by Susan Goldman Rubin. Woohoo!
- Just to round out the awards, the winners of the 2014 Irma Black Award were announced and the results were absolutely splendid. PAR-ticularly The Cook Prize for the best STEM picture book. The Boy Who Loved Math was a shoo-in to my mind, but it’s nice to see folks agreeing on that count.
- And here I thought I knew the bulk of the Maurice Sendak illustrated classics. So how is it that only now I’m hearing about the fact that he illustrated The Velveteen Rabbit? The technique is fascinating. Like he wanted it to look as if a child had scribbled all over the book at strategic moments. See, here’s what I mean:
- There are just too many folks to congratulate with the recent bout of 2014 ALSC Election Results but I will give one or two shout-outs just for the heck of it. Big time congrats and woohoos to Andrew Medlar, our bright and shiny new Vice-President/President Elect. On the Caldecott committee, our fair GreenBeanTeenQueen Sarah Bean Thompson will be serving (yay, bloggers!). The Newbery committee is seeing the delightful Allie Bruce of the Bank Street College of Education (did you see her latest SLJ article?) and Christine Scheper, my Materials Specialist colleague at the Queens Library System. Well done, everyone!
- The issue of when one should begin telling kids about the Holocaust has come up time and time again in conversation. How young is too young? What makes a book appropriate or deeply inappropriate for a given age? Well, Marjorie Ingall over at Tablet Magazine has some thoughts on the matter, even as she examines two very recent Holocaust titles that she admires (and that I need to read stat). As Marjorie puts it, “A lot of us drag our heels when it comes to discussing the subject at all. We tell ourselves we want our kids to maintain their innocence for as long as possible. But what avoidance means, practically speaking, is that someone else often does the educating.”
- This is fun. Recently I took part in a Facebook chat on the subject of getting kids into summer reading as well as various topics books can cover (the stars, science fiction, and camping, amongst others). With that in mind the illustrious Lori Ess and I created the Reading Under the Stars Pinterest page. A collection of spooky, camping, and space titles, it covers ages 0-18 and has a little something for everyone.
- Woo-hoo! I love hearing whom The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art will honor at their yearly gala. This year marks the ninth annual gala and fundraiser and so they’ll be honoring the following folks:
Artist: Jerry Pinkney
Angel: Reach Out and Read represented by Brian Gallagher and Dr. Perri Klass
Mentor: Henrietta Smith
Bridge: Françoise Mouly
For what it’s worth, I had the honor of hearing Dr. Perri Klass speak recently at the opening of a new NYU library and she was fan-friggin’-tastic. So pleased she’s getting her due! Henrietta Smith, for her part, is a children’s librarian so cool she has her own Wikipedia page. And she served under Augusta Baker! Man! I wanna meet her stat.
- When I was asked if I had heard about the anthology Altered Perceptions I had to confess that I had not. And here I thought I knew all the anthologies out in 2014. Turns out, Altered Perceptions is a unique case. Thirty-one authors ranging from Shannon Hale and Sara Zarr to Lauren Oliver and Brandon Mull have joined together to help out writer Robison Wells. Rob suffers from four different mental illnesses, so his friends have donated writing to help him out of his financial debt. It’s sort of a win-win situation. You buy a book that includes work from one of your favorite authors and you help a guy out. They’re halfway to their stated goal with only 17 days left to raise the funds. Be a sport. Help a guy out.
- When I hear that the Huffington Post has an article out with a title like 50 of the Best Kids’ Books Published in the Last 25 Years all that I ask of the universe is that when I open the dang thing I don’t immediately cringe upon seeing the picture book image they used to headline it. So I opened this piece up and . . . yep. Sure as shooting. Cringeworthy. Now add in the factual mistakes (the Galdone version of The Three Billy Goats Gruff came out in 1973, folks, not 1989). Most of the books are fantastic, but man oh geez it’s an odd little list.
I’ve blogged the Little Golden Book Gown before on this site, so the fact that it exists shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. What I did not know was that it’s about to be on display here in NYC on May 30th.
Stats about the dress include the fact that the paper skirt is comprised entirely of the original book illustrations sewn together with metallic gold thread and that the bodice is made from the books’ foil spines backed by tape adhesive. So if anyone wants to lend this to me for an upcoming Newbery/Caldecott Banquet . . . hey, I’m totally game!
Before we begin I would like to have a few words with the publishers on behalf of catalogers nationwide.
Ahem.
Hi, guys. How’s it going? Heckuva weird weather we’ve had lately, right? Yeah . . . so . . . here’s the thing. You know how you’ve been rereleasing a couple classic children’s books recently like Slake’s Limbo and all the Ramona Quimby books? That is just awesome of you. Seriously, new covers were desperately needed. But, you’re kind of doing this weird thing that’s messing everything up. See, for some reason you’re changing the covers but you’re keeping the old ISBNs. And we wouldn’t really mind if it was just the jackets you were changing, but in the case of the Ramona books you have new interior illustrations. This is a HUGE disservice, not only to libraries, but to your new illustrator, Ms. Jacqueline Rogers. If you keep the same ISBN then in records across the country previous illustrators will be listed in the system. Not Ms. Rogers. So, I know we’re supposedly going to go through some crazy crisis where we run out of all the ISBNs, but do a gal a favor and change the ISBNs on rereleases if you have new interior art (or, also in the case of Ramona, new pagination). It just makes good clean sense.
Okay! Moving on.
- If I say that Travis Jonker fellow at 100 Scope Notes is a nice guy I’m not exactly telling you anything you don’t already know. But how nice is he? Well, in his awesome 10 to Note: Spring Preview 2013 do you know what book he led with? MINE!! I’m thrilled and flabbergasted all at once. Ye gods! I hit the big time, folks! Now I just need to get my hands on that cool looking Lauren Myracle early chapter book and that new Charise Mericle Harper graphic novel. Woot!
- You know you’re cool when the National Coalition Against Censorship collects cool birthday wishes for you. You’re even cooler if those birthday wishes come from folks like Jon Scieszka, Lois Lowry, and the aforementioned Lauren Myracle. And if you happen to be Judy Blume? Icing on the cake, baby.
- On the one hand, it’s awfully interesting to hear folks speculating on what really made Mary Ingalls blind. On the other hand . . . . NBC News linked to me, linked to me, linked to me me me!
- In case you happened to missed it, I hosted a helluva Literary Salon the other day. Yup. Jeanne Birdsall, Adam Gidwitz, N.D. Wilson, and Rebecca Stead all gave up their precious time to stop by old NYPL for a Children’s Literary Salon where they debated why pop culture at large tries to label middle grade fiction as YA. The whole conversation was, for the very first time, recorded for posterity. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the audio feed is lousy. Not sure what I did but it’s a bit mucked up. Clear enough that you could make a transcript from it (casts meaningful looks into the nethersphere) but not so clear that you could actually enjoy listening to it. A little later in the podcast some folks stop speaking into mics. That actually helps. Rear in Gear reports on how it went from the frontlines. By the way, the title “Why YA” is a good one. I might shorten it to Y.YA, then proclaim that to be the newest bestest trend without explanation. Cause that’s how I roll.
- Speaking of my Children’s Literary Salons, I’ve one in early March on the topic of Diversity and the State of the Children’s Book that will prove to be most fascinating (and better recorded, I hope). Much along the same lines is a truly fascinating post over at Ms. Yingling Reads. The post concerns those book jackets that do not reflect the ethnicity of the characters within, but brings up a very interesting p.o.v. from that of the smaller publisher reliant on stock images. This post is your required reading of the day. Many many thanks to Carl in Charlotte for the heads up.
- The post on 10 Fictional Libraries I’d Love to Visit is a lot of fun, but I would add the library featured in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman books most certainly. That would be the library that contains every book conceived of but never published by the world’s greatest writers. The in-jokes alone are worth it. Who doesn’t love Psmith and Jeeves?
Thanks to AL Direct for the link.
- Nerd that I am, I cannot help but be thrilled that the Bologna Book Fair has just established a new prize for the Best Children’s Publisher of the Year. What a fantastic idea, and why has no one else come up with it before? Now THAT is something I can get behind. Boy, yeah.
- Flavorwire’s Conspiracy Theories About Classic Literary Characters doesn’t tell you a lot you haven’t already heard about your classic books (Nick Carraway = gay, Holden Caulfield = gay, yadda yadda yadda) but there are some fun exceptions on the children’s literature side. I think I’ve heard the Winnie-the-Pooh theory before, and I certainly heard the Harry Potter one (Rowling herself even addressed it) but the Wizard of Oz one is actually entirely a new one on me. Huh! Thanks to Annie Cardi for the link.
- I like it when authors reveal the covers of their upcoming books. I especially like it when those authors are folks I’ve heard of before and have enjoyed thoroughly. I met Matthew Kirby (The Clockwork Three, Icefall) at a SCBWI event recently and now I find out that he has revealed his latest title The Lost Kingdom. Yep. I’ll be reading that one.
- The other day I spoke on a panel for some young publishers about the library’s role in the pursuit of Common Core. I was on that panel with Scottie Bowditch of Penguin and John Mason of Scholastic. After the fact I learned that Scholastic has been working to get their hands on all this Common Core schtuf by creating the site Common Sense for the Common Core. It was created to help parents through this tricky time, but no doubt we librarians would benefit a tad as well. FYI!
- You may have heard that tornadoes recently ripped through Mississippi on Sunday causing untold devastation in their wake. They hit in a number of places, including Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Why do I mention this? Well, are you aware what resides in Hattiesburg? That would be the University of Southern Mississippi. And what is the University of Southern Mississippi home to? If you answered that it was the de Grummond Collection “one of North America’s leading research centers in the field of children’s literature” you would also be correct. So did the collection survive the storms? We are happy to report that they did. And on the de Grummond’s Twitter feed they assured everyone that they were safe and sound. Whew!
- Look me in the eye. Right here! Right in my beady little eye and tell me that this is not the smartest use of The Pigeon you’ve seen in a long long time. The crazy thing? I thought they melded together a bunch of different Pigeon books. Not true! Instead, all these panels come from The Pigeon Wants a Puppy.
- Remember when NPR started that program they called NPR’s Backseat Book Club? They said they would pick a new book for kids every month and discuss them. Well, the whole “every month” part of that plan has been spotty and the selections have been even spottier. Seems to me NPR isn’t taking full advantage of the field. I mean, Black Beauty and Wimpy Kid? Is that the best you can do? Fortunately it looks like they’ll crank things up a notch when they discuss Gary Schmidt’s Okay for Now. In fact, kids are encouraged to submit some questions to the author ahead of time. Got yourself some kids? Then go to it!
- Speaking of kids submitting stuff, you may have heard that YA author Ned Vizzini is getting into the middle grade fiction arena. He isn’t doing it alone, though. Director Chris Columbus is penning House of Secrets with him. Aside from the fact that the book has an honest-to-god blurb from J.K. Rowling on it (no blurb whore she) kids can get a copy by tweeting Ned their “secrets”. You can see some examples here. Love the kid who used to eat chocolate dog biscuits. That one I believe.
- Would you like $1000? Sure. We all would. But to be a bit more specific, would you like $1000 for your program that uses, “children’s literature as a way to promote international understanding”? Well then are you in luck! USBBY would sure like to give you some cash. Say they, “Schools, libraries, scout troops, clubs and bookstores are all eligible for this award. Does your school or library program or do you know of another organization that “promotes reading as a way to expand a child’s world”? To learn more about the award, view information about past winners and award criteria and access the downloadable application form, please link to: http://www.usbby.org/list_b2u.html“
- Done and done.I wasn’t particularly aggrieved by the Anne of Green Gables brou-de-haha going on about that random cover someone created. In fact, a commenter at ShelfTalker with my name (not me, alas) basically summarized my thoughts on the matter brilliantly when she said, “Folks, you are getting all upset because you MISUNDERSTAND the situation. This is NOT a ‘PUBLISHER’ with a marketing dept. This is a public domain book that some RANDOM PERSON is selling. You could do the same thing. PUBLIC DOMAIN – it means anyone can do anything with it. Here is a list of public domain books: http://www.feedbooks.com/publicdomain. If you want, you yourself could publish, say, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo with a photo on the cover of Governor Chris Christie eating a donut. (If you had the rights to the donut picture of course.)” Which was all well and good . . . but I truly have to tip my hat to Donytop5 who simply replied, “Here Betsy, I found it! http://wolverinesss.tumblr.com/image/42556986881“ That made my day, right there.
- Apparently there’s a competitor to Goodreads out there and it’s calling itself Bookish. It’s not really the same thing as Goodreads, mind you, since it’s publisher driven through and through. Says Media Decoder, “Instead of relying essentially on the taste of other customers with similar preferences, as most recommendation engines do, Bookish’s tool takes into account critical reviews and awards.” Curious, I decided to see what they had in the realm of children’s literature. It’s interesting. Not a ton of content yet, but their recommendations aren’t shabby. Worth eyeing warily for a while.
Someday I will be very rich and I will create a children’s library of my very own. When I do, I will allow one or two walls to be like this:
Fortunately if that looks cool to you, you don’t have to wait. Just head on over to the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art and have your fun. Thanks to Swiss Miss for the link!
Howdy-do, folks. Today I am off to the Yonkers Library to participate in a Charles Dickens panel with some experts in the field. Why me? I don’t precisely know but I’m honored to be asked. Plus the train ride will allow me to read my new Lemony Snicket book (this would be the children’s literature equivalent of bold as you please name dropping).
Onward!
First up, some nepotism, uncut. The resident husband has a tendency to be brilliant (not that I’m biased or anything). Recent evidence of this can be found on editor Cheryl Klein’s podcast Narrative Breakdown – Creative Writing, Screenwriting,Young Adult Lit, TV shows and More. With partner-in-crime James Monohan, the two of them have a habit of talking about writing in all its many forms. Mr. Bird appears on the episode called “Scene Construction 1 > Character Expectations and Tactics” on 9/8/12 which was described as, “what may be our most ambitious episode yet.” In related news, Mr. Bird has restarted his blog Cockeyed Caravan in all its wild advisory glory. I just like this picture he came up with when talking about the roles individuals play in teams:
- Wow. This post outlining how creating a book trailer meets Common Core Standards is fantastic. Many thanks indeed to Joyce Valenza for the link!
- In case you weren’t aware of it, the Onion A.V. Club has decided that young adult literature is interesting enough to highlight on occasion (articles equating it with chick lit and meritless copyright suits notwithstanding). In the series YA Why? they split their time evenly between new hot titles and older fare. Stay for the new stuff but eschew the looks back in time. Odds are whatever title you see there, the Fine Lines column by Lizzie Skurnick did it better.
- “…the critic is someone who, when his knowledge, operated on by his taste in the presence of some new example of the genre he’s interested in…hungers to make sense of that new thing, to analyze it, interpret it, make it mean something.” Flatterer. As an aspiring book critic of children’s fare, I was much taken with the Darryl Campbell Millions article Is This Book Bad, Or Is It Just Me? The Anatomy of Book Reviews which seeks to not only summarize in brief the spats and spits in the adult literary criticism world (a fine and fancy recap if ever there was one) then goes so far as to define the four classical elements of literary appraisal (“Reaction. Summary. Aesthetic and historical appraisal”). This one is your required reading of the day. Many thanks to Marjorie Ingall (who will be part of the literary criticism panel at this year’s KidLitCon) for the link.
List this one under Good Folks Doing Stuff You Should Know About. Now tell me everything you know about The Foundation for Children’s Books. Not to worry. If you don’t live in Boston you might not have heard about them. I’m a New Yorker but I know all too well the good works of the Bostonians, and this organization is particularly keen since they “bring acclaimed children’s book authors and illustrators into underserved K-8 schools in Boston for visits and workshops focused on writing and illustration.” Folks like Barbara O’Connor, Grace Lin, Mitali Perkins, Bryan Collier, and many many more. From what I hear, this year they’re hoping to expand their work in six schools, increase the number of donated books they bring to each school, and start a “Books for Breakfast” professional development series in Boston classrooms where they focus on particular “libraries” of new books–for example, “great non-fiction for 4th and 5th graders,” and then donate the books that they highlight to those classrooms. FYI!!
- Movie news time! As you may know I tend to get my heads up from Cynopsis Kids. This week they threw out a little piece of info that I almost missed. I was reading up on future children’s movie projects when the title Happy Smekday floated past. Happy what now? Apparently I missed Adam Rex’s June post that mentioned that an official announcement had been made about a True Meaning of Smekday movie from Dreamworks Animation. More to the point the press release (and IMDB page) report that it will star Jim Parsons and Rihanna. Which . . . is perfect. Blooming bloody perfect. Clearly J.Lo will be played by Parsons and Tip by Rihanna. I’m a little floored. Mind you, the description of the film that they provide is a bit ugh. “In Happy Smekday! an alien race invades Earth and uses it as a hideout from their mortal enemy. When one lowly alien accidentally notifies the enemies of his whereabouts, he is forced to go on the run with a teenage girl. The two become unlikely buddies and embark on a comical globe-trotting adventure to right his wrongs, in which our alien hero learns what it really means to be human.” As I recall J.Lo discovers “what it really means to be human” insofar as it means taking road trips and wearing a sheet over his head. Ah well. All I ask is that they include my favorite line in the book when he looks at Tip’s car and says with sweet condescension “Oh. It rolls”.
There’s other book news on the horizon too, so look lively. Cynopsis Kids has been busy. To wit:
- “Universal looks to Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci to produce its feature film adaptation of author Dugald A. Steer’s popular kid’s book series Dragonology (12 books so far), per Heat Vision. Kurtzman and Orci have a first look deal with Universal under their banner K/O Paper Products Dragonology is part of that agreement. Dragonology was to be written by Leonard Hartman who will now serve as an executive producer. A new writer has not yet been named. Kurtzman and Orci, who wrote and produced Star Trek 2, are also set to write and executive produce the Amazing Spider-Man movie sequel.”
And very very exciting news:
- FilmNation Entertainment acquires the feature film rights to the popular kid’s book A Tale Dark & Grimm by author Adam Gidwitz. FilmNation is partnering with Marissa McMahon of Kamala Films to finance the development and produce the live-action movie with FilmNation Entertainment’s Aaron Ryder and Karen Lunder. Jon Gunn (Mercy Streets, My Date with Drew) and John W. Mann (Mercy Streets) will pen the screenplay. Based on some of the more gruesome Grimm Brother’s stories, A Tale Dark & Grimm follows the adventures of two unsuspecting kids who hold the key to breaking out of the dark ages. McMahon explains, “Gidwitz’s A Tale Dark & Grimm is a smart, addictive, and hilariously gruesome narrative that turns familiar fairy tales on their head, much to the delight of both children and parents.” FilmNation recently completed filming on the new teen-targeted comedy Premature, which they are producing from writer/director Dan Beers.”
Not so sure about the whole “hold the key to breaking out of the dark ages” part (and you know the devil is totally going to get cut) but still good news for the author. Have no idea how they’ll do it, though. I mean, there is a LOT of blood in that book.
It came out a couple months ago but I never linked to it. You’d do well to discover this great Flavorwire post on 10 Wonderful Libraries Repurposed from Unused Structures (though really, how can you link to one jail and not mention the greatest courthouse-to-library conversion of all time, the Jefferson Market Branch?). Here’s a converted railcar to library:
And if you liked that be sure to read the follow up post on 10 Awesome Bookstores Repurposed from Unused Structures. Big thanks to Mike Lewis for the links!
The biggest news of the day came in the form of a single headline in The New York Times yesterday: New York Library Drops Plan to Renovate Flagship. Whoa! So. That happened. Wowzah.
Thanks, Betsy!
And WAH, the cheapest tix to the fashion show at which the Little Golden Book Gown is being shown are $96! Hell yeah they need to lend it to you, so mere mortals have a chance to see it!
Thanks for the shout-out Betsy!!
Great stuff here!
Thanks, Betsy!
Hmmm–a book about a bunny in which the illustrator “wanted it to look as if a child had scribbled all over the book at strategic moments.” Does that mean the good Mr. Sendak predated Battle Bunny by about 40 or 50 years?
Oooooo. How odd that it didn’t even occur to me. We are looking at the proto-Battle Bunny indeed. Sendak, man. Dude had vision.