As I look back over the last five years of posts by I.N.K. bloggers, I’ve discovered what I suspected all along, which is that this group has covered in our books for young readers an astonishing variety of non-fiction subjects, ranging from biographies of the famous to the obscure to great and small moments in history, from science and math, to inventions, food, and the environment to the wild and wacky. The list is endless. Along with these books we’ve shared our back stories, challenges, classroom activities, some pet peeves and we’ve recommended lists of excellent non-fiction books by other authors. Today, in celebration of us, since the work I do concentrates on the arts, I’d like to offer an I.N.K. blogger feast of books that do the same in dance, music, and visual arts. Since I haven’t read all of them, I’ve researched reviews and descriptions on Amazon.com and will include some excerpts here.
The Young Musician’s Survival Guide: Tips from Teens and Pros
by Amy Nathan
Learning to play an instrument can be fun and, at times, frustrating. This lively, accessible book helps young people cope with the difficulties involved in learning a new instrument and remaining dedicated to playing and practicing. In this revised and expanded edition, Amy Nathan has updated the book to address today's more technologically-minded young musician. Expanded sections cover the various ways students can use technology to assist in mastering an instrument and in making practice time more productive, from using the Internet to download pieces to be learned and playing along with downloaded tunes to practicing with computer-based practice programs, CDs, and videos/DVDs of musical performances. The book's updated Resource Guide suggests where to get additional help, both online and off.
Meet the Dancers: From Ballet, Broadway and Beyond
By Amy Nathan
Lots of kids enjoy dancing, but what motivates them to push past the sore muscles, early-morning technique classes, and crazy schedule required to become a professional dancer? In this book, dancers from many backgrounds talk about their different paths to success in ballet, modern, jazz, Broadway, and hiphop.
They also share advice and helpful tips, such as: practice interpreting the music and the mood of a movement, even when you’re doing a standard warm-up exercise • try to be in the front row at auditions so you can see what’s going on and so the judges know you’re eager to be seenClara Schumann Piano Virtuoso
By Susanna Reich
A piano prodigy, Clara Schumann made her professional debut at the age of nine and had embarked on her first European concert tour by the time she was twelve. Clara charmed audiences with her soulful playing throughout her life. Music was a constant source of inspiration and support for this strong and resilient woman. After the death of her husband, Robert Schumann, Clara continued her brilliant career and supported their eight children. Clara Schumann's extraordinary story is supplemented with her letters and diary entries, some of which have never before been published in English. Gorgeous portraits and photographs show the members of Clara's famous musical community and Clara herself from age eight to seventy-six. Index, chronology.
Painting the Wild Frontier: The Art and Adventures of George Catlin
By Susanna Reich
George Catlin is one of America’s best-known painters, famous for his iconic portraits of Native Americans. He spent much of his life in the wilderness, sketching and painting as he traveled. A solo trek across 500 miles of uncharted prairie, an expedition to the Andes, harrowing encounters with grizzly bears and panthers, and tours of the royal palaces of Europe were among his many adventures. In an era when territorial expansion resulted in the near annihilation of many indigenous cultures, George Catlin dedicated himself to meeting and writing about the native peoples of the western hemisphere. With his “Indian Gallery” of paintings and artifacts, he toured the United States and Europe, stirring up controversy and creating a sensation.
Award-winning author Susanna Reich combines excerpts from Catlin’s letters and notes with vivid depictions of his far-flung travels. Generously illustrated with archival prints and photos and Catlin’s own magnificent paintings, here is a rollicking, accessible biography that weaves meticulously researched history into a fascinating frontier and jungle adventure story.
Jose! Born to Dance: The Story of Jose Limon
By Susanna Reich
José was a boy with a song in his heart and a dance in his step. Born in Mexico in 1908, he came into the world kicking like a steer, and grew up to love to draw, play the piano, and dream. José's dreaming took him to faraway places. He dreamed of bullfighters and the sounds of the cancan dancers that he saw with his father. Dance lit a fire in José's soul.
With his heart to guide him, José left his family and went to New York to dance. He learned to flow and float and fly through space with steps like a Mexican breeze. When José danced, his spirit soared. From New York to lands afar, José Limón became known as the man who gave the world his own kind of dance.
¡OLÉ! ¡OLÉ! ¡OLÉ!
Susanna Reich's lyrical text and Raúl Colón's shimmering artwork tell the story of a boy who was determined to make a difference in the world, and did. José! Born to Dance will inspire picture book readers to follow their hearts and live their dreams.
Sandy’s Circus: A Story about Alexander Calder
By Tanya Lee Stone and Boris Kulikov
As a boy, Alexander (Sandy) Calder was always fiddling with odds and ends, making objects for friends. When he got older and became an artist, his fiddling led him to create wire sculptures. One day, Sandy made a lion. Next came a lion cage. Before he knew it, he had an entire circus and was traveling between Paris and New York performing a brand-new kind of art for amazed audiences. This is the story of Sandy’s Circus, as told by Tanya Lee Stone with Boris Kulikov’s spectacular and innovative illustrations. Calder’s original circus is on permanent display at the Whitney Museum in New York City.
A Look at Cubism
By Sneed Collard
Cubism was one of the most influential visual art styles of the early twentieth century. The Cubist painters rejected the inherited concept that art should copy nature, or that they should adopt the traditional techniques of perspective. Picasso and Braque, the pioneers of Cubist painting are highlighted in this title, as well as the evolution of the Cubist art form. This title will allow students to distinguish their own point of view from that of the author of a text.
A Listen to Patriotic Music
By Sneed Collard
Patriotic music helps us feel pride for our country. The songs bring a unity and sense of togetherness to the people who live there. Written for many different reasons, and sung everywhere from baseball games to presidential elections, this title lists examples of some of our country's most cherished patriotic songs and information on the people and events that inspired them. This title will allow students to explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.
Books by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan
The Mad Potter: George E. Ohr Eccentric Genius
Age Level: 7 - 11 | Grade Level: 2 - 6
When George Ohr's trove of pottery was discovered in 1967, years after his death, his true genius was discovered with it. The world could finally see how unique this artist really was! Born in 1856 in Biloxi, Mississippi, George grew up to the sounds of the civil war and political unrest. When he was 22, his boyhood friend introduced him to the pottery wheel. The lost young man suddenly found his calling.
"When I found the potter's wheel I felt it all over like a duck in water." He started creating strangely crafted pots and vases, expressing his creativity and personality through the ceramic sculptures. Eventually he had thousands at his fingertips. He took them to fairs and art shows, but nobody was buying these odd figures from this bizarre man. Eventually he retired, but not without hiding hundreds of his ceramics. Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, authors of the award winning Ballet for Martha, approach this colorful biography with a gentle and curious hand.Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring (Illustrated by Brian Floca)
Martha Graham : trailblazing choreographer, Aaron Copland : distinguished American composer, and Isamu Noguchi : artist, sculptor, craftsman Award-winning authors Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan tell the story behind the scenes of the collaboration that created APPALACHIAN SPRING, from its inception through the score’s composition to Martha’s intense rehearsal process. The authors’ collaborator is two-time Sibert Honor winner Brian Floca, whose vivid watercolors bring both the process and the performance to life.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Through The Gates and Beyond
In 1981 two artists -- Christo and Jeanne-Claude -- proposed an installation in New York’s Central Park that would span twenty-three miles. They received a 185-page response from the Parks Department that could have been summed up in one single word: “no.” But they persisted. This biography of contemporary artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude is a story of the power of collaboration, and vision, and of the creation of the spectacular Gates and other renowned artworks.Christo and Jeanne-Claude is a 2003 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
Action Jackson (Illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker)
One late spring morning the American artist Jackson Pollock began work on the canvas that would ultimately come to be known as Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist).
Award-winning authors Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan use this moment as the departure point for a unique picture book about a great painter and the way in which he worked. Their lyrical text, drawn from Pollock's own comments and those made by members of his immediate circle, is perfectly complemented by vibrant watercolors by Robert Andrew Parker that honor his spirit of the artist without imitating his paintings.
Vincent Van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist
Vincent Van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist was named a Robert F. Sibert Honor book by the ALA. This is the enthralling biography of the nineteenth-century Dutch painter known for pioneering new techniques and styles in masterpieces such as Starry Night and Vase with Sunflowers. The book cites detailed primary sources and includes a glossary of artists and terms, a biographical time line, notes, a bibliography, and locations of museums that display Van Gogh’s work. It also features a sixteen-page insert with family photographs and full-color reproductions of many of Van Gogh’s paintings. Vincent Van Gogh was named an ALA Notable Book and an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and has been selected as a Common Core State Standards Text Exemplar (Grades 6–8, Historical/Social Studies) in Appendix B.
Andy Warhol: Prince of POP The Campbell’s Soup Cans. The Marilyns. The Electric Chairs. The Flowers. The work created by Andy Warhol elevated everyday images to art, ensuring Warhol a fame that has far outlasted the 15 minutes he predicted for everyone else. His very name is synonymous with the 1960s American art movement known as Pop.
But Warhol’s oeuvre was the sum of many parts. He not only produced iconic art that blended high and popular culture; he also made controversial films, starring his entourage of the beautiful and outrageous; he launched Interview, a slick magazine that continues to sell today; and he reveled in leading the vanguard of New York’s hipster lifestyle. The Factory, Warhol’s studio and den of social happenings, was the place to be.
Who would have predicted that this eccentric boy, the Pittsburgh-bred son of Eastern European immigrants, would catapult himself into media superstardom? Warhol’s rise, from poverty to wealth, from obscurity to status as a Pop icon, is an absorbing tale—one in which the American dream of fame and fortune is played out in all of its success and its excess. No artist of the late 20th century took the pulse of his time—and ours—better than Andy Warhol.
Andy Cohen is Bravo TV’s executive vice-president of programming and development and the mastermind of such hits as Top Chef and the Real Housewives franchise. He also hosts a fast-moving, outspoken talk show Watch What Happens. What is wonderful about Andy is that, despite his success and friendships with “stars,” he is still the same funny, friendly kid who hung out at our house in St. Louis with our daughter Jackie, loves his family (especially his Mom), and keeps up with all of us. Andy grew up knowing he was gay and keeping it a secret until his senior year at college. His new memoir
Most Talkative: Stories from the front lines of pop culture tells that story, but also chronicles his meteoric rise in the world of T.V.
As a student at Boston University, Andy began to follow his dream to be a journalist. A hilarious chapter describes a hard won interview for the school newspaper with his all time idol Susan Lucci. Most Talkative gives a candid, inside view of life in television, as well as a poignant and often funny account of his life as a teenager in the Midwest. Several of us, including Sue Macy, Karen Romano Young, Cheryl Harness, Susan E. Goodman, and Gretchen Woelfle, have written posts about the need for nonfiction books for kids about growing up gay in America. I hope Andy Cohen’s memoir will fill this gap.
Jan: The text reads just the way you talk- funny, honest, anecdotal and fast-moving.
Most Talkative is an apt title. How did you come to it?
Andy: I WAS VOTED MOST TALKATIVE IN HIGH SCHOOL AND IT SEEMED SUCH AN APT TITLE WHEN I LOOKED BACK AT MY LIFE AND HOW MY MOUTH HAS NOT ONLY GOTTEN ME IN A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF TROUBLE OVER THE YEARS, BUT HAS ALSO HELPED ME ACHIEVE MY PROFESSIONAL DREAMS.
Jan: Your descriptions of growing up in St. Louis were so vivid and immediate. Did you keep a journal all those years?
Andy: I KEPT JOURNALS FROM 1987 THROUGH '98, SO THIS WAS AFTER I'D GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL BUT CERTAINLY DURING THE PERIOD WHEN I WAS WRESTLING WITH COMING OUT OF THE CLOSET AND THEN THE AFTERMATH OF THAT DECISION. THE JOURNALS WERE PAINFUL TO READ - AS THEY ALL CAN BE - BUT PROVIDED ME WITH SOME VERY SPECIFIC DETAILS ABOUT MY FEARS ABOUT COMING OUT, AS WELL AS SOME HILARIOUS COLOR COMMENTARY DURING MY TIME AT CBS NEWS.
Jan: You are a people person. You are known as a TV talk show host and you appear as a guest on other interview shows. As a writer myself, I know how much alone time it takes to write a book. Was writing the memoir difficult for you to do in terms of time, concentration, or the writing process?
Andy: WRITING THIS BOOK WAS SUCH A CHALLENGING AND ENERGIZING EXPERIENCE. I HAVE NEVER FELT MORE ACCOMPLISHED ABOUT ANYTHING I'VE DONE IN MY LIFE THAN I DO ABOUT THE BOOK. I AM VERY DEADLINE ORIENTED, AND I HAD A TIGHT, ESSENTIALLY FOUR MONTH DEADLINE FOR THIS ENTIRE BOOK TO BE WRITTEN AND EDITED. (I STARTED IN LATE AUGUST AND IT WAS DUE JAN 1.) PLUS I HAVE TWO JOBS (EVP OF DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION AT BRAVO AS WELL AS HOSTING 'WWHL'). I CAN'T BELIEVE I DID IT BUT I SPENT EVERY MINUTE THAT I WASN'T WORKING - AND MOST ESPECIALLY EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND NONSTOP - WRITING NEW PAGES AND EMAILING CHAPTERS IN VARIOUS STAGES OF EDIT BACK AND FORTH TO MY PHENOMINAL EDITOR AT HOLT, GILLIAN BLAKE. I ALSO SPENT 30-60 MINUTES DAILY ON THE PHONE WITH GILLIAN, USUALLY FIRST THING IN THE MORNING, TALKING ABOUT EVERYTHING RELATED TO THE BOOK - NEW IDEAS,
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
In response to Roz Schanzer’s hilarious post “Writing Right, Right?” about Rules for Writing, Jim Murphy commented, “You have to have some fun writing if you expect me to still be awake when I get to the conclusion.” That reminds me of a funny story.
Most of the books I do with Sandra Jordan begin with a field trip. But not all field trips turn into books. A few years ago Sandra and I had what we thought was a great idea. We set off for the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Museum of Modern Art to do some research. After two hours there, we went back to my apartment, sat down, and promptly fell asleep. Later we realized if our great idea put us to sleep, what would it do to our readers?
Where do you get your ideas? That’s the question I’ve been asked hundreds of times for the last thirty years. Some of my ideas seem quite interesting when I come up with them, often in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep. But in the light of day (is that a cliché, Roz?) in the midst of researching, I get so bored I end up eating lunch at 9:30 in the morning or writing frantic e mails to my daughters about nothing.
Here are some of my favorite field trips that did work out:
- A drive out to Storm King Sculpture Park resulted in our book “The Sculptor’s Eye.”
- On a visit to the National Gallery in Washington DC, Sandra and I stood transfixed in front of Jackson Pollock’s painting Lavender Mist and featured it in “Action Jackson.”
- A trip to the Isamu Noguchi Foundation in Long Island City to see his stage sets for dances by Martha Graham sparked our interest in doing a book on collaboration that resulted in “Ballet for Martha.”
Going to a party doesn’t constitute a field trip but it may inspire an idea. I once met the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude at a cocktail party and she and I struck up a conversation about �
January, 2011. With the New Year comes reflection, some nostalgia, and a few “If I’d only known.” Since my calendar is sprinkled with school visits, I’m reminded of some early experiences from my checkered past on the road.
When my first novel A Season In-Between came out in 1979, I was invited to a school that shall remain nameless in Southern Missouri. There was no way to get there other than driving from St. Louis for three hours. But I’d been promised a book signing, lodging, and a $100 honorarium. I arrived at the Day’s End Motel around 7 PM, as promised, to join some of the faculty for dinner. There I was met by the Marian the librarian (not her real name. Actually the real Marian the librarian is wonderful!!), who informed me that the restaurant there was closed, but she had soup and a sandwich for me at her house and “wouldn’t it be fun to spend the night?” The guest room was waiting. No heat. I woke up freezing and sneezing in the middle of the night with her cat sleeping on my head. The next day on the way to the school, she handed me my schedule. Eight presentations and an after school meeting with the local library association. Sorry, no books to sign, except the one copy in the library. I did not get home until after midnight.
It was a good lesson in setting up the next school visits. But somehow even with damage control, there is always the unexpected. Once a few years and books ago, when I arrived at a school, I was informed that the middle graders had gone on a field trip to a pumpkin farm. The receptionist had no idea who I was or why I was there. A group of first graders was hastily assembled. The little girl in the front row told me I looked more like a lawyer than a real writer. ( Note to myself: Don’t wear a gray pants suit to make school visits.) No one, including the baffled teachers, had read or even heard of my books. I did manage to temporarily stop the squirming with a knock knock joke and a clapping game. Thank goodness for small children at home.
And last and definitely least….Some years ago I went for a week to a state that shall remain nameless to speak at five middle schools. My novel No Dragons to Slay had made the state list that year. When I arrived at the first school, I was told that, at the request of a parent, who objected to several four letter words, they had removed the book from the shelves. The novel tells the story of a teenager battling bone cancer. His hair had fallen out and chemo made him nauseous. Might he have said something stronger than “Gosh, it’s been a bad day”? Out of respect for the very apologetic librarian, I spoke about my other books, rather cheerfully, considering No Dragons To Slay, the only book they’d ordered, had been shipped back.
I spent the night at the guest house on a nearby college campus. In the middle of the night, I felt strange tickling sensations. An infestation of ladybugs! At least they weren’t bedbugs.
There are more stories, many shared with me by other writers. But lest you think I’m a whiner and complainer, I will say that I’ve been to dozens of schools where I’ve had great times and met librarians and teachers who are friends for life.
Here is my a list of do’s (instead of don’ts) for school visits. I’m sure all of you can add to the list. Either have a written contract with the school or send them a note/ e mail ahead of time with requests and expectations. Nothing outrageous like one of our fellow writers who insists on suites at hotels, first class airfare, and a driver/escort at all times. We all know about shrinking budgets and the difficulties many schools have being able to afford author visits. In St. Louis, I often volunteer to visit schools, especially in low income areas. My favorite presentations include a writing workshop. I will even provide paper and pencils.
THE LIST
a. Your own nonsmoking room (if you don’t smoke) at a motel/hotel, especially if you are a light sleeper or snorer.
b. Three presen
Last month I wrote a post about lyrical language and many of you had great comments. Thanks so much! Jan Greenberg mentioned the role of sensory words in creating lyrical prose, and I couldn’t agree more. In fact, for today’s post, I’ve decided to highlight some of my favorite examples of writing that is enriched by sensory details.
Sensory details can really bring a piece of prose to life. Why is appealing to the five senses so powerful? Because they are how we experience and interpret the real, 3-D word we encounter every day.
Sights, sounds, and especially smells can instantly transport our minds to a specific time and place, an event from 10, 20, 30 or more years ago. They can also transport us to a time and place described in a book. Consider the following examples. Two are from adult books and one is from a book written by one of my fellow I.N.K. bloggers.
From Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey“Sound preceded sight. Odor preceded sound in the form of an overwhelming musky-barnyard, humanlike scent. [Then we heard] a high-pitched series of screams followed by a rhythmic rondo of sharp pok-pok chestbeats . . . The three of us froze until the echoes of the screams and chestbeats faded. Only then did we creep forward under the cover of the dense shrubbery to about 50 feet from the group. Peeking through the vegetation, we could [see] . . . furry-headed [gorillas] peering back at us.”From The Outermost House by Henry Beston“I like a good smell—the smell of a freshly plowed field on a warm morning after a night of April rain, . . . the morning perfumes of lilacs showery with dew, the good reek of hot salt grass and low tide blowing from
Almost ten years ago I met the writer/illustrator Debra Frasier at a Children’s Literature Festival in Idaho. She told me that one of her greatest moments in her life was narrating her picture book “On the Day You Were Born” accompanied by a full symphony
orchestra. Standing at the podium, hearing the music surrounding her, she said, was an extraordinary experience. I must admit I was a little jealous. I mean I could do that. Stand up there and read one of my books. I could listen to the sound of violins and cellos and flutes washing over me. How wonderful would that be? Alas I hadn’t written a book that would qualify for such a thing. But from time to time I thought about Debra and her story. Remembering it gave me a vicarious thrill.
So you can imagine my excitement when, by chance, I found myself on a plane seated next to David Robinson, the musical director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Sandra Jordan and I were just finishing the third or fourth draft of Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring. David and I chatted about the book and the music. He could actually hum the whole score, which Aaron Copland had composed for Martha Graham’s dance first performed in 1944, when America had entered WWII. Isamu Noguchi had designed the sets. It was a great collaboration between choreographer, composer, and artist. I told David we were having trouble describing the last, lingering notes of the music. “They seem to ask ‘What will happen tomorrow?’ ” David said. Yes! I mentioned that I had a vision of the text narrated with illustrations, accompanied by the music. I wanted the book to make a contribution to family concerts, a modern alternative to Peter and the Wolff. I wanted to stand up like Debra and hear the full orchestra playing behind me. (I didn’t tell David that part of it.)
He was enthusiastic about the idea, as one of his interests is showing audiences the way the arts interconnect. Two years from that serendipitous meeting, Ballet for Martha was presented with the St. Louis Symphony performing Appalachian Spring. Brian Floca’s illustrations appeared on an overhead screen. We were all there, Sandra, Brian, and our editor Neal Porter. It was exhilarating! In November there will be four performances for younger audiences of Appalachian Spring, along with the narration and images from Ballet for Martha. I guess you’re wondering if I will be up there narrating. Well, no. David, himself, will read excerpts from the text with the images overhead. The orchestra will play fragments of the music as they relate to the story, followed by the complete symphony. As for me, I’ll be sitting happily in the first row with my grandchildren and humming along. But I’m working on the next performance, which will be in Aspen, Colorado next summer. Maybe that will be my big chance!!!
Follow the Money by Loreen Leedy is being used in Vermont's statewide
financial literacy program.
http://bit.ly/bHwSTs
Artwork from several of Loreen Leedy's picture books will be included
in The Storymaker's Art, and exhibit of illustrations by eight artists
at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale.
http://www.thestorymakersart.com/
Gretchen Woelfle will be on hand to sign books at Breakfast With the Authors, sponsored by the Santa Barbara County Education Office on October 9, in Santa Barbara, CA.
From Susan E. Goodman: My new Step into Reading book, Monster Trucks!, was just published September 28th by Random House. For my other writing news, check my blog post this month, on October 11th. Other news that doesn't really belong here...I'm going to Paris this month for two weeks!
Deborah Heiligman will be speaking at the Rutgers One on One Plus Conference, October 16. http://www.ruccl.org/One-on-One_Plus_Conference.html
and at the New York State English Teachers Conference October 21-22.
Vicki Cobb has been awarded a
CILC Pinnacle Award Honorable Mention in recognition of outstanding videoconferencing programs. She was one of only three individuals (and the only author) who won either the Award or Honorable Mention. The overwhelming majority of recipients is museums, zoos and other educational institutions. The awards are based solely on a performance rating.The Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (
www.CILC.org), is the leading agency for providing videoconferencing services for education.
Vicki Cobb is now an official blogger for Education Update, a print and online FREE newspaper that reaches 100,000 educators. Check out the other bloggers. Her mission is to let the world know about us. From Jan Greenberg: Thanks to Steve at WindingOak, my new website is launched. Please check it out. Jangreenbergsandrajordan.com October 1 and 3, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is performing Appalachian Spring with images from my new book Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring. My co-author Sandra Jordan, the illustrator Brian Floca, and editor Neal Porter are coming in and we are doing a panel discussion for the St. Louis Public Library on Saturday, October 2. A narration of the book with images and music will be performed by the St. Louis Symphony on November 10 and 16 for the Young People's Concerts.
Now Available
href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_g-Bp2wiurbI/TKiMXtWg5yI/AAAAAAAAAqQ/AUn40S4uG-s/s1600/martha.jpg">
Tanya Lee Stone's newest nonfiction book, The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie will launch soon and its first two reviews are both Stars! School Library Journal wrote, "The author maintains her signature research style and accessible informational voice." Kirkus: "Sibert Medalist Stone tantalizes." The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie is part biography--both of the doll and of her inventor, Ruth Handler--and part exploration of the cultural phenomenon that is Barbie.
School’s out! Summer’s in full swing. Time to look back for a moment and reflect on our INK Blog accomplishments. INK bloggers spent the last year sharing favorite new books for young readers, introducing our own new books, and suggesting ways teachers and librarians can use them in the classroom. We shared opinions about e books, kindles, and research. Our subjects ranged from books on women astronauts, Darwin, and baseball to artists, animals, science and more. We have garnered awards and rousing reviews. We welcomed INK THINK TANK, an INK website and INK Think Tank video conferencing. I notice that most of us (present company excluded) are very good at livening up our posts with photos, drawings, book covers and illustrations. All in all a very exciting and productive year. A fringe benefit is that we are starting to meet each other in person. At the PEN Children’s Book writer’s dinner in NY at Elizabeth Levy’s last week, I met Vicki Cobb and Susannah Reich. It was nice to be able to have a face to face conversation!!
I just completed a mystery for adults and sent it off to a friend to review. Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring (with Sandra Jordan, illustrations by Brian Floca) will be out in August. So I am taking a break. For the next month I will catch up on my reading.
As usual I have a stack of books next to my bed ranging from The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest and Louis Sachar’s The Card Turner to a biography of the art dealer Leo Castelli and Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s memoir Nomad. Somewhere in the mix is a novel in the voice of a dog that my friend Barbara says is a must.
I’m excited to introduce Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring, which tells the story of the collaboration between Martha Graham, Isamu Noguchi and Aaron Copland to create Martha’s most celebrated dance. Copland won a Pulitzer prize for the music. Most people don’t realize that Noguchi designed many sets for Martha’s dances over the years. Sandra and I were thinking of writing a biography of the artist. When we visited the Noguchi museum in Long island City, New York a few years ago, there was a fascinating exhibit of Noguchi’s set designs for Martha. We wondered if it would be possible to do a picture book that would capture the spirit of his work with Martha. During the years she danced, choreographed, and taught in New York, everyone referred to her as Martha. She became an icon in her own lifetime. We watched early videos of the company’s performances. It became clear that Appalachian Spring was not only the most accessible story for young readers, but it was also the most American. It takes place in the hills of Pennsylvania, where a farmer and his bride celebrate their wedding day and the completion of their new house.
The ballet debuted at the Library of Congress in 1944, when the United States was at war with Germany and Japan. Although there were intimations in the music and the dance of troubled times, the ballet ended on a hopeful note. Critics called it her valentine to Eric Hawkins, the dancer who played the husband, the man Martha eventually married. She took the role of the bride. Interestingly Merce Cunningham was the Preacher. Whenever we went to watch rehearsals of the Martha Graham Dance Company, Brian Floca was there taking photographs. Sandra and I, as I’ve written before, do an enormous amount of research for our books. I was astonished to discover that an illustrator does the same thing. More about the book in the fall. Meanwhile a happy and productive Summer to all of you.
*Apologies but the links don't seem to be working. I'll try again later. Please cut and paste in the meantime.*
Samantha Miller mentioned I.N.K. in an article on her blog entitled “50 Best Blogs for Literacy Teachers” at
http://www.universityreviewsonline.com/2005/10/50-best-blogs-for-literacy-teachers.html
From Jan Greenberg: Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring (with Sandra Jordan) will debut October 2010 with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.
Tanya Lee Stone's Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream has been given a Jane Addams Children's Book Honor Award. The award is given to books that "effectively promote the cause of peace, social justice, world community, and the equality of the sexes and all races."
Loreen Leedy's newest picture book is now available: The Shocking
Truth about Energy, published by Holiday House. A lightning bolt named
Erg and a gaggle of appliances, toys, and gadgets find out how
electricity is generated and explore power sources such as fossil
fuels, solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal, and biofuels.
INK Link: Authors on Call was officially launched with a webinar that was Spotlighted on the www.cilc.org website on April 21. Roz Schanzer, Dorothy Patent, and Vicki Cobb presented brief versions of the kinds of nonfiction our authors can offer to teachers. The purpose of INK Link: Authors on Call is to make educators aware of the wealth of curriculum-related literature available for kids by having them interact with the creators of the material themselves. Technology now makes webinars and videoconferences like this one possible and affordable. Lots of people participated in this fun and interactive program, which received rave reviews. The webinar was recorded and you can see it for yourself on the INK Think Tank website. Here’s the link: http://www.inkthinktank.com/pages/inklink/webinars.html.
Back in March, 2008, in one of my first I.N.K. blogs, Truth or Fiction??, I went on a rant about the publication of adult books purported to be memoirs that turned out to be fiction.
This is how I began: "This morning in the New York Times I read about another outed memoirist, Margaret B, Jones, whose account of life as a foster child growing up in the drug infested L.A. projects, Love and Consequences, turns out to be pure fiction. This follows on the footsteps of another recent fabrication, Misha Defonseca’s Misha:A Memoir of the Holocaust, which includes a story about being raised by wolves. Wolves? Did anybody who read it believe this? Meanwhile I’m slogging away with my writing partner Sandra Jordan, trying to copyedit for the twentieth time every detail, including a complicated List of Artworks, Bibliography, Quotes, text and more of a non-fiction project Christo and Jeanne-Claude:Through The Gates and Beyond."
Sue Macy responded to my blog the next day. Here is an excerpt from her thoughtful essay. “In recent years, the trend in kids’ nonfiction has been toward more attribution and accountability. When my editors first told me they would require footnotes for quotations and statistics, I balked, flashing back to those long ago days of writing college papers. But now I embrace the chance to hold the veracity of my work up to public scrutiny by including footnotes and inviting readers to e-mail me with questions about sources. And when those sources conflict with no clear consensus, as in the spelling of Annie Oakley’s real last name (Moses or Mozee), I do my best to report the disagreement and explain why I chose the option I did. In kids’ nonfiction, honesty is the best policy and accuracy always matters.”
Just a month ago the New York Times reported another case of fiction disguised as non-fiction. When this was revealed by historians, veterans, and scientists denouncing the book, “The Last Train from Hiroshima,” its’ author, Charles Pellegrino, said he was duped by a source. The man claimed to have substituted for the plane’s regular flight engineer on the bombing run to Hiroshima. He turned out to be an imposter. Experts pointed out other factual and technical errors. Henry Holt & Company stopped printing and selling the book. (Guess who wanted to make a movie out of it? Hint: Who produced Avatar?)
Does this happen in children’s book publishing? My research tells me there have been cases of plagiary accusations in fiction for children. (But very few.) If there have been scandals in non-fiction books for young readers, I cannot find any documentation. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist. But reading through the many commentaries on research by participating authors of I.N.K., I have been impressed, even awed, by their diligent, creative, and passionate research and fact-finding. You can read some of my past blogs on the subject, as well as one by Sandra Jordan, by highlighting my name in the sidebar. Here are some of my favorite nuggets of wisdom gleaned from this group of dedicated non-fiction writers.
David Schwartz: “To rewrite Kenneth Grahame’s delightful line (which, as it happens, was spoken by the character Mole in Wind in the Willows), “There is nothing—absolutely nothing—half so much worth doing as messing about in boats.” In this case, Grahame’s ode to blissful aimlessness might be rewritten for researchers as “There is nothing so delightful — or fruitful — as messing about in libraries.”
Cheryl Harness: “I grew up reading the encyclopedia just for fun. In all my books (40 or so) through the years, I always begin my research with a regular, old, paper World Book. It gives me more than enough information with which to make my outline.” (told to me by Cheryl at the Warrensburg Children Literature Festival on March 16.)
Gretchen Woelfle: “An old adage tells us to write about what we know. I disagree. I choose to write about what I don’t know, but want to learn. Full disclosure: I – and other writers I could n
Barbara Kerley's book, What To Do About Alice?, won the 2009 Washington State/Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award in the picture book category. The book is illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham, a Seattle resident.
Gretchen Woelfle will speak on Reading and Writing nonfiction: A Study in Serendipity at the California School Library Association Conference in Ontario, CA on Friday November 20. She will also sign books at the Author and Illustrator Brunch on Sunday, November 22.
From Deborah Heiligman: CHARLES AND EMMA: THE DARWINS' LEAP OF FAITH is a Finalist for the National Book Award. Award ceremony is Novemer 18 when the winner will be announced. But I am thrilled to have my book be a finalist.
Helen's Eyes: A Photobiography of Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller's Teacher by Marfé Ferguson Delano was named a 2009 Jefferson Cup Honor Book. Presented by the Virginia Library Association, the Jefferson Cup is an award that honors biographies, historical fiction, and American history books for children.
Sue Macy will be signing copies of her new book, Bylines: A Photobiography of Nellie Bly, on Friday, November 6, at the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) conference in Charlotte. Stop by the National Geographic booth from 3:30 to 4:30 to pick up a book and say hi. And don't forget to mention you heard about it on I.N.K.!
From Jan Greenberg: Christo and Jeanne-Claude Through The Gates and Beyond is on Booklist's Top Art Books of 2009 list. I will be at NCTE on November 20 in Philadelphia signing Side by Side at Abrams booth 1:30-2:15pm and attending the Notables awards for Language Arts session at 2:30. Hope to meet some of you there.
In celebration of our new Ink Think Tank Database, I would like to share a classroom activity for my book Action Jackson (K-4). I hope classroom and art teachers, as well as librarians, will find this teaching guide useful. The section called Responding to Art can be applied to other paintings, as well.
Begin by reading Action Jackson by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker. You can read it out loud, have the children take turns reading it aloud, or allow them time to read it to themselves. Then let everyone take good look at the reproduction of Jackson Pollock’s painting, Lavender Mist. Children should also have the chance to look at any work of Pollock’s that you have in your collection.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
The Abstract Expressionists abandoned the idea that painting is a picture window looking into the real world. To these artists and others who followed them, three-dimensional effects in painting were sheer illusion. A painting to them was a flat surface with paint on it, an object to be appreciated for its own sake. The subject matter of these paintings is not realistic image, as in a portrait or still life. The subject matter is color or line or shape or texture, or the relationships among these elements. The artists use color or line to translate their emotions on canvas, stressing risk and unpredictability, thus capturing the mood and rhythm of contemporary life.
JACKSON POLLOCK
Born 1912, Cody, Wyoming; died 1956, The Springs, New York.
Studied at the Art Students League, New York. His large paintings, in which he dripped and poured paint on canvas spread on the floor, are considered the most starling and influential paintings of his generation. Drip painting, action painting, and gestural painting are some of the terms that critics have applied to Pollock’s unrestrained creations.
RESPONDING TO ART
What do you say after you say, “I like this painting” or “I don’t like it?” For a moment, forget how you feel about the painting and think about what feelings the painting expresses. You can figure this out by answering some questions:
1. Do your eyes travel all around the painting, or focus on one spot in the center?
Is there a repeated pattern?
2. What do you see? Is it a house or a tree or a design without a recognizable
image?
3. Sensory words refer to qualities in the painting that appeal to your five senses: sight, touch, smell, sound, or taste. What are some sensory words that describe the elements of color, line, shape, or texture in the painting?
a. Are the colors bright or dull, soft or garish?
b. Are the lines straight or curvy, wavy or angular?
c. Is the paint thick or thin? If you put your hand on the surface would it be flat or bumpy?
d. What kind of shapes do you see?
e. If you were to step inside the canvas, would you move slowly or quickly? Would it feel as if you were walking on a soft cloud, on rocks, or through syrup?
4. What is the mood of the painting as expressed by the colors, lines, shapes, and texture?
5. What kind of music would you choose to go with the painting? Jazz, rock and roll, or classical?
6. Pretend you are holding a paintbrush or a stick. Move your arms following the lines of the painting as if you were a conductor leading an orchestra.
TAKE ACTION
Spread a sheet of brown paper on the floor. Moving around the painting with a paintbrush or stick dipped in black paint, make swooping line from one edge of the surface of the paper to the other. Let the paint dry. Add a new color. Use different arm motions-long and sweeping, short and quick. Notice that the way you use your arm changes the lines on the paper. Walk around the painting, working from all sides. You can let bare patches of brown paper come through. Make a handprint or two in the corner.
Put some music and paint in rhythm to the music. Now you will have an idea of what it felt to be Jackson Pollock working in that quiet barn.
From Rosalyn Schanzer
If you happen to be in Kentucky on Thursday, June 18, I will be speaking three times at the Fourth Annual Fleming County Reading Festival. And the good news is that the first 100 or so people to get there will receive a free signed copy of one of my books! You can find the festival at 1449 Elizaville Road, Flemingsburg, Kentucky 41041. It’s on the Fleming Mason Energy grounds on Highway 32, which is not very far south of Cincinnati Ohio. Here’s my part of the schedule:
11:00 (professional development session for teachers) Killing the Bugs before Drinking Them: How to Make Non-fiction Spring to Life
1:00 (grades K-3) The Old Chisholm Trail - a cowboy song with costumes and sound effects provided by the audience…and maybe a surprise title as well!
3:00 (4th grade and up) What Darwin Saw; the Journey that Changed the World
From Kathleen Krull:
An interview with Kathleen Krull will be posted to the Park Ridge (Illinois) Public Library blog (http://prkcs.wordpress.com/) on June 5. On June 22 she will be speaking at the 30th Annual Reading/Language Arts Conference at San Diego State University http://edweb.sdsu.edu/ste/documents/masters/summer_reading_conference_flyer_2009.pdf
From Jan Greenberg:
Jan Greenberg, editor - Side by Side New Poems Inspired by Art from around the World
CCBC (Cooperative Children’s Book Center) 2009 Annual Best-of-the-Year
NCTE (National Council Teachers of English) 2009 Notable Children’s Book in the Language Arts.
Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Books of 2008
Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Through the Gates and Beyond,
NCSS (National Council of Social Studies) Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2009
ALA (American Library Association) Notable Book 2009
Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s books of 2008.
The great English Arts and Crafts philosopher William Morris said, “… have nothing in your houses which you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” And this became the credo for the Arts and Crafts Movement which spread to this country from England beginning roughly in 1860 and lasting until the 1920’s.
When I first began collecting green matte pottery nine years ago, I was only vaguely familiar with the Arts and Crafts Movement and knew even less about Art Pottery. I fell into it purely by accident. One summer I was languishing at home in St. Louis, with no idea whatsoever for a new book, and my daughter, Lynne, came home from Brooklyn to visit. She’d cut out an article from Martha Stewart’s Living Magazine featuring a line of mass produced pottery from the 40’s and 50’s, manufactured by McCoy, a company founded in 1899 in Zanesville Ohio. Martha was touting it; thus prices in New York City and the Hamptons were high ($100 or more for a single vase). Lynne thought it would be fun to display these colorful objects on shelves in her new kitchen. So we went scouring for McCoy on Cherokee Street, in Kirkwood, and at a few vast antique malls, mostly filled with castoff lamps, knickknacks, and clothing. By the time her husband Eric arrived for the weekend, her old bedroom was overflowing with about sixty McCoy vases in various pastel shades of blues, pinks, greens and blues. They had averaged about $10 a piece. Assigned to lug them back to Brooklyn, Eric was as enthused about this instant collection as was my husband, Ronnie, when eventually a mass of green matte pots started piling up around our house. Shall I mention that my friends rolled their eyes at my new hobby? But I needed something to scavenger with my daughter. I needed something to distract me from my writing lull. I discovered my first green matte pot on a foray to Cherokee Street, where a small green Rookwood bowl jumped out at me. The flat, smooth texture, the curvy shape, and the deep green color were soothing, so appealing on a deep and satisfying level that I had to buy it. In terms of contemporary art, I’ve always been drawn to minimalism, the sculpture of Donald Judd or the paintings of Ellsworth Kelly. These simple clay vessels in monochromatic colors, unembellished surfaces, and geometric designs fit right into my aesthetic. Later I discovered that Ellsworth Kelly and his partner, Jack Shear, also collect green matte pottery and the artist Jasper Johns has a collection of turn of the century ceramics by George Ohr, the mad potter of Biloxi.
For the next few years, whenever I went out of town to speak at libraries or Children’s Literature Festivals, I asked my hosts to take me by the nearest antique mall. From Cape Girardeau to Chicago, from junk stores to estate sales, I discovered there was a whole world of Art and Crafts enthusiasts, and that there existed a definite hierarchy in terms of art pottery. I learned to tell the difference between a Rookwood and a Grueby, a Hampshire from a Teco. I discovered that St. Louis once had a thriving art pottery company called University City, started in 1909. Searching for the rare green pot became more interesting the more I learned. Most of my finds were quite modest, and it was never my purpose to build a serious collection. All along I was just having a good time. Now as I look back on my two year obsession, I realize I was in the throes of a massive writers’ block. The passion for a subject that once had motivated my research for a book had been transferred to pots. Harmless and inexpensive, my pots were a welcome diversion during that creative dry spell. My husband suggested I write a book about it, but I wasn’t sure the subject of green pots would be of great interest to kids. An understatement!! The real subject is the Arts and Crafts Movement in America and the role of a group of creative women in Ohio. Maybe some day......
Like any infatuation, my love affair with green matte pottery was intense but short lived. Eventually I was back to writing a new book, and my assortment of pots was relegated to shelves in my study, where I still enjoy looking at them now and then when I need a break.
Over ten years ago a particularly biting segment aired on 60 Minutes entitled YES BUT IS IT ART? It began with Morley Safer quoting PT Barnum’s legendary remark “A sucker is born every minute.” Safer went on to say most contemporary art is “worthless junk.” He even filmed a group of children at the Whitney Museum, and pointing to a large graffiti-like painting, asked, “Do you think you could do as well?” One little boy announced, “I could do better than that.”
The media abounds in messages that today’s new artists are trying to put something over on us and laughing all the way to the bank. The New Yorker always has a cartoon spoofing some current new art world trend. One of my favorites from many years back pictures two men, very well-dressed and puffed up, standing before a Jackson Pollock painting. One man says to the other, “His splatters are masterful but his dribbles lack conviction.”
The Gap in the Bookshelf (one of my favorite subjects). In 1989 there were no books for young readers on looking at contemporary art . Biographies of artists tended to concentrate on the old masters.. So Sandra Jordan and I decided to write our first book together The Painter’s Eye, which we hoped would help children enter a dialogue with new art and come to it with an open mind and a fresh eye. Now almost twenty years later, we have collaborated on 11 books together, and most of them focus on 20th and 21st century artists and artworks. Since the early 90’s, some terrific books about contemporary art for kids have been published. In addition, the lives and works of earlier artists are now being presented in a more exciting, creative way. It was great recently to visit the bookstores at the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Saint Louis Art Museum and see so many of these books filling the Gap on the Bookshelf.
Here are a few books on art for young readers that I enjoyed looking through. Some deal with modern and contemporary art; others cover artworks by more traditional and old master artists (chosen by me because they were so delightful!).
Sandy's Circus: A Story About Alexander Calder by Tanya Lee Stone and Boris Kulikov. A charming tale about the artist “Sandy” Calder making his famous circus, now on display at The Whitney Museum in New York.·
Painting the Wild Frontier: The Art and Adventures of George Catlin by Susanna Reich. This book about the artist George Catlin, famous for his paintings of Native Americans, is filled with photographs, drawings, and reproductions of the artist’s works. Reich also tells a fast-moving story.
Behind the Museum Door: Poems to Celebrate the Wonders of Museums collected by Lee Bennet Hopkins. Illustrated by Stacey Dressen-McQueen. Some of our favorite poets for children invite us into museums and write poems about some of the treasures we might see there from a mummy to a Picasso.
Here’s Looking at Me: How Artists see Themselves by Bob Raczka highlights self-portraits as diverse in style and period as an etching by Durer to a photograph appropriating a Caravaggio by Cindy Sherman. Bob’s many art books for kids are fascinating!!!
There are many more terrific books about art and artists and over the next few months I will try to feature some of them. Hope you will have a chance to see my new book with Sandra Jordan,
Christo and Jeanne-Claude Through The Gates and Beyond (Roaring Brook Press). It tells the story of these two partners in life and art, who have collaborated on large-scale artworks all over the world. The projects from wrapping The Pont Neuf in Paris to unfurling The Gates in Central Park last not more than two weeks and are paid for completely by the artists.The funds come from the sales of Christo’s drawings, prints, models, and earlier works. By the way, they were both born on the same day in the same year, each in opposite sides of the world. We interviewed them over a period of four years. One of the joys of writing about living artists is the opportunity to meet them and follow their work over a period of time. During the years they were organizing and engineering The Gates, our project was on hold. They were so busy. Sandra and I wondered if we would ever finish the book. Finally months after the hugely successful Gates project was dismantled, Jeanne-Claude left a message on our editor Neal Porter’s machine, saying “Let’s get the ball rolling.” And we were back in business!
Several weeks ago in the New York Times Sunday Book Review, an essay appeared by Margo Rabb discussing the way books that are written with adults in mind end up being marketed for Young Adults. She gave a number of examples from Peter Cameron to Martha Southgate, who like Rabb, had expected their novels to be published for adults and were initially disappointed to find that the books sold for younger audiences. Phrases such as "condescension towards Y.A." or "unabashed disinterest" from literary acquaintances were quoted from various writers, who, in my reading of the essay, considered themselves initially above the genre. Of-course many admitted how much better their books did in the Y.A. marketplace, as well as how gratifying it was to receive appreciative letters from kids. I've experienced from time to time a certain condescension from those who ask me what kind of writing I do. Once an artist whose work I had highlighted in my first book The Painter's Eye: Learning to Look at Contemporary American Art asked me if I was still writing those little stories. It wasn't worth explaining to her that the book was a first in terms of giving young people a way of entering a dialogue about new art. I was guilty, however, of thinking later that I should have told her it was a crossover book or that it had been double-shelved in museum bookstores. Yet from my first novel A Season In Between (1979) to the books about artists that I write today, I have always had young readers in mind. In fiction, it was the voice and age of the main character that designated the audience. Perhaps Catcher in the Rye was the first Young Adult novel, but it was published for adults. Yet it spawned a new genre of young adult fiction. The rewards for me now from writing non-fiction lie both in the research and writing, but also in the knowledge that I am introducing subjects, such as poetry inspired by art, or artists, such as Louise Bourgeois or Jackson Pollock, for the fist time to younger audiences. By the way if I ever need to research a topic, such as the Civil War or baseball, the best reference books are written for children. The material is well researched, condensed, and beautifully presented both through visuals and language.
On another note, I took my grandchildren, Alexander (age 8) and Coco (age 5) to a concert in Aspen of Billy the Kid by Aaron Copland. Neither child, who live in New York City, knew the words "outlaw," "stagecoach," or even the "Wild West." We went to the Explorer bookstore the next day. Only one new book about the West existed there, but it was for Young Adults, called Cowboy Stories by Barry Moser (forgive me if I have the title wrong..I cannot seem to check it out without losing this blog entirely..Linda needs to give me more blogging lessons). We ambled over to the library. It had a couple of picture books about cowboys and the West. But it seems as if not much has been written recently. We turned on the computer back at my house. Alexander and I searched the web. It was filled with information. But we read nothing that told an enticing story. I think I'll go to the rodeo this weekend. Maybe I'll be inspired. Happy Reading to everyone.
by Jan Greenberg
Once at a literary meeting, I heard someone ask Pulitzer Prize winning author John Cheever why he wrote. He replied without hesitation, “To try and make sense of my life.” What a great answer..
“The life we all live is amateurish and accidental,” the novelist Wallace Stegner said. “It begins in accident and proceeds by trial and error toward dubious ends. That is the law of nature. But writers will not accept what nature hands us. We have to tinker with it , trying to give it direction and meaning. At the guts of any significant fiction or memoir lies the question ‘How do we find order in an uncertain world.?’”
The poet John Ashbury, when asked, “Why do you write?” said, “Because I want to.” Flannery O’Conner said, “Because I’m good at it.”
I might add to that by answering, "Aside from the fact that I'm probably unemployable, when my writing is going well, I experience some of the most satisfying moments of my life. "
When people ask me if I had a message or a lesson to teach in my novels, I have to say no. I’m a storyteller first. Yes, I wanted my characters to walk out of a snowstorm at the end of a novel, rather than into one. But I wasn’t interested in pushing my value system onto kids. In fact, occasionally, I’m cornered at a party by someone who tells me that he has a great idea for a book, one that will teach manners or moral standards or some other worthy lesson. Right away I know that book will never make it. What young person (or older one, for that matter) wants to curl up with a book that lectures and cajoles? However in the books I write with Sandra Jordan about art, especially contemporary art, we do have a mission, and that is to open our readers up to fresh ideas, to introduce them to art of their own time, and to give them ways to enter a dialogue with new and bewildering art. At the same time, when we do a biography of an artisat, we ARE telling a story, one told through dialogue, action and sensory images, but it is based on facts, not our imaginations. We write about the choices artists, such as Christo and Jeanne-Claude or Jackson Pollock, had to make to do their work. We talk about their sometimes messy lives. Their values are revealed through their stories. It doesn’t mean we share those values. But we wouldn’t choose to write about an artist if we didn’t admire his or her art.
Lately I’ve begun to think about writing my own stories again. I miss the process that requires the writer to enter an imaginary world and metaphorically to not leave the room. It’s been fifteen years since I’ve published a novel. I’ve learned a great deal by writing biographies, by going deeply into the lives of others. Sometimes I think it’s helped me understand my own life better; at other times I think perhaps it’s helped me avoid thinking too deeply about my life. Wordsworth said good poetry is “emotion recollected in tranquility.” Experiences from long ago that might be exaggerated into fiction are no longer simmering in the back of my mind, like a pot ready to boil over. But this rich stew of memories has been seasoned with time. So while I’m in a quoting mood, let me end my thoughts for today on the subject of going back to fiction by quoting Winnie the Pooh. I think “I’ll give it a little think.”
Jan Greenberg's ambitious poetry anthology Side by Side: New Poems Inspired by Art from Around the World is an excellent poetry choice for readers ages ten and up. Greenberg explains her goal is to share the tradition of ekphrasis, "poetry inspired by art," practiced by poets from all over the world. To this end, each poem (all by living artists except one--"The Girl with the Pitcher," by Aleksandr Pushkin) is presented in its original and in translation. Accompanying each set--the original and the translation--are reproductions, or photographs, of the famous works of art that inspired them.
Greenberg divides the book into four sections: Stories ("the poet looks at an artwork and imagines a story"); Voices ("the poet enters the canvas and speaks in the voice of the subject depicted there"); Expression ("the poet is interested in the transaction that takes place between the viewer and the art object"); and Impressions ("the poet identifies the subject of the artwork and describes what he or she sees in the elements of the composition..."). Published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, the book is beautifully produced and will draw the young reader in.
Language Geeks--I use the term lovingly, as I am one myself--will particularly appreciate Side by Side: New Poems Inspired by Art from Around the World. It's a thrill to see the Polish, and the Russian, and the Arabic, and the Japanese there before you on the page. Art lovers will be drawn to this volume as well and will delight in the poetry that paintings and other works of art brought forth. Side by Side is a sophisticated work, but one artistic teens will find motivating. It's perfect for Middle School, Junior High, or High School English and Art classes.
-------------------------
Today's Poetry Friday entry is the Pushkin poem included in Side by Side. First the Russian, and then the English translation (in part) by Carleton Copeland:
Царскосельская статуя
Урну с водой уронив, об утес ее дева разбила.
Дева печально сидит, праздный держа черепок,
Чудо! не сякнет вода, изливаясь из урны разбитой;
Дева, над вечной струей, вечно печальна сидит.
A Statue at Tsarskoye Selo
How did she let the jug slip? Now, alas, on the rock it lies broken.
Sorely the maiden laments, futilely lifting a shard.
....
------------------------
Other Blog Reviews:
A Fuse #8
And, hey! Jan Greenberg blogs at I.N.K.
--------------------------
This week's roundup is over at The Well-Read Child. The schedule for the rest of April, May, and June will be up this weekend!
On the heals of Jan Greenberg’s post contrasting fabricated memoirs with the tireless research she’s putting into her book on artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, comes the news, in yesterday’s New York Times, that Esquire plans to run a fictitious first-person diary titled, “The Last Days of Heath Ledger” in its April issue. The “diary,” written in fact by Lisa Taddeo, follows the late actor from London to New York, imagining his thoughts and actions during the days leading to his death from an accidental overdose of prescription medicine on January 22. In today’s world of information overload, it’s not so surprising that somebody came up with yet another way to exploit the tragic death of a talented actor. What is surprising is that in the Times article, several publishing professionals, including one who teaches magazine writing at NYU, endorse and even applaud the move.
I was trained to believe the line between truth and fiction should not be blurred. I’m not saying people shouldn’t write historical novels or produce movies and TV shows that are “inspired” by real events. The public usually knows what it’s getting into with those creations. But including a fictionalized piece in an environment where people expect truth and accuracy undermines a publication’s credibility. Years ago, when I was a contributor to Scholastic Search, a fantastic American history magazine for middle school students, the editor proposed a series of “interviews” between notables from different eras. Ben Franklin might sit down with Theodore Roosevelt, for example, or Rosa Parks might speak with Pocahontas. It’s an intriguing idea, and a good writer who did a lot of research might pull it off. But it made me uneasy to think of a fictional piece running in a kids’ non-fiction magazine.
Similarly, it drives me nuts when I see bookstores shelving installments from the Dear America series and its descendants and imitators in the non-fiction section. If store personnel can’t distinguish those fictionalized diaries from the real thing, how can kids? I vastly prefer the original American Girl books, where the historical fiction is followed by an engaging essay exploring the true events that inspired the novel. Those books give you the best of both worlds: compelling fiction and historical context under one cover.
In recent years, the trend in kids’ nonfiction has been toward more attribution and accountability. When my editors first told me they would require footnotes for quotations and statistics, I balked, flashing back to those long ago days of writing college papers. But now I embrace the chance to hold the veracity of my work up to public scrutiny by including footnotes and inviting readers to e-mail me with questions about sources. And when those sources conflict with no clear consensus, as in the spelling of Annie Oakley’s real last name (Moses or Mozee), I do my best to report the disagreement and explain why I chose the option I did. In kids’ nonfiction, honesty is the best policy and accuracy always matters.
This morning in the New York Times I read about another outed memoirist, Margaret B, Jones, whose account of life as a foster child growing up in the drug infested L.A. projects, Love and Consequences, turns out to be pure fiction. This follows on the footsteps of another recent fabrication, Misha Defonseca’s Misha:A Memoir of the Holocaust, which includes a story about being raised by wolves. Wolves? Did anybody who read it believe this?
.
Meanwhile I’m slogging away with my writing partner Sandra Jordan, trying to copyedit for the twentieth time every detail, including a complicated List of Artworks, Bibliography, Quotes, text and more of a non-fiction project Christo and Jeanne-Claude:Through Tthe Gates and Beyond, scheduled to be published sooner rather than later. It might have been easier to write a novel based on these fascinating, strong-minded artists. But it is not a novel. It is non-fiction.
.
The beauty of biography lies in digging deeply into the life and art of someone else and getting it right. The challenge in writing about living artists is telling a vivid story that does not begin “They were born” and ends “They died.” We cannot put words in the subject’s mouth or invent the action. Frankly if I were writing about myself, I would turn it into fiction, as I did in my first autobiographical novel A Season In-Between, back in 1979. It was more fun that way. Jones’ editor, who recalled all the books, says there were other ways to tell that story instead of lying about it. The book might have been a terrific novel.
.
I wonder what others think about this? Let me pose a question. If you were writing a memoir, would you feel it was proper to sometimes exaggerate or embellish the facts of your life?
.
My new book, Side by Side: New Poems Inspired by Art from Aro
und the World, an anthology that I edited, will be published in April.
Publishing pet peeves. Could any three alliterative words sound so sweet? If I didn't already love reading Alison Morris's ShelfTalker (the Publisher's Weekly blog), the piece My Publishing Pet Peeves would have convinced me to do so. She has a very bookseller-minded take on these flubs of the industry, but that doesn't mean I don't agree with each and every one of these. Even number three sounds good. I just took a gander at my own pile o' ARCS and I can see that Walker Books for Young Readers is the only publisher to put the book's release date on its spine. Clever clever.
"Just Shapes" is a phrase my Dad uses to describe his "hobby" and growing up I didn't understand his life's work. All the stories made for good evenings around the table, but only yesterday it dawned on me that he went to "Layton School of Art" and retired as a "Master Sculptor" from Nissan. And with my son entering 4th grade next year...I hope teachers still inspire children. Because my father's passion for creating, building, sculpting began when his 4th grade teacher asked for a bug. Impressed by the quality of work, she asked for more bug models and thus, it began. A lifetime of happiness hinged on the simple request of a teacher. Thank goodness for teachers!
Wonderful ideas- and useful for teachers to use with kids. Should writing about their trips be limited to "what we did/what we saw, or couldn't we better use your books (and post) as mentor text for kids- what did you see, notice, think, associate from the trip that you could write about?
Love your books, and so do kids. Writing about art is rare, and your books light kids up!
As a journalist, I get this a lot too. Everybody thinks their story should be in the paper, but I think the ability to recognize a truly unique and compelling story is sometimes a bigger part of being a writer than actually, you know, writing.
Annalisa, What a wonderful story about your dad. Early encouragement from a teacher can make all the difference. That happened to me, as well in the third grade, when Mrs. Oetting hung my drawings around the classroom. I see inspiring teachers all the time when visiting schools. But I also see schools where art supplies are limited and music classes cut, which is one of the reasons I continue to write books about the arts.
Thank you,Sandy. I am happy to have e mail conversations with you students anytime.