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Did you see the announcement of the ALA awards for children’s and YA literature? Poetry was all over the place! I was fortunate enough to attend the announcement press conference as part of the first ever Odyssey Award committee for best audiobook of the year and I kept nudging my friend next to me, saying, “That’s poetry.” “That one’s poetry.” “That’s poetry, too.” It was so exciting. Top of the list? The NEWBERY award! Congratulations to Laura Amy Schlitz for Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village (Candlewick), a truly amazing work of history, poetry, drama, and detail. You may remember that our prescient Cybils poetry committee chose it for our short list of the best poetry of the year, too!

But wait, there was more!
One of the Printz honor books for YA literature is a powerful work of poetry, Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath by Stephanie Hemphill (Knopf, an imprint of Random House). Way to go, Stephanie! This book also is rich in history and biography, but offers poems echoing the style of Plath, about Plath herself. (It’s also on the Cybils short list of best poetry of the year!)

One of the Coretta Scott King author honor books is also a work of poetry: Twelve Rounds to Glory The Story of Muhammad Ali written by Charles R. Smith Jr., illustrated by Bryan Collier (Candlewick). More history, more biography, more poetry—this one is a shout-out read aloud with dynamic images in words and art.

Margarita Engle, author of The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano, illustrated by Sean Qualls (Holt) is the 2008 Pura Belpré Author Award recipient honoring Latino authors and illustrators whose work best portrays, affirms and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in children's books. This is a complex and gritty poetry-story of the life of nineteenth-century Cuban slave Juan Francisco Manzano from multiple points of view.

The Schneider Family Award for books that embody the artistic expression of the disability experience went to a work of poetry: Reaching for Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer (Bloomsbury). It is the winner in the middle grades category (age 11-13) and is a gentle novel-in-verse about a young girl growing up with a lively spirit and cerebral palsy, too. Congratulations, Tracie! (I mentioned this gem previously in my entry on April 5, 2007.)

Finally, I’m thrilled to say that our very own Odyssey Award for excellence in audiobook production was also awarded to a work of poetry: Walter Dean Myers's Jazz (produced by Live Oak Media). Dual narrators read, say, and sing these poems with verve and vitality against a backdrop of original jazz music. In addition, Walter Dean Myers will deliver the 2009 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture, as an “individual of distinction in the field of children's literature.” (I’ve also blogged about Jazz several times since it also received the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award [See Feb. 21, 2007] and when Jazz received a CSK illustrator honor citation for son Christopher Myer’s vibrant illustrations [See Jan. 24, 2007].)

I’m happy to say that ALL of these books appeared on my own lists of the best poetry of 2007 (see Dec. 31, 2007) or 2006 (see Dec. 29, 2006). How wonderful to see these rich and engaging works of poetry get the recognition they deserve. Now I hope they will also find their way into the hands of many young readers!

This week's Poetry Friday Roundup is at Becky's Farm School.
Picture credit: www.awardsunlimited.com

Hooray! The first Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production medalists have been named! As chair of the committee that had the pleasure of choosing the titles, I can say that the decision came after deliberating many wonderful productions. We were amazed that the finest titles also covered a breadth and range of ages and interests. But the truly astonishing fact was discovered only after we had completed the entire process. We all felt the planets aligning when we realized that the author of the first Odyssey winner, Walter Dean Myers, was also the winner of the first Printz Award. It was meant to be.

The winner:

Jazz. By Walter Dean Myers. Narrated by James “D-Train” Williams and Vaneese Thomas. 43min. Live Oak Media. CS, $25.95 (9781430100195); CD, $28.95 (9781430100225).
“Jazz,” a production of Live Oak Media, takes the readalong to new heights as James “D-Train” Williams and Vaneese Thomas perform the work of Walter Dean Myers. Original music accompanies each poem's performance, resulting in a rhythmic representation of mood and tone. Separate tracks for the selections and lively inclusion of a glossary and timeline create a dynamic audiobook; part poetry, part nonfiction, and wholly authentic.

The Honor audiobooks:

Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy By L. A. Meyer. Narrated by Katherine Kellgren. 8hr. Listen & Live Audio. CD $37.95. (9781593160944).
Katherine Kellgren’s vocal athleticism takes listeners from the filthy streets of eighteenth century London to the high seas in Meyer’s fast-paced novel about a girl who stows away as a cabin boy.

Dooby Dooby Moo. By Doreen Cronin. Narrated by Randy Travis. 13.36min. Weston Woods/Scholastic. CS $24.95 (9780545042833). CD $29.95 (9780545042819).
Music and barnyard chatter enhance Randy Travis’ performance of Cronin’s comic tale of talented farm animals gone wild.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. By J. K. Rowling. Narrated by Jim Dale. 21hr. Listening Library. CS, $90 (9780739360408; CD, $90(9780739360415).
Jim Dale masters and maintains voices for all genders, ages, species, and emotions created by author J.K. Rowling in this final Harry Potter adventure.

Skulduggery Pleasant. By Derek Landy. Narrated by Rupert Degas. 7.5hr. HarperChildren’s Audio. CD, $27.95 (9780061341045).
Rupert Degas fleshes out a cast of characters including a “tweenage” girl, nefarious villains, and a skeleton detective. Music and sound effects mirror the mood of this bone-rattling mystery.

Treasure Island. By Robert Louis Stevenson. Narrated by Alfred Molina. 7hr. Listening Library. CD, $55 (9780739350836).
Stevenson’s pirate classic elegantly unfolds as Alfred Molina’s panoply of accents and the soundscape of the sea place listeners aboard the Hispaniola.

Listen and discover the best in audiobook literature.

Below, Miguel Hernandez, shares his memories of Richard Cook (The Independent’s Obituary).

It is with great sadness that we share the news that Richard Cook passed away on August 25th, of cancer. He was a wealth of knowledge on jazz music, appropriate considering he authored Richard Cook’s Jazz Encyclopedia, It’s About Time and co-authored the monumental Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD. (more…)

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Things to love about JAZZ A•B•Z• by Wynton Marsalis, illustrated by Paul Rogers, with biographical sketches by Phil Schaap:

1. The overall book design. Candlewick Press excels at this sort of thing, so it shouldn’t be a surprise, but let me give special kudos to book designer Jill von Hartmann on this one. You’ve seen the cover, of course (that’s Wynton on the cover, by the way – I can’t find something that says so definitively, but it sure looks like him, and it’s definitely not someone from inside the book).

When you flip it open, you’ll find end papers made of brown craft paper. Cut to look like the liner sleeve inside the record jacket of an actual vinyl 78 rpm record album. Followed by the title page, which puts all the information about in the center of a jet-black disk that’s nearly 10" in diameter (hence my decision to call it a 78, rather than a 33).

But wait – there’s more. The back cover of the book lists all 26 of the jazz artists who are the subject of the book, in alphabetical order by the letter of their name that they are associated with (more on that in a minute), followed by a single word that starts with the same letter. (E.g., "Louis Armstrong • almighty"). Inside the book, the artists are in the same order, but the table of contents is a teacher’s delight. Because the table of contents runs A through Z, followed by biographical sketches and notes on the poetic forms.

But wait – there’s still more: next to each letter of the alphabet is the name of the jazz musician associated with it, and next to that, the form of poem. Here’s a quick approximation for you:

A &emsp &emsp Louis Armstrong – Accumulative Poem
B &emsp &emsp Count Basie – Blues Poem
C &emsp &emsp John Coltrane – List Poem
D &emsp &emsp Miles Davis – Word Play

See what I mean about usefulness to teachers (or, for that matter, to students of poetry)?

2. The notes from Paul Rogers and Wynton Marsalis. Right after the table of contents is a two-page spread, each page containing a note from the illustrator and author. The illustrator comes first in this one, perhaps because the illustrations themselves came first in this particular project. Rogers explains how he got the idea for the paintings, and Marsalis explains how he got the ideas for the poems. And he makes clear that he’s a huge Yeats fan, something that’s not truly evident as an influence in his own work, but which shows that he’s a thinking man with an ear for language, nevertheless.

3. The spreads. Each poem is at least a two-page spread. The first one is A for Louis Armstrong. Wanna see it? Of course you do – et voilà!



What you’re seeing: Rogers’s artwork on the right, using bold, poster-like construction. Marsalis’s poem on the less, using alliteration like a mad fiend while constructing an accumulative poem that totally nails the idea of Louis Armstrong. I love the last line in particular: "Anybody asks, tell them Armstrong almighty is aglow amidst the angels above."

There are two four-page spreads inside the book. In each case, a fold-out is employed. The first is for the letter I, for "Abdullah Ibn Buhaina" (a.k.a. Art Blakey). On the right, the wonderful poster-like illustration by Rogers. On the left, a three-page fold out. This poem is listed as a Performance Poem, and man, is that correct. In order to perform it, one must establish a four-four beat, snapping on every even beat. And then, one vocalizes percussion noises – the "ting tinky ting" of cymbals. The "ch" of the snare. The "boom!" of the bass drum. A whole page composed of 14 measures of verbalized percussion noises. Okay – there are thirteen measures spelled out, but theres a blank space for one full measure of rest. And then, on the page turn, the poet speaks in the voice of Buhaina, interspersed with percussive iterations and snaps. It is freakin’ genius, and SO much fun to do aloud (as long as you’re willing to commit – I am, of course, willing to go the distance with this poem, but this is not a poem for the shy).

The second four-page spread is for Sidney Bechet. Again, the right hand page is the portrait of Sidney Bechet playing his soprano saxophone. And if you think that last sentence sounded sybillant, well – you should read the poem. It’s a long, screechy hiss of a poem, again on a three-page fold-out. Folks with a lisp should avoid this one. Theriously.

4. The poems. The poems are jazz, rendered into words. Walter Dean Myers wrote about jazz music in his wonderful book, JAZZ, illustrated by Christopher Dean Myers. (At the LA SCBWI conference, Walter Dean Myers said he felt he had to use that particular illustrator because he’d "slept with the kid’s mother." But I digress.) His poems had a jazz vibe to them, but were primarily poems. Marsalis has written jazz itself. Not poems about jazz – jazz, in words, on the page. These poems cry out to be read aloud, and with swagger.

Here’s an excerpt from the end of "X – Bix Beiderbecke" (a ballad):

He exalts in lyric sweetness,
Excites on zesty jumps,
Exhibits exclusive features,
Exudes that umpty-umph!

He travels on extensively,
Exports the jazz solo.
His records are exemplary,
But whiskey lays him low.

Exhausted, he goes home to fix
What tattered soul he has.
His folks reject his life’s love. Bix,
He exits blowing jazz.

That one gives me goosebumps.

5. The artwork. I wish I could show you all the artwork, right here. I can’t, of course, but I know someone who can: Paul Rogers. On one page of his site you can see bits of all the portraits in the book. And on the last page in his sketchbook, you can see three cityscapes that are used to run along the bottom of the pages containing the biographical sketches.


6. The biographical sketches of the musicians. Once you reach the end of the alphabet "the zenith, the alpha, Dizzy", you come to the prose portion of the book, written by noted jazz disc jockey, Phil Schaap, the "Dean of Jazz," who educates listeners and students on WKCR in New York (Columbia University’s station). Schaap has won eight Grammy awards for historical writing, producing, and audio engineering. Schaap is the Curator of Jazz at Lincoln Center. His biographies are brief, and primarily focus on the musical lives of the subjects (rather than on issues of their upbringing, civil rights work (where appropriate) or drug addiction (if applicable)).

7. Notes on the Poetic Forms. The twenty-seven forms are set out alphabetically, rather than in the order they’re employed in the book. So. Helpful. But wait, you say – weren’t there only 26 musicians in the book? The answer is yes, but some of the poems fit more than one category – an acrostic along with a calligram, for instance.

8. Other. First off, this book was a critical success. It got starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist and School Library Journal. It won 10 awards, listed proudly at the Candlewick website, all of the "notable book" variety. Some might say it is therefore not truly "under the radar." And in a sense, that's right. But in reality, it's all wrong, and here's why: Not all that many people buy all that many poetry collections. And this one is a shining gem for the totality of its package. And although it's a poetry book designed for kids, jazz fans of all age would like it for its images, both graphic and verbal. And I'm guessing that there are many, many teachers and librarians out there who don't know about this book as a resource for music, biography, history, and poetry (including the teaching of poetic forms). And they should.

You can see poems A through C and L at the NPR website, where the artwork and text for Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, John Coltrane, and "Lady Day", Billie Holiday, are given. And you can click on links to hear Wynton Marsalis read "Louis Armstrong". Other readings include "Count Basie," "Lady Day," and "Sara Vaughn."

Here's a list of the other book selections today:

Here's the list of all the Radar Recommendations for today:

We went to San Francisco last month to attend and Illustration course at the Academy Of Art. I love San Francisco, this city inspire me so much.
Here are some of the people, buildings, vehicles...I came across.








Steve and Becky from the team in L.A, charming people.



The very very talented, and very nice Rich Tuzon.












That guy cracked me up, read the panel he's holding.




Mr Ben Boutcher from Pixar, that guy is doing incredible collages.



John deep into his painting (which came out so great), and Chris Schnabel, amazingly talented Artist from Pixar too. I just discovered there that this guy illustrated one of my favorite version of the Jungle Book, such beautiful paintings, and such a nice guy too.



We were given an assignment the first day, to do a piece about San Francisco. The theme to choose from were:
Music, Litterature, Sport, Cuisine and history. We headed up to a Jazz club the first night, Jeff, John, Matt and myself to to some sketches. I was hoping to do a piece about music.






But then saw this fellow one morning just outside of our hotel...



...and I did this. (painted with coffee)