The Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children’s Literature is pleased to state that registrations are still being accepted for the following conference:
“Peace the World Together with Children’s Books” is the theme of the International Board on Books for Young People regional conference hosted by California State University, Fresno this fall.
Co-sponsored by the Arne Nixon Center at Fresno State, IBBY’s 9th United States Regional Conference will be held at Fresno State on Oct. 21-23.
Conference chair Ellis Vance of Fresno said about 250 people – professors, librarians, teachers, authors, illustrators, publishers, collectors and fans – are expected. Registration so far includes participants from 48 states and every continent except Antarctica, Vance said.
The conference offers an opportunity to interact with authors and illustrators around the world, including Alma Flor Ada, Shirin Yim Bridges, F. Isabel Campoy, David Diaz, Margarita Engle, Kathleen Krull, Grace Lin, Roger Mello, Beverly Naidoo, Pam Muñoz Ryan and Peter Sis. Petunia’s Place Bookstore will sell books.
Activities will include exhibitions (including one by the International Youth Library), book discussion groups and tours. Optional activities are available to those who stay on beyond the conference closing at noon on Oct. 23. They include a tour of the Shinzen Japanese Garden in Fresno and a one-day bus trip to Yosemite National Park.
For information on the conference and registration visit www.usbby.org/conf_home.htm.
Born and raised in the USA, Elsa Marston is a children’s author who specializes in books, both fiction and non-fiction, about the Middle East. “A lot of my writing is about the Middle East and Arab-Americans.” says Elsa. “That’s because my late husband, Iliya Harik, was from Lebanon; family connections and his work as a political scientist (Indiana University) took us to that part of the world many times. I want to share with young readers my own interest in those lands and peoples, and equally important, help contribute to better understanding of the Arab/Muslim world. In that way I hope to continue Iliya’s life’s work, along with my own.”
From June 12 to the 14, Elsa will be attending an international conference on children’s literature in Beirut, Lebanon and told us:
I think this is the first time anything quite like this, at least with this scale and scope, has been done in the Arab countries, although there are IBBY chapters in Lebanon and Palestine and probably elsewhere. The preliminary program looks very interesting… an idea of some of the concerns that are gradually starting to take hold in the literature of that part of the world. Up till very recently, literature for children and teens consisted mostly of translations of European fairy tales and simplified western novels, and Arabian Nightsy stories. The idea that fiction for young people could reflect the lives of those young people and their societies had not quite caught on. (It must be admitted, the same thing was true here with respect to the Middle East, until about a dozen years ago! And that’s basically what I’ll be talking about.)
Elsa expects the conference to be largely in Arabic, with English and French mixed in liberally; and program highlights include:
Day #1
1st session: Social and Cultural Environment in Children’s Books
Illustration of Children’s Books in Italy (Italian speaker)
Illustration of Children’s Books in Sudan
2nd session: Representation of Conflict in Children’s Books
Beverley Naidoo speaking about conflict and resolution in her own work (re South Africa)
Conflict and the Enemy Image in Syrian Children’s Books
Palestinian Children’s Books: Occupation, Violence, Displacement
Day #2
1st Session: Influence of Censorship on Writing
Censoring Children’s Books in Nazi Germany and After the War (German speaker)
Censoring Children’s books in Iraq’s Past Regime
2nd session: The Role of the Family in Children’s Books
Effect of New Teaching Methods on Children’s Books in France (French speaker)
The Role of Family in Tunisian Children’s Books
The Role of Family Members in Lebanese Children’s Books
Day #3:
1st session: Art and Imagination in Children’s Books
Illustrating War: Comparing an Egyptian and a Lebanese Book
Imagination in Lebanese Children’s Illustration
Impact of Color in Illustrated Books
2nd session: Artistic Structure
Collage in Children’s Drawings in Iran
The Birth of Snakedog (European speaker)
U.S. Literature for Young People About the Arab World (Elsa Marston)
By the end of the first chapter of Beverley Naidoo's stunning novel, The Other Side of Truth, the main character, twelve-year-old Sade, and her younger brother, Femi, have already witnessed unspeakable horrors.
Late for school, Sade is putting her books into her schoolbag when she hears her mother's screams, followed by two sharp cracks--gunshots--that end up shattering her world, leaving her
Dragon's Keep by Janet Lee Carey, (Harcourt, 2007)
The first time I saw this book mentioned was on Miss Erin's blog. I was struck by the outstanding cover (I continue to be fascinated by the job book designers do) and frankly, anything with "dragon" in the title is automatically interesting to me.
After I finished reading it, I emailed some junior high librarian friends and suggested they seriously consider putting it on their next order. Click here: Mackin customers / Follett customers
One of them emailed me this week to point out that School Library Journal has agreed with me and has given the book a "starred" review. In Wall Street lingo, that is a "buy" signal.
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Rosalind's mother believes Merlin's prophecy from centuries earlier that stated her daughter would "... redeem the name Pendragon. End war with the wave of her hand. And restore the glory of Wilde Island." She goes to great lengths to have a child and will protect her daughter's future, no matter what it takes.
As the future twenty-first queen of Wilde Island, Rosalind is prepared to marry an English prince when the time comes and re-integrate her family line with the English court. Her branch of the royal family tree was outlawed by King Arthur hundreds of years earlier. There is just one little problem. Instead of a ring finger on her left hand, she has a dragon claw. Only her mother and Rosalind know about her hand and her mother devises a fashion of wearing gloves to hide the "disfigurement" because even a princess might be taken for a witch if the secret got out.
This is a story of obsession in many ways. In her efforts to see her daughter gain the throne, Rosalind's mother will do anything, not unlike the headline-making "cheerleader mom."
Rosalind is obsessed by what she perceives as a physical flaw and desperately endures "cures" from physicians, who are not allowed to know her specific ailment, in hopes of fixing it. This echoes news stories today about the growing number of young adults seeking cosmetic surgery.
Carey's plotting is complex and riveting. Her characters are real and compelling.
First rate!
Thank you, thank you, thank you Harcourt for remembering my request at TLA and sending it to me.
Interview with Janet Lee Carey at Cynsations
Janet Lee Carey Website
I've been reading a few essays on story endings and this one seems to be a good ending. It completes the tensions constructed for the story, and yet, like life, leaves a sense of further journeys to come.
And it's interesting, isn't it, how Naidoo planted the seeds for her ending at the very beginning of her story?