Mitali Perkins's Blog, page 37

Boston Book Festival 2010

I'm honored to be part of this year's Boston Book Festival . I'll be chatting on a panel tomorrow called Border Crossing: Social Justice in Fiction for Kids . Here's the full schedule of events and the description of our session, taking place from 11:30 to 12:30 at the Church of the Covenant on 67 Newbury Street:

Be transported to Burma, Cuba, Haiti and 1970s Boston and experience the challenges children just like you face every day. Mitali Perkins, author of Bamboo People, Christina Gonzalez, author of The Red Umbrella, Richard Michelson, author of Busing Brewster and Lionel Vital (inspiration for Youme Landowne's Selavi) tell the stories and struggles of children around the world. Hosted by Bridgespan's Katie Smith Milway, author of One Hen and The Good Garden.

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ONE MILLION MEN AND ME: A Visit From Kelly Starling Lyons

Today I'm pleased to shut up and invite you to listen to Kelly Starling Lyons , author of ONE MILLION MEN AND ME. Kelly and I met at the Multicultural Book Festival in Washington D.C., an encouraging, enthralling experience for both of us.

When I wrote One Million Men and Me (illustrated by Peter Ambush, published by Just Us Books), one of my dreams was to share it in Washington, D.C. I wanted to go back to the city where the Million Man March happened and celebrate the story with kids.



I got my chance the year it debuted. I was part of the Multicultural Children's Book Festival at the Kennedy Center. As I rode from the airport to the hotel, I thought back to that amazing event. I remembered walking through a sea of black men, seeing strangers embrace like brothers, watching people — young and old, rich and poor — praying and laughing together. I remembered a little girl I saw that day clutching her daddy's hand. Her eyes glistened and sparkled at the sight of men everywhere.



My desire to see the March through that sweet girl's eyes inspired my story. I named her Nia, because I felt she was there for a reason, just like me. Being in D.C. to share the book she, her father and a tapestry of men inspired was like coming full circle.



At the Kennedy Center, a special energy flowed through the air. There was something magic about the idea of people from different backgrounds and cultures coming together to celebrate literature reflecting children of color. There with wonderful authors and illustrators like Mitali Perkins, Christopher Myers, Tonya Bolden, Lulu Delacre and more, I got ready to greet them. It wasn't long before I realized this would be different from anywhere else I had been.



As people came up to meet me and have their books signed, they brought their testimonies. Men smiled as they flipped through the pages and said it took them right back to that historic event. A father looked at the cover of One Million Men and Me with Nia on her dad's shoulders and remembered carrying his own daughter around the March that way. I met twin girls whose dad pushed them in a stroller around the March when they were 4-month-old infants. And women who proudly told me they took their sons to the March or cheered their husbands as they went.



For these people, One Million Men and Me was a touchstone and a reminder of what that day meant. I felt so honored that the book brought a piece of the March to life. But one of my most special moments came from two boys who never heard of the March. They had each won gift certificates from school for earning good grades and had enough money to buy a couple of books each.



Those young men were determined to make just the right choice. They went from table to table, flipping through books and asking questions. When they visited me, I told them about the March and seeing that little girl there with her dad. They listened, smiled and moved on.



I was talking to another person when I looked up and saw them again. They smiled and waited their turn. When they came up to my table, they told me they both chose One Million Men and Me as one of selections. On their own, without prompting from a teacher or a parent, they picked my book. I think I could have flown all the way home.



When you write a book, you hope it will touch children. And on that beautiful day at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., two boys let me know that I made a difference. That meant everything to me.



In the years since the Multicultural Book Festival, I've received many letters from children that moved me too. Here are a few:



Ms. Starling Lyons,



thank you for the book. I like the part when they prayed together that might stop the fighting around here.



Thanks, Tayjah



********



I love your book, One Million Men and Me. I like it when it says: I am a Man. I am one in a million. That was my favorite part.



Kayla



********



Dear Ms. Starlings,



I love your book One Million Men and Me. It reminds me of a lot of men in my family. It's a very, very, very nice book. Thank you for coming to my school.



Your friend,

Chalayia



********



"I enjoyed your book. I like how you use lots of details in your story. I like the part when you said, 'One million black men. One million black kings.' I hope you make another one soon.



Jahji

Thank you so much, Kelly. Your post reminds us of the beautiful purpose of this vocation, and I'm honored to be a stop on your ONE MILLION MEN AND ME anniversary tour.



Here's the overview of the tour and full schedule . Also, anyone who posts a comment there, on this blog post, or on Kelly's FaceBook author page qualifies to win one of three prizes: A ONE MILLION MEN AND ME T-shirt, tote bag or signed poster. Kelly will announce the winners on the actualy march anniversary, October 16.

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EMILY OF DEEP VALLEY, meet my friends!

I'm thrilled to announce that today is the publication date for EMILY OF DEEP VALLEY by Maud Hart Lovelace, re-issued with love from Harper Perennial. You might remember how I felt about editor Jennifer Hart 's invitation to write the foreword to this novel. Here are the first two paragraphs of that foreword:

One Saturday morning when we were new to America, my sister and I walked to the Flushing Public Library, two miles from our apartment. It was my first visit to a library. I wandered through the stacks wide-eyed, fingering spines of unread books like a beggar in a bakery. I could take seven of them home with me! I chose carefully, knowing I'd savor them later on the fire escape, my secret reading sanctuary.



It didn't take long to find Maud Hart Lovelace's concoctions. Her classic novels served as a superb orientation for a newcomer eager to understand the history and heritage of a new world. They took me back to the early 1900s, a time when America shared many of the values that resonated in my old-world home, but they also sparkled with timeless humor that made me laugh out loud on the fire escape.

So please, please, please, don't hesitate to introduce EMILY to young readers everywhere. Or do yourself a favor and get a copy for you. It's also the release day for CARNEY'S HOUSE PARTY AND WINONA'S PONY CART , with a delightful, inspiring new foreword written by Melissa Wiley . Happy Book Birthday, Maud Hart Lovelace!

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You're Invited! A Cuci Mata Read of Classic Children's Books

I recently learned from Karen Lotz, publisher of Candlewick, that the Indonesian phrase Cuci Mata means a "washing of the eyes." Aha! I thought. The perfect metaphor for my new feature on Mitali's Fire Escape.



While we may not want to bowdlerize the classics of the past, we are eager to grow in our ability to discern both anachronistic and universal attitudes in stories (even, and perhaps especially, in our own). Every month, we'll choose a novel written by a now-dead—no hurt feelings that way—children's book author and explore attitudes towards race, class, gender, and culture as revealed in that story. What stands the test of time in this novel?



Our goal is not to critique and condemn these beloved authors with arrogant "we-know-better-than-you" twenty-first century eyes. We will wash our eyes, see in a fresh way, and find elements in these stories to celebrate as universally relevant. But we also want to notice what the authors themselves might have wished they could change for today's young readers.



I invite you to join me the first week of each month, either here on the Fire Escape, where I'll be blogging my thoughts about the books and asking questions, or via Twitter using the hashtag #kidclassic. I'm trying to pick lesser-known novels written by famous authors. Here's what I've scheduled so far:



November 1-5 Emily of Deep Valley by Maud Hart Lovelace



(Full disclosure: I wrote the foreword to the re-issue of this novel from HarperPerennial as a labor of love, but don't let that stop you from seeing it with fresh eyes and speaking to us about what you see.)



December 1-7 An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott



January 3-7 The Well-Wishers by Edward Eager



Other suggestions?



If you're going to join us, please leave a note in the comments. Thanks so much!





Photo courtesy of ryawesome via Creative Commons

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Culture, Justice, and Kid/YA Books: A Chat between Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Mitali Perkins, and Susanna Reich

[image error] During the 2010 Brooklyn Book Festival , Susanna Reich moderated a conversation in the PEN American booth between Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich (8th GRADE SUPERZERO) and me. We chatted about writing characters who are social misfits, how writing biographies is similar to writing across cultures, raising questions of faith in fiction, writing to learn, and ... zombies along the Thai-Burma border? But wow, I don't remember talking quite so much ...

Download the mp3

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Selling Color in a White World: Notes From NEIBA

"Look around the room," said bookseller Elizabeth Bluemle (pictured left), introducing our New England Independent Booksellers Association panel, Selling Color in a White World . "Our industry is still dominated by white people, and honestly, we get lazy handselling books featuring people of color."



After she introduced the panelists, I kicked things off with my usual windows and mirrors spiel and gave two examples of how indies can make a huge difference: my visits to Titcomb's Bookstore in Sandwich, Ma and Aaron's Bookstore in Lititz, PA. 





Karen Lotz, Elizabeth Bluemle, and I
Next came Karen Lotz, President and Publisher of Candlewick. "We feel relatively free from the pressure of gatekeepers," she said. "We're a creatively-led house."



She shared a story about Kareen Abdul Jabbar, who asked to meet with her at a recent BEA. The legendary basketball player came with one request: please package books for and about black kids with the same bling as books for the mainstream. Candlewick makes it a point to comply.



Elizabeth raised the elephant-in-the-room question: do covers featuring people of color hinder sales in mostly-white communities?



When it comes to cover decisions, Candlewick goes through a collaborative cycle that provides input to designers who have read the book mindfully and thoroughly. Karen proudly held up a new Candlewick book, Zora and Me by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon, making the case that the gorgeous face of a young Zora Neale Hurston on the cover was absolutely necessary for sales.



Karen concluded by encouraging us with the Indonesian concept of Cuci Mata, which literally means a washing of the eyes, something we all need so that we can begin to see in a fresh way. 



Stacy L. Whitman, editorial director of Tu Books , a new multicultural Sci-Fi/Fantasy imprint of Lee and Low, joined the panel by phone after a flooded New York train station hindered her travel. Stacy gave us the background of how and why she launched the imprint, starting with race fail and ending with plans for the six YA titles she's excited to launch each year.



Elizabeth summed things up with a fantastic presentation targeted for indies on how and why to handsell books featuring nonwhite protagonists. She'll share it on her Publishers Weekly blog , but some of her tips included letting sales reps know of an interest in multicultural books, avoiding the segregation of titles in the store, and booktalking by making connections unrelated to race.  (Note: we talked about the problem with labels like "people of color," "nonwhite," and "multicultural.")



I added two of my favorite suggestions for bookstores and libraries alike: (1) invite a friend or patron who isn't white to peruse your displays and give you feedback and (2) avoid the danger of a single story , a phrase coined by novelist Chimamanda Adichie.



We didn't leave much time for Q and A, but booksellers shared a few tips and stories from their own experiences. It was a good session, one that I've long anticipated, and a prototype of conversations I hope will be repeated in diverse places with diverse participants.

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A Chat With Jessica Leader, Author of NICE AND MEAN

I've been challenging my author friends—and myself—to take risks in crossing borders of class and race in fiction, but to do it wisely and carefully, respecting the inherent power of storytelling. It's lovely to find an example or two to showcase, like NICE AND MEAN , one of my favorite middle-school reads of 2010.



Sparkling with creativity and humor, this tween novel features two protagonists, Marina ("Mean") and Sachi ("Nice"), who is Indian-American. A pet peeve of mine is the insertion of a nonwhite character into a story whose sole purpose is to serve as a sinless foil for a main white character.  Sachi, in contrast, is a flawed but sympathetic middle-schooler. Author Jessica Leader gives her a first-person voice that's funny and true, and pays attention to cultural details as she invites us into Sachi's home. I asked Jessica to chat with us on the Fire Escape, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversation.



Briefly describe Jessica in middle school. Were you more like Sachi or Marina?

I must admit that there are times when I feel like I am still in middle school. As for the official 5th-8th-grade years, I would say I had elements of both Sachi and Marina. Like Sachi, I often felt completely different from the so-called popular kids. What was the coolness they saw in each other? Why did they all have such good hair? Like Marina, I sometimes felt frustrated with what I saw as my friends' shortcomings and I may have tried to let them know it, just occasionally. Never with a nasty video, though!



One scene in the book made me squirm with old memories. I would have been *mortified* and *mad* (like Sachi was) if one of my born-in-the-USA classmates had come over while we were eating dinner as a family and my parents and I had to eat with our hands in front of her. Did you have good friends who were Indian? What kind of cross-cultural "research" did it take to write Sachi's character and family?

I'm glad that scene resonated, because I did a lot of research to make the Sachi-at-Home scenes ring true. At first, I read books and articles and eavesdropped on my Indian-American students. As the publication date got closer, I realized I needed more thorough verification and made connections with acquaintances who were willing to read the manuscript. They were very insightful about what rang true and what didn't, and I'm still grateful for their help.



It's funny that you mention the eating part. I actually didn't know until late in the process that some Indian families ate with their hands, but I revised to put that in, because it opened up so many possibilities for deep emotion. I could just imagine how tough that would be for Sachi to do that with Marina looking on—on one hand, not wanting to feel ashamed for being different; on the other, knowing that Marina is not exactly the poster-child for cross-cultural understanding.



Your book made me want to take a class on making film! Have you ever made a video like the one you described?

Wow, you spotted my research topics a mile away! You must be some kind of writer or something.



Sachi and Marina are way more experienced at video-making than I am. I don't think I've even used editing software! But I do have two friends who have taught video to middle-schoolers, and they helped me out with the details. One did so indirectly—I snooped around his classroom—and another read the video portions of the novel and corrected my errors. That included, "Jess, you keep saying that things are 'offstage,' but I think you mean, 'offscreen.'" I wrote plays before I wrote novels, so I guess I had defaulted to theatre jargon.



What was one big change you made in response to your editor's suggestion?

What kicks the action for Sachi is that she wants so badly to take Video Elective that she goes behind her parents' backs. In my earlier drafts, Sachi didn't have any big plans for her video; she was going to wait until she got a partner to decide together. (This stands in stark contrast to her partner Marina, who begins the first class with a plot, a title, and props.)



My editor pointed out that Sachi should know what she wants to say with her video. After all, she's willing to lie to her parents, so she must have some specific goals. I figured out that Sachi would want to do something like last year's video winners did—a video that challenged her classmates to think about the racial divisions in her school. When I realized this about her, it gave me more momentum for her character, and more of a chance for readers to say, "Holy Bleep!" when Marina comes along with her plan to spoof a fashion TV show.



Let's move on to the journey of getting the novel published. What was a high point? A low point?

Low point: no specific point that I can think of; just the years of rejection, wondering if I'd ever know how to make it all work and who would point me out of the woods.



The high point, aside from learning that the book was going to be published, was learning that it would appear on the Summer IndieNext List, which is how independent bookstores recommend books to each other and their customers. I'd done so much work to self-publicize, and here was a bit of publicity that seemed to have legs of its own. Plus, I love indie bookstores, so it was a thrill to get their endorsement.



What's next for Jessica in the world of Kid/YA books?

You can read excerpts of what I hope will be my next middle-grade novel, NOT THAT GIRL, in the Louisville Courier-Journal's Sunday serial series, published this past August. So Dickenzian, no? However, readers will be relieved to note that I am not being paid by the word. The story, about an eighth-grader whose life starts to crumble when she gets her first boyfriend, is, I hope, as zippy as NICE AND MEAN.



Thanks so much, Jessica, for spending time on the Fire Escape. So glad you're taking risks in writing fiction for tweens! Looking forward to NOT THAT GIRL. (Note: A former teacher, Jessica's available for author visits, including Skype visits. Contact her for more information.)

Come visit me on the Fire Escape!

Selling Color in a White World

Please answer this  call from Elizabeth Bluemle, bookseller and blogger at Publishers Weekly, for input on how to "sell color in a white world."

At the New England Independent Booksellers Association trade show next week, the Children's Bookselling Advisory Council is holding a panel discussion on this topic. I'd love for booksellers, authors, publishers and editors, sales reps and publicists to attend and share their successful strategies for getting past reluctant or stymied gatekeepers and ...

Reprise: Should We Bowdlerize Classic Children's Books For Racism?

When classic children's books strike us as racist today, Philip Nel raises an interesting question . Even if we amend them to tone down the racism, do we "simply dress up racial and colonial ideologies in different costumes?"



Nel says that if we answer affirmatively, we face a choice:

(1) Discourage children from reading them.

(2) Permit children to read only the bowdlerized versions.

(3) Allow children to read any version, original or bowdlerized.

I took a poll about this issue last summer,...

Second Prize Fire Escape Poetry Contest 2010

I'm delighted to present the second prize winner in the Fire Escape's Eighth Annual Poetry Contest for teens between cultures, MISMATCHED SOCKS, by Lucia, born in China.



"The hardest thing about balancing two cultures is...well...dealing with the fact that they can't be balanced," says Lucia. "The scale is always tipping one way or the other as you try to satisfy both cultures' vastly different customs and beliefs. But being thrown about as the scale goes topsy turvy is also one of...