Mitali Perkins's Blog, page 44

Talk About A Power Lunch

Seventeen students from King Middle School in Portland, Maine traveled with two teachers and their fabulous librarian, Kelley McDaniel, to lunch with me today at a Burmese restaurant in Boston.  What a memory! I love my job.



My first stop was my ever-generous publisher Charlesbridge, where Donna Spurlock gave me books to give as gifts to the kids.

YoMa ("mountain") Burmese restaurant is owned by a Shan man who came to Boston in 1993 after receiving political asylum for his role in the...

5 Indie Kid/YA Booksellers on Twitter

For those unconvinced about Twitter, why not see it as a place to listen to passionate aficionados of children's and YA books on the front lines—booksellers and librarians?



Here, for example, are five independent booksellers who specialize in Kid/YA books and share a wealth of information and excellent perspective with the rest of us:

Bunches of Grapes Books, Martha's Vineyard, MA 
Flying Pig Books, Shelburne, VT
Hooray For Books, Alexandria, VA
Red Balloon Books, St. Paul, MN 
Voracious...

An Editor Goes Cliff Jumping: The Story of Tu Books

As a social media aficionado, I watched and cheered as unemployed editor Stacy Whitman broadcast her vision of publishing excellent multicultural science fiction and fantasy YA novels. She set up a blog, rallied us for startup funds through a Kickstarter campaign, and spread the news artfully through Twitter and Facebook.



It didn't take long for publisher Lee and Low to notice how much support Stacy was garnering. A few weeks ago, we got this good news:

Lee and Low Books, the respected...

5 Great Picture Books About Water

Every 15 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease. Can you believe it? This horror must end, and thankfully many good people around the globe are engaged in the battle.



When it comes to those of us who care about books and kids, you've heard me say it before: books can play a part in shaping a child's heart to care and learn about this issue.



In honor of World Water Day, here are five tried-and-true picture books illuminating the life-giving power of water (please add more suggest...

Growing Up Biracial in America

"I have nightmares that half my body is getting beaten up."



Thanks to the wonderful Lee and Low blog (put it on your must-surf list), I'm posting this video as a follow-up to my thoughts about the Princeton lecture on race.

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Children's Books and a Changing Definition of Race

Last week I was privileged to hear Princeton President Shirley Tilghman deliver the Center for African American Studies' James Baldwin lecture called Race In The Post-Genome Era (that's my birds'-eye view from the balcony). Several of Dr. Tilghman's ideas jumped out at me:



At the level of the genome we're 99.9% identical to one another.



Differences between individuals are significantly greater than differences between groups.



The classic view of race, based on physical characteristics...

You Bring Out The Blank In Me

Sandra Cisneros' poem, You Bring Out The Mexican In Me (listen to the poet read it here), is inspiring other Americans to respond. Here's the poet Bao Phi performing his acclaimed version, "You Bring Out the Vietnamese In Me":







What about you? What does Cisneros' poem bring out in you?



Phi blogs for the Minnesota Star-Tribune, and his recent essay exploring the catch-22 of being a non-white Tolkien-loving geek, Nerds of Color, is worth a read. Here's an excerpt:

... I always chose to...

5 Outstanding Literacy Warriors

One of my favorite aspects of Twitter is the chance to follow people and organizations who champion causes dear to my heart. For example, here are five great nonprofits fighting hard to get kids reading:



Reading is Fundamental

Founded in 1966, RIF is the oldest and largest children's and family nonprofit literacy organization in the United States. RIF's highest priority is reaching underserved children from birth to age 8. Through community volunteers in every state and U.S. territory, RIF p...

Road Trip: Princeton and Brooklyn

One of the benefits of being a full-time children's book author is visiting schools, and receiving a host of surprises and serendipities when you're on the road. This week I spent three days in New Jersey and New York.





Crossroads Middle School was ready. Not only had they set up a great author visit page, but the kids wrote essays about life between cultures, created three videos, and one of the librarians even painted a portrait of my book cover!

Faculty and students were wearing these...

The Danger of a Single Story

As we cross borders to read with children, let's heed this warning issued by novelist Chimamanda Adichie about the dangers of listening to only one story about another culture. I especially appreciated her thoughts on power and storytelling.

Come visit me on the Fire Escape!