Monica Edinger's Blog, page 107

Did a Time Traveler Crash Charlie Chaplin's 1928 Movie Premiere? — Vulture

Did a Time Traveler Crash Charlie Chaplin's 1928 Movie Premiere? — Vulture.

No.

My Response to Neil Gaiman's Modest Proposal

The master-of-the-macabre suggests that:

… on Hallowe'en or during the week of Hallowe'en, we give each other scary books. Give children scary books they'll like and can handle. Give adults scary books they'll enjoy.

Great idea, I say.  And since there are plenty of well-known books for kids-who-love-to-be-scared out there, I figured I'd suggest a few recently published books that may be less familiar.  By all means add your own suggestions, old and new, in the comments.

Jim, Who Ran Away From His Nurse, and Was Eaten By a Lion by Hilaire Belloc is a delightfully deadpan parody of a cautionary tale, amusingly illustrated (with flaps and such) by the clever Mini Gray.
Calef Brown's Hallowilloween , also a picture book for older kids, is filled with silly poems that are as likely to produce giggles as shivers.
A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz, on the other hand, has some truly spine-chilling moments leavened by wit and compassion. An utterly original take on the Grimm fairy tales, I'm reading it aloud right now to my 4th grade class  and they are loving it.  More from me about it here.
In The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall Mary Downing Hahn mixes together a Victorian waif, a forbidding manor, an accidental (or was it?) death of a child, and a graveyard with a deliciously spooky story as the result.
A haunted house is also central to the first of Jacqueline West's Books of Elsewhere series,  The Shadows, along with magical objects, talking animals, a variety of ghosts, and an alternate world entered through paintings, making it a compelling read.
The Boneshaker by Kate Milford is an atmospheric and eerie story featuring a machine-loving girl, Dr. Jake Limberleg's Nostrum Fair and Technological Medicine Show, and the Devil.
And finally, for teens, there is Adele Griffin and Lisa Brown's Picture the Dead .  Set during the Civil War when spiritualism, spirit photography in particular, was in vogue, Jennie Lovell tells her chilling story through text and the pages of her scrapbook.

Also at the Huffington Post.

Children's Book Illustrators Honor their Own

Psst —wanna see some actual illustrations from this year's crop of picture books?  If so, get on over to New York City's Society of Illustrators for "The Original Art: Celebrating the Fine Art of Children's Book Illustration." An annual event started by Dilys Evans thirty years ago, this year's show features the original art from 129 books selected by a jury of illustrators, art directors, and editors out of a pool of 554 entries. Additionally, a gold medal was awarded to Renata Liwska for her illustrations in The Quiet Book while silver medals were given to Carson Ellis for Dillweed's Revenge: A Deadly Dose of Magic and Dan Santat for Oh No! (Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World).  Eric Carle and Alice and Martin Provensen were honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards and Hyewon Yum received the Founders Award for There Are No Scary Wolves.  A remarkable exhibit, it is well worth a visit by anyone who loves picture books and art.

Also at the Huffington Post with a slide show of some of the honored art.

Peace Corps Back in Sierra Leone

I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone, 1974-76, and an important part of my life is to advocate for Sierra Leone and for the continent of Africa.  When I returned to the US no one had a clue where Sierra Leone was and even in the early 90s when the conflict started there was still minimal interest.  I worked with an advocacy group, The Friends of Sierra Leone, to get attention, but it seemed sadly hopeless — until the war came to Freetown where media had easier access. It then landed on the front page of US newspapers pretty much all about brutality.  I won't go into the many experiences of racism, heartache, and more that happened around me when Sierra Leone came up other than to say we've still got a ways to go to even begin to help and understand Africa. Ten years ago one of my fourth grade classes tried to make a difference. They were wonderful.

That is long ago now.  And one of the happiest pieces of news I got this year was that the Peace Corps was returning to Sierra Leone (after leaving in 1994 during the worst of the conflict).  They returned a few months ago and I've been following several of the volunteers' blogs (say this one and this one)  with great interest.  (Some things seem just the same — say the wonderful food —  and others — say having cell phones  and blogging — enormously different.)  Just now I  saw that NBC did a terrific feature on them earlier this month.  Please do check it out here.

Travels with Tintin

Thousands of tourists visit Petra every week, but this summer I was part of the first small group of adventurers to arrive at the rose-red city in the footsteps of Tintin, led by one of the world's leading Tintinologists, Michael Farr

Having been to Petra myself (one of the most amazing places I've ever been to and I've traveled a lot), I was very intrigued to read The Guardian's Georgia Brown piece on her Tintin tour to Petra: Blistering barnacles, Tintin, it's the rose-red city.

The Problem of Overwriting

The trouble with overwritten prose is that it takes away from the reader the opportunity to imagine a scene. We do not want to be told everything; we want a few brushstrokes, a few carefully chosen adjectives, and then we can do the rest ourselves. It's Roget's fault, of course. I blame him and his wretched thesaurus. Put it away.

Alexander McCall Smith on Writing Concisely – WSJ.com.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Barbie But Were Afraid to Ask

Dolls.  These real-life avatars can charm, creep, and fascinated.  Perhaps no more so than Barbie. Born in the 60s, reviled by many in the 70s, this toy with the permanent tiptoe feet seems to bounce back appealing to one generation after another.  While plenty of ink has been spilled about this doll for adults perhaps not so much for those who are just done playing with her — young people, that is.  And so how terrific that Tanya Lee Stone has filled this gap with The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie, giving readers a clear-headed view of the life of her creator, Ruth Handler (and thus also her company Mattel); her unique appeal to young people; how she fits into social and cultural history of her time; the art (yes, there is quite a bit of Barbie-inspired art it seems); and more. Filled with color and black and white images, plenty of them of Barbie and her pals, and loads of firsthand comments from those who both loved and hated her as children and later, the book is a fascinating look at a unique piece of recent American history.

Wanting to know more about how she went about researching and writing about this icon, I went to Tanya Lee Stone herself and posed a few questions.

As you note in the author's note, "I don't recall having strong feelings about her one way or the other…"  So what then got you so interested in writing a book about Barbie?  Was there a triggering event or situation?

I started thinking about icons one day–what they mean to us and why, and how they come to be icons in the first place. In terms of pop culture, Barbie is at the top of that list and I found that fascinating. I knew there had to be more to the story than the often-quipped remarks of Barbie being some evil corporate plot to make girls feel bad about themselves. I wanted to find out the origin of the idea to create Barbie in the first place. I wanted to know the back story of the person who invented her. What I found was remarkably different than the pre-conceived notions I had heard in the past.

I loved the way you showed how Barbie and everything around the doll reflected the cultural and social history of our times.  Was that in your mind from the start?

Yes, absolutely. I'm a big fan of context. I think it's imperative to understand what is going on at any given time in our social history in order to fully discuss one aspect of that culture. You have to know what the societal ideas and norms of the day are to understand how a product of that culture's time fits.

You certainly have a lot of balls in the air — Ruth Handler's biography, the development of Mattel, the doll's evolution, history, play, and so much more — how did you manage to balance them all?  Did you start out featuring one more than the other?  Or had you in mind to do it all from the start?  It is a feat that you managed to get it all in effectively in a relatively short book!

I definitely had two main goals–one was to provide the history of the inventor and the invention to put Barbie in context for the reader. And the other was to really examine some of the themes I wanted to get into–body image, racial diversity, role-playing and development. I also had a strong desire to "let the people speak," as you only need to mention the word Barbie to get fast and furious opinions on both sides of the table! Of course, there are things that wouldn't fit and tangents I found fascinating that I had to make decisions about–but that's par for the course. Eventually, the task is to assimilate all of that information for myself and choose a focus that stays true to the story I'm telling. I hope I did that.

As I read the book I was struck by an interesting conundrum — on the one hand Barbie from the start was an idealized doll and the early concern was that girls not see her as something to emulate.  Handler created her as a fashion doll — one for girls who were playing with paper dolls with a focus on clothes.  And so with the rise of feminism there was concern that girls not see her body and looks as something to wish to be.  At the same time you write about efforts to diversify Barbie — ethnic Barbies, African-American Barbies, etc — and quote those who felt they were not represented in these dolls.  And so I'm fascinated by this doll being something you both want to see yourself in and never see yourself in. Do you have any thoughts about this dichotomy?

I would modify that conundrum just a bit to say that Ruth Handler absolutely wanted little girls to see her as something to emulate–but what she wanted them to emulate had little to do with body type. She wanted girls to believe they could put themselves in any shoes at all–be anything they wanted. It was about clothes, yes, but what those clothes represented, also. Independence, in many cases. Ruth was a fiercely independent woman. So I think really, at least for me, the form she happened to embody–which was in part a product of Ruth's time and place; Hollywood in the 50s– Let's not forget to also factor in that Barbie taking off like it did had something to do with the body type not changing. Who's going to mess with that kind of success? But one of the most interesting comments I came across was from Ruth's granddaughter Stacey Handler, who suggested that if Ruth had stayed in a role of power longer, she may indeed have made some changes to the body type as time changed and societal norms shifted.

In regards to the diversity issue, I think it is nearly impossible to please everyone. I see all sides to the arguments and think, in the end, it's a toy and a toy company we're talking about. It's not a self-esteem organization or a nonprofit organization. Ultimately, a toy company has its own mission to fulfill. Their attempts to address issues are appreciated, and can never fully satisfy. That is its own conundrum.

You describe a range of Barbie play in the book.  As a teacher I've done a lot of observing of kids' play over the years and am very intrigued by the changes.  For example,  I bought my own Barbie (as my parents like many refused to buy me one) when I was around nine in the 60s yet she now seems to be more appealing to much younger children.  And while my friends and I had one Barbie and were eager to acquire clothes and objects for her, for some time now it seems more common for children to have many Barbies. In your research for the book did you notice any of these sorts of changes or others related to changing play patterns?

Anecdotally, I would venture a guess that the change has less to do with play patterns and more to do with societal changes regarding things like consumerism and materialism. I think earlier generations simply had less and that was the norm. Expectations can be quite different these days.

I'm curious about how you attracted the many young people you quoted in the book. How did you find them? How broad a demographic is it? Particularly the boys!

As I said, mention Barbie and people start talking! The response to my invitation to participate in the research for the book was overwhelming. Social media and email played a huge part in the success of the effort to reach out to people. I sent emails to teachers, librarians, writers, parents–and it went viral very quickly. I pored over hundreds of emails and started sorting responses into the natural categories that developed. The boys, almost entirely, were the result of teachers asking students if they wanted to respond. It was extremely interesting stuff!

Is there anything you found in your research that you were dying to include and then had to sadly leave out?

No, not really. I mean, I found many aspects of the family's history fascinating, but as you know there are choices to be made and a focus to be kept for juvenile nonfiction, so I'm happy with where I ended.

Also at the Huffington Post.

Book Blogging Kids

Anyone who spends time with avid kid readers knows how much they like to talk about books.  Wanting to give those in our middle school an audience beyond their immediate world, my Dalton School colleagues Roxanne Feldman, Ellen Nickles, and I started an after-school book blogging club. Every week these enthusiasts come to my room; pour through my books and advance reader copies; choose to read whatever catches their fancy;  and, after reading them, write blog reviews about them. Here are a few recent ones:

AE has some thoughts about I Can't Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure .
VS has a review of Loretta Ellsworth's In a Heartbeat .
AL read and reviewed the forthcoming Wish by Joseph Monniger.
Fantasy buff AI read another soon-to-publish book, Jonathan Stroud's The Ring of Solomon . Here's what she thought.
RG took on Poop Happens: A History of the World from the Bottom Up by Sarah Albee and …well, go here to get his take on it.

It's a New Session at Rick Riordan's Camp Half-Blood

I can only tell you that the people who have read "The Lost Hero," my kids, the editor, my agent actually told me that they like this even better than "The Lightning Thief."

So says Rick Riordan on The Last Hero, the first book in his new Heroes of Olympus series and today millions of eager young fans will be able to see for themselves if his kids, editor, and agent are right.  For those who don't yet know, kids really, really, REALLY love Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series.  Certainly there is going to be joy in Mudville — I mean my fourth grade classroom — today. Fans can check out the website, read the first two chapters (if they can't get to a bookstore today), see Rick on his book tour, or be part of today's series of webcasts (in which Rick promises to reveal some big news).

At a virtual press conference last week Rick told us that the story takes place right after the close of the previous series and we will be seeing Percy and friends again.  Evidently Hera is going to make trouble and Festus may too. There are three new main characters who will be telling the story together — three narrative strands similar to the two Rick employed in The Red Pyramid. Here are a few more tidbits from that press conference:

The new series, the Heroes of Olympus really allows me to cover some of the Greek and Roman myths that I haven't been able to talk about. There's so many. I mean after five books in Percy Jackson I thought that I would pretty much have covered everything but the mythology is just so deep the more I get into it the more I discover and the more I remember. And there were just so many stories I couldn't – I couldn't get into the first series. Plus Greek mythology really has some built-in sequels to the story that I told in the Percy Jackson series. So it seemed only natural that I would follow-up with that content. And it gave me a different view of Percy Jackson's world too.

—

I know the series is often touted as a series for reluctant reader boys. And that's great because I have reluctant reader boys at home and I'm perfectly satisfied to have the series promoted that way.

But when people say it's a series for boys I know that a lot of my female readers get very annoyed with that because there are a lot of them and they're quick to say this is not just a boy's series. And you see that right away if you go to one of my events I mean invariably the audience is exactly 50/50 boys and girls.

—

It [Roman Mythology] is something that's addressed much more in the new series, The Heroes of Olympus and it allowed me to explore this idea that is first put forth in "The Lightning Thief" that the gods follows civilization around. They've jumped from Greece to Rome to Europe to the United States.

With The Kane Chronicles and this new series the man has his hands full, committed to writing two new books a year. Can he pull it off?  Given his track record I'm very hopeful.  As an adult fan of both series I must admit I too can't wait to begin reading The Lost Hero.

Also at the Huffington Post.

The Amazing A is for Anansi Conference

The A Is For Anansi conference was outstanding.  Congratulations and thank you to the organizers (Jaira Placide and Rashidah Ismaili) who worked for almost two years to pull it off.  Here are some of my random observations of the event. (I'm a lousy note taker so my apologies to the speakers for any inaccuracies and for being vague. Most of what follows is purely from memory.)

First of all, I was really excited to see the range of attendees — students, teachers, librarians, parents, editors, writers, and more.  Given that it was a long holiday weekend it was fantastic to see so many there, passionately involved in this important topic.  Secondly, I was impressed by the interesting variety of speakers — children, parents, teachers, academics, writers, reviewers and others — a very interesting and broad range of viewpoints.  Thirdly, the venue, food and drink were great too!  And, finally, there were just the small touches that were so moving, say organizer Rashidah ordering all of us (gently, but firmly) to come to the mike and say one word before leaving for the final reception.  Mine was "hope."

The conference began on Friday evening with a keynote speech by Andrea Davis Pinkney, writer, editor, and a leading light in publishing for a long time.  She spoke of us being a "hallelujah choir" as we, in our varied roles, worked to bring books to this important group of children.

This was followed by a panel on "History/Significance/Meaning of Writing/Publishing/Selling Literature for and about Children of African Descent" moderated by Cheryl Willis Hudson of Just Us Books.  Agent Joe Monti,  a former buyer at Barnes & Noble, jumped in with some points about hot topics such as covers, book placement, numbers of books, and more.  Serendipity Literary Agency founder Regina Books gave a bit of her background and also spoke bluntly about what she is able to sell, what not, and why.  CCBC's  K. T. Horning spoke of history, of numbers too (say the percentage of books by people of color or about people of color over the years), and more.  Lee & Low's  Hannah Ehrlich spoke about her company's efforts and challenges.  Colin Bootman gave us his unique perspective as a veteran illustrator.  I had to leave after after this, but the other scheduled speakers that evening were Color-Bridge Book's founder Bernette Ford and Professor Nancy D. Tolson.

I was unable to attend the Saturday morning's sessions, but heard that they were excellent.  I returned in time to hear a panel on "Critiquing & Evaluating the Books/Content" moderated by Laura Atkins.  Wanda M. Brooks gave us an overview of an important study she did with Jonda C. McNair on representation in children's books.  ( "This story of mine is not unique:" A review of research on African Americans in children's literature. Review of Educational Research, 79(1), 125-162.) The dynamic activist librarian Andrew P Jackson gave a rousing call to arms.  Oralia Garza de Cortes gave us more disturbing information and Publishers Weekly's John Sellers discussed how African-American children's literature is reviewed in his publication.  Last, but definitely not least, we heard from Summer Edward, creator of Anansesem, who provided us with an important presentation of the issues around Caribbean children's literature.

Next was a panel on "Literacy & Education for/of the Black Male" moderated by Clairesa Clay.  It opened with a moving speech by Elan Watson, a student at the Academy of Business and Community Development, an all-boys school in Brooklyn.  Later his father, Keenan Watson, the PTA president of the school, read an incredibly powerful and moving speech about young black men today and what he is trying to do as a father for his son.  Katie Sciurba gave us some of the results of her research on boys and their reading — most intriguingly about the connections between Harry Potter and Malcolm X.  The passionate Tony Medina gave us a poem and spoke movingly about his own work and experiences.  Scholar was fierce in stating his perspectives, often differing strongly from some others on the panel.  It was a completely absorbing and incredibly moving session.

The conference ended with a reception honoring Virginia Hamilton, Tom Feelings, and Leo and Diane Dillon.  While I was unable to stay for the presentations I was delighted to have time to chat with Diane Dillon, old friend Michael Patrick Hearn, and other attendees.

Bravo to the remarkable folks who put together this very fine event.