Monica Edinger's Blog, page 14

Auma’s Long Run by Eucabeth A. Odhiambo

Set in a 1980s Kenyan Luo village during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Auma’s Long Run is a piercingly honest account of the struggles, pain, hardships, deaths, famine, challenges faced by a determined young girl and her community with grace and fortitude. Debut author Eucabeth A. Odhiambo, who grew up in a Luo village at this time, beautifully brings out the complicated ways thirteen year old Auma, her family, and neighbors cope with the scourge. Lack of resources, traditional practices, and person...

Allen Say’s Silent Days, Silent Dreams

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A few weeks ago I visited New York City’s Whitney Museum and became besotted with a new-to-me artist, James Castle. Obsessed I took the following photos:

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Perhaps a week later I saw Betsy Bird’s review of Allen Say’s Silent Days, Silent Dreams, was gobsmacked that this fictionalized overview of Castle’s life was in the works, and eager to get an advance copy. Now I have and think it completely and utterly superb. It is fiction, the text and the art, carefully and respectfully researched....

Talking Race at the National Museum of African American History and Culture

I’m just back from a remarkable week at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture where I participated in the workshop, “Let’s Talk: Teaching Race in the Classroom.” I learned about it in May when I was exploring the museum’s website after visiting and wanting to know more, more, more. This was the fifth summer of the workshop, but the first in the physical museum. And so, in addition to fabulous speakers and thoughtful activities, we had hours every day to exp...

Jason Reynold’s Patina

A year ago I received a box of ARCs from Simon & Schuster and, poking around, came across Jason Reynolds’ Ghost. While I’d heard a great deal about wunderkind Reynolds and read with respect some of his YA work, that he had a middle grade book coming out was a complete surprise to me. About track — my one competitive sport — no less. And so I jumped right in and fell madly in love with it. (You can read my gushy review here.) And so now here we are a year later with the next in the Track serie...

Something Else that Happened on July 4th

 

July 4 (F) Atkinson brought over to my rooms some friends of his, a Mrs and Miss Peters, of whom I took photographs, and who afterwards looked over my album and staid [sic] to lunch. They then went off to the Museum, and Duckworth and I made an expedition up to Godstow with the three Liddells [Alice and her two sisters]; we had tea on the bank there, and did not reach Ch. Ch. [Christ Church] again till quarter past eight, when we took them on to my rooms to see my collections of micro-photo...

More Christopher Robin and Co

Here’s the latest biopic, this one on the origins of Christopher Robin and pals.

Jason Reynold and Ashley Bryan at the Banquet

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The Newbery-Caldecott-Wilder Banquet was one of many highlights for me at this year’s ALA. First of all, Ashley Bryan with whom I go way back as he was a teacher at my school and would return in my early years there as an artist in residence. I also spent time with him over the years at the summer CLNE Institutes. (You can read my appreciation of him here.)  It was absolutely wonderful that he was able to be there and accept the Newbery Honor for his fabulous book Freedom Over Me, doing so...

Whose Walls? A Different Perspective on Gene Yang’s Reading Without Walls Challenge

I’ve been a fan of Gene Yang’s Reading Without Walls Challenge since he first initiated it. But I have to say my friend Roxanne Feldman’s recent post,”‘Read a book about a character that doesn’t look like me’ as viewed by an East Asian parent” was revelatory as it pointed out how what seems to be a great way to expand horizons for young readers can, in fact, be yet another narrowing form of privilege. It reminded me yet again that privilege comes in all shapes and sizes and we need to be awar...

A Very Special Publication: The Riverbank Review

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Today, there are constantly fantastic new publications featuring children’s literature. These are generally digital and focus on a variety of audiences: children, parents, educators, librarians, collectors, book sellers, and others who are deeply engaged with this literature. There are also some venerable older journals such as School Library Journal and The Horn Book Magazine (both of which I’ve contribute to).

One of my absolute favorite all-time journals featuring children’s literature is...

In Honor of What Would Have Been Maurice Sendak’s 89th Birthday

 

Here are some tidbits I’ve collected on this blog over the years celebrating this artistic genius.

From Maurice Sendak’s Prescient Opinion on our President-Elect

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From We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy (1993). Many thanks to Michael Patrick Hearn for bringing it to my attention.

From An Extraordinary 1966 Filmed Interview of Maurice Sendak in His Studio

The following is a brief, but amazing interview of the young Maurice Sendak just after he won the Caldecott for Where the Wild Thin...