Monica Edinger's Blog, page 143
July 20, 2009
A Trip to the Moon
Now I thrill as much as the next person of a certain age when I remember those real men walking on the moon 40 years ago, but since everyone else is posting great stuff about that I figured I'd go the oddball route instead. So here are Georges Méliès' gentlemen astronauts walking (and fighting and losing top hats and so forth) on the moon 107 years ago. 107 years!
Brian Selznick made Méliès far
July 17, 2009
Coming Soon: Matt Phelan's The Storm in the Barn
Matt Phelan's The Storm in the Barn is a beautiful, moving, and singular graphic novel, the story of eleven-year-old Jack Clark, his family, and his town during the 1937 Dust Bowl in Kansas. Phelan's palatte, sparse text, lines, and dusty images evoke the time and place perfectly. It is a tricky thing to tell a tale that is both ultra-realistic and tinged with the supernatural, one that is both fable and historic. Go too far in one direction and the story becomes overly moralizing; go too far
July 15, 2009
The Pura Belpré Award Celebration with Yuyi Morales' Special Treat
I had always heard that the Pura Belpré Award Celebration was wonderful so this year I went and, yes it was! The room was festively decorated, the presentations and speeches were moving, and it ended with a completely delightful dance performance by a troupe of little girls.
The highlight of the afternoon for me was the vivacious and talented Yugi Morales who received an honor for the writing and the medal for the illustration of her charming alphabet book, Just in Case.
At the end of her accepta
July 14, 2009
The Does and Don'ts of Conventioneering, ALA Edition
***Warning — this is a very self-indulgent post with lots of me in it.***
Do bring a wrap for the chilly convention center.
Don't walk by a Payless while already in the convention city, think that perhaps 3 inch heels would indeed be more elegant for the Newbery Banquet than the cute little patent leather flats in suitcase, go in and try on $20 pair, buy them and then hobble about the night of the Banquet.
Do enjoy wonderful books personally signed by lovely authors at dinners.
July 9, 2009
Away to Chicago
I'm off shortly to ALA in Chicago where I will be seeing many friends from the publishing world — authors, illustrators, editors, marketers, publicity folks, agents, librarians, academics, reviewers, educators, teachers, bloggers, booksellers, and book lovers of all stripes. Can't wait to see them all and do some socializing, gossiping, hear about and see new and forthcoming books, and otherwise have a grand time.
In addition to all the socializing and networking, I also plan to:
Stop by the Mo WiJuly 5, 2009
In the Classroom: "Poor Kids" and Reading
The latest to give his list of summer reading books for kids is Nicholas Kristof, op-ed columnist for the New York Times. In "The Best Kid Books Ever" Kristof writes:
In educating myself this spring about education, I was aghast to learn that American children drop in I.Q. each summer vacation — because they aren't in school or exercising their brains.
This is less true of middle-class students whose parents drag them off to summer classes or make them read books. But poor kids fall two months be
July 3, 2009
Some Summer Reading Suggestions from Across the Pond
For those unhappy with Newsweek's choice of Jenna Bush to weigh in on essential books for kids, a great antidote is today's Telegraph piece, "Summer Reading for Children: Adventures to enchanting worlds." Some terrific suggestions from Geraldine McCaughrean, Philip Reeve, Neil Gaiman, Anne Fine, among other British writers for children.
July 1, 2009
A Couple of Terrific SLJ Interviews
Here's Rebecca!
Your mother was a contestant on The $20,000 Pyramid with Dick Clark. Did she practice every evening like Miranda's mom?
I don't remember her practicing—and there was also a different outcome.
She didn't win?
No, she didn't. But we did get consolation prizes, and one of them was a case of Panel Magic.
From Upper West Side Story: An Interview with Rebecca Stead
***
Here's KT!
Do you remember what you read for that first discussion group?
Oh, I do. Actually, it's really kind of a funny st
June 29, 2009
Patrick Ness's The New World: A Story of Chaos Walking 1
Okay, I've held off writing about The Ask and the Answer, as it isn't out till September. But it is, I assure you Ness fans, fantastic. I think it may even be better than The Knife of Never Letting Go if that is possible. (Here's my review of that book if you are interested.) But now we've got something else to develop the Chaos Walking story even further. It is "The New World", a short story Ness wrote for the UK Booktrust that is available starting today on their website. It is wonderful too
Coming Soon: Katherine Sturtevant's The Brothers Story
Katherine Sturtevant's A True and Faithful Narrative was one of my favorite books of 2006 so I am delighted to see that The Brothers Story is coming out this fall. Here's the description from her website.
The Brothers Story is set in the Great Frost of 1683-84, and tells the story of twin teenaged boys, Kit and Christy, who have grown up in poverty in their Essex village. Because Christy has been "simple" from birth, Kit has literally been his brother's keeper. But the hardships that come to th
