Monica Edinger's Blog, page 17

Indie Press Spotlight #1

Recently I wrote a post celebrating independent publishers, something I’d long wanted to do. Now I want to take the next step — start a regular feature highlighting books from these publishers. So today is post #1.

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John Cage, a remarkable avant-garde composer (perhaps best known for the work 4’33” which is performed as total silence), collaborated with textile artist Lois Long in the 1980s to create Mud Book: How to Make Pies and Cakes. Happily for us Princeton Architectural Press has brough...

Erin Entrada Kelly’s Hello, Universe

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There is a certain kind of book that can be tricky for me, a quiet, but emotionally powerful book. I see such books as teetering on tightropes — balancing just right the heartstrings-tugging, the poignancy, the tenderness, the provoking-of-tears. Too much and I feel manipulated, too little and I just don’t care. It is for this reason I was wary when beginning Erin Entrada Kelly’s Hello, Universe, but I needn’t have been. It is to my mind an exemplar of this sort of book —- quiet, introspecti...

SLj’s BoB Round 2 Starts with Judge Javaka Steptoe

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I like to think of these two books as pieces of music: One is like a work song, the other a classical concerto. In this way they are quite different and yet comparable, with one resonating for me more than the other.

Check out the lovely whole of the 2017 Caldecott winner’s decision between Congo in Freedom Square and When Green Becomes Tomatoes here.

Gilles Bachelet’s MRS. WHITE RABBIT

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In case you don’t know me, I’m a Carrollian; that means, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass are beloved books of mine. This blog is named after this obsession and the shrinking Alices in the banner are ones I drew long ago in my days as an aspiring illustrator. (More can be seen here.) I speak, write, do, and seek out all things Alice all the time. My current WiP is centered around the real story behind the fictional ones. And because of this obsession I’m always...

Alexander’s 2017 Very Bad Day

There was quinoa for dinner and I hate quinoa.

For any one like me who is old enough to have read over and over Judith Viorst’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, you are likely to get a kick out of Mark Remy’s update at the New Yorker: “Alexander and the V Bad, FML Day.“

The 9th Annual SLJ’s Battle of the Kids’ Books Starts Tomorrow!

It is simply thrilling to be part of the team creating this Battle for the 9th year. We’ve got an awesome line-up of contenders, amazing judges, and exciting decisions. If you want to bring a contender back from the dead to compete in the closing round (judged by Kwame Alexander!) you can still vote today here.  And if you want to see it all laid out, you can get beautiful brackets to download here.  And if you want to learn more, do watch Kidlit TV’s first ever #SLJBOBCAST below. Shelley and...

Amplifying Diversity: Independent Presses

The ongoing and hugely important conversation featuring #ownvoices, diversity, and equity was most recently centered around an unfortunate WSJ journal article which Allie Bruce unpacks in her RWW post, “Why ‘Rock Star Librarian’ is an Oxymoron.”  I highly recommend reading the original article (tricky as it is behind a paywall — need to go to a library perhaps!), Allie’s post, and the ongoing conversation going on in her post’s comments.

One aspect of this that I think gets overlooked is that...

Amplifying Diversity: Small Presses

The ongoing and hugely important conversation featuring #ownvoices, diversity, and equity was most recently centered around an unfortunate WSJ journal article which Allie Bruce unpacks in her RWW post, “Why ‘Rock Star Librarian’ is an Oxymoron.”  I highly recommend reading the original article (tricky as it is behind a paywall — need to go to a library perhaps!), Allie’s post, and the ongoing conversation going on in her post’s comments.

One aspect of this that I think gets overlooked is that...

“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” an English Rugby Anthem? Evidently, Yes.

“It’s really the song of England rugby,” said Josh Rice, 25, a fan from Nottingham.

Arthur Jones, a music history professor and founder of the Spiritual Project at the University of Denver, said the situation reminded him of American sports teams who use Native American names and imagery, in that a group of people seemed to be free-associating with imagery largely disconnected from its history.

“My first reaction is absolute shock — and I actually understand it when I think about it — but th...

New New York Times Children’s Book Live Illustration

There is a cool new feature at the New York Times Book review — Children’s Live Illustration.

Visual artists have always had an important place in children’s literature. Watch some leading children’s books illustrators draw, paint, collage, and talk about books with The Times’s children’s books editor, Maria Russo.

It started January 6th with Christian Robinson and went on, as of this writing, with the following (for the ones without links the videos are all here):

Matthew Reinhart Booki Viv...