Monica Edinger's Blog, page 30
October 22, 2015
Children’s Africana Book Awards Festival 2015
If you are in the DC area this Saturday I highly recommend heading over to the Smithsonian’s African Art Museum for the CABA Festival. This is a celebration of the 2015 Children’s Africana Book Award winner,The Red Pencil penned by Andrea Davis Pinkney with illustrations by Shan W. Evans. (My NYTimes review of the book is here.) I was honored to be one of the winners last year and can say the event is very wonderful and special (and free!). Congratulations to all involved in the creation of...
October 16, 2015
Africa is My Home: From a Young Critic
I just came across the following from a Chicago Tribune round-up of young critic reviews. Avery, I’m very honored!
“Africa Is My Home” is about a little girl and her friends who were taken from their homes and sold into slavery. In this book I learned how it felt to be locked in shackles in a dark, small space, about the slaves fighting their captors and winning on the Amistad, and still being tricked into going to America. I also learned you should never forget your home and where you come f...
October 14, 2015
Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, the Graphic Novel
I first heard about The Golden Compass being turned into a graphic novel months back when Philip Pullman tweeted that the first volume had won a French prize. Finding more information, I wrote the post, “Philip Pullman Said Yes”;soonthereafter got anARC and was blown away by it. Now the book is out and everyone should get a chance to be equally blown away. It is the work ofClément Oubrerie, a French graphic novelist and a fabulous comic adaptation of a remarkable story. Looking at his blog, I...
October 12, 2015
A Week with Alice
This past week, here in NYC, there were a myriad of celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I attended a number of them.
On Monday I was honored to be part of a remarkable panel at the New YorkLibrary for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Moderated by Charlie Lovett, my fellow panelists were David Del Tredici,Liz Swados,Steve Massa, Elizabeth Carena, and Robert Sabuda. It was a starry-eyed evening for me to be with these distinguishe...
October 6, 2015
The Illustrated Harry Potter
Recently, needing some comfort reading, I decided to revisit the Harry Potter books. I think I last did so when the final book came out, eight years ago. And I’m discovering them to be better than I remembered. That is, I had much loved the characters and plotting, but I’m finding them funnier and more solidly written than I remembered. (Someone suggestedthat this was because the earlier books were more tightly edited as the author wasn’t so famous then.) And so it is perfect timing for me t...
October 5, 2015
Who’s Alice
The panel I’m on tonight at Lincoln Center has altered a bit in a mind-blowing way. Now my fellow-panelists are:
David Del Tredici (composer), Liz Swados (creator of Broadway’s Alice at the Palace), Elizabeth Cerena (performer and managing driector of Then She Fell), Steve Massa (film historian and cast member of Eve le Galliane’s Alice in Wonderland), and Robert Sabuda (pop-up book artist). Lewis Carroll scholar and author, Charlie Lovett, will moderate.
Again, it is at the New York Public L...
October 4, 2015
Alice150
There have been celebrations all year and all over the world for the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. This coming week is one of the biggies, Alice150, here in New York. While manyof the events are sold-out,the following,are not:
Alice: 150 Years of WonderlandAlice Live!At the Morgan Library — last week! (See my review of the show here.)
To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice’s Adventure’s in Wonderland, The New York P...
October 2, 2015
Patrick Ness and the Doctor Who- Universe, a Match Made in Heaven
Being a big Doctor Who andPatrick Ness fan, learningyesterday that the latter will be writing a teen spin-off of the former was a most excellent birthday present for me.
September 30, 2015
My Very Important Date (with SLJ and Alice)
Doing the research for my SLJ piece, “Alice in Wonderland: A Very Important Date”was great fun. That is, it involved finding out what would be coming out this year, what was still in print, and what was not, but still worth including. Having to bring down the list to a manageble number for this Alicephile was not, as you can imagine, easy. Many favorites had to be left out. The published article includes a brief prefatory essay on the book’s history and then an annotated list of recommended b...
September 22, 2015
Jane Goodall, UN Messenger of Peace
Yesterday on International World Peace Day I was invited to a small gathering to celebrate UN Messenger of Peace Jane Goodall’sforthcomingA Prayer for World Peace and its gorgeous illustrationsby the distinguished Iranian artist Feeroozeh Golmohammad. Thepublisher describes the book on their website thus:
Jane Goodall is recognized the world over for her commitment to natural preservation, and for efforts to being peace to all parts of the world.
A perfect book for generations of readers w...
