Monica Edinger's Blog, page 34

SLJ’s Day of Dialog

My goodness, does SLJ put on a fabulous one-day conference. Congrats to all, but especially Luann Tothwho leads the planning and organization of this wonderful event. You can see the full schedule here. I was sitting next to uber-blogger Betsy Bird who was doing a sort of live blogging thing — that is, she was writing her blog post live as the different panels and speakers were occurring. Count me as very impressed. I did tweet a bit, but not that much. A few brief reactions:

The first speake...

My Mini BEA

While I won’t be at the Javits itself, I will be at a couple of BEA-related events today. First is SLJ’s always-awesome Day of Dialog. I mean, look at this schedule for the day!

And then there is a very exciting-looking event to celebrate Brian Selznick’s forthcoming The Marvels, at theHudson Theater no less. Those who have been fortunate enough to see one of Brian’s presentations know how exciting they are.

So a very good day in the works. Thanks in advance to all who are making it so.

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In the Classroom: Letters to Alice and Others

In my recent Horn Book Magazine article, “Alice, the Transformer” I described my approach to reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to contemporary 4th graders. After finishing the book we always have a tea party and the children do some sort of response to the book. This year I invited the children to write to Lewis Carroll or one of their favorite characters in the book. The results were terrific. You can read a selection of the letters in their entirety here, but to give you a taste here...

An Ancient Prophecy That Tells of a Boy

Now where have you heard that one before? Harry Potter? Anakin Skywalker? How about….

RIF’s 2015 Multicultural Booklist (Grades K to 5)

I am so honored that RIF (Reading is Fundamental) has selected Africa is My Home for their 2015 Multicultural Book list. For it they’vedone this wonderful guide for parent,families, and teachersfor the book. Thank you so so much!

Our 2015 Multicultural Book Collection includes 39 children’s books specially selected to encourage children’s interest and learning in a broad range of topics, from science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) to history and social studies. The Co...

CLAT: Level III Children’s Literature Application Test

My partner in crim — fellow test creator Roxanne Feldman reminded me of theCLAT: Level III Children’s Literature Application Testwe created some years ago for the Horn Book Magazine. Go do it and then come back and let us know in the comments how you did….go on. Don’t worry — it is tongue-in-cheek and fun.

Here are thebeliefs we articulated when we created the test in 2007 alongwith notes from me about how they look in 2015.

Never assume. Every year we interact with children new to us, child...

Alice, the Transformer

Check out my latest article inthe May/June Horn Book, “Alice, the Transformer.” Ihad fun looking at the ways the little girl has been constantly reinvented over the 150 years of her literary existence. The whole issue, by the way, is great!

Jaclyn Moriarty’s A Tangle of Gold

Because I enjoyed tremendouslyA Corner of White andA Crack in the Kingdom, the first two titles in Jaclyn Moriarty’s The Colors of Madeleine series, Ihave been eagerly awaiting word of the final book. And so I was very happy to come acrossthe following here:

In A TANGLE OF GOLD, the thrilling conclusion to The Colors of Madeleine series, Cello is in crisis. Princess Kos deception of her people has emerged and the Kingdom is outraged; the Jagged Edge Elite have taken control, placing the Princ...

Kelly Jones’ Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer

Kelly Jones’ terrificUnusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmeris described by its publisher as quirkya word that, for me,doesn’t really get across thewarm-heartednessof this eccentric epistolary story. Twelve-year-old Sophie Brown has, along with her parents, just moved from LA to a seemingly animal-free farm they have inherited from her Great-Uncle Jim. The lonely Sophie, seeinga flyer for the Redwood Farm Supply company in the barn and being unable to find them on the Internet, ta...

Susanna Clarke visits the set of the BBC adaptation of her book, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell.

But nothing, I find, has prepared me for the sight of my own characters walking about. A playwright or screenwriter must expect it; a novelist doesnt and naturally concludes that she has gone mad. (What do they need so many umbrellas for? Dont they realise that they are imaginary?)

Susanna Clarke visits the set of the BBC adaptation of her book, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell.