Monica Edinger's Blog, page 40

Africa is My Home: My Visit to the Capitol City Public Charter School

During my time in DC for the Children’s Africana Book Award I was honored with an invitation to speak to the CapitolCity Public Charter Schoolfourth graders about Africa is My Homeby AnOpen Book Foundation, a fabulous organization that describes themselves thus:

Founded by Dara La Porte and Heidi Powell, An Open Book Children’s Literacy Foundation was created to promote literacy among disadvantaged children and teens in the greater Washington, D.C. area by giving schools and students book and...

All Lives Matter

“The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that’s wrong with the world.”

—DR. PAUL FARMER, Chief Strategist & Co-founder, Partners in Health

Ebola was on the US media radar whena tiny number of people came to this country with the illness. There were government officials saying that anyone who had been anywhere near the affected countries would be quarantined. Fear-mongering was rampant here and not a whole lot of compassion. And whenthose sick individuals either recovered or died...

Africa is My Home: 3 Reasons why children’s books about Africa matter

Monica Edinger, author of “Africa is My Home, A Child of the Amistad,” is a former Peace Corps volunteer who began writing children’s books during Sierra Leone’s Civil War. “Sierra Leone and its people were being represented in the media in this really horrendous way,” Edinger said.

She felt it was important to share stories that showed there was more to Sierra Leone than conflict. “Real stories, about real people, make a big difference. But unfortunately that isn’t the standard narrative in c...

NCTE

I had a terrific time at NCTE. It was the third of four trips for me this November. First was DC for the Children’s Africana Book Awards followed byFILIJ in Mexico. The final one starts tonight when I head to Rome, Italy for Thanksgiving. (Unlike the others, this is for pure personal pleasure.) But back to NCTE. I arrived Friday evening in time to take a quick jaunt around the exhibits before heading off to a dinner. The National Harbor Gaylord Resort had the requisite light show, but it didn...

Give Your Teddy Bear a Treat

I’ve been following the activities ofOxford’s Story Museumever since Philip Pullman took me to see it a few years ago. Now I see that like many other museums they periodically offerweekendsleepovers, but theirs are unique in being fortoys not people. Their latest teddy bearsleepover will be the weekend ofDecember 6th. If you are in the vicinity (and I’m sadly not) and have an eager teddy bear (along with itshuman companion who will have to drop off and pick up, of course) the details are here...

NCTE

I’m off to NCTE later today andwill be presenting tomorrowwith Peter Sis and Susannah Richards on “CROSSING THE LINE: STORYTELLING THAT INTEGRATES FACTS AND ARTIFACTS” at 4:15 at theGaylord National Resort, National Harbor 13. There will be pictures, information, chatter, and fun — I’m sure. Still not so sure? Here’sthe official annotation:

Grappling with texts is a healthy and productive way to satisfy many of the Common Core standards for reading and writing. Authors find stories in history...

For Alice Obsessives

(Thanks to Michael Patrick Hearn)

Learning About Africa: Ebola and Everyone

I want to live in a country that understands Ebola. I want to live in a world that cares about those dying from this terrible disease in West Africa. Nobody should’ve had to watch me ride my bicycle out in the open as politicians fed the public false fears and misinformation. I want to live in an America that reaches out to aid workers as they return from West Africa and says, “We loved and stood by you when you were fighting this disease. We will love and stand by you now.”

Me too. From Kaci...

FILIJ: Mexico’s International Children’s Book Festival

I am just back from participating in FILIJ, Mexico’sInternational Fair of Children and Youth Book and I am just floored by the experience. Run byConaculta, Mexico’s governmental agency for the arts, it is BEA, ALA, NCTE, and the National Book Festival all in one glorious ten day eventwith over300,000 people attending. You can get a taste in this photo gallery. They (this is translated by google so is probably not too great)wish:

to encourage the habit of reading among children and young people...

A Bit More about the BBC Forthcoming Adaptation of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

How would you sum up the show for viewers who are unfamiliar with the novel?

“It’s like a Jane Austen period drama but with magic and amazing special effects. It’s set at the time of the Napoleonic wars, in a version of England where magic once existed, long ago, but has since died out.

“Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is the story of how magic returns to England, and the two magicians that bring it back. And what goes wrong.”

From this interview with the writer of the forthcoming BBC adaptation...