Monica Edinger's Blog, page 48

Spring Lewis Carroll Society of North America Meeting

It is certainly no secret that I am a fan of Lewis Carroll. And so one of the fun things for a Carroll fan is to attend the occasional meeting of one of the literary societies focused on him. I’ve been to several hosted by the UK, US, and Canadian organizations, the most recent being the Lewis Carroll Society of North America‘s meeting in NYC this past Saturday.

Now the meetings can be quite varied, often reflecting the locale, the president’s preferences, and more. For instance, I’ve never be...

Africa is My Home: Interview with Deborah Kalb

I had fun doing an interview with Deborah Kalb and it is now on her blog here.

Laurie Anderson and Rebecca Stead Together With Others at the Met?

SPARK: A New Conversation Series

Laurie Anderson,performance artist

Melanie Holcomb,curator in the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, MMA

Rebecca Stead,author

SeungJung Kim,art historian, professor at the University of Toronto

We think we can measure time only in minutes and seconds, but artists and musicians can also play with, stretch, and compress it. Our awareness of the expanse of human time is shattered by our understanding of geologic time and the age of the stars.In this program...

More About Endings, Ambiguous and Others

Endings have always been my Everest. Or, really, if writing a novel is like climbing Everest, then my tendency is to get within eyeshot of the summit and say, “Well, that’s far enough.” In the seventh grade my English teacher had only one rule: Our stories couldn’t end with it all turning out to be a dream. Thanks to me, this rule soon expanded to include everyone dying in a bus crash, an asteroid hitting Earth, etc., etc.

I just finished reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to my 4th grad...

Star Wars, Spiderwick, Wonder, A Tale Dark and Grimm, and Orgami Yoda Together?

Yes indeed. Adam Gidwitz had for some time been hinting to me about abig secret project. At one point I thought it was a video game…but now I have learnedjust what it is and it is indeed big. And wild. Adam and three other big name children’s book writers will be writing brand new retellings (Adam is indeed perfect for that!)tied to the first three Star Wars movies. They are indeed arguably as awesome as those grim Grimm fairy tales. Joining Adam are Wonder‘s R. J. Palacio, Orgami Yoda‘s Tom...

Albert Marrin’s A Volcano Beneath the Snow: John Brown’s War Against Slavery

I confess, untilrecentlywhat I knew about John Brown was pretty much limited to a vague awareness of hisfoolhardy attack on Harper’s Ferry. Then, lastsummer, I read this review of James McBride’s historical novel about Brown,Good Lord Bird, listened to it, thought it terrific, and was very pleased when it won the National Book Award. And so, havingBrown much more on my radar, when I first sawAlbert Marrin’s nonfictionbook A Volcano Beneath the Snow: John Brown’s War Against SlaveryI was eager...

Ah, those fairies, they do seem to like to be photographed

I’ve long been besotted with the story of the Cottingley fairies (those that two little girls supposedly photographed quite a while ago, one of which is above). So, of course, was amused to see the most recent photographs of those little beings. This time it is the Rossendale fairies as photographed by adult college lecturer John Hyatt. (One of his photographs is below).

While I don’t think I’m particularly fluffy-headed about fairies and such, I admit this lacks the magic of the Cottingley st...

26 Characters at Oxford’s Story Museum

In Oxford, England, there isa unique museum blending art, performance, telling, viewing, and pretty much everything else story-related in imaginative ways. This is the Story Museum. Here’s a bit frommy post reportingmy visit there a couple of years ago:

Yesterday, Philip Pullman who is, unsurprisingly, one of their patrons took me to the museum where we got a fascinating tour with co-director Kim Pickin. The physical spaceis a remarkable warren of rooms of all sizes with a fascinating history...

Deborah Wiles’ Revolution

Deborah Wiles’ Sixties Trilogy is set in the time of hers (and my) youth. Thefirst book,Countdown, is a vivid, compelling, and movingview of theCuban Missile Crisis seen through the eyes of eleven-year-old Franny and was, I thought,splendidcausing me to wait on tenterhooks for the next one. When I saw that the second bookwas coming out this year I was both elated and nervous. CouldWiles pull it off again?

Here’s my tweet after reading it:

Monica Edinger‏@medingerMar 31I spent most of the weeken...

In the Classroom: A New Teaching Tool

TeachingBooks.nethas just announced a new app, Author Morph, that works on a wide variety of platforms used in classrooms. With it you can really get insight as to what it is like to be in an illustrator’s studio by….going right to one! For real! Cool, right?You can learn more about it here: