Monica Edinger's Blog, page 5

Bookfest at Bank Street this October

There is no better way to get some autumn inspiration than attending Bank Street College’s annual Bookfest. On Saturday, October 20th, it is full of wonderful speakers, panels, and discussions.

The Center for Children’s Literature at Bank Street College is thrilled to announce the program for the 47th annual BookFest!  This will be BookFest’s 9th year at Bank Street.  Our keynote speaker will be the delightful and humorous Newbery Honor winner, Adam Gidwitz, author of The Inquisitor’s Tale: O...

Jack Gantos’s The Dented Head of Joey Pigza

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Just discovered this among Audibles’ new releases and will be listening to it on my way to work today. Can’t wait!

Here’s the description:

Joey Pigza wants to win! In this audio-only adventure, Jack Gantos’s beloved hero races back into kids’ hearts with a tale about running, perseverance, and life’s inevitable crashes.

Despite his beat-up old shoes and struggles with ADHD, Joey won’t let anything hold him back – after all, he’s the lightning-fast champion of schoolyard races. But when a h...

My Latest New York Times Reviews — Picture Books on Refugees and Migrants

Whether they are nostalgic reveries of those who came long ago to this nation of immigrants, or the brutal nightmares of worldwide millions fleeing war, violence and persecution today, memories of migration matter. Telling these stories seems more important than ever — even, and some might say especially, to children. A wave of picture books has arrived to help with this difficult task.

I had the great privilege to review six timely migration-centered picture books for the New York Times, Ple...

Eggers and Harris’ What Can a Citizen Do?

Here’s a delightful  trailer for Dave Eggers and Shawn Harris’ What Can a Citizen Do? forthcoming from Chronicle.

 

 

Teaching and Learning About Slavery: The Royall House and Slave Quarters

I recently visited the Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford, MA, an important site on enslavement in the north during the Revolutionary War period. In addition to the well-done tour, I was impress with the evolution of the site from one focused on the family and house to one emphasizing the role and significance of the enslaved who made it all possible. You can read about that in this article.  As is true for so many families and institutions in the north and overseas, wealth was gained...

Coming Soon: Kekla Magoon’s The Season of Styx Malone

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This book. Oh, this book. How much do I love you?

The Season of Styx Malone is not out for a couple of months yet, but I just had to write something so that you all get it on your radar. I knew Kekla Magoon from her other work,  say such hard hitting urban YA works as How It Went Down, a delightful futuristic reworking of Robin Hood, and X: A Novel, her collaboration with  Illyasah Shabazz which I adored, adored, adored.  And now this — one of the most delightful middle grade books I have re...

Sengbe Pieh (AKA Cinque) celebrated in Sierra Leone

This is so cool. When I was in Sierra Leone in the 1970s no one knew about the Amistad story. That has now changed and I saw mentions when I was there several years ago. Now there is this: a portrait of Sengbe Pieh (known as Cinque in the US) on the left side of the Big Market in Freetown, painted by Alusine Bangura. Thanks, Gary Schulze, for the photo.

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How To Do a Beloved Classic Today: Anne with an E, Season 2

Thanks to Ebony Elizabeth Thomas‘ smart and enthusiastic tweets for  Anne with an E, Season 2  I moved it up in my to-view pile. Now I’ve finished it and agree with Ebony wholeheartedly. This, to my mind, is a great model on how to expand, consider, interrogate, and so forth a beloved classic.

For those who aren’t aware, “Anne with an E” is a Netflix series based on L. M. Montgomery’s beloved book series Anne of Green Gables. I first read them a few decades ago when the books were popular amo...

Looking Back on 2018 Books

Literature, whether for adults or young readers, often reflects its time. Each year at awards time, along with such perennial debates as popularity versus literary quality, subjectivity, and age appropriateness, critics often focus on thematic treatments that are on the general public’s minds. Recent times have been challenging for many, with societal concerns such as human rights, gender issues, racism, gun violence, civil rights, and equity dominating our national conversation. Notable in 2...

Gail Herman’s What Was the Holocaust?

My fourth grade students are big fans of the Who Was? book series. Strong readers, by and large, they can gulp one down in a day. I haven’t read many of them, just those that feature outliers of particular interest to me, say  Who Was Charlie Chaplin? by Patricia Brennan Demuth and Who Was Lewis Carroll? by Pam Pollack and Meg Belviso. While I was dubious that it would be possible to present these complicated men in such a format, I found both titles to be solidly researched, informative, and...