Monica Edinger's Blog, page 79
June 21, 2012
More Regarding Maurice Sendak
Only a few people have been both great writers and great illustrators of children’s books. In the nineteenth century there was Edward Lear, and in the twentieth Dr. Seuss and—perhaps the most gifted of them all—Maurice Sendak, who died in May at the age of eighty-three.
Alison Lurie is her usual perceptive self in “Something Out of Almost Nothing” at the NYRB.
And then here is a reading of Where the Wild Things Are that I hadn’t seen recently (say since the episode originally ran, to be honest)...
June 19, 2012
In the Classroom: Why I Teach
School ended last week. Now I’m what tends to be termed a “veteran” classroom teacher. That is, I’ve been in the classroom since the mid 1970s. Many years. Decades in fact. Happily, unlike many of my generation, I’m not the slightest bit burnt out. I still love teaching. I love classroom teaching. I love spending a year with a group of children, helping them grow and learn, inspiring them and having them inspire me.
This is no doubt partly because I teach at a private school not under the yoke...
June 17, 2012
Thinking of My Father
Reblogged from educating alice:
My father, who passed away three years ago, continues to be a major inspiration for me. In honor of him and the day here is a post from a few years back that captures a tiny bit of what he was all about.
Born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1922, my fatherLewis J. Edingerfled with his mother to America at the age of fourteen; his father chose to stay, hoping to ride things out, but was deported and killed.
On Father's Day I think of mine...
June 15, 2012
Screenwriter Geoff Rodkey on his New Children’s Book, Deadweather and Sunrise
Writing a children’s book seems to be a popular endeavor among those better known in other areas. Models, iconic musical comedy performers, television stars, and comics have all taken a stab at it with varying results. Now along comes screenwriter (of Daddy Day Careamong others)Geoff Rodkeywith his first book for young readers,Deadweather and Sunrise,the first volume in the Chronicles of EGG. Admittedly skeptical of yet another Harry Potteresque series, I ended up enjoying it tremendouslyas h...
June 13, 2012
Maurice Sendak Memorial
Yesterday I was honored and humbled to attend the Maurice Sendak Memorial at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. First of all, I loved that it was at the Met. As one speaker noted, there was something lovely about the big Ms everywhere, for us they were for Maurice the artist as much as for the museum. For one of many epiphanies I had listening to the wonderful speakers, music, and seeing the art was that Maurice Sendak was not only a seminal person in the world of books for children, but was one...
June 10, 2012
Vaunda Micheaux Nelson's No Crystal Stair
Reblogged from educating alice:
I’m a fan of boundary crossings, those books that don’t sit neatly in one genre. Say Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck with their mix of textual and visual storytelling or Deborah Wiles’ Countdown with the atmospheric setting heightened through the use of documentary material. Now along comes another hybrid, Vaunda Micheaux Nelson’s superbNo Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller…...
June 7, 2012
Natasha Trethewey in My Classroom
Natasha Trethewey was my school’s artist-in-residence in 2007 and so I am absolutely delighted that the 19th US Poet Laureate. I can’t imagine a better choice. Congratulations, Natasha!
Here’s a slightly updated version ofwhat I wrote about her work with my students that year:
On Wednesday my class had a truly magical hour with poetNatasha Tretheweywho is at our school this year as a visiting artist. Aware of Natasha’s interest in history and primary source documents, I...
June 5, 2012
SLJ’s Day of Dialogue
Yesterday I attended School Library Journal’s Day of Dialog, a day-long Book Expo pre-conference. It was outstanding. My thanks and congratulations to all involved especially SLJ’s uber-organizer Luann Toth. Below is a brief recap of the day. You can also get a sense of it by checking out tweets from me and many others who attended here.
First up was keynote speaker and our current National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, the one and only Walter Dean Myers who spoke as passionately a...
June 4, 2012
Lemony Snicket’s Childhood…
as he tells it in a new series out this fall. I’m hoping to perhaps snag a copy of the first volume, “Who Could That Be at This Hour?” this week at BEA, but if not I will have to be satisfied* with the first chapter which you can read this week over at the Guardian.
*Actually I’m not. Satisfied that is. The first chapter takes off with a bang and I want to read more. Now.
June 1, 2012
A Singing and Dancing Charlie Headed to Broadway
A musical on Chaplin now heading for Broadway originated a the La Jolla Playhouse as “Limelight.” I have to admit I was put off by that title as Chaplin’s film of the same name is one about the decline of a clown in late life. They’ve just announced that a veteran of other musicals, Rob McClure will be playing the title role which he originated at La Jolla. Here’s a video from that production. (I have to say that it is a bit strange to see an iconic silent character singing and talking!)
...
