Monica Edinger's Blog, page 80

Ellen Levine and Leo Dillon

It has been a tough few weeks. In addition to the loss of so many bright lights of the children’s literature world, acolleague who came to my school the same year I did, passed away yesterday after a very brief illness.

I was fortunate enough to have met Ellen Levine several times as we both lived in New York City and our paths would occasionally cross at children’s literature events. But I knew her work long before that as so many books of hers are staples in my 4th grade classroom. Favorites...

The World of Children’s Literature Has Just Lost Another Great One, Peter D. Sieruta

The Internet is many things, one of the best being the way we can get to know people virtually, people who may be far from us in physically, but close to us in terms of interests and ideas. I’ve gotten to know many wonderful people this way, one of them theincomparable Peter D. Sieruta who passed away yesterday far too soon. I remember first coming across Peter via some witty articles in the Horn Book Magazine, perhaps his 2005 piece, “10 Things that Piss Me Off!” in which he nailed many stil...

Interview with Elizabeth Wein

I’ve an interview with Elizabeth Wein, author of the spectacular Code Name Verity, over at the Huffington Post today.

Craft and Commas

I admit that commas flummox me. They feel unduly fussy to me and so when in doubt I leave them out which is probably not a great strategy. And so I’m always interested in anything that can help me use them more effectively, say these posts by English prof Ben Yagoda over at the New York Times’s Draft blog: “Fanfare for the Comma Man*” and “The Most Common Comma Mistakes.”

* Love the correction for this post: “An earlier version of this article misstated the length of time E.B. White wrote for...

The Irma Black Award

Last Thursday I was checking my various social media sites as I’m wont to do at this hour (early morn) when I came across Bank Street Collegeuber librarianLisa von Drasekexpressing her excitement for that morning’s Irma Black Awardceremony. Despite living nearby I’d never attendedbecause I was always in school, but I happened to be home that morning getting ready for a journey out-of-town and realized with much delight that I could go at last. It was a lovely ceremony and I realized just what...

Michael Patrick Hearn on Maurice Sendak

It was at one of the wonderfulChildren’s Literature New England conferencesthat I sawGregory Maguire in conversation with Maurice Sendak, someone who had been so incredibly important to me growing up as a reader (my iconic Sendak childhood works are the Little Bear books), as an aspiring children’s book illustrator (I studied and studied his masterful use of crosshatching), and as a lifelong member of this world of children and their literature (I followed all his work and commentary and lear...

Debut Children’s Book Author Stephen Colbert’s Book Signing

Even the most famous artists and writers have to cope with those who shamelessly demand that they weigh in on their own feeble creative efforts. Say the late great Maurice Sendak who, this past January in a wonderful two-part interview (available here and here), said of Stephen Colbert’s attempt to write a children’s book, I Am A Pole (And So Can You!),”The sad thing is, I like it.”

It being Stephen Colbert, the book was snapped up by a publisher (no doubt causing much envy among those still t...

Chaplin Broadway Bound

Tramp bio-tuner “Chaplin” has lined up its Broadway theater and dates, skedding a Gotham stint that opens in September at the Barrymore Theater.

Formerly titled “Becoming Chaplin,” the musical about the life of silent film star Charlie Chaplin has songs by Christopher Curtis and book by Thomas Meehan (“Hairspray,” “The Producers”). Show world preemed at La Jolla Playhouse in a 2010 staging, when the musical was called “Limelight.”

FromVariety.

I have read about this before and will hold my opini...

Chaplin Admirers in India

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After an excruciatingly long 15-hour journey from Mumbai, I stepped out of the car outside Adipur train station and found two children waiting to welcome me with flowers. Both were wearing bowler hats and had t-shirts depicting the silent film star Charlie Chaplin. Of course, I was yet to meet the town’s biggest Chaplin fan.

The image and quote are from Danish Siddiqui’sCharlie’s Angel, a charming story about a Chaplin admirer in rural India and how he managed to engaged everyone around him.

An...

In the Classroom: Making Old Movie Associations

This week we will be filming our Charlie Chaplin parody (did this for the first time last year) after a year-long study and also finish watching Chaplin’s final Little Tramp film, “Modern Times.” As we started it last week I was delighted when the kids immediately referenced “I Love Lucy” because it means they are watching other older videos. For those who don’t know them or just want to see them again, here are the two sequences:

Charlie on the assembly line in Modern Times.

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Lucy and Ethel on...