Monica Edinger's Blog, page 88

Interview with the Sagacious and Talented Atinuke

Many of you may have seen this already, but in case you haven't here is Ed Spicer's fantastic interview with Atinuke, author of two wonderful series set in Africa — Anna Hibiscus (my review here) and The No I Car Spotter.  (Thanks to Betsy for reminding me.)

In the Classroom: Immigrant Family Stories

Thanks to Rasco From Rif , Jen Robinson's Book Page, and Family Bookshelf in their latest Children's Literacy and Reading News for pointing me to Dan Yaccarino's new blog where he asks for family stories building on the one he told so beautifully in All the Way to America: The Story of a Big Italian Family and a Little Shovel.  My fourth grade curriculum is immigration and in the fall we do a BIG oral history project where the children interview family members, friends, or others around them ...

Thought on Newbery: Third Person Omniscient Narration

I'm fascinated by strong narration in books, especially narrators that are characters. I'm not talking first person narration, but the sort known as third person omniscient narration. The sort Philip Pullman thinks of as a unique part of the narrative.  Here's a quote from his website:

No. I write almost always in the third person, and I don't think the narrator is male or female anyway. They're both, and young and old, and wise and silly, and sceptical and credulous, and innocent and...

My Impressions of Hugo

Last year I began my year-long study of Charlie Chaplin by reading aloud to my fourth grade class Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret. I  wasn't sure what it would be like reading aloud a story that depended on so many pages of pure art, but it worked out beautifully.

I wondered even more how Martin Scorsese would manage to pay honor to such a special sort of storytelling and last night I got my answer. Scholastic most kindly invited me to a screening and I can assure you:  Hugo is a...

The Exquisite Conversation: An Adventure in Creating Books!

For those in the Boston area, this looks fantastic!

The National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance, along with the Cambridge Public Library and MIT, are sponsoring The Exquisite Conversation: An Adventure in Creating Books! with Katherine Paterson, MT Anderson, Natalie Babbitt, Susan Cooper, Timothy Basil Ering, Steven Kellogg, Patricia MacLachlan and James Ransome at MIT's Kresge Auditorium,  Dec 3, at 1 p.m.  After the presentation, NCBLA is hosting a fundraiser at the Student...

Historical Fiction Featuring Real People

The Heavy Medal discussion here and here involving Jefferson's Sons has me wondering if one of the complicating factors is that all the book's main characters were real people, a number of them highly familiar to us adult readers. (Given the lack of history instruction these days in elementary schools I can't say they would be particularly familiar to child readers, I'm afraid.)  I'm always jittery when reading historical fiction or viewing films about real people. I suspect it comes from my ...

A Great New Kids' Book on the Creation of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloons

Just in time for the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade comes Melissa Sweet's new picture book biography, Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade. That puppeteer is none other than Tony Sarg, a remarkable man indeed. Author/Illustrator Melissa Sweet has done a bang-up job focusing in on the man, directing young readers toward the activities that led him to his epiphany — why not float creature balloons over the parade? Why not indeed?

Sarg being a unique...

Thoughts on Newbery: Historical Fiction, Slavery, and Didacticism

I've been teaching a unit on the forced immigration of Africans during the time of the transatlantic slave trade for many years and can say that it is definitely the hardest topic I teach and, for many of my 4th grade students, the hardest for them to learn.  The idea that living people took other living people in bondage, treated them as less-than-human, kidnapped young children from their families without a thought, were complicit in acts of murder and violence, and more is very hard for...

New York Times Special Section on Children's Books

This weekend's New York Times has a completely glorious collection of children's book reviews and art. There's a slide show of the already-announced best illustrated picture books of the year (and may I say — I'm delighted with the choices!). Betsy Bird is on hand with reviews of a couple of intriguing NYC mysteries, fellow-NYC-private-school-faculty-member Jennifer Hubert Swan makes her debut with a smashing review of The Scorpio Races, and yay to Lisa Brown also I believe (correct me if...

This Saturday: Fall Meeting of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America

This coming Saturday, November 12th, the Lewis Carroll Society of North American will be having its fall meeting at the New York Institute of Technology. And guess what — the Saturday events are free and open to the public! From the society's website here is an overview of the day (the complete agenda is available here):

Speakers include Morton Cohen on Carroll's epiphanies; Adriana Peliano, founder of the Lewis Carroll Society of Brazil, on the metamorphosis of Alice in illustrations and...