Betsy Bird's Blog, page 311

Press Release Fun – The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter

Friday, June 21, 2013 through Sunday, March 23, 2014

Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Gottesman Exhibition Hall (Map and directions)

New York Public Library

The ABC of It is an examination of why children’s books are important: what and how do they teach children, and what do they reveal about the societies that produced them? Through a dynamic array of objects and activities, the exhibition celebrates the extraordinary richness, artistry, and diversity of children’s literature across cultures and time.

Our first books stir and shape us as few books ever again can. Goodnight Moon! Alice in Wonderland! A Wrinkle in Time! For three centuries and more, books made especially with the young in mind have served as indispensible gateways to literature, art, and knowledge of the world. Viewed historically and across cultures, the sheer number and variety of such volumes is apt to amaze. If, however, as adults we find that our own childhood favorites remain as thrilling or funny or heart-stoppingly beautiful as ever we should not be surprised. As W. H. Auden wisely observed: “There are no good books which are only for children.”

Today’s brightly packaged, increasingly globalized books for young people have complex roots in world folklore, Enlightenment philosophy, nationalist fervor, and the pictorial narrative traditions of Asian and Western art, among other sources. Collectively, they form a vivid record of literate society’s changing hopes and dreams, and of the never-ending challenge of communicating with young readers in the most compelling possible way.

The ABC of It draws on collections across the Library to present the literature for children and teens against a sweeping backdrop of history, the arts, popular culture, and technological change. The books and related objects on view reveal hidden historical contexts and connections and invite second looks and fresh discoveries. They suggest that books for young people have stories to tell us about ourselves, and are rarely as simple as they seem.

Support for The New York Public Library’s Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos Exhibitions Fund, and Jonathan Altman. Additional support for this exhibition has been provided by the Bertha and Isaac Liberman Foundation, Inc., in memory of Ruth and Seymour Klein.

About the curator: Leonard S. Marcus has curated exhibitions on children’s books and their illustration at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, where he is also a founding trustee; New School for Social Research; Vassar College Library; the Boston Athenaeum; Enoch Pratt Free Library; Joslyn Art Museum (Omaha); Katonah Museum of Art; and the Meridian International Center (Washington, DC). His books about children’s literature and the authors and artists who create them include: Show Me a Story!; The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth; Funny Business; Golden Legacy: How Golden Books Won Children’s Hearts, Changed Publishing Forever, and Became an American Icon Along the Way; Minders of Make-Believe; Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon; Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom; A Caldecott Celebration; Side by Side; Pass It Down; Storied City; and The Wand in the Word. His incisive book reviews appeared in every issue of Parenting magazine for 21 years.

Kwanzaa in June: When Holidays Fall Out of Favor

Welcome to mid-June.  That stellar time of year where librarians everywhere try to decide whether or not it’s too early in the season to put on display their five Fourth of July-related picture books (admit it – it’s true).  The way my mind works it logically follows that there’s not better time to start lamenting a strange occurrence that I’ve not seen mentioned much of anywhere.  In short: The (children’s) literary death of the out-of-favor holiday.

A librarian of my acquaintance asked me the other day if I could name a fantastic fictional Kwanzaa picture book published in the last two or three years.  A cursory look at my library collection and certain facts have to be faced.  Aside from Kevin’s Kwanzaa by Lisa Bullard, the number of Kwanzaa books published in the last few years has sunk like a proverbial stone.  There was L’il Rabbit’s Kwanzaa by Donna L. Washington, published in 2010 and Kwanzaa by Sheila Anderson in the same year, but by and large the rush of Kwanzaa books we saw coming out in the 90s has turned from a gush to a trickle.  What gives?

The fact of the matter is that sometimes holidays stand out and are in the public’s favor, and sometimes they lie forgotten.  Consider Three King’s Day.  Here in New York it can be quite the occasion.  Yet aside from a DVD of Dora Celebrates Three Kings Day produced in 2008 (of which we own one single solitary copy) the most recent book in my system is Three Kings Day: A Celebration at Christmastime by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith from 2004.  Unlike Kwanzaa, Three Kings Day never had a massive cultural push, but it’s hard not to wonder if after producing Day of the Dead books some publishers figure they’ve covered their Latino holidays and don’t have to go any further.

Then there are the Muslim holidays.  We’ve actually been seeing a very nice, slow and steady increase in the number of those holiday books each and every year.  Libraries shelve them in their holiday sections though we wait for some of these holidays to be taught in the schools.

Solstice, a time of year that ties in very nicely with the seasons and other Core Curriculum topics, is a time of year we often field many questions about, but if it weren’t for Wendy Pfeffer’s 2010 The Longest Day: Celebrating the Summer Solstice we wouldn’t have almost anything published in the last 3 years.

So what am I trying to say?  I have no idea!  Mostly I’m interested in what makes a holiday hip one year and utterly forgotten another.  Even as Kwanzaa fell out of favor we started seeing an influx of 100th Day of School titles on our shelves.  Are there only so many holidays a school can handle before it’s accused of just partying all the time?  And where do the Jewish holidays fit in all this?  I can’t be the only library in the States that needs more and more Purim books every year.

Food for thought.

Review of the Day: Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo

Flora and Ulysses

By Kate DiCamillo

Illustrated by K.G. Campbell

Candlewick Press

ISBN: 978-0-7636-6742-5

$17.99

Ages 9-12

On shelves September 24th

I like a bit of subtlety with my “meaning”. What I mean by that is that when I pick up a book for kids, it’s tough on me, as a reader, to go through something saturated and imbued with the weight and splendor of meaning on every page. It bogs me down. And, to be frank, this is what makes it so hard for kids to read some of those old classics like Paula Fox’s The Slave Dancer or Johnny Tremain. Meaning, for me, should be a slight subtle thing that is all the more powerful when it comes seemingly out of nowhere. Now if I have learned anything over the years, it’s that DiCamillo has no difficulty retaining child readers. Her fans are legion. And what has always been the most difficult for me about her books is how remarkably meaningful they are (though clearly kids have no difficulty cutting through it like a hot knife through butter). I’ve always much preferred her lighter fare, like the Mercy Watson series or the remarkable Bink & Gollie books. Those titles were for younger readers, of course, so maybe it’s just that I have the retention of an eight-year-old child. But then we come to the lovely Flora and Ulysses. It’s written for the 9-12 year-olds of the world but is much sillier and sweeter than much of what she’s done before. Helped in no small part by K.C. Campbell’s perfectly placed illustrations, Flora and Ulysses does precisely what I always want in a book. It lures you in with the ridiculous and then when you least expect it gets you in the gut with a bolt of pure, uncut, unadulterated meaning. Rare fare.

It all began with a vacuum cleaner. Not just any vacuum cleaner, mind you, but a Ulysses Super-Suction, Multi-Terrain 2000X. One minute Mrs. Tickham is being dragged through her yard by a piece of cleaning equipment that clearly has a mind of its own, and the next she’s vacuumed up a live squirrel. Flora, child cynic and lover of all this comic book related, witnesses the event and when she runs to the squirrel finds that not only is it all right, it is imbued with superpowers. The squirrel, now dubbed Ulysses, is truly an extraordinary creature. It can leap tall buildings with a single bound (and fly!). It has super strength. And best of all, it can write poetry. Flora is convinced that Ulysses is a superhero, and it’s up to her to help him fulfill his destiny and protect him from his nemesis. Trouble is, how do you tell who a true nemesis is? And what if it turns out to be someone close to home?

So the writing is what floats or sinks any children’s book. With that in mind, it was interesting to me to see where this particular book fell on the writing spectrum. To my mind, there is a fine line between the charming and the precious/precocious. There is a whole genre of preternaturally intelligent children in children’s literature (E.L. Konigsburg typified the genre). The trick is figuring out how to balance intelligence with precociousness while remaining something a child would actually want to read. In this book DiCamillo straddles this line with the dexterity of a showman. Her characters may use words like “malfeasance”, “unremitting”, and “capacious” but you don’t resent them for it. Then there are the moments where the words ask more of the reader than your standard middle grade fare. Sentences like, “What good does it do you to read the words of a lie?” Add in the first mention of Rilke I’ve ever seen in a children’s book and you could, potentially, have something intolerable. Instead, the book ends up mighty fine. On beyond merely, tolerable. It’s a delight.

Much of this has to do with the wordplay, of course. Individual sentences can be remarkably funny. Example: “George… we have a problem. Your daughter has become emotionally attached to a diseased squirrel.” Later: “… the torturing of dogs was the one reliable pleasure of a squirrel’s existence.” Full credit must be paid to any book that is actually funny. This book is, and that can be a rare thing in a given year. DiCamillo also appears to be aware of the fact that if you add the word “squirrel” to any sentence, it is instantly funnier. Substitute any other animal (even “dodo”) and the humor is gone. Maybe this is because squirrels are simultaneously ubiquitous and forgotten.

One way of looking at this book is to consider it a paean to comic book lovers everywhere. You wonder then if, at first, DiCamillo felt any inclination to go whole hog and to turn the whole book into a comic. For all that I will defend them unto the high hills, there is something limiting to the form if you’re coming at them from a novelist perspective. I think it was Scott McCloud in Understanding Comics who put it best when he pointed out (and here I’m paraphrasing heavily) that while we consider great literature high art and we consider visual art high art, for some reason putting the two together creates something supposedly lesser. Comics are their own unique beastie, and anytime you meld image with text you are creating a new style of visual learning. As it currently stands, Flora and Ulysses is a creature that would have had more difficulty seeing the light of day in anything but the 21st century. Only in this new publishing era where the stigma of comics has abated if not disappeared altogether

Is it an insult to Mr. Campbell to call him Sophie Blackall-esque? Dunno. I’m not sure what the ethics are in such a case. Whatever he is, Mr. Campbell is a true find. It’s a risk to begin any DiCamillo novel with such a heavy concentration on a book’s art. Yet Campbell is up to the challenge. His Flora is nicely cynical. His Ulysses is absolutely adorable, in spite of his mostly bald state. The comic panels contain the book’s most ridiculous moments while safely couched in a superhero format familiar to so many. Altogether, his contributions make the book more accessible and adorable than it has any right to be.

Separately, DiCamillo and Campbell have created strong works of literature. Together? There’s something undeniably sweet (and not in a saccharine way) at the core. In a way, it all comes down to Ulysses. I can say with certainty that though pigeons have their children’s book mascot in Mo Willems’s ubiquitous character, there has never been a proper squirrel spokescritter. Scaredy Squirrel comes the closest but even he turns out to be a flying squirrel and not your common everyday park denizen. Ulysses may fly but that’s just part of his superhero physique. What both DiCamillo and Campbell have accomplished is an ability to turn your average squirrel’s desires (which, to be frank, are mostly food-based) into something loftier and more touching. Ulysses may crave giant sprinkles, but he also craves poetry and wordplay and affection. If you’ve never wanted to hug a squirrel before, consider those days long gone.

Oh, there will be those that don’t love this book as I do. Who yearn for the deep underlying context of a Tulane or a Despereaux. To them I offer a respectful and heartfelt “Phhhhhhttttttt”. You can have your weighty subject matter all you like. Me? I like a little silliness with my fictional fare. I like my superpowered squirrels and giant donuts and interstitial comic book moments. And I like those moments when depressed dads find happiness and little bald squirrels burrow themselves into the arms of the girls that love them dearly. That, to me, is worth reading. To me, it’s exceptional stuff.

On shelves September 24th.

Source: Galley sent from publisher for review.

Like This? Then Try:

Sidekicks by Dan Santat


Mr. and Mrs. Bunny by Polly Horvath, ill. Sophie Blackall


Donuthead by Sue Stauffacher


Umbrella Summer by Lisa Graff

Fusenews: “There are no good books which are only for children” – W.H. Auden

Morning, fellow plebes!  And isn’t the weather just fine and dandy these last few days?  It has been in New York anyway.  Which is to say, it feels like we briefly stole San Francisco’s temperatures for our own use this week.  Giving it back is going to be awful.  To take my mind off that, here are some links and hits that might be of interest to you and yours.

First and foremost, were you aware that New York Public Library, my good ,sweet, kind, adorable employer, is going to premier a brand new exhibit on Friday, June 21st and that it’s ALL about children’s literature?  Tis true!  Called The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter, the exhibit is curated by the illustrious Leonard Marcus, “The ABC of It draws on collections across the Library to present the literature for children and teens against a sweeping backdrop of history, the arts, popular culture, and technological change.”  In short, it will feature treasures from the NYPL collection, many of which have never seen the light of day before.  And, naturally, Pooh and friends.  I cannot wait!!




While I wouldn’t necessarily agree with all the choices in Flavorwire’s 10 Great Kids Books That Have Never Been Made Into Movies (The Giving Tree?!?!), there are some nice ideas to be found there.  Artemis Fowl not being made before is baffling, The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs writes itself, and though Outside Over There was technically already adapted into Labyrinth (check out the credits of you don’t believe me) there’s always room for more.  Thanks to PW Children’s Bookshelf for the link.


And now here’s a piece that I haven’t seen on PW Children’s Bookshelf but that would probably fit.  Remember Mara Wilson?  I linked to a piece she wrote last year about why she’s no longer acting.  Mara, as a kid, had a habit of showing up in children’s book adaptations.  Few remember that Mrs. Doubtfire was based on a work of children’s literature, but her star turn in Matilda was clearly from a kid’s book.  Now she’s written a piece called 7 Reasons Child Stars Go Crazy: An Insider’s Perspective.  Witty and urbane it does nothing so much as make me wish she had a blog where I could find such pieces on a regular basis.



I can’t help but be a little ashamed to admit that I didn’t know that The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression gives out yearly awards called Muzzles.  These highlight instances where free speech has been restricted.  The awards have been handed out since 1992 and only came to my attention this time around because the 2013 Muzzles feature Amy Timberlake and Adam Rex’s The Dirty Cowboy in the #1 slot.  Very good writing to be found there.  Thanks to AL Direct for the link.


Periodically I like to check in on my favorite new blogs.  I’ve mentioned before Views from the Tesseract, the middle grade science fiction and fantasy blog written by fellow NYPLer Stephanie Whelan.  Well a recent post involved this cover image, which sort of made my week:

There are many reasons to love it, but for me it all comes down to the mustache.  That and the hum-dee-hum-dee-hum attitudes of the critters.  Hat tip to Stephanie for the find.

There’s a character out there that they’re calling “the French Harry Potter” and his name is Oksa?  I’m hooked.  American publication, please!


Things I Do Not Know: The number of children’s museums in the country that take the time to feature children’s literature from time to time.  I just don’t know who they are until it’s almost too late.  Take The Walt Disney Family Museum.  I had no idea such a thing existed, until I heard about its current program Maurice Sendak: 50 Years, 50 Works, 50 Reasons.  It’s only running from May 23 – July 7, so get in while you can (if you happen to have access to the much-mentioned-today San Francisco, that is).


So the upcoming ALA Conference is in two weeks or so (gleep!) and I am having a devil of a time finding an outfit for the Newbery / Caldecott Banquet.  Time is running out and I’m beginning a low ebb of panic.  Maybe it’s all for naught but . . . . gleep.  To take my mind off of my worries I was delighted to discover that inside of ALA this year there is a tiny graphic novel conference called Graphicon.  Check out the roster for it here and be as awed as I.  Ima gonna get me a piece of some of that!  Either that or just enjoy this listing of charming Caldecott celebrations happening hither and thither.


So you thought you knew all the children’s book humor awards out there, eh?  Thought they began and ended with the Roald Dahl prize in England and the Sid Fleischman Award here in the States?  Think again!  Clearly you haven’t met the Denise McCoy Legacy Award.  As the site says, “Established in 2005, the Denise McCoy Legacy Award honors the author of the previous year’s most humorous children’s book as selected by the committee.”  The winners are great and the award top notch.  Thanks to past recipient Tom Angleberger for the link.





Just when I don’t think I can love Jeff Kinney any more he goes and decides to give his town of 6,000 a new bookstore.  As the PW article points out, he’s hardly the first author to go the bookstore route, but he may be one of the few children’s authors to do so.  Louise Erdrich traipses in both the children’s and adult world of lit, after all.  But pure children’s books?  This is the first in my own recent memory.



Daily Image:

The only problem with today’s Daily Image is that now I want to watch this show.  Badly.

Maureen Johnson would like this.  Someone go and tell her about it.  Thanks to Marci for the link!

Press Release: Authors For Catherine’s Sanctuary

 

For Immediate Release

Contact: Bobbie Pyron (435-645-7788, bobbie.pyron@gmail.com)

Authors honor Sandy Hook victim who was an animal advocate with online auction—June 3-16, 2013

Over thirty authors—many of them award winning and New York Times best selling authors—have come together to honor Catherine Violet Hubbard, a little girl with a big dream: to provide a sanctuary for homeless animals. Tragically, that dream was cut short when Catherine was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

Since then, Catherine’s parents and The Animal Center in Newtown have set up a fund to raise money for the Catherine Violet Hubbard Sanctuary. People from around the country have donated to make this little girl’s dream come true.

After reading about Catherine’s dream, author Bobbie Pyron decided to do something to help raise money for Catherine’s sanctuary. “I just wanted something good to come out of this heartbreaking tragedy.” She contacted other authors, most who write for children, and asked if they would donate a signed copy of their book to be auctioned off on line as a fundraiser for Catherine’s sanctuary. 

“I was overwhelmed and humbled by the enthusiastic response! Many of these authors are Newbery Award winners, National Book Award recipients, and New York Times best selling authors,” Pyron says. “Everyone was deeply touched by Catherine’s dream and wanted to be a part of helping her dream come true.”

Starting June 3rd, Pyron will be posting signed copies of books that can be bid on. The auction will end June 16th. “Bids can be submitted on all the books until midnight on the 16th,” she explains. The signed books will be posted on her website at www.bobbiepyron.com/auction as well as details on how the auction works.

Some of the signed books to be auctioned include Sarah, Plain and Tall (Newbery winner), A Dog’s Purpose (NYT best seller), Wonder (NYT best seller), Moon Over Manifest (Newbery winner), Mockingbird (National Book Award winner), Divergent (NYT best seller), and books by Newbery award winners Sharon Creech, Cynthia Lord and Ann M. Martin.

“I love collecting books I’ve had signed by the author,” Pyron says. “But these books would also make great gifts for to the book lover in your life or donations to your local school or public library.”

For more information, please contact Bobbie Pyron at 435-645-7788 or by email: bobbie.pyron@gmail.com

Review of the Day: A Funny Little Bird by Jennifer Yerkes

A Funny Little Bird

By Jennifer Yerkes

Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.)

$15.99

ISBN: 978-1-4022-8013-9

Ages 3-7

On shelves now

When I was a kid I tried to learn how to draw by reading Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. A lot of the book was dedicated to showing your average layman how to draw by concentrating on drawing the negative spaces between the object you wanted to render and its environment. I haven’t thought about that book in a very long time and probably could have continued on my merry way without it, had it not been for my stumbling on A Funny Little Bird by Jennifer Yerkes. A sweet story with a sublimely subtle but infinitely clever premise and ending, this is a tale about adaptation, camouflage, acceptance, pride, and standing out by blending in. It’s a metaphor for introverts and the unsung heroes in our lives. Strange and lovely all at once, here’s one book that turns simplicity into an art.

For you see there once was a funny little bird that seemed to disappear into the background wherever it went. When it was invisible to the eye, it was lonely. When it was noticed, it was teased. One day, in a fit of pique, the bird sets out to find its own path. Along the way it collects all the beautiful things it can find, building itself up, puffing itself up with pride. When a clever fox tries to take advantage of the bird’s new one-of-a-kind look, the bird realizes the advantage of invisibility. It isn’t just that it can hide from dangers. It can help others hide as well. This is a bird with a calling.

The book was an Opera Prima finalist in the Bologna Book Fair Ragazzi Award 2012. Originally published in France as Drole d’oiseau, this is a title that understands the importance of minimalism in children’s literature. In terms of the storyline itself, the trick to Yerkes’s art is in making absence tangible. The bird itself is only suggested by the hint of a wing here, and eye and beak there, and maybe two legs (if it’s walking). The end result is that there can be as much fun in locating the bird as there is in reading its story.

Part of what makes the book so interesting is that it could be read in two entirely opposite ways. On the one hand you could think of it as a conformity tale. The bird isn’t noticed as unique so it gets some awesome feathers in the hope that it won’t be teased or ignored anymore and learns that standing out can make you a target. That’s one way to read the story. The other way is to say that the book is anti-conformity. The bird stands out and then tries to be like all the other birds by grabbing some feathers, only to find that by being near invisible its unique talents give it an edge. Naturally when I think of picture books about fitting in I think (for good or for evil) of Marcus Pfister’s Rainbow Fish. Unlike that book, however, fitting in isn’t the ultimate goal and neither is standing out. Being true to yourself is the storyline here, and as such it’s kind of an anti-Rainbow Fish.

Your standard Ugly Duckling storyline is where a creature locates another of its kind and finds solace that way. Then there are the books where an outsider finds a community of fellow outsiders. But what makes A Funny Little Bird so unique, in a way, is that it doesn’t follow any of these set formulas. If our hero finds peace of mind it’s by single-handedly coming to a kind of peace within himself. He doesn’t rely on others to give him that approbation or acceptance. Maybe that’s why I like this so much more than your average rebel picture book fare. It actually contains fairly practical advice for living in the world. Use the strengths you have, even if they seemingly put you at a disadvantage.

As a child, I strived to attain invisibility. I did everything within my power to hide myself from the eyes of my peers, often with remarkable success. Happily, I don’t feel I really missed out on much as a result. But in my younger days, it might have been nice to read about a creature that could successfully blend in with its surroundings. Maybe I would have found a kindred spirit of some kind. At the very least I would have found a book worth owning and loving. Justifiably a hit overseas, one can hope that A Funny Little Bird will find its own audience of shrinking violets here in the States. Beautiful with a wit of its own, Yerkes shows that you don’t have to be flashy to be remarkable.

On shelves now.

Source: Final copy sent from publisher for review.

Like This? Then Try:

Blue Chameleon by Emily Gravett


Looking for Henry by Elaine Livermore


I Am So Handsome by Mario Ramos

Blog Reviews:

Teach Mentor Texts
Wrapped in Foil
Candace’s Book Blog
Cozy Little Book Journal

Professional Reviews:

A star from Kirkus
Publishers Weekly

Other Reviews: Shelf Awareness

Misc: Download the activity kit here.

A Mexican Conundrum

The other day I sat down with one Karen Coeman to discuss the state of Mexican children’s books today.  Working as she does in Mexico with the hope of bringing more Mexican titles to American shores, she filled me in on a lot of the difficulties facing Mexican books for kids.  Between the difficulty of distribution (there aren’t as many bookstores in Mexico as there are in the States), problems with purchasing materials for libraries, and the fact that few publishers in America have taken it upon themselves to seek out Mexican fare for our kids on this side of the border, the pickings are slim.

It seems to me that a strong push to acquire and capitalize on Mexican children’s literature could only be a good thing at this point in time.  The bulk of Spanish language imports we see in the States on a regular basis comes from Spain.  All well and good, but considering the number of Spanish-speaking Americans from Spain versus Mexico, it would be quite lovely if we had more materials representing our neighbor to the south.

Then comes the question of reaching kids here.  There’s a general feeling out there that when immigrants come from countries where English is not the first language, the parents will push their kids to learn the language of their new country and eschew the old.  That may well be, but given subsequent generations, often the kids and grandkids will want to reconnect to their parents’ and grandparents’ homeland. None of this is to say that we don’t still need new ways of reaching out to Latino readers.  However, there are ways to find them and ways to find them.

Add into all of this the rise of interest in the Latino population.  Between the most recent presidential election and the recent New York Times article about the dearth of Latino characters in children’s literature, the subject is hot and yet the answers not exactly forthcoming.

I’m not saying I have any answers.  I just raise the issue and wonder if an increase in imports from Mexican authors and illustrators above and beyond the delightful Yuyi Morales and Francisco X. Stork (there are many others you could name here, if you like) couldn’t be a step in the right direction.

Thoughts?  Corrections?  Fancies?

Press Release Fun: The 2013 Kerlan Award Lecture & Luncheon

You always know when I’ve been to a conference.  That’s when the Press Releases start building up.  Today’s actually came out of running into Lisa von Drasek at BEA, who informed me that this killer presentation in Minnesota should be better known to one and all.  So if you are anywhere in or near the St. Paul area, you’ve got a heckuva cool program at your fingertips for free (barring lunch, of course).

“I think of myself as an enormously lucky person,” says Kate DiCamillo. “I get to tell stories for a living.”Tickets are still available for the 2013 Kerlan Award Lecture & Luncheon with winner Kate DiCamillo at the Elmer L. Andersen Library.

The award presentation and speech by DiCamillo will begin at 10:00 a.m. in room 25 of Mondale Hall and is free and open to the public but requires advance registration by June 3rd. Registration is now open online to reserve a seat for the event.

The ceremony will be followed by a noon luncheon (cost: $30; $20 for Kerlan Friends) in Elmer L. Andersen Library. Registration for the luncheon is now available online, the deadline to register for the luncheon is June 3rd.

Press Release Fun: Save a Library, Save the World

The sheer number of school libraries in desperate need of funding are vast and without measure.  That said, there’s a special place in my heart for PS 363 here in NYC.  See below for Marjorie Ingall’s plea.  For more information check out the full funding site here.

I wanted to give you guys a heads-up on the latest attempt to save our farshtunkiner Neighborhood School library.  You may recall that last year we did a crazed fundraising effort, with lots of East Village businesses helping out, and we raised enough for this year. but in the wake of Hurricane Sandy we didn’t want to noodge the EV again this year. AND YET we still need $40K for next year if we want to keep our library. 

So one of our initiatives for this year is a children’s book art auction . . . . so far we have donations of original paintings/prints/signed books from Maira Kalman, Paul O. Zelinsky, Mo Willems, Alexandra Boiger, Jaime Zollars, Janet Pedersen, Javaka Steptoe, Maggie Smith, Nancy Carpenter, Betsy and Ted Lewin, Raina Telgemeier, Beth Krommes, Emily Arnold McCully, David Milgrim, Beth Krommes, Greg Pizzoli and a bunch more. i think we’ll end up with 40 or so pieces.

Auction opens June 10, Sendak’s B-day. Our coming-soon page is here: http://www.biddingforgood.org/saveourlibrary

We also have a new really wonderful short video done by some creative parents, featuring our librarian reading  A Tale Dark and Grimm and a message about why a library is so important to a school community. The video is really objectively good.

Fusenews: C is for Calligraphy. That’s Good Enough for Me.

Allo!  BEA is now in full swing and always assuming I wasn’t crushed to death by today’s Family Feud game (it’s librarians vs. authors and I’m on Family Librarian) I’ll hopefully be seeing at least some of you on the conference floor in the next day or so.  In the meantime, take a look at these tasty treats.

So the new kids in town are playing with a website called Zoobean.  When librarian Sarah Goebel asked me about it I told her I hadn’t heard of them.  Turns out, that wasn’t entirely true.  I’d heard something about them before but had disregarded them due to an unfortunate labeling snafu.  Somebody apparently decided early on that they should be called “The Netflix for kids’ books” which could not be more misleading.  When I think of Netflix I think of renting lots of movies at my own convenience.  Apparently some folks (few) think that Netflix is best equated with recommendations.  Hardy har har.  In any case, that’s what Zoobean is.  TechCrunch and Swiss Miss both profiled it and I’ve been watching the site with interest.  Certainly this is the kind of work librarians do on a regular basis, but I also believe you can’t have enough helpful tools in this world.  If this helps librarians do their jobs as a kind of supplement, so be it.  In the meantime, it’s still in the early Beta stages and is not without its kinks.  You might find a book tagged incorrectly here and there, but generally it’s a better looking site than a lot of similar places I’ve seen crop up and disappear over the years.  One to keep an eye on, in any case.


It’s always very satisfying when a publisher blog comes out with a really good post.  Consider then this piece by Gina Gagliano at the First Second blog confronting the very idea of review copies and what a blogger “owes” a publisher. Thanks to Sarah Stevenson for the link.


I confess that though I read Minders of Make Believe by Leonard Marcus, I’d never really considered what the first picture book really was.  Now I know.  Thanks to Marjorie Ingall for the link.

Common Core.  You can’t escape it. You may not even want to when you hear about this new venture: Common Core IRL: In Real Libraries.  Basically, this is what you get when your favorite bloggers come together over a common cause.  Join Alyson Beecher, district literacy specialist at Kid Lit Frenzy, Louise Capizzo, children’s librarian at The Nonfiction Detectives, Travis Jonker, school librarian from 100 Scope Notes, Cathy Potter, school librarian at The Nonfiction Detectives, and Mary Ann Scheuer, school librarian at Great Kid Books as they tackle the big questions.  See more information on the project here.

The Y.A. for Grown-ups blog at The Atlantic Wire traversed into younger territory recently when they profiled the recent Sophie Blackall package posting on this blog.  I am happy to report too that a winner of the contest was found.  To find out who it was, I suggest you consult with this piece.


Anytime Alison Morris chooses to return to ShelfTalker it is cause enough for celebration.  And if she happens to be writing pieces like How to Go to Greece and Have Your Own Odyssey?  That’s just a bonus.  Get ready to sop up some drool over the scenery and enjoy Alison’s killer descriptions.  To whet your whistle, here is an image of particular note:

As Alison calls it, “The Omphalos at Delphi, or the rock eaten by Cronos, who believed it was his infant son Zeus.”  I had no idea they had the actual rock.  The display of it cracks me up.

In other news, there is still space available at the Highlights Foundation’s Writing Fiction for Children and Young Adults workshop happening June 16-22.  It has a stellar line-up (Patti Lee Gauch, Kathryn Erskine, Rich Wallace, Janet Taylor Lisle, and more!) and it’s located in a truly beautiful part of the country.  I’ve been lucky enough to visit twice.  Always a treat.


Good old First Book.  While I sit here and kvetch over the dearth of African-American boys in 2013′s middle grade fiction, they actually go out and do something about it.  As I was recently told, “We’ve been doing our best to address the dearth of young black male protagonists (and other under-represented characters and voices) through something we call the  Stories for All Project .  One of the first things we did was to solicit proposals from the publishing industry and awarding 500K purchase orders to the publishers who offered us the best range of diverse titles.  We selected HarperCollins and Lee and Low, and sent a strong message to the industry at large that we serve a market that is not being served in the general marketplace and that is hungry for this content.  You can read more about it here and we are carrying a series of blog posts on some of the authors whose books we are now carrying as well.  Admittedly, this does not “fix” the problem you so astutely identify, but we feel it is related because we are championing the need for all kids to see themselves in books as well as to learn about cultures and characters beyond their experiences through books.”

Well done, guys.  Well done.

Look out, everyone!  There’s a new award in town and it’s a kids choice award for comics and graphic novels!  Called the KCR! Comics Awards the nominees are fantastic (unlike the lamentable Eisner Award nominees in the youth category).  Kids have until June 23rd to vote, so get crackin’!!


Daily Image:

Because it makes me happy.

Inordinately happy.  Thanks to Cynthia von Buhler for the image.