Thursday, July 24, 2014

Tales from the Library: Raina Reigns!

It's easy to tell what authors are popular in the Children's Room at our Library. Just look at the multiple -- and dog-eared -- copies of books by Rick Riordan of Percy Jackson fame, Wimpy Kid wizard Jeff Kinney, Rachel Renee Russell, author of the Dork Diaries, Magic Tree House author Mary Pope Osborne, Erin Hunter, author of the Warriors books, and so on.
In our graphic novel section, however, it's Raina who reigns. That's Raina Telgemeier, author/illustrator of the uber-popular Smile (Graphix/Scholastic, $10.99 paperback, ages 8-12), a memoir of her traumatic dental experiences as a young teen. We've got eight copies of Smile, and our young patrons are lucky if they can find one on the shelves. It's been that way since the book was first published in 2010, and the popularity of Smile shows no sign of waning. Kids just devour the true story of how Raina endured major dental surgery and distress during her early teenage years as the result of a freak fall in which she seriously injured her mouth.
 
Smile, of course, is more than a dental drama; it provides s slice-of-life look at being a teenager, dealing with family issues, trying to figure out friends, etc. When I ask kids why they love Smile so much, they do talk about the trauma of Raina's dental issues, but mostly they note how they love reading about a "real" kid who deals with friendship and family challenges, just like they do. Smile won the 2011 Eisner Award for Best Publication for Teens.

Raina, who's married to fellow graphic novelist Dave Roman, decided to mix it up after Smile, publishing Drama (Graphix/Scholastic, $23.99 hardcover, $10.99 paperback, ages10-14) in 2012. I say mix it up because while Smile is a memoir, Drama is fiction, although Raina acknowledges that it is based on her own experiences as a drama geek in middle school. True to its title, Drama is filled with the drama of the pre-teen and teen years: who likes who, who's in and who's out, etc. Raina also tackles the issue of sexual identity, highlighting the way twin boys deal with their homosexuality. Again Raina says the twins are based on some very good friends of hers, twin males who dealt with this issue as teens.

While kids in my library like Drama, they -- like Raina's fans everywhere -- have clamored for a sequel to Smile. On August 26, they'll get their wish as Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic, publishes Sisters ($24.99 hardcover, $10.99 paperback, ages 8-12). Raina says it's not really a sequel but another look back at her life, this time focusing on her often-fraught relationship with her younger sister Amara. I'll save my review of the book until I get a final copy, but suffice to say that my initial impressions from the advance review copy are simple: libraries, you'd better gear up for a run on this book. Young readers will readily identify with Raina's up-and-down connection with the sister she desperately longed for -- until Amara was born. Anyone who has siblings will find themselves in the pages of this book.

Meanwhile, while kids are awaiting the publication of Sisters on August 26, they are loving another graphic novel memoir,  The Dumbest Idea Ever (Graphix/Scholastic, $24.99 hardcover, $11.99 paperback) by Jimmy Gownley, author/illustrator of the popular Amelia Rules books. In his memoir, Jimmy talks about how he got the idea for Amelia Rules and then figured out a way -- with a lot of help from his parents -- to publish the first book in the series. Readers in my library are fascinated by the way that Jimmy broke into the graphic novel business, but they seem just as interested in his teenage travails, including his rollercoaster performance as a student and his friendship challenges. Jimmy does a wonderful job at honestly portraying his teen years, and that seems to really resonate with young readers.



Friday, July 18, 2014

Kate (the Great) DiCamillo Is Coming!

Yes, the current National Ambassador for Young People's Literature AND the current Newbery Medalist is coming to my library! If you're in the Washington, D.C. area, mark your calendars for Friday, August 29 at 7 p.m., when Kate will speak in the auditorium of the Takoma Park (Maryland) Community Center, which connects to our library. I'll be moderating (whoo-hoo!) the program; I've been told that Kate likes to do a Q & A format at her programs. Then she'll sign books afterwards.

How did my library, which is, after all, tiny -- as well as the only small, city-run library in Maryland -- get the honor of hosting the great Kate DiCamillo? Well, chalk it up to our partnership with Politics & Prose Bookstore, the independent bookstore in DC.

A couple of years ago, the P&P folks asked if we'd like to partner with them on author events; we provide the space for the events, and they provide the authors. Talk about a deal for us  See, P&P has more authors for events than they have space and time on their store calendar, which is why they reached out to us and to several other libraries in the area to see if we could form a partnership. The benefits for my library are immense because we get to host authors we never could afford to pay to come. P&P sells books at the events for people who'd like to have the visiting author personally sign their volume, but no purchase is required to attend any of the programs.
Ben Hatke

Recent authors whom we have hosted with P&P include graphic novelist Ben Hatke, of Zita the Spacegirl fame, Llama Llama picture book creator Anna Dewdney, and internationally-acclaimed author/illustrator Maira Kalman.

And now Kate DiCamillo! She's actually coming to DC for the National Book Festival, which will be held indoors for the first time on Saturday, August 30 at the Washington Convention Center. It was Kerri Poore, energetic coordinator of children's & teen events at Politics & Prose, who had the brilliant idea to ask Kate's publisher, Candlewick Press, if she might be willing to tack on an extra event the night before the festival. Lo and behold, she was!

I've interviewed Kate several times and so know how amazingly nice she is. Still I have to admit that I'm a tad nervous about moderating the program.
But I know that Kate will put me, and the audience, right at ease, as we talk about her ambassadorial platform -- "Stories connect us" -- her latest Newbery-winning book, the utterly delightful Flora & Ulysses, her newest book, LeRoy Ninker Saddles Up, and more. It's sure to be a wonderful night, so watch this space for a wrap-up right after it happens.

Kate's not the only author we're co-hosting this fall with P&P at the Takoma Park Maryland Library. Our partnership with P&P has produced a great line-up of children's (and adult) authors who will be speaking in our library's Children's Room (that's where we generally host authors and illustrators; hosting Kate in the auditorium is an exception).

For example, at 7 p.m. on August 28 -- just the night before Kate speaks -- Caldecott Honor author/artist Peter Brown will be talking about his newest picture book, My Teacher Is a Monster! (No I Am Not). It's great timing because that's the first week of school around here, so Brown's pitch-perfect, comic send-up of teacher-student dynamics should draw a good crowd of preschoolers and early elementary-age students.

Other upcoming events include: graphic novelist Eleanor Davis, who will talk about her new adult short story collection, How to Be Happy, on Monday, Sept. 15 at 7:30 p.m.; a trio of middle-grade authors -- Annie Barrows, E.D. Baker and Jessica Day George -- who will talk about their latest books on Thursday, Oct. 9 at 7:30 p.m.; and author Shannon Hale, talking about The Princess in Black, the launch of a new early chapter series, on Tuesday, Oct. 14 at 7:30 p.m. I'll be blogging about each event as they occur, so stay tuned for more!




Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Going Wild with Children's Literature

If you especially love the stories behind the stories of children's literature, you're in for a treat later this summer. That's because August 5 will mark the publication of Wild Things! Acts of Mischief in Children's Literature (Candlewick Press, $22.99), written in tandem by Peter Sieruta, Betsy Bird, and Julie Danielson.




It's a truly awesome line-up of experts. Peter, who died in 2012, was beloved in the children's literature field and had a deep knowledge of children's book collecting. Betsy is the youth materials specialist at the New York Public Library and widely known for her blog A Fuse # 8 Production, which can be found here on School Library Journal's website. And Julie, or Jules as she is known, is the creator of another wonderful, must-read blog, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Alas, I didn't know Peter, although I read his highly-respected blog, Collecting Children's Books.. But I am a devoted follower of the blogs of Betsy and Jules -- I recommend them highly to folks who love children's literature.

Anyway, Wild Things looks like truly wild fun, as it takes us "behind the scenes" of some of the best-known children's books. I've just gotten a review copy and plan to spend the next few days immersed in it, as I'll be hosting Betsy and Jules here on Children's Corner as they wend their way through a "blog tour" in late August.

 But you don't have to wait until August 5 to read some of the amazing and incredible things that Betsy, Jules and Peter learned as they worked on the book over the last several years. That's because a lot of the original manuscript ended up on the cutting room floor, so to speak, so that the book could remain a manageable size. Betsy and Jules have taken some of those unpublished gems and created a website built around them. The first few posts have been just wonderfully fun to read. My favorite so far is titled "Play Misty for Me," and tells the story of what the Wild Things authors contend is one of the best ALA Conference photos of all time:



You'll have to read the post to figure out why a horse is sitting in the midst of a bunch of be-hatted librarians, who seem to be remarkably unfazed by it all.

It seems like Wild Things -- both the published and unpublished parts of it -- will be a great addition to other classic "behind the scenes" books about children's literature. Several of my favorites were written and/or edited by children's literature expert Anita Silvey, whose books include 100 Best Books for Children, 500 Great Books for Teens, and that indispensable volume Children's Books and Their Creators and its shorter version, The Essential Guide to Children's Books and Their Creators.



I was fortunate enough to contribute an essay to Anita's Everything I Need to Know I Learned From a Children's Book. Anita also is a blogger, and anyone who loves children's literature should have her Children's Book-A-Day Almanac on their list of favorites. It's "must" daily reading for me.

Children's lit historian Leonard Marcus also has authored numerous books that give readers a peek behind the curtain at famous children's books. Leonard's many books include the seminal Minders of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs and the Shaping of American Children's Literature.



And any children's lit lover looking for an irresistible combination of insights and humor about kids's books would do well to read a long-time favorite of mine, Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom, which Leonard edited.



Sunday, July 13, 2014

Tales from the Library: Happy New Year, Caldecott Club!

Way back in January, I posted about my library's Caldecott Club, calling it a "mock mock Caldecott" because we have patrons ranging from ages three to adult voting for the book they consider the best-illustrated of the selection we choose each month. (More background on our "mock-mock" Caldecott can be found here).

Because it's been so popular with our patrons, we decided earlier this year to expand the Caldecott Club from just a few months of the year to year-round. The Caldecott Club "year" would start in March, and culminate with a final vote in January -- just before the actual Caldecott Medal winner is announced at the American Library Association's Midwinter conference. We'd then discuss the actual winners in February and start the cycle over again in March.

2014 Caldecott Medalist Brian Floca
What with one thing or the other, including the end of the school year and the start of our summer reading program, we actually kicked off the "year" with our July Caldecott Club. No matter -- everyone was happy to be there, the "regulars" as well as some new folks. I started off by sharing a bit about the Newbery-Caldecott Awards banquet, which I had just attended at the ALA's Annual Conference (in Las Vegas, of all places). Mostly, I wanted to share the wonderful banquet program designed, as always by the Caldecott Medalist: in this case, Brian Floca, author/illustrator of Locomotive. The program, fitting the motif in Locomotive, looked like an Old West handbill and featuring just the best pop-up of -- you guessed it -- a locomotive. You can read Brian's speech here. 
(Another fun part of the evening were the short videos of this year's winners of Caldecott and Newbery Medal and Honor Books. My favorite video featured Mr. Wuffles, star of the 2014 Caldecott Honor book, Mr. Wuffles, written and illustrated by David Wiesner.)

Then our real fun of our Caldecott Club began, as we read, discussed and voted on the four books I had selected for the evening. We also looked, briefly, at a few illustrations of another book, Firefly July (Candlewick Press, $16.99), featuring very short poems chosen by Paul Janeczyko and illustrations by Melissa Sweet. While everyone agreed that Sweet's illustrations, done in collage and watercolor, were Caldecott quality, the poems -- while short -- were a bit too sophisticated for our group that night. In choosing books for our Caldecott Club, I generally keep in mind that our group skews towards preschoolers and early elementary kids (and their parents). So even though Caldecott criteria calls for the consideration of books for ages birth through 14, the ones we read tend to be aimed at kids 3-8 or so.

At each Caldecott Club, I'm joined by my library colleague Dave Burbank, who uses the skills he learned as a theater major in college to bring alive the books he reads. Besides, Dave is a real whiz with the ELMO, a special "document camera" that connects with our projector to show the book's pages on a big screen. It works great for a large group because everyone can really see the book as Dave reads it.

On this latest evening, we began with Three Bears in a Boat (Dial, $17.99), written and illustrated by David Soman, who is best known for the best-selling Ladybug Girl books he creates with his wife, Jacky Davis. Three Bears in s Boat was the longest book we would read that night, and I wanted to start off with it first, while energy was fresh. Dave read the book, then we asked everyone to give rate the illustrations, from 1 (worst) to 5 (best). Three Bears in a Boat was a crowd-pleaser, gathering an overall rating of 4; kids liked the way Soman drew the bears, while some of the adults loved his watercolor scenes of the bears in the ocean.


Next up was My Bus (Greenwillow, $16.99), written and illustrated by Byron Barton, a master of picture books for the very youngest readers. My Bus is a follow-up to My Car, which Barton published 13 years ago, and which remains popular with new generations of babies and toddlers at my library. My Bus was our youngest book of the evening, and so predictably drew raves from the toddlers and three-year-olds. While older kids and adults could appreciate Barton's use of color and shape, they were less enthralled with the book, which ended with an overall rating of 3.

 Bad Bye, Good Bye (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $16.99) was third on our list. I have to admit that it was definitely my favorite of the night; in fact, it's one of my choices for the 2015 Caldecott.  The simple yet emotion-laden rhyming text by Deborah Underwood is matched perfectly by Jonathan Bean's illustrations. Done in ink and Prismacolor tone, Bean's illustrations are multi-layered. In one layer -- the first layer that readers will focus on because it is done in full color -- shows a family's upheaval at moving to a new home.

 In the background of those illustrations, however, Bean presents other scenes, done in more monochromatic colors, which both move the story along and deepen its heart. For example, there's an entire background set of scenes behind the book's opening sequences. As readers see the family's two hugely upset children trying to prevent the movers from doing their work, the background illustrations depict the movers' relentless pace. Like me, it turned out that our crowd that night also loved the book, which garnered a number of 5s from folks of all ages.

Our final book was Number One Sam (Disney, $16.99, written and illustrated by Greg Pizzoli. I loved Greg's book, The Watermelon Seed, which won the 2013 Geisel Award for Best Beginning Reader, and I figured this new book, highlighting Greg's zany humor and cartoon-like illustrations, would be a crowd-pleaser and great way to end the night. (Check out this book trailer to get a sense of the book). The kids really liked Number One Sam and especially the twist at the end. A round of 4s for this one.

Then it was time to vote on our top book of the evening. People can vote for only one book and I was thrilled to see Bad Bye, Good Bye come out as our clear winner. It will now become one of our finalists when we vote on our Caldecott "winner" in January. You can learn more about the book, as well as the author and illustrator here. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more Caldecott Club fun next month!



Thursday, July 3, 2014

"Reading Is Not Optional"

With the death of Walter Dean Myers earlier this week, we lost a beloved and hugely influential author for children and teens. Walter, who wrote the books he wish he could have read as a child and teen, was one of the earliest and most powerful voices calling for more diversity in children's literature. With more than 100 books to his credit (and sales of 15 million copies), Walter used his remarkable writing talent to create some of that needed diversity, and he profoundly influenced several generations of young readers and writers. His books included: Monster, a look at a teen charged with murder that won the first Michael Printz Award (given to the best-written teen book of the year) in 2000; Fallen Angels, a novel of the Vietnam War, which is often challenged for its language and realism; Amiri & Odette, a hip-hop version of Swan Lake; The Cruisers series; and Bad Boy, his memoir of growing up in Harlem.


More about Walter and his impact on the world of children's and teen literature can be gleaned from these obituaries in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and School Library Journal, among many others. These articles all capture Walter's essence, including his insistence that "reading is not optional," which was a theme of his just-concluded two-year term as the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.
And Walter continued to fight for more diversity in children's books -- an issue that has proved stubbornly resistant to change. Walter published an essay about the ongoing challenge earlier this year in The New York Times; the headline for his essay asked: "Where Are the People of Color in Children's Literature?"

 Walter's son, Christopher Myers,  joined him in the effort, publishing a companion essay in the Times with the even-more-hard-hitting title, "The Apartheid of Children's Literature." In fact, Christopher and his dad worked quite a bit together, with Walter as the writer and Christopher as the artist on such beautiful books as Harlem, Blues Journey, and Jazz.


One of their most recent efforts was We Are America. I was fortunate to interview both Walter and Christopher (separately, in phone interviews) about that book; in the article, I was able to give a glimpse into their working relationship, and the close bond between them. Walter's death is a loss for us all, but especially for his family. RIP, Walter Dean Myers.



Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Librarians in Las Vegas

I'm just back from the American Library Association's annual conference, which was held in Las Vegas this year. The last time the ALA conference took place in Las Vegas was 1973, and from the grumbling I heard (and added to myself), it may be another 40 years before the librarians return to Vegas. The conference itself was great, and I came back inspired and educated about new ideas for children's programs. But the problem with Las Vegas was how challenging, and expensive, it was to get to all of the different meeting venues (plus the smoke-filled and hugely noisy casinos at many of these hotels were no bonus for a number of us). An added negative was the heat: it got up to 111 one day, and dipped down to a "low" of 86 at 6 a.m. yesterday morning.

 But there were still lots of pluses from the conference. Among those pluses were two programs I attended. One program, sponsored by the ALA's children's division (the Association for Library Service to Children), focused on how children's librarians in public libraries can help support students, parents and even teachers get the most out of the new Common Core standards. The other program, sponsored by the ALA's Public Library Association division, spotlighted the pluses and minuses of using apps in early literacy, with a special focus on how children's librarians can educate parents about "best practices" for using apps with their children. (I plan to write more about each of these programs in future blogposts).

It wasn't all work, however. I did take time to attend the program headlined by the writer I'd most like to interview in the world: Alexander McCall Smith. I've been a long-time -- and huge -- fan of his books, beginning with his first, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, and continuing to his other series: the Scotland Street books, the Sunday Philosophy Club (Isabel Dalhousie) books, the Corduroy Mansion books. Then there's his "one-off" books, like his newest, The Forever Girl, plus his children's books. The man is filled with stories: in little more than a decade, he's written or contributed to 100 books!

 And this is after a lengthy career as a profession of medical law and ethics. I'd heard that McCall Smith was totally charming -- a genuinely nice person -- and he certainly came across that way in his ALA talk. Although there were hundreds of people in the audience, McCall Smith spoke to us as if we were just a few gathered in a drawing room in his native Edinburgh. He also was very, very funny, and would even delightedly crack up at his own humor at points. All in all, a wonderful way to spend an hour learning about an author and his books.

Other highlights included:

__ seeing John Mason, who is retiring after 28 years as the educational marketing director at Scholastic, head out on a high note with a hilarious Elvis impression. Mason took the folks gathered at the Scholastic author brunch on Sunday morning by storm, as he swiveled and sang in introducing the six top-notch authors who were previewing their new books.


__ hearing, at that same brunch, authors like Newbery Medalist Christopher Paul Curtis, Newbery Honor author Holly Black, and award-winning graphic novelist Raina Telgemeier talk about their new books. Curtis' newest, is The Madman of Piney Woods, a sequel to his Newbery Honor book, Elijah of Buxton. Black, who sported bright blue hair, has teamed up with best-selling fantasy author Cassandra Clare, to create a new series titled The Magisterium; the first book is The Iron Trial. And Telgemeier is set to release, in late August, a sequel to her mega-popular graphic novel memoir Smile. The new book is titled Sisters and details Telgemeier's challenging relationship with her younger sister, Amara.


__ watching author Mac Barnett and Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator Jon Klassen -- both wearing baseball caps -- preview their newest book at a Candlewick Press gathering. Titled Sam & Dave Dig a Hole, this new picture book collaboration between Barnett and Klassen (who won won a 2013 Caldecott Honor for Extra Yarn, written by Barnett), is comically deadpan in both text and illustrations.



 __ attending the annual Newbery-Caldecott banquet, honoring the authors and illustrators who have won the top children's literature awards. This year, author/illustrator Brian Floca won the Caldecott Medal for his astonishing Locomotive, and author Kate DiCamillo picked up a second Newbery Medal (her first was for The Tale of Desperaux) for her book, Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures. As always, one of the highlights for attendees is receiving a keepsake in the form of a program designed by the Caldecott Medalist.

This year, Floca played with the themes of Locomotive, producing a program booklet with an Old West flavor; open up the program and a pop-up locomotive appears. The program is both beautiful and playful, as is Floca's illustration for the cover of The Horn Book magazine; the Caldecott Medalist also is always asked to create the cover illustration for the July/August edition of The Horn Book. 

The banquet speeches also were wonderful, as always. Floca began with a reference sure to please Dewey Decimal lovers: "I'd like to begin tonight with some numbers. Illustration and commercial art: 741.6. Public speaking and oratory: 808.51. I think you see what I'm getting at here. I don't want to question anyone's intentions, but when illustrators are asked to give banquet-hall speeches, someone is showing a real willingness to misshelve."

 DiCamillo, who also is the current National Ambassador for Children's Literature, left few eyes dry with her talk, which was, in large part, a tribute to her late mother around the theme of the word "capacious." Her speech also was an elegantly-written and heart-felt look at the importance of books: "We have been given the sacred task of making hearts large through story. We are working to make hearts that are capable of containing much joy and much sorrow, hearts capacious enough to contain the complexities of ourselves and of each other. We are working to make hearts that know how to love this world."