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!

Maira Kalman's Quirky Magic

Not long ago, my library - partnering with the folks at Politics & Prose, the premier independent bookstore in Washington, D.C. -- hosted a program featuring world-renowned author/artist Maira Kalman. I've long loved Kalman's work, especially her children's books. Kalman is one of those multi-talented people, someone who has done everything from creating covers for The New Yorker magazine to designing a one-of-a-kind umbrella. (Check out all of her work at her website).

 Hosting Kalman was an interesting and entertaining experience. Most of the out-of-town authors we've hosted arrive with an "escort," someone who is driving them around town, getting them meals, and generally making sure that their time in DC goes smoothly. So I was surprised to see Kalman just show up, by herself,  in our library a couple of hours before her talk. She had taken the train from New York and then grabbed a cab to our library; upon arriving, she asked if we'd like her to sign books, and also where she could get a sandwich before her program. I've since learned that this is trademark Kalman, as she is someone who likes to see the world on her own terms. In any case, it was delightful to have her sitting in our staff room, chatting about this and that, and signing our much-loved library copies of her books.

A hour or so later, Kalman was delighting a crowd of folks gathered for her talk, which was focused on the three children's non-fiction books she has written. The audience included kids, teens and adults, and everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time listening to the witty Kalman talk about her life and work. When the program was over, everyone waited patiently in a long line to have books signed by Kalman, who took her time talking with each fan. At the end, Kalman was ready to take a cab back to Union Station but I demurred; I was having too much fun talking with her. So we hopped into my van and continued the conversation until it was time for her train.

You'll get a flavor of Kalman and our event from the article I wrote for our city newsletter; I'm re-posting it below.

Photo by Jeffrey MacMillan

It’s hard  -- no, make that impossible -- to pigeonole Maira Kalman’s work. She writes and illustrates books for adults like And the Pursuit of Happiness and The Principles of Uncertainty. She creates covers for The New Yorker magazine, writes and illustrates blogs for The New York Times, and publishes acclaimed biographies for children of Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson. And don’t forget about the illustrations Kalman did for Food Rules, the healthy eating bible written by Michael Pollan, as well as the illustrations she created for The Elements of Style, the classic “how to write well” manual written by William Strunk and E.B. White. With Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket, the author of A Series of Unfortunate Events, Kalman has co-authored the award-winning young adult novel, Why We Broke Up, and a children's picture book, 13 Words. The two also just released a new art/poetry collaboration for teens and adults, Girls Standing on Lawns.

 
Kalman’s work has been described as a unique type of journalism, a kind of “narrative drawing” in which she illustrates and writes about the world around her. “I do see myself as a journalist,” Kalman told the crowd of adults and kids who came to hear her recently in the Takoma Park Community Center. “I am an artist at large, going around the world and reporting on what I see. Sometimes, it’s very pointed, like the books on Lincoln or Jefferson. But sometimes, it’s whimsical, like The Principles of Uncertainty. But still, I’m always trying to make a human connection between the experience of being alive and trying to make sense of … the world.”

Surprisingly, Kalman, 64, doesn’t have a college degree or even any formal art training. But her unique vision of the world has won her millions of fans around the world, who delight in the way her books combine research, thoughtfulness, humor and quirkiness. All of those qualities were on display at the Takoma Park talk, which was focused on Kalman’s non-fiction books for kids: Fireboat; Looking at Lincoln; and Thomas Jefferson: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Everything.

           
Kalman said she particularly enjoys writing for kids “because there are no limits.” Yet writing and illustrating a children’s book, especially a non-fiction book, can be quite challenging, Kalman added, because “you need to edit to 32 pages what you really want to say, and there should be a sense of humor and some sense of optimism.” In Fireboat, for example, Kalman tells the story of the John J. Harvey, a boat that was long past its heyday when some New Yorkers bought and restored it in the late 1990’s. When 9/11 happened, the Harvey was, with two other fire boats, instrumental in fighting the fires at the site of the World Trade Center buildings because the water mains there were buried under the rubble. Kalman said Fireboat is “a story of being resilient in a tremendous way.” She added that stories like Fireboat are “a way to talk to kids about tragic events…. It says, ‘This is what happened and this is how we dealt with it.’”

           
  In Looking at Lincoln, Kalman said she tried to give young readers “a sense of his extraordinary presence…. If you study him, there’s no way not to fall in love with Abraham Lincoln.” In fact, Kalman joked, she herself is famous for saying that she’s in love with Lincoln “to the point that I always say that I would have been a better wife than Mary (Todd Lincoln).” During her presentation, Kalman talked about illustrating items that Lincoln owned help bring him alive for young readers, noting that his now-trademark stovepipe hat “is part of the iconic persona” Lincoln created for himself. In fact, Kalman believes that objects like Lincoln’s hat or Jefferson’s jacket, which he lined with socks to make it warmer, offer a key way to connect to an otherwise remote historical figure.

Writing about Jefferson was much harder than writing about Lincoln, Kalman noted.  Jefferson “is a different guy. I don’t love him, but I admire and respect him tremendously,” Kalman said, adding that Jefferson “doesn’t come across as having a sense of humor like Lincoln.” But Kalman was clearly taken by what she called “the genius of his brain and the breadth of his interests,” which she underlines in the subtitle of her book:  Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Everything. That’s what makes Jefferson’s refusal to give up his slaves so difficult to swallow, and “so heartbreaking,” she added.

           

Trying to sum up such a significant and complex person like Jefferson can be daunting, Kalman said, adding that illustrations can be particularly helpful in conveying facts without adding more text. Asked whether the words or the images come first to her, Kalman said that they mostly come together. Kalman, who emigrated to the United States from Israel when she was a child, said that she fell in love with the English language, and “so words live for me in their own kind of visual floaty thing. “Then, I’m always seeing a lot of things that I know I want to paint. Somehow everything (words and pictures) gets smooshed together in this amazing way.”

Children's Book Week 2014

What a Children's Book Week this has been! And it's not over yet. For me, it's been a celebration involving an amazing mix of talented authors, including best-selling Llama, Llama author/illustrator Anna Dewdney, the quirky genius Maira Kalman, and two-time Newbery Medalist Lois Lowry. A crazy-quilt of styles, right? But a great way to highlight the breadth of children's literature, especially when two of the authors -- Dewdney and Kalman -- made their appearances at *my* library!

I'm cheating a little on the parameters of Children's Book Week, which technically runs from May 12-18 this year. Llama, Llama star Dewdney actually spoke at my library on Thursday, May 8. So it wasn't really Children's Book Week yet. But that certainly didn't matter a whit to the nearly 70 excited kids and their grown-ups that Dewdney delighted at her early-evening program, which was designed to showcase her newest book, Nelly Gnu and Daddy Too (Viking, $17.99, ages 3-6). Dewdney's appearance in our library's Children's Room was thanks to our partnership with Politics & Prose, an independent bookstore in Washington, D.C. The P&P folks are in the lucky position of having too many authors who want to visit, and so P&P uses libraries like ours as alternate venues. It's a win-win situation: we get to host authors whom we could never afford, while P&P can say yes to an author (and, of course, sell some books).

Dewdney clearly knows her audience, some of whom came clutching love-worn stuffed Llama Llamas. She started by drawing Llama, Llama on easel paper, to "invite" him to join the event. The kids loved watching Llama, Llama take shape as Dewdney drew him, and my library loved that she later signed the portrait "Llama, Llama loves the Takoma Park Maryland Library." A signed piece of original artwork from an author who has sold millions of books -- it made our night! Of course, we'll frame it and put it up in the library for all to enjoy.

Then Dewdney launched right into an energetic reading of what is probably her most popular book, Llama, Llama, Red Pajama. It was a great way to warm up the crowd for her new book, which puts Nelly Gnu, a friend of Llama, Llama, in the spotlight. While the kids still clearly are partial to the Llama, Llama books, they also enjoyed hearing Dewdney read about how Nelly Gnu's dad helped her create a special playhouse using a box, some simple tools, and lots of creativity. As usual, Dewdney uses a lilting rhyme to tell her story, and her illustrations are bright and cheerful. Best of all, Nelly Gnu and Daddy Too might just inspire even more parents to spend time on hands-on creative projects with their kids.

In a mega-change of pace two days later, our library hosted Maira Kalman -- she of The New Yorker covers, The New York Times blogs, and such books as And the Pursuit of Happiness (for adults) and Fireboat for kids. (And yes, this was also before the official beginning of Children's Book Week, but we can be flexible....)

Photo by Jeffrey MacMillan

The multi-talented Kalman actually came to town to talk about her non-fiction books for kids, which -- in addition to Fireboat -- includes Looking at Lincoln and her newest book, Thomas Jefferson: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Everything (Penguin, $17.99, ages 7-10). I plan to write specifically about Kalman's talk in another blog post, but suffice to say that she brought down the house with her wry, self-deprecating humor, witty observations about life, love and history, and her brilliantly-hued gouache illustrations. My talented neighbor Jeffrey MacMillan, a professional news photographer, attended the event and took this great photo of Kalman in action.

I wish I could say that Lois Lowry, winner of the Newbery Medal for not one, but two books -- Number the Stars and The Giver -- also was a guest at my library. But Lowry actually was the feature attraction at the Library of Congress' Children's Book Week celebration. On Monday morning, Lowry and Nikki Silver, producer of the forthcoming film adaptation of The Giver, spoke to a rapt audience of a couple of hundred school kids (and a smattering of adults like me). In addition to their discussion, we were treated to a fast-paced sneak peek of the film, which will be released this August and which stars Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep, with a cameo appearance by Taylor Swift. Lowry herself has been involved with the making of the film. Here's one of the official movie trailers -- it's pretty stunning:

Lowry was her typical articulate, thoughtful self as Silver queried her about how she became an author for kids. The kids were fascinated to learn that Lowry,  now 77, dropped out of college to get married, had four kids by the time she was 25, and didn't publish her first book until she was 40.  Yet, Lowry said she wanted to be a writer from an early age; she told the audience that, in a letter she wrote at age 10, and which was published in a magazine, she said "I am writing a novel. It's called A Dog Named Lucky. I'm on Chapter 13."

Many years later, it was a magazine editor who convinced Lowry that she was actually a natural writer for kids and teens. At first, she resisted the notion, but then she realized several things: "I enjoyed it, I was pretty good at it, and when I began to get a response from kids, I began to perceive what a difference books can make in kids' lives. That makes me take what I do very seriously. I never think that it is a lesser thing to write for kids."

Asked by Silver how she got the idea for The Giver, Lowry said that it came out of her visits years ago with her elderly father. During one visit, "I perceived, for the first time, that memories were beginning to disappear for him. I realized that he had forgotten my sister" even though her death at an early age "was surely the worst thing that had happened to my parents." As Lowry was driving home from the visit, she began wondering "what would it be like if we forgot all our sad memories?" As she mulled over the idea, however, she also decided that "we need all those memories (sad and happy) because they make up who we are."

 And thus was born The Giver, in which Lowry tells of a world that is seemingly perfect, in which no one has sadness or cares, and also no real emotional life. But there is one person, "The Giver," who holds all of the society's memories, in case they ever are needed in the future. When a 12-year-old boy, Jonas, is chosen to become the next Giver, he realizes there is a cost to the placid society in which he lives, and he eventually has to choose whether to stay there or flee in a bid to restore his own humanity.

Although Lowry had no idea that she was creating a new genre of fiction, she generally is created with creating the first "dystopian" novel for teens. Since then dystopian fiction has become all the rage, as shown by the success of The Hunger Games, Divergent, and others. Those books have become successful films in recent years, but Silver noted that she had optioned The Giver years before that in hopes that she could produce a film version of it. Turning the interviewer tables, Lowry then asked Silver why she wanted to create a film from The Giver. "It's smart and there are great characters," Silver responded. "The idea of visually creating this world was very exciting."

Still it has taken years for the film to actually happen, Silver said,"noting that there were "many screenplays written." Lowry, meanwhile, noted that while she "cringes" at previous efforts to adapt her work into film, she is hopeful about The Giver movie. "I also happen to be a great lover of movies, so I don't automatically think 'Book good, movie bad.' But a movie can't ever be the same thin as a book." She noted that, while reading a book, "you form pictures in your mind about it, and those pictures are different for everyone. With a movie, everyone has the same pictures." Lowry also noted that in the book version of The Giver, "I could have an ambiguous ending, but in the film, there has to be more of an ending."

 As the event with Lowry and Silver wrapped up, one student asked Lowry what she thought was the message of The Giver. "I don't like the idea of messages in books," Lowry said, noting that "you ruin a book" by beginning with a message. "Yet once the book is finished.... messages will arise for readers." In the case of The Giver, Lowry said she believes the story is a cautionary tale demonstrating that "we should be very, very careful in the choices we make in this life... and the compromises too."