ALA 2013 – Newbery/Caldecott/Wilder Banquet!

Conference Corner 0

Sunday night – Time for the Newbery-Caldecott-Wilder Banquet!

This year, ALSC was celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott Medal, so they had encouraged people to come in costume. I simply added a bell around my neck. If you could hear it, you still had the magic.

The backdrop for the above photo is from the illustration created by Randolph Caldecott on which the front of the medal is based.

I tried to take pictures of many people I saw in costume, but I didn’t write down all the names. If you know someone in a picture, let me know who it is in the comments!

First, Monica Edinger with a newspaper hat from Black and White. (And you can also let me know if I get the book references wrong!)

Then I got a picture of Monica with Roxanne Feldman, who was in a full newspaper costume.

I know I’ve met this nice person and gotten her name. She had badges with covers from ALL the Caldecott Medal winners! (And do you recognize the red balloon from A Sick Day for Amos McGee?)

They go all the way around!

Here’s Mary Ann Scheuer as an exquisite Olivia. I believe she’s with Kelly Celia (from Walden Pond Press)’s husband. I think his name is Eric. He’s a teacher, and was a nice addition to the children’s book crowd.

(Again, please correct me in all my photo identifications in the comments!)

Here’s Chelsea Couillard-Smith with cutouts from Lois Ehlert’s Color Zoo!

And here’s a fabulous Jumanji costume! (Anyone know this clever person’s name?)

Paul Zelinsky is again wearing his so-appropriate Rapunzel tie. He’s being interviewed by Betsy Bird, who explained her complete Caldecott medal-and-honors honoring costume on her own blog.

And my friend with the 75 badges got the red carpet treatment, being interviewed by Jim Averbeck:

Then I simply had to get a picture of the Queen of the Wild Things. Her badge says she’s Carol Phillips:

And once I saw that fine backdrop, I had to have my own new Facebook profile picture taken:

Then it was time for the meal. I got to sit with Cara Frank, whom I just met — but knew from Twitter. Here’s the important part of the meal:

In the break after the meal and before the speeches, I had to get a picture of the person sitting next to me, Leslie, an editor from Vizmedia. She was wearing a lovely tribute to Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears. (I like the way the colors went with the room, too!)

Finally, the speeches! Here’s Jon Klassen giving his acceptance speech for the Caldecott Medal for This Is Not My Hat.

I loved this quote from Jon Klassen:
“Storytelling in any form is a hopeful thing to do.”

I found most of the pictures I took of Honor winners were blurry or a little bit boring. But isn’t this picture cute of Laura Amy Schlitz accepting her Honor award from the Newbery Chair? I love the twinkle in her eyes!

Then came Katherine Applegate with her Newbery Acceptance Speech.

I’m pretty sure I caught her reading from one of her early efforts — a steamy Harlequin Temptation Romance. I loved her sense of humor about her career and these quotes:

“Writing is excruciating and writing is exhilarating.”

And especially:
“It’s never too late to be what you might have been.”

Finally, Katherine Paterson accepted the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for lifetime achievement. She moves a lot when she talks, and I was not able to get an unblurry picture of her.

She talked about how this award has come to her “by virtue of your most honorable shadows.”

At the end of all the inspiring speeches, we get to join the receiving line and congratulate the winners in person. I saw more people I knew in that line. I was kicking myself for not getting a picture of John Schumacher, Travis Jonker, Eric Carpenter, and Colby Sharp all together in line. Yay for the Kidlit men! 🙂

It was a marvelous evening, and the committee who put together the 75th anniversary activities can congratulate themselves for a job well-done!

This is my sixth ALA2013 post. Still to come are Monday’s programs and then the Printz Awards Reception. So much good stuff spinning in my mind!

ALA 2013 – Sunday Excitement

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This is Part 5 of my ALA 2013 Annual Conference Coverage. I’m up to Sunday morning. Darn those long shuttle rides! I did arrive in time to hear most of Temple Grandin’s talk, but as you can see above, I wasn’t in time to get a good seat. But what I heard was outstanding, and I’m looking forward to reading the book,The Autistic Brain, which I purchased and got signed by Temple Grandin.

She was talking about what’s in the book: How autistic brains are different from neurotypical brains, and some things you can do to help all kids adjust to life better.

When I walked in, she was talking about innate ability. If you’re in the middle in some area, you can become good at it, but it’s the extremes that are tricky. She tends to be very good at some things and terrible at other things. Our school system finds it harder to accommodate such people.

She talked about different kinds of thinkers. She said there are two kinds of visual thinkers. She’s a photo-realistic thinker, but some are more about vision in space. People in the middle tend to be more of a mix than those on the extremes.

(One thing she threw out that I have to enthusiastically and whole-heartedly support: Kids who are skilled in math should be allowed to go ahead. Hear! Hear!)

“We need different kinds of minds working on problems.”
“When different kinds of minds work together, they can do great things.”

When helping kids who are different to succeed, you need to stretch them. Start teaching them work skills.
“Kids need to work in groups and invent their own rules.”
“Develop the area of strength, especially with the kids who are different.”
“Get kids into special interests.”
“Kids need hands-on classes. Those also teach problem-solving and resourcefulness.”
What saved her: Horses, carpentry…
“We need more people doing real stuff.”
“Talented, quirky kids get too many labels.”
Get rid of 60-cycle fluorescent lights and experiment with different colored paper.

“It takes a village to raise a child — The library is an important part of the village.”

After Temple Grandin’s talk and signing, I spent a little time at the exhibits, and then went to a program about Poetry Friday led by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell.

They were mostly going over ideas from their book called Poetry Friday, but the ideas were wonderful, so I don’t begrudge them that. The basic concept: Take a moment on Fridays to share poetry with your students. In a public library, I was challenged to start adding poetry to programs, not just relying on picture books alone.

They talked about how poetry fits with the Common Core, and all the poems and activities in their book fit with the standards by grade level. (They’ve got them divided into poems and activities to do with each grade level.)

They have “Take 5” Poetry Sharing Strategies:
1) Adult reads aloud.
2) Children participate. (Read again, with instructions for their participation.)
3) Open discussion
4) Skill connection
5) Poem extension (Compare with another poem)

What I took away from this, besides wanting their book, was being encouraged to think about ways to add poetry to what we offer at the public library. And to think about joining Poetry Friday on my blog.

Then I had been invited to a lunch put on by Boyds Mills Press. Even though it kept me from a couple things on the other side of Chicago, I thought it was worth it to get to talk to some authors and librarians face to face and make a more personal connection.

It turned out the lunch was just wonderful. Two authors, Rebecca Kai Dotlich and Nikki Grimes, were there, along with an editor, Rebecca Davis, and a marketing person, Kerry McManus, from Boyds Mills Press. And then they’d invited six children’s librarians. So it was a lovely personal time when we actually got to talk with the authors and each other and enjoy the company of other children’s book people.

Both authors were lovely people to have lunch with!

Here I am with Rebecca Kai Dotlich:

And here is Nikki Grimes with librarian Kiera Parrot:

So much fun!

The final program I attended on Sunday (besides the Newbery/Caldecott/Wilder Banquet, which gets its own post) was Archives Alive! Various people from libraries with children’s book archives showed slides of the material they have related to past Caldecott winners (still celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott medal).

This one, you had to be there to enjoy. It was amazing to look at some of the items the libraries had. Some picture book dummies. Some original art (which is rare for Caldecotts). Some letters from illustrators written in longhand. Caldecott woodblocks from Marcia Brown. Linoleum blocks from Dick Whittington. Comparative editions of some Caldecott books. It was all very fascinating

And then — back to the hotel to get ready for the Newbery-Caldecott-Wilder Banquet, a highlight of the entire weekend! With the celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Caldecott Medal, many people came in costume, so my next post will have lots of pictures!

ALA 2013 – Saturday – Programs and Ideas and Authors, Oh My!

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This is Part 4 of my summing up of the 2013 ALA Annual Conference. I’m up to Saturday, a day of some inspiring programs full of ideas I’d like to try.

The day got off to an inauspicious start. I had carefully set the hotel alarm clock the night before. In the morning, I laid awake on the bed with my blindfold in place quite awhile, wondering why I’d woken so early. Finally, I looked at the clock and discovered it wasn’t so early after all. Though I’d set the alarm, I hadn’t actually turned it on. So I didn’t get to the convention center in time for the Collection Management session I’d planned to attend. However, it turned out I was right on time to attend the Scholastic Book Buzz.

I’ve actually started trying to avoid the Book Buzz sessions — it just tells me about more books I want to read. But I still enjoy them. It’s fun to then go to the booth and ask for specific titles you saw in the program. For example, one that caught my eye was Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer, by Katie Alender. The premise simply makes me laugh — a modern-day teen in Paris discovers that Marie Antoinette’s ghost is haunting the city — and she’s angry. It makes sense. After all, wouldn’t she be angry?

Next was a tough choice. I’d wanted to go hear Naomi Novik speak on a panel titled “Beyond Genre.” But I decided that more practical to my job would be a session put together by Cen Campbell, who’s served with me on ALSC’s Children and Technology committee, and who is doing amazing things. The session was called “Building A to Zoo for Apps,” and is about the need for App Advisory, and how that’s exactly something librarians are good at and should be doing.

She had assembled a stellar panel of speakers. Clarissa Kruger writes a blog that reviews apps. She started as a mom who saw a gap. Parents are looking for ebooks and they need help. Other speakers talked about how librarians should get involved reviewing apps, and identify themselves as librarians when they do so (Sneaky outreach!).

An especially inspiring speaker was Chip Donohue from the Fred Rogers Center. He said that the new tools hold wonderful potential for promoting relationships and interaction.

“The tablet is an invitation.”
“We have a wonderful opportunity to model appropriate use of this tool.”

He said that we should avoid the false dichotomy of ALL tech or NO tech. It CAN be both! “Young children do not segment their thinking.”

“How can these tools become tools for literacy and engagement?”

“Parents are dying for help selecting apps.”
“Work on your own digital literacy.”
“Select. Use. Integrate. Evaluate.”
“It’s what we’ve always done. We know how to do this.”
“Fred Rogers believed that technology is okay and can be great if it’s used to build relationships, interactions, and social-emotional development.”

Some responses during the Question and Answer session:
“This new technology is NOT ‘better.’ It’s a new tool added.”
“The tools ARE in the kids’ hands. Let’s use them.”
We need to be the researchers. Edtech research lags 10 years behind technology.
When we use apps in storytime, we’re modeling using them in an educational way.

And the final rallying cry:
“We need to build an army to curate this new marketplace.”

Okay, after that program, I went to an “Ignite!” program, where 6 people spoke on different topics for 5 minutes each. These were interesting, and the presenters really pared down their talks so you got the nugget of what they had to say quickly. They were extremely varied ideas. Some helpful ones:

It’s important to build a professional learning network. Be prosumers (producers) as well as consumers.

Shanna Miles talked about “PTSD and the Urban School Library” – Kids need reflective texts, books where they see themselves.
Do characters speak, act, look, experience life like these kids?
Do the books provide solutions and give hope?
If they can live it, they can read it.

Kim Ventrella, from my own library system, did a presentation on “Book Snacks: Teen Humor Edition.” She showed how you can make “booktweets” promoting a book in 140 characters or less. You can use this idea on bookmarks, book displays, and more.

Jennifer Lau-Bond talked about Creativity in Reference Service Provision.
She described “Predatory Reference” — What questions aren’t people asking? Go answer them!
Had “Librarians on the Loose” at a train station.
Monitor local social media questions.
Where does your community go online? How can you contribute?

After that interesting session, I got lunch and explored the exhibits some more. Then I walked in a little late to the panel “Science Fiction: The Factual and the Counterfactual.” I’ve gone to this session most years at ALA, and I love what the authors have to say about the state of science fiction and fantasy. I’ll list some good quotations:

David Brin:
“We create industrial grade magic of incantations.”
“Science fiction takes these incantations and expands them.”
“Get back to the heart of science fiction: Optimism.”
“Can we get people to think it’s possible to leave people with the belief we might make it?”

John Scalzi:
“Given enough time, anything in science fiction is eventually proven wrong.
Why this does not matter: It’s about the larger themes.
“Science fiction misses the small details but gets the larger picture right.”
“DO get the stuff we know right. But don’t worry about the rest.”
“It’s about positing what these things will do to us as humans.”

Elizabeth Bear:
“I grew up in a library.” The only child of a single parent, she was there every day for 3 hours.
Today there’s big diversity in YA science fiction fans and writers.
“The Rainbow Age of Science Fiction” – This is the factual world. It’s diverse.
The job of science fiction writers isn’t futurism.
“The best science fiction is always about the present.”
It extrapolates and examines.
You don’t have to use metaphor. You can tackle issues thematically without oversimplification and didacticism.
“In good characters, specificity becomes general.”
“Provide that right environment for young readers so they can figure out what they think about the world.”

Brandon Sanderson:
As a kid, he was often told to “be realistic.” What does that even mean? Approximate reality?
“In fantasy, the world was so different, that makes the person [the main character] my tribe. This was the familiar among the strange.”
“It makes the strange familiar and adds a new level of strange.”
“It made being a fantasy novelist realistic by comparison.”
“I’m not trying to be a wizard! I just want to write books!”
“We’re giving books to the people who will define what realistic means in 40 years.”

Cory Doctorow:
He doesn’t think science fiction is extrapolative. It’s more like a petri dish.
“We predict the present by doing a world-in-a-bottle-exercise.”
“Knowing about the present is necessary but insufficient to knowing about the future.”
“We only experience one person’s interiority, our own. Yet books are about interiority.”
“The amazing thing about literature: The sustained illusion that we can share in someone else’s experience of the world.”

They gave a bag of books to everyone who attended the panel, but unfortunately, I didn’t have time to stand in line to get them signed. I wanted to go to:

Conversation Starter: 90-Second Newbery Film Festival

My friend (by now) James Kennedy was running this program. He talked about the 90-second Newbery Film Festival, now in its 3rd year. He showed lots of brilliant examples, created by kids. The premise is to show the entire story of a Newbery winner or honor book in 90 seconds.

“Any book becomes hilarious when compressed to 90 seconds.”
“Kids take control, and they have to know the text really well.”
Much of the creativity comes in when they put the text in another movie style.
“What kids want is recognition.”
“There’s a lot you can do with very limited resources.”
“It takes real engagement with the text to boil down the script to 90 seconds.”
“Teaches kids about a long-term project and digital literacy.”
“Genre-bending takes some smarts.”
There is a curriculum guide at 90secondnewbery.com
Some advice for public libraries: Try using puppets in case the same people don’t show up at later meetings.

I’d really like to get this going at my library. Not quite sure how to start rounding up a group of interested kids, but the ideas are percolating….

After that, I hit the exhibits again, shipped the day’s books, and then went to hear Elizabeth Wein speak at a session sponsored by USBBY.

She’s an appropriate speaker for USBBY, a branch of IBBY, an international organization of books for youth, since she has lived in many different countries.

She talked about her childhood. She was born in America, but lived as a child in the United Kingdom, and then in Jamaica. She didn’t come back to America until she was 9 years old.

She showed us some old pictures and some of her writing and drawing as a child. We saw some themes that came up in Code Name Verity!

She migrates like the osprey — not immigrating, but having a home in different places.
“Moving around created a strong sense of nostalgia early on.”
She longed for a sense of place and a place to be rooted.
She spends her life collecting places she loves.
Living in Jamaica, she was international and colorblind in her early reading, including reading English translations of Chinese propaganda picture books.
She wrote Sara Crewe and Alan Garner fan fiction.

“Passenger air travel has made our world smaller and brought us closer together.”
“Best we can ask: Open minds and no fear of strangers.”

I was especially excited to meet Elizabeth at the end of the session. (That’s the picture at the top of this post.) I was happy that she knows my name. I’ve been reviewing (and loving) her books for 10 years! It turns out that the first book I read of hers, A Coalition of Lions was my #1 2003 Sonderbooks Stand-out in Historical Fiction. (Back then, there weren’t so many bloggers, so I even talked to her via e-mail a little bit.) And I’ve continued to love her books over the years.

After that, it was back to the hotel. I grabbed some dinner, and then went to the ALA/ProQuest Scholarship Blast where Second City was performing comedy and improv. I was curious about them ever since listening to Tina Fey’s book, Bossypants.

It was very funny. I don’t think I’ll probably go to this event in future years unless I find a friend to go with. At the Newbery Banquet and Printz Awards, I always run into several people I know — They’re for the children’s and YA book people. At this, I saw one person I knew, but I think he was on a date. Still, it was nice to not think and just laugh.

And that was my big Saturday! More ALA coverage will follow — Writing up helps me consolidate in my mind all I learned and experienced. Sunday was one of the highlights of the conference — The Newbery-Caldecott-Wilder Banquet. I took lots of pictures of people dressed up in honor of the Caldecott’s 75th anniversary. Coverage coming soon!

ALA 2013 – The Exhibits! aka: Books, Books, Books!

Conference Corner 0

In my summing-up of ALA 2013 in Chicago, I’ve gotten to Friday night, when the Exhibits open! The haiku I wrote later in the conference (above) for a contest about sums it up.

I try to restrain myself, honest, I do! Then I fail. But it’s so much fun grabbing free books, that failure is reinforced.

I should admit that I have a doctor’s excuse to bring a wheeled cart onto the exhibit floor. So when sheer weight would normally have slowed me down, I was still going.

Though the congestion was awful, especially on opening night. There is no room for wheeled carts, and I got lots of dirty looks. And bumped lots of people, while trying not to.

Before the opening, Shannon Hale had tweeted that an ARC of her book DANGEROUS was available at booth 2107. So I was chanting to myself, “2107… 2107…” But then I overshot the booth and had to try to go back upstream. Then they weren’t giving them out until 6:30. At about 6:10, I made it back to the booth, and I decided I’d just camp there for 20 minutes, because it was too hard to maneuver — and they decided to give me one early to get rid of me! 🙂

I admit. In the frenzy, I started indiscriminately grabbing what I could reach. Here’s the pile when I got back to the hotel:

I feel a little sheepish about how many I grabbed. Yes, I *know* I won’t get them all read. But I want to, does that count? Also, we’ve started a couple of programs where we give lots of books to kids as prizes (and they think they’re getting away with something!), and these will help supply some cool prizes.

The five books I’m most excited about are:

Dangerous, by Shannon Hale (Already read! Worth the excitement!)
Rose Under Fire, by Elizabeth Wein (Already read! Worth the excitement!)
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, by Holly Black (ARC signed by the author)
The Dream Thieves, by Maggie Stiefvater
The Autistic Brain, by Temple Grandin (This one’s a published hardcover I purchased for $10 and had signed by the author.)

Usually I’m a sucker for low-price books at ALA as well, but this year I only spent $12 on books, including that $10 on Temple Grandin’s book. Of course, I spent more than $100 to ship them home, but that was for, yes, 88 books. I think of the shipping cost as part of the cost of the conference.

And did I mention the Exhibits are fun? Okay, Opening night is probably more crowded than I usually like to deal with, but it is really fun to look at the publisher booths, where they highlight the recent books that have received stars or awards, and show off upcoming titles. There’s lots of excitement in the air. You also have many authors throughout the exhibit hall signing their books. So you meet publishing folks, authors, other librarians. It’s exciting and fun, though probably more fun later in the conference, when it quiets down a little bit.

After the exhibits, I took a shuttle back to the hotel. The worst thing about ALA this year? The long distance from the convention center to the hotels. I did have trouble with motion sickness (probably from having my balance center of my brain damaged by a stroke a couple years ago), and the bus rides were not fun. But that evening, I’d been invited to a Walden Pond Press cocktail party at a hotel in walking distance.

The cocktail party was fun — one of those things where it’s hard to hear anybody else, but I did meet a few nice librarians, the featured authors, and some other authors who had come. Other librarians talk about all their different publisher events they attend. Walden Pond Press was the first one to ever invite me to one last year, and they did again this year, and it’s fun to be part of something like that. The preconference was done, I’d hit the exhibits, and I was ready for a wonderful ALA Annual Conference!

A Wild Ride: Caldecott Preconference at ALA 2013

Conference Corner, Picture Book Review 0

Continuing my coverage of my wonderful time at the 2013 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, last Friday I was at the ALSC’s preconference, in honor of the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott Medal. Even though I don’t consider myself an art expert by any means (I’ve always dreamed of being on the Newbery committee, but never the Caldecott), when I heard the event was taking place at the Art Institute of Chicago, I couldn’t resist.

One of the wonderful things about the preconference? Being with a large group of people who take picture books seriously, discuss them as art, and believe in the magic of what they do for children.

I was happy that I’m getting to know more and more members of ALSC (the Association for Library Service to Children). I saw many people that I have already met at the breakfast, and met some new people. Capitol Choices, a group from the DC area that I attend, was well-represented.

The first speaker was Brian Selznick, who put on the sparkly jacket he wore for the Caldecott Banquet.

After taking this picture, I realized it was rather futile to take pictures of every speaker! Oh well.

Brian gave an illustrated talk about the history of the Caldecott Medal. He talked about how Randolph Caldecott and Frederick Melcher were about entertaining books just for children. Caldecott’s pictures added to his books; they weren’t just repeating the words. The pictures had a sense of life, rooted in his sense of humor. And that sense of humor was a shield against tragedy.

Brian also talked about Maurice Sendak, their friendship, and how Where the Wild Things Are sums up what the Caldecott is all about. It shows how Max went farther than he intended and came home safe again. It scared adults. It contained life.

The second session was a Spotlight with Erin and Philip Stead and their editor, Neal Porter. The title was “Matching Words and Pictures,” but they gave it the alternate title: “Everyone Makes Mistakes.” I liked the way they showed some early versions of their work and how their editor helped them to the final product.

One interesting point they made: When they eliminated excess words, they actually slow readers down. Sometimes when there are too many words on a page, readers don’t spend as much time looking at the pictures.

With And Then It’s Spring, Erin wanted people to pay attention. She wanted to “trap readers with pictures.”

The next session was with Chris Raschka and his editor, Lee Wade, looking at the making of A Ball for Daisy. A Ball for Daisy is wordless, so you might not think it needs a lot of editing? You’d be wrong. Chris Raschka gave the alternate title: “The Daisy Journey: Not a Walk in the Park.” The book went through multiple versions, even multiple styles. He joked, “Should the ball die? All these questions.”

I was simply amazed at how far the book came from his original sketches to the practically perfect picture book that won the Caldecott Medal last year. A fascinating look at the process that got it there, a give and take between artist and editor.

After that was lunchtime, and they kept us engaged with an Honor Book panel — artists who had won Caldecott honors.

That’s Leonard Marcus moderating, followed by Kadir Nelson, Melissa Sweet, Pam Zagarenski (hidden, sorry), and Peter Brown.

Here’s a shot that includes the lovely room we were in, the former Trading Floor:

Leonard Marcus asked some intriguing questions, starting off with “Why picture books?”

Kadir Nelson: “Books chose me. I always was a storytelling artist.”

Melissa Sweet: She saw Little Bear and felt she had come home. It is like a mini-movie. Art is so varied, she’ll never get bored.

Pam Zagarenski: She’s always been illustrating. Even as a girl, she wanted to be Beatrix Potter when she grew up. She’s never had any other ambition. What she had to do.

Peter Brown: He was a reluctant reader, and more interested in creating than reading. He thought he’d be an animator, but hated it because he wanted to tell his own story.

There was more intriguing talk about making art and making picture books, and then we got to hear from Jerry Pinkney and his editor, talking about The Lion and the Mouse. Sorry that my picture of them is blurred:

He talked about his own history, what got him into picture books. He used to sneak down where he could watch a printing press in action. He enjoys the rhythm… of the printing press, of turning the page.

With The Lion and the Mouse, the editorial, design, and production all worked together. What it’s about is holding that object in your hands.

They also showed the book set to music, with pictures inserted from Jerry’s first book about Anansi the Spider. He said, “I’d love my art to feel the way music sounds.”

After those inspiring sessions, we had an elective. I wish I could have gone to all of them! I chose Leonard Marcus’s talk on Randolph Caldecott. (Oh, and I met Eric Carpenter, a fellow frequent Heavy Medal commenter!)

Leonard’s coming out with a book about Randolph Caldecott. (I wish I had gotten to his signing the next day, but had something else going on.) He titled the talk, “Randolph Caldecott: The Man Who Could Not Stop Drawing.”

Randolph Caldecott was not a sentimentalist. Even though he made books for children, he wrote about the adult world. (He showed us some humorous examples.) Leonard showed us slides of places from Caldecott’s life. His father was an accountant and had lots of practical ideas for Randolph. When he worked in a bank, he discovered that bank slips are great for drawing on. (And we saw some pictures of those slips.)

Picture books for fun were a new idea in Caldecott’s time. It was also a time of the explosion of train travel, so they sold books for people to take on trains. Color printing was new, and they developed the predecessors to the motion picture.

Some hodgepodge notes from this talk: Caldecott was thinking of how to pare down a picture book to the fewest possible lines. When he traveled on trains he’d make “lightning” sketches. He played with composition in new ways. He only once did a book with animals in human dress, and you can see its influence on Beatrix Potter, who admired Randolph Caldecott with a “jealous appreciation.” He invented all the tricks of the trade.

The final general session was Paul O. Zelinsky speaking on “The Caldecott Medal in the 21st Century.”

He wore his Rapunzel tie, which he painted just after turning in the artwork for his Caldecott-winning book Rapunzel

He did some joking about what might happen with the Caldecott in the future. (“We can extrapolate. They’ll all go to Jon Klassen.”) But he did point out that we can’t figure out what will happen.

“Picture books may change, but Story never will.”

He pointed out that your consciousness *is* story — the autobiographical self.

“We are stories. So we cling to stories.”

“Stories take you out of yourself and take you away.”

He talked about writing Rumpelstiltskin and how he got pictures of straw from the New York Public Library photographic archive. He wanted to find a spinning wheel, but there was none to be found anywhere in New York City. (I loved his aside: It was just like the situation in Sleeping Beauty. Made him wonder.)

He concluded that the picture books of the future and those that get honored are completely unpredictable. But bottom line, speaking to that crowd of librarians, “The Caldecott of the future is up to you.”

By the time I finished that amazing Preconference, the entire weekend in Chicago was already worth it. I was energized and inspired and all the more excited about showing children the wonder of art and words and story that picture books are.

ALA 2013 – Caldecott Preconference Reception

Conference Corner 0

I’m at ALA Annual Conference 2013 in Chicago! Tonight’s my earliest night, so I thought I’d post a quick one about my travel day and the first night’s activity.

I had a nice middle of the day flight. But alas! My problems with vertigo and vestibular migraine I think contribute to a fact I had to face: I do not handle turbulence well. It was a turbulent flight and I did NOT feel good by the time it was done. I knit when taking off and landing to try to combat that, and I sit by a window, but that wasn’t enough. Following with a 45-minute subway ride didn’t help.

Otherwise, it was an enjoyable flight. I started reading Savvy, by Ingrid Law, because I always bring paperbacks I own on trips instead of library books, and in my rotation up next is an award winner, and Savvy was a Newbery Honor Book, so it qualifies. Turns out, this copy was signed to me by the author at ALA Annual Conference in 2011! What took me so long to read it? I’m loving it.

One thing I hate about reading on airplanes — you have to stop when the plane lands! But I do have some bedtime reading tonight!

And Shannon Hale tweeted that her new book, Dangerous will be at booth 2105! That is going to be my *first* stop when the exhibits open tomorrow. Though I may not make it there right at opening, because I still have to register, and get permission to bring a rolling cart on the exhibit floor, so I don’t aggravate my vertebral artery dissection. (I don’t want another stroke. The first one happened after ALA!) So they better still be there!

I oh so foolishly spent an hour and a half waiting for a shuttle and then taking it to try to register tonight. Foolishly, because I hadn’t read that they closed registration at 5. I thought they closed when the shuttles stopped at 6. And we didn’t even get there until after 6, because traffic was awful. But I was able to scope out Chicago.

And then — the wonderful part! I’m doing the Preconference tomorrow: “A Wild Ride: 75 Years of the Caldecott Medal.” It’s happening at the Art Institute of Chicago. Even though I don’t know a lot about art, I just had to go to this. And tonight they had a reception for attendees, with several Caldecott Award and Honor winners signing books — and an exhibit of original art from their books.

Why is it so amazing to look at original art? The books are wonderful, and the pictures are designed for books. But looking at this artwork took my breath away.

I did resist purchasing picture books. Though after I went away, I thought what an opportunity it is to be an Outstanding Aunt to my two new nieces. (We’ll see if there are more signings.)

I do have to show Paul Zelinsky’s wonderful shirt, made with images from the fabulous Z Is for Moose (which was a 2012 Sonderbooks Stand-out).

And I can even tell you who the people are in the picture at the top. Here’s another one, a little more blurry, but with more of them looking at me:

Top row: Chris Raschka, Paul Zelinsky, Leonard Marcus, Marla Frazee, Brian Selznick, and Kadir Nelson

Front row: Peter Brown, Pam Zagarenski, Melissa Sweet, Erin Stead, and her husband, Philip C. Stead.

And here’s a view from the side:

Tomorrow, I get to hear these people talk about creating picture books! I’m so excited!

Catching up and ALA 2013

Conference Corner, Events 0

There! with my post last weekend about Caddy’s World, I finally finished posting reviews of books I read in 2012!

Here’s what happened. First, let me say that when I started writing Sonderbooks in 2001, I worked part-time. I reviewed everything I read. Sometime a year or two ago, when I was behind on writing reviews, I started writing the reviews on my blog as drafts, to post later. Posting later takes some time. Even though I use the blog for content, I like posting the reviews back on my main site, Sonderbooks.com, because it’s a much more browsable site of all my reviews, organized by category, and with links to reviews by the same author and books in the same category. Setting up those links takes some time, but so far I haven’t been willing to give that up, because I like the way the site is a resource for all my reviews.

But now that I have the blog as well, I write the reviews as drafts first, and insert the text into html code and add links when I actually post them.

And I’m a little behind.

Here’s how it stands now, for example. I currently have three books sitting in a pile to write reviews for. (This is good, and greatly reduced from a month ago.) But I currently have 52 reviews written as drafts on my blog. I need to catch up! As noted, I just finished posting the last review from 2012, so I am a good six months behind.

I try to alternate between the oldest reviews I have waiting to be posted and one of the newest, especially books just published that I’m especially excited about, though some slip through. I also try not to post books from the same category twice in a row. That’s actually part of what took me so long with the 2012 books — at the end of the year, I was a Cybils judge, so I mostly read children’s fiction at that time, and alternated posting them with other books. (That’s also why I haven’t yet posted reviews of books I loved, Doll Bones, by Holly Black, and P.S. Be Eleven, by Rita Williams-Garcia, and Wednesdays in the Tower, by Jessica Day George. Soon. Very soon.)

Anyway, I’m trying to post two reviews per day until I catch up — but it’s not always happening. I did mention that I work full-time now? I also force myself not to review every book I read. I also recently moved, and still don’t have my boxes unpacked, and still haven’t sent out address change cards.

And I’m going to ALA in Chicago day after tomorrow!

I will probably bring my laptop to ALA but leave it in the hotel room. It’s maybe time I should get an ipad with a keyboard, but I’ve been resisting. I’m going to some sort of event every night I’ll be gone, so I have my doubts that I’ll get in much computer time at all.

But, doggone it, this is my own website, right? There are no deadlines. I am never late! And the books are still good reading, even if they have been published for a year or more. (Which is precisely why I like Sonderbooks to be browsable.)

But that’s what’s going on with me this week. And now that I’ve used a good chunk of time writing this post, let’s see if I can get a review or two posted as well.

I hope I’ll see some friends in Chicago! When I first planned to go, I was hoping I’d be getting ready to serve on next year’s Newbery committee, but I didn’t quite get elected. However, ALA Annual Conference is always a great time for being around my kind of people — book people, and learning a lot, and meeting authors, and celebrating books, and getting excited about upcoming titles. Oh, and having a lovely little block of time to read on the plane!

ALA’s Youth Media Awards

Award Winners, Conference Corner 0

Today I watched the complete webcast of ALA’s Youth Media Awards, and I was very happy. For the first time since the 2010 awards, both the Caldecott winner and the Newbery winner were Sonderbooks Stand-outs. And the winner of our library’s fledgling Mock Newbery Book Club vote got a Newbery Honor!

Although there were a lot of books I loved that didn’t appear, I am completely happy with the ones that did. Let me go through the lists, giving my reaction.

First, let me also say that I’m way behind in posting reviews. Tonight I blitzed through a stack and wrote 7 reviews, but now I have 69 reviews I’ve written that I still need to post. That’s down from 99 such reviews in December, but it’s still a daunting task, and I confess I’m letting a lot more books I read go unreviewed.

So my plan is to finish posting all the reviews of Sonderbooks Stand-outs tomorrow or the next day. Then I’ll tackle some of these award winners that I’ve already reviewed but not posted.

Let me go through the major awards, in the order they were announced. You can find all the award winners listed at ala.org. Please, if you’re reading this, I’d love to hear your own reactions. Which of the books have you read? Any big disappointments? Special thrills?

I haven’t read any of the Alex Awards, so I won’t go through those. Some I’d meant to read, so they make my To Be Read list longer.

I haven’t read any of the Schneider Family winners, though A Dog Called Homeless, by Sarah Lean, was chosen to be a Summer Reading Program selection for our library system.

Some people expressed surprise and disappointment that Wonder didn’t receive a Schneider Family Award. But I don’t think it was actually eligible. The Schneider Family Award is given “for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience,” and Auggie in Wonder mentions many times that he actually doesn’t have any disability — just a deformed face.

I’ve read one of the Stonewall Honor books, Drama, by Raina Telgemeier. I’ll post my review soon.

I’m kicking myself about the Stonewall Award Winner, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, by Benjamin Alire Saenz. Because at an ALA conference I’d accidentally picked up not one, but two Advance Review Copies. But I didn’t get around to reading it before it was published, and I’ve given both copies away. Oh well!

For the Coretta Scott King Awards, I was happy about the Illustrator Honor for I Have a Dream, illustrated by Kadir Nelson. I’ll post my review of that soon. I’ve also read the Illustrator Winner, I, Too, Am America, illustrated by Brian Collier, which is a Capitol Choices selection, and I think it’s a wonderful choice.

I’ve read the CSK Author Honor books, but not the winner. I’ll post the review soon of No Crystal Stair, by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson. I wasn’t a fan of its Newbery chances, but I do think it’s an outstanding book, and am happy it got some honor today.

The Margaret Edwards Award winner for her body of work is Tamora Pierce. I read the Song of the Lioness quartet before I started reviewing books, and I’m happy about this choice. I will definitely plan to attend the Margaret Edwards Luncheon again this year.

For the Morris Award, the only one of the Finalists I’ve read, Seraphina, by Rachel Hartman, was the winner, and I’m very happy about that.

I’m currently in the middle of reading Bomb, which was first mentioned today as the winner of the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award. I wasn’t surprised, because it’s gotten great buzz on the Heavy Medal blog. I’ve read all the other Finalists, and in fact they are all Sonderbooks Stand-outs in Children’s Nonfiction except for Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different. Those Finalists were Moonbird, by Phillip Hoose; Titanic: Voices from the Disaster, by Deborah Hopkinson; and We’ve Got a Job, by Cynthia Levinson

I got a kick out of the Odyssey Honor for the audiobookGhost Knight, by Cornelia Funke. This was a book under consideration for the Cybils shortlist by my committee, and I was the only one who listened to it instead of reading it. I was a much bigger fan of the book than anyone else, and I think I was probably swayed by the wonderful audio recording.

I was also happy about the Odyssey Award Winner, The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green. Though I haven’t listened to the audio version, I loved the book, and the audiobook is a Capitol Choices selection this year.

Then came the Printz. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe was an Honor book, so I again kicked myself for not having read it.

My favorite book of the year, Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein, did get a Printz Honor. And though I can’t fathom another book being better than it, I haven’t actually read the Printz winner or any of the other Printz Honors, so I have to reserve my righteous indignation and be happy that it did receive Honor.

I haven’t read any of the Pura Belpre honor books, but again Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe was the big winner, so I received more kicks from myself.

The Arbuthnot lecture will be given by Andrea Davis Pinkney. Wouldn’t that be fun to attend!

I haven’t read any of the Batchelder winners.

The Sibert Medal almost completely overlapped with the ENYA Award. The Honor books were Electric Ben, by Robert Byrd (which I haven’t read completely but is a Summer Reading Program selection for our library system); Moonbird, by Phillip Hoose; and Titanic: Voices from the Disaster, by Deborah Hopkinson. The winner was (again) Bomb, by Steve Sheinkin.

The Wilder Medal for lifetime achievement was given to Katherine Paterson. Wonderful choice!

The Geisel Awards had my biggest disappointment. I wanted to see Penny and Her Song or Penny and Her Doll, by Kevin Henkes represented, and was sad that they weren’t. However, I was particularly happy with two of the Honor books, Let’s Go For a Drive! by Mo Willems (I always love his books), and Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons, by Eric Litwin, which was a 2012 Sonderbooks Stand-out.

And then came the biggies, the longest-established awards. For the Caldecott, I’ve read and appreciated Extra Yarn illustrated by Jon Klassen, written by Mac Barnett (despite the upside-down knitting needles), Creepy Carrots, illustrated by Peter Brown, written by Aaron Reynolds; One Cool Friend, illustrated by David Small, written by Toni Buzzeo, and Sleep Like a Tiger, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski, written by Mary Logue. I count myself a fan of Green, by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, and that review will be forthcoming. But the winner, This Is Not My Hat, by Jon Klassen, was a Sonderbooks Stand-out and one of my favorite picture books of the year. Almost everyone at my library has read it already, because I pushed it on them.

And finally, my happiness overflowed with the Newbery announcements. I thought Splendors & Glooms had some flaws, but had to admit that the writing was outstanding, so I think it’s Honor was well-deserved. Bomb made its third appearance of the day, so I’m glad I’m currently reading it. But I was especially happy about the third Honor book, Three Times Lucky, because that was the selection of our library’s Mock Newbery Book Club. I had thought we’d picked a longshot, so I was so happy to see it up there. I wrote its review today, and will post it soon.

And the Newbery Medal winner? The wonderful The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate. When I first read The One and Only Ivan, I hoped it would win the Newbery. Since reading it, it got edged out in my hopes by Summer of the Gypsy Moths and Palace of Stone, but discussion on Heavy Medal and in Capitol Choices convinced me that those books probably weren’t serious contenders, so my hopes were riding on The One and Only Ivan again. So happy that those hopes were realized!

How about you? Which choices made you happiest? Which omissions made you saddest? Which books are hitting the top of your TBR piles? I’d love to keep discussing….

Conference Corner – KidLitCon 2012

Conference Corner 0

KidLitCon in New York City! At the New York Public Library! KidLitCon is a conference for bloggers who blog about children’s books. I went to KidLitCon09 close to home in DC, to KidLitCon11 in Seattle, and just had to go when it was so close by and free to boot.

I’m way behind on my Conference Corner posts. So, for fear I’ll never get to KidLitCon, I decided to post the same night I got back, when everything’s fresh. Instead of giving you all my notes, I’m just going to give you the high points. Here are the things I took home from KidLitCon12, in chronological order.

1. Publisher Previews are Dangerous.

I only was able to go to one preview, since I flew in to New York at noon, and that was probably a good thing. It was at the offices of HarperCollins going over books they’re publishing soon.

Why are previews dangerous? First, I had packed lightly. They gave us a full bag of advance reader copies, as well as three hardbound published books and a blank book. Did I tell them, no, I couldn’t possibly carry the bag home on the plane or fit it in my suitcase? No, I did not. Did I even tell them my neurologist said, since my vertebral artery dissection, that it’s not a good idea for me to walk around carrying more than 15 pounds? No, I did not.

Now, don’t worry, as I walked 20 blocks up 5th Avenue to our dinner (which I actually enjoyed. Definitely gave me the feel of New York City.), I found a FedEx and stuck the bag on their counter, and had them ship the whole bag home to me. But the other reason the preview was dangerous is after hearing them talk about the upcoming books, I want to read every single book! Was I hurting for ideas of books to read? No, I was not. Did I need to know about more books I’d like to read? No, I did not. Does that make me want to read them any less? No, it does not.

Now, later in the conference, I did end up with two more hardbound and two more paperback books. My suitcase ended up being hard to close, but I managed it. But to show how dangerous I find publisher previews, and how impossible I find it to resist free books — this morning I woke up from a dream where I was in a line to get advance reader copies of some adult books I didn’t even find very interesting, and which I knew I wouldn’t be able to fit in my suitcase, and when I knew it was Sunday and I wouldn’t be able to ship them — but I took them anyway! I was so relieved when I woke up! I had not taken more books than I could carry after all.

Yeah, I have a problem.

2. KidLit Bloggers are My People.

Okay, I knew this already. But it was a lovely to spend a weekend with other people who are a little nuts about children’s books. My resolution: Read more of their blogs! More regularly! These are my people, and it was wonderful to see the ones I already knew and meet some I hadn’t met before.

And I got to be roommates again with Lisa Song, who blogs at Reads for Keeps. She helped me navigate the subways, and having some quieter time with her between busy days was definitely a highlight of the conference.

3. Grace Lin shines with niceness and has a Really Cute Baby.

4. Sushi tastes good.

Who would have thought?

5. You should be creating something you want to share with the world, not something to show how clever or talented you are.

This was from Grace Lin’s talk. Just an inspiring reminder why I blog: To share special books with other people.

6. Although they are My People, not all Children’s Book Lovers are introverts like me. The extroverted ones are really fun to be around, though.

Here’s Pam Coughlan, Mother Reader, “auctioning” off ARCs from the Publisher Previews the day before. (I managed not to take any, I’m proud to say.) That’s Charlotte, middle grade science fiction and fantasy specialist, on the right. (Who is in the middle?)

7. Make your blog easy to share.

Resolution: Add more sharing buttons, besides the Tweet button. Must get around to this….

8. “If you talk like you’re alone in a room, you will be.” — Marsha Lerner

This point brought a small epiphany for me. Since I began Sonderbooks as an e-mail newsletter consisting of book reviews, I think of it as my thoughts I’m sharing with people. I’m talking like I did when I was the instructor lecturing the classroom.

9. Ask questions you want answers to.

All these last three points are from Marsha’s talk. And, mulling them over, I had an idea this morning. I think I am going to start using comments to discuss the books I review with other people who have read them. So I will put Spoilers in the comments. So far, I don’t get a lot of comments on book reviews. I mean, what do you say if you haven’t read the book? You can say, I’m looking forward to reading that. But wouldn’t it be nice to be able to talk about that annoying or brilliant thing at the end of the book and find out what other people think? I could use the comments for deeper discussion.

What do you think? I am honestly curious. Do you think spoilers in the comments is a good idea, if I put lots of warnings? My main blog doesn’t show comments, and on my website, you’d have to click over to the blog to see them, and I’d make sure to put warnings. Do you think it will work?

10. Winnie-the-Pooh!!!!! The Original!!!!

Okay, this was NOT something I took home with me, but this WAS a big huge enormous thrill. I got to see the original animals that Christopher Robin played with! Don’t they look so much like the Ernest Shepard illustrations? Especially Tigger:

And you can clearly see why Piglet is truly a Very Small Animal:

Eeyore actually looks patched, which easily explains the story of him losing his tail. All the animals, including dear Pooh, were clearly much loved.

But wait. You may be asking, like me, “What is that OTHER stuffed animal doing in the case?” That, dear reader, is a Travesty. You see, not only was a sequel to Winnie-the-Pooh and The House of Pooh Corner “authorized,” a new character was created. A stuffed animal of this new character was created, and someone had the Very Bad Idea of putting the new stuffed animal in the case with the original toys with whom Christopher Robin once played. Here is a picture Leaving It Out:

I took these pictures on my lunch break, and was so glad I’d made the pilgrimage. Wow.

11. Keep my inner fangirl in check. Maybe?

There was quite a lot of talk about the relationship between writers and bloggers. Do we get too nice because we don’t want to hurt the authors’ feelings? Is our professionalism hurt when we “know” the writer online or have met them in person?

I began writing Sonderbooks when I was working in a library, but was not yet a librarian. Now I’m a librarian, and I’ve been to the William Morris Seminar, and I closely follow the Heavy Medal blog — and I would so love to be on the Newbery committee some day. If I don’t want my reviews to be merely cheerleading, I should practice thinking critically. Yes, I feel I can continue with my policy of only reviewing books I like, but why do I like them? And, come on, it’s more professional if I try not to Squee too hard when I meet an author. Maybe less pictures with them? (And you’ll notice at least I posted Grace only with her baby.) Hmm. I’ll have to work on this one.

12. If you’re doing a PowerPoint presentation, make sure you are not scheduled after Brian Selznick.

This point is courtesy of Maureen Johnson; it seems very wise.

13. Always feel free to bring a friend.

Maureen roped her friend Robin Wasserman into sharing the keynote, and that added lots of fun to the talk.

14. Keep in mind every day why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Another one from Maureen Johnson.

15. Central Park is lovely.

Who knew?

I had a late afternoon flight, so I went into Central Park, and when I walked a little way in, I heard and saw an actual waterfall. So lovely.

I liked the juxtaposition of the trees with the skyscrapers.

Then later I came upon a large lake. Walking through Central Park was simply a lovely way to spend a couple hours after an inspiring weekend.

How about you, other KidLit Bloggers? What did you take away from KidLitCon?

Conference Corner — Morris Awards and YALSA Nonfiction Awards

Award Winners, Conference Corner 0

The final event of ALA Midwinter Meeting that I attended was the Morris Award and YALSA Nonfiction Award ceremony. I like the way those two awards announce a short list, so that the winners can be there for the ceremony. This year, it turned out that Morris Award Winner John Corey Whaley also won the Printz Award. He was a happy man. I spotted him in the exhibits after the award announcements.


Those are the Morris Award stickers for his book.

Of course, I had to get a picture with him, as did many other youth services librarians. We wanted him to know that to us, he’s a rock star.

At the Award ceremony, some of the authors spoke by video, but I took notes for the ones who spoke in person.

First was Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Morris Honor winning author of Under the Mesquite:
She got the news of winning the Honor while teaching, which was so appropriate, because she wrote the book while teaching.
She remembered being hungry for understanding. Books showed the world to her, empowered her.
She wrote, not to be published, but to be read.
She wrote this story for young people who can’t talk about this. They have great strength within them.
The most important destination of all: Young Readers’ Minds
ala means “wings” in Spanish. So appropriate!

Ruta Sepetys, Honor winner for Between Shades of Gray:
History has secrets.
Through stories, these people become human.

John Corey Whaley, Morris Award Winner for Where Things Come Back (He also learned on the same day that he won the Printz Award.):
Thursday was his birthday. He feels sorry for all his other birthdays.
“I get to be a writer. It means so much to say that.”
“My life is a constant state of shock.”
“There’s no other community I’d rather be part of than the People of YA.”
“…the cool kids who run into things because they’re walking while reading books.”
“I had given up hope that I could be a happy adult.”

Then were the YALSA Awards for Excellence in Nonfiction:

Karen Blumenthal, Honor Award for Bootleg:
One of the strengths of nonfiction: Real stories and real consequences.
“Nonfiction provides a context for a complicated world.”
“In real life, the girl doesn’t always end up with the sparkly vampire.”
The world isn’t black and white, but many shades of messy.
Those who passively observe get to live with the results.

Sue Macy, Honor Award for Wheels of Change
As a teen, her favorite books were This Fabulous Century. She imitated these books.
She takes a thematic approach to this era of history.
There was lots of serendipity in her search.

Steve Sheinkin, Award Winner for The Notorious Benedict Arnold
“Benedict Arnold made people nervous.”
This is a straight-ahead action-adventure rise and fall story.

Afterward, we were given free copies of many of the books and got them signed. Here’s Sue Macy signing Wheels of Change:

This award ceremony isn’t nearly as fancy as the Newbery/Caldecott Banquet or as the Printz Reception, but I think with first-time authors winning the Morris Award, and nonfiction authors who don’t always get as much recognition, it’s guaranteed that the Morris and Nonfiction award ceremony will always be deeply heartfelt.