Fairies Pro and Con

I’m a fairy person.  I grew up loving fairy stories — the classical fairy tales and various stories involving encounters with little, magical people.  So I was totally charmed by Laura Amy Schlitz’s forthcoming book The Night Fairy and happy to see Betsy Bird’s mention of the associated website.  It is indeed the perfect book for the child who loves tiny people, nature, and a gentle sort of magic. Completely and utterly delightful.

But I have to admit I also greatly enjoy clever works by those who are, shall we say, not nearly as enthused about the sweet fairies of the flower sort.  One of my all-time favorites of this sort is Terry Jones and Brian Foud’s (not for children) Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book which plays havoc with the Cottingley fairies story (which I adore and hope to write as a kid’s book one day).  Now we’ve got Conn Iggulden and Lizzy Duncan’s take in Tollins: Explosive Tales for Children.

Tollins are not fairies. Though they both have wings, fairies are delicate creatures and much smaller. When he was young, Sparkler accidentally broke one and had to shove it behind a bush before its friends noticed.

While not fairies, Tollins are magical and little. In fact, they made me think a bit of the Mainzelmannchen, cute little guys on German television ads since I was a kid.

Look out for both of these books — fun little people stuff for kids.

Away to Chicago

I’m off shortly to ALA in Chicago where I will be seeing many friends from the publishing world — authors, illustrators, editors, marketers, publicity folks, agents, librarians, academics, reviewers, educators, teachers, bloggers, booksellers, and book lovers of all stripes. Can’t wait to see them all and do some socializing, gossiping, hear about and see new and forthcoming books, and otherwise have a grand time.

In addition to all the socializing and networking, I also plan to:

• Stop by the Mo Willems reading at the Art Institute’s “Picture Perfect: Caldecott Award Books: 2006-2009) exhibit on Friday afternoon, 3-5.
• Wander the exhibits on Saturday morning. (This is perhaps my favorite thing to do — see what is coming down the pike for all of us.  I’m also on the look-out for next year’s Battle of the Kids’ Books contenders.)
• Meet up with some fellow child_litters for lunch on Saturday at the convention center food court (thanks to Cheryl Klein for organizing this).
• Hopefully make it to the Saturday 1:30 session, “Books and Blogs: Made for Each Other?”
• Sit in on the Notables meetings (their discussion list is available here) at various times.
• Also on Saturday, at 3:30, get to the session, “Mixing it Up: The Process of Bringing International Children’s Books to the US” with Cheryl and others.
• On Sunday at 1:30, go to The Pura Belpré Celebración; I’ve never been before and hear it is wonderful!
• Be at the Newbery Caldecott Wilder Banquet on Sunday.  I went to my first one of these in 2002 when my dear friend Roxanne Feldman was on the committee that honored Linda Sue Park with the Newbery Medal for A Single Shard.  She arranged for me to sit at the FSG table where I had a blast with Jack Gantos.  Since then I’ve gone yearly and it has been wonderful each time.  Last year was, of course, particularly special because it was when I was on the Newbery Committee and we got to see one of the best banquet speeches to date by our winner, Laura Amy Schlitz.  Neil Gaiman is an amazing speaker (and, as this blog’s readers well know, I was a huge advocate for his book winning), but I’m dubious that even he can beat Laura’s mesmerizing presentation of  last year. Still he is NEIL GAIMAN, arguably the biggest celeb to win this award (biggest outside this world of children’s books, I mean), a great guy, and a wonderful storyteller in his own right — so I’m sure it is going to be one hell of a night.  I cannot wait!
• Listen to Melba Beals on Monday morning.
• Attend the presentation of the Batchelder, Carnegie, Geisel, and Sibert Awards later on Monday morning.

Sadly I am returning to NYC on Monday afternoon so cannot attend the Odyssey Award Presentation and Reception, the Printz Award Program, the Coretta Scott King Award celebrations (really, really sorry I can’t do these — I’ve gone to the amazing breakfast several times and this year there are more events to celebrate 40 years of the award), and too many other cool looking activities.

Laura Amy Schlitz at the NYPL This Week

My beloved Newbery winner Laura Amy Schlitz is going to be in my town this week.  More specifically, she will be doing two events at Betsy Bird’s new digs, the Humanities and Social Sciences Library Children’s Center at 42nd Street (Room 84).

Friday, December 5, 4:00. “Into the Woods, Below the Lake, and Under the Hill:  Children’s stories from the Netherlands, Scotland, and Tanzania.” Hear the renowned storyteller and reigning Newbery Medalist LAURA AMY SCHLITZ. Recommended for children ages 6 and up (but adults are welcome)

Saturday, December 6, 2:00. “Rhinos and Devils:  Stories for Grown-ups and Wise Children.” Meet reigning Newbery Medalist LAURA AMY SCHLITZ, in an annual St. Nicholas Eve celebration of stories and storytelling. Recommended for adults, and for children 12 and up.

About That Speech

I urge you all to get your hands on the July/August 2008 Horn Book Magazine in order to read for yourself Laura Amy Schlitz’s Newbery speech. While seeing Laura perform it was magical, I’m happy to say that it also reads beautifully on the pages of the magazine. And editor Mary Lee Donovan’s profile is absolutely wonderful too, a dialogue complete with footnotes, a clever reference to those in the winning book itself.

And I really urge those who read Marc Aronson’s thoughts about the speech to read it for yourselves especially if you are planning on weighing in on the issue as Colleen Mondor suggests you do. “Facts are necessary, facts are useful, facts are fascinating. But stories enlarge our lives.” said Laura. “They awaken us to color and depth and pattern. They help us make sense of a random world.”

I recently read Laura’s biography, The Hero Schliemann: The Dreamer who Dug for Troy. What fascinated Laura and caused her to research and write Schliemann’s story was the lack of clarity — that some of the facts (even in the man’s own diary) were possibly, nay likely, fabricated, made-up. The fact of this likely fabrication of facts fascinates me too, I can tell you. It is interesting. And interesting is the key word. In her speech, Laura described her young listeners’ preference for an interesting story over the true one. And then how she overheard them as, true story forgotten, they passed on the interesting one. The one about the librarian and the bear. (Interested? Find a copy of the July/August Horn Book pronto!)

Trails of fact and story, of truth and fiction. Dorothy Bradford, of the Mayflower, killed herself. Fact? Fiction? Which do you want? The true story or the interesting story? Poor woman, it is the interesting one that continues today to be thought of as true. Annoyed as I am by this I nonetheless believe that we cannot totally control facts when they go out into the world. Whether it is Laura telling me an interesting story or me creating one of my own from the true story — either way, imaginative thinking is what is going on.

For whether we read a story that someone made for us, a true one or an interesting one, or take the facts to create a story for ourselves — either way we are using our imaginations to create a narrative. These narratives can be huge — say the nation-building of 18th century America or small — say the examination of a particular individual and his or her contribution to life on this planet. Either way, the facts of these bits of history are made into narratives, to make them come alive, fiction or fact — not sure the difference, the dichotomy, the polarization is as great as some make it to be.

I’m interested always in imaginative thinking. To do history you have to be able to place yourself, imagine yourself, empathize, and otherwise think about a past time, a time that you have not experienced. Similarly, to enjoy a work of fiction you have to buy into it, be able to imagine yourself into that setting that you have not experienced. As I continue to think about children, their learning, their thinking, and their interaction with books I’ll continue to think about the complexity of our imaginations and ways of engaging with art, with truth, with facts, with story.

Laura Amy Schlitz’s Tall Tale

“My pets, go read!”

A Tall Tale: Laura Amy Schlitz – 4/1/2008 – School Library Journal

Thoughts on Newbery: CS Monitor Profile on Laura Amy Schlitz

The school bus honked and pulled over, startling Laura Schlitz as she was taking a walk in her residential neighborhood here. The bus driver leaned out and called to Ms. Schlitz: “Aren’t you the lady who won that big book award? I recognize you!” It is at such moments that Laura Amy Schlitz, whose book “Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village” recently won the 2008 Newbery Medal, the most prestigious prize in children’s literature, realizes that she is not simply a school librarian anymore.

Shy school librarian finds success as author | csmonitor.com

Thoughts on Newbery: It took a village to win a Newbery

The medal-winning book this year, “Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!,” succeeds as drama, poetry, history, and as something altogether new and wonderful.

Liz Rosenberg weighs in on our choices at The Boston Globe: It took a village to win a Newbery.

In the Classroom: Kid Podcasts of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!

Last Friday’s Literary Salon featured my students reading selections from the monologues and dialogues of Laura Amy Schlitz’s Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! For a few weeks beforehand I’d read them one or two a day during our morning meeting. Each child selected one, practiced at home, and then read it on Friday. Not only that — I recorded their readings, turned them into audio files, and yesterday the kids put them on their individual blogs as podcasts. Of course, they are not as polished as those of the Park School fifth graders for whom the pieces were originally written, but my students had fun with them and performed them ably. Do have a look, a listen, and comment if you are so inclined. (They are very eager for comments!)

HUGO, the lord’s nephew

TAGGOT, the blacksmith’s daughter

ALICE, the shepherdess

THOMAS, the doctor’s son

MOGG, the villein’s daughter

OTHO, the miller’s son

SIMON, the knight’s son

EDGAR, the falconer’s son

ISOBEL, the lord’s daughter

BARBARY, the mudslinger

JACOB BEN SALOMON, the moneylender’s son and PETRONELLA, the merchant’s daughter

PASK, the runaway

PIERS, the glassblower’s apprentice

MARIOT and MAUD, the glassblower’s daughters

NELLY, the sniggler

Drogo, the tanner’s apprentice 

GILES, the beggar

In the Classroom: Sarah Margru Kinson and the Amistad

Our classroom theme for the year is immigration. We begin by discussing the children’s own metaphoric migration from a small lower school to our very large middle and high school building. We move out to oral histories — they interview people they know about their own experiences coming to America. Along the way we see movies, go places (Ellis Island, Lower East Side Tenement Museum and Walking Tour, Museum of Chinese in America), read works of historical fiction, and more. (This year, for example, we had a wonderful time with Shaun Tan’s The Arrival.)

We then move back to the time of forced immigration from Africa, the time of slavery in America. Because of my two years in Sierra Leone, I like to do a lot with the African connection. And because the captives were mostly Mende and because they went home to Africa, I love teaching the Amistad story. In fact, I’ve been working on a book for children about Sarah Magru Kinson, one of four children on the ship. Last year I put it on a blog for my students to read; this year I made it available to the other fourth grade classes. It has been wonderful to get their feedback. Here is this year’s introduction for my class. Here, here, here, and here are some of their posts about the story.

After reading and writing about the story, I showed the children a series of poems about enslavement and/or the Amistad.  I then showed them the poem the class wrote last year with Natasha Trethewey and invited them to write their own.  These will be integrated into collages like these from last year and posted on their blogs.   Their poems are wonderful and I can’t wait to see them completed!

I’m also incredibly touched and moved by the emails I’m getting from the children in other classes.  I have to thank Laura Amy Schlitz for making me brave enough to give the story to them. Last year I felt skittish about even letting my own class read it, but now that I know that Laura wrote her plays for students in her school originally I somehow felt much more relaxed about my work being used in my school.

Thoughts on Newbery: Selznick and Schlitz Discuss Their Award-Winning Books

Laura Amy Schlitz, a school librarian in Baltimore and author of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village, was wide awake when the Newbery call came. But not exactly because she had been expecting it. “I had woken up at 5 and had a stomachache,” she says, “and couldn’t go back to sleep. Finally it was 6:30, when I would have woken up anyway. I told myself, ‘OK, it’s time to be brave, the phone hasn’t rung, you have a good life, it’s time to get up and fix lunch.’ Then the phone rang.”Schlitz recalls being “thunderstruck” by the news. “I had been trying not to want one of the honors,” she says, “because I knew the chances were very slim. I don’t remember the call very well. It was some time before I remembered to stammer out ‘thank you.’ On the one hand I don’t remember the call but on the other hand I’ll remember it the rest of my life.”

Selznick and Schlitz Discuss Their Award-Winning Books – 1/17/2008 – Publishers Weekly