Children’s Book Art Online Auction

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, an organization committed to fighting censorship, will be holding its 19th annual Children’s Book Art Auction at BEA, an event that is always a highlight for attendees, on Wednesday, May 29th. In addition to their wonderful array of offerings, they are having a special Maurice Sendak Memorial with artists paying homage to the great American artist.

And this year, they’ve something new: an online auction for those who can’t come to the live one in person. It begins this coming Sunday, May 18th, and runs for a week. You can preview the art here.  I’ve always heard of booksellers’ excitement about purchasing original art at the auction and now the public can too!

Books as Solace

I highly recommend “Books in the Home: The Penderwicks on Hayward Street,” Rachel Stein‘s essay on how Jeanne Birdsall’s Penderwick series comforted her daughter during a challenging time in her young life. I tend to be skittish about offering specific books as therapy as everyone processes tragedy so differently, but have often seen how individual children hone in on a particular title, as Rachel’s daughter did, and found it comforting. A lovely exploration of books as solace.

Rita Williams-Garcia’s P.S. Be Eleven

A huge fan of Rita Willliams-Garcia’s One Crazy Summer, I was incredibly happy when it got a great deal of award-love and recognition. I mean, who could not be taken with those three sisters going off to spend the summer in California with the Black Panther mother they never knew? And who could not want to know what happened to them when they went home to Brooklyn?

Happily, we find out in the sequel,  P.S. Be Eleven. Taking off immediately after the girls return from California, their life in late 60s Brooklyn is all about changes. Delphine is starting sixth grade with a teacher she wasn’t expecting, Vonetta and Fern are becoming more independent, their beloved uncle Darnell is back from Vietnam and not doing well at all, Pa has a new girlfriend, and Big Ma is struggling with all of it.

And Delphine is struggling too– to make sense of her world, her family, her friends, and herself as she moves through this pivotal year. Her mother Cecile is on the other side of the continent, but her letters consistently and repeatedly remind Delphine to be eleven, to not grow up too soon, to be herself.

As in the first book, time and place are vividly evoked. I was particularly moved by the girls’ adoration of the Jackson Five, their efforts to make it to a concert…and what happened about that. And Williams-Garcia does the small epiphanies of youth with exquisite perfection. Say Delphine learning the hard truth about her beloved dictionary, the tiny rare moments alone with her father, her growing awareness of the painful aspects of the lives of the adults around her, aspects completely unrelated to her or her two sisters.

This won’t matter to young readers, but boy did reading this make me feel old! I was certain The Archie’s “Sugar Sugar” was older than the time of this book as I recalled having to listen to it ad nauseam during Driver’s Ed. But indeed I did that in 1969 and that was the year of that bubblegum hit. So I was older than Delphine in 1969.

But never mind about that — all that matters is that young readers today are going to delight when they re-encounter Delphine and cheer as she ponders difficult things around her, learns, enjoys, and is, as her mother urges, (even after she turns twelve): eleven.

Congratulations to the Edgar Winners and Nominees

Last night, the Mystery Writers of America announced this year’s Edgar Award winners.  Congratulations to all!

Best Juvenile Winner: The Quick Fix by Jack D. Ferraiolo (Abrams – Amulet Books)

Other Nominees:

Fake Mustache: Or, How Jodie O’Rodeo and Her Wonder Horse (and Some Nerdy Kid) Saved the U.S. Presidential Election from a Mad Genius Criminal Mastermind by Tom Angleberger (Abrams – Amulet Books)
13 Hangmen by Art Corriveau (Abrams – Amulet Books)
Spy School by Stuart Gibbs (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage (Penguin Young Readers Group – Dial Books for Young Readers)

Best Young Adult Winner: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (Disney Publishing Worldwide – Hyperion)

Other Nominees:

Emily’s Dress and Other Missing Things by Kathryn Burak (Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group – Roaring Brook Press)
The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George (Penguin Young Readers Group – Viking)
Crusher by Niall Leonard (Random House Children’s Books – Delacorte BFYR)
Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield (Penguin Young Readers Group – Dutton Children’s Books)

Jane Adams Children’s Book Awards

I was thrilled to see that two of my favorite books from 2012 have won the 2013 Jane Adams Children’s Book Awards: Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson with illustrations by E. B. Lewis and We’ve Got a Job by Cynthia Levinson.  Great honor books too. Congratulations to all!

The Brilliant E. L. Konigsburg

Claudia, so completely prepared, and  Jamie, so careful with the budget.  They are still and will always be two shrewd suburban kids who run away to a timeless Metropolitan Museum of Art to bathe in its elegant pool and sleep in its famous historical bed while investigating the mystery of the angel in the remarkable children’s book  From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.  This American classic was penned by the wonderful writer E. L. Konigsburg who passed away this past week.

While she is probably best known for that marvelous story of two resourceful siblings in a New York City museum, Konigsburg wrote many other books for children, often featuring art and history. She is the only person to have won a Newbery medal (for From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler) and Newbery honor (for her first book  Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth) in the same year, 1967.  She received another Newbery Medal in 1997 for The View from Saturday.

I was fortunate enough to meet Mrs. Konigsburg a few times. My favorite memory of these was at a late evening drinks reception where I sat with her and a handful of others on bar stools around a small high table, quite starry-eyed to be included.  She was definitely one of the classiest and smartest people I have ever read or met and I hope that her books will continue to provide the same intellectual and aesthetic pleasure for others that they have for me.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Musical

I wrote my first post about the Matilda musical back in 2010 right before the original RSC production opened — the various videos and the RSC trailer (on my post) had me smitten and so the first thing I did when finalizing a trip to London last August was to get a ticket to the London production.  Now  I’m planning another summer trip to London and. while it is still all very mysterious, I’m planning on getting tickets to the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical, which begins previews next month.  Why?  First of all, Sam Mendes is directing and he did one of the most memorable shows I ever saw, a production of Cabaret with Alan Cummings as the MC and Natasha Richardson as Sally Bowles.  The rest of the creative team looks impressive too, say the choreographer Peter Darling who also did Matilda and Billy Eliot. The recently released teaser trailer below is just that, a tease, with no sense of anything at all.

A little more poking around and I found a British Vogue article with costume sketches by Mark Thompson.

He admits that creating the costumes for the oompa loompas was the biggest challenge.

“I can’t tell you why yet, but there is a lot of puppetry involved,” he said. “It’s about tricks of the eye. The whole thing has a feeling of yesterday, but there’s no specific time or period. I don’t know if I’ve captured the whimsical, magical nature of the plot yet – we’ll have to see how it’s received, but I have worked at capturing the wit of it all.”

That’s it so far!

The Picture This! Festival

For those in the New York City area, the French Consulate has a wonderful festival underway celebrating creators of book art.  Upcoming events include:

Alex Alice & Ron Wimberly

Dates: April 15, 2013 | 6 pm

Place: Columbia University Butler Library (Room 523)

Alex Alice and Ron Wimberly are graphic novelists who retell classic stories in contemporary comic book style. Join these two pop culture savvy storytellers for a conversation at Columbia University’s Butler Library.

Boulet & Gabrielle Bell

Dates: April 25, 2013 | 6:30pm
Place: Society of Illustrators

With a good mix of humor and pathos, Boulet and Gabrielle Bell both write webcomics inspired by anecdotes from their own daily lives. These short stories take on society and contemporary life, travels, travails, and preoccupations.  Sit down with these witty and incisive authors at the Society of Illustrators for a conversation moderated by Karen Green, graphic novel librarian at Butler Library – Columbia University.

Olivier Tallec & Oliver Jeffers

Dates: May 1, 2013 | 6pm
Place: NYPL, Berger Forum

Olivier Tallec and Oliver Jeffers are both avid world travelers and authors whose bold and colorful children’s books are bestsellers in the US. Join them for an animated conversation at the New York Public Library, moderated by Pamela Paul, Children’s Book Editor of the New York Times Book Review.

Blutch & David Mazzucchelli

Dates: May 7, 2013
Place: McNally Jackson Books

Blutch and David Mazzuchelli are creative chameleons whose books weave together story, formal play and lush colors. So it’s no wonder Mazzuchelli was chosen to design the cover for the American edition of Blutch’s So Long Silver Screen (PictureBox, May 2013). These masters of contemporary cartooning will meet face to face for a conversation at McNally Jackson.

Antoine Guilloppé & Istvan Banyai

Dates: May 13, 2013
Place: School of Visual Arts Theatre

Antoine Guilloppé and Istvan Banyai transform each page of their books into a fully realized scene by playing with light and shadow. Their work carefully considers the medium of the page and pushes its boundaries. Step outside the book with these two authors for a lively conversation at the School of Visual Arts Theatre with children’s book historian Leonard S. Marcus.

The Watsons Go to Birmingham starts filming

The Hallmark Channel this week began production of a civil rights era film “The Watsons Go to Birmingham” in Atlanta for a 19-day shoot.

The film, based on a 1995 historical fiction novel of the same name by Christopher Paul Curtis, was created byNikki Silver and Tonya Lewis Lee, Spike Lee’s wife. Lee also wrote the script and spent nine years trying to get it to air.

Atlanta’s acclaimed Kenny Leon will direct, as he did last year’s “Steel Magnolias” remake for Lifetime. Walmart and P&G are co-sponsoring the film.

More in this accessatlanta article (via @randomhouse)

Congratulations to New New York Times Book Review Editor, Pamela Paul

I was delighted to see yesterday’s announcement that Pamela Paul was assuming the editorship of the New York Times Book Review.  Two years ago she became the children’s books editor and,  knowing many would be curious about her as she was coming from outside the children’s literature world,  I interviewed her for a blog profile, beginning:

Recently, Pamela Paul, the new children’s book editor at The New York Times Book Review chatted with me about her background, books, and some of her plans. In the course of our communications, Pamela asked me how I found the time to blog as a full-time teacher and I responded that I wondered the same about her. The author of three well-received books, and articles for a variety of publications including The Economist, Time Magazine as well as the New York Times, Pamela is also the mother of three very young children. Count me as impressed.

Count me as even more impressed two years later. Pamela has done so much for the world of children’s books — introducing weekly online picture book reviews, expanding the scope of books reviewed, adding in special sections such as one on Back to School books, upping the number of the Times’  yearly notable children’s books, and more.  In the midst of this exciting work, she expanded to features editor and continued to write articles on a variety of topics for the Times and elsewhere. Pamela is smart, thoughtful, a terrific editor from the point of view of a reviewer, and I can’t wait to see what she does in this new role.