International Book Giving Day is a day dedicated to getting new, used, and borrowed books in the hands of as many children as possible. We have Tomi Ungerer, Judy Blume, Katrina Germein and many other great authors on board. However, to reach as many kids as possible, we need your help too!

Three simple ways you can celebrate International Book Giving Day:

1. Give a Book to a Friend or Relative.

Is there a child in your life who would enjoy receiving a book on February 14th? In lieu of or in addition to a card or box of chocolates, choose a good book from a bookstore or public library to give to your child, niece or nephew, mentee, friend, or neighbor.

2. Donate a Book.

Wrap up a box of children’s books that your kids have outgrown and get them in the hands of children who could really use a book or two. Donate your books to your local second hand store, library, children’s hospital, or nonprofit organization working to ensure that all kids have access to books.

3. Leave a Book in a Waiting Room or Lobby.

Choose a waiting room where kids are stuck waiting and there are few to no good books available. Purchase a good book, and deposit your book covertly or overtly in your waiting room of choice. The goal here is to spread the love of reading to kids, so choose a fun book, nothing controversial.

Let’s see how many people we can get to commit to giving a book to a child by February 14th!

Connect with others worldwide participating in International Book Giving Day by visiting International Book Giving Day’s website and Facebook page.

International Book Giving Day’s website: http://bookgivingday.blogspot.com/
International Book Giving Day’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/BookGivingDay

Let us know that you are participating!

Leave your name and country here: http://bookgivingday.blogspot.com/2012/02/were-giving-books-for-international.html

Answer our “How will you celebrate International Book Giving Day?” poll.

Share a photo of a child unwrapping a gift, a Valentine’s Day book exchange, you rummaging through your shelves in search of books to donate, or, my personal favorite, you slyly depositing a children’s book in a waiting room.

Thanks to Amy Broadmore for the info.

*Spoilers Included!*

Fact: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a new book from Christopher Paul Curtis is a great good thing.

Fact: There is a new book out there. It is by Christopher Paul Curtis.

Opinion: It doesn’t work.

When you hand a kid a Christopher Paul Curtis novel you can rest safe and secure in the knowledge that the book you’re handing over is going to have humor leavened with little moments of surprising heart and clarity. You know that the title is going to make an era from the past more real to the child reader than any number of history textbooks at school. You know this. And the remarkable thing about The Mighty Miss Malone, Mr. Curtis’s newest novel, is that it manages to accomplish all these things, and accomplish them well, without being a particularly good book. There are times when Mighty Miss Malone sparkles and crackles and comes to life on the page. Of course there are. This is Christopher Paul Curtis we’re talking about here. But those moments are buried deep beneath a plot that is at times quite slow, a protagonist that is passive, and a plot twist that seemed so nice he used it twice. Mr. Curtis is one of our finest writers for young people working today and this is not his finest work. It’s fine. Not great.

If you were paying close attention to the book Bud Not Buddy then you might have caught a glimpse of a girl named Deza Malone when Bud stopped in a Hooverville for a while. Turns out that there’s more to her situation than meets the eye. A formidable student and smart gal, Deza spends much of her time defending her older (yet shorter) troublemaking brother Jimmie. But when their father has a horrible accident out on Lake Michigan everything changes for the worse. The man who returns to them seems like their dad but there’s something different about him. Before they know it he’s left town to find work, their landlord kicks them out of their home, and their mother is determined to go to Flint, Michigan to find Deza’s dad as well as some work of her own. Sometimes the biggest plans are the most difficult to carry out, though. And sometimes help comes from the most unexpected of places.

A quick note: If ever you heard the words “Spoiler Alert” you are hearing them now. I have every intention of giving away every plot twist, every surprise ending, every little secret Mr. Curtis has tucked away in the folds of this novel. Should you wish to be surprised by ANYTHING in the book, cease and desist with reading this review right now. Seriously, I don’t want to ruin something for you that you might really enjoy. Go. Shoo. Scat. Off with you unless you’re fine with that (or have read the book already). All gone? Then let’s begin.

I think the key to the novel lies in its creation. In a note to the reader, Mr. Curtis recounts how the idea for this book came into being. He was invited to speak to an African American mother-daughter book club in Detroit about Newbery winner Bud Not Buddy. “Big mistake”. According to him the minute he walked in he was confronted by some of the moms wondering what exactly happened when that random girl in the Hooverville kissed Bud. Explaining that they were only getting half the story Mr. Curtis found that the seeds to this new book were planted in his noggin. He’d been criticized for not writing any stories with girl characters as the heroines. Now here was his chance to right/write that great wrong. A good story, but I think there may have been a reason Mr. Curtis had avoided the female point of view until now. He still gives all the good stuff to his boy characters.

Curtis does a perfectly serviceable job of getting inside Miss Malone’s head to sound like a girl, no question. So why the heck isn’t she allowed to save the day? We spend a great deal of time hearing from the adults in this novel how Deza’s clever head will be what saves the family someday. There’s a lot riding on her brains and everyone from her schoolteacher to her parents to her older brother is sure that she’ll be the saving of them all. This would seem to imply that by the end of this book Deza will do something clever that will save the day. Not so much. The only time she does anything particularly surprising and of her own initiative is when she sneaks off to Detroit to find her brother. When she does she sees he’s doing well, ends up back home again, and that’s that. And later when it turns out that someone mysterious has bought the family a home, who’s the true hero of the book? None other than Jimmie, the short troublemaking brother with the voice of an angel. By the time I got to the end of the book I realized that Jimmie was the true hero of the novel. He’s the one that goes through the most personal growth and change. To my mind Mr. Curtis clearly wanted to be writing about him rather than Deza. In Jimmie you’ve got a shyster with a heart of gold that goes on to make good and save his whole family. Now THAT’s a story! Deza? She just sort of goes along for the ride. Not what you’d hope for with Mr. Curtis’s first true heroine.

None of this is to say that Deza isn’t appealing. I liked seeing her initially as a kind of Depression-era Anne of Green Gables with a subconscious that talks like Edward G. Robinson. Her daydreams, where she snickers over the graves of her fallen tormenters, are fantastic, as is her voice. There’s a lot of pluck in this gal, a fact that makes her eventual passive status all the more frustrating. Even the letter she forges isn’t even her idea but her brother’s. Do you see why I think he was supposed to be the hero of the book?

Other problems had to do with how unclear her point of view was. We’re seeing everything in this book through her eyes and you know that she’s willfully trying not to see the truth about certain things. For example, late in the book when she believes her father has bought a house for the family I think we’re supposed to understand that she’s ignoring the facts that don’t make sense. The trouble is that there are ways of making it clear when a character is ignoring the truth of a situation and Mr. Curtis never attempts any of these. Then there’s the fact that we hear one thing and see another. Early on Deza tells us that her father is taking a while to recover from his initial ordeal but that’s not what we see. She’s telling us and Mr. Curtis isn’t showing us. What we see is a guy who is laughing and making jokes and might be a little quiet now again, but there’s nothing to really suggests the accident has significantly changed him.

For all of this, the problem that really hurt was the fact that the big climax where Deza and her mother find her father in a poorhouse was basically a reworking of the moment earlier in the book when he’s brought home from a hospital after his accident. In both cases he’s unrecognizable. In both cases Deza doesn’t run to him. In both cases it’s her mother who knows him first and best. Then I think of Mr. Curtis’s previous novel Elijah of Buxton and the sheer gut-punch of that amazing ending. I expected something like that which is probably my own fault. What I got instead was something repetitive, so naturally I was disappointed. Kids reading the book won’t have such high expectations but even they will recognize that the climax is essentially just a repeated beat in the end.

I complain but honestly there’s a lot to enjoy here as well. I loved that Deza did not appreciate the significance of the Joe Louis fight and that her father explains it to her ending with “It’s ironic, but Joe will show we’re human by savagely beating the stuffing out of someone.” Great line. Here’s another good one: “The smell was like a living animal, it clawed at your nostrils and rubbed against your legs like a overfriendly cat.” Mr. Curtis is also king of the stinging detail. The fact that Deza’s father has to turn his face when she kisses him because of the stink of her rotting teeth . . . that’s the kind of image that stays with a person. Of course it did rankle a little since it was clear that if Deza heard that as one of the reasons her father was leaving she would jump up and inform him that her teacher had promised to take care of her teeth and that he didn’t need to leave. But that’s neither here nor there.

When I read The Mighty Miss Malone it started out slow and steady. Then the father disappeared and it picked up like a racehorse. But that energy eventually works itself out so that by the end it’s just sort of plodding along. The trouble may be in having too high a set of expectations. If this book had been written by anyone else I bet I’d be singing its praises to the skies and forcing it into the arms of unsuspecting infants. But since Christopher Paul Curtis wrote it I expect the best of the best of the best. To encounter merely the serviceable instead is disappointing. There is a ton to love about this book, but if you’re looking for something of the caliber of The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 or Bud, Not Buddy or Elijah Of Buxton you not find that here. This book is fine, but we may have to wait for Mr. Curtis to take on a boy’s perspective once more before lightning strikes again.

On shelves now.

Source: Galley borrowed from fellow librarian for review.

Notes on the Cover: One of the great covers of the year it’s hard to find anything at fault here. I did show it to a friend of mine with a costuming background who assured me that if this book was set in the Depression era then there was no way Deza would be wearing an outfit with elastic on the sleeves. Acknowledged. Still, I think they made an effort and at this point in the game that means the world to me. Plus I like the kid herself. She looks likable.

Trendwatch 2012: The lisp – At one point Deza’s father acquires a lisp. The written lisping sections read quite a lot like the lisping sections found in Adam Rex’s middle grade novel Cold Cereal. FYI.

Other Blog Reviews:

• slatebreakers
• The Book Smugglers
• The Classroom Bookshelf
• Ms. Yingling Reads
• Waking Brain Cells
  
• Children’s Atheneum

Professional Reviews:

• Kirkus
• The Washington Post
• The Houston Chronicle

Other Reviews:

• Kidsreads.com
• Read Kiddo Read
• TIME for Kids
• Richie’s Picks

Misc:

• Be sure to check out all the useful videos and links regarding this book over at Nerdy Book Club.

• Great great, great great great great piece from Marjorie Ingall on the sticky tricky territory of teaching your kids about the Holocaust through books.  The advice offered from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. in the second to last paragraph of the piece should be printed out, laminated, and handed out to every parent there is.  Re: the recommended reading list in the final paragraph, ditto.

• New Blog Alert: In other news the CBC (Children’s Book Council) recently celebrated their Diversity Committee “dedicated to increasing the diversity of voices and experiences contributing to children’s literature.” The members of this committee are from children’s book publishers across the board. Some great posts currently exist on the committee’s blog, all of which I recommend.  The piece on Felita is particularly noteworthy since the sheer lack of middle grade novels starring Hispanic American children gnaws at my entrails every year.

• There was a recent article in the most recent American Libraries that got the juices flowing in my gray matter this week. In O Sister Library, Where Art Thou? author April Ritchie asks what it would be like if big public libraries with lots of funds paired with little libraries that need a leg up. “A new model for enhancing library services in these more vulnerable areas is emerging in Kentucky, a state with libraries at both ends of the economic spectrum.”  Awesome piece and an even better idea.  Go check that out.

• I’m sure I’m not telling you anything new when I inform you that The Brown Bookshelf has again started its yearly initiative 28 Days Later, a celebration of African American authors and illustrators.  It is THE #1 way to grow aware of people working in the field.  So far the only people highlighted thus far that I was aware of is Nikki Giovanni.  Time to read up on the other folks.  Kwame Alexander, for example, is fascinating.  And I’m incredibly excited to see Atinuke included.  She’s not American, but for her singular voice I too would make an exception.

• Speaking of Black History Month, heads up children’s librarians and educators.  Want access to some relatively cheap continuing education classes?  Then read the following:

Librarianship Upgrades for Children and Youth Services, known as LUCY,
is a multicultural continuing education program offering workshops and
resources for librarians and educators.  Check out LUCY’s FREE
annotated bibliography of multicultural children’s literature at our
website along with book talks on some of the newest titles.  LUCY also
has archived webinars including 21st Century Learning for All with
Gail Dickinson and Grant Writing for Multicultural Projects with Sue
Kimmel.  Like LUCY on Facebook to receive updates and giveaways.  See
the LUCY website for registration information and more at
http://education.odu.edu/eci/lucy/ .

So I headed on over there and yes indeed.  Lo and behold there’s a whole swath of classes from “Integrating Multicultural Literature in the Primary Classroom” to “Spring Into Multicultural Literature with LUCY k-6 and 7-12 sessions” either $25 or free.  The Bibliographies are particularly useful, though.  Utterly up-to-date and filled with some great choices.

• The new reprinting of Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse?  Looks like Old Stock Photo McGee (Travis, that is now your new name) strikes again.

I like my tights.  I should have more of them.  Tights are a good way of saying “Look at me! Someone’s got a personality here!” without pushing the issue.  I recently had a chance to show off some of my stripey-er leg coverings  this past Saturday in conjunction with my Children’s Literary Salon on how booksellers, librarians (both school and public), authors/illustrators, and bloggers can communicate with one another across professions so as to learn about the best books out there for kids.  As per usual I didn’t record it (I just don’t have the resources) but fortunately two of my panelists have picked up the slack.  Melanie Hope Greenberg (my author/illustrator on the panel) wrote about it here and parent blogger Erica Kylander-Clark of both What We Do All Day (her parent blog) and Storied Cities (her book blog) wrote about the experience here with some opinions of her own.  And as you can see by the image here (untimely ripped from Melanie’s site) the tights were on display.

• With all the Newbery/Caldecott hullaballoo there was some speculation as to whether or not Jack Gantos, winner of this year’s Newbery Medal for Dead End in Norvelt, was the first author to both spend time in jail and win the award (not at the same time).  That is why I am so grateful that we have Peter Sieruta on our team.  In his most recent post he finds another Newbery winner who served time, determines how many other winners were older than Jack when they won (I found that a surprise), speculates on children’s authors in Paris in the Roaring 20s, and much much more.  Oh, and Peter?  That part where you ask what we think might win a Newbery in 2012?  Keep your eyes firmly fixed on Twelve Kinds of Ice by Ellen Obed.  That is all.

• Iran recently announced its shortlist of Children’s Books of the Year.  There were a couple interesting inclusions, such as Lois Lowry’s Gathering Blue (well done, Lois), The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo, and Lucy Hawking’s Secret Key to the Universe.  So what won in the end?  The Sufi and the Magic Lamp by Ebrahim Hassanbeigi.  *looks pointed at publisher Frances Lincoln* *cough*  *cough*  Thanks to Rocco Staino for the link.

• New Blog Alert: Two in one day!  It’s a February miracle!  Laura Kvasnosky, Julie Paschkis, Julie Larios and Margaret Chodos-Irvine have a blog up and running that’s going by the name of Books Around the Table.  It’s a good bit of insight into how authors and illustrators work, and a nice mix of styles.  I was particularly taken with Ms. Paschkis’s post on older illustrations that have made an impact.

• Rocco Staino gives us the inside scoop on an animated short film that just happens to be nominated for an Oscar at this moment in time.

• I don’t usually post on what makes it to the New York Times Bestseller list, but I would like to tip my hat to Mr. Jon Klassen.  Well played, sir.  Few folks make it to #1 and #10 on the same list.

• Am I the only one who finds this really unnerving?  From Cynopsis Kids:

My temptation whenever I review a children’s book that involves a dog in some way is to begin with a caveat that I am not a dog person. I’ve drawn from that well one too many times, though. At this point I think my I-am-not-a-dog-person credentials are well and truly established. However, it wasn’t until I read the utterly charming Lucy Rescued that I realized something. I am not a dog person but I am a new mom and it would appear that the buttons that are pushed by babies in distress can also be pushed by pups in equally scary, lonely situations. That’s not going to affect the kids who read this book, but they will be able to relate to it in a far more direct manner. Here we have a book about a dog coping with the misery of loneliness. Kids understand loneliness. They understand needing a toy to comfort and cuddle. They understand what happens when that toy disappears. So here we have a book that both adults and kids will relate to. It may be in different ways, but the end result stays the same.

A little girl and her parents adopt Lucy the dog from the pound. All seems to be well until the pup begins to howl. And howl. And howl some more. Various solutions are suggested and tried. Perhaps Lucy is lonely for other dogs? A mirror doesn’t work. Maybe she would like her own doggie bed? One is purchased and summarily rejected. Doggie therapy? Ha! When our heroine’s parents lay down the law and say that Lucy needs to quiet down or she’s going back to the pound, that’s when things get real. Fortunately the little girl has an idea. Offering Lucy one of her stuffed animals she successfully determines that this was the answer to everyone’s prayers. After that Lucy is given a range of stuffed friends. She’s perfectly content at that point, but woe betide you if one happens to go missing.

The title of the book is Lucy Rescued but Lucy’s initial rescue from the pound happens essentially on the first page. Why name the book something that’s so fleeting in the story? Probably because the true rescue here isn’t the physical one from the pound but rather the rescue of the dog from her own unhappiness. Not that it’s easy. It takes a child to see through the dog’s howls and to the solution to her misery. Ziefert, as it happens, based this book on actual dogs that she herself was familiar with. In her experience she knew a dog that could not go to bed at night unless all its Beanie Babies were present and accounted for. Dogs can’t count, but if even one Beanie was missing the pup was reduced to a sad little puddle.

You would not be amiss if you considered for a second or two the possibility that the French are taking over American children’s publishing. How else to account for the magnificent books brought to our shores from the likes of Herve Tullet, Martine Perrin, Blexbolex, and many others? Barroux is a little different in that in his books he illustrates American children’s authors like Ms. Ziefert. This book was originally published in the States, then. Not France.

In this particular title Barroux fills his images with for some clever details. For example, he highlights his characters by leaving an unpainted areas around their bodies when they stand against colored walls. It’s a way of drawing your eyes to the people of the story without drawing attention to the fact that you are drawing attention. Then there’s the dog herself. Part of Lucy’s visual charm is that she is utterly expressionless in the midst of all her howling. On occasion, when she’s particularly dejected, her eyes will turn from straight dots into short little downward lines that somehow manage to reflect all the sorrow in the world. That is the range of her emotions, however. I also enjoyed the fact that Lucy’s cries or “WAH-OOO”s collect in crevices and puddle around the feet of the people who love her most. You can see piles of them on the seat cushions she’s vacated and swarms of them circling anyone who happens to get near. Finally, I liked very much that the cover of the book is a part of the story we don’t actually get see on the inside.

Very small children and pets have a lot in common but the most frustrating similarity is that neither has the language to describe what they want. Older children don’t tend care all that much about babies and their wordless states, but the fact that pets can’t communicate their needs is a very real concern for them. Lucy Rescued taps into that worry and the result is a lovely tale that shows that sometimes the easiest solution to a problem is the one thought up by a kid. A good pet book and a good kid book, this is one story that doesn’t have any difficulty with its ability to relate.

On shelves March 27th.

Source: Final copy sent from publisher for review.

Like This?  Then Try:

• “Let’s Get a Pup!” Said Kate by Bob Graham

• A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka

• Fred Stays With Me! by Nancy Coffelt

Other Blog Reviews:

• Journey of a Bookseller

What are you looking at?  Just a couple shots from the book Oddfellow’s Orphanage by Emily Winfield Martin.  The book is yet another entry into this year’s Oddest Children’s Literary Trend. One of two, as it happens.  I like keeping track of weirdo trends in books for kids.  Last year it was ravens.  This year there are two trends that by some strike of fate’s fancy have all come out in the same publishing year.

Trend #1: Jackalopes

I think I’ve mentioned this in passing but now I’m serious.  Jackalopes are cropping up in books hither and yon this year and it’s time to track ‘em down.  Other serious offenders, aside from the aforementioned book  include:

Dragonbreath: Revenge of the Horned Bunnies by Ursula Vernon

I love those Danny books, and this one had the decency to put the jackalope front and center on the jacket.  Another book that did the same was . . .

Project Jackalope by Emily Ecton

They had a much cuter cover originally and then switched it out for this one in the hopes of appealing to boys a bit more.  I like that the new jacket references Duck! Rabbit! none too obliquely.

Perfect Escape by Jennifer Brown

In the course of this road trip novel a brother and sister head off to find a jackalope of some sort.  No word on whether or not they find it.

But that’s not all.  Another trend is out there, itching to be noticed as well.

Trend #2: Chloe

Specifically, “Chloe” as the name of a character in a picture book.  And if her name happens to get into the title, bonus.  These include:

Crafty Chloe by Kelly DiPucchio, illustrated by Heather Ross

The book has already earned itself a Year’s Best Swag award in my book.  They sent little tape measures out with the review copies.  Fantastic.

Chloe and the Lion by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Adam Rex

Already reviewed this one this year.  It’s still not out for a couple more months, though, so remember its name.

Chloe by Peter McCarty

It’s a sequel but whatta sequel.  Plus there’s a bunny in it that wears a bunny suit (bunny suits, interestingly enough, could potentially be another trend).

Chloe Instead by Micah Player

Resist that cover . . . IF YOU DARE!!!

Name me any more jackalopes or titular Chloes and I will add them.  And if someone manages to find a book coming out this year starring a jackalope named Chloe, you will win my heart.  Come to think of it “A Jackalope Named Chloe” sounds like the world’s greatest picture book, don’t you think?

The student was inquiring about donations of books for this library that is being built.  The teen had already organized a book drive in her school and community but she needed help.  So I decided to find out more about this.  I got in contact with Ms. Arielle Korman and she gave me some additional information.  Here’s what she told me:

“This summer, I attended Legacy International’s “Global Youth Village,” a summer camp focused on peacebuilding. The participants last year came from the U.S., Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. Among the Iraqis were representatives from the country’s major groups- Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds.

GYV had asked that we as participants bring something that represented our culture and/or community. One of the Kurdish boys, Razhan Kawa-Ali, immediately brought out a full color newspaper, for which he is a staff writer. This newspaper, called “Awat,” meaning “hope” in Kurdish, is a student-run all-English newspaper circulating in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq and appearing online. Razhan explained that the newspaper’s goal was to make issues facing Kurdish youth more public (i.e. electricity, the government after the U.S. pulls out, etc). I was blown away by the newspaper, but as he explained to me, it was only made possible by his education.

Razhan and most of the other staff writers on Awat have attended an American school in Kurdistan, run by a group called Servant Group (http://servantgroup.org/contact.html). In any developing nation, education and particularly, knowledge of English are vital if young people wish to make their voices heard. Servant Group is helping Razhan’s organization, “Vision,” to create a library of English books in Sulaimaniya, for the majority of students that have not received Razhan’s education. It will be a safe place dedicated to learning.

Razhan and some friends (many of whom attended GYV with me) started a youth leadership organization called “Vision.” Consisting of teenage participants from multiple cities in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, its projects currently include translating an English book on education into Kurdish, planting gardens and spreading knowledge of environmentalism, building the library, and more. It also wants to start a branch run by friends from camp in Baghdad, which would be a very powerful gesture, considering the historical tension between ethnic groups in Iraq.

Vision has the staff (its members,) and the space, but English books are very hard to come by in Iraq. So, I’m doing my share by collecting books to donate.”

You can see a wish list for the library and the books that they would like here.  In the meantime, if you are interested in donating any books to this cause you may email Arielle Korman directly.  You can also see the Facebook page she has set up for the drive here.

Yep.  Odds are that this may be the best book trailer ever produced for a classic work of children’s literature.  I mean, looking at it don’t you feel inclined to reread the book?  I sure as heck do.  And remember, if you want to see Lois Lowry, Madeleine L’Engle, Rebecca Stead, and R.L. Stine talk about this book (with a reading by Jane Curtin and a presentation by Leonard Marcus to boot) there are still tickets for the Symphony Space event available.  I’m going dress shopping for it today, but what does one wear for such a thing?

Speaking of book trailers, I would not mind living in a world where Julian Hector created all them.  Nope.  Wouldn’t mind a jot.  Case in point:

These next two are great.  Recently Roger Sutton was the proud recipient of the Reader to Reader Norton Juster Award for Contribution to Children’s Literature.  Now Norton had recorded a video to present this to Roger, but unfortunately the sound didn’t work out.  So here we have what may be the only time you will ever someone lip-synch Norton Juster.  That someone being, of course, gallery owner and award-winning children’s author Rich Michelson, of course:

Naturally you can hardly talk about Mr. Juster without mentioned Mr. Jules Feiffer as well:

Now I was recently alerted to the next few videos, and I have to say they’re brilliant.  Someone at ALA must have had the wherewithal to contact various authors and illustrators who won awards at the ALA Youth Media Awards and recorded them discussing their wins.  As a result you get to hear from Rafael Lopez for the Pure Belpre:

John Rocco for his Caldecott Honor win:

Even Mo Willems for his Geisel Honor (it helps when you have your own toys, I suppose):

You can catch the bulk of them here.  Big thanks to Samantha Vamos for letting me know about them!

And for our off-topic video, so there I was minding my own business.  Not a care in the world.  Then, suddenly, out of the blue, I realized that I was living in the future.  And what was it that made this so infinitely clear?  Two words: 3D Printers.  Or is that three words?

Connect The Dots: Who’s Who? Talking Books Across Literary Borders

How do booksellers, librarians (school and public), and bloggers discover, promote, and discuss great books for kids? How does communication between these different occupations help an author get their name out and show the value of their books to a wider public audience of readers and buyers? Hear what panelists Marilyn Ackerman (Brooklyn Public Library), Barbara Auerbach (school librarian), Erica Kylander-Clark (parental blogger), Rebecca Fitting (Greenlight Bookstore), and Melanie Hope Greenberg (author/illustrator) have to say about children’s literature across occupations and how communication across literary borders benefits everyone.

This event will be held in the Berger Forum on the second floor of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 42nd Street and 5th Avenue.  More information here.

When we try to name the biggest and best picture book biography authors out there, two names spring immediately to mind. The first is David Adler. Mr. Adler specializes in picture books that go by the straightforward titles of “A Picture Book of [Enter Name Here]“. It makes him easy to spot on a shelf. All his books look pretty much the same with stories that reduce their subjects to a couple key points. They are serviceable in the best sense of the term. They serve a purpose. They also couldn’t be more different from the works of the great picture book biographer Jonah Winter. Where Mr. Adler is all white borders and straightforward fonts, Mr. Winter’s books leap off the shelf and make a dive for your jugular. They pop and smack and wrest your attention away from the glittery fictional pack. His latest, Jazz Age Josephine, is no different. A witty and glam look at a person rarely seen in picture book bios, Winter uses his storytelling skills to spin the tale of a fine lady, never told in quite this way before.

“Well, she was born up in St. Louis, and she grew up with those St. Louis Blues / Yes, she was born in old St. Louis, and she grew up singin’ nothin’ but the blues, / She just had one old ragged dress and a pair of worn-out old shoes.” That was Josephine Baker back in the day. Fortunately, the kid had pep. She could move and goof off and her dancing was so good that it earned her some money from time to time. Little wonder that when her home was burned by angry racists she headed straight for New York City. There Josephine was able to get some roles on the stage, but the minstrel parts were particularly galling. So off she flew to Paris and once she got there, “Paris, France – instant fame! / Everybody knows her name!” And though she missed her home, she was a jazz age baby and a hit at long last.

I did a cursory check of the reader reviews of this book online and saw that some folks were a bit peeved that Mr. Winter dared to mention hot topic issues like racism and minstrel shows. I think that highlights why it is that this is the first time such a biography for kids has been attempted (there was Ragtime Tumpie by Alan Schroeder in 1989 but that just looked at Josephine’s youth). The story of Ms. Baker is more difficult than your average Rosa Parks / Frederick Douglass bio. If you’re going to talk about Josephine then you have to talk about why she left America. You have to talk about what the state of the country was at that time, and why she felt she couldn’t return there. Then there are other issues as well. For one thing, is it possible to talk about Ms. Baker without mentioning the banana skirt? Winter doesn’t talk about the costume (six-year-olds are notoriously bad at pronouncing the word “burlesque”) but illustrator Marjorie Priceman does include a subtle glimpse of it from the side in two separate pictures. Meanwhile Mr. Winter does a good job of making it clear that Josephine was sad to be away from the States but that to become a star she had to go elsewhere. Interestingly the book ends at about that point, leaving the Author’s Note to explain her work with the Civil Rights Movement.

Winter tends to have fun not just with what he says but with how he says it. In this particular case, he begins the sad story of Josephine’s beginnings in the model of a blues song. And anytime something sad happens (say, getting your home burned down) the text turns into blues. The minute she hits Paris that all changes. Suddenly you move from the standard jazz poetry format to something more eclectic (not to say electric). If you’ve chosen to read this book aloud to a class of kids (A) Be sure to point out how awesome it would be to walk your pet cheetah down the street in the morning and (B) Practice your zee-buh-dops. For that matter, you’d better practice your Boh doh doh-dee-ohs and your zop zop zop zop zoo-buh-dop zows as well. Winter knows how add music to a readaloud without using a single note. Just make sure you’ve practiced beforehand.

Part of the delight of this book is the fact that Josephine’s funny. And funny women do not appear in a heckuva lot of picture book biographies. Sometimes they will, but their jokey side will be hidden away from the world, leaving you to wonder if any one of them ever cracked a joke a day in their lives. There are a couple exceptions to this here and there, like Barbara Kerley’s What To Do About Alice : How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules Charmed the World and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy But generally speaking books that end with the heroine sticking out her tongue at the reader are few and far between. Those that you can find? Grab `em tight and don’t let go.

One of these days someone is going to track down the leprechaun Mr. Winter used to get his wish to consistently be illustrated by the most interesting artists in the biz and then we’ll all be in trouble. Honestly though, I don’t know how the man does it. How has he managed to corral the talents of Ana Juan, Red Nose Studio, Jeannette Winter (that one I understand), Sean Qualls, Andre Carrilho, Raul Colon, Calef Brown, Kevin Hawkes, Barry Blitt, Richard Egielski, and so many others to his cause is a mystery. Many of these folks had never illustrated a work of nonfiction a day of their life, but there was something about Winter’s style that enticed them. Now he’s lured Caldecott Honor winner Ms. Marjorie Priceman. Turns out, she’s a natural fit, and little wonder. Though she won an award for her perfectly nice Hot Air: The Mostly True Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride (no stranger to nonfiction she) it’s her books like Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss or Paris in the Spring with Picasso by Joan Yolleck that make it clear how perfect she’d be for this text. Picasso showed that she could capture Europe’s Roaring 20s with the right verve and flair. Zin! showed that when it comes to pairing with delicious wordplay, Priceman keeps up her end of the bargain.

Goache and ink are the name of the game with this puppy. And Priceman pairs the big flashy images of Josephine with small stick figures of her dancing in a wild and kooky pattern on the pages. There’s a great use of color too. From early browns and grays to the yellow spotlights of Broadway to the sheer overwhelming mass of color you get with Paris. In fact, the first time you even see Paris you have to tip the book on its side to just take in all the reds and oranges and purples on display. I love it when an artist makes you do something physically so that you get the point of the book.

The picture book format is necessarily limited so you won’t find any mention here of Josephine’s exciting work spying during WWII or really anything after the 20s. That’s fine. The point of a picture book bio is, to a certain extent, to give kids a glimpse of history through a memorable person. With Jazz Age Josephine they learn about a kind of racism they might not encounter elsewhere and a person who was truly one-of-a-kind. Bouncy, rhythmic, funny, and fresh, if kids are assigned a biography of an African-American in school, forget handing them something rote and stodgy. Hand `em this. I guarantee that its equivalent is mighty hard to find.

On shelves now.

Source: Final copy sent from publisher for review.

Like This? Then Try:

• What To Do About Alice : How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules Charmed the World and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy by Barbara Kerley, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham

• Gertrude is Gertrude by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Calef Brown

• Charlie Parker Played Be Bop by Chris Raschka

Other Blog Reviews:

• It’s My Genre, Baby

Professional Reviews:

• A star from Kirkus
• A star from Publishers Weekly
• A star from Booklist

First and foremost was the announcement of Battle of the Books 2012.  Or, as I like to think of it, the place where Amelia Lost gets its bloody due (if there’s any justice in this world).  We’re now in the earliest of the early days of the battle, but stuff’s on the horizon.  I can smell it.

• In other news there was an SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) meeting here in New York this past weekend.  I didn’t attend because, apparently, if it’s way too convenient I’m absent.  After checking out the recap on this blog, however, I clearly need to change my priorities.  Though I had to miss the cocktail party on Friday I did attend Kidlit Drink Night which was PACKED, dudes.  Packed to the gills!

• I like me some Megan Whalen Turner, which is pretty much just another way of saying that I am human and I can read.  In any case, the woman knows how to make words work.  Case in point, this guest post she penned a little while ago which might as well be called The Evolution of Not-Telling Or, how my policy of not answering questions about my books began as self-serving and over time became something even more self-serving. Mm.  Worth it.  Thanks to Beth Fama for the link.

• In her post Ms. Turner mentions the Mythopoeic Society.  By complete coincidence I stumbled over yet another link involving that society in question.  Neil Gaiman reprints an old speech he gave to the society in 2004 on C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, and Chesterton.  A great look at how good fantasy can influence kids.  Also a good look at how bad television programs lead kids to books.  I believe it.

• Well The Today Show may have passed up the chance to talk to the Newbery and Caldecott winners but leave it to NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me to speak to Jack Gantos for their Not My Job game.  Someone must have tipped them off to the fact that the man is the world’s greatest interview.  Love the Judy Blume reference.  And though I thought I knew his Hole in My Life story, clearly I missed some details.  Thanks to Susan Miles for the link.

• Of course Jack and Chris Raschka were interviewed by SLJ about their respective wins.  That’s good news about a Dead End in Norvelt companion novel.  Ditto the idea of Raschka working on a Robie H. Harris title.

• This Phantom Tollbooth Infographic may just be one of the loveliest little things I ever did see.  Really, this is what happens when folks use their infographic abilities for good instead of evil.  It wouldn’t necessarily work for any other book either.  You couldn’t, say, make a Caddie Woodlawn infographic to compare (okay you could, but would you want to?).  But this… this has a mastery to it.  Thanks to Mike Lewis for the link!

• And now a great big congrats to fellow blogger Gwenda Bond for her hot new book deal.  I tell ya, man.  Give us enough time and soon ALL the bloggers of child and teen books will have book deals of their own.  But who will blog the bloggers, eh?

• Huh! I’m a little surprised that I didn’t see this before.  It’s The 5 Books That Inspire the Most Tattoos.  And here I would have thought the aforementioned Neil Gaiman would have been right up there.  Thanks to mom for the link.

• Oo.  Well organized.  Julie Greller has put together the ultimate link list to help you decide whether the Dewey Decimal System’s time is nearly over, or if Dewey will last forever and ever more.  Personally, I like Dewey.  In fact, with my previous link up there in mind I wondered how many Dewey Decimal Number tattoos were out there.  Not sure, but this link to a girl with a Harry Potter decimal number was particularly swell.  Thanks to Joyce Valenza for the first link.

• Lucky Philly.  Your Rosenbach Museum is currently featuring a Sendak exhibit that I wouldn’t mind casting mine eyes upon.  “This exhibition follows the lives of three picture books by Maurice Sendak: The Sign on Rosie’s Door (1960), Outside Over There (1981), and Brundibar (2003). Spanning more than 40 years, each of these books was inspired and produced in radically different ways by Sendak and his collaborators.”   I’d like to go to there.  Thanks to Phil Nel for the link.

• And speaking of places I’d like to go, I’ve been hearing about the Matilda musical for years but it’s probably still a long ways off from hitting Broadway.  In the meantime I’ll content myself with reading reviews of the show like this one from the international edition of The New York Times.  Thanks to Rocco Staino for the link.

• Oh, well done, you guys.  Well done.

• This is children’s entertainment related, not children’s book related.  It’s also Canadian.  Still, I was so amused by the concept that I felt I had to reprint it here. From Cynopsis Kids: