Good morning, campers! Are we ironing out the last of the holiday season from our socks? Are we eyeing our decorations with a jaded eye? Well, wonderful news! 2016 is on the horizon and I bring you news of the peppy variety. Packed deep in snow, no less, since I appear to be living in ice storm land at the moment.
- Two awards to celebrate today. First up, you may be aware that over in Britain they did away with their beloved Roald Dahl Funny Book Prize. Apparently there will be a new Dahl prize in the near future and they didn’t want to confuse it with this other one. Fortunately, there’s a new funny lit prize and it’s called The Laugh Out Loud Award or, for short, The Lollies. Michael Rosen is, as ever, involved. Attention! Britain? The representative from Illinois would like to request that America be allowed Lollies of our own. We could change the name slightly to The ROFLs, but that sounds slightly perverse when you say it out loud. In any case, funny awards here, please.
- The other award is the recent unveiling of the latest winners of the 2015 Arab American Book Award (sponsored by the Arab American National Museum) given in the Children/Young Adult category. The winner, I’m happy to say, is The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye (Greenwillow Press). Honorable Mention was awarded to The Olive Tree by Elsa Marston and illustrated by Claire Ewart (Wisdom Tales Press). Well done, one and all!
- Insufficiently happy by today’s news thus far? Okay. Try this. They’ve turned some of the Bad Kitty books into a play and you Bay Area lucky ducks get to see it. Playwright Min Kahng, who also did a musical adaptation of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon amongst other things, is interviewed here. As for Bad Kitty herself, I like her looks:
- Brightly also came up with 2015’s Biggest Moments in Children’s and YA Literature. A good list, though I would rewrite the title slightly to say instead that it’s more accurately “2015’s Biggest Controversy-Free Moments in Children’s and YA Literature”. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
A Rita Williams-Garcia book has people talking, but it may not be the book you first think of. How many of you read her new picture book Bottle Cap Boys Dancing on Royal Street? Well a recent article about the actual boys who dance the streets of New Orleans says that Rita’s book has gotten people to talking. The subheading “Depicting happy children” sounds familiar in light of the conversations surrounding A Fine Dessert as well, though the context is different.
I saw the new Star Wars movie, loved it, and was listening to a recent episode of the podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour when they mentioned the worst Star Wars merchandising in existence. There are many items that could fit the bill (look up the Slave Leia perfume or the C3PO tape dispenser, if you doubt me) but the unqualified winner was so terrible sounding that I honestly didn’t believe that it existed. This has nothing to do with children’s literature in any way, shape, or form. I just wanted to give you a couple new nightmares tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, the Jar Jar Binks lollipop. Sharp-eyed spotters may be able to see why it may be considered far and away the worst marketing of all time.
- Oh, thank the high heavens. Good news, folks. The celebrities have arrived to show us how to write books with darker themes. Thank goodness they’re here! Until now the field of children’s literature was just an unending vista of sunshine and daisies. But thanks to the combined efforts of Evangeline Lilly (“I look around me and I see a lot of young people who are very entitled and who are very confused when life isn’t perfect. I think that often comes from some of the messaging we receive as children from our stories, but that’s really not life and especially not on the playground”) and Bruce Springsteen (“Bruce Springsteen on Outlaw Pete and Not Sheltering Kids From the Realities of Life“) we can finally stop handing our children consistently sweet and innocent . . . hey. Psst. You there. Sit down. You too. And I don’t even want to talk about you. All youse guys. You’re ruining my moment. Stop being so doggone subversive! You don’t want to prove the singer and the elf wrong, do you? They’re famous. They know what they’re talking about.*
- Publishers. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, we need ‘em. Hence the piece Save the book publisher. Hard to argue the man’s points.
“Thousands of illustrations, books, comics, graphic novels, animations, products, paintings and more will be on view. In addition, a Children’s Reading Room within the gallery will hold hundreds of children’s books by SVA alumni.” What’s that, you say? It’s only the description of the upcoming We Tell Stories exhibition of work by more than 250 alumni of the School of Visual Art’s MFA Illustration as Visual Essay program. Jules Danielson alerted me to this event and can’t go (seriously, someone just send her to New York City already – she deserves it!) but those of us in NYC can certainly try.
Lolly Robinson speaks truths bloggers may not like to hear. It’s not specifically blogger-related either. It’s just an issue we all have to deal with these days. Can you really and truly be critical of a children’s book if you’re buds with that particular author or illustrator? Lolly weighs in and her thought process winds around until she ends with, “What would happen if EVERY picture book had a YouTube video revealing the details of its creation?” Spoiler Alert: It would be fantastic. Meantime, I’ll just say that she’s speaking in the piece as a Horn Book reviewer and not a blogger. Bloggers, for the most part, are not held to the standards of a Kirkus or a Horn Book. We have no editors. We are judge, jury, and executioner (at times) all in one. As such, you take every blogger with a grain of salt, just as you take every professional review with a similarly sized, if somewhat different, salt grain as well. And for my part, I review so few books these days that my selection simply consists of those titles I think deserve particular attention or are deserving of criticism. In fact, I’ve got a rip-roaring critical review on the horizon . . . but I shall say no more.
- The Best Books lists have begun with a mad sprint. On the one hand you had PW’s Best Books of 2014. The middle grade fiction category is particularly remarkable. Then you have the New York Times Best Illustrated list. Now just as that Lolly article talked about, I’m buds with two of the jurors who were on that committee. So I can inquire with calm patience and certainty WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU GUYS THINKING WHEN YOU DIDN’T INCLUDE LINDBERGH?!? *ahem* That was awkward. Good show, blokes. Nice list. Moving on.
- By the way, Travis Jonker’s analysis of the NY Times Best Illustrated books and how well they do Caldecott-wise upset a lot of my expectations. I did NOT see those stats coming. Fascinating!
- In the words of the great Jan Thomas, can you make a scary face? Cause I can. So can Kate Milford, Jonathan Auxier, and Aaron Starmer for that matter.
- Here’s my dirty little secret. I have never, not a single day of my life, biFirsnge watched a single show. Maybe I indulged in a few too many Northern Exposure‘s when I was young, but that’s it. However, upon hearing that A Series of Unfortunate Events is slated to be an all-new Netflix series, this record I hold may have to change. This interview with Handler about the show is worth reading, particularly when the subject of casting comes up. Sez he, “As Count Olaf, James Mason. In 1949. You can see why my involvement may or may not be welcome.” Thanks to Kate for the news.
- The old book smell. Want to know its chemical composition? Darn tootin’ you do! Thanks to Mike Lewis for the link.
Daily Image:
Halloween has come and gone but one thing remains clear. The folks at FirstBook DC? They won it. They won Halloween.
If this picture means nothing to you then go here and read up.
*As you might imagine, Bruce is far less to blame here than Ms. Lilly. He didn’t seek out the picture book writing life and says nothing detrimental about the state of children’s literature today. It’s the article writer I probably have more of a beef with.
Everyone loves a good list but finding lists that reflect the intelligence of experts in a given field can sometimes be tricky. Consider, if you will, books about American Indians for the kiddos. I can’t tell you how many summer reading lists I see every year that have The Indian in the Cupboard, The Matchlock Gun, or even Rifles for Watie on them. Just once it would be nice to see a Top 100 list of books that could serve as guidelines for folks searching for good books about indigenous peoples.
You can imagine my interest, then, when Debbie Reese mentioned on the ccbc-net listserv that she had contributed to a list called “Top One Hundred Books by Indigenous Writers.” She also said that if anyone was interested in seeing this list, they could contact her and she’d pass it on. But with a list this good, it begs to be shared. I asked Debbie and her fellow experts in the field if it would be all right to post the list on this site and they agreed.
Here’s is some background, from Debbie, about the books:
As we worked on the list, we limited ourselves on # of books per author so that we could be as inclusive as possible. The list is a combination of our personal favorites and recommendations from peers.
We did not delineate or mark those that are in the children/YA category. We feel strongly that those who wish to write for adults or children/YA would benefit from reading what we’re calling masters. And, we think that those who wish to strengthen their ability to select/review books about American Indians would benefit from reading the books, too. So many authors who give talks and workshops tell people that in order to write, they have to read.
I have linked some of the children’s and YA titles to reviews and records. If I have missed any, please let me know.
Thank you Debbie, Susan, Teresa, and Tim for passing this along. I am very pleased and moved to host it here.
A Work in Progress: Top One Hundred Books by Indigenous Writers
Compiled for ATALM [1] 2012, by
Susan Hanks, Debbie Reese, Teresa Runnels, and Tim Tingle [2]
Updated on February 24, 2014
After a year of informal surveys and queries, we offer a list of over 100 books that every museum and library should have on their shelves. Written by tribal members, these books are the foundation of our literature as Indigenous people. Just as Western culture promotes Shakespeare as a prerequisite to grasping the essence of Western word arts, we promote N. Scott Momaday, D’Arcy McNickle, and many, many others to insure that our future writers reference, in images and ideas, our Indigenous masters.
Among our list are books written for children and young adults. Though often seen as “less than” because of their intended reader, we believe books for children are as important—if not more important—than books for adults. The future of our Nations will be in the hands of our children. Books that reflect them and their nations are crucial to the well being of all our Nations.
Sherman Alexie (Spokane/Coeur d’Alene)
- The Business of Fancydancing
- The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Rilla Askew (Choctaw)
Beverly Blacksheep (Navajo)
Kimberly Blaeser (White Earth Ojibwe)
- Absentee Indians and Other Poems
Joseph Boyden (Metis/Micmac)
Jim Bruchac and Joe Bruchac (Abenaki)
Joseph Bruchac (Abenaki)
Ignatia Broker (Ojibwe)
Emily Ivanoff Brown (Native Village of Unalakleet)
- The Longest Story Ever Told: Qayak, The Magical Man
Nicola Campbell (Interior Salish)
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes
Robert Conley (Cherokee)
Ella Deloria (Yankton Sioux)
Vine Deloria, Jr. (Standing Rock Lakota)
- Custer Died For Your Sins
Jennifer Denetdale (Dine)
- The Long Walk: The Forced Navajo Exile
Echo-Hawk, Roger C. and Walter C. Echo-Hawk (Pawnee)
- Battlefields and Burial Grounds: The Indian Struggle to Protect Ancestral Graves in the United States
Walter C. Echo-Hawk (Pawnee)
- In the Courts of the Conqueror: the 10 Worst Law Cases Ever Decided
Heid Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe)
- Cell Traffic: New and Selected Poems
Louise Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe)
- The Last Report on the Miracles at No Horse
Jack D. Forbes (Powhatan Delaware)
- Only Approved Indians: Stories
- Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples
Eric Gansworth (Onondaga)
- A Half-Life of Cardio-Pulmonary Function
Diane Glancy (Cherokee)
Joy Harjo (Muscogee Creek)
- Reinventing the Enemies Language
Tomson Highway (Cree)
- Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing
Geary Hobson (Cherokee, Quapaw)
Linda Hogan (Chickasaw)
- Red Clay: Poems & Stories
- The Woman Who Watches Over the World: A Native Memoir
LeAnne Howe (Choctaw)
- Miko Kings: An Indian Baseball Story
Hershman John (Navajo)
- I Swallow Turquoise for Courage
Thomas King (Cherokee)
Michael Lacapa (Apache/Hopi)
- Less than Half, More Than Whole
Winona LaDuke (Ojibwe/Chippewa/Anishinabe)
- All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life
Adrian Louis (Paiute)
- Wild Indians and Other Creatures
Larry Loyie (Cree)
- As Long as the Rivers Flow: A Last Summer Before Residential School
Wilma Mankiller (Cherokee) and Michael Wallace
Joseph Marshall III (Lakota Sioux)
- The Journey of Crazy Horse
John Joseph Matthews (Osage)
Janet McAdams (Creek)
- After Removal (with Geary Hobson and Kathryn Walkiewicz)
- The Island of Lost Luggage
- The People Who Stayed: Southeastern Indian Writing
Joseph Medicine Crow (Crow)
Carla Messinger (Lenape)
N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa)
- The Way to Rainey Mountain
D’Arcy McNickle (Cree)
Nora Naranjo-Morse (Santa Clara Pueblo)
- Mud Woman: Poems from the Clay
Jim Northrup (Ojibwe)
Simon Ortiz (Acoma)
- The Good Rainbow Road/Rawa ‘Kashtyaa’tsi Hiyaani
- Men on the Moon: Collected Short Stories
- The People Shall Continue
Louis Owens (Choctaw)
- Mixedblood Messages: Literature, Film, Family, Place
- Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel
Leonard Peltier (Anishinabe/Lakota)
William Penn (Nez Perce/Osage)
- All My Sins Are Relatives
Susan Power (Sioux)
Marcie Rendon (Anishinabe)
Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo)
Cheryl Savageau (Abenaki)
Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee Creek)
Paul Chaat Smith (Comanche)
- Everything You Know About Indians is Wrong
Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve (Lakota Sioux)
Allen J. Sockabasin (Passamaquoddy)
Shirley Sterling (Salish)
Chief Jake Swamp (Mohawk)
Luci Tapahonso (Dine)
- A Breeze Swept Through: Poetry
- Blue Horses Rush In: Poems and Stories
Drew Hayden Taylor (Curve Lake Ojibwe)
Tim Tingle (Choctaw)
Laura Tohe (Navajo)
Richard Van Camp (Dogrib)
- The Moon of Letting Go: and Other Stories
Jan Bourdeau Waboose (Ojibway)
Velma Wallis (Athabascan)
- Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival
Anna Lee Walters (Pawnee/Otoe)
James Welch (Blackfoot/Gros Ventre)
- Heartsong of Charging Elk
Bernelda Wheeler (Cree/Assiniboine/Saulteaux)
- I Can’t Have Bannock but the Beaver Has a Dam
- Where Did You Get Your Moccasins?
Robert A. Williams (Lumbee)
- Like a Loaded Weapon: The Rehnquist Court, Indian Rights, and the History of Racism in America
Daniel H. Wilson (Cherokee)
Craig Womack (Creek)
- Red On Red: Native American Literary Separatism
For further information and titles, contact Susan Hanks at [email protected], Debbie Reese at [email protected], Teresa Runnels at [email protected], or Tim Tingle at [email protected].
[1] The 2012 conference of the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma. ATALM Website: http://www.atalm.org/
[2] This list was compiled for presentation at the ATALM conference. We encourage all librarians to purchase a copy of every book by the writers on our list, and we encourage you to ask when out-of-print books will be back in print. In preparing our list, we limited ourselves to no more than four titles per author. The titles are our personal favorites. Our contact info is below.
Daylight Saving (not “Savings” I just learned) has arrived and you know what that means? It means babies have a terrible sense of telling time. Just awful. And that, in turn, means I’d better crank out a lickety-split Fusenews before I hear the telltale sound of little eyelids opening.
First up, The New York Times Best Illustrated Books of 2011 were announced. I like to keep a tally of what I managed to review in time vs. what got missed. The winners were:
- “Along a Long Road,” written and illustrated by Frank Viva (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
- “A Ball for Daisy,” written and illustrated by Chris Raschka (Schwartz & Wade)
- “Brother Sun, Sister Moon: Saint Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Creatures,” written by Katherine Paterson, illustrated by Pamela Dalton (Chronicle Books)
- “Grandpa Green,” written and illustrated by Lane Smith (Roaring Brook Press)
- “Ice,” written and illustrated by Arthur Geisert (Enchanted Lion Books)
- “Me … Jane,” written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
- “Migrant,” written by Maxine Trottier, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault (Groundwood Books);
- “A Nation’s Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis,” written by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Dial)
- “A New Year’s Reunion,” written by Yu Li-Qiong, illustrated by Zhu Cheng-Liang (Candlewick Press)
Well, three out of ten ain’t . . uh . . . ain’t all that hot, come to think of it. Next year I shall vow to do better! I liked Travis at 100 Scopes Notes and his reaction too.
- Amazon has just put out their list of the Best of 2011 too. I’ve read eight out of ten and reviewed five of those. Much better.
- While I’m thinking of it, there was announcement of the Carnegie Medal and Kate Greenaway Medal nominees over in Jolly Old England. The Carnegie (their version of the Newbery) nominees include a couple Americans, a couple titles we’ve seen stateside, and a lot of surprises. I’ll be rooting for Tall Story by Candy Gourlay, The Cardturner by Louis Sachar, and The Crowfield Curse by Pat Walsh. On the Greenaway (their Caldecott) nominee side I’ll
When
The Guardian requested that readers vote on the
books that defined each successive era of the 20th century, that got Monica Edinger thinking.
Asked she recently:
"...would it be possible (or has it been done already?) to come up with similarly defining children’s books of the various 20th century decades?"
Chall-onge!
My boss came up with the following:
1900s: Wizard of Oz
1910s: Anne of Green Gables
1920s: Millions of cats
1930s: Caddie Woodlawn
1940s: Curious George
1950s: Cat in the Hat
1960s: Snowy Day
1970s: A tossup between Are you there, God? It’s me, Margaret and The Outsiders
1980s: Arnold Lobel’s Fables
1990s: Harry Harry Harry [he means Mr. Potter]
2000s: Man Who Walked Between the Towers
Not bad. Not bad at all. I mean, it really all comes down to how you want to define said eras. If you want to show how the course of children's literature has changed over the years, this is a darn good collection. Personally, my sole objections lie with the 80s and 2000s. My boss explained that
Fables was one of the few titles he was familiar with that really delved into the notion of making fables accessible in a quite format (or something to that effect). As for Gerstein's book, it's impossible to get a hold on changes in kidlit publishing in this particular century. I might opt for
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus since Mr. Mo is particularly good at wrangling the old marketing machine.
Pigeon sort of defines how it is that we're selling books to kids these days. But if I wanted to be snarky, I guess I could find a book covered head to toe in glitter and spangles and say that IT was the defining book (The
Fancy Nancy ripoffs, perhaps?) but I could never be so cruel.
Some things can’t be unseen…
Wow. That is incredibly terrible.
Or . . . terribly incredible.
No. No, you’re right. It’s just terrible.