By: Rebecca,
on 3/4/2008
Coordinates: 59 54 N 10 43 E
Population: 808,000 (2007 est.)
I’m not sure if location, expense, or as the Onion’s Our Dumb World insinuates, a residual fear of Viking invasion is to blame, but Oslo, one of my favorite European cities, doesn’t seem to get its fair share of attention. (more…)
By: Rebecca,
on 2/26/2008
Coordinates: 19 9 N 72 1 W
Population: 23,599 (2003 est.)
People travel for many reasons, but a chance to sample local or “authentic” cuisine often weighs heavily in the decision-making process. In my own peregrinations I’ve sampled stir-fried insects in Thailand, whale carpaccio in Norway, and stink tofu in Taiwan: all things that are harder to come by in the U. S. of A. An uncommon foodstuff that I haven’t tried however, can be purchased for next to nothing in the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti. (more…)
By: Alice Pope,
on 2/22/2008
What People Are Saying About the Recent SCBWI New York Conference...
In my recent newsletter (click here to subscribe), I asked to hear from writers and illustrators who attended the SCBWI Mid-Winter Conference which took place in New York February 8-10. I was not able to attend so this was my way to live vicariously through those of you would did.
These bloggers alerted me to their posts about the conference: Kristi Valiant; Mary Cronin; Donna McDine; and Darcy Pattision whose blog includes links to other attendees conference reports.
I'm keeping me fingers crossed that I'll get to attend the SCBWI Conference in LA this summer.
If I do, I'll be blogging like mad, just as I have the past two years. (See my August 2007 and August 2006 archives if you're interested. I just now relived the last conference as I read through my old post. It was lovely to think about being in sunny Los Angeles, abuzz with children's book people, instead of here in cold, snowy, icy Cincinnati.)
By: Rebecca,
on 2/12/2008
Santiago, Chile
Coordinates: 33 26 S 70 40 W
Population: 5,623,000 (2007 est.)
For Chileans, February 12th marks an important moment in the history of their country. On this day in 1541, Pedro de Valdivia, a Spanish conquistador, founded Santiago de Nueva Extremadura on Saint Lucia Hill overlooking the Mapocho River. Present-day Santiago eventually grew to fill most of the basin of the same name and currently ranks as the sixth largest city in South American and the tenth most populous in the Western Hemisphere. (more…)
By: Rebecca,
on 1/8/2008
Coordinates: 35 3 N 118 10W
Population: 3,836 (2000 est.)
Here in the United States, most eyes are on New Hampshire today, as Democrats and Republicans head to the polls to decide their Party’s candidate for the 2008 presidential race. Further South in New York however, where it’s currently a very sunny 59 degrees Fahrenheit, I find my mind has wandered out west, to Mojave, California. (more…)
By: Rebecca,
on 12/12/2007
Last week we posted an article by Gillian Riley, author of The Oxford Companion to Italian Food, which advised on how to have an Italian Christmas. This week we have a great treat for you, a discussion between Riley and OUP editor Ben Keene (also a regular OUPblog blogger.) Listen to the podcast below. The transcript is after the jump.
By: Rebecca,
on 12/3/2007
I’ve been blogging about the Place of the Week for nearly two years now, choosing a new location every seven days that I knew little about but had caught my attention or that appeared in the news. In the last year global warming has become much more than another subject debated within academia; in fact its found its way into our language, popular culture, and even our shopping habits. As I thought about this while I tried to pick my first Place of the Year, I kept coming back to the very visible ways the Earth’s landscape has been altered by the phenomena. (more…)
By: Rebecca,
on 11/27/2007
Coordinates: 45 11 N 67 17 W
Population: 3,447 (2007 est.)
Not to be confused with the much larger, older, and better known French city, Calais, Maine is nonetheless significant for several reasons: a French settlement established in 1604 by Champlain on nearby St. Croix Island was one of the first in North America, and as a point of entry into the United States, it’s the eight busiest northern border crossing. (more…)
By: Rebecca,
on 10/9/2007
Coordinates: 38 45 N 30 33 E
Elevation: 3,392 feet (1,034 m)
When speaking of edible plants (and their medicinal properties), the opium poppy tends to get a bad rap. Most likely this is because while its harmless leaves, oil, paste, and ripened seeds can be found in various Turkish, Arabian, and Persian dishes, the narcotic properties of unripe poppy seeds have made it a lucrative black market crop in recent decades. (more…)
By: Rebecca,
on 9/11/2007
Sark, United Kingdom
Coordinates: 49 25 N 2 22 W
Approximate area: 2 square miles (5 sq km)
Times change, and with them, people and places are carried along on the tide of modernization. But not always. On the tiny island of Sark in the English Channel, feudalism has clung, virtually unnoticed, to its rocky shores since the Middle Ages. In fact, this hereditary form of rule hung on long enough to make it the only feudal territory left on Europe, a continent known (among political geographers at least) for its microstates and puny principalities. (more…)
By: Jennifer E. Morris,
on 9/6/2007
I'm happy to be participating in the Keene college owl project. In conjunction with Keene's children's literature festival the college is asking children's illustrators to donate an illustration of an owl (the school's mascot) to their wonderful collection of original children's book art. And since Keene not too far from where I live and my old high school mascot was also an owl I was happy to contribute.
I started out with an owl on a branch.
I thought it turned out all right, but I figured Keene had plenty of owls sitting on tree branches. So I tried to think of something that might be a little more unusual. Something you don't usually see owls doing. Like, I don't know, shopping for moth-mallows at the local Owl-Mart.
By: Rebecca,
on 9/4/2007
Gog and Magog
Everybody can probably rattle off a religious myth, or name an urban myth or two, but what about those of the cartographical variety? They aren’t so common anymore, and yet for centuries much of what was known about the world was little more than the figment of a mapmaker’s imagination. From about the seventh century, European maps went so far as to locate Paradise on the eastern edge of Asia, surrounded by a wall of flame, or later, simply water. (more…)
By: Rebecca,
on 8/28/2007
Coordinates: 40 41 N 73 59 W
Approximate length of tunnel: 2,000 feet (610 meters)
Examples abound of cities built on top of cities and newspapers frequently report on accidental discoveries made by construction crews digging new foundations around the world. And while they may be more common in Europe where dense populations have concentrated for many centuries, other instances exist. Nearly 30 years ago, a young engineering student discovered a forgotten train tunnel that once ran from Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill neighborhood to the East River waterfront, connecting with a busy ferry link to Manhattan. (more…)
By: Rebecca,
on 8/7/2007
Coordinates: 35 3 N 111 2 W
Diameter: 4,150 feet (1,265 m)
Each summer, movie screens nationwide (and increasingly world wide for that matter) are crowded with blockbuster flicks pitting man against other men, nature, and often alien life forms. Well, I think most people are pretty good at distinguishing science fiction from reality, but the truth is, planet Earth does get visitors from outer space every once in a while. Evidence of these occurrences is limited, but hard to miss. Take Arizona’s Meteor Crater for example. (more…)
By: Rebecca,
on 7/24/2007
Lake Baikal, Russia
Coordinates: 53 0 N 108 0 E
Total area: 12,160 square miles (31,494 sq km)
Overshadowed by its more immodestly-named North American cousins the Great Lakes, Russia’s Ozero Baykal, or Lake Baikal, is no less a remarkable expanse of water itself. At 5,714 feet (1,743 m), the deepest lake also happens to be the oldest freshwater body on the planet. (more…)
By: Rebecca,
on 7/17/2007
Huiricuta Ecological and Cultural Protected Area, Mexico
Coordinates: 23 42 N 100 54 W
Approximate Area: 285 sq. miles (738 sq. km)
Pilgrimages have long been a part of religious practice for many faiths around the world, and while the purpose and destination of each journey is predictably quite different, a common element among them all seems to be distance. In the case of the Huichol people of western Mexico, their route spans roughly 400 miles to a sacred mountain at the southern limits of the Chihuahuan Desert. (more…)
By: Rebecca,
on 7/6/2007
Happy Friday all. For the few of you who are actually in the office here is some Friday procrastination!
This link recommended by Mr. Atlas himself, Ben Keene.
What is the greatest American book of all time?
By: Rebecca,
on 7/3/2007
Coordinates: 42 30 N 1 30 E
Population: 71,822 (2007 est.)
If you’re one of a handful of extant micro-states, lacking in natural resources, arable land, or even a sizable labor force, what do you do for money? Well, in the case of the tiny Principality of Andorra, wedged between Spain and France in the Pyrenees Mountains, building resorts seemed to be the best option available. (more…)
This is hilarious Jenn! I love the mice in the meat counter in their little styrofoam packages. And garter snakes! Brilliant.
Your owls are wonderful! I hope to get to see them in person along with all the others at this years Children's Lit. Festival at Keene State College in Oct.
Jenn, they are both great, but the second one is really wonderful, and it is great to see how you pushed the idea further!
yes both are great, but of course I love the second one the best- I like the meat section with the mice. HA!
WOnderful serie of illos!! Great owl character!