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• Oh, so very much has gone on this week!  Where to begin?  What to do?  Well, for starters, NYPL released a handy dandy list to accompany their current exhibit The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter.  I helped make said list, which is officially called 100 Great Children’s Books, 100 Years.  So, two things.  #1: We didn’t say “best” or “most popular”.  We just said great.  These are great books.  Hard to argue with that.  And #2: It’s just the stuff published in the last 100 years.  So before you get your knickers in a twist, there is a reason The Secret Garden, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland are nowhere in sight.  NYPL even lets you buy the books in little packages by age level or the whole kerschmozzle at one time.  Groovy.

• In conjunction with the exhibit and the list, the library brought over Judy Blume and Eric Carle.  So, naturally, when a photograph was to be taken I wedged myself between the two of them.  I intend to blow it up, crop it, and then in fifty years claim to my grandchildren that we were all bestest buddies and this was taken mere moments before we stepped out for some pie.

• And now, on the depressing side of things, Gary Soto explains why I haven’t seen a new children’s title come out of him since I got my library degree.  I just completely missed that entire Marisol debacle.  In 2005 I was a newly minted librarian.  Seems a bit unfair that I just missed the output of Soto.  So come on, man!  That was basically a decade ago.  Time to do with the typey type.

• In happier news, Vermont college offers a scholarship to minority children’s & YA authors.  This fact is accompanied by a killer photo of Angela Johnson.  Worth it right there.

We are extra lucky today as not one but two experts have concocted a gourmet feast of their Top 10 favourite multicultural stories about food.  It seems fitting that authors Grace Lin and Jama Rattigan should each select food as their theme, since they have both written stories revolving around tasty recipes – as you will discover by looking at each of their menus.  In fact, each has put a book by the other on her menu, while unaware that the other was cooking up their own recipe, so it seems fitting that we should bring you the whole spread for you to gorge on at a single sitting – and it’s also interesting to see which books come up as double portions…

Jama Rattigan is the author of Dumpling Soup illustrated by Lilian Hsu-Flanders (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 1998);  The Woman in the Moon: A Story from Hawai’i illustrated by Carla Golembe (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 1996); and Truman’s Aunt Farm illustrated by G. Brian Karas (Sandpiper, 1996).  As well as her website (check out the recipe for Dumpling Soup), Jama also hosts the truly delectable Jama’s Alphabet Soup, a must-visit blog for anyone interested in children’s books, food, or both at the same time.

Grace Lin‘s latest book is Starry River of the Sky (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2012), the much-awaited companion novel to Newbery Honor Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009).  She has written and illustrated many books for a wide age-range of children, including The Ugly Vegetables (Charlesbridge Publishing, 1999) and Dim Sum for Everyone (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2001); and picture books she has illustrated include Where on Earth is my Bagel? by Frances and Ginger Park (Lee & Low Books, 2001).  You can read our 2010 interview with Grace here, and view some of her beautiful artwork in our Gallery here and here.  And do check out Grace’s website and blog, where she has a fantastic giveaway on offer in celebration of the launch of Starry River of the Sky.

Top 10 Favorite Multicultural Picture Books about Food by Jama Rattigan

Whether it’s a big platter of noodles, warm-from-the-oven flatbread, fried dumplings, or a steamy bowl of Ugly Vegetable Soup, there’s nothing tastier than a picture book about food. You eat with your eyes first, then step into the kitchens or sit at the tables of friends and family from faraway places, all of whom seem to agree that love is the best seasoning for any dish, and food tastes best when it is happily shared. These tasty tales always make me say, “More, please!”

~ Apple Pie Fourth of July by Janet S. Wong and Margaret Chodos-Irvine (Harcourt, 2002)

~ Aunty Yang’s Great Soybean Picnic by Ginnie Lo and Beth Lo (Lee & Low, 2012)

~ Bee-Bim Bop! by Linda Sue Park and Ho Baek Lee (Clarion, 2005)

~ Cora Cooks Pancit by Dorina K. Lazo Gilmore and Kristi Valiant (Shen’s Books, 2009)

~ Duck for Turkey Day by Jacqueline Jules and Kathryn Mitter (Albert Whitman, 2009)

~ Hiromi’s Hands by Lynne Barasch (Lee & Low, 2007)

~ Hot, Hot Roti for Dada-ji by F. Zia and Ken Min (Lee & Low, 2011)

~ The Have a Good Day Café by Frances Park and Ginger Park, illustrated by Katherine Potter (Lee & Low, 2005)

~ The Ugly Vegetables by Grace Lin (Charlesbridge, 1999)

~ Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto and Ed Martinez (Putnam, 1993)

 

My Top Ten Food-Themed Multicultual Books by Grace Lin

In my family instead of saying hello, we say, “Have you eaten yet?” Eating and food has always been a successful way to connect us to culture, familiar as well as exotic–perhaps because it’s so enjoyable! So these books about food can be an appetizer to another country, a comfort food of nostalgia or a delicious dessert of both. Hen hao chi!

~ Hiromi’s Hands by Lynne Barasch (Lee & Low, 2007)

~ Ganesha’s Sweet Tooth by Sanjay Patel and Emily Haynes, illustrated by Sanjay Patel (Chronicle Books, 2012)

~ Bee-Bim Bop! by Linda Sue Park,illustrated Ho Baek Lee (Clarion, 2005)

~ How My Parents Learned to Eat by Ina R. Friedman, illustrated by Allan Say (Sandpiper, 1987)

~ Apple Pie Fourth of July by Janet Wong, illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine (Harcourt, 2002)

~ Everybody Cooks Rice by Norah Dooley, illustrated by Peter Thornton (Carolrhoda Books, 1992)

~ Yoko by Rosemary Wells (Hyperion, 1998)

~ Auntie Yang’s Great Soybean Picnic by Ginnie and Beth Lo (Lee & Low, 2012)

~ Peiling and the Chicken-Fried Christmas by Pauline Chen (Bloomsbury, 2007)

~ Dumpling Soup by Jama K. Rattigan, illustrated by Lillian Hsu Flanders (Little, Brown, 1998)

A team of authors have joined Book Wish Foundation‘s What You Wish For: A Book For Darfur project. Book sale profits will be donated to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), an organization building libraries in Darfur refugee camps in Chad.

Penguin Group’s G.P. Putnam’s Sons imprint will release the collection in September. If you make a donation of $20 or more before April 30th and your name (and your child’s) will be included in the book’s acknowledgment section.

Actress Mia Farrow, who serves as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, has written the forward. The participating authors include: Cornelia Funke, Meg Cabot, R. L. Stine, John Green, Ann M. Martin, Alexander McCall Smith, Cynthia Voigt, Karen Hesse, Joyce Carol Oates, Nikki Giovanni, Jane Yolen, Nate Powell, Gary Soto, Jeanne DuPrau, Francisco X. Stork, Marilyn Nelson, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Sofia Quintero.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

I am a picture fiend. Even before cell phones had cameras, I carried a camera around with me at all times to take hundreds of snapshots a year--and that was back in the days of film. When Keilana was eight weeks old, she had been professionally photographed six times. One of my students used my on-line picture posting to do the math, and came up with this astounding figure: In her first year of life, Scarlett had her picture taken ten thousand times. That’s one thousand times ten. I told you, I’m fixated. I thought it would get better when I got a digital camera three years ago and could use the technology to raise my standards for pictures of my kids--keeping only the perfect ones and discarding the weird face or out-off-focus shots we used to be stuck with. Nice try. I have found what happens now is that I take exponentially more pictures, but can’t discard any of them. Even if I’ve managed to catch only my child’s blurry elbow, it’s still one of my very favorite elbows ever and I want to be able to look at it whenever I choose. Besides, their elbow will never be that age again. Disturbing, isn’t it? Another consequence of my addiction is that my kids become junior photographers very early on. Connor could take professional-looking shots by four and Scarlett is catching up fast. In Gary Soto’s Snapshots from the Wedding, Maya shows off her skills. They aren’t half bad.

http://www.amazon.com/Snapshots-Wedding-Paperstar-Book-Gary/dp/0698117522

http://www.garysoto.com/bio.html

Speaking of pirates… today we celebrate Poetry Friday with a sea song. Or the hint of one, at least.

“And silver the coins and silver the moon, / Silver the waves on the top of the sea…” starts Jane Yolen’s The Ballad of the Pirate Queens, an adventure that sings the history of Anne Bonney and Mary Reade, the only two women of the twelve pirates aboard the legendary Vanity ship, in 1720.

Jane Yolen never disappoints. Neither does Poetry Friday, today at Miss Rumphius Effect. This installment unveils priceless treasures, such as Sylvia Vardell’s reviews of new poems by Gary Soto and Pat Mora, in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. So hurry up and check them out, mi hearties. They are worth their weight in gold!

Guest Blogger Lydia Breiseth is the manager of the bilingual English-Spanish website Colorín Colorado, whose mission is to provide educators and parents with information about teaching English language learners to read and succeed.   Ms. Breiseth began her career teaching English to adults in Ecuador with the educational exchange program WorldTeach, and has subsequently taught English and Spanish in a variety of educational and family literacy programs to students of all ages. Prior to working at Colorín Colorado, Ms. Breiseth served as the Community Affairs Liaison at Telemundo Washington DC, managing outreach initiatives to the region’s Hispanic community.

Each fall, we have the opportunity to celebrate the contributions and accomplishments of Hispanic and Latin Americans during Hispanic Heritage Month.  For some fresh ideas on how to mark this month, take a look at Colorín Colorado’s Hispanic Heritage pages in English and Spanish for booklists, ready-to-use tools for the ELL classroom, and many multimedia resources.  From bilingual stories and author interviews to lesson plans, there are lots of great resources online to get the celebration started at home or at school!

Here are five ideas for ways to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month:

1. Look for children’s books by authors such as Alma Flor Ada, George Ancona, Francisco X. Alarcón, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Pat Mora, Monica Brown, Lulu Delacre, Gary Soto, or Jorge Argueta.  While these authors write about a number of themes, many of them focus on culturally relevant stories, traditions, and events that students of all backgrounds will find engaging.
2. Talk about the biographies of important Hispanic and Latin American figures from history and look for children’s books about those figures. For example, César: Yes, We Can!/César: ¡Sí, Se Puede! by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand offers poems about César Chávez, while Harvesting Hope: The Story of César Chávez by Kathleen Krull and Yuyi Morales focuses on Chávez’s famous march on behalf of California’s migrant farmworkers.
3. With older students, talk about what it means to be Hispanic American in the U.S. today.  What are the opportunities and challenges for young Hispanic Americans and immigrants of different backgrounds?  What has their family experience been?  How might Hispanic Americans’ vote play a part in the upcoming presidential election?
4. Look for cultural events in your area that you can attend with students or your family.  During Hispanic Heritage Month, many schools, museums, libraries, cultural associations, and performance groups offer presentations with art, music, poetry, puppet shows, cinema, drama, or other activities for audiences of all ages.  You may even be able to do some taste-testing of yummy cuisine while you’re at it!
5. Local PBS stations are offering Hispanic Heritage programming, including documentaries, performances, and bilingual children’s shows.  Check out some of the special programs PBS will be showcasing.

Also check out local PBS listings for Reading Rockets’ newest television program, Toddling Toward Reading.  Hosted by country music legend (and First Book Board member) Reba McEntire, the show offers a look at how pediatricians are getting involved in bringing books to babies; the crucial need for family-support services to engage and involve parents of young children; and the benefits of inclusion for the special needs preschooler. The show also features master teacher Dr. Rebecca Palacios who runs a dual-language immersion preschool in Corpus Christi, Texas. While teaching her kids, she also mentors teachers-in-training on how to provide top-notch teaching in a preschool environment.

Find ways to connect babies, toddlers and preschoolers with books with these parent tip sheets on reading in both English and Spanish.  Hispanic Heritage Month is a great opportunity to introduce even soon-to-be readers to poems, stories, and traditional songs found in books.

So, what's in your refrigerator?

When I was little, I always used to see stuff like this:

A BEAR IN THERE
by Shel Silverstein



There's a Polar Bear
In our Frigidaire --
He likes it cause it's cold in there.
With his seat in the meat
And his face in the fish
And his big hairy paws
In the buttery dish,
He's nibbling the noodles,
He's munching the rice,
He's slurping the soda,
He's licking the ice.
And he lets out a roar
If you open the door.
And it gives me a scare
To know he's in there --
That Polary Bear
In our Fridgitydaire.

~ from The Light in the Attic, 1981 


But now, instead of celebrating things for what they are, I question everything.

2% or skim?
Dill spear or sweet gherkin?
Chunky or smooth?
Ketchup or steak sauce?

I purposely avoid asking butter or margarine?,

since this can quickly escalate to

tub or stick?
name brand or store brand?
regular or organic?
plain or whipped?

How and why did things get so complicated?

I keep hoping that when I open the fridge, a completely prepared, nutritionally and politically correct meal will materialize. 

Or that issues of life and death won't present themselves in the Velveeta.

Or that I can even remember why I opened the refrigerator door in the first place.

And another thing, I thought refrigerators were supposed to keep everything cool, and make them last longer. You just can't put time on ice.

Excuse me, while I gaze at my navel oranges.

AFTERNOON MEMORY
by Gary Soto



Sometimes I'll look in the refrigerator
And decide that the mustard is vaguely familiar,
And that the jar of Spanish olives is new to me.
What's this gathering? The butter
And salsa, the two kinds of tortillas
And, in back, the fat-waisted Mrs. Butterworth.
I'll study the plate of cross-legged chicken,

And close the refrigerator and lean on the kitchen counter.
Is this old age? 

(Rest is here.)

Today's Poetry Friday Roundup is at A Year of Reading.

Don't take any chances, bring your own cooler!

        
  
Is it safe to eat tomatoes?
Or cilantro?
Or jalapeno peppers?
Or spinach?
Or hamburger?
Was that a burp or an ulcer?

Somebody, stop me . . .   

Hot Springs, N.C., a beautiful little town on the French Broad River, deep in the heart of Appalachia, may not appear to be the most multicultural environment at first glance, but check out what my nephew and his wife, who live there, have been reading to their boys, aged 7 and 5. Quoting from a recent email:

“A copy of Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto and Ed Martinez came home for good the other day when the librarian decided the cover was too damaged for further circulation. Our house rabbit had reduced its size by about 20% - apparently those tamales looked pretty good to him too.

“Recently we’ve been reading the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne. Quite compelling, full of historical facts and adventurous enough to enthrall a second grader. Day of the Dragon King concerns the rescue of a legend written on bamboo before it is to be burned. So far we’ve been to Pompeii, a medieval Irish monastery and a Civil War field hospital; later books deal with even more magical and fantastical themes.

“Last week the boys had me read Rikki-Tikki-Tavi for several nights in a row (yes, I do the voices - can’t help it). I had picked up [Caldecott Award winner] Jerry Pinkney’s adaptation of this classic Rudyard Kipling story from the library because the illustrations caught my eye. The artwork is beautiful.”

Thanks for the field report, Melody! Keep ‘em coming