Our lovely and fantastic
Melissa Sweet, author and illustrator of many award-winning picture books, is here accepting the Golden Kite for her illustrations of Peter Mark Roget's life and world in
The Right Word: Roget and his Thesaurus.
The research for this book began not far from here in Santa Barbara, where Melissa got to see one of Roget's original word books in a private collection. Melissa has illustrated word-centric biographies before, but unlike being able to pull from the imagery evoked in the words of William Carlos Williams, Melissa had to figure out how to visualize Roget's lists of words.
For the better part of two weeks, Melissa handlettered Roget's original word list in sepia and had a jolly old time doing it.
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Melissa got to handle original Roget pages
like these—without gloves! |
Melissa thanks her publisher Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, her author Jen Bryant, and the SCBWI/Golden Kite committee.
"My hope with this book is that readers will be delighted and informed, but most importantly, always find the right word when they need it."
Richard is unbelievably quotable!
You have to read 1,000 books before you write one.
On the benefits of being a writer rather than a teacher:
We can't be fired. We're unemployed.
He's reading some letters from his readers... some of them are really funny, and heartfelt!
On his own reading:
Charlotte's Web was published the year I graduated from High School, so I was
too old for it then. But not now.
And with a final flourish, the room stood on their feet. 1,000 people, cheering for all that wisdom!
Steve won the Golden Kite Award for Excellence in Fiction for his novel, "Down Sand Mountain."
He's speaking about the moment when, as a child, he discovered that books weren't just THERE, but that they were written by people...
and that very day, he went home to write his very first book, "The Glisening Sword."
He's telling us the plot... The room is laughing! Applause for the suprise ending!
His parents made copies and distributed it to their family and friends as a Christmas present that year!
40 years later, his second attempt to write for young readers, he had better editors (that would catch things like the missing silent "t" in "Glistening!")
"I'm just so blessed to be a member of this community."
Posted by Lee Wind
Hyewon Yum won the Golden Kite Award for illustration for Last Night, (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Winning for picture book illustration, Hyewon Yum spoke of how she wasn't someone who ever lifted her hand to speak in class.
And now she's before almost 1,000 people!
And she gave a very gracious thank you.
Posted by Lee Wind
Pamela Turner received the Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction for A Life in the Wild: George Schaller's Struggle to Save the Last Great Beasts, by Pamela S. Turner, received the Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction.
Pamela thanked George Schaller, the scientist who allowed her to profile him in her book. He was a scientist who first observed gorillas in the wild. He's now 75 years old and an active scientist and conservationists.
Pamela is donating the prize money and the profits from her book to conservation projects. How wonderful! Go great beasts!
POSTED BY ALICE POPE
Bonny Becker received the Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text for A Visitor for Bear.
Ultimately, Bonny says, we want to show to our kids that despite its woes, the world is a wonderful place. She also wants to show through her books that she likes people (and this comes across in her character Mouse and Bear).
When she writes from a place she loves, she says, the writing is easy.
Work, discipline, training and luck are important.
She quoted E.B. White: I wake up every morning and torn by the desire to improve the world and the desire to enjoy the world. That makes it hard to plan my day. Bonny says she's decided to plan her days writing what she enjoys and urges the audience to do the same.
POSTED BY ALICE POPE
The conference goers have just finished the "rubber chicken" and the festivities of the Golden Kite Luncheon are now beginning.
Portfolio competition winners will be posted shortly. Stay tuned.
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I'm loving all these updates and planning on being there next year!