Congratulations, you won!

Going back to an old post from September, it turns out that my children's literature class was right about one of our nominations for the 2010 Caldecott Medal. The winner was declared at this year's ALA's mid-winter conference in Boston, Jerry Pinkney's "The Lion and the Mouse". I've posted this book a few times, once in my entry about best children's book illustrations. It retells the Aesop's Fable of the Lion and the mouse, about mutual good deeds and their karmic effect. There are only seven words in the book, all sound effects. The award is given to Pinkney as reflecting the highest accomplishments for that year in children's book illustration.

The Lion & the Mouse - written and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, which as it turns out is the book my professor, Maria Salvadore, had favored to win.

Things I learned from Fred Bowen

Fred Bowen, an author of sports books for young readers, came to visit my Children's Literature class at UMD a few weeks ago. Here is the update as promised:

Fred's books include simplistic but ethically diverse stories centered around boys and girls on various sports teams: baseball, basketball, and football to name a few. While the characters are fictitious, the stories' plots are centered around real, and sometimes famous, sports events that occurred in the past. For example, Fred's latest book, Touchdown Trouble, discusses a winning touchdown that was scored illegally, and the team's decision whether or not to confess their mistake and give the opposing team the win. This is the only recorded football game score to be changed after the game has concluded.

Other fun facts about Fred Bowen:

1) He is a recovering lawyer for the Department of Labor for the past 30 years
2) He used to write movie reviews for newspapers (2-3 years) and video reviews for magazines
3) In most children's books, the parents are often irrelevant to the story
4) Sports writer for the Kids Post
5) Hannibal Lecter's mask is an old version of a hockey mask.
6) People used to make fun of those who wore a mask or gloves in hockey, as it was a sign of cowardice
7) He wants to write a good story as well as teach a good lesson, but writing lessons is hard since he never wants the children to win.
8) The world is an enormously stubborn place
9) Fred Bowen is currently operating without an agent
10) The world is starved for ideas, sories, and writing
11) Reading is always a minority undertaking
12) Kids books last longer
13) Illustrations date books, so they should be updated

Perceptions

In class yesterday we were speaking about fantasy and I heard a lot of people say they weren't interested in it because they thought it was all the same, it revolved around the same basic plot, or that they thought fantasy and science fiction were synonymous.

Our mutual concurrence as a class was that those readers hadn't read very good fantasy

I couldn't wrap my head around this. Star Wars + LOTR is the same? Surely not!

As a librarian, I hope to dispel this misconception.

Annotation Thursday --or-- It's October!

In retrospect of a recent assignment in my Children's Literature class where we're supposed to annotate a collection of fairy tales, I've decided to dress up as a Hans Christian Andersen character for Halloween. Plotting and previewing will come soon enough. Here's hoping I can do it justice.

But it's time for another Annotation where I review Anotinette Portis' follow-up to Not a Box, Not a Stick.

Portis, Anotinette. Not a Stick. Illus by author. United States: HarpersCollins, 2008. Print.

• Portis’ follow-up to her 2006 publication, Not a Box, uses similar illustrative and story-telling techniques. The cover art displays a faux wooden background, indicating the stick’s origin and possibly hinting at a tree’s role in the bookmaking process. The story’s protagonist, an imaginative pig, has a repetitive dialogue with an invisible speaker who continually asks him to be careful playing with his stick. When the invisible speaker interjects the italicized text is positioned at the top of the page, while the pig’s straight-lined words are positioned on the lower half of the page. This shows the reader that two different people are speaking. The pages switch from white text on a dull, brown background to a soothing blue and bright yellow background every time the speaker and the pig speak, respectively. The brown background reveals the speaker’s serious tone and his unimaginative perspective. However, when the pig is speaking the background is a bright yellow with light colored lines to denote his optimistic and dream-like imaginings as he plays with his stick. The pig is drawn with heavy, bold lines while each object the stick becomes is outlined in heavy, blue lines; but the reader can always see the stick housed within the new object.

• Portis portrays the pig and his stick (morphing into a whip, marching baton, fishing pole, paintbrush, barbell, spear, sword, and leash) with realism and an imaginative, surrealistic twist. For example, the stick is both used as a fishing pole and as a leash to lead a conquered dragon by the neck. The pig’s character is meant to relate to the reader and represent a child’s ability to imagine and have several different perspectives on an object. Portis transforms a simple stick into a multifunctional tool and inspires the reader to create their own “not a stick”.

Updates forthcoming, for now I give you Shrek!

During our presentations for class today I learned that Shrek is actually a children's book that was published in 1993 by William Steig, author of Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. I had no idea! That leaves about 8 years between the creation of the book and the film "Shrek" with the death of Steig two years later. There are some discrepancies between the two but I have to say overall that I'm pleased with how the movie turned out, even if the writer and editors took liberties with expanding the story.

I will update on the National Book Festival soon. I was able to acquire insight and laughs from seeing Jacqueline Woodson, Holly Black, Tony DiTerlizzi, Megan McDonald, & Mo Willems, and even came away with a signed book and a great conversation with my former professor and dear friend, Joan Kindig.

Celebrate Banned Books week by supporting authors such as Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak) and all the other authors affected by this phenomenon.

Annotated Tuesday

Today I bring you an annotation of a popular children's book (something I'll try to do every week). Today's book was read to me by a former professor, Joan Kindig, in another children's literature class.

Sherry, Kevin. I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean. Illus. by Author. United States: Dial, 2007. Print.

Sherry’s tri-layered illustrations are uniquely varied and separated by a pane of glass according to the book’s end page explanation. The bottom layer is watercolor using various shades of blue and green to make up the ocean floor as well as the red innards of a whale. The second layer is cut paper, creating the realistic shapes of the ocean dwelling characters which represent an accurate portrait of ocean life: turtles, puffer fish, octopus, sharks, shrimp, clams, crabs, jellyfish, and whales. The third layer is heavily inked, bringing to life the voice of the narrator squid: from the small, faint words as he whispers when a shark is nearby to large curved words demonstrating the squid’s boisterous personality as well as the illustrator’s playfulness. The mood of the book is very calm and tranquil but offset by the garish, invasive voice and personality of the squid.

Sherry experiments very heavily with proportion throughout the book, portraying the squid in several sizes and spacing him erratically on the page which also adds variety; sometimes taking up a small portion on one page, to focusing solely on his eyes and mouth which take up an entire page and spill over the center onto the following page. This placement not only indicates the squid’s exaggerated, physical size on the page in proportion to the other sea creatures, but also shows the squid’s perception of his superiority over the other creatures based solely on his size. This can reflect a child’s developmental stage where their world is as self-centered as the squid’s as well as how they view themselves among others in the world. The squid’s loud opinion of his worth among his friends makes the book’s mood very funny and the tone very loud. His personality leaps off of the page and is sure to relate to young readers.

2010 Caldecott Nominations

For fun I kept track of the suggested nominations for the 2010 Caldecott Award discussed in class today. In a few months I'll check back and see if any of us were on the money.

LBSC 645 Children's Literature and Materials - Fall 2009, Dr. Maria Salvadore

1. Tsunami - by Kimiko Kajikawa, illustrated by Ed Young
2. No! - by David McPhail
3. Hansel and Gretel - written and illustrated by Rachel Isadora
4. All of Me - written and illustrated by Molly Bang
5. One Red Apple - by Harriet Siefer, illustrated by Karla Gudeon
6. All in One Day - written by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Nikki McClure
7. Big George - by Anne F. Rockwell, illustrated by Matt Phelan
8. Fletcher and the Sprintime Blossoms - by Julia Rawlinson, illustrated by Tiphanie Beeke
9. Jeremy Draws a Monster - by Peter McCarty
10. Chicken Little - by Rebecca Emberly, illustrated by Ed Emberly
11. Little Chick - by Amy Hest, illustrated by Anita Jeram
12. Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed - written and illustrated by Mo Willems
13. The Negro Speaks of Rivers - by Langston Hughes, illustrated by E. B. Lewis
14. The Longest Night - by Marion Dane Bauer, illustrated by Ted LWein
15. The Lion & the Mouse - written and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney