2009’s Best in Children’s Book Illustrations

The Book Review has an annual roundup of the best in children’s books from an illustrative point. Books for kids are crucial for learning the language, and if you can lure them in with outstanding visuals, all the better. NYT has the ten best, including this one from Shaun Tan’s “Tales From Outer Suburbia.” Tan also won a slot in 2007 for the phenomenal, wordless “The Arrival."

1) ONLY A WITCH CAN FLY By Alison McGhee. Illustrated by Taeeun Yoo.
Feiwel & Friends. $16.99. (Ages 4 to 8) . An illustrated poem about a little girl who dreams of flying on her broomstick on Halloween night

2) MOONSHOT: The Flight of Apollo 11 Written and illustrated by Brian Floca.
In watercolors, ink and acrylics, the story of how the Apollo 11 mission unfolded.

3) THE ODD EGG Written and illustrated by Emily Gravett.
Simon & Schuster. $15.99. (Ages 4 to 8). A duck discovers a huge speckled egg — with a baby alligator inside.

4) A PENGUIN STORY Written and illustrated by Antoinette Portis.
HarperCollins. $17.99. (Ages 4 to 8). Edna the penguin goes on a quest to discover new colors.


5) THE LION AND THE MOUSE Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney.
Little, Brown. $16.99 (Ages 3 to 6)

This illustrated retelling of the classic fable has only seven words, all sound effects.

6) THE SNOW DAY Written and illustrated by Komako Sakai.
Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic. $16.99. (Ages 3 to 5). A bunny child stays home from school when the world is beset by a snowstorm.














7) TALES FROM OUTER SUBURBIA Written and illustrated by Shaun Tan.
Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic. $19.99. (Ages 12 and up). An illustrated collection of surreal tales from the author of “The Arrival.”

8) YUMMY: Eight Favorite Fairy Tales Written and illustrated by Lucy Cousins.
Candlewick. $18.99. (Ages 3 and up). Eight popular fairy tales retold in vivid colors.

9) WHITE NOISE By David A. Carter.
Little Simon/Simon & Schuster. $22.99. (Ages 3 and up). A pop-up romp through cubism and futurism, and a lesson in early-­20th-century modernist formalism.

10) ALL THE WORLD By Liz Garton Scanlon. Illustrated by Marla Frazee.
Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster. $17.99. (Ages 4 to 7). A journey in pictures and verse from an unexplored beach to a busy music-filled family room and into a tranquil, moonlit night.

On my own I had seen or been told about Jerry Pinkney's book as well as Antoinette Portis'.

Book Ring uncovered worth $140K

This article just irritates me. Collectively these people stole books from the PG county libraries to remove sell wholesale elsewhere (they removed the bar codes). One woman used the money to buy drugs.

http://www.wbaltv.com/11investigates/21575930/detail.html

"HYATTSVILLE, Md. -- Twelve people have been charged with checking out more than $140,000 in books from Maryland colleges and community libraries and selling them for quick cash."

This is not the way to promote literacy. This is wrong. They face a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

Politics & Prose

I was unfortunately unable to make it to Sarah Dessen's talk at this bookstore but they host a new author every weekday and two authors on the weekends. I definitely recommend checking this bookstore out even if you're not there for an author event.

I will make my way down there, someday.

Politics & Prose <-- Follow the hyperlink

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

Prospective Jobs

To turn to a more pragmatic aspect of blogging, I wish to discuss job searching and see if there are any tips I can accumulate.

Some advice I've heard in the past is to come up with a 60 second blurb about yourself and what you hope to accomplish within your field so you can pitch this at job fairs.

"I, Rosanne North, desire to work in a public library serving adults, children, and the general public. I have an MLS degree, html, Microsoft Office, and database creation skills. My past experience has been general office work updating online catalogs. I also have instructional experience teaching library workshops to freshmen."

Sufficient for now, but I'm still working on it.

This coming week in class I'm arguing for upholding Bridge to Terabithia as the rightful winner of the 1978 Newbery medal against Ramona and her Father and Anpao: A Native American Oddysey. Honestly I have no idea why either of these books were nominated. Anpao's author has been denounced and dethroned as a self-proclaimed Native American and his book combines several stories from Native American folklore to chronicle Anpao's journey from childhood to manhood. At least with Ramona and her Father the book's timelessness has held up. Ramona and her family have to face hard time and difficulties within their family structure when they can no longer rely on their father's income after he loses his job. In the face of this recession (gone or not), this book can be applied even in today's society as children have to cope with their parents' worries instead of enjoying the blissful innocence that childhood allows.

I believe Bridge to Terabithia is most deserving of the medal because of its serious topics and handling of death for young people. Also because I'm drawn to the main character, Leslie, who is a girl imagining the world and trying to make friends while dealing with absent parents.

Harold and the Purple Crayon

My apologies for the long delay. Work and school have united against me to keep me away from any normal social activities for the time being. That being said I have an annotation of A Picture for Harold's Room by Crockett Johnson to tide you over until I post about meeting author Fred Bowen, responsible for several series of children's fictional sports books.

Johnson, Crokett. A Picture for Harold's Room. United States: Harper & Row, 1960. Print.

• A Picture for Harold’s Room is fit for a level one, first-grade reading level audience, and chronicles Harold’s experimental drawings across his bedroom wall. This book fulfills Margaret Jenses’ criteria for an effective and well written easy reader utilizing rhythm, repetition, vocabulary, clear context, and picture clues. Crockett also utilizes good spacing between each word and a broad use of white space to maximize the reader's eye span. There is minimal rhythm and repetition in the text: "He could not wade home through the ocean / He could not climb those high mountains" (48-49). Most of the text falls under Margaret Jenses' recommendation of a five to seven word limit per line, but sometimes Crockett exceeds this. The text is displayed solely across the bottom of the page. Reflected above it is Harold illustrating the text with purple crayon sketches. By having a character illustrate the story this demonstrates how the concepts of a church, town, a sea, a ship, and a lighthouse are viewed from a young child's perspective.

• There is a clear and chronological context within the story as the plot progresses with Harold finding different ways to draw his way through a town, the mountains, the grass, and finally to his room. Crockett's most advanced innovation with this book is his variations in perspective. Throughout the story Harold changes sizes in comparison with his surroundings. At one point he is a giant, bigger than a town. In another scene he is smaller than a bird and realizes that he is not his usual size. The story concludes with Harold drawing himself back to his normal size and hints at more mature implications about how small or big a child may feel in comparison with the world. Overall, this book is appropriate for beginner readers and still remains popular today.

A few days ago I picked up a book called The Lit Report by Sarah N. Harvey and I'm only a few pages in. I am hooked. This book about a girl growing up in a Christian school whilst harboring a love for classical literature takes me back to my childhood days, except for the Christian school part. I'm not that far into it yet so I'll report more when I've finished it.

Also on the "To Do" list, compare and contrast two types of YA books on Polygamous communities: Sister Wife and The Chosen One.

Until next time!

Quite a Shock

I had only heard the odd comment here and there of attempts to challenge and ban Elizabeth Scott's Living Dead Girl. When I picked it up a few days ago from the library I had not expected the destitute and graphic narrative within the text that, once I devoured in one sitting last night at 2 am, I swore would give me nightmares.

Once you are pulled into "Alice's" world, a nightmare in which she has spent the last five years living with and being abused by the man who kidnapped her, you wish you'd never been taken there. The brief book is a front row seat into Alice's pain and lack of help from any neighbors or caring strangers to report her captor. You also see into her captor's, Ray's, head about how the cycle of abuse began with his mother and transferred into his serial kidnapping of little girls, threatening to murder their families should they run away, his attempts to preserve their "innocent little girl" image, and his irateness when they start to grow up.

Alice is a hollow shell whose only wish is to be unfeeling and freed from her "living death". I quoted the process of reading this book to someone to day as comparable to scraping open your skin, pouring rubbing alcohol onto it, and then setting it on fire.

My boyfriend calls me crazy for reading this stuff and is very surprised how I'm not depressed by it. I survived reading a collection of Holocaust literature for children and Young Adults last semester and thought I was prepared for anything. I had also read my fair share of sexual abuse and rape books (courtesy of Ellen Hopkins), but nothing prepared me for the waking nightmare that is Living Dead Girl.

I would not recommend it for everyone, especially the faint of heart.

I think by seeing the road where Alice has traveled and escaped from that help can be given to real girls in her situation.