Press Release Fun: Give the Kid in the Red Snowsuit a Chance!

Press Release Fun: Give the Kid in the Red Snowsuit a Chance!

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This just in from the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation.  You know, picture book authors and illustrators should be so lucky as to have a foundation established in their name.  Not only does it sound neat but you get your creations possibly placed on stamps n’ such.  Posthumously, sure, but it’s still cool.  From the press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                October 27, 2008

For further information:  718-965-1266

 

 

CELEBRATE THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SNOWY DAY

BY EZRA JACK KEATS

HELP CREATE A COMMEMORATIVE POSTAGE STAMP

 

          The U.S. Postage Stamp Citizen’s Advisory Committee, the group that decides what subjects are chosen for our country’s commemorative postage stamps, is considering celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the publishing of THE SNOWY DAY by Ezra Jack Keats.  This book is not just an American classic beloved by generations of children and parents around the world; it is also the book that broke the color barrier in mainstream American children’s book publishing. 

It takes three years for the subject of a postage stamp to be considered, accepted and developed.  The fiftieth anniversary of THE SNOWY DAY is in 2012.  Help us gather signatures to send to the Citizen’s Advisory Committee to let them know how welcome this stamp would be to families and educators across the country.  Help us show the world that Ezra’s character Peter, playing in the snow, a character they recognize and treasure, is as valued here as it is abroad.            To support the creation of THE SNOWY DAY 50th Anniversary Commemorative Stamp visit the website of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation (www.ezra-jack-keats.org) and add your name to the Support the Stamp list.  Tell your friends, your students, your teachers and your parents to add their names to our petition. Names will not be used for any other reason than for THE SNOWY DAY Stamp Petition, nor will they be shared or sold to any other entity.  Help make 2012 a celebration of American children in all their diversity!

Fusenews: I Don’t Pity the Motorcyclist. I Envy the Motorcyclist.

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This is one of those situations where I heard about a site from a co-worker but then forgot who the original source was.  In any case, someone (perhaps on a listserv?) had wondered whether or not there were any "fake" websites out there that could help teach kids about checking sources and not trusting everything online.  I assumed that the answer was going to be Googling "Northwest Pacific Tree Octopus" or "Lake Michigan whale watching" (try ’em) but the actual site mentioned is even better.  www.allaboutexplorers.com is described this way:

"All About Explorers was developed by a group of teachers as a means of teaching students about the Internet. Although the Internet can be a tremendous resource for gathering information about a topic, we found that students often did not have the skills to discern useful information from worthless data.

So we set out to develop a series of lessons for elementary age students in which we would demonstrate that just because it is out there for the searching does not mean it is worthwhile."

It doesn’t hurt matters any that the creators had a sense of humor.  Take a turn about the explorers to see what I mean.

  • I don’t know if any of you are Leon Garfield fans out there.  As children’s authors go, Garfield was without equal in terms of Dickensian settings and humor.  My favorite title of his is probably Black Jack, about a murdering giant of a man who manages to survive his own hanging.  Recently Jen Robinson did one of her fabulous Reviews that Made Me Want the Book postings and she included a cover of Black Jack that I’d never seen before, shown here.  Look at that ugly mug!  How can you not want to know more about him?  And he also appeared to have his own "exciting new film".  Bonus.



Twentieth Century Fox moves around dates of a number of its movies . . . I Love You Beth Cooper , directed by Chris Columbus, and They Came From Upstairs (a comedy) move from winter 2009, to July 10 and July 31 respectively, and another Columbus directed movie, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief , based on Rick Riordan’s books, to July 2, 2010 from 2009.  Fox has also set the movie Ramona , a version of Beverly Cleary’s kid book series of the same name, for release on March 19, 2010.


  • For half a second there my heart fell into my lap.  Nina Lindsay made a pretty compelling point in her post "Graveyard Book" ineligible after all?.  I’d been touting this as a top fantasy contender, until Nina wrote the following, "Thanks, Lisa @ the Eva Perry Mock Newbery Club, for alerting us to the fact that The Graveyard Book might be ineligible after all, as one chapter ("The Witch’s Headstone") was included in Gaiman’s M is for Magic last year."  Oh no!  The things you miss!  Fortunately it looks as if there have been several precedents for this kind of situation.  Commenter Jonathan Hunt wrote, "I can think of two previous Newbery Honors in a similar situation. The first story in A LONG WAY FROM CHICAGO by Richard Peck was previously published in a YA short story anthology about guns. Many of the poems in CARVER: A LIFE IN POEMS published by Marilyn Nelson were previously published in various poetry journals."  Phew!  Crises averted, peoples!  Everyone may go back to your lives now.


  • Monica Edinger invited me to the fall meeting of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America but I was unable to attend due to party planning.  In other words, because I am lame.  Fortunately Monica herself went and has recapped the event (National Ambassador and all) in a lovely little posting.


  • Not paying attention to much (my library is in a perpetual state of flux and I’m an easily distracted by . . . . look at the shiny penny!) I had no idea that Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket) was the chair of this year’s National Book Award for Young People committee.  Learn something new every day.  In any case, Bookslut done got an interview with the man.  Fun stuff.  Thanks again to Educating Alice for the link.


  • For Those of You Wondering if the Children’s Room of 42nd Street is Open Yet:  It ain’t.  Stay tuned.


  • I usually like to hold off on Halloween posts until the day in question.  However, I don’t think I can avoid mentioning this little contest before the day in question.  One Brian Biggs, illustrator by trade, has a Ten Trick or Treaters Contest up and running.  He says of it, "Over the next week I’ll be posting ten trick-or-treaters here and on my Flickr page. They need names and maybe little descriptions. This is where you come in. In the comments section here and on my blog you can give each character a name, and tell his/her story.The contest is being judged by Adam himself, world-famous author Judy Sierra, and if I can talk them into it, my kids. The winner will receive a copy of the book that Judy wrote and I illustrated called BEASTLY RHYMES, signed by me and I’ll draw the winning character in it. There will likely be more prizes as well. Stuff like canned fish and M&Ms."  So there you go.  Your kids and classrooms could be judged by Adam Rex and Judy Sierra.  Not too shabby, I think.  Winners will be announced on Halloween, so better play while you can.


  • Daily Image:


I troll the children’s literary blogs for news.  My husband trolls the comic blogs.  Between the two of us we’ve a significant percentage of nerdom covered right there.  While on his usual patrol, Matt took at gander at Living Between Wednesdays and hit upon a treasure trove of wonderful posts.  One Rachelle Goguen has been systematically examining, praising, and decrying various contemporary toys for kids.  I’d mention each and every one if I could but the only one I’ll quote is this:

MSX Pro Stunt T-Rex Terror Ripper Set

"This toy is proof that, even if it seems silly on paper, adding one awesome thing to any other awesome thing is VERY AWESOME."

She couldn’t be more right.  Skeleton T-Rex?  Cool.  But with the motorcyclist?  Cool suddenly morphs into awesome.

Review of the Day: Chiggers by Hope Larson

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Chiggers
By Hope Larson
Lettered by Jason Azzopardi
Ginee Seo Books, Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster)
$17.99
ISBN: 978-1-4169-3584-1
Ages 10 and up
On shelves now

Let it be known that I never went to summer camp as a kid. Family historians disagree over the root cause of this. I am under the impression that it was never an option. My parents, on the other hand, remember me vociferously protesting any form of outdoorsy socialness of this sort. Regardless of the reasons, I have almost no associations with this common rite of childhood. No particular affection for bunking or lanyards or any of that stuff. So my experience with Chiggers, a camp-based graphic novel by Hope Larson, is certainly not tainted by any lingering nostalgia on my part. When I tell you that I am a huge fan of this book, I hope you’ll understand that I’m basing it entirely on Larson’s skill as a writer and artist. Chiggers, in spite of its itchy scratchy bug-ridden name, is a deft take on the reality behind the friendships made, lost, and made again at an average summer camp. The backstabbing, heartfelt talks, crushes, and quiet moments are displayed here with an honesty that manages to be real without tripping into candy-colored memory. An honest and obviously personal title.

Abby was so sure that coming back to camp would be awesome this year, but things have kind of gotten off to a rocky start. I mean it’s great that her friend Rose is a cabin assistant, but that just means she’s not around a lot. And Beth and Zoe are great but they’re sort of acting too cool for Abby, like they’ve grown up more or something. When Abby’s annoying bunkmate goes home due to an attack of severe chiggers she’s replaced with Shasta, a girl who claims to have been hit by lightning. Shasta annoys everyone except for Abby who finds her interesting. So between navigating between friends and getting a crush on a really lovely dweeb, Abby’s off to figure out how to survive the summer and have a good time too.

The book decides to leap into the action mid-stream, in a sense, letting the reader catch up as they go. When I first started reading I wondered if this was the second book in a series and that I’d somehow missed the little "Vol. 2" symbol on the spine. But no. As it happens you sort of plunge right into the fact that Abby has been going to this camp for some time and has friends from previous years, both older than her and her age. It wouldn’t make a lick of sense for a girl in middle school to go to camp and find that she didn’t know anybody (unless it was her first time there). Point Larson.

The next question was time period. I guess Larson probably had to decide right off the bat whether or not she wanted to make this book a work of historical fiction from her own youth or something a little more contemporary. I suppose she could have placed it in some timeless era where technology isn’t a factor, which I’m usually a fan of. But for some reason, it seemed important that Larson make the story contemporary. I loved that the kids in the book couldn’t bring electronics like iPods to camp. It just sort of makes it feel a little more real (and managed to explain the lack of communication devices present).

In terms of the storylines, there was an authenticity to this book that I could appreciate (so maybe my earlier "I’m not tainted by lingering nostalgia" line was a bit premature). I mean, the story here is incredibly realistic. A girl befriends someone that everyone else can’t stand and finds herself torn between friends. That’s a situation a lot of kids can identify with (and adults too, for that matter). I also loved that talking about someone behind their back didn’t automatically mean that person wasn’t your friend. It was just a part of growing up. There are no real "villains" here just as there aren’t real villains in your day-to-day life. There’s just a lot of people trying to interact, drawing conclusions, and having to befriend one another in spite of the odds.

As for the art itself, Larson’s style is a dark lined clear cut take with plenty of shifts in perspective and angles to keep a reader interested. Even more than this, I’ve always loved how she captures little human moments that you wouldn’t necessarily catch elsewhere. When Beth is telling Abby about the awesome band she’s going to be in she asks, "What do you play again?" Abby, who’s leaning on the top bunk with her chin on her hand smiles to the side, head forward, as she answers, "Harp". Beth playfully calls her a loser and cuffs her but the moment would probably play as dark if it weren’t for Larson’s eye for visual levity. It’s enormously hard to make a series of lines and curves not only look human but also exhibit the everyday tendencies that make us who we are. But if you want an example of how it’s done, Chiggers would be a great place to look. Admittedly, in this black and white format some of her characters look similar. I’d just ask that in the future publishers allow her full-color reprints instead. Kids like hues.

Children’s literature has never quite plumbed the summer camp genre for all it’s worth. The Percy Jackson books probably take the idea to its logical extreme, but when I try to think of realistic fiction the only title that pops into my brain is Yours Till Niagara Falls, Abby by Jane O’Connor. I know that there are others, but they haven’t really become standard bearers. So in a way, Hope Larson is working in fairly fresh territory. I was a fan of her, Gray Horses a number of years ago and always felt it a pity that she mostly did graphic novels for teens and not kids. Now she’s tilted her focus a little younger and created a book that’s just the right mix of real and mildly fantastical. A great new book from a comic artist.


Other Blog Reviews: the excelsior file, Comics Worth Reading, Dick Hyacinth’s One-Stop Hyphen Shop, Read About Comics, Geeks of Doom, Comicsgirl, Comics in the Classroom, Under the Covers, In the Tower, Be like the squirrel, girl (great blog name), Bookworm Readers, and The Thinking Mother.


Other Online Reviews: MONDO Magazine and The Trades.

Misc:

  • If you go to Larson’s Chiggers website be sure to check out the Fan Art portion.  Great stuff.

  • Read a large segement of the book on New York Magazine’s Vulture blog.

  • You can watch a video of her here.

  • You can hear her comments on trying to get the book optioned here.

  • Just as an unrelated note, when I was trying to find the copyright information for Chiggers I noticed that my search also yielded this puppy:

    The kicker is that it’s a board book.  The mind reels.  

Video Sunday: Pipe Wrench Fight!

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Illustrator Dan Santat is now the proud father of a beautiful bouncing baby boy.  But before this happened he was also the creator of this truly fabulous book trailer.  It’s for Anne Isaacs’ "The Ghosts of Luckless Gulch" (a book I’ve been meaning to take a peek at) and is a fine example of how to turn a picture book into a 2 minute piece. Thanks to Dee for the link.

This is a real treat.  Some of you have undoubtedly already seen these two videos.  For those of you who haven’t, however, they’re delightful.  A fellow on YouTube has been creating the "Literal Version" of various music videos.  So far he’s only created two.  This one is actually library-related.  Ever see the video for that classic 80s ballad "Head Over Heels"?  Well, here is it with the lyrics describing every minute detail.


That one’s okay. Fun but not quite as good as the other video. Behold the wonder of "Take On Me". Bet you never noticed the hero sporting his own pipe wrench before, did you?


The best part? He actually sells t-shirts and other accessories that read, "Pipe Wrench Fight".  That makes some obscure corner of my brain extraordinarily happy.

Three Words: Antique. Toy. Cats.

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Bill Kartalopolous let me know about this with the sentence, "As an added attraction, Kim and his wife Pam will be showing off examples from their extensive collection of antique toy cats."  How are you supposed to say no to that?  From the press release:

For immediate release
CONTACT: Karl Erickson
kerickson@moccany.org
212 254-3511

Legendary Cartoonist Kim Deitch to Headline Two Public Events at MoCCA

• Cartoon Movie Night with Kim Deitch: Thursday, October 30, 7:00 pm
• Kim Deitch Q & A: Thursday, November 13, 7:00 pm

The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) is pleased to announce that legendary underground cartoonist and graphic novelist Kim Deitch will make two special appearances at the museum in association with
MoCCA’s current exhibit, Kim Deitch: A Retrospective.

On October 30, Kim Deitch will host a Cartoon Movie Night featuring rarely seen animated cartoons from the 1920s and 1930s hand-picked for the occasion from Deitch’s own personal collection. This period of animation inspired Deitch’s signature character Waldo the Cat and is the subject of his acclaimed graphic novel The Boulevard of Broken Dreams, which is featured in the exhibit. As a special Halloween treat, MoCCA will also display for one night only selected specimens from Deitch and spouse Pam Butler’s extensive collection of antique toy cats. The blurring of fact, fiction and autobiography in Deitch’s work is a major focus of Kim Deitch: A Retrospective, and this display will present a rare opportunity to see the historical artifacts that
motivate the fictional narrative in Deitch’s graphic novel Alias the Cat.

On November 13, Kim Deitch will appear at MoCCA for a Q & A session with exhibit curator Bill Kartalopoulos. In a unique and wide-ranging conversation, the two will discuss Deitch’s work and career to date.
Deitch will present examples of recent work and will also preview images from his current works in progress.

Both events are free and open to the public, and run as part of a regularly scheduled series of "MoCCA Thursdays" events at the Museum.

Kim Deitch’s career spans the entire post-war history of avant-garde comics, from the underground to the literary mainstream. As an early contributor to the East Village Other, Deitch was a charter member of the underground comix scene that exploded with the 1968 publication of Robert Crumb’s Zap #1. Forty years later, he stands alongside Crumb, Bill Griffith, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and Art Spiegelman as one the most notable and prolific artists to emerge from that milieu. Kim Deitch: A Retrospective features ninety-seven pieces spanning the artist’s entire career, including comics originals, preparatory sketches, prints, and animation cel set-ups.

The exhibit runs through December 5, 2008.

MoCCA is located at 594 Broadway, Suite 401 (between Houston & Prince)
New York, NY 10012
Phone: 212 254-3511
MoCCA is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 12 – 5 pm
Suggested Donation during museum hours: $5
For more information please visit: http://www.moccany.org

Egg Zen

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I’ve not much time to post today.  I’m holding a 90s Prom Party tonight (long story) and need to figure out how to adequately spike my own punch.

In the meantime, why don’t you just sit and ponder these pictures of the Paolini Brisingr egg, currently housed in my library.  I only recently came in contact with it.  Were I a better photographer I could probably do something with these shots.  As it is, they’ll just have to stand on their own.