CREATING A BIOGRAPHICAL PORTRAIT OF JANE AUSTEN
Jane Austen has had a loyal following ever since 1811, when her first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, appeared in print. Two hundred years later, Austen's books are more popular than ever, thanks in part to recent film and television adaptations that have gained them many youthful fans. Yet the woman behind the novels remains obscure. On the evening of Thursday, March 15, Guild member Catherine Reef will speak about the challenges she faced while writing Jane Austen: A Life Revealed, which Booklist named one of its "Top Ten Biographies for Youth, 2011." Catherine has written numerous nonfiction books for young readers and adults, including award-winning biographies of Walt Whitman, Sigmund Freud and Ernest Hemingway. She will speak as well about her efforts to write life stories with lasting merit, books that deserve a place in that long-established and well-respect literary genre we call biography. This will be the annual business meeting, which is open to members only--no guests.
Date: Thursday, March 15
Time: 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Location: National Geographic Society
M Street NW between 16th and 17th Streets
Washington, DC
Menu: We will enjoy a buffet dinner of sandwiches, soups, salad and drinks from Potbelly.
Cost: $12 per personPlease enter the building through the courtyard (the M Street building--NOT the one with the gift shop and museum in it). Take the elevators to the second floor and follow the signs to the Staff Auditorium.
Metro Station: Farragut North on the Red Line
Street Parking: Parking meters are enforced until 10 p.m.
Parking Garages: Visit this website to find parking garages nearby: http://www.goldentriangledc.com/transportation/parking
IN THIS ISSUE:
1. April 21 Nonfiction Award Event
2. Member Nomination: Tami Lewis Brown
3. Katherine Paterson's Ambassador Year
4. Member News
5. Recommended Reading
6. Spring Festival of Children's Literature
GUILD NONFICTION AWARD EVENT
RSVP NOW!
HONORING PETER SÍS
SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 2012, noon to 3 p.m.
$35 per person
Pier 7 Restaurant at the Channel Inn
Peter Sís was born in Czechoslovakia Los Angeles to produce a film for the 1984 Winter Olympics, he was ordered to come home by the Czech government when the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc countries boycotted the Olympics. Sís chose to stay in the United States
Recently nominated for the 2012 Hans Christian Andersen Award, Sís has won the the New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year six times. Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei was a 1997 Caldecott Honor Book. In 2003, Sís was named a MacArthur Fellow. His most recent book, The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, won the 2008 Robert F. Sibert Medal and was also named a Caldecott Honor Book. Václav Havel, first president of the Czech Republic
MEMBER NOMINATION: TAMI LEWIS BROWN
Maria Salvadore is pleased to nominate Tami Lewis Brown for Guild membership. Jewell Stoddard seconds the nomination.
Tami holds an MFA in writing for children from Vermont College. She has worked as a lawyer and, more recently, as writer-in-residence and librarian at the Sheridan School in Washington, D.C. She is the author of two books for young readers, both of which have been well received by critics and children.
Soar, Elinor! (Farrar, 2010) is a thrilling biography of an early but little known, very daring and downright fascinating female aviator. To research this book, Tami and her son flew in an antique plane much like the one Elinor flew.
In The Map of Me (Farrar, 2011), 12-year old Margie and her nine-year old sister travel to find their mother, all the while growing up and learning about family in this touching, often humorous novel for middle-grade readers.
Tami Lewis Brown grew up in Kentucky, attended Smith College in Northampton, Mass., and now she lives in Washington, D.C. Maria writes, "I am confident that Tami will be an asset to the Guild and contribute energy and expertise. "
MY AMBASSADOR YEAR
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| by Katherine Paterson |
Guild member Katherine Paterson shared her thoughts on her year as the second National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.
Of course I was thrilled in the fall of 2009 when I was asked if I would consider being named the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, but I had some misgivings. Jon Scieszka, the first ambassador, had crisscrossed the continent, wowing everyone from kindergartners to seniors with a serious message on the importance of literature--wrapped in his inimitable package of hilarious hijinks. People fell off their chairs laughing when Jon spoke. After a speech of mine, audience members would tell me how much they’d cried. Besides, by the end of the 2011, I would be 79 years old, for heaven’s sake. But how could I say no? I really wanted to be the next ambassador.
Among my many adventures was finding myself a prize in a national contest. Educators were invited to say how they would use a visit from the national ambassador to promote literacy in their school and community. The prize was won for a tiny school in Sebago, Maine, by their first grade teacher, Dawn Bonavie. A friend and I drove through a blizzard in the White Mountains of New Hampshire to get to Sebago, but it was worth it. To introduce the day, Dawn explained that since she was shy, she needed friends to help her. She went over to the piano and picked up four books. “These were some of my best friends when I was growing up,” she said. The first was a nearly worn out Little Golden Book. Dawn’s mother would take her and her brother when she went grocery shopping, and each week the children could take a turn selecting a book. They were to share the book, and then one week the book would belong to her and the next to her brother. “But,” she said holding up the book, “I must not have learned how to share, because, see, I’ve scratched out my brother’s name and written Dawn.”
Then she held up Little House in the Big Woods, a book that taught her how people lived years ago and showed a shy child how good it was to be strong and independent. The third was a story book about Japan that made her long to go to Japan and to learn about the world outside her small hometown. The last book was a book I had written: Jacob Have I Loved. “This book,” she said, “helped me understand how I felt, because I was Louise. My mother saw how much I loved this book, and so she read it, and to my surprise, she thought she was Caroline. So I learned that two people can read the same book and learn very different things.”
My theme as ambassador was: “Read for your life.” And Dawn in her introduction exemplified that theme—read for fun, read for information, read in order to understand yourself and other people with quite different ideas. Learn about the world beyond your door. Learn to be compassionate, and grow in wisdom. Books can help us in all these ways. I have yet to meet the person who has texted his way to compassion or tweeted her way to wisdom—both are qualities we must all acquire or democracy will not survive.
In December, Dr. Siobhan Parkinson, the Children’s Laureate of Ireland, came to see me. When I told folks about this visit, they would often ask me what the distinction was between a “laureate” and an “ambassador.” I think it is this: the laureate, by virtue of her achievements in a certain field, is given a position of honor. She has every right to rest upon her laurels. An ambassador, on the other hand, is given a mission. I didn’t complete mine, but I look forward with joy to Walter Dean Myers’s tenure. Walter will not rest on any well-earned laurels but will carry our mission forward. If you know him, you know that among his many gifts is the ability to speak the language of those who value literature the least but who need it the most.
MEMBER NEWS
Ahoy, mateys! MARY QUATTLEBAUM's picture book Pirate vs. Pirate is on ALA's 2012 Amelia Bloomer list of books featuring strong girls and women.
Zapato Power: Freddie Ramos Zooms to the Rescue, by JACQUELINE JULES, was named on the Best of the Best Chicago Public Library Reading List.
SUSAN STOCKDALE's book Bring on the Birds is also on the Best of the Best Chicago Public Library Reading List.
KAREN MCPHERSON just completed her term as a member of the 2012 Sibert Medal Committee. (The gold-medal winner was Balloons Over Broadway, and one of four honor books was Witches! by Rosalyn Schanzer.) Karen is currently a candidate for the board of directors of the Association for Library Service to Children. The election takes place exclusively online, from March 19 to April 27. If any of our Guild members also are members of ALSC, Karen would definitely appreciate their votes! Another Guild member, MARIA SALVADORE, is running for the job of ALSC vice president/president-elect.
BARBARA BROOKS WALLACE is very happy to report the arrival on the scene of her new book! Bobbie writes: "It's been a long dry spell since I lost my editor of 23 years, the 'legendary' Jean Karl. This book is the first of several that PANGEA will be doing of mine. PANGEA is a California-based company that actually specializes in toy licensing and films but is doing some book publishing and seems to have taken a fancy to my already-published books and new stories. The first book, just out as an e-book and paperback, is Diary of a Little Devil. It's a 'Cinderella' story told by turning-11 Andy, who has just lost her mother, and whose father, on their home leave to America from China, meets and marries a widow with twin daughters. Returning to China, the new family members pretty much freeze Andy out. But, of course, all ends happily, and although there is no handsome prince fitting the slipper on Andy's foot, she does go from 'all boys are stupid' after a misunderstanding with best-friend Donald to 'Donald will be the first man on the moon' and even a little kiss under the mistletoe. I am, after all, addicted to happy endings.
"PANGEA's next book of mine will be one they asked me to do, a fourth Miss Switch book, Miss Switch and the Vile Villians. After that will come All About Max, Something About Moose, A Girl Called Mitzi, A Couple of Mongrels Called Moxie and Mojo, A Bunch of Old People, and The Mysterious Map of Measley Manor. PANGEA is also working on both a book and a potential screenplay for Seeking Nip and Tuck, a Victorian on the order of my EDGAR books. All this, of course, is great fun for a senior Book Guild member living in Vinson Hall retirement home!"
Check out the latest Global Fund for Children book: What We Wear: Dressing Up Around the World. Beaming faces of children in playful or festive clothes, wearing garlands or masks or taking part in team sports, inspire young readers to explore how their clothing makes them feel and how it tells the world who they are. Visit www.globalfundforchildren.org/.
Authors and Guild members KATY KELLY and ERICA PERL will read and sign books at "Once Upon a Time," a book festival for young children featuring book-related crafts and games. Strolling storybook characters will also attend and will offer picture opportunities. The festival will take place on Saturday, March 24, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Thomas Farm Community Center in Rockville, Md. Admission is $3 per person at the door: http://www.rockvillemd.gov/thomasfarm/.
JENNIFER ALLISON is working with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to plan a very special Gilda Joyce book club party and writers' workshop at the request of a brave little girl who is currently recovering from chemotherapy treatments. Jennifer hopes to create an inspiring day to remember for Alicia, who is an aspiring young author and a fan of the Gilda Joyce series. The event will be held at Mia’s Pizza in Bethesda, Md. (Alicia’s favorite restaurant), on March 25, 2012.
Jennifer is also teaming up with the International Spy Museum for another Spy Fiction Writing Workshop for kids on Sunday May 20, 2012. Create a disguise, run a mission and begin writing your spy novel. Workshops for the past three years have been sold out, with rave reviews! Advance registration is required; sign up online at www.spymuseum.org.
RECOMMENDED READING
Partygoers at the CBG winter celebration in January recommended the following books read in 2011:
Jennifer Allison: Enchanted Hunters: The Power of Stories in Childhood, by Maria Tatar. “A fascinating read about how adults and children connect (and don’t connect) through stories.”
Paige Billin-Frye: A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry.
Roz Beitler: Midnight’s Children, by Salman Rushdie; The Book of Salt, by Monique Truong (fiction); The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery; The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck; and Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Edie Ching, Jewell Stoddard and Karen Leggett: The Great Journey, by David McCullough. “See Paris through the eyes of the American artists, medical students, inventors and writers who traveled there in the 19th century." “As early as 1830, young Americans traveled to Paris at their parents’ expense and wrote home about it!"
Pam Ehrenberg: A Broom of One’s Own, by Nancy Peacock. “Memoir by a writer who makes her living as a house cleaner.”
Marty Rhodes Figley: Lives Like Loaded Guns, by Lyndall Gordon. “Drama—passion—betrayal: the true story of Emily Dickinson and her family feuds."
Paul Figley: The Language of Bees, by Laurie R. King. “Sherlock Holmes in his later years as grandfather.”
Amy Hansen: The Wolf in the Parlor, by Jon Franklin (adult nonfiction); H.I.V.E. series, by Mark Walden (YA fiction); Blessed are the Cheesemakers, by Sarah-Kate Lynch (adult fiction—very light); Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley (adult/YA fiction); Ranger's Apprentice Series, by Jon Flanagan (middle-grade/YA fiction).
David Frye: At Home: A Short History of a Private Life, by Bill Bryson
Betsy Kraft: Great House, by Nicole Krauss. “The writing will take your breath away.”
Annette Klause: Just Kids, by Patti Smith. “A poignant look at her friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe and the bohemian life they led in the New York of the late sixties and early seventies."
Allan Melmed: Crossing to Safety, by Wallace Stegner. “A beautifully written story, with fully realized characters, that traces the friendship of two married couples from young adulthood to older age. In some ways dated and of a type, but also speaking to universal themes that are timeless."
Laura Melmed: You Know When the Men are Gone, by Siobhan Fallon. "A collection of loosely connected stories about military wives at Fort Hood. In spare, powerful prose, the author opened a window to a world I knew too little about."
Stephanie Melmed: The Lost Conspiracy, by Frances Hardinge. “Brilliantly woven tapestry of magic and realistic narrative.”
Jennifer O’Connell: The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein; The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, by Kate DiCamillo; The Year of Goodbyes, by Debbie Levy.
Susan Stockdale: A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan. “Whadda book! An amazing time-hopping story with a motley cast of characters. The construction of the book is terrific, and the writing is exceptional. I loved it.”
Jewell and Ted Stoddard: Snuff, by Terry Pratchett. “Inspector Vimes has gone to his wife’s posh estate and has discovered that the whole countryside is into smuggling, murdering goblins and generally raising hell. Pratchett, in his inimitable style, puts all to rights.”
A final recommendation: The Red Umbrella, by Christina Diaz Gonzalez.
The 30th Annual
Spring Festival
of Children’s Literature
will be held
will be held
April 27 and 28, 2012
at
Frostburg State University's Lane Center
Featured Authors:
David Wiesner
Pam Muñoz Ryan
Peter Catalanotto
Judy Schachner
Questions? Need more information?
Contact: Dr. William Bingman, Dr. Barbara Ornstein, Hannah Byler, Tori Gibson, Kate Coffey
or Mary Carroll at 301.687.3133, or e-mail clc@frostburg.edu
Persons with disabilities may request accommodation
through the ADA Compliance Office: 301.687.4102
(VRO 1.800.735.2258).
Festival Schedule:
Friday, April 27, 2012
5:45 to 9:30 p.m.
Registration begins at 5:45 p.m.
Program begins at 7 p.m.
• Reception for Festival participants
• Presentations by featured authors and
illustrators
• Book sales and autographing*
Saturday, April 28, 2012
8 a.m. to 3 p.mm
• Continental breakfast and lunch
• Presentations by featured authors and
illustrators
• Book sales and autographing*
• Small-group presentations focusing on
the latest educational topics in children’s
literature
• Door prizes, raffles and silent auction
*Closed Autographing: Because of the potentially overwhelming number of books for
closed autographing, only books purchased at the Festival may be placed in closed
autographing. Other books are autographed during open autographing sessions.
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