November 2012

NURTURING A LOVE OF BOOKS

Most of us do what we do today because we grew up with books and fell in love with words and/or drawing. So imagine what it is like to grow up without much acquaintance with either. What kind of world is that? To what degree is such a lack recognized as a social issue? What’s being done to help kids, especially vulnerable kids in our community, to read and get the most out of reading? Where is the money to do all this? Do professed literary members of the community have a role to play in promoting access, skills and success?

At the Guild's November meeting, panelists representing four organizations (including two organizational members of the Guild) will lead us in a lively discussion on literacy among children from disadvantaged communities. Turning the Page links D.C. public schools, family and community to enhance the quality of public education. Their programs engage parents as educators. An Open Book Foundation offers children a personal connection to literature by bringing larger-than-life authors to young children. For Love of Children has served disadvantaged children in the D.C. area and West Virginia for more than 40 years, adapting to changing needs and the sociopolitical environment. First Book has pioneered publishing and marketing innovations to effect extensive outreach across the nation. We look forward to an enlightening conversation that challenges our own community.

Moderator Cynthia Pon encourages members to submit questions in advance (pon@globalfundforchildren.org).

Date: Thursday, November 15
Time:  11:30 a.m. "social hour"; noon luncheon
Place: Busboys and Poets 
1025 Fifth Street NW (at K Street)
Menu: All choices $22

 

:: CHOICE OF SANDWICH (all sandwiches served with a salad of baby greens and house-made kettle chips) ::
• Falafel Sandwich (vegetarian/vegan) with house-made hummus, cucumbers, lettuce, tomato and onion on whole-wheat pita, served with tahini sauce (vegan without tahini sauce) 
• Home-Roasted Turkey Sandwich with havarti cheese, Dijonnaise, lettuce, tomato and onion on wheat bread
• Grilled Chicken Panini with chipotle mayo, caramelized onions, pepper jack, lettuce and tomato on ciabatta
• Portabella Mushroom Panini (vegetarian) with pesto, roasted red pepper and fresh mozzarella on herb ciabatta  
:: DESSERT ::
Assorted Cookies (family style)
:: BEVERAGES ::
Fountain Drinks (unlimited soft drinks and iced tea), fresh coffee and organic teas

RSVP NOW!

IN THIS ISSUE:

1. Nominations of New Members

2. Steve Sheinkin's Passion for History

3. An Appeal for Books

4. Storybook Holiday at Frostburg State

5. Books Set in the Mid-Atlantic Region

6. Member News

MEMBER NOMINATION: KWAME ALEXANDER

Joan Waites nominates Kwame Alexander for membership in the Children's Book Guild; Jacqueline Jules seconds this nomination.

Kwame Alexander is the author of 14 books, including Crush: Love Poems and Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band (2012 NAACP Image Award Nomination for Outstanding Children’s Literature). His first YA novel will be published by HarperCollins in 2014, and his first middle grade novel will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2014. Kwame’s Book-in-a-Day writing and publishing program has created more than 2,000 student authors in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. He has led delegations of writers to Brazil, Tuscany and Ghana. Most recently, he served as poet-in-residence for the yearlong, award-winning Try Poetry 2010 initiative in Loudon County, Va. 

Kwame Alexander writes: "I have long been a fan of the Children’s Book Guild. I’ve known several members over the years and hope to join this collective of like-minded, creative and literary entrepreneurs. I spend a lot of time with my audience (schools, libraries, etc.), and relish the opportunity to interact and fellowship with other writers and illustrators of children’s literature. Certainly, I want to take advantage of the many resources and events that the Guild offers, as well as offer a little of my publishing and event-planning expertise. I hope you will consider this as a formal request to join your organization." Visit Kwame Alexander at www.kwamealexander.com.

MEMBER NOMINATION: FIRST BOOK

Erica Perl nominates First Book for organizational membership in the Children's Book Guild, and Joan Waites seconds the nomination. Established in 1992, First Book provides children in need with access to brand-new books. All programs and schools serving 70 percent or more children in need can register with First Book free of charge and gain access to all of First Book’s resources, including:

* Free books from the First Book National Book Bank;

* Affordable books (50 percent to 90 percent off retail) from the First Book Marketplace; and

* Grant opportunities from First Book Advisory Boards and corporate partners.

To date First Book has distributed more than 90 million books and educational resources to more than 35,000 programs and schools throughout the United States and Canada. First Book is transforming the lives of children in need and elevating the quality of education by making new, high-quality books available on an ongoing basis. 

First Book is proud of its success and excited about the future. First Book is uniquely positioned to become a leader in providing digital resources. No matter how formats and technologies change, children from low-income families will still need access to rich and varied content. First Book is helping guide the publishing industry as it evolves so that all children can benefit from new technologies and flourish as readers.

First Book would welcome the opportunity to join the Children’s Book Guild as an organizational member. Its dedicated personnel look forward to reaching more children in need through the Guild’s networks, and to adding their voices to the important dialog on the need for diverse and high-quality children’s books that the Guild fosters.

STEVE SHEINKIN ON MAKING HISTORY COME ALIVE
by Rhoda Trooboff
 

At  the Children's Book Guild’s October 2012 meeting, National Book Award nominee Steve Sheinkin explained his goal: to create books for young readers “who ought to be fascinated by history and not bored by it.”

Sheinkin’s newest book is Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon (Roaring Brook, September 2012). Drawing on his research for Bomb, Sheinkin recounted in gripping detail activity by spies for the Soviet Union who were bent on stealing U.S. atomic bomb secrets from the Manhattan Project and the Los Alamos laboratory during World War II.

Explaining his transition from writing and editing history textbooks to writing historical nonfiction that reads like thrillers, Sheinkin described career-altering encounters with middle schoolers turned off from studying history because they were assigned textbooks that failed “to make history come alive.” He recalled exchanging firsthand stories about 9/11 in late 2001 with one Manhattan seventh grader whom he was tutoring. At that moment Sheinkin knew that he needed to make the stories of history as vivid and compellingly real as personal storytelling about significant events.

Recalling his frustrations with textbook editors’ excisions of his research for a book on the American Revolution, Sheinkin summarized an episode in Paul Revere’s ride involving fabric from “a still-warm petticoat.” Editors had deemed this detail “too intimate” for textbook use. He also noted that editors objected to a reference to “luck” in a George Washington letter about crossing the Delaware.

Sheinkin also spoke passionately about his desire to write “what the schoolbooks don’t tell you” when describing his “obsession” with Benedict Arnold, the subject of his award-winning The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery. Arnold was both good and bad, an 18th-century American hero and traitor, Sheinkin noted. He said that “contradictions make people nervous,” especially people who publish grade-school textbooks. Opposing character traits are often therefore downplayed in textbooks for young readers, but these contradictions, according to Sheinkin, can be exactly what excites youngsters into loving history.

When it was time for questions, audience members engaged Sheinkin on the pairing of nonfiction with fictional treatments of similar stories. Bomb, for example, might be paired with Ellen Klages’s The Green Glass Sea, which is set at Los Alamos during World War II, and with Margi Preus’s Shadow on the Mountain, about espionage in Norway during the same period.

Sheinkin said that although he has been urged to write a book for children about 9/11, he still considers the subject too close, too raw, to tackle. His future projects concern the failed 1876 plot to raid Lincoln’s Tomb in Springfield, Illinois, as part of an attempt to ransom a notorious 19th-century Chicago counterfeiter, and an account of events at the Oakland, Calif., naval base during World War II.

NEW K-5 LIBRARY NEEDS BOOKS

Have your children outgrown their Dr. Seuss and Eric Carle books? What about
books on soccer, football, baseball or basketball? Do you have a build-up of books
you reviewed? Please donate them to the Friendship Southeast Academy Library
in Anacostia through Patty Steelman (contact at home tel. 703-504-6866 or
pattysteelman@gmail.com).

We Guild members take it for granted that our children love to read and get lost
in a good book. The majority of Friendship students read below grade level, don’t
have a home library and probably don’t have a neighborhood library card. This is
an opportunity to provide pre-school and kindergarten through fifth-grade books—
fiction, poetry, sports stories and nonfiction of all sorts—to children who need
books in their lives. Please contribute.


STORYBOOK HOLIDAY

Bundle up, and join in the winter festivities at this year’s Storybook Holiday on Saturday, December 1, 2012! Start the day off with breakfast (tickets sold in advance). Elves are there to serve and entertain you. Immediately after, join the elves outside to cheer on your favorites during the traditional Elf Olympics, followed by a magical parade down Main Street. Illustrator S. D. Schindler will be there to share his winter story with the community. Then, come see City Place turned into a winter wonderland, filled with family-fun activities. Throughout the day, elves will be hosting storybook readings, followed by the annual cookie contest. End the day by purchasing your ticket to watch the 1947 classic Miracle on 34th Street, at the town’s Palace Theatre. For more information, please contact the Children’s Literature Centre at Frostburg State University at clc@frostburg.edu or (301) 687-3133. 

MEMBERS' BOOKS SET IN WASHINGTON, D.C., AND THE MID-ATLANTIC REGION

PAMELA EHRENBERG recently updated the list of books by Guild members that are set in the mid-Atlantic region, including Washington, D.C. She thanks everyone who wrote to let her know about new or updated titles, those who scanned the original list for former members' titles and all who helped in the effort--including Jackie's husband, Alan! To see the list, which has been posted to the Guild's website, follow this link: http://www.childrensbookguild.org/books-set-in-md-va-a-dc?start=3
Guild members who wish to add titles to the list can send them to pmehrenberg@pamelaehrenberg.com. 
 


MEMBER NEWS

 

PAM SMALLCOMB is happy to share the news that her picture book Earth to Clunk is the winner of the 2012 Wanda Gag Read Aloud Book Award. This award is sponsored by the Curriculum Materials Center at Minnesota State University Moorhead. Nineteen regional teachers and librarians, along with 110 MSUM students, read aloud 313 picture books to approximately 20,400 children to select the winning book. Earth to Clunk is also the winner of the 2012 Golden Duck picture book award. The Golden Duck Awards are designed to encourage science fiction literature for children and are presented every year at Worldcon. 

CATHERINE REEF will present a workshop on "Bringing Nonfiction to Life" at SCBWI's spring conference in New England. The conference, which will be devoted to "The Art of Craft," will take place May 3-5, 2013, in Springfield, Massachusetts.