MAKING THE DIGITAL TRANSITION:
A DEMONSTRATION FROM STARWALK KIDSMEDIA
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| Liz Nealon |
Author Seymour Simon and children’s media producer Liz Nealon will speak to the Guild on "Making the Digital Transition" on Thursday, June 19. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about StarWalk KidsMedia, the company Simon and Nealon founded in 2012.
StarWalk KidsMedia publishes eBooks for K through 8—both fiction and nonfiction. The company offers almost 500 books that can now be streamed through annual subscriptions on multiple devices with an Internet connection. The books include works by David A. Adler, Jim Arnosky, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Johanna Hurwitz, Katheen Krull, Kathryn Lasky, Emily Arnold McCully, Doreen Rappaport, Bernard Waber, Jane Yolen and others. (Some out-of-print books have been re-designed in a digital format.) Common Core curriculum materials for use with these books are also available.
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| Seymour Simon |
The author of more than 270 books, Simon has written on everything from coral reefs to the brain, to birds that can’t fly (a.k.a. penguins). He has won numerous awards, including the 1993 Children’s Book Guild Award.
Nealon, his wife and partner, created the PBS literacy series Ghostwriter. As senior vice president for international programming at MTV, she led the launch of the network on five continents.
StarWalk KidsMedia has published books by several Guild members: Karen Leggett Abouraya (Malala Yousafzi), Nancy Patz (Nobody Knows I Have Delicate Toes), Ruth Phang (Sam and Leo), Barbara Ann Porte (CHICKENS! CHICKENS!) and Susan L. Roth (We’ll Ride Elephants Through Brooklyn). These authors are also invited to participate in the presentation.
Don't miss the June event—this year’s final program!
Time: 11:30 a.m. "social hour"; noon luncheon
Place: Busboys and Poets
1025 Fifth Street NW (at K Street)
Menu: All choices $25 ($26 when paid online via PayPal)
:: 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 tea
IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Mary Rand Hess Nominated for Guild Membership
2. Bryan Collier's May Program
3. Member News
4. Reluctant Readers Program at the Library of Congress
5. 21st Century Children's Nonfiction Conference
6. Renew Your Membership
MEMBER NOMINATION: MARY RAND HESS
Mark Friedlander nominates Mary Rand Hess for membership in the Children’s Book Guild in the author category. Amy Hansen seconds the nomination. Mary has attended numerous Children’s Book Guild meetings as Mark’s guest and she says she would be thrilled to join the group. She also writes:
“It has been a privilege to attend meetings with Mark and
meet such talented authors and illustrators inside the cozy Busboys and Poets.
There are moments when I’ve been in awe over the collective talent in the room,
but I have soon been put at ease by the personable, unique qualities of each
person I’ve met. What an inspiration to learn from such seasoned writers and
illustrators, not to mention the speakers! All have been incredibly engaging
and encouraging. I know I will continue to grow as an author just being around
these gifted souls and will always be happy to lend a good ear and words of
encouragement when needed.”
Mary graduated from George Mason University in 1995 with a
degree in English writing and a concentration in creative writing. Upon
graduation, she worked as a freelance writer for newspapers and then quickly
became a corporate writer and analyst. Being a corporate writer, however, did
not fill her creative space. Soon after her first son was born, she gave herself
time to truly paint pictures with words. Since then, Mary has published picture
books for children, including The Day I
Met the Nuts (Earth Day Publishing; now Story Pie Press), which is a best-selling
allergy book, Cyrus Becomes
a Clown (MightyBook) and The Cowpoke
Adventures of Slim & Haskell (uTales). In addition, she is the author of
a children’s series titled “Gabe and Friends” with The Little Lutheran and The
Little Christian’s monthly picture books. Mary has also been published in
national and international anthologies, magazines and newspapers, among them Highlights for Children, The Christian
Science Monitor, the Connection newspapers, Fun for Kidz and Kid Zone.
Besides writing, Mary treasures spending time with family,
friends and her curious dogs. She also creates mixed-media art, composes on the
piano, teaches Sunday school and eats way too much chocolate. For more
information about Mary Rand Hess, please visit her website: http://www.maryrandhess.com/home
"YOU NEED PURPOSE!"
AN AFTERNOON WITH BRYAN COLLIER
by Jennifer O'Connell
When illustrator Bryan Collier asked a class of five-year-olds what he needed to make a picture book, one boy answered, “You need paper, pencils and paint.” And then a girl responded, “You need purpose.”
This
was just one of the spirited anecdotes that Collier shared on
Thursday, May 15, at Busboys and Poets. Throughout his lively presentation, the
audience experienced a man who is abundantly aware of his purpose: to express
himself through his beautiful and enlightening picture books.
Collier
was surrounded by picture books as a child. His mother, a Head Start teacher,
collected them and read to him often. He also grew up watching his grandmother
piecing together colorful quilts. He found his own artistic direction when he
was later exposed to watercolor painting in an art class. At that moment, he
knew, “This was it. Plan A.” He had no other
plan.
Having
gained attention for his art talent in high school, he was awarded a
scholarship to attend Pratt Institute, in New York City. During those years,
Collier fell in love with Brooklyn and Harlem, places he would celebrate
in his picture books.
Success was not instantaneous for Collier, though. It took seven years of pounding the pavement in New York before an editor at Macmillan encouraged him to write and illustrate his own picture book. “Write what you know,” she said.
“I know my neighborhood,” Collier responded, and with this new direction, he created
his first picture book, Uptown. It won both the Ezra Jack Keats New
Illustrator Award and the Coretta Scott King Award. “I tried to bridge the Harlem of yesterday to the Harlem
of today,” Collier explained.
It
was clear to the audience that Collier commits fully to each book project. To illustrate Nikki
Giovanni’s book Rosa,
he “needed to see that bus and that seat
that she sat in.” He also met and
spoke for three hours with Rosa Parks’s childhood friend,
gaining insight and information about that tumultuous time. “I get my own history lesson as I’m doing these books,”
he
said.
Collier
spoke about Laban Carrick Hill’s Dave the
Potter and how that poignant book came to be. “It is a book about poetry and pottery and American literacy,” he said. “Literacy,” he explained, was
this enslaved potter’s
“mechanism to
survive.”
He
also performed a dramatic reading of Knock Knock, Daniel Beaty’s powerful book, which will be honored with the 2014 Coretta
Scott King Award for Illustration at the ALA conference this June. He said of
this book, “It is about
universal loss—how one day the
knock doesn’t come; Papa doesn’t come home. But you create a beautiful life for yourself
in spite of your loss.”
During
the closing questions, Collier was asked which of his 26 books was his
favorite. “They all make me use different
muscles," he said. “They are all a
journey connected; a running theme for me.”
Thank
you, Bryan Collier, for sharing your passion and purpose with us.
MEMBER NEWS
ERICA PERL's middle-grade novel When Life Gives You O.J. is on the list for the Sunshine State Young Readers Award (SSYRA), which is Florida's Children's Choice Award.
To celebrate the launch of her new book, Eat Your Science Homework: Recipes for Inquiring Minds, ANN MCCALLUM will do a presentation and book signing at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum on August 9 at 1 p.m., and at the National Children's Museum on August 10 at 1 p.m. She hopes to see lots of people in attendance!
SUSAN STOCKDALE looks forward to speaking at the 2014 National Book Festival, to be held at the Washington Convention Center on August 30. She will present in a new festival venue called the Picture Book Pavilion.
SUSAN STOCKDALE looks forward to speaking at the 2014 National Book Festival, to be held at the Washington Convention Center on August 30. She will present in a new festival venue called the Picture Book Pavilion.
JACQUELINE JULES is very excited to announce the May release by Wisdom Tales Press of Never Say a Mean Word Again, her new picture book. Never Say a Mean Word Again received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly (available at http://www.publishersweekly.com:8080/978-1-937786-20-5). Inspired by a legend of conflict resolution in medieval Spain, Never Say a Mean Word Again tells the story of a socially inept boy who accidentally turns an enemy into a friend. On May 28, Jacqueline delivered the keynote address at the award celebration for the Diverse Minds Youth Writing Challenge, an initiative sponsored by B'nai B'rith International. Participating high school students created picture books dealing with tolerance and diversity. Award winners received $5,000 college scholarships and publication of their books.
The New-York Historical Society has awarded KRISTIN LEVINE's second book, The Lions of Little Rock, its first annual Children's History Book Prize, which includes an award of $10,000. Books for middle-grade readers that were published in 2012 were eligible.
Frida & Diego: Art, Love, Life, by CATHERINE REEF, received starred reviews in Booklist and Kirkus. Clarion will release Frida & Diego in August.
KAREN MACPHERSON is the latest person profiled in Politics & Prose's "Vox Populi" online feature. Every couple of months or so, the store shines a spotlight on someone in the P&P community, most often a well-known person such as author Alice McDermott or activist Ralph Nader (rumored to be the subject of the next feature). Karen was asked to participate in her role as the Takoma Park Maryland Library's children's and teen librarian. The feature consists of an interview, which can be read in its entirety online, as well as a shortened version, which is printed, along with a caricature of Karen, on a small poster displayed in the store. Also on the website is a YouTube video showing Karen doing her children's librarian thing. Here is the link: http://www.politics-prose.com/blog/vox-populi.
In addition, Karen has just been elected to the 2016 Caldecott Committee. Her Caldecott year begins in January, as the committee be looking at all eligible titles through 2015.
In addition, Karen has just been elected to the 2016 Caldecott Committee. Her Caldecott year begins in January, as the committee be looking at all eligible titles through 2015.
Finally, since Scripps Howard News Service went out of business in December, Karen has been blogging about children's and teen books, life as a public librarian and more at http://childrenscornerkm.blogspot.com. She would love to have Guild members read her blog, comment on it and suggest ideas for posts.
DEBBIE LEVY's picture book We Shall Overcome: The Story of a Song, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton, has been named a 2014 Jane Addams Book Award Honor Book. Debbie and Vanessa presented the book recently at the Gaithersburg Book Festival. The illustrator is also a talented singer, and she had people singing, snapping and clapping along with her, and even dancing in the aisle!
But wait, Debbie has more news! Her newest picture book, Dozer’s Run: A True Story of a Dog and His Race, illustrated by David Opie, was published in May by Sleeping Bear Press. This book tells the true story of a goldendoodle that broke through his fence in Fulton, Md., joined the Maryland Half Marathon, got lost, found his way home 24 hours later—and ended up raising thousands of dollars for cancer research at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Dozer’s story made national news when it happened. Although the story came to Debbie through her agent, who lives in California, once Debbie started looking into it, she found that she had several connections to it that made this book a labor of love as much as a fun manuscript to write. Plus, Dozer the dog is a great presentation partner!
One of SALLY CANZONERI's photographs will appear in Focal Point: Fine Art and Creative Photography, an exhibition at the Maryland Federation of Art's Circle Gallery in Annapolis, from May 23 to June 15. If you can't go as far as Annapolis, you can see some of Sally's work closer to home later in the year. Juror Philip Kennicott, art critic for the Washington Post, selected two of her prints to be included in the Regional Juried Art Exhibition at the Hill Center Galleries on Capitol Hill, from June 26 to September 28. She will have another photo in the MD @ College Park exhibit at the Art Gallery of the University of Maryland, from June 25 to August 2.
Earlier this year, Sally was a finalist in the 2014 Fine Arts Photography Exhibition at ArtSpace Herndon. She also had a piece in the 2014 Pyramid Atlantic Juried Members Exhibition in Silver Spring. Sally writes, "I feel like I must be on a roll, as I also had a photograph in an exhibition at the Dark Room Gallery in Essex Junction, Vermont, during December 2013."
Sally mentions a couple of opportunities that may be of interest to Guild members: "First, ArtSpace Herndon has a regular series of book talks in which authors present their work. Second, I recently attended a two-day workshop given by the Arts Business Institute. It was very nitty-gritty and offered useful information on the business side of being an artist, much of which would be useful to authors as well as illustrators. If you want to know more about either resource, get in touch with me."
KAREN LEGGETT is pleased to report that Malala Yousafzai: Warrior with Words is the Kirkus Reviews Indie Book of the Month for May. The full Kirkus starred review is here: www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/karen-leggett-abouraya/malala-yousafzai/.
Karen shared Malala’s message about the power of words to change the world when she addressed a gathering of middle school students on May 28 in Montgomery County. The students wrote winning essays in an annual contest sponsored by Friends of the Library, Montgomery County, Md., called “Celebrating Diversity through Creative Writing.”
RELUCTANT READERS PROGRAM AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
On Thursday, June 5, the Young Readers Center at the Library of Congress will present a symposium on “Reluctant Readers” featuring author-illustrators Jarrett J. Krosocaka of the “Lunch Lady” series and Stephan Pastis of the “Timmy Failure” series. This event will be held at 10 a.m. in the Mumford Room, on the sixth floor of the Madison Builidng. The authors will be on a panel, sharing their unique perspective with a pediatrician and a school psychologist, who will discuss the topic based on their expertise and experience. This event requires reservations at yrc@loc.gov.
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Enjoy a Delicious Four-Course Meal
RENEW YOUR GUILD MEMBERSHIP TODAY!
Guild Membership Renewal Forms were sent by postal mail in April. Dues go up $5 after June 30, so send in your forms without delay. Guild membership can be renewed by postal mail or online at http://childrensbookguild.org/payments/608-dues-and-fees-payments. Please be sure to fill out all contact information so we can keep the Guild roster up to date. Thank you!
Tweet Your News
Tweet Your News
Do you have a publication date for a new book, a local appearance coming up or an award nomination to tout? Don't be shy! The Guild has its own Twitter account (@ChildrensBookGuild) and is looking for news to tweet. Just send your news to Caroline Hickey (carolinesmithhickey@gmail.com
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NOTE ABOUT THE CHILDREN'S BOOK GUILD NEWS: Would you rather print your newsletter than read it online? Current and past issues now available for printing on the Guild's website at http://www.childrensbookguild.org/guild-newsletters. Look for the "Newsletter" tab on the left side of the Guild website. There is also a "Printer Friendly Version" link on the top left hand side of this blog.
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