October 2015

JANET WONG'S JOURNEY INTO POETRY

As a child in her native California, Janet Wong loved listening to family stories about growing up in Korea and China; her favorite poem (of her own), “GongGong and Susie,” from A Suitcase of Seaweed, was inspired by a Depression-era survival story that her Chinese grandfather liked to tell. (While Wong reads this poem at our luncheon meeting, we likely will be grateful to be eating our sandwiches or beans and rice rather than the “skunk, snake, and night owl” featured in the poem.)

Wong graduated from UCLA and Yale Law School and worked as a lawyer before deciding that she “wanted to do something more important with [her] life—and couldn’t think of anything more important than working with kids.” She made the transition to writing for children through SCBWI workshops and classes with Myra Cohn Livingston. Twenty-four years later, Wong is the author of nearly 30 books published by Simon & Schuster, FSG, Harcourt, Candlewick, Charlesbridge and Richard C. Owen. She also created The Poetry Friday Anthology series, with Sylvia Vardell, through their own small publishing company, Pomelo Books. The Poetry Friday Anthology series features 750 poems by 150 poets, including Jack Prelutsky, J. Patrick Lewis, Joyce Sidman, Naomi Shihab Nye, Marilyn Nelson, Nikki Grimes, Marilyn Singer,  Margarita Engle and our own Guild members Cynthia Cotten, Jacqueline Jules, Debbie Levy and Mary Quattlebaum. 

Wong is the immediate past chair of the Notable Books for a Global Society committee and devotes a significant amount of time to volunteering with children’s literature groups and award committees such as the Literacy and Social Responsibility SIG (ILA), the Children’s Literature and Reading SIG (ILA) and the Children’s Literature Assembly (NCTE).

On October 15, Wong will talk about diversity in children’s literature and other challenges and opportunities in the publishing world today.

Date: Thursday, October 15
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) 

• Hone-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 chibatta

• Portabella-mushroom panini (vegetarian) with pesto, roasted red pepper and fresh mozzarella on herb ciabatta

:: GLUTEN-FREE OPTION ::

Beans and wild rice with fresh guacamole and pico de gallo 
(We ask that you choose this option only if you need to avoid gluten in your diet.)

A note regarding beverages at our monthly luncheons: The menu price includes unlimited fountain drinks, iced tea and coffee. Hot teas are available for an additional cost of $3 per person.

RSVP NOW!

IN THIS ISSUE:
1. The 2016 Nonfiction Award Winner: Tonya Bolden
2. The Children's Africana Book Award
3. Katherine Tegen's Presentation at the September Guild Meeting
4. Member News

TONYA BOLDEN TO RECEIVE 2016 NONFICTION AWARD

It is with great pleasure that the 2016 Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award Committee announces the selection of noted and prolific author Tonya Bolden as the award's next recipient. The Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award is presented annually to an author for a body of work that has “contributed significantly to the quality of nonfiction for children.”

Bolden has created works of nonfiction that appeal to children and young adults through her choice of subjects and her accessible writing style. She has written 27 books, many of which present the African American experience. Her subjects include the Emancipation Proclamation, Muhammad Ali and W. E. B. DuBois, as well as little-known African Americans of note, as in Searching for Sarah Rector and Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl. “What serendipity that her latest book is set in our own backyard,” said committee chair Joan Kindig about Capital Days: Michael Shiner’s Journal and the Growth of Our Nation’s Capital. “It was meant to be!”

Committee members included Guild members Joan Kindig, professor, James Madison University (chair); Katy Kelly, author; Jewell Stoddard, children’s literature specialist; and Kathie Meizner, librarian, Montgomery County Public Libraries (chair emeritus).

The event honoring Bolden will take place on Saturday, April 9, 2016, at Clyde’s Restaurant of Gallery Place, 707 Seventh Street NW, Washington, DC, from noon to 3 p.m. It will include lunch and a presentation by the author followed by a book sale and signing. 

AN INVITATION FROM AFRICA ACCESS

Join us on Saturday, October 24, 2015, as we honor 

author Andrea Pinkney 

winner of 2015 Children's Africana Book Award for 

The Red Pencil  

Smithsonian National Museum of African Art.  

11 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

Free and Open to the Public  

Registration Requested

               Award Ceremony 11:00 a.m.

                       Family Activities 11:30 - 2:00 p.m.

Book Making

Storytelling 
Arabic Calligraphy
Henna Painting

Refreshments

KATHERINE TEGEN'S LIFE IN CHILDREN'S BOOKS
by Abby Nolan

From filing carbon copies as an editorial assistant to her current duties as the busy publisher of her own imprint, Katherine Tegen has worked hard to produce books that children want to read. At the Guild’s September luncheon, Tegen presented an illustrated history of her career.

She began with her childhood reading in the 1960s, which set the tone for the rest of her life. Her favorite stories included series fiction like the Little House books, funny fantasy from authors such as E. Nesbit and Edward Eager, classic animal novels by E.B. White and George Selden, and Little Women, which she sees as a precursor to contemporary YA fiction about young women. Tegen said her imprint at HarperCollins, Katherine Tegen Books, reflects her continued interest in those genres and categories.

After briefly touching on her adolescence in the 1970s, when she preferred classics such as Jane Eyre to popular novels by Judy Blume, Tegen talked about her first job at Harper & Row’s Junior Books division. Although she was terrible at filing and reading unsolicited submissions, Tegen found out she was good at working with authors and illustrators. In 1986, she took a job at Houghton Mifflin and learned about the marketing side of the publishing business. After two years, she returned as an editor to Harper & Row, just as Rupert Murdoch was changing its name to HarperCollins.

Tegen remembered the late 1980s and early 1990s as a great time to be in children’s book publishing. Established houses could rely on their back lists to carry them through, and editors could look for talented up-and-coming authors and illustrators with whom to work. In 1996, she took a job acquiring children’s books for Hyperion and Disney Press. Along with books related to Disney characters, Tegen published such titles as Crispin: Cross of Lead, by Avi, and Martin’s Big Words, by Doreen Rappaport.

In 1998, the appearance of the first volume of the Harry Potter series changed children’s book publishing. Editors and publishers, Tegen said, started being “pushed and prodded to publish big sellers.” In 2010, Tegen returned to HarperCollins and soon launched her own imprint, where she strives to publish books that have both literary and commercial appeal. Her very first acquisition was Angie Sage’s Septimus Heap, which has grown into a very successful series.

Then came Divergent, which Tegen said helped fuel “dystopia  mania.” The books in the series have sold 33 million copies. For Tegen their publication involved “hundreds of meetings” and was both “exhausting and exhilarating.” She had high praise for Veronica Roth, whom she called both brilliant and self-deprecating.

Tegen said that working with authors and illustrators is still her favorite part of the job. She described how she began editing several Guild members, including Henry Cole, Pamela Duncan Edwards and Laura Elliott. And naturally, as any successful publisher would, she called attention to their upcoming books.

MEMBER NEWS

CAROLINE HICKEY is teaching a class in the graduate writing for children certificate program at McDaniel College and really enjoying it! Caroline also will be writing for a new Simon & Schuster middle grade series called In Due Time.

TAMMAR STEIN's novel Spoils, which was named an Amazon Best Book of the Month, came out in paperback this summer.

HENRY COLE has five new books coming out in the months ahead. Two are chapter books that he wrote and illustrated: Brambleheart (Katherine Tegen Books) and The Somewhat True Adventures of Sammy Shine (Peachtree). Two are picture books that he wrote and illustrated: Spot, the Cat (Simon & Schuster) and Eddie the Bully (Little Bee). The fifth is Maxi the Little Taxi (Scholastic), by Elizabeth Upton, which Henry illustrated. 

KATHERINE MARSH's forthcoming middle grade novel, The Door by the Staircase, has received a starred review from Kirkus: "Well-drawn characters, an original setting, and a satisfying resolution are the ingredients that make this carefully crafted middle-grade adventure a highly rewarding read." The book comes out in January, and Guild friends can read more about it at www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/katherine-marsh/the-door-by-the-staircase/ . Kate warns, however, that this review may make readers hungry.

BARBARA ANN PORTE's story "The Calendar" has been reprinted in The Handbook for Storytime Programs, by Judy Freeman and Caroline Feller Bauer (ALA, 2015). The book's annotation calls it "perfect for older kids who are impatient with chores and homework, and just can't seem to get themselves organized."


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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 are 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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LITERARY EVENTS SPONSORED BY POLITICS AND PROSE: The literary calendar at Politics and Prose lists many upcoming programs that may be of interest to Children's Book Guild members: http://www.politics-prose.com/events. October's speakers include Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely and Erica S. Perl.

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