May 2016

THE BUSINESS OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS

We are used to hearing about the personal relationships that lead to the creation of books: subject-author, author-illustrator, author-editor, author-agent, etc. Yet we hear little about the relationship that alone determines how many copies of a book (your book) will land on the shelves of your local bookstore--about what transpires when sales reps meet with buyers. 

In their heyday, sales reps visited accounts large and small across the country, carrying catalogs, ARCs and order forms in the trunks of their cars. Each buyer received a respectful visit along with precious information about the upcoming season's books. The rep received equally valuable information: the buyer's opinion of the rep's books, customers' reactions and sell through (the number of books purchased by the store versus the number sold to customers). Now, much of what was once communicated in person is conveyed electronically, and there are many fewer stores, reps and publishers.

Charlie Young

On Thursday, May 19, Guild members will have an opportunity to look back over the past and peer into the future with a panel of two sales reps and two buyers. Together they represent nearly a century of hard-won experience in book selling in the eastern United States.

Charlie Young worked as a retail bookseller in the Washington, D.C., area and New York City before becoming a publisher sales rep. He spent eight years in the children's division of Random House, 15 years in the children's division of Simon & Schuster and six years at Scholastic.

Mary Alice Garber

Mary Alice Garber has worked on the Children and Teens staff at Politics & Prose in numerous capacities since February 1999. In 2005, she was asked by Jewell Stoddard to assist with buying for the department. Upon Jewell's retirement, Mary Alice assumed her current position as buyer for the Politics & Prose Children and Teens Department and is fortunate to have Jewell continue as her mentor.

Geoff Hughes

Geoff Hughes began his career in publishing and book selling in 1969, working as a college textbook sales rep for Holt, Rinehart and Winston. During the following decade and a half he continued in college publishing as a sales manager, acquisitions editor and college store manager in Chicago and Boston. He segued to general trade publishing with Penguin Books and held sales management positions with Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Columbia University Press and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, from which he retired in 2013 as senior national accounts manager.

Jewell Stoddard

Jewell Stoddard co-founded the Cheshire Cat bookstore in 1977. In 1999, after closing the Cheshire Cat, she moved to Politics & Prose's Children & Teens Department, where she fulfilled many roles, including buying.

Date: Thursday, May 19
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) 

• Honey-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 
• Avocado panini with roasted red peppers and melted cheese on multi-grain bread

RSVP Now!

IN THIS ISSUE:

1. Tonya Bolden on How and Why She Writes
2. Words of Appreciation from Kimball Elementary School
3. Symposium on Immigration at the Library of Congress
4. Membership Renewal
5. Member News
6. "Quick Links"


TONYA BOLDEN: ILLUMINATING HISTORY AND INSPIRING READERS

 by Catherine Reef

Tonya Bolden spoke about her distinguished body of work upon
receiving the 2016 Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award.

When Tonya Bolden accepted the 2016 Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award on April 9, another April was on her mind. She reminded her audience at Clyde’s of Gallery Place that this year marked the 48th anniversary of the murder of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

She then read from her book M.L.K.: Journey of a King (Abrams, 2007), treating everyone present to a sampling of her powerful, poetic prose. Bolden’s book moves quickly to the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on that fateful April 4, as King lies dying. One witness claims the Civil Rights leader’s last word was “Oh.” Bolden asks, was it oh “as in Oh, no, I don’t want to go! or as in Oh, my God!, beholding the Shekinah Glory?” It is impossible to know. The single word “Oh” then punctuates her meditation on the life that brought King—and all Americans—to that moment: a Depression childhood, a strong foundation in the church, the pain of racism, the struggle to love those who hated him.

Bolden began her research on King by listening to him in recordings, because King had a gift for language and a voice strong and stirring enough to move a nation. She imagined herself on the road with him as he traveled to marches and Sunday sermons. She sensed how he felt when he put a telephone receiver to his ear and heard a death threat, as he did many times. “He knew fear,” she learned.

While doing her research for The Champ: The Story of Muhammad Ali (Dragonfly, 2007), Bolden watched video recordings of Ali in his prime and made an essential discovery. “Oh, my goodness, he was an artist,” she said. This revelation was pivotal for Bolden. She elaborated, “I can’t write anything without that ‘aha’ moment.” For W. E. B. DuBois: A Twentieth Century Life (Viking, 2008), the moment came when she learned a small fact, that the great intellectual was left handed. With King it was finding out that he asked for a copy of Increasing Your Word Power while imprisoned after a demonstration for racial equality. Even as a national figure, King "was still trying to improve himself,” Bolden said.

Bolden likened writing to acting, and research to getting into character. “How I open, my voice, the structure, almost all arises from research,” she said. Solid research and her determination to write not only about major figures but also about lesser-known African Americans—including the subject of her most recent book, Capital Days: Michael Shiner’s Journal and the Growth of Our Nation (Abrams, 2015)—brought Bolden’s work to the attention of the Guild’s Nonfiction Award Committee. Bolden has created “beautiful, accessible accounts,” said Committee Chair Joan Kindig; together they constitute “a strong body of work defining the African American experience.” The Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award honors an author or author-illustrator for his or her body of work. Over the course of a two-decade career, Bolden has written more than 30 books, most of them for young readers and many of them award winners. Her subjects have ranged from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal initiatives to Sarah Rector, an early twentieth-century figure who was reputed to be "the wealthiest colored girl in the world."

An unpublished journal led Bolden to Michael Shiner. Born into slavery in 1805, Shiner worked at the Washington Navy Yard. He was a resourceful man who successfully sued for his freedom. Unlike many enslaved people, Shiner learned to read and write, and through his journal “he left a chronicle of the history he witnessed,” Bolden said. Shiner wrote about the burning of the U.S. Capitol during the War of 1812, a cholera epidemic that swept through the city and the nine presidential inaugurations he attended. Recording one’s memories, as Shiner did, is a potent way to say, “I am somebody,” Bolden noted.

Bolden traced the genesis of her life as a writer to her love of reading as a child growing up in Harlem, in New York City. Her parents were not highly educated but were avid readers, and she had teachers who demanded the best from her. Also, “people I never knew made a way for me,” she said. Among those people was Robert Frost. She credits three lines from his poem “Two Tramps in Mudtime” for leaving her “on the edge of wonder and understanding”:

My object in living is to unite

My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.

With her books, Bolden points the way for new generations as she strives to kindle curiosity. “I’m trying to touch not just the intellect, but the spirit, the soul,” she said. She asks children to think about “what inspires you?” And she reminds them, “One day you are going to be in charge.”

Later this year Viking will release Bolden's book How to Build a Museum, about the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, which is scheduled to open in 2016. In January readers can look for another new book by Tonya Bolden. The collective biography Pathfinders: The Amazing Journey of 16 Extraordinary Black Souls profiles women and men who made contributions in fields ranging from civil rights to space exploration.



THANK YOU, CHILDREN'S BOOK GUILD!

Representatives of three Washington, D.C., elementary schools attended the April 9 luncheon honoring Tonya Bolden: Principal Maisha Riddlespigger and Librarian Jamilla Coleman of Ketcham Elementary School (15th Street SE); Principal Tenia Pritchard and Librarian Bradford Stratton of Whittier Education Campus (5th Street NW); and Juliana Adepoju and Fonjia Atabong of Kimball Elementary School (Minnesota Avenue SE). Each pair accepted on behalf of their school books donated by Guild members--enough to fill a large basket and two shopping bags. 

The Guild received these words of thanks from Karen Cowden, library media specialist at Kimball Elementary School:

On behalf of Principal Douglas and the entire Kimball Community, we say THANK YOU! Your generosity just keeps flowing.

Thank you for inviting Kimball to the luncheon. Juliana Adepoju and Fonjia Ataboju truly enjoyed the whole experience.  

We were touched by the gorgeous basket filled with such powerful, fun books that you gave to us. We are getting them cataloged for our students to enjoy!

Thank you again for the support you continue to provide to Kimball. Your work has made a lasting imprint on the lives of our students.

With gratitude,

Karen Cowden 

Library Media Specialist

Kimball Elementary School

Last year the Guild donated $1500 for these three schools to purchase library books from the First Book Marketplace.

SYMPOSIUM ON IMMIGRATION

The Center for the Book and the Young Readers Center of the Library of Congress will host a symposium on immigration in which first- and second-generation children’s authors and illustrators share their heritage and culture, shaping a framework for America’s future.

The symposium will be held on May 25, 2016, from 1 to 2 p.m., in the Mumford Room (649), Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave SE, Washington,  DC. A book signing will follow. Participants include Meg Medina, Aisha Saeed, Liz Zunon, Rene Colato and Wendy Shang.

TIME TO RENEW GUILD MEMBERSHIP!

Spring is here, and it is time to renew your membership in the Children’s Book Guild. Please respond to the email reminders and renew your membership before June 30, 2016. Dues can be paid online at http://childrensbookguild.org/payments/608-dues-and-fees-payments . If you have any questions, please contact our membership chair, Jacqueline Jules, at JacJulesATaol.com Thank you!

MEMBER NEWS

SUSAN STOCKDALE’s Spectacular Spots won the 2016 Correll Book Award for Excellence in Early Childhood Informational Text. It was also selected (along with books by fellow Guild members DEBBIE LEVY, MARY AMATO and KATY KELLY) by the Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation for its donation wishlist to benefit the literacy organization Everybody Wins! DC. Susan will sign books at the Hudson Children’s Book Festival in Hudson, N.Y., on Saturday, May 7, and for an Everybody Wins! DC fundraiser at Barnes and Noble in Bethesda on May 14.

The Kansas Reading Association has announced that the winner of the 2016 Bill Martin, Jr. Picture Book Award is DEBBIE LEVY’s 2014 book Dozer’s Run. The intrepid goldendoodle who is the hero of Debbie’s true story joins Toto as one of the Sunflower State’s favorite canines! Dozer's Run is also the primary level winner of the Keystone to Reading Elementary Book Award for 2015-2016, awarded by the Keystone State Reading Association.

MICHAEL L. COOPER and CATHERINE REEF are two of three "nonfiction pros" leading a daylong workshop on "Pursuing Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Readers" in Louisville, Ky., on June 18, in cooperation with SCBWI Midsouth. Click on this link for more information and to view the brochure: Excellence in Nonfiction Workshop.

MARY DOWNING HAHN's daughter Beth Hahn's first novel, The Singing Bone, was published March 1. Beth will be appearing at Kramerbooks on Monday, May 9, at 6:30 p.m. Mary writes, "Although her novel was not written for children, I hope some of you will come and help us celebrate Beth's debut. To quote from Kramerbooks: 'A convicted killer's imminent parole forces a woman to confront the nightmarish past she's spent twenty years escaping....a richly imagined novel that heralds the arrival of a remarkable new voice in literary suspense.'"


"QUICK LINKS"

Guild member KATHERINE MARSH and her family expected to leave worries about safety behind when they moved to Brussels nine months ago. Kate recounted their experiences coping with recent terrorism in the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/03/24/a-stint-in-brussels-was-meant-to-enrich-my-kids-instead-it-taught-them-about-terror/ .

Kate then shared her story on the Today Show:  http://www.today.com/video/u-s-mom-who-moved-to-brussels-struggles-with-recent-terrorism-653084739967.

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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. May's speakers include Lulu Delacre and Jacqueline Jules.

And remember, Politics & Prose is now the bookstore at the 5th and K Streets location of Busboys & Poets. Politics & Prose plans to have copies of our featured speakers' books available for purchase at this location on meeting dates whenever possible.

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