The Children’s Book Guild will present its annual Nonfiction
Award to Ann Bausum on Saturday, April 29. The award recognizes a body of work
that has contributed significantly to the quality of nonfiction for children.
Bausum has introduced an entire generation of American
children to epic stories of struggle, courage and heroism that have shaped our
country, defined our times and advanced our common and ongoing pursuit of a
more perfect union.
Bausum’s 13 titles cover some of the nation’s most pressing historical
issues, including immigration, racial equality and women’s right to vote. Her newest
book, March Against Fear: The Last Great
Walk of the Civil Rights Movement and
the Emergence of Black Power (National Geographic, February 2017), tells of
James Meredith’s 1966 march in Mississippi, which became one of the most important
demonstrations of the Civil Rights Movement. Other titles include Denied, Detained, Deported: Stories from the
Dark Side of American Immigration and Unraveling
Freedom: The Battle for Democracy on the Home Front During World War I. It
is Bausum's intent to “make history relevant, engaging, alive and irresistible,” as
she states on her website (www.annbausum.com/).
Time: Noon to 2 p.m.
Place: Clyde’s Restaurant of Gallery Place, 707 Seventh St.
NW (Metro: Gallery Place)
Tickets: $35 ($36 when paid online)
GUILD MEMBERS: PLEASE BRING YOUR BOOKS TO THE APRIL 29 NONFICTION AWARD LUNCHEON!
There will be a table at the Nonfiction Award luncheon where Guild members' books will be displayed. Please bring your books (no more than two per member, please) the day of the luncheon and place them on the table when you arrive. (Remember to take them home when you leave.) This is a wonderful opportunity to publicize your work!
AUTHOR BOOT CAMP
Erica Perl and children’s book publicist Deb Shapiro have teamed up to offer a one-day “Boot Camp” for picture book and middle grade authors who want to increase their visibility and get more savvy and strategic about promoting their work (on their own and in collaboration with publicists). It is perfect for new authors as well as established authors with new books coming out in the next six to nine months. It will take place in DC on Saturday, April 8, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The cost of the Boot Camp is $750, which includes lunch and snacks.
AN INVITATION FROM THE READING CONNECTION
Join the Reading Connection for Of Wine & Words on Friday, April 28.
Buy tickets (https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/weblink.aspx?name=readingcon&id=9)
or be a sponsor (http://thereadingconnection.org/uploads/1204/doc/OWW_Sponsor_solicitation_packet_2017.1.5_w_links2.pdf).
COMPLETE THE NATURE GENERATION'S SURVEY: BRIDGING THE GAP IN ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY
Friends and supporters, we want to hear from you! Please give us us two minutes of your time to take our survey. We can use your collective voice to craft our programs to ensure that we reach the next generation.
According to a recent National Environmental Education Foundation study, concern and knowledge about the environment is on the decline among Americans. There is a gap in environmental literacy.
Please click here to tell us your thoughts on the best ways we can help bridge the gap. Thank you!
THE MARCH BUSINESS MEETING OF THE CHILDREN’S BOOK GUILD, FEATURING A PANEL DISCUSSION ON STORY
by Abby McGanney Nolan
Children’s Book Guild members met for their annual business meeting on March 16, 2017, at the Chevy Chase Neighborhood Library. Kem Sawyer, president, announced the slate of officers for 2017-2018:
Katy Kelly, president
Rhoda Trooboff, vice president and incoming president for 2018-2019
Kitson Jazynka and Tammar Stein, recording secretaries
Terry Catasus Jennings, treasurer
Emily Griffin, Susan Kusel and Brenda Randolph, program chairs
The slate was approved and candidates were voted in unanimously.
After the business meeting, Guild member Deborah Taylor moderated a panel discussion on the power of story. On the panel were fellow members Catherine Reef, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, and Alexis Frederick-Frost.
Taylor started the discussion by asking each panelist about how he or she approached storytelling. Frederick-Frost, the coauthor and illustrator of the “Adventures in Cartooning” series, discussed how he combined lessons in creating comics with an exciting story line. Inspired in part by writer/illustrator Ed Emberley, he puts story first but works hard to intertwine interactive, instructional elements within it. For instance, the magic elf in the series acts as a helpful cartooning instructor throughout.
The author of more than 145 books for children, teens and adults, Naylor said she has not been bothered that many of her books for young readers have been “challenged” or banned. She has tried to make her stories true to life and has seen her books strike a chord with readers. She noted the continuing difficulty, as with her most recent book, Going Where It’s Dark, to convince publishers to allow for the accurate portrayal of teenage swearing. She approvingly quoted her first editor, Jean Karl: “If you have to have it, put it in.”
Catherine Reef, who has written more than forty books for children and adults, spoke about finding the right balance when discussing her subjects' accomplishments and shortcomings in her biographies. The flaws have “to be there, but a little can stand for a lot.” The challenge is to show examples that get the point across but don’t overshadow the whole story.
Doing the research for her recent biography of Florence Nightingale made it clear to Reef that the book’s overarching theme would be “one woman’s struggle to live the life she felt called to lead.” There had been many Nightingale biographies for younger children, but the story of her life before, during and after the Crimean War was worth telling for adolescents and teens.
The authors went on to make other observations about their own creative processes. Naylor said she thinks about a book for much longer than it takes to write. She considers the tone for each novel and looks for “the ping of commonality” with her characters. She loves the cadence of the South and Appalachia, so she has set many of her books in those regions.
Naylor noted that Anne Tyler has said that she begins with a character, whereas Naylor's own stories usually begin with a situation. With Shiloh, it was, “If I was 11 years old and I knew who was abusing a dog, what would I do?” She said she “realized later on that the book was about the gray area between right and wrong.” She said she usually knows the beginning, the climax and the ending before she starts writing but added that she is now working on a book without knowing the climax or ending.
Reef said that she thinks a great deal about conflict and structure when writing her books. What is the conflict facing the person or people about whom she is writing? Can a story be told chronologically, as with her book on the Bronte sisters? Or does it require a more complex organization of events, as with her dual biography of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo? Reef also pointed out that character development is crucial not only to fiction but to nonfiction as well.
Frederick-Frost discussed the different “lexicographical acrobatics” involved in describing the work he does. He said that if asked to choose between all the available terms, he would simply choose "comics," explaining, "‘Graphic novel’ is not a genre but a format." He also mentioned that media specialists tell him how popular his books are with kids who might otherwise feel self-conscious about reading picture books.
Following these remarks, the audience had many questions for the panelists, including further probing into research, book proposals and profanity. For Dorothy Parker’s quote pertaining to Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead, please see Fred Bowen.
TERRY CATASUS JENNINGS is the proud author of two new picture books. Vivian and the Legend of the Hoodoos, published by Arbordale, is about a young Paiute Indian girl who has a hard time accepting that she has to follow the old traditions. In the end, she understands why the ancient people, who were totally dependent on the land, respected the earth. She understands that she must respect the earth as well. The book is set among the beautiful natural erosion of Southwest Utah and talks as well about the power of wind and water in creating hoodoos (rocks that have been eroded into columns). The other book, Hydroelectric Energy, was published by ABDO Publishing. Guess what? It’s a nonfiction book about the use and history of hydroelectric power.
ERICA S. PERL and HENRY COLE's Ferocious Fluffity has been shortlisted for the Magnolia Award, Mississippi’s Children’s Choice Book Award, in the PreK-2 category. Voting will take place in February 2018, with results announced in April 2018.
Erica also recently granted permission to Newport (Rhode Island) Children’s Theater to create an abridged script based on her novel in three acts, The Capybara Conspiracy. A student cast will perform the 35-minute play this spring in area schools and at the March Into Reading Festival at Salve Regina University. The script is now available to educators and theater programs seeking age-appropriate performance pieces for middle school and upper elementary school students.
SUSAN STOCKDALE will present a program on her new picture book, Fantastic Flowers, followed by a signing at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, April 15, from 1 to 3 p.m.; she will also sign copies at the Kensington Day of the Book Festival in Kensington, Md., on Sunday, April 23, from noon to 3 p.m.
Peep and Egg: I'm Not Hatching, by Laura Gehl, is a finalist for the Children's Choice Book Award for 2017 in the K-2 category.
HENA KHAN's middle grade novel, Amina’s Voice, was released on March 14. It’s the first publication from Simon & Schuster’s new imprint, Salaam Reads. It has received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal.
JACQUELINE JULES is excited to announce that her poetry chapbook, Itzhak Perlman's Broken String,was selected as the 2016 Helen Kay Chapbook Prize winner and will be published by Evening Street Press in April 2017. For more information or to order, please visit online at http://eveningstreetpress.com/jacqueline-jules-2016.html.
JACQUELINE JULES is excited to announce that her poetry chapbook, Itzhak Perlman's Broken String,was selected as the 2016 Helen Kay Chapbook Prize winner and will be published by Evening Street Press in April 2017. For more information or to order, please visit online at http://eveningstreetpress.com/jacqueline-jules-2016.html.
The latest honor for LULU DELACRE's ¡Olinguito, de la A a la Z! Olinguito, from A to Z! is the Riverby Award, given by the John Burroughs Association.
Lulu will present a bilingual program on this title on April 27 at the Young Readers Center of the Library of Congress. The program will be live streamed at 10:30 a.m. so anyone can access it.
Shout Mouse Press, in partnership with Young Playwrights' Theater, is thrilled to announce the first-ever Ballou Story Project LIVE event, on Thursday, April 13, at 7 p.m., at Ballou High School, 3401 4th Street SE, Washington, D.C.
For the past four years, the story coaches of Shout Mouse Press have helped students at Ballou write authentic personal essays for college and scholarship applications. Those stories have been compiled into three powerful published collections: How To Grow Up Like Me, Our Lives Matter and Humans of Ballou. These books have been used in classrooms across the region and have earned national recognition in contests for independent presses. This year, in partnership with Young Playwrights' Theater and sponsored by the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities, Shout Mouse Press will provide a new platform for these stories to be heard: LIVE on stage, performed by professional actors.
Everyone interested in hearing stories of courage, compassion, community and connection is encouraged to be present for this free event.
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 e-mail reminders and renew your membership before June 30, 2017. 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 jjulesATjacquelinejules.com. Thank you!
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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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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. March's speakers will include Hena Khan and Alexis Frederick-Frost.
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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