Most people think of literacy
in relation to reading ability. But as award-winning author/illustrator
Jonathan Bean explains, pictures must be read too. Picture books are unique
because they require both reading skills and
visual literacy.
In some cases, picture books represent the only prolonged
exposure to art a person will have. If parents and teachers better understand
how pictures work, and are given an approach for thinking and talking about
images, they can help others reach higher levels of visual literacy.
At the
Guild’s luncheon on Thursday, June 15, Bean will
explain how he uses the formal elements of an illustration to bring a story to
life—that is, how line, shape, color and composition can express a mood or idea
that captures people’s imaginations. He likes to call these formal elements the picture
book’s first line of communication. Even if the words are not read, a good
picture book will convey something of the story through its
formal elements alone, leaving an impression on the mind’s eye long
after the book is put down.
Bean grew up in Pennsylvania, where he
enjoyed, among many things, hiking, bird watching and drawing the landscape. After
receiving his undergraduate degree from Messiah College, he moved to New York
City in 2003 to attend graduate school at the School of Visual Arts. He
received his first job illustrating for children's literature when hired by
Cricket in 2004. Since then, he's worked for numerous publishers, and his
illustrations and writing have received widespread praise. His
first two authored picture books, At Night and Building Our House,
won the prestigious Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and the Charlotte
Zolotow Honor Award for writing. His illustrations for The Apple Pie that Papa Baked won
the Ezra Jack
Keats Award for new talent. Publishers
Weekly named him a newcomer to watch.
Bean lives in Harrisburg, Pa., where he is currently working on his fifth authored picture book. You can learn more about his books at www.jonathanbean.com.
Bean lives in Harrisburg, Pa., where he is currently working on his fifth authored picture book. You can learn more about his books at www.jonathanbean.com.
Date: Thursday, June 15
1025 Fifth Street NW (at K Street)
Menu: All choices $25 ($26 when paid online via PayPal)
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
IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Deborah Bodin Cohen's Story House
2. East City Bookshop: A New Organizational Member
3. Hena Khan at the Silver Spring Library
4. Ann Bausum's Acceptance Speech
5. Alvina Ling and Grace Lin in Conversation
6. Member News
THE STORY HOUSE IS UP AND RUNNING!
THE CHILDREN'S BOOK GUILD WELCOMES A NEW ORGANIZATIONAL MEMBER, EAST CITY BOOKSHOP
East City Bookshop is an independent bookstore on Capitol Hill that opened in April 2016. It is located at 645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, just down the street from Barracks Row and Eastern Market and half a block from the Eastern Market Metro Station (orange, blue, and silver lines). There is street parking in the neighborhood, and numerous bus lines serve the area.
East City Bookshop strives to be a gathering place for book lovers by offering author events, book clubs and other community events. The recently expanded children's section offers a diverse selection of books for young readers of various ages. Cecilia Cackley is the children's specialist and will be the Children’s Book Guild representative. Cecilia looks forward to connecting with authors and illustrators to organize book events and school visits. You can contact Cecilia at ceciliaATeastcitybookshop.com.
ANN BAUSUM: WITH PASSION AND PURPOSE, A WRITER LAYS DOWN
PAVING STONES FOR THE NEXT GENERATION TO WALK
by J. H. Diehl
Guide my feet while I
run this race,
Guide my feet while I
run this race,
Guide my feet while I
run this race,
For I don’t want to
run this race in vain.
Author Ann Bausum sang those lines from a well-known African
American spiritual to begin her acceptance speech for the 2017 Children’s Book
Guild Nonfiction Award on April 29 at Clyde’s of Gallery Place. An audience of
more than 100 Guild members, colleagues and friends honored Bausum for the
excellence of her body of her work, which includes many books about issues of
social justice, from immigration to civil rights to the Stonewall riots and the
national Gay Rights Movement. Bausum said she selected that verse to open her
talk about “the choices that have guided my feet through the years” because
those lyrics have been a touchstone for her, “a reminder to ‘stay on course,
Ann. Stay on course.’”
In the first part of her talk, Bausum described how her fierce
passion to write historical narratives for children is rooted in her years growing
up in Lexington, Va., during the 1960s. Fourth grade, she said, was the year
she fell in love with history. Her hometown was filled with sites and icons of
Confederate history. Of particular importance to her then was Little Sorrel,
Stonewall Jackson’s horse, which had been stuffed and placed on display in a
museum. “I would visit him after school," she said, and “didn’t realize it at
the time, but I was falling in love with an artifact for the first time.”
Little Sorrel seemed so real to her, Bausum said, that she imagined he could
walk out of his museum paddock.
In school she learned a warped version of U.S. history,
however. “Only decades later did I realize how my history books had been a
carefully constructed narrative,” Bausum said. This narrative was filled with distortions intended to absolve whites of culpability for slavery.
“It took me years to realize,” she said, that her school
history books had presented a “glorification of the South’s lost cause.” Not
until Bausum enrolled at Beloit College in Wisconsin in 1975 and saw that
narrative challenged did her view of history change. She explained, “Over time,
I learned I was the one who had been misled. I was in my early twenties before
I had the first inkling that my textbooks had gotten things wrong.”
Years later, Bausum obtained copies of her fourth- and
seventh-grade history books. In the midst of reading egregious excerpts from
one 1965 text aloud to her Guild audience, she paused to declare: “It’s painful
to read this, but I think this is what we need to know we taught our children.”
Her desire to create accurate accounts of historical events
drew Bausum to focus heavily on using documentary photographs in her books. “My
appreciation for documentary imagery began with current events,” she said.
Again she was inspired by her early life, by recalling pictures from President
John F. Kennedy’s funeral, the first big news event Bausum remembers, which
took place when she was in first grade.
Her interest in pictorial storytelling has made National
Geographic, her longtime publisher, a wonderful match for her work on subjects
ranging from investigative journalism to immigration and the Civil Rights Movement,
Bausum said. Sometimes, photographs have given her ideas for books. This was
the case, for instance, with Marching to
the Mountaintop, one of her civil rights histories, which was inspired by a
black and white image taken by famed photographer Ernest C. Withers during the
1968 sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis, Tenn.
The second part of Bausum’s talk concerned rage. “You cannot
write about social justice, title after title, and not talk about rage,” she
said. She cited, for example, her account of the shooting of activist James
Meredith, a black man shot by a white man on the second day of the 1966 civil rights
demonstration that was the topic of Bausum’s book The March against Fear. “While I write, 50 years later, black men
are being shot as they go about their daily lives,” she said. “It’s as if
nothing has changed.” Of her book Muckrakers,
Bausum said, “As someone who’d been swept up in journalism after living through
Watergate, could I not write about early investigative [reporters]?”
The rage that fuels her work, Bausum said, draws on “my
inner child, nine or ten, full of curiosity and confidence...who stayed with me
as I grew to an adult. The girl who grew up on Watergate and the Vietnam War.
The girl who trusted her history books and was betrayed.”
“I can’t not do this work,” Bausum, at her most impassioned,
declared movingly as she closed her remarks. “It’s who I am. It’s where my feet
lead me.” She added, “My goal is to lay down paving stones for the next
generation...because in the end, I don’t want to run this race in vain.”
Then, prompted by Edie Ching, the Guild’s Award Committee chair,
Bausum’s audience joined her in reprising her opening verse:
Guide my feet while I
run this race,
Guide my feet while I
run this race,
Guide my feet while I
run this race,
For I don’t want to
run this race in vain.
ALVINA LING AND GRACE LIN: A LIFELONG FRIENDSHIP IN CHILDREN'S BOOKS
by
J. H. Diehl
At the May meeting of the Children’s Book Guild, editor
Alvina Ling and author-illustrator Grace Lin inspired a full house with their
insightful testament to the resonant power, joy and fruitful creativity of an
enduring friendship. Often finishing each other’s sentences, with laughter, delight and candid frankness, Ling and Lin recounted their journey from childhood schoolmates to collaborators on award-winning books for
children.
Ling
and Lin first met at age 10, in the summer before fifth grade, when Ling’s
family moved from New Jersey to the town where Lin lived in upstate New York. Both
girls’ parents had immigrated to the United States from Taiwan. Lin had always
been the only Asian American girl in her class at school. “Until then, I was
trying to pretend I wasn’t Asian,” Lin said, so that she wouldn’t have to think
about how different she looked from her classmates. “I curled my hair,” she
said, for example. She was not at all pleased when her parents arranged a
get-together with Ling’s family. Meeting another Asian girl was going to remind
Lin she was different, she said.
Nevertheless,
the two girls quickly became inseparable friends and entered middle school
together. They bonded strongly over their mutual love of books—and the dearth
of Asian characters in the books they read. Both friends recalled a popular series
about cheerleaders and the token Asian member of the cheerleading squad, whom
they were glad to read about even though she was given stereotypical interests
and plot arcs.
In
the middle of seventh grade, Ling’s family moved again, to California. The
friends wrote letters back and forth through the remainder of middle school and
high school and into college. To illustrate how they kept in touch through the
many stages of growing up, Ling fondly recalled a letter she wrote consisting
solely of lyrics to a song by the band Bon Jovi. College continued to keep them
apart: Ling studied communications at the University of California at Berkeley,
while Lin headed to the Rhode Island School of Design, already determined to
pursue a career as a children’s book illustrator.
For
a couple of years, the said, they lost touch. It was during that time, when Lin
was studying abroad in Rome, that she started to embrace her cultural heritage.
Meanwhile, Ling moved to Taiwan to study Mandarin and teach English.
Eventually taking advice from another friend, Ling followed her love
of books and pursued a career in publishing. She and Lin reconnected and became
roommates, sharing an apartment in Boston as each was starting her career. It
was then, they agreed, that Ling became Lin’s informal editor. “Even before we
started working together officially,” Lin said, “I would run stories past her.”
Lin’s
first book, The Ugly Vegetables, was
published by Charlesbridge in 1999. The same year, Ling joined Little, Brown
Books for Young Readers as an editorial assistant. She is now vice president
and editor-in-chief.
The
friends’ first official professional collaboration began when Ling, at Little,
Brown, encouraged Lin to turn an idea into a novel. It became The Year of the Dog. Ever since, they
have worked together to publish the kinds of books they wished they had
had when they were young, titles featuring Asian characters and their cultural heritage. These include Where
the Mountain Meets the Moon, winner of a Newbery Honor, and When the Sea Turned to Silver, a
finalist for the National Book Award.
For a time, Lin said, she disliked being labeled a multicultural author. But, she said, “After I
embraced the 'multicultural writer' label, that’s when real mainstream acceptance
started.”
The
tragic loss of Lin’s first husband inspired her to write Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. When it won a Newbery Honor, she
said, “I was Grace Lin, Newbery Honor author and illustrator. I love that the
label changed, because that’s what broadened my audience. But I have mixed
feelings: the books are the same. Labels shouldn’t be important.”
Ling
and Lin illustrated the story of their remarkable collaboration with endearing
snapshots from their childhood, their apartment in Boston, their weddings, travels
together in China and stacks of edited manuscripts on Ling’s desk. Their mission
to write and publish books they wished they’d had as children came full circle at the end of their presentation, with a sneak peek at Lin’s forthcoming 2018 picture
book, edited by Ling, A Big Mooncake for
Little Star. It is a ‘pourquoi’ tale about the phases of the moon, which Lin
wrote to explain the Moon Festival, a Chinese holiday, to bring her cultural
heritage alive for her young daughter.
Guild members
interested in more detailed information about Lin’s journey to embrace her
heritage in her work can view her moving 2016 TED talk, which she referred to
during her Guild presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wQ8wiV3FVo
MEMBER NEWS
SUE FLIESS's The Bug Book, which Grosset & Dunlap released in 2016, was chosen to be part of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library program for 2017.
In April Pangea released All About Max, the new novel by BARBARA BROOKS WALLACE.
LAURA GEHL's Peep and Egg: I'm Not Hatching is on the International Literacy Association's Children's Choices Reading List for 2017.
SUSHMITA MAZUMDAR's 2017 community poetry book project, Thou Art: The Beauty of Identity, is a collaboration with Afghan artist Sughra Hussainy and 25 writers from the Studio Pause community.
The book connects with children because it inspired an elementary school to make its own community poetry book, which will be used as text in 2018. It also inspired a community-poetry-book activity at the Arlington Poetry Fest, and many kids who attended made their own books.
Learn more on the project page on Sush's website: www.StudioPause.com/projects/
SUSAN STOCKDALE will read and sign Fantastic Flowers at Soapstone Market in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, June 17, at 10 a.m.
KITSON JAZYNKA announces three new books with National Geographic Kids:
125 Pet Rescues: From Pound to Palace (April 2017)...
and History’s Mysteries (October 2017).
Kitson also wrote the Washington Post Magazine cover story for April 9, 2017:
SALLY DAVIES invites Guild Members to see her upcoming solo show, Global Views: Light & Shadow, Paintings on Canvas by Sally Davies, which will be on exhibit at the Art League Gallery in the Torpedo Factory, Alexandria, Va., from July 6 through August 6, 2017:
www.theartleague.org/content/davies_2017Members are also invited to the opening, on July 13, at 6:30 p.m. In addition, Sally will do a painting demo at the gallery on Saturday, July 22, at 2 p.m. The gallery asked Sally to photograph her artwork every few hours to make some time-lapse films. Here is the link for the films: tinyurl.com/h4pav2u .
Sally writes: "My art in this show is huge (compared to my illustrations!) and all on large canvases. These paintings are of ordinary people in landscapes with interesting views or unusual compositions, featuring places around the world: England, France, Italy, Greece, Japan, Canada, the Netherlands, Bermuda and around the USA, of course. The exhibition title, 'Global Views,' refers to both the high-up vantage point of the viewer and the many countries represented in this collection. There are recognizable architectural clues (such as the Pompidou Center funnels in Paris or the medieval walls of Sforza Castle in Milan or the Japanese lettering on a Yokohama sidewalk), but the people in my paintings look so familiar. They are doing ordinary things, like going to work, taking kids to school, cycling home and meeting with friends. 'Global Views' shows our planet as one whole place, a community. The mother you see holding her child's hand while crossing the street looks recognizable in any country. I want to show that bond of humanity throughout the world."
In July, RoadRunner Press will release The True Story of Jim the Wonder Dog, by MARTY RHODES FIGLEY.
Marty, JACQUELINE JULES and MOIRA ROSE DONOHUE will be among the authors featured at the "Write" Stuff Literacy, Writing and Research Festival, to be held July 7 and 8 at the National Archives: https://education.blogs.archives.gov/2017/04/27/write-stuff/.
TIME TO RENEW YOUR 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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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.
And remember, Politics & Prose is 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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