December 2017

Members Are Invited to the Children's Book Guild's

2018

Saturday, January 6, at 6:30 p.m.,

at the home of

Susan Stockdale and Todd Mann

in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

(Address will be provided via email.)

Please RSVP to Susan

at susan@susanstockdale.com

by January 2 only if you plan to attend

and specify what you will bring:

a main dish, salad, side dish or dessert.

Libations will be provided.

Spouses and significant others are most welcome!

(Please Note: The next regular meeting of the Children's Book Guild will be held at Busboys & Poets on January 18. Look for details in January's newsletter.)

IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Frostburg's Storybook Holiday
2. Member Nomination: Reading Partners
3. Member News
4. Voices from the Children's Book Guild Community


STORYBOOK HOLIDAY 2017

Bundle up and join in the winter festivities at this year’s Storybook Holiday, on Saturday, December 2, 2017, in the town of Frostburg, MD! The day kicks off with Breakfast with the Elves at Gunter Hotel (tickets purchased prior to event) and a festive parade. Plenty of holiday activities will be available at City Place, Broadway Parking Lot and the Community Center, as well as in the Main Street area. Frostburg is turned into a winter wonderland for the day. Children will have the opportunity to interact with this year’s featured author and illustrator, Lezlie Evans and Joan Waites. End the day by purchasing a ticket (in advance at Main Street Books) for this year’s classic film, Holiday Inn, shown at Frostburg’s Palace Theatre. Make sure you don’t miss out on this wonderful event. For more information, please contact the Children’s Literature Centre at clc@frostburg.edu or (301) 687-3133. Check out the webpage: www.frostburg.edu/clc. 

MEMBER NOMINATION: READING PARTNERS

Laura Melmed nominates Reading Partners to be an organizational member of the Children’s Book Guild. Jacqueline Jules seconds the nomination.

ONE TUTOR. ONE CHILD. INFINITE POSSIBILITIES. This is the motto of Reading Partners, a national organization that engages communities in providing students with proven, individualized reading support. The goal of the program is to have students reading at grade level by fourth grade; research shows that students who accomplish this have a greater opportunity to succeed in school and in life. Reading Partners is currently in 14 metropolitan areas across the United States. There are more than 20 Reading Partners centers in DC schools.

Volunteers are trained to work with students one-on-one for 45-minute sessions, once or twice a week. Tutors guide students through a structured, research-based curriculum. On average, Reading Partners students more than double their rate of learning while in the program. In 2016-17, 95 percent of Reading Partners’ K-2 students mastered the foundational reading skills needed to read at grade level. Ninety percent of students met or exceeded their end-of-year literacy growth goal. 

Reading Partners DC and the Children’s Book Guild make a natural match. As authors, illustrators and others deeply involved with children’s books, Guild members know the importance of learning to read in securing a child’s future. Children who go through the Reading Partners program become not only capable readers, but enthusiastic ones as well. The Reading Partners program depends on the use of quality children’s books, with tutors reading aloud to their students at the start of each lesson from a comprehensive library of quality books maintained at each literacy center. In addition, every Reading Partners student can take home a book to keep at the end of each learning session, enabling the child to build a home library of carefully curated books. Find out more about Reading Partners DC at https://readingpartners.org/location/washington-dc/. Reading Partners will be a valuable addition to the Children’s Book Guild’s membership.

MEMBER NEWS

On December 5, MOIRA ROSE DONOHUE is celebrating the release of her latest book with National Geographic Kids: My Best Friend Is a Dolphin!

Applewhites Coast to Coast, STEPHANIE TOLAN's third book about the family featured in her book that won a Newbery Honor in 2003 (Surviving the Applewhites), was launched October 17 at a splendid party at Books of Wonder in Manhattan. Applewhites at Wit's End had been the in-between "middle child" of what can now officially be called a series.

Stephanie writes, "The launch party happened largely because the book is a collaboration between myself and my dear son (a theater person, hence the NYC contacts) R.J. Tolan. What fun it was to work together, after the book's creation had been sidelined for two years by a cluster of deaths in the family in 2013. Its dedication to those missing family members still makes me cry. The book's existence is a testament to resilience and the healing power of humor!"

SUSAN STOCKDALE will present a family program in the National Museum of Natural History’s Discovery Room on Saturday, December 9, from 1 to 1:45 p.m., followed by a book signing in the Family Store from 2 to 3 p.m.

Queen of the Hanukkah Dosas has several family-friendly events happening in the weeks leading up to Hanukkah. On December 3, author PAMELA EHRENBERG will be at the DC Jewish Community Center at 10:30, and East City Bookshop at 3:00. On December 10, she will be at Adas Israel Congregation at 10 a.m. and the Jewish Museum of Maryland (in Baltimore) in the afternoon. And on December 17, the final event will take place in Alexandria, co-sponsored by Hooray for Books! and Namaste Indian restaurant, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Says Pam, "It would be great to see any Guild members who find any of these locations along their holiday-season paths!"

Nine Guild members are among the writers participating in the University Club's Author Night and Book Fair on November 29: FRED BOWEN, PAMELA EHRENBERG, LAURA ELLIOTT, LEZLIE EVANS, DEBBIE LEVY, MARC TYLER NOBLEMAN, MARY QUATTLEBAUM, SUSAN STOCKDALE and JOAN WAITES. Held at 1135 16th Street NW, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., the event is free and open to the public.

LULU DELACRE is thrilled to announce that she is working on the illustrations for Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s picture book autobiography: https://www.apnews.com/f488dcbd1046484fa0faf01c9673be84. Titled Turning Pages, the book will be out in fall 2018. Lulu states, "It is an incredible honor to have been selected for this assignment."

DEBBIE LEVY recently accepted two awards for her picture book I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark: the 2017 Carla Cohen Free Speech Award (given by the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association) and the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Honor. She also learned that the book received the Virginia Library Association’s Jefferson Cup Award. And she’s thrilled about its SCBWI Crystal Kite Award! In other book news, Debbie’s illustrator for Soldier Song: A True Story of the Civil War, received the Society of Illustrators Silver Medal in the 2017 Original Art Show for his artwork for that book. Debbie cheers, "Hooray for the talented Gilbert Ford!"

NANCY PATZ's new book, The Elephant with a Knot in His Trunk, tells a story of disability and acceptance. Nancy's coauthor is Stuart Sheer, an orthodontist who treats children with dento-facial problems.

SUSAN L. ROTH announces the January publication of Playing with Osito / Jugando con Baby Bear, a bilingual story for young readers with text by Lisa Maria Burgess and collage illustrations by Susan.

Several members of the Guild signed books at the National Press Club's Book Fair and Authors' Night on November 7. Pictured here are MARY QUATTLEBAUM, LEZLIE EVANS, SUSAN STOCKDALE and LAURA GEHL. LAURA ELLIOTT, HENA KHAN and DEBBIE LEVY also took part. Lezlie thanks Politics and Prose for its work on the event and notes, "It was a lovely evening of signing books, meeting with the public and getting to know other authors better."

VOICES FROM THE CHILDREN'S BOOK GUILD COMMUNITY

In October, Guild member and Newbery Award-winner KATHERINE PATERSON answered questions for Publishers Weekly: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/75126-four-questions-for-katherine-paterson.html. Katherine, who turned 85 in October, is still actively writing. As Karen Leggett observes, she is a reminder to us all that there is no set retirement age for writers!


ANN BAUSUM, winner of the 2017 Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award, expanded her acceptance speech for publication in the Horn Book. Her piece, "Fighting the Lost Cause," appears in the November/December issue and is available online: http://www.hbook.com/2017/11/choosing-books/horn-book-magazine/writers-page-fighting-lost-cause/. In her email informing the Guild of this publication, Ann wrote, "Thank you again for bestowing me with the honor of your Nonfiction Award. I'm continuing to savor the memories from that day as well as our gathering at Edie's on Friday night. The energy from the weekend has fueled many a day of writing since, and will for some time."

LAURA KRAUSS MELMED was a picture book champion for Picture Book Month, an international literacy initiative celebrating the print picture book during the month of November. Every day that month there was a new post from a picture book champion explaining why she/he thinks picture books are important.​ Laura's essay appeared on November 14. View the calendar at http://picturebookmonth.com/2017/10/the-2017-picture-book-month-calendar/. Read Laura's essay in the recent posts or archives sections at http://picturebookmonth.com​​ .


PAMELA EHRENBERG wrote about the importance of diversity in children's books with Jewish content as a guest blogger for the ProsenPeople blog, which is maintained by the Jewish Book Council. Pam was one of 30 authors invited to share their thoughts during a celebration of Jewish Book Month: https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/_blog/The_ProsenPeople/post/30-days-30-authors-pamela-ehrenberg.

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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.