Thursday, March 11, 2010
Updates
A post from March, a review of The Witch's Bridge, has been updated with a photo of the paperback cover.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
The Big Snow (1949)
The Big Snow
Berta and Elmer Hader
1948, Macmillan Publishers
The winner of the Caldecott Medal for 1949, this picture book follows the world of a forest after a blizzard.
About the authors
Berta Hoerner (1891–1976)
Elmer Stanley Hader (1889-1973)
They were friends with Rose Wilder Lane, dating from Berta's days as Rose's roommate
Links
The Hader Connection
Beyond Little House
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Picture Book awards 2010
Picture-Books in Winter
Summer fading, winter comes--
Frosty mornings, tingling thumbs,
Window robins, winter rooks,
And the picture story-books.
Water now is turned to stone
Nurse and I can walk upon;
Still we find the flowing brooks
In the picture story-books.
All the pretty things put by,
Wait upon the children's eye,
Sheep and shepherds, trees and crooks,
In the picture story-books.
We may see how all things are
Seas and cities, near and far,
And the flying fairies' looks,
In the picture story-books.
How am I to sing your praise,
Happy chimney-corner days,
Sitting safe in nursery nooks,
Reading picture story-books?
AWARD SEASON FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS
from Chester, The Worldly Pig, written and illustrated by Bill Peet, 1990 Caldecott Award Honor winner for Bill Peet: An Autobiography.
It's awards season for the entertainment world, books no less than movies, and a slew of kid book awards got announced this month. There is one large difference between awards given to material intended for adults, and awards given to children's entertainment - the judges in the latter case are very free to indulge their own biases, preferences and fantasies without regard to the intended audience, as that audience is completely absent from the judging. I'm not sure that's a reality that can be or should be changed, but it does make judging children's literature a different kettle of fish. The situation is intensified in the case of picture books, where the audience is too young to acquire or consume the books and completely at the mercy of adults to provide both the book and the reading.
The Caldecott Medal winners for 2010 were announced this month. This award goes to "the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children."The 2010 winner is The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney. 2010 Honor winners were All The World, illustrated by Marla Frazee and written by Liz Garton Scanlon, and Red Sings From Treetops: A Year in Colors illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski and written by Joyce Sidman. Pinkney is the first individual African-American to win the Caldecott Medal, which has been won twice by an interracial couple.
The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award goes to the author and illustrator of the year's "most distinguished contribution to the body of American children’s literature known as beginning reader books published in the
The Coretta Scott King Book Awards were also announced this month. The 2010 illustrator winner is Charles R. Smith Jr. for My People. The 2010 Honor for illustrators was The Negro Speaks of Rivers, illustrated by E. B. Lewis. Both were written by Langston Hughes.
And the Schenider Family Book Awards "honor an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences." Their 2010 pick for Young Children's Book was Django, written and illustrated by Bonnie Christensen.
Links
The Caldecott Medals Home Page at the American Library Association
Coretta Scott King Awards at the ALA
The Schneider Family Book Awards at the ALA
The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award page at ALA
Seattle Times interview with Jerry Pinkney
Little, Brown and Company Books for Young Readers (The Lion & the Mouse)
Beach Lane Books (All The World) - a Simon & Schuster imprint
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (Red Sings From Treetops, Mouse & Mole)
Toon Books (Benny and Penny in the Big No-No! and I Spy Fly Guy!)Dial Books for Young Readers (
ginee seo books (My People) - an Atheneum Books for Young Readers imprint
Jump At The Sun Books (The Negro Speaks Of Rivers) - an imprint of of Disney Book Group
Roaring Brook Press (Django)
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Odds and Ends
First, a picture to evoke summer in the dead of winter.
Stars For Christy (1958, author Mabel Leigh Hunt, illustrator Velma Ilsley)
Now, new books and newish movies.
Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1904 novel A Little Princess has gotten a not-particularly-necessary sequel from Hilary McKay. Wishing For Tomorrow has just been released in the U.S. While I've been a fan of McKay's Exiles and Casson series, I was underwhelmed by this one. There's nothing really wrong with the book, it's just that there's a sameness to it. An uncontrollable little girl who's a force of nature, a grinning boy who acts as an amused spectator to a group of mad girls, a book-obsessed girl, a clutzy heroine, jealousy, girlish intrigue - there were times when it simply all felt too similar to the Exiles and Casson family books. And I've never been a fan of an author hitching a ride on someone else's work, no matter how creative or well done their own effort may be.
Elizabeth Goudge's 1946 novel The Little White Horse is also a 2008 film called The Secret Of Moonacre. I've never truly recovered from the scene where Maria discovers a cunningly placed box of biscuits on the mantel in her dreamy new bedroom. Biscuits. Mantels. Villains named, literally, Blackheart. Lions. Unicorns. Midnight forest rambles. There's no way a nice, rousing film version won't ruin it.
I've always found the 1001 series by Universe - you know, those enormously fat books claiming to contain the films you absolutely MUST see, places you absolutely MUST visit, etc., etc. before you die - to be irritating. I read for many reasons, but not to be goosed into action by the idea that if I don't act now, I'll die uncultured and parochial. But everyone I know loves these books and scans them eagerly to see how they match up against the compilers, so it you like that sort of thing, Universe has produced a kid book version. 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up by Julia Eccleshare, the children's book editor at The Guardian Review.
Stars For Christy (1958, author Mabel Leigh Hunt, illustrator Velma Ilsley)Now, new books and newish movies.
Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1904 novel A Little Princess has gotten a not-particularly-necessary sequel from Hilary McKay. Wishing For Tomorrow has just been released in the U.S. While I've been a fan of McKay's Exiles and Casson series, I was underwhelmed by this one. There's nothing really wrong with the book, it's just that there's a sameness to it. An uncontrollable little girl who's a force of nature, a grinning boy who acts as an amused spectator to a group of mad girls, a book-obsessed girl, a clutzy heroine, jealousy, girlish intrigue - there were times when it simply all felt too similar to the Exiles and Casson family books. And I've never been a fan of an author hitching a ride on someone else's work, no matter how creative or well done their own effort may be.
Elizabeth Goudge's 1946 novel The Little White Horse is also a 2008 film called The Secret Of Moonacre. I've never truly recovered from the scene where Maria discovers a cunningly placed box of biscuits on the mantel in her dreamy new bedroom. Biscuits. Mantels. Villains named, literally, Blackheart. Lions. Unicorns. Midnight forest rambles. There's no way a nice, rousing film version won't ruin it.
I've always found the 1001 series by Universe - you know, those enormously fat books claiming to contain the films you absolutely MUST see, places you absolutely MUST visit, etc., etc. before you die - to be irritating. I read for many reasons, but not to be goosed into action by the idea that if I don't act now, I'll die uncultured and parochial. But everyone I know loves these books and scans them eagerly to see how they match up against the compilers, so it you like that sort of thing, Universe has produced a kid book version. 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up by Julia Eccleshare, the children's book editor at The Guardian Review.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Beezus And Ramona movie
Beezus And Ramona is a movie! It's due out on August 13, 2010. How they will update the simple 1955 book - in which 10-year-old Beatrice 'Beezus' Quimby deals with her exasperating little sister Ramona - is anyone's guess. The obvious change is changing an average 10-year-old kid into a beautiful 18-year-old woman. The little actress playing Ramona is 11 - a year older than the Beezus character in the book.
Even granted that a) it's easier to have older girls play the roles than very young children, and b) the movie is likely based on the series as a whole, it's a bit sad. Every once in a blue moon, there's a Precious and everyone gets all KUDOS! about how they cast someone who remotely resembles the actual character. Then it's right back to casting stars who fall so far out of the original material's vision that you begin to wonder at the point of even using the original material. Oh, right - built-in audience.
Links
IMDB listing here
Beverly Cleary website
Harper Collins website
Even granted that a) it's easier to have older girls play the roles than very young children, and b) the movie is likely based on the series as a whole, it's a bit sad. Every once in a blue moon, there's a Precious and everyone gets all KUDOS! about how they cast someone who remotely resembles the actual character. Then it's right back to casting stars who fall so far out of the original material's vision that you begin to wonder at the point of even using the original material. Oh, right - built-in audience.
Links
IMDB listing here
Beverly Cleary website
Harper Collins website
Saturday, January 2, 2010
The Story Of Little Babaji (originally Little Black Sambo)
The Story Of Little Babaji (originally Little Black Sambo)
Helen Bannerman, il. Fred Marcellino
1996, Harper & Row; (1899, original edition)
The background: the original title and illustrations of Helen Bannerman's late 19th century tale of a little boy's encounter with tigers was, due to circumstances beyond the control of the author or the children who enjoyed the book, impossible to maintain. 'Sambo' had become a racial slur, and the illustrations made many people uneasy.
In this updating, the story remains, but the characters are given more authentic Indian names, and the illustrations have changed from that slightly scary coarseness of turn-of-the-century cartoons to the soft warmth of Marcellino's watercolors.
About the Author
1862-1946
Bannerman was a Scottish woman who lived for many years in India, where all of her books are clearly set. The offense that surrounds them is due partly to undeniably alarming illustrations in early editions, but part of the problem must be laid at the feet of English writers born prior to 1980 and their habit of calling anyone with more pigmentation than a snowflake 'black,' and the confusion this creates when translated into American.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
A New Year's fairy tale - The Little Match Girl
Fairy tales are, despite their sometimes grim content and often alarming messages, always for children. They're distinctly unsatisfying for adults. Their brevity makes them unsettling. Their action makes them downright scary. They are written as if by children, with that brutal, direct and virtually amoral style that sends a sensible grown-up running away to the relative comforts of Stephen King and Margaret Atwood.
First, a comparison. Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol is a seasonal staple at this time of year. The tale of an embittered miser who becomes the most generous of men through having his eyes opened to the need and potential of others, particularly the poor, is eternally popular in a world which likes to focus on redemption and positive change. The mid-19th century produced many stories of wealth and poverty, love and indifference, as it was a time when the ruthless attitude that poverty was a) inevitable and b) a judgement on the poor was starting to meet resistance.
Two years later, Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen added to the criticism with a very short story about a loveless urchin who curls up on a wintry street corner on New Year's Eve. The Little Match Girl is one the darkest of Andersen's often sad stories. When I first read it as a child, it was my first experience of a fiction in which the hero is not saved, the world is not righted, and despite the warmth and love of the religious message, what lingers is the tragedy.
Despite my fondness for Scrooge, I'm fascinated by Andersen's darker story. Dickens, ever a bully with his paper pulpit, crams redemption down our throats so forcefully that the part of the story most remember with fondness isn't Scrooge the redeemed, but Scrooge the - well, Scrooge. Dickens' story fails on what had to have been the most basic level; he's a portrait of a very particular miser, not a representative of all the harsh, indifferent rich men who turn their backs on their fellow humans. Dickens adored making a point, but he loved writing zany, memorable characters more.
Andersen's story, on the other hand, is of a small child dying in the snow at the Christmas season, dreaming of a stove, food, holiday decorations. Nobody has bought her matches, another urchin has stolen her shoes, her own father will beat her for not bringing home money. It doesn't get more relentless than this. No time-travelling look at the influences of a rich man's poverty of soul, no change of the fate of a poor man's son, no warmth but the promise of fantasy and death. The mood in this short, short story is almost unbearable. And in an entirely different way than A Christmas Carol, it's also succeeded worldwide as a recurring, eternal tale.
It's available online at Online-Literature.com and at HCA.Gilead.org, which also contains a lot of information about Andersen.
Links
Some truly alarming pop culture trivia from Wikipedia
First, a comparison. Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol is a seasonal staple at this time of year. The tale of an embittered miser who becomes the most generous of men through having his eyes opened to the need and potential of others, particularly the poor, is eternally popular in a world which likes to focus on redemption and positive change. The mid-19th century produced many stories of wealth and poverty, love and indifference, as it was a time when the ruthless attitude that poverty was a) inevitable and b) a judgement on the poor was starting to meet resistance.
Two years later, Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen added to the criticism with a very short story about a loveless urchin who curls up on a wintry street corner on New Year's Eve. The Little Match Girl is one the darkest of Andersen's often sad stories. When I first read it as a child, it was my first experience of a fiction in which the hero is not saved, the world is not righted, and despite the warmth and love of the religious message, what lingers is the tragedy.
Despite my fondness for Scrooge, I'm fascinated by Andersen's darker story. Dickens, ever a bully with his paper pulpit, crams redemption down our throats so forcefully that the part of the story most remember with fondness isn't Scrooge the redeemed, but Scrooge the - well, Scrooge. Dickens' story fails on what had to have been the most basic level; he's a portrait of a very particular miser, not a representative of all the harsh, indifferent rich men who turn their backs on their fellow humans. Dickens adored making a point, but he loved writing zany, memorable characters more.
Andersen's story, on the other hand, is of a small child dying in the snow at the Christmas season, dreaming of a stove, food, holiday decorations. Nobody has bought her matches, another urchin has stolen her shoes, her own father will beat her for not bringing home money. It doesn't get more relentless than this. No time-travelling look at the influences of a rich man's poverty of soul, no change of the fate of a poor man's son, no warmth but the promise of fantasy and death. The mood in this short, short story is almost unbearable. And in an entirely different way than A Christmas Carol, it's also succeeded worldwide as a recurring, eternal tale.
It's available online at Online-Literature.com and at HCA.Gilead.org, which also contains a lot of information about Andersen.
Links
Some truly alarming pop culture trivia from Wikipedia
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