My friend Kathi Appelt sent me a book today, Seven Choices: Finding Daylight After Loss Shatters Your World by Elizabeth Harper Neeld, Ph.D. (Warner Books, 1990, 2003).
I was flipping through the book when a chapter titled “Helping Children and Teenagers Deal With Loss” caught my eye. Among the recommended resources is my first novel,
Oh, happy day!
The Planet Esmé Bookroom is a new “private, non-circulating library and literary salon geared toward parents and elementary school teachers is dedicated to the principles found in How to Get Your Child to Love Reading by Esmé Raji Codell.”
It’s located at 2646 West Pratt in Chicago.
I love Esmé!
I generally refrain from cranky-ness as it too often bears no fruit. However, on the subject of celebrity books, I must say that most of the celebrities themselves are in fact unknown to children; the appeal is to parents out of touch with their own young readers. At the very least, these books send the message that quality does not matter.
This week, I’m largely devoting myself to preparing for a class on “Writing The YA Novel” and upcoming talks on “Native American Children’s Literature” and on “Technology and Children’s Literature.” Each of these are wholly customized for the particular audiences and all of them will be augmented by handouts.
I’m also trying to let my WIP rest with some mixed results (on the trying,
The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton, illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon (Knopf, 2004). A picture book edition of one of the 24 stories in Hamilton‘s The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales (1985) featuring breathtaking, heartbreaking, heart soaring illustrations by the Dillons. The text is a poem,
Debbi Michiko Florence writes that she has updated a number of the interviews on her site. Check out the latest news from:
Greg Leitich Smith (that’s my honey!);
Cynthia Leitich Smith (that’s me!).
Mississippi Morning by Ruth Vander Zee, illustrated by Floyd Cooper (Eerdman’s, 2004). James always accepted that blacks and whites couldn’t eat at the same tables or drink from the same fountains, but he’s shocked and horrified when his fishing buddy LeRoy tells him about the misdeeds of the Klan, and even more stricken to see his own father walking home one morning in a white hood and robe.
Sock Monkey Goes To Hollywood: A Star Is Bathed by CeCe Bell (Candlewick, 2003). The good news: Sock Monkey, the famous actor, has been invited to the Oswald Awards; he was nominated for Best Supporting Toy. The bad news: He has to be clean at the event. Stinky soap, icy water, scratchy towels! Whatever will Sock Monkey do?
“People say you should write what you know, and I don’t think that’s true. I think you should write what you can imagine. That ability, that’s what makes you an author.”
— Walter Dean Myers at the Texas Book Festival, Austin 2004
Had a delightful day at the Texas Book Festival with Greg.
Winter’s Gift by Jane Monroe Donovan (Sleeping Bear, 2004). In years past, the old man would celebrate Christmas with his wife, put a star on the top of the tree. But during this year’s holiday blizzard, he decides there is to be no tree, no star, because his wife has recently died. He’s surprised to find a mare that night though,