|
Leonard S.Marcus Children's Book Historian, Author, Critic |
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 The following is a portion of a statement I made on January 27th before the
New York State Assembly Committee on Libraries & Education Technology. It's
my valentine to children's librarians everywhere: Because I write primarily about children's literature, I would like
to speak briefly on behalf of public library service to children. A century ago, public libraries in this country posted signs reading,
"No dogs or children allowed." In the years that followed, American
librarians, including some trained at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute, pioneered
the philosophy and techniques of bringing books and children together in the
friendly atmosphere of a library reading room created specially for them.
The work begun in this way in the 1910s and 20s became a model for public
libraries throughout the world, from London to Tokyo. That is a heritage we
should be proud of. But why is library service to children worth supporting now and in the
future? We hear a lot in the news about children's reading scores. People who
care about these test scores should care about public library service to
children. Children become strong and effective readers by reading books they truly
enjoy. The books they are likeliest to enjoy are the ones that best match
their individual interests and needs.Parents-even highly educated parents--very often do not know what books to choose for their own children. There are many reasons for this. For one thing, more than 4000 new children's books are published in the United States each year. The choices can seem overwhelming. For another, at bookstores today, especially at the chains, parents very often encounter staff who are neither experienced nor knowledgable enough to make informed suggestions. At Parenting magazine, where space is valuable real estate, I am able to review approximately 150 books each year-less than five percent of the total published. And Parenting has one of the strongest commitments to children's literature of any medium I know. The New York Times appears daily but reviews children's books once a month. The Daily News and the New York Post do so, at most, once a year. And how often do you hear children's books discussed on the Tonight Show or the Today Show, unless the author of the book happens also to be a celebrity? Isn't it strange -and sad, really--that it is so much easier to hear the news that American children can't read than it is learn about the very books that would inspire them to read well, if only they and their parents knew about them? In this distorted environment, one group-the children's librarians--have consistently worked to make things better. Librarians very often do know what the right book will be for a given child. And in my experience, librarians are eager to help make that connection. Over the last century, no group in fact has done more to promote literacy in this country than our children's librarians. Their work should be recognized and supported as the contribution to our nation's future that it is. Copyright 2000 by Leonard S. Marcus Contact me |
|
The following is an excerpt from the keynote speech given on May 18th at the
Harvard Club, New York, at the presentation of the 2000 Irma Simonton and
James H. Black Award, sponsored by the Bank Street College of Education:
Margaret Wise Brown never won a prize for her work. It is true that her
long-time collaborator Leonard Weisgard was awarded the Caldecott Medal for
The Little Island, a picture book Brown wrote under the pseudonym of Golden
MacDonald. But the texts of "baby books," as hers were sometimes
dismissively called, were not by and large considered Newbery material. And
it is probably just as telling as it is amusing that Brown got hold one day
of a stash of gold foil Caldecott medallions, and pasted them, one and
sometimes two at a time, onto several of her own unpublished manuscripts.
Brown once said that it had not mattered to her as a child who wrote the
books she read; it only mattered whether or not a book seemed true. At age 8
or 9 or 10, Margaret Wise Brown might have made a very good Irma S. and James
H. Black Award judge. True, though, in what sense of the word? In an article written in 1951
for that year's Book of Knowledge Annual, Brown offered this standard by
which to measure a picture book's success: "A book should try to accomplish something more than just to repeat a
child's own experiences. One would hope rather to make a child laugh or feel
clear and happy-headed as he follows a simple rhythm to its logical end, to
jog him with the unexpected and comfort him with the familiar; and perhaps to
lift him for a few moments from his own problems of shoe laces that won't tie
and busy parents and mysterious clock time into the world of a bug or a bear
or a bee or a boy living in the timeless world of story." Copyright 2000 by Leonard S. Marcus Contact me |
|
The following is an excerpt from a speech given at the opening of the
National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature, Abilene, Texas, on
September 6, 2000: Children will learn a lot here. They will learn that books are made by people-by older, taller versions
of their own naturally bright and curious selves. They will learn that art
doesn't just happen, that it takes work to make a work of art, and that art
work is work worth doing. They will learn that artists make a living that is
also a life-a good lesson for anyone pondering their own future to take home. Children who come here will also be led back to the books from which the
exhibitions are drawn. While grown-ups debate the significance of school
children's reading test scores, this museum will be a place where children
encounter books they absolutely want to read. And by honoring children's book art, this museum says to children that
museums are for them. The museums of my New York childhood were mostly grand
but forbidding places. I learned to whisper and to fade into the
woodwork-while taking care not to touch the woodwork! The warm welcome that
the NCCIL extends to young people will, I predict, serve not only to its own
long-term benefit but also to that of cultural institutions generally. Kids
who have good experiences here will grow up to be tax-payers who support and
prize the arts. The poet W. H. Auden once observed: "There are some good books which are
only for adults, because their comprehension presupposes adult experiences,
but there are no good books which are only for children." I doubt there are
any good museums that are only for children, either. Certainly this one
isn't. The NCCIL is a place where adults and children can come together to
share some of the things they care about in common: stories and pictures too
good to forget, the joy of making something that delights or touches another
person. The NCCIL is a cultural bridge across generations. How appropriate
that this museum's inaugural exhibition presents the work of a father and a
son. Children today live in a harsh and uncompromising world, a world in
which people are always trying to sell them something. In such a world, in
which so many ill-conceived and misleading messages are conveyed in visual
terms, children must learn, as early as possible, that seeing is a thought
process involving evaluation and choice on our part. They must learn that
seeing is something we do not just with our eyes but with our minds and
hearts. To understand the art of the illustrator is to begin to understand
what seeing is really all about. I cannot imagine a better place for
children, or anyone, to learn what they need to know about seeing for
themselves than here. Copyright 2000 by Leonard S. Marcus Contact me |
|
Among other literary
events of note, 2000 saw the 100th anniversary celebration of L. Frank Baum's
fantasy classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the demise of Civilization, a
monthly magazine published in association with the Library of Congress. The
following is a letter published in the April/May 2000 issue of Civilization,
commenting on an article on Baum's Wizard, which appeared in the magazine's
February/March issue:
L. Frank Baum's editorship of The Show Window, the trade journal of the
National Association of Window Trimmers, bears a closer look as a prologue to
Oz. In his editorials for that specialized magazine, Baum allows himself
occasional flights of fancy. In one such piece, he imagines two public
statues coming to life after dark to comment wistfully on the waxwork good
looks of a nearby shop-window mannequin. "She . . . stands there," the first
statue says, "looking straight ahead, like a bird of paradise under the spell
of a serpent's jeweled eye." In two years' time, the author had moved on
from mannequins to the Scarecrow and the Tin Man-more effigies, but this time
engaged in a poignant search for life's basics. Baum was now looking past
the glittering surfaces of things. No wonder his Wizard is exposed in the
end as a flimflam artist with window dressing to spare, but none of the
"goods" that make life meaningful.
--Leonard S. Marcus © 2000 Contact me |
|
Here is the first in an occasional series of articles contributed by visitors
to this site. The writer, Michael N. Geselowitz, PhD., is an historian of
science and is the director of the IEEE History Center, Rutgers University.
I invite all visitors to contact me about articles of comparable length that
they might wish to post in this space in future months. |
| The Wizard of Menlo Park Meets The Wizard of Oz |
|
The year 2000 was the centennial of one of the enduring classics of
American - and perhaps global - children's literature, The Wizard of Oz, by L.
Frank Baum (1856-1919). Baum, universally recognized as one of the giants
among the writers of juvenile fiction, went on to write 13 sequels (the
last published posthumously). The Oz series spawned numerous official and
unofficial continuations, various stage versions, and several film
adaptations, including the 1939 Judy Garland classic that caused The Wizard
of Oz to be forever part of popular culture. Although not as widely
celebrated, last year also marked another centennial?that of Thomas
Edison's patent for mass production of the phonograph cylinder, the
invention that had earlier launched his reputation as the great inventor of
his day.What these two men had in common might not be clear, because lost in the
hoopla surrounding the anniversary celebrations for The Wizard of Oz is the
fact that this year - 2001 - is the centennial of another book by Baum, The
Master Key: An Electrical Fairy Tale Founded Upon the Mysteries of
Electricity and the Optimism of Its Devotees. It Was Written for Boys But
Others May Read It. Although one of his more obscure works, The Master Key
may, as its subtitle suggests, relate to Edison - and we will see that it
does! - and it may be of particular interest to Today's Engineer readers (of
all genders!).Baum's title suggests a work of science fiction and, it turns out, many
current engineers were fans of science fiction in their youth. In the 20th
century, juvenile science fiction had a role to play in introducing
youngsters to the concepts of science and technology, and to notions of
technological process, both good and bad, but very often good. For
example, in 1910 Victor Appleton (originally the pen name for Howard Roger
Garis, 1873-1962) began his famous Tom Swift series by publishing the first
five volumes about the boy inventor and, respectively, his motorcycle,
motorboat, airship, submarine, and, finally, electric runabout. Such works
enabled children, mainly young boys in the first half of the century, to
dream of becoming electrical inventors and scientists. Although often
overlooked because of Baum's reputation as a practitioner of fantasy and
"the literary fairy tale," The Master Key was an important early link in
the development of this genre.Published in 1901 just a year after The Wizard of Oz, but before the scope
of Wizard's success had fully sunk in, The Master Key is a fable about a
young lad who experiments with electrical science and accidentally summons
up the "Demon of Electricity" who reveals to him the potential benefits - and
risks - of society turning to electricity for its source of energy. Mark
Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910) had already speculated, in A
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889), on what would happen if a
modern man brought knowledge of electricity and other engineering skills to
the Dark Ages. Baum, however, was perhaps the first to speculate
specifically not just on what electricity was doing, but what it might do,
in a more technically detailed way than even his contemporaries Jules Verne
(1828-1905) or H. G. Wells (1866-1946).Perhaps the most telling scene is right near the beginning, when the
"Demon" appears to the protagonist and claims to bring knowledge of
electricity to humankind. The lad protests that Edison and Tesla already
possess such knowledge, but in an exchange quite amusing to the modern
engineer, the Demon dismisses our still iconic hero-inventors as
ignoramuses. This seems an intentional tweaking of popular perception.
Edison's reputation as "The Wizard of Menlo Park" did not escape Baum's
notice, and the fact that "The Wizard of Oz" is an "old Kansas Man" who
uses chicanery and technology to acquire his new position "over the
rainbow" shows that Baum's interest in engineering and engineers was not
limited to The Master Key.The Demon then introduces the boy to what he says are the true marvels of
electricity, including a magnetic levitation device and an electric stun
ray. This column will not say more, because you may want to discover the
joys of this book for yourself. It should be fascinating and amusing to
anyone interested in electrical science and engineering today, as well as
in their history, and readers will enjoy learning of the Demon's gifts and
thinking about their relationship to current electrical engineering
practice. Fortunately, The Master Key is still available, thanks to a 1976
reprint edition by Dover Publications, and should be obtainable through a
bookshop or on-line book dealer. Copyright 2001, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |
|
The following is the introductory talk I gave
at the ALA/CBC-sponsored program "The Story Behind the Poem," which took
place in San Francisco, as part of the American Library Association
convention, on June 18, 2001. |
|
It took someone with a special sense of humor to choose April, the
"cruelest month" of T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land," to be our National Poetry
Month. I don't know for sure what if any comment was intended by the choice.
But it has certainly been great to see the extent to which publishers,
librarians, teachers, and booksellers have grabbed hold of the event as a
chance to look for new ways of bringing poetry and children together. Now
here we are in the middle of June and the search goes on. Marianne Moore, while shrewdly claiming to dislike it, praised poetry
as a "place for the genuine." Poets are people who ask to be taken at their
word. Children generally ask the same of us as well as of themselves, and so
there would seem be some basic connection to be made between poetry and young
people.There are probably as many ways to help make that connection as there
are ways of discouraging it, however unwittingly, from ever being made. I
wonder how many of you here can remember the first time someone read you a
poem, or the first time that you read a poem to yourself. I can't. But I do
remember the first time I wrote a poem. I was in the second grade and, as
one of the three slowest readers in my class, was having weekly sessions with
my school's remedial reading teacher, a Miss Dawson. I'm not sure how I
decided this, but I somehow did decide that I needed to show this patient,
kindly teacher in the blue polka dot dress that words mattered very much to
me, even if I couldn't - or preferred not to- read them quickly. The proof I
offered up took the form of a poem. Miss Dawson responded in the best way
imaginable: by thanking me for the poem I had written and then asking me if I
might like to write another.You may find it amusing, as I do, to imagine the time that T. S. Eliot
had Groucho Marx over for dinner. Eliot was a life - long Marx Brothers fan,
and the two men had been corresponding for years, with Groucho for the most
part getting the better of "T. S.," as he blithely addressed the Great Man
when he did not simply call him "Tom" - with regards to "Mrs. Tom." On
meeting, however, at the poet's London home, in June 1964, it was Marx who
felt a bit tongue-tied. And when, after a lull in the conversation, Groucho
remarked that his daughter's class at Beverly High was studying "The Love
Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," Eliot smiled faintly, and said in response that
he was sorry to hear about it, because he had never wanted to become required
reading.If only writing and reading were as easy breathing out and breathing in.
Both are in fact unnatural acts from which, if we are at all lucky, we learn
over time to find enjoyment and even great joy.This afternoon, five poets who have published work for young readers
will take turns reading one of their poems and telling us, in whatever ways
they can or care to, how that poem came to be written. I have a strong
feeling that a part of that process can never be explained. "A poet's
words," as Wallace Stevens observed, "are of things that do not exist without
the words." What other words, then, could possibly account for those that
have come together, so compellingly and in such unique fashion, as verse?So often in the classroom and perhaps elsewhere it's in the search from
those other words that the poem itself is lost. The search, for instance,
for light imagery in Book Four of Paradise Lost. Even so, we humans are
talkers by inclination as well as by design. And I feel fairly sure that if
dolphins have a highly evolved language of their own, that they too not only
create something that we would recognize as verse, but that they also take
time out, now and then, from their watery grind to discuss its fine points.
So, one good question for us to ask today might be: What are some ways to
talk about poetry that can add to a reader's, and especially a young
reader's, experience of it?After we've heard from all five poets, there will be time for questions
and comments from you. Please don't be shy; I know you won't. And here is one last thought. In a world littered with words stretched
and bent out of shape for the sake of selling us something, the heat - seeking
honesty and amazing grace of the poet's words are more valuable than ever,
and perhaps more so for young people than for anyone else. -Leonard S. Marcus |
|
What Does A Book Designer Do? A Conversation with Claire Counihan |
|
Claire Counihan has over 28 years' experience as a book designer. She
received a degree in Book Arts from Pratt Institute, reasoning, she reports,
that going into publishing would get her "LOTS of free books." In the
children's book field, she has worked with E. P. Dutton, Dodd, Mead,
Scholastic, Morrow, and the small, delightful Holiday House. She designed A
Caldecott Celebration and Side by Side, both published by Walker. Claire
lives in a small brick house in Greenwich Village, with two large cats and an
even larger number of books. Leonard S. Marcus: What, exactly, does a book designer do? Claire Counihan: A book designer takes the "raw material" of a manuscript and visually organizes the information for a reader, turning it into the recognizable form of a book. How do you get started? In the beginning is the word, which for the book designer means a manuscript. A manuscript comes to the designer having been written by the author, edited by the editor, copyedited by someone wise in the ways of punctuation and spelling, and keyboarded and saved onto a floppy disk. I start by reading the manuscript to get a feeling of the content. And I ask myself how graphically to present this copy to give the reader a subliminal feeling of the text. That subtle and basic goal, I find, is best achieved through the choice and arrangement of type. Let's talk about type. Why do you select one type over another? In speculating about what style and size of type to use, I first consider who will be reading the book. The typeface chosen should be appropriate to the age and reading skills of its audience. For a young picture book, for instance, the type should be large with simple forms, but not so large that it dominates the illustration. And the type should not be so eccentric that a young reader would have trouble recognizing the letters. The typeface for an illustrated chapter book would be smaller but still have a generous amount of space, or "leading" between lines. (The term leading goes back to the early days of printing when a piece of lead would separate lines of type.) And for a young adult book, the text treatment would essentially be the same as for an adult novel. For Side by Side, I chose a contemporary computerized reworking of a classic fifteenth-century metal typeface called Garamond. The version I used, called Adobe Garamond, is an easily readable face that complements artwork well. Side by Side is filled with sketches and final art by five artists with highly distinctive styles. I wanted the type to provide a neutral complement or "side dish" to their varied styles and images. I chose the display typeface, Pixie, for its playful, happy look. Children's-book design can be a lot of fun and this type gave a whimsical counterpoint to the classic, elegant typography of the text. What role do computers play in your work? When I began in publishing, type was set in metal. Designers pasted copies of the art and the text type onto a board called a "mechanical." The designer chose what size and style he or she wanted for the copy from a limited selection, then wrote the specifications on the manuscript and sent it to the type shop to be set. Now I am the designer and the typesetter, and the design choices available to me are as great as my patience coupled with my imagination. What are some of the problems you face as a book designer? How do you go about solving them? Having limitless possibilities can be overwhelming. For the very reason that it's so easy to change things, designers sometimes change and change and change their work, until time finally runs out. A project that would have been impossible without the computer was the jacket design for A Caldecott Celebration. The problem for me was how to feature the jackets and illustrators of six Caldecott-winning books attractively and equally. After four or five unsuccessful design efforts, I had a brainstorm. By reducing the book jackets of each of the six featured books to miniature postage-stamp size, placing the illustrators' names in multicolored boxes of about the same size, and creating a repeating allover pattern from these elements, I was able to create a striking quilt-like design. From a distance, the effect was of an elegant visual pattern while up close the subject and contents of the book were immediately apparent. Without the help of a computer, it would have been impossible to make up the tiny grid with its many small rectangles all precisely angled, or to experiment with a variety of different colors until harmony was achieved. Oh, one other problem. As designer and typesetter, I personally make all text corrections when the author rewrites a passage or sends in additional text at the last minute. Sometimes this task can seem endless! What do you like best about your work? I love to read, and reading is basic to my work. But what I like best is the pleasure and satisfaction that comes from making a beautiful, readable book. I hope my work gives readers a subtle sense of pleasure as well, as they open a book I have designed and begin to get caught up in the writer's words. Interview with Claire Counihan by Leonard S. Marcus |
|
I wrote the following essay in conjunction with the first major exhibition of the art of Fred Marcellino, presented
by the Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA,
from November 9, 2002 to January 26, 2003: High drama and high jinks, worldliness and wonder
freely share center stage in Fred Marcellino's graphically adventurous,
exquisitely layered children's book art. In the six picture books and three longer
fantasies he completed before his untimely death, Marcellino worked his magic both on
classic and contemporary texts, holding each one up to the light of a searching and deeply playful imagination. Marcellino's illustrations bristle with beguiling would-be contradictions. Stylish and earthy, tender and brash, archly sophisticated and unapologetically silly, they give due and loving attention to naturalistic and period detail while also rejoicing in the quicksilver surfaces of things. Marcellino's cats are cats and rats are rats. But they, like all of his subjects, also play their part in an overarching human comedy, a grand pageant of tricksters, lovers, devils, and fools. Taking their measure was a challenge Marcellino relished. He began his children's book career during the 1980s, a time when advances in color printing technology, an expanding book market, and the art world's ripening appreciation of illustration combined to produce a great burst of creative energy in the field. In the maverick tradition of Randolph Caldecott and Maurice Sendak, Marcellino embraced the picture book as a kinetic art form worthy of rigorous exploration and children's literature as a true literature that offered designer-illustrators the freedom to create a work that was a world-in-itself. Nine imperishable books came of the effort. |
|
The following is my gallery guide mini-essay for the current
(fall 2003) exhibition of the art of Peter Sís, on view at the National Center for
Children's Illustrated Literature, in Abilene, TX: A spirit of discovery and old-world devotion to craft characterize the luminous picture-book art of Peter Sís. Sís speaks to us in part in a private language of glyph-like signs and symbols that layer his work with a beguiling atmosphere of strangeness and mystery. His more complex drawings, such as those for Starry Messenger (1996), Tibet: Through the Red Box (1998), The Three Golden Keys (2001), and The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin (2003), have the force of revelations, offering up glimpses of unsuspected realms hovering just beneath the surfaces of things. Not surprisingly, ambitious travel is a frequent theme of this émigré artist, whether the destination be the icy reaches explored in A Small Tall Tale From the Far Far North (2001); the remote tropical island of Komodo! (1993); the "new" continent limned in Follow the Dream: The Story of Christopher Columbus (1991); or, as in Madlenka (2000), a single city block as explored by an inquisitive child. Meanwhile, Sís' "young" books, such as Fire Truck (1998) and Ship Ahoy! (1999), show that where a child's own imagination is concerned, home is as good a place as any in which to experience life's mysteries, and its fun. |
|
- Speaking of inspiration . . . : Inspiration or the promise of it comes in many forms, and some forms make a lot more sense to me than others. Waiting for lightning to strike, for instance, has never struck me as a very sensible plan. But I have never forgotten the comment of the later composer John Cage, who once remarked: "If you don't know what to do next, do something boring and ideas will flock to you like birds." - Enormous changes at not quite the last minute: my book, originally called Fantasy Author Talk and scheduled for publication by Simon and Schuster in the fall of 2004, has morphed and migrated to Candlewick Press, and will now be published in the fall of 2005 as The Wand in the Word: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy. Among the writers heard from in this collection are Madeleine L'Engle, Susan Cooper, Philip Pullman, Terry Pratchett, Jane Yolen, Lloyd Alexander and Diana Wynne Jones. There are 13 interviews in all. - A few things to watch for: The Robert McCloskey Treasury, with an introductory essay by me, this fall (Viking); a picture book co-written and illustrated by my wife Amy Schwartz, next fall (HarperCollins); an exhibition I will be guest curating next spring at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, in Amherst, MA., called "The Picture Book Made New: Margaret Wise Brown and Her Illustrators." - A website worth exploring is that of the International Children's Digital Library www.jcdlbooks.org featuring a growing number of complete picture books in digital form, from around the world. - And here is a quote for anyone who has ever pondered the true nature of nonfiction: "The facts never speak for themselves." - Jacques Barzun - Storied City Walking Tours of New York: if you and up to twenty friends and colleagues are interested in the possibility of arranging a children's book walking tour of historic Greenwich Village,please contact me about dates and charges at leonardsma@aol.com |
|
The following is taken from the gallery guide for the exhibition "Angels to Ogres: The Art of Paul O. Zelinsky," now at the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature," Abilene, TX: Bravura artistry and a childlike sense of fun find common ground in the wide-ranging, superbly realized illustration art of Paul O. Zelinsky. As an illustrator in the classical tradition, Zelinsky approaches each text as an occasion calling for a unique visual response carried out in the style and format most appropriate to it. Working as needed in watercolor, oils, pen-and-ink, or (as in Doddler Doodling) with computer-scanned graphics, he thrives on wrestling down complication whether met in the form of the behind-the-scenes mechanics of paper-engineered books such as The Wheels on the Bus and Knick-Knack Paddy-Wack; the picture-maze required for The Maid and the Mouse and the Odd-Shaped House; or the high standard of historical authenticity set for books as varied as E. Nesbit's Five Children and It and the Caldecott Medal-winner Rapunzel. The black-line drawings of Dear Mr. Henshaw exemplify the power of illustration to serve as a calm and clarifying way station for readers traversing the jagged terrain of an emotionally complex story. Worlds away, the ten little "moveable" men of Knick-Knack Paddywhack roll down the hill for the sheer and uproarious fun of it. Yet a rhapsodic intensity sweeps through even the blithest of these images, whether the subject happens to be Jack Prelutsky's archly disagreeable Awful Ogre, Anne Isaacs' wild and woolly Swamp Angel, or people like us. As Zelinsky shows readers time and again, as comically odd as life often proves to be, it is still more wonderful. |
- Children's Literature 2000 conference, featured speaker -(Contact: 614-463-1234) |
February | |
| 10-12 |
-issue -features excerpts from the forthcoming book AUTHOR TALK -(Simon & Schuster, August 2000) |
February | |
| 14 |
-book tour presentation and signing, 5-6:30 pm -(6115 15th NW; tel 206-789-5006) |
February | |
| 27 |
-presentation and signing, 5-6:30 pm -(6115 15th NW; tel 206-789-5006) |
February | |
| 28 |
-(1378 Lincoln Avenue; tel: 408-292-8880) February |
| |
| 29 |
-book tour luncheon, presentation, and signing,11:30 am-1 pm -(409 Railroad Avenue,Danville, CA 94526; tel: 925-837-7337) |
March | |
| 01 |
-book tour presentation and signing, 6-7:30 pm -(3910 24th Street; tel 415-282-8080) |
March | |
| 01 |
-paperback edition book tour presentation and signing, -3:30-4:30 pm -(2424 Huntington Drive, San Marino, CA 91108; -tel: 626-309-0222) |
March | |
| 02 |
-paperback edition book tour presentation and signing, -4-5:30 pm -(1030 Bonita Avenue, La Verne, CA 91750; tel: 909-599-4558) |
March | |
| 03 |
-paperback book tour presentation and signing, 4-5:30 pm -(2904 Prince William Parkway, Woodbridge, VA 22192; -tel: 703-680-0010) |
March | |
| 04 |
-paperback edition book tour slide lecture and signing, 2-4 pm -(8005 Connecticut Avenue, Chevy Chase, MD 20815) |
March | |
| 05 |
-paperback edition book tour presentation and signing, -6-7:30 pm -(610 West 112th Street; tel: 212-678-1654) |
March | |
| 07 |
-Library Association, will feature an article entitled, -"Correspondence Course; or, What I Learned from Editing -Ursula Nordstrom's Letters" |
May | |
| 01 |
-speaker at this children's book award ceremony sponsored by -the Bank Street College of Education -(For information, Contact: Bank Street College Library - tel: 212-875-4400) |
May | |
| 18 |
-Keynote speaker at the French National Library -(For information, Contact: La Joie par les livres -tel:011-33-1-48-87-61-95) |
May | |
| 23 |
-Dinner speaker at this day-long conference. -(For information, Contact: Erzsi Deak -tel: 011-33-1-42-73-33-75) |
May | |
| 27 |
-Speaker at an afternoon event in honor of the Mazza Collection -at Findlay College. -(113 West 60th Street; Contact: Bobbye S. Goldstein -tel: 212-873-1339) |
June | |
| 22 |
| July | ||
| 06 |
-"Through the Artist's Eye," Chicago Art Institute, luncheon -speaker at this program and workshop on the art of the picture -book. (For information, Contact: ALSC office tel: 800-545-2433) |
July | |
| 07 |
-Lehrer." Discussion of the Harry Potter phenomenon -with Ray Suarez |
July | |
| 10 |
-of Writing." -Teachers' College, Columbia University. Afternoon lecturer. -(Horace Mann Auditorium, corner of West 120th Street -and Broadway. Contact: Dr. Lucy Calkins tel: 212-678-3931) |
July | |
| 17 |
-Evening reception for Author Talk. -(Corner of 112th Street and Broadway. -Contact: Beth Puffer tel:212-875-4400) |
July | |
| 17 |
- See also: Books for Young Readers. |
August | |
| 01 |
-Library recording of Frenchtown Summer |
August | |
| 01 |
-Release of 2000 Not just for Children Anymore |
August | |
| 01 |
-Keynote speaker at the opening of this new museum -devoted to children's book art. -(Contact: Becky MacDonald e-mail:beckymcd@camalott.com |
Sept. | |
| 05-07 |
-Conversation with Tom Bodett about A Caldecott Celebration. -(For information and archived transcript: -www.looseleafbookcompany.com) |
October | |
| 02 |
-Review of The Boy of a Thousand Faces by Brian Selznick -(For transcript and audio, go to Archive, "Monster" program: -www.looseleafbookcompany.com) |
October | |
| 23 |
-WNYE-FM (91.5), 12:00-12:30 pm. |
October | |
| 24 and 26 |
-Go to www.MySimon.com November |
| |
| 06 |
-Conversation with Tom Bodett about Margaret Wise Brown: -Awakened by the Moon. -(for transcript and audio, go to Archive, "History of Children's -Books" program: www.looseleafbookcompany.com) November |
| |
| 13 |
-Go to www.MySimon.com November |
| |
| 14 |
-Review of Little Lit, edited by Art Spiegelman -and Francoise Mouly November |
| |
| 19 |
-Comments on celebrity picture books by Jamie Lee Curtis, John -Lithgow, and others. -(For transcript and audio, go to Archive, "Fame" program: - www.looseleafbookcompany.com) November |
| |
| 27 |
-as part of the Listening Library recording of The Bad Beginning |
December | |
| 01 |
-exellence in children's literature. |
December | |
| 01 |
-Nathalie op de Beeck. |
December | |
| 01 |
-Comments on Eleanor Estes's The Hundred Dresses -(For transcript and audio, go to Archive, "Who Am I?" program: -www.looseleafbookcompany.com) |
December | |
| 04 |
-Talk on children's book publishing today. -(For information, contact Gitta Raffelsbauer: -Wwinst@aol.com) |
January | |
| 11 |
-New York Public Library (20 West 53rd Street). -Noon time brown-bag lunch talk for parents on choosing books -for your children. -(For information, contact Leslie Fass: -lfass@nypl.org) |
January | |
| 16 |
-January luncheon speaker. -(For information, contact Peggy Jackson: -Peggyjack@aol.com) |
January | |
| 25 |
-"The Florence Morrison Show" (1 a.m.). -Conversation about Author Talk. |
February | |
| 05 |
-"The Florence Morrison Show" (1 a.m.). -Conversation about Author Talk, continued. |
February | |
| 12 |
-begin. |
February | |
| 15 |
-picture book Harbor |
February | |
| 15 |
-"The Florence Morrison Show" (1 a.m.). -Conversation about Author Talk, continued. |
February | |
| 19 |
-Central Children's Room, New York Public Library, on choosing -books for your children. -Airtimes: 8 a.m. and 12 noon Eastern Time. |
February | |
| 24 |
-Princeton University, on children's books about New York City. -Time: 3-4 p.m. -(For information, contact Bonnie Bernstein: tel 609 258-2697; -e-mail: bonnieb@princeton.edu) |
February | |
| 24 |
-"The Florence Morrison Show" (1 a.m.). -Conversation about Author Talk, continued. |
February | |
| 26 |
-Talk about Ursula Nordstrom and Margaret Wise Brown -at an evening sponsored by the University of Tennessee Library -Friends. (For information, contact Jinx Stapleton Watson: -jinx-watson@utk.edu) |
February | |
| 27 |
-Randolph Caldecott and the Art of the Picture Book," based on -a talk given at the ALA pre-conference, held at the Art Institute -of Chicago, on July 7, 2000. |
March | |
| 01 |
-illustrated by Emilie Chollat (Scholastic) |
March | |
| 05 |
-Collegiate Institute about A Caldecott Celebration. -(For information, contact Carol Schulhof: 718 250-0244) |
March | |
| 06 |
-Sendak and William Steig on "The Loose Leaf Book Company". -(For local station listings and airtimes, look for the -"Imprisonment" program at:www.looseleafbookcompany.com) |
March | |
| 12-18 |
-Nordstrom at the San Diego State University -(For information, contact June Cummins: -jcummins@mail.sdsu.edu) |
March | |
| 28 |
-Frank; illustrated by Tom Pohrt (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) |
April | |
| 05 |
-Jack Keats New Writer and New Illustrator Awards, at 5 p.m., -at the New York Public Library Early Childhood Resource and -Information Center (66 Leroy Street; for information, -call 212 929-0815, or E-mail rpayne@nypl.org) |
April | |
| 26 |
| May | ||
| 03 |
-(For information, contact Ellen Yeomans: YeomansE@aol.com) |
May | |
| 19 |
-American Library Association convention, on poetry for children, -from 2-4 p.m. -(For information, contact the Children's Book Council: -212 966-1990 or visit their web site at www.cbcbooks.org) |
June | |
| 18 |
-and her illustrators, at the City of Coronado Public Library -(640 Orange Avenue; for information contact Christian R. -Esquevin, Director of Library Services: tel 619 522-7393) |
June | |
| 20 |
-the Bank Street "New Perspectives" retreat on literature for the -young child. Bank Street College of Education -(610 West 112th Street; for information, contact -Mary Kocy:212 304-2053) |
July | |
| 16 |
-Conversation about Author Talk. |
August | |
| 06 |
-Conversation about Author Talk,continued. |
August | |
| 13 |
-Conversation about Side by Side. |
August | |
| 20 |
-Conversation about Side by Side,continued. |
August | |
| 27 |
-with an introduction by Leonard S. Marcus (Houghton Mifflin). |
September | |
| 01 |
-with an introduction by Leonard S. Marcus (Viking). |
September | |
| 01 |
-with an introduction by Leonard S. Marcus (Clarion). |
September | |
| 01 |
-Evanston, Illinois, from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. -(For information, contact Junko Yokota:jyokota@nl.edu) |
September | |
| 28 |
-at Dominican University, River Forest, IL. -(For information, contact Lisa Cinelli:LisaCinelli@aol.com) |
September | |
| 29 |
-Boston Globe/Horn Book Awards, at the New England Library -Association annual convention. (For informaton, contact Anne E. -Quirk: tel 617 628-0225) |
October | |
| 01 |
-with an introduction by Leonard S. Marcus (Golden). |
October | |
| 01 |
-National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature, -as part the day-long program "Picture Book Magic: A Celebration of Children's Illustrated Literature," -also featuring Robert Sabuda and Betty Carter. -(For information, contact Becky McDonald:beckymcd@camalott.com) |
October | |
| 13 |
| October | ||
| 15 |
-Conversation with Brian Lehrer about E. B. White (10:05-10:20 a.m.) |
October | |
| 29 |
-preconference of the National Association for the Education of Young Children -(NAEYC) annual convention. -(For information, contact Isabel Baker:bookvine@bookvine.com) |
October | |
| 31 |
-Bank Street Bookstore (610 West 112th Street), from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. -(For information, contact Susan Fallon:sfallon@walkerbooks.com) |
November | |
| 08 |
-6:40-6:50 a.m., WPHM-AM (Detroit), "Morning Show"; -7:40-7:50 a.m., WAAM-AM (Ann Arbor), "Morning Show"; -7:50-8:00 a.m., WAMC-FM (NPR, New England), "The Round Table"; -8:00-8:10 a.m., ABC Radio (national), "Bob & Lori Show"; -8:10-8:20 a.m., WTBQ-FM (regional New York), "Morning Show"; -8:40-8:45 a.m., KFMO-AM (Missouri), "Morning Show"; -9:30-9:45 a.m., RADIO AMERICA (national), "Good Day USA"; -9:45-9:55 a.m., RADIO CHANNEL NETWORKS (national), "CRN LIVE"; -10:30-10:40 a.m., WZYX-AM (Nashville), "Morning Show"; -10:40-10:45 a.m., WKIP-AM/WHUC-AM/WRNQ-FM/WTHN-FM (Hudson Valley, New York), "Morning News"; -10:45-11:00 a.m., INTERNATONAL VOICE OF AMERICA, "Book World"; -11:00-11:10 a.m., KJFF-AM (St. Louis), "PM Magazine"; -11:30-11:40 a.m., INTERNET, "Good News Broadcast"; -11:50 a.m.-12:00 p.m., KRES-FM (Kansas City), "Morning Show" |
November | |
| 09 |
-on "The Loose Leaf Book Company." -(For local station listings and air times, seewww.looseleafbookcompany.com) |
November | |
| 12-18 |
-7:40-7:50 a.m., WPHM-AM (Detroit), "Morning Show"; -8:45-8:55 a.m., WKMI-AM (Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo), "Morning Show"; -9:05-9:15 a.m., KBEM-FM, "Morning Show." |
November | |
| 13 |
-published by Walker and Company. |
November | |
| 15 |
-A talk for parents about children's books for the holidays. -(For information, contact Susan Banks Tetterton: tel 718 246-4158; e-mail CRM2965@bn.com) November |
| |
| 28 |
-in children's literature, in December 2001/January 2002 issue of Parenting. |
December | |
| 01 |
| January |
| |
| 01 |
-Astrid Lindgren, 11:40 a.m., at 820 AM. January |
| |
| 29 |
-panel discussion at the 2002 Ohio State University Children's -Literature Conference. -(For information, contact Roy Wilson: 614 292-7902; email: wilson.418@osu.edu) |
February | |
| 14-16 |
-Conversation about Side by Side. |
February | |
| 18 |
-Conversation about Side by Side continued. |
February | |
| 25 |
-of Southeastern New York (SLMSSENY) program, at the Holiday Inn, Fishkill, NY. -Rain date: March 18. -(For information, contact Susan Ryhanen: susan@creeksidesoaps.com) |
March | |
| 11 |
-publishing at the Children's Literature Council of Southern California spring 2002 workshop. -(For information, contact Melinda K. Steep: msteep@earthlink.net) |
March | |
| 23 |
-Council conference (Radisson Hotel, 100 Berlin Road, Cromwell, Ct. 06416; for information -contact Sheila Wartel: 203 288-5757; email office@sclc.org) |
April | |
| 17 |
-Montgomery College Celebration of Children's Literatuere. -(For information, contact Kathie Meizner: 301 986-4315;email meiznk@mail.mont.lib.md.us) |
April | |
| 20 |
-Forum of the New York Public Library (Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street), at 6:30 p.m. -(Tickets required; for information, contact: Betsy Bradley: 212 930-0718; -email ebradley@nypl.org) |
April | |
| 22 |
-Presentations to second - and third - grade classes at the Brooklyn Children's Museum, -11 a.m.-1 p.m. -(For information, contact: Dina Sherman: 718 735-4427) |
April | |
| 26 |
-Discussion of the theme of revenge in children's books. -Program airs Saturday, the 4th, at 10 a.m. on 93.9FM -and Sunday, the 5th, at 7 p.m. on AM820. -(For information:"http://www.wnyc.org" "http://www.studio360.org") |
May | |
| 04-05 |
-"The Florence Morrison Show": Conversation about Side by Side. |
May | |
| 20 |
-"The Florence Morrison Show": Conversation about Side by Side, continued |
May | |
| 27 |
-for Ways of Telling: Conversations on the Art of the Picture Book, -at the Penguin Putnam booth (#2215-2216), 9 a.m.-10 a.m. |
June | |
| 16 |
-for Side by Side, at the Walker booth (#1825), 11 a.m.-noon. |
June | |
| 16 |