Children's Choices Book Awards

There are three more days remaining in Children's Book Week. Travel to the CBC site to see all the fantastic things that happened in the past week to celebrate books, reading, and children.

One of the highlights of the week was the first annual Children's Choices Book Awards. The children are no longer just seen, they have spoken and they say they like books.
Especially these ones:




Frankie Stein by Lola M. Schaefer - honorary Charlesbridgian, though we no longer have her book.




Big Cats by Elaine Landau, author of Popcorn.




Encyclopedia Horrifica by Joshua Gee, a book we would have totally stolen from the library when we were in fifth grade.




Ian Falconer was voted Illustrator of the Year.





And, underdog J.K. Rowling was voted Author of the Year.




Perhaps not the best part of a trip to New York City to celebrate great books and our privilege to publish them, but certainly a close second, was getting to stay at the Ye Olde Carlton Arms Hotel. Forget the money because it's wicked cheap. It's cheap for Kansas, let alone New York City, but you want to go for the funky, fresh art. Every inch of the joint is covered in paint lovingly applied by the hand of an Artiste. While my travel companion's room was beautiful, it did not whisper 'sweet dreams' in my subconscious. Still, it was clean, it had it's own bathroom, and it was original. At Charlesbridge we appreciate the original (which explains Jerry Pallotta).

On the other hand, my room was a beautiful Chagallian dreamscape of floating, rapturous lovelies pointing the way to Heaven and the sleep of the innocent. The woman yelling for attention on 6th Avenue at 3:00 AM was in juxtaposition to my idyllic wonderland.

All in all, I would gladly return to NYC for the Children's Choices Book Awards next year. The tiny tacos were awesome!

Posted by Donna

Finding Ideas

One of the questions I’m often asked as a writer is where I find my ideas. For me, there are several answers to that question. Frequently ideas come to me in dreams. Sometimes I take them from situations in my real life. And, quite a few ideas have actually come from kids.

Once I had a dream about a redwood forest. In the dream, there was a gold band with words in big, black block letters, “THIS IS A NOVEL”. I woke up, wrote the dream down, and thought, “Wow!” Two years later, it really was a novel about a woman determined to save ancient redwood trees. I was very excited. My dream had come true.

Sure that it was brilliant, I sent my novel out to quite a few publishers. Unfortunately, they weren’t quite as excited about it as I was. So I went back to the drawing board and rewrote Painted Forest a few more times. This time the responses were more favorable. Although it was not accepted for publication, many people suggested that it would make a great movie. Not to be deterred by a mere few hundred rejections, I rewrote it as a screenplay. A movie producer read it and said she might be interested if I’d rewrite the entire story again from page one. I did, and now Saving Stella is being seriously considered for production.

Real life inspired Princess Justina Albertina. I have two pet crazy kids. Sometimes it feels like I live in a zoo. There’s a hamster living right beside my computer, a co-dependent dog with abandonment issues following me around all day, a cat nipping my toes as I type, a horse that always seems to need more hay, and bunnies breeding out back. In a fit of pique, I sat down and wrote a story as joke, Katie Justina Albertina Smith Wanted a New Pet. That was the beginning of the dozens of versions that led to the story Princess Justina Albertina. In one version, the gryphon swallows the bratty kid but she makes such a ruckus and a rumpus inside his belly that the gryphon gets a tummy-ache and throws her back up. One thing I’ve learned from having to rewrite everything so many times is that there are a zillion different ways to tell any story.

And kids seem to know lots of them. While writing my novel, Stolen Voices, I was teaching 7^th and 8^th graders creative writing. Whenever I finished a chapter, I’d bring it in to share. The kids offered so many great suggestions about how to tell the story that I probably received enough ideas to write ten novels. Some of their tidbits fit Stolen Voices perfectly, and I used them.

Ideas seem to be just about everywhere. I don’t have time to develop all of them, especially now that I’ve finally resigned myself to the fact that my first draft probably won’t be brilliant. I know that I’m going to be working with the ideas I choose for a long, long time. I’ve learned that, for me, the challenge is to pick which ideas to write about.

Posted by Ellen Dee Davidson, author of Princess Justina Albertina.

News from Robin Brickman

On April 16 and 17, I visited the Sewickley Academy, in Sewickely, PA, to present my Community Mural workshops to students in the Lower School. I taught Pre-K and Kindergarten students how to cut, color, and shape paper into butterflies, leaves, ants, and feathers. Then we assembled the art into a "Wings" mural at the school. Grades 1-3 created a Log's Life Community Mural, also following Robin's unique sculpted paper technique. They researched plants and animals in a northeast forest. Everyone is delighted with the murals, and my ability to teach some special art skills and a little biology to students this young.

While I was in Pennsylvania, I was asked by my hosts when I would find out if my painting from WINGS, "Green Darner and Pitcher Plant" won a purchase prize from the Focus On Nature X juried show. The show was opening at the same time and they were familiar with this painting's inclusion in the show. Also, they were certain I had a very good chance of winning this! Well, I figured they were being very polite and supportive, and I love them for that, but their opinion was not based on much evidence. After all, this is an international show, with amazing art! I have had my art included in a Focus On Nature show three years before and I know that the quality is extraordinarily high.

Well, I kept telling everyone that I really wasn't thinking about it!
And in order to keep my ego protected, I tried to forget about it.

I did check my e-mail the night the announcement was made in Albany, NY. No messages. I checked that morning, too; nothing. That was fine, just as I expected, really. When I arrived back home to Massachusetts, I had quietly concluded that I didn't win any award, and found a message on my phone machine telling me that I did indeed
win! I'm really happy, and of course: it's a winning painting!

To, be fair, there are over a dozen artists who won purchase awards from the FON X show this year, and I understand that over 13 countries are represented. I haven't seen the show, yet, but it is an easy hours drive so I can visit it very soon.

To me, one of the best parts of being a book illustrator has been working with students and educators in school visits all over the country. I love showing people how to create their own natural science art. Besides, I've been an illustrator for over thirty years and my studio work is very isolated, even lonely sometimes.

Although I missed being able to get the purchase award at the New York State Museum in person, on April 17. I was with a wonderful group of students and educators that night and they believed I could do it, and I did.

Posted by Robin Brickman, illustrator of Beaks! and Wings by Sneed B. Collard III.

Inspiration in Children’s Art, by illustrator Frank Dormer

I am a voracious lurker.

Actually my grandfather’s last name was Lurker, but that’s beside the point.

I look forward to finding new art to look at. Not so much to steal as to feed the artistic appetite.

I get hungry about once a month.

When that happens my wife takes the kids to a ball game, or to view chest x-rays at the local hospital. They’ll do anything to get away from the Hungry Artist.

Recently I have been able to limit my travels. And this is where my confession comes in.

I like to visit the hospital and view chest x-rays too.

Only kidding.

Ok, here it is.

I am not just an illustrator. I am also an art teacher.

There, I’ve said it. Whew. I feel better already.

Not only that, but I’ve been seen joyously exclaiming my love for my students art. It inspires me after I’ve seen the original Monet’s far too long, and have seen Van Gogh on everything from coffee cups to polish sausage casings.

Children’s art is simple, uncluttered, and all about them. How can you not love it? In their art one can find out many things about how they feel about someone, what is important to them. It’s all there.

Now, I will admit that it can take some information to decipher these 2-dimensional jewels. But who hasn’t looked at a Jackson Pollock and wondered if it’s real art, or his breakfast on that canvas? It’s the same for children’s art, too.

Children see the world in simple terms. And here is where I will put down my dusty soapbox, and stand on it in my fuzzy slippers and hold my coffee cup, ready to overpower you with my feelings.

If you like, go find a hospital and look at some x-rays. I won’t be insulted.

If you are still reading this, I’ll make it simple.

And in case you are in doubt about my sanity, I am a certified teacher, and have been teaching, or faking it well, for over 15 years. I have a Masters in Education and been known to have beginning teachers actually visit my classroom.

Ok, here it is, that thing I wanted to tell you.

While I am standing on my soapbox.

Children’s art reflects pure lines and shapes. The beginning elements of art. The First thing any art maker does after placing pencil on paper. It also reflects pure emotion.

No subtlety, no layers to hide things in.

I have been known to try and emulate it. I fall far short, as my art education fights with the inner child in me. But I get the child out most times these days.

So leave the hospital X-ray room, wander out of the museums of artistic perfection, and go over to the local school art show. Visit with the art teacher, and gaze in wonderment at what these miniature people can do when given the power.

You can visit my students’ work. It is much more interesting than mine, I assure you.

Their work can be viewed at: www.slineyart.blogspot.com

If after all this you still have an interest in what I do for books, you may visit me at: frankwdormer dot com.

I promise I won’t bite.

You’ll notice I haven’t gotten off my soapbox, though.

Posted by Frank Dormer, illustrator of Aggie and Ben and Not So Tall for Six and the upcoming Good Dog, Aggie.

Brian Lies -- Knee Deep in the Swamp

Yikes! As I step forward, my knee-high clamming boot sinks effortlessly into the tidal mud, right up over the top. No resistance whatsoever. I feel a jolt of reptilian-brain panic, and back up hastily into safer ankle-deep mud. I’ve just missed being swallowed up by a tidal marsh!

On the grassy shore twenty feet away, four people laugh. This has all been captured on film by a film crew from Scholastic Book Fairs, shooting a segment for this spring’s author interview DVD. A Charlesbridge book I illustrated, Donna M. Bateman’s Deep in the Swamp, is one of this spring’s featured books. The DVD will go to every school in the country hosting a Scholastic Book Fair.

It had seemed like a good idea to film an introduction with me standing knee-deep in a saltwater marsh a few miles from my house. The producer wanted me to wade through the water, beckon with an arm to the camera and call out, “Come on! Let’s go deep in the swamp!” But when the crew arrives for the filming, we find that the tide is at dead low. There’s nothing but a narrow serpent of water lying in the middle of a sea of mud.

After the close call, we shoot a few more takes of me tromping around in mud, but my on-camera confidence flags. I’m no longer sure I’ll get out of this without a call to the fire department to haul me out with a ladder truck, and embarrassing photos in our local paper.

After the outdoor filming, we drive back to my home studio. Glaringly bright lights go up in my studio. Will the circuits blow? We tape an interview, and I try to act natural. I do a sketch of a mother alligator from Deep in the Swamp, while a camera looms over my shoulder. I’ve seen animators and other illustrators drawing on TV, and they all seem so talented and sure—drawing with quick, beautiful strokes. This drawing looks scratchy and rough to me. Are those other illustrators really as confident as they seem on camera?

It all seems to go quickly, but it’s been several hours. It’s dark outside now. The bright lights are turned off, and my office feels shockingly dim. I work in this light? The film crew packs up the cameras and lights, packs them in the van, and drives off into the night. It’s been a lot of fun—but I won’t be wandering out onto tidal mud again anytime soon!

Posted by illustrator Brian Lies, illustrator of
Deep in the Swamp.

Wendie Old Takes Time to Write

Check out this blog from author Wendie Old. If you write, you'll appreciate Wendie's take on how to prioritize the need to write in a busy schedule.

I moved to France two and a half years ago. I have had a summer home here for about 18 years (I grew up in Paris as a child), but I gave up my New York apartment to live here full time when a new construction there bricked in all my windows.

At first I commuted to the US twice a year to meet with editors, execute portraits, and visit schools, but it has been difficult to maintain interest in my work from here, despite the internet and having a website.

However, I am celebrating rather than fretting about this transition.

Living in the country means getting by on a much reduced income, and I find that I at last have the time and space to do my own work. I have suddenly realized that I have been reigning myself in artistically as a teacher/illustrator/art director/designer for years, and am loving my new uncensored artistic freedom.

I have always kept up with world affairs. I find that I don't have to compartmentalize myself as before. My politics, my concerns, my feelings (negative as well as positive) are allowed to emerge and converge and I am pretty excited about the power of my recent work. This also probably has something to do with working in oils again. I am known for my watercolour illustration.

I have started a blog on which I occasionally post reports, but my interest in this medium tends to flag. I am put off by the rampant exhibitionism of much blogging. Nevertheless, I hope that my story might inspire others to take a leap of faith.

There comes a time when one has to stop cutting bait and start fishing. For me, that time has arrived.

Posted by illustrator Catherine Stock. Her latest book with Charlesbridge is Vinnie and Abraham, by Dawn Fitzgerald.