Unabridged

Ask the author: Anna McQuinn

2011-12-29T15:33:00.012-05:00

Anna McQuinn's series about that spunky book lover Lola is a favorite amongst children, teachers, and librarians. With the third book in the series coming out in February (Lola Reads to Leo), Charlesbridge took a moment to ask the UK author and librarian some questions about the series.

Charlesbridge: Where did the character of Lola come from?

Anna McQuinn: Lola started out as a little girl having some first experiences--I planned to have her go to the library, to a cafe, a swimming pool . . . I started with the library story--probably influenced by the fact that I had just started working part-time running mom and toddler groups in a library. Some of my experiences influenced the story: in my outreach work I realized that many parents were still reluctant to bring little kids into libraries in case they disturbed other readers and I found myself explaining that we had an area for children and they wouldn't be disturbing anyone; I also found myself explaining that little children could enjoy books long before they could read--an argument I'd thought was long won.

However, as I wrote the story, Lola turned into a little book lover--and by the time I'd finished the story, she had a fully-developed character in my head: a book enthusiast who loved going to the library. Happily, Rosalind Beardshaw, the illustrator, totally captured this enthusiasm, so as the drawings came in, Lola's personality developed in my head.

I think this personality comes out more in the second story, Lola Loves Stories, but it really wasn't until I read the jacket copy on the newest book, Lola Reads to Leo, that I realized how much of myself there was in Lola. When I was little, I loved stories--my grandfather was a great storyteller and my dad told us stories every night in bed. As soon as I learned to read, I read constantly--at night by the streetlight outside my window (when I was supposed to be sleeping) and at every other available opportunity (the back of the shampoo bottle when I went to the bathroom, the back of the cereal packet while eating breakfast . . .). All of these stories opened up a huge world of possibilities for me.

CB: The books in this series are first published in the UK, where you live, and then re-published in the U.S. (and other countries!) with some alterations. For example, "Lola" is actually "Lulu" in the UK versions. How does this influence the way you write Lola's adventures, if at all?

AM: Lola started out as Lola--the name came at exactly the same time as her character, as a package. Then, just before Lola at the Library was published, the Charlie and Lola books were televised here in the UK and much to my disappointment, I realized that people would be confused. Happily it wasn't an issue for the U.S., but for the UK edition I searched desperately for a new name, but nothing worked. Then one day, my mom and toddler group was at the park and I heard a Somali mum call her child Lulu. It was perfect--as close as I could get to Lola.

Funnily enough, it doesn't influence how I feel about her. Most of the time I write the story calling her Lola--partly because the first person I show the draft story to is Yolanda Scott, the Editorial Director at Charlesbridge. Then I just change it for the UK. The names are so close it's almost like a friend whose family has a nickname for her (my family call me Anzi, so maybe that's why I barely think about it).

In the Netherlands, she's called Bibi (to alliterate with "bieb," which means "library") and weirdly that also seems to suit her so well that it doesn't cause me a second thought (though the file names for the documents on my computer are all over the place!). I'd love to know what she's called in Korea where Lola Loves Stories was recently published, but I can't read the script.

CB: Like Lola, you love to read as well. What types of books are you drawn to the most?

AM: I've been going through a crime novel phase for about ten years now. It started when I was in a very difficult job and reading stories where the bad guys always got their comeuppance satisfied some big need in my soul! I did my M.A. in the Gothic Novel and used to think that was the link but I've recently read that crime novels are like fairytales for adults--that's my story and I'm sticking to it. My favorites are Walter Mosley, Harlan Coben, Sara Paretsky, Laura Lippman, and Michael Connelly.

In between crime novels, I read a huge variety of things. I'm really drawn to stories which feature children or a child's view of things. One of my favorite books is The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe--I think anyone working with children should be made to read it--and another is Orange Mint and Honey by Carleen Brice. This year I really enjoyed Room by Emma Donoghue; America Is Me by E.R. Frank; The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy; The Story by Faiza Guene; and We Are All Made of Glue by Marina Lewycka (which has nothing to do with children). I'm addicted to Goodreads and I log on every few days to share recommendations and see what my friends are reading.

CB: What do you hope readers will take away from the books in the Lola series?

AM: I hope that little kids will be inspired by Lola to check out the wonderful world that books and stories and reading can open up for them. I see from my work that many children need the tiniest prompt (which Lola provides) to be the characters from their stories: fairies and tigers and pilots . . . so I hope Lola will help them to take that first step from the story on the page to the story in their minds--I hope that little girls in particular will see that they can be anything, not just princesses!

I would love parents to see that finding books which children enjoy reading is the most important thing for these little ones. I'm saddened when I see parents pushing their choices--especially books which are for older children or to what parents feel is right for boys/girls. For many little boys as well as little girls in my group, Lola is their favorite book. And while black children love her, she is also much loved by Chinese, Polish, Spanish, and Lebanese alike--mostly they are responding to seeing their familiar world represented in a simple story.

CB: What's next for Lola? Any new adventures we can look forward to?

AM: I've already started work on the next story--Lola's mommy gives her a section of their community garden and, of course, before she can decide what to grow, she has to go to the library to research . . . Leo is also developing a little personality in my head, so look out for him appearing in his own story.

Do you have some questions for Anna McQuinn?
Email us at trademarketing@charlesbridge.com to sign up for the Lola Blog Tour. Don't have a blog? You can still ask Anna your questions--we'll post your interview here on Unabridged!

What's Santa up to?

2011-12-14T15:43:00.007-05:00

Have you ever wished you could have been there when Saint Nick was caught in the act on the Night Before Christmas?

There's an app for that. Check it out!

From Touchoo.

Join the great folk group Peter, Paul and Mary as they bring that magical night to life in this interactive celebration of The Night Before Christmas. Based on the bestselling book from Imagine Publishing- an imprint of Charlesbridge - Eric Puybaret's brilliant art lights up and takes readers on the journey of a lifetime--into the secret world of Santa Clause!

978-1-936140-06-0 $19.95 Hardcover w/CD

Let's Talk Math

2011-11-30T14:30:00.017-05:00

Ann: Hey, Leeza, I’ve been meaning to ask you a few questions.

Leeza: Hey, me, too! You go first.

A: Okay, sure. Well, my first question is: When did you decide you wanted to illustrate children’s books?

L: When I was about ten years old. There was a series published by Ladybird Books in the UK called The Garden Gang. As soon as I found out that the author Jayne Fisher was about the same age as me and was the youngest person to be published by Ladybird, I set about creating my own characters and stories. But by the time I reached twelve years old, I'd forgotten all about that and moved on to something else. I rediscovered children's book illustration in 2004 and I suddenly remembered those Garden Gang books. I decided that this was what I wanted to do now as my real job.

A: Very cool! What is your favorite children’s book?

L: Gosh, there are so many. But if you really need me to narrow it down, I’d say any books by Roald Dahl, especially Fantastic Mr. Fox and Danny, Champion of the World. How about you, Ann?

A: I know what you mean about too many to choose from. I love children’s books so much that I rarely ever read adult books these days. One book that made an impression in my childhood was The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. I recently re-read it thirty-odd years later and it was like déjà vu. The style was so different from how books are written these days.

L: I know, right! Well, how about Eat Your Math Homework: Recipes for Hungry Minds? What inspired you to write the book?

A: Great question! I got this idea when I was teaching math in elementary school and I noticed that so many people were math phobic (parents, too). I wanted to combine something super fun with math and I thought about cooking. My first experiment with this was making Mathematical Gingerbread Houses in class one day.

L: Oooh, yummy! Were you good at math when you went to school in, where was that again, British Columbia, Canada?

A: Surprisingly, not really. I fell in love with math later in life, actually when I was teaching in my first school. My favorite subject in school was probably English. I read like crazy as a kid. I also enjoyed writing (duh!). What about you, Leeza? What was your math experience like?

L: I don’t remember much about math in elementary school, except learning to count in binary numbers. Honestly, I was more interested in the water/sand table in the other corner of the room. Although, perhaps that’s where I learned about mass and volume. High school was different, though. I loved math in high school! Our class had a brilliant math teacher: Ms. Mountford.

A: I love the illustrations in Eat Your Math Homework. Did you try other characters before settling on the rabbits in the book?

L: No! Yes! I was inspired to illustrate rabbits as soon as I first read the manuscript. But then I thought who’s going to want to look at a book full of rabbits so I tried human characters. It was a disaster! Nothing worked and I lost countless hours trying to draw kids making pizza. I decided to go back to the bunnies and am happy that I did. Goes to show you can trust your instincts, because they are always right. I think my instincts were those naughty bunnies trying to get out!

A: Ha, ha! I’m glad the bunnies got out! How long did it take you to complete the illustrations for the book?

L: This book has been in the making since 2008 for me. Once the sketches were approved I spent the summer of 2010 creating the final color art. Ann, did you get to see the book while it was being made?

A: Yes, I did get to see bits and pieces. The editor, Emily Mitchell at Charlesbridge, sent me pieces to edit and I also got to see some of your earlier sketches. I was so excited and I couldn’t wait to hold the actual book in my hands!

L: I know--me, too! So, what’s your favorite recipe in the book?

A: I love all kinds of food, but I think the Tessellating Two-Color Brownies taste terrific. (How’s that for some absolutely amazing alliteration?) I think the secret ingredient in the brownies makes them extra special. And, no, I’m not going to remind you what that secret ingredient is—you’ll have to go and look it up in the book!

L: Personally, I’m partial to fractions, so the Fraction Chips are my favorite recipe in the book. Outside of the book, I like to cook, but I don’t think I’m very good at it. The oh-no-food-has-exploded-all-over-the-kitchen look says it all! (Which is why I love to go out for Indian food—yummy!)

A: Okay, one last question for you, Leezy-Peezy (Couldn’t help that one!). What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

L: Hmm, not sure if I’ve ever really done anything that crazy. I did jump off the side of a boat once into the Mediterranean Sea on a summer vacation. It was a medium sized boat with at least two decks. It didn’t occur to me until I was midair that I could be plunging into shark-infested water, then splosh, too late! Thankfully the dark shadow that came up underneath me was just a school of pretty fish. Phew! By the way, there were lots of people having fun and jumping off the boat, so I wasn’t doing something that wasn’t allowed.

A: That is very brave (and crazy)!

L: And you? What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

A: Most of the crazy things I’ve done turned out to be very good ideas. For example, once I packed up my car and drove for five solid days to move to Maryland from British Columbia, Canada. Another time, my family and I packed up to go and live in the United Arab Emirates for four years. I did go bungee-jumping from a hot-air balloon once—maybe not such a good idea. Um, then there was the time I decided to cook up this math recipe…

L: Well, the math recipe idea certainly turned out well.

A: I’ll have to agree with that. Hey, I’m feeling a little hungry. Do you want to share some Chocolate Pretzel Counting Rods?

L: I’d love to. That’s a bonus recipe, though, and not in the book. Where should I get the recipe?

A: Let’s put it on our website and then everyone can try it. People can check it out at www.eatyourmathhomework.com.

L: Mumble, mumble, munch, crunch…

A: What?

L: Wait, let me just finish eating this handful of Probability Trail Mix… I said, “Eat, Math, Burp Fractions!”

A: Good one! I’ll have to remember that saying. Well, it’s been nice chatting with you, Leeza.

L: You too, Ann. Bye for now and EAT MORE MATH!

Posted by Ann McCallum and Leeza Hernandez, author and illustrator of Eat Your Math Homework.

MUSIC: IT'S A FRIEND FOR LIFE

2011-10-26T15:35:00.019-04:00

Listening to music is liberating. For me, it’s like reading a book: sometimes I like to do it alone; sometimes I like to share the experience with friends. That’s why I wrote Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite. For years, I’ve enjoyed listening to the music of Ellington and his friend and collaborator Billy Strayhorn (aka Strays). It’s like they’re my old friends. In good times and bad, I find myself turning to their music. This tune, “Giggling Rapids” is one of my favorites.

You can’t help but feel good as the saxophones and brass bounce along. Duke wrote the tune as part of a ballet called The River for Alvin Ailey and the American Ballet Theater. In 1970, they performed The River at Lincoln Center.
Another favorite, completely different in mood, is Strayhorn’s “Lotus Blossom.” He used to love hearing Duke play it. Me too.

Shortly after Strayhorn’s death in 1967, Duke and a few of the band members recorded this beautiful tune for a tribute album titled And His Mother Called Him Bill.

At Georgetown University, I teach classes about classical music and classes about jazz. But like Duke and Strays, I wish those two styles of music weren’t always divided into separate categories. I guess that’s why I’ve always been fascinated by musicians who try to bridge the two styles: composers like George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, and now Wynton Marsalis.

My love of music is what inspires me to look for the story behind the notes. That’s the driving force behind all of my children’s books: from Bach and Beethoven to Gershwin and Ellington. For me, the best thing about writing the books is sharing the stories with others: adults, my college students, and most of all with eager young listeners. Nothing is as wonderful as listening to a great piece of music with a child. That’s why there’s a CD in the back of each of my books. Listen to the music together; then talk about what you hear. How does the music make you feel? Does it tell a story with notes? Listening to the "Nutcracker Suite" can be especially fun with kids. While doing the research for Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite, I got to know an array of fabulous musicians: the “cats” in Ellington’s band. As Strays used to say: “They’re beyond category!”
You can see the band in action here, playing an excerpt from their "Nutcracker Suite":

Ballet music has never been so hip!
And teachers: If you’re interested in bringing jazz into the classroom, check out this fabulous website, Let Freedom Swing, with videos and study guides: http://letfreedomswing.org/
And don’t forget, when you learn a tune, you’ve got a friend for life. It will always be there for you, in good times and bad!

Charlesbridge and the Struggle for Survival

2011-10-20T12:08:00.018-04:00

This is not your mother's Charlotte's Web.

This is real and it's creeping me out and fascinating me at the same time. There is a rather giant--and probably radioactive--spider right outside my window. I'm finding it hard to concentrate on publicizing and promoting as I struggle with the urge to run for my life.

All the same, as this really big spider builds a web outside my window, I fantasize about messages like "Awesome Pig," "Nice Shoes," and "You Need a Haircut" when I come to work every day.

So as to keep my blogging in the world of children's literature, I need to share one of Charlesbridge's best books--Up, Up, and Away by Ginger Wadsworth and illustrated by Patricia J. Wynne.

Up, Up, and Away was published in 2009 and is the story of how one spider finds herself snug as a bug inside her egg sac until spring. Then, she and her hundreds of siblings hatch and very soon go off to find their way in the world. They grow up so fast. This spider is a garden spider, I don't know what kind of spider is dangling two feet from my face right now, but I hope the glass holds. In Up, Up, and Away, Ginger says garden spiders live for about a year. I'm sure I'll miss her when she's gone. I hope I get to see hundreds of babies born and fly away.

Up, Up, and Away is a CBC/NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book and a CCBC Choices book.

Can't get enough of spiders? Watch this fun video:

Happy 60th Birthday, Sparky the Fire Dog®!

2011-09-30T09:22:00.017-04:00

As a children's author, my goal is to write books that will help kids learn and grow, and I've always been a big believer in using animals to help kids relate to important and sometimes difficult situations.

So when I was approached by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) to write a book in celebration of the 60th birthday of Sparky the Fire Dog®, I could not have been more honored and excited. As the NFPA's official mascot and spokesdog, Sparky has long played an important role in communicating fire safety to kids and families.

Since Sparky's creation in 1951, the number of fire and fires injuries in the United States has declined, which is due in part to enhanced public education efforts. But despite this positive impact, fires in the home still take a great toll on life and property. Approximately 3,000 people die each year because of fires.

Working on the Sparky the Fire Dog® picture book was a particularly special experience for me because I've had first-hand experience with fire. When I was 5, my house caught on fire and while my parents escaped, they weren't able to get to my room to guide me to safety. I was lucky to be rescued by a firefighter.

This is no doubt a scary memory for me, but it's also a reminder of the importance of instilling fire safety messages in children. Sparky is crucial because children under the age of five face the highest risk of home fire death. While fire can be frightening to children, the kind and gentle image of this dalmatian emphasizes positive fire safety messages in a way that is appealing to children.

In Sparky the Fire Dog®, Sparky takes a group of young animals through the neighborhood, pointing out hazards, giving basic fire prevention and safety tips, and showing them how to be prepared in case of an emergency. From having a working smoke alarm to being careful with candles and knowing where your exits are, Sparky's advice may be the most important thing children--and their parents--ever learn.

I very much hope that adults will benefit from the book as much as children. We all remember learning fire safety lessons from firefighters or Sparky when we were in school, but many of us may not have carried all of the crucial fire safety practices we once learned in our day-to-day lives as adults.

The release of Sparky the Fire Dog® coincides with Fire Prevention Week (October 9-15)--an annual public awareness campaign sponsored by the NFPA that focuses on the small actions that can make a big difference in protecting your family from fire. These actions include creating a home escape plan, installing and checking home smoke alarms, and installing home fire sprinkers.

Sparky has done such amazing work over the las 60 years, and I hope that the book will help the NFPA continue to spread the important messages of fire safety far and wide.

Anyone interested in learning or teaching about fire safety can learn more at the Fire Prevention Week website which contains more safety tips and statistical information.

This post by Don Hoffman, author of Sparky the Fire Dog®.

Dog Blog Tour!

2011-09-20T15:20:00.007-04:00

This week officially kicked off the Dog Blog Tour. Sparky the Fire Dog^®, that is. In anticipation of the upcoming release of Sparky the Fire Dog, several bloggers signed on to post reviews of this new book by prolific children's book author Don Hoffman. Some blogs will be hosting giveaways to a few lucky readers, so be sure to check them out! Here's the line-up so far--stay tuned for more information!

Donna Bowman Bratton's blog, review posted 9/17; read it here!
Biblio Reads, review posted 9/20; read it here!
Anastasia Suen's blog, check out the Sparky post on October 12th!
Barefoot Mommies
Chasing Supermom
In the Pages
NC Teacher Stuff
Reading With My Eyes Shut

Sparky is the official mascot for the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the book's release date is October 1st--coinciding with National Fire Prevention Week (October 9-15) and Sparky's 60th birthday year. Check out Sparky's website, www.sparky.org, for cool games and activities. You can also download a Sparky Birthday Party Kit to celebrate Sparky's big day!

A Flight of Serendipity

2011-09-01T09:25:00.013-04:00

When I told my parents that I was getting a degree in anthropology I might as well have told them I planned to either remain a student for another ten years or be unemployable. About the only thing you can do with a bachelor's degree in anthropology is to get a master's and doctorate in anthropology. Thankfully for me it proved to be an excellent foundation for becoming a librarian. I always tell people that thanks to that anthropology degree, I know a little bit about everything and not much about anything!

So the anthropology degree got me to being a librarian but how did a career as a librarian get me to writing a book about hummingbirds? And how do hummingbirds connect to anthropology? A lot of serendipity is involved.

A number of years ago I met Adrienne Yorinks. She was touring for the book, Stand for Children by Marian Wright Edelman and came to Austin. After a delightful shopping spree for fabric, we became friends. Over the years we talked about doing a book together but never really came up with a good idea. I did help Adrienne with Quilt of States, a book about how America pieced itself together as a nation but that was her book. We wanted to find a topic that would truly be ours. We both love animals and we talked about fish (after a visit to the National Aquarium in Baltimore) and primates, but neither really hit home for us.

Then one September weekend my husband and I took a short vacation to Rockport, Texas. This charming coastal community happens to be directly in the path of the spectacular fall migration of the ruby-throated hummingbird. As the birds get ready to leave North America and head to their wintering grounds in Mexico and Central America, a lot of them pass through the Gulf Coast area. Once they leave Texas and Louisiana, many hummers fly 500 miles non-stop across the gulf, although some take the inland route, finding food along the way. Because Rockport is directly in the migratory route, tens of thousands of hummingbirds can be seen in the area. When I walked out of the hotel that weekend I felt like I was experiencing a hummingbird flash mob! They were literally flying around me like flies. [Click here to see a video]

Inspired by their beauty, I recalled that many of the cultures I had studied about in my anthropology classes have stories about hummingbirds. I remembered seeing hummingbird images on Navajo pottery and the hummingbird katchina of the Hopi. I also remembered that one of the Nazca lines carved into the plains of Peru was of a hummingbird and that I had seen hummingbird petroglyphs incised into rocks in New Mexico and Arizona. Clearly these birds were inspiring to many people! So I started to do some research and thought about combining facts with cultural tales. As I soon discovered, hummingbirds are only found in the Americas (although there is some fossil evidence that they existed in Europe 30 million years ago). Loving a challenge, I sought out folk tales and stories from a variety of cultures. I wanted to be able to include stories from cultures from the same range as the hummingbirds--from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Being a librarian I did a lot of research and found that many of the same stories, or similar stories, appear in many cultures. So I read and listened to as many versions as I could and then retold them in my own way. I love the way the book turned out. Adrienne's beautiful fabric art so perfectly reflects the amazing features of the hummingbird but I especially love how she illustrated the folktales.

So the serendipity in this journey? If I hadn't studied anthropology I probably wouldn't have become a librarian and I would not have met Adrienne and we wouldn't have decided to work together on a book that developed out of a chance meeting and a spur-of-the-moment vacation. I'm delighted that it all worked out! And another bit of serendipity--this blog posting is going up just in time for National Hummingbird Day (the first Saturday in September).

Posted by Jeanette Larson, author of Hummingbirds: Facts and Folklore from the Americas. Jeanette will be appearing at the Princeton Children's Book Festival on September 10th, and Hummingbirds has been selected to represent Texas at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC on September 24th.

Kindergarten Friendships

2011-07-29T12:26:00.010-04:00

If not for my childhood friend Frances, it’s hard to say what would have become of me. Frances stuck by me even though I clearly was not a kindergarten, first or second grade star. My early report cards were a smattering of Cs with an occasional B, plus a red DAYDREAMS in the comment section. I didn’t make friends easily; too often, when I opened my mouth to speak, nothing came out. And I was not good at recess games, especially not dodge ball.

However, I did have my refuge—a corner of the school library that was all mine. While my classmates scattered among the shelves, I tucked myself away in that corner with Frances, a badger who was as spunky as I was meek.

Why was I so enamored with the star of the Frances books? Perhaps it was because, when insulted, Frances thought up sassy rhymes on the spot instead of falling silent. When Albert excluded Frances from his activities, Frances created a special day of her own, complete with Albert’s favorite foods and a marching sign: BEST FRIENDS OUTING—NO BOYS (Best Friends for Frances by Russell and Lillian Hoban). When my friends excluded me, I slunk into my house and told my mom.

Frances was not perfect. She made messes. She ran away from home. She ate her little sister’s birthday chocolate bar. But Frances had spunk. And I didn’t—not yet.

In the real world, we choose our friends for a variety of reasons (and not because they are perfect). Some are like we are, and some are like we wish to be. The same is true of our favorite book characters. All of these friends, those in the pages of our books and those in the real world, become part of us. My friendship with Frances and other book characters made the school day less lonely and helped me find my voice and make real-world friends. Eventually I gained some spunk of my own (though never as much as Frances).

As an author, I also have the opportunity to rewrite my personal history—and reach children like myself—through my characters. In Polka-dot Fixes Kindergarten, the main character Polka-dot is a bit apprehensive about her first day of school. But unlike me, Polka-dot is resourceful; she’s packed a fix-it kit just like Grandpa’s—complete with duct tape, the fixer of all trouble.

Polka-dot faces a variety of challenges, including a stripe-loving girl named Liz who criticizes everything from Polka-dot’s painting to her fashion choices. (Try to guess the name of the girl from my old neighborhood who was mean to me…) But, unlike me, Polka-dot speaks up. And she uses the duct tape to deliver an unexpected kindness and forge a friendship with Liz, who is experiencing kindergarten troubles of her own. Polka-dot has given voice to my shy kindergarten self and, with her trusty fix-it kit, created a happier, albeit fictitious, ending to my childhood relationship with the real-life Liz.

I hope that teachers, parents and librarians find the book helpful in conveying lessons about kindness and bullying prevention. I hope that Polka-dot becomes a safe and easy friend for some shy child, perhaps hiding in the corner of her school library. And I hope Polka-dot helps that child find her spunk, like Frances helped me.

It’s almost the start of another school year. So here’s to students everywhere—those of you who bound into your classrooms and those who stand back and watch:

You are stars, every single one of you.

Posted by Catherine Urdahl, author of Polka-dot Fixes Kindergarten and Emma's Question.

Being Different

2011-07-28T10:05:00.002-04:00

Author Manjula Padmanabhan blogs about her inspiration to write her new children's book, I Am Different, on the Global Fund for Children blog, On the Road.

Here is an excerpt:

It didn’t really matter if the differences were “good” or “bad,” as I soon realized. Sometimes we can choose whether or not to belong to the majority. Sometimes the issues are trivial. For instance, I could choose to dress as other Indian children dressed or I could go around in miniskirts and knee-high boots. Needless to say, my mother preferred me to conform, while I preferred NOT to! But at other times, such as in my convent boarding school, there was no question of “choosing to be different.” At the level of uniforms, we had to conform or we’d be sent away.

Read the rest of the story at On the Road.

Find out more about I Am Different at www.charlesbridge.com.

Little Pig Joins the Band

2011-07-12T13:14:00.000-04:00

Little Pig Joins the Band

The youngest child in the family often feels like a tag-a-long, and that the older brothers and sisters get to do the fun stuff. Jacob is the youngest of five children. Everyone calls him Little Pig. When Jacob and his siblings visit their Grandpa, they pull out an assortment of his old marching band instruments. "Little Pig looked for something he could play," but he discovers that he is too small to hold the drum, so his big sister Margie takes possession of it. He is also too little to hold an elongated trombone, an enormous brass tuba or even a trumpet.

Costello's clean line ink and watercolor illustrations express with quiet humor the youngest child's dismay at being "too little to join the band." Little Pig's remarks appear in a different smaller typeface, indicating that no one else hears him. When he asks, "Do we have any piccolos?," for instance, Margie answers, "There's a jar in the fridge, behind the olives." Little Pig's big brothers and sisters play the instruments, but they do so in a disorganized, discordant manner, and topple over each other because they're not paying attention. Little Pig discovers he can contribute: he can lead the band. Music teachers may quibble that children would not instantly be competent music makers, but we can suspend disbelief for this quiet tale of the littlest pig finding his niche in a family venture. --Lisa Von Drasek, librarian at Bank Street College of Education's School for Children

Discover: An uplifting tale with a gentle lesson about how even the smallest member of the band has something to contribute.

Archimedes Notebook: Nonfiction Monday: Up, Up & Away!

2011-06-30T16:03:00.000-04:00

Archimedes Notebook: Nonfiction Monday: Up, Up & Away!: "Up, Up and Away Written by Ginger Wadsworth, illustrates by Patricia J. Wynne 32 pages, for ages 4 - 9 Charlesbridge, 2009 I have lots of s..."

Balkin Buddies: How children’s book illustrator Robin Brickman cam...

2011-06-22T11:31:00.000-04:00

Balkin Buddies: How children’s book illustrator Robin Brickman cam...: "Robin Brickman is the illustrator of such books as BEAKS! (Charlesbridge), WINGS (Charlesbridge) STARFISH (HarperCollins), A LOG'S LIFE (..."

The Reading Bond

2011-06-21T16:35:00.006-04:00

As a parent and children’s picture book author, I read children’s books every day. I read picture books and chapter books to improve my writing and keep current with what is being published, but also because I truly enjoy reading them. Most importantly, however, I read because of the bond that reading has created with my son.

From the beginning of his life, words have enveloped him. While he was in my belly and merely a few weeks from birth, I sometimes read aloud to him. When I read silently to myself, I imagined the words swirling around my brain flowing through my blood stream and into his, our lives connected. After he was born, when he was only a few days old, it didn’t matter to me if I read a children’s book or my husband read The New Yorker or Sports Illustrated to our son. I just wanted him to hear our voices articulating words over and over again.

My son is now six and we read together each day. Reading to and with my son is one of my favorite rituals and a simple pleasure we share. I look forward to the moment when we become immersed in a story, his attention fully engaged. My playful, active son winds down, enticed by hearing about a farmer who photographs snow crystals, finding no two alike; a princess who uses her intellect to defeat a fire-breathing dragon; “star-bellied Sneetches” and “plain-bellied Sneetches”; a cane-carrying mouse that retrieves his mother’s wedding ring from a bathtub drain; the friendship between a librarian and a library lion; a farm maiden, farmer, and five farm animals that stir a pot and create a surprise recipe together, and so much more. The characters, topics, and plots are endless, and invariably, comment or discussion ensues. My son often asks the meaning of words and I have heard him incorporate new words learned into his speech. I believe a broad vocabulary helps him understand new and complex concepts and ideas.

Listening to stories contributes to the development of his imagination and I feel that life is so much richer when enhanced by creativity. Reading has also built his attention span and that’s a skill necessary for learning. At its core, reading is an opportunity for us to connect over words spoken and emotions evoked. Sometimes, in relation to a story, my son explores feelings or tells me something that occurred at school. I listen carefully, grateful that hearing a story resulted in unexpected revelations and disclosure.

And, where do we read? Everywhere. My husband and I take turns reading to our son during part of meals. In his bedroom, we cozy up in a chair that I have deemed “our reading chair.” We read before sleep, on airplanes, and on the occasional bus trip. When we’re out for an excursion, I typically wear a backpack allowing me to carry not only crayons and paper, but also a book. One afternoon as we waited for pizza at a restaurant, I began reading a book. When my son noticed a young girl in the booth next to us straining to hear, he urged, “Read louder, Mommy.” I did and shortly thereafter, with her parent’s encouragement, the young girl temporarily joined us in order to better see the illustrations. The company delighted my son. With two pages remaining, our pizza finally arrived, yet neither child lifted as much as a finger, preferring to wait to hear the story’s end.

Books in our home come from both libraries and stores. We visit the library almost every week and we typically have anywhere between five and fifteen library books scattered throughout our home. At the age of four and a half, my son was as overjoyed about obtaining his own library card as he was about receiving a new Thomas the Tank Engine train for his birthday. In fact, his excitement about the library card lasted far longer. The card is attached to a small, bungee cord, and for quite some time, he proudly showed it to all his teachers and anyone who visited our home. Of course, the card was a sign of his independence and that held special meaning for him. He can select books all by himself and his pride is evident when a book he chooses turns out to be one we especially like.

When we discover a book we love, we record the title as a reminder to purchase it. We celebrate with books as gifts for most if not all holidays. In our home, our son understands that Santa Claus, Cupid (for Valentine’s Day), the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy all appreciate written requests for books (which has turned into terrific opportunities to practice writing). That is not to imply that toys, chocolate, jelly beans, or money are excluded from the latter-mentioned holidays, but books are important and included.

Birthdays are occasions for books as well. On my son’s first birthday, I began a tradition I intend to uphold all his life. In addition to other gifts, I give him a book. Although the books I’ve selected are not necessarily age-appropriate, they are books I want him to have in his personal collection. On his first birthday, he received The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. On his second birthday, I selected a childhood favorite of mine: Where the Sidewalk Ends featuring the poems and drawings of Shel Silverstein. For his third and fourth birthdays, respectively, he received Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird and a hardback version of Brian Selznick’s highly illustrated novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. For his fifth birthday, I gave him L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: 100^th Anniversary Edition. Last year for his sixth birthday, he received a box set of the seven paperback volumes of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. I inscribe each book with a note and the specific birthday that the book commemorates, and then store the book in our son’s bookcase, or on one of my bookshelves.

Even when my son enjoys reading on his own, I will continue to look for stories to read and share with him. I want to foster our reading bond as long as possible. My mother not only read chapter books to me when I was reading on my own, but also created individual stories for my sister and me. Before bedtime, my mother sat by sister's bed and later, mine, in order to share chapter installments. My sister's story featured a ladybug and her children. My story concerned the adventures of a miniature fairy. Closing my eyes, listening to my mother's soft voice, I imagined the fairy and her exploits. After school, homework, dinner, and chores, hearing a story before falling asleep was a soothing, gentle way to enter the night. I cherish those memories and I know that experience sparked a desire that later grew into a passion. I began to dream about becoming an author. Eventually, I wrote stories and many years later, I published one of them.

Now, when at school or library presentations for my children's picture books, I enjoy telling children that I composed my first story at the age of three. For a few seconds, eyes widen in amazement until I clarify what really happened. At that age, my mother encouraged me to make up stories and tell them to her. Without influencing subject, grammar, or length, she typed the stories exactly as I told them. My first story, "The Red Hen" (circa 1967), is only several lines and rife with grammatical errors, yet the freedom to create, uninterrupted by correction, allowed my thoughts to flow. My confidence as a beginning storyteller began to build.

I have similarly encouraged my son to practice storytelling. His first, formal attempt is titled, "The Run Away Coconut" and consists of nine sentences. Whether storytelling becomes his passion is not important to me. I just want him to experience the process in a pleasurable, relaxed way just as he enjoys our reading together.

While I find our reading "connection" to be gratifying in and of itself, I also know that reading each day produces a substantial gift--that of literacy. It is well established that children who are read to are more likely to read earlier, stay in school, succeed in school, and pursue higher education, which has its own benefits and rewards.

As parents, we are in a unique position to promote and support literacy. As I read with my child, I know I'm giving both him and myself intangible, lifelong gifts--a unique literary bond with memories that may be refreshed each time he reads a certain story; an aptitude for and interest in reading, and most importantly, the knowledge that he can and will succeed--in school, and I believe, elsewhere in life.

Posted by Samantha R. Vamos, author of The Cazuela That the Farm Maiden Stirred.

Discovering Your Inner Tiger

2011-05-02T10:58:00.025-04:00

Where do you get your ideas from? People ask me that question a lot, and sometimes I hear a tiny wisp of frustration in their voices, as if maybe they think that there is some sort of secret, magic warehouse crammed with ideas, and if only I would reveal its location, then – voila – they could become the next J.K. Rowling.

I love how Madeleine L’Engle dispelled such folly when a little girl posed this same question to her. She bent down and gazed into the little girl’s face, answering, “I get my ideas from the very same place that you do.” In other words, there is no magic key to unlocking the mystery of creativity. Perhaps E.B. White sums it up best, “All I want to say in books, all I ever wanted to say is, I love the world.” Inspiration, I believe, comes from all that we love in this world - and that can be an infinite fountain. But I find it helpful for children if I narrow it down to what I call:

My Five P’s of Inspiration
1. Poetry (and I use the term loosely to include any words that stir my soul, be they in poem, story, song, or even a snippet of a conversation)
2. Pictures (could be an actual painting, photograph, or just a visual image that has taken root in my heart)
3. Places
4. People
5. Passions

A few thoughts then on each of these as they relate to my picture book, Raj the Bookstore Tiger.

Poetry

As a little girl, growing up in Scotland, I had to learn volumes of poems by heart. Like all Scottish schoolchildren, I could recite my poems as well as I could chant my tables. We never viewed such learning as a tedious task, probably because we were the product of a culture that honored the beauty of the spoken and written word. When I first came to America, I was amazed at how much emphasis everyone placed on food – the supermarkets had a whole aisle devoted to cereal! The advertisements touted a different diet every month it seemed, and always someone you met was counting calories or carbs. But yet, I never saw the same emphasis on what we feed our hearts and souls –and that puzzled me, for what better way to feed our souls than with truth and beauty –the very “stuff” of POEMS (and great stories)?

As I grew older, I came to realize just how comforting it was to have that little snippet of a story or poem tucked away in my heart to lean on in troubled times or dark days, such as “All will be well, all will be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” (Julian of Norwich) And when my plans are turned head over heel, what better words to recall than those of our very own Scottish bard, Rabbie Burns, “the best laid plans o’ mice and men gang aft aglae.” In Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt described how he first fell in love with poetry. As he lay sick in the hospital, the girl in the typhoid ward next to him recited “The Highwayman” verse by verse, day by day. But when she died before finishing the whole poem, Frank was grief-stricken – not at her untimely and tragic death, but rather at having had his poem so suddenly snatched from him. Some might view this as rather cold hearted and callous of McCourt, but he already knew death well, for his poverty-stricken life so far had been riddled with it. However, this was his first encounter with a poem, and so he moved toward its grace and light and life as surely as a moth seeks the flame. As Rumi writes:

“Sometimes you hear a voice through
The door calling you, as fish out of
Water hear the waves or a hunting
Falcon hears the drum’s come back.
This turning toward what you deeply love
Saves you.”

Not surprisingly then, when I first came upon these words of William Carlos Williams, many years ago, “You cannot get the news from poems (and I would also add, picture books or stories), but men die every day from lack of what lies therein,” I knew I had the seed of a story. For many years these words simmered in my soul, until they flourished into Raj the Bookstore Tiger – the story of a little marmalade cat who is “saved” by William Blake’s poem, “The Tyger.”

Pictures

As soon as I saw this picture on a greeting card, I knew I had a story. I just wasn’t sure what it would be, and of course it finally morphed into a story about a little cat who sees himself, not as a lion, but as a tiger. It is still the same basic premise: are we able to see our inner potential when we look in a mirror? Can we see our inner tiger? Can we see our best selves? Who are we? We are more than flesh and bones, we are lions and tigers, kings and queens, we are bright shining stars – at our best, we are all of these.

1996 Alan Wnuk, Sausalito, CA, Portal Publications Ltd. “Roaring Reflections”

Places

I did a lot of editing on this story with my wonderful editor Randi Rivers, and along the way, I had Felicity Fotheringham (Raj’s owner) invite a guest author, Sanjiv Patel, to show the children about his native land, India. The first country I ever visited outside of the U.K. was India, and its cornucopia of sights and sounds and smells remain etched in my mind and heart to this day. Funnily enough, the month that Raj was released, off I went to India again, to visit my daughter who was working there. She even took us to a little Indian school, where I read them Raj the Bookstore Tiger.

People

Jane Yolen maintains that “Adult books maintain lives and children’s books change lives.” The people who inspired me to write Raj – a story about how words can transform us - are really all the writers from my childhood whose words have transformed me in some way or another.

But one in particular outshines all the others. When my uncle first gave me The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, I spurned it immediately on account of that pesky word –wardrobe. As an ardent lover of fairy tales, I simply could not accept the notion that something as mundane and perfunctory as a piece of furniture had any business being in a book about a lion and a witch. I wanted wonder. I craved magic. I needed mystery. And as far as I was concerned, all of these things were quite separate from the world of ordinary, everyday objects.

Of course, when I finally succumbed to opening the first page, I fell in love with Narnia, with those haunting images of a faun standing in snow beneath a lamppost, of Lucy chatting with Mr. Tumnus by the fireside, and of Edmund bundled up on a sled beside the Witch, greedily sipping his ill-gotten drink. I felt Lucy’s hurt and frustration when her siblings refused to believe her, I blushed for shame at Edmund’s treachery, (to this day, I associate the act of betrayal with the sickly cloying taste of Turkish Delight), I shed hot stinging tears to see dear Aslan lying bound and helpless, and in the end, I knew the triumph of winning the battle.

Jane Yolen says that, “The writer lights many candles in a good fantasy novel. The shadows they cast in a child’s soul will last for the rest of his life.” Indeed my beloved Narnia still casts its shadows on my soul. Thanks to Mr. Lewis, I see that magic and mystery merge with the mundane and the ordinary – they throb beneath all the layers of life. And I realize that we need the concrete, every day objects, be they wardrobes or railway platforms, as bridges to the Beyond. Indeed, we should never try to separate them, for as L’Engle says, “there is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred.”

Many, many other writers too have touched my heart deeply: L’Engle, Steig, McCourt, E. B. White, Dostoevsky, Thomas Harding, to name but a few. All of them made me love more. They showed me some glimmer of hope, some glimpse of beauty simmering beneath the sometimes sad surfaces of our lives.

Passions

I once read somewhere that the difference between an addiction and a passion is that while our addictions diminish us, our passions enlarge us. My passion, of course, is stories – writing them, reading them, listening to them, and telling them. At the age of twelve, when I had to babysit a three year old, I discovered the power of storytelling. Being at a loss for how to deal with such a small child, I decided to tell her a fairy tale (I knew most of them) in my own words. It worked. She was spellbound, and so my apprenticeship as a storyteller had begun.

Ever since, I have been telling stories and reading stories to anyone who will listen. When I came to America, I began to read books on tape for the blind and I read aloud fairy tales and folktales from around the world at an inner city school in Denver. Seventeen years later, I now see the truth of what that wonderful storyteller John Shea said, “One tells a story not to educate or indoctrinate, but rather to enchant the reader or the listener into the world of the story, so that when they emerge, they do so with an enhanced view of the possibility of their lives.”

One vivid example of this: Some years ago, I read Aesop’s Lion and Mouse to a 3rd grade class at this inner city school. All year long there had been one child, the tiniest and most timid in the class (mouse-like), who had sat still and silent–never did she utter a sound. On this particular day after I asked the class, “I wonder what will you remember about this story? What will you keep in your hearts,” this little girl suddenly perked up, she knelt on her chair, jutted out her chin, and proclaimed in a loud, proud voice, “Small people can do great things.” Tears sprang to my eyes as I witnessed HOPE brimming from that child’s soul. What a tribute to the power of story – the words of Aesop slicing through space and time into the heart of a little girl at an inner city school – words that made her find her TIGER! Words that helped her burn bright like Raj.

And so that brings me to my favorite part of Raj the Bookstore Tiger –

Felicity is reading aloud to Raj. She is feeding him words that will save him – words of encouragement. I love to tell children that encouragement, comes from the French word, la coeur, meaning heart, so of course when we encourage someone, we are feeding hearts and souls.

This is also my favorite illustration in the book because of the starry sky outside. It reminds me of my favorite painting by Van Gogh, Starry Night.

When I came to Colorado from my native Scotland, I found myself missing the sea a lot. I missed the salty tang of it and the foamy white crest of the waves. But here in Colorado, the skies seem vast and endless and at night, they are studded with so many stars, that it always reminds me of Van Gogh’s painting. There is also a beautiful line from a Hopkins poem that I like to match to Van Gogh’s painting -

What a lovely description of the stars. As I gaze up at the starry skies of Colorado now, I like to remember all the “firefolk” in my life – those dear writers like L’Engle and Steig and McCourt and countless others, whose words still “burn bright” for me.

Posted by Kathleen T. Pelley, author of Raj the Bookstore Tiger.

Poetry: The Human Thing to Do

2011-04-01T08:51:00.004-04:00

Humans are naturally rhythmic beings.
Our heart beats.
Our arms and legs swing.
We breathe and blink and our cells divide to the music in our protoplasm.
So it is only natural that we should be rhyming babies.
Long after we have forgotten best friends from 8th grade, the way to weave a mat in Girl Scouts, our first phone number or the trick for remembering the five Great Lakes (HOMES, for those of you who don't live here),
we remember that we will not eat them in a train, we will not eat them in the rain,
we recall that an old house in Paris that was covered in vines lived twelve little girls in two straight lines,
where under a spreading chestnut tree, the village smithy stands,
and celery stewed is more quietly chewed,
while in a beautiful pea green boat,
quoth the raven, nevermore.

Shout it out loud.
Make it up as you make breakfast,
reel it off as you peel potatoes,
jive while you drive the kids to school,
sing while you bring in the groceries,
dance like Gene Kelly eating peanut butter and jelly,
(You don't just make rhymes with your mouth, you know).

It is what we are meant to be.
Joyful, playful, sorrowful, full of ful.

Poetry! It's the human thing to do.

Posted by C.M. Millen, author of the 2011 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award winner, The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane.

The Musical Triumphs of Leonard Bernstein

2011-03-01T09:25:00.035-05:00

For years I have loved the music of Leonard Bernstein. Music he composed such as the opera Candide, the ballet Fancy Free, and the shows On the Town, West Side Story, thrill me. And when I hear a recording of Lenny conducting music by another composer like Mahler or Beethoven, I am deeply moved. I feel Lenny’s passion and it enhances my pleasure of the music.

This pleasure was something I wanted to bring to readers in Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein. I was astonished to learn that as a boy growing up in Boston, Lenny had to struggle to make a career in music despite his exceptional talent. His father, a Russian immigrant who had successfully established a beauty supply business, opposed the idea. Sam Bernstein, Lenny’s father, believed that it would be impossible for an American Jewish kid to break into the world of classical music, which in the 1930s and 1940s was dominated by Europeans. And he was right. Sam wanted Lenny to take over his beauty supply business. Or, at second best, become a rabbi.

Although Lenny loved his father and was greatly influenced by Judaism, he pursued his dream of a life in music. From the moment when he was ten-years-old and the family received a cast-off piano from Aunt Clara, Lenny knew that “music was 'it'.” “There was no question in my mind,” he recalled, “that my life was to be about music.”

With the encouragement of his mother, younger sister Shirley, supportive teachers and influential mentors, Lenny achieved his goal. The book ends with his triumphant conducting debut at Carnegie Hall when he was just twenty-five. A reporter asked Sam why he had ever objected to Lenny’s desire to be a musician, and Sam replied, “How could I know my son was going to grow up to be Leonard Bernstein?”

Researching and writing this book was a joy. During the process I had the marvelous opportunity to meet and interview two of Lenny’s children, Jamie and Alexander Bernstein. I also talked to Lenny’s brother Burton and his lifelong friend and one of his first piano students, Sid Ramin.

But reading about Lenny is incomplete without listening to his music. I tried to compile a discography for the book but had trouble because Lenny is one of the most recorded conductors in history. With the help of my wonderful editor Emily Mitchell, I decided to list some of the CDs from my personal collection that I listened to over and over as I worked on the book, and I included other recordings that I thought readers would particularly enjoy.

To get a glimpse of Lenny performing as a mature adult, go to YouTube and hear him conduct the overture to Candide. Or see him play the piano solo and conduct the second section of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue without a score.

As Lenny once said, “Life without music is unthinkable.” So visit YouTube, or borrow CDs and DVDs from the library, and experience the joy of music with Leonard Bernstein.

Posted by Susan Goldman Rubin, author of Music was IT.

Black History Month observance

2011-02-03T13:46:00.003-05:00

Calvary Baptist Church and the John Greenleaf Whittier Birthplace collaborate on Anne Broyles' Priscilla and the Hollyhocks, a special musical presentation by fiddler Marie Rawlings and the Youth of Calvary Baptist Church, directed by Joseph Devoe. Admission is free to the performance at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 19, at the Calvary Baptist Church, 13 Ashland St., Haverhill. Snow date is Monday, Feb. 21. The performance celebrates local poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier and Haverhill's place as a stop on the Underground Railroad, which helped escaped slaves reach Canada, and freedom.

A Day in the Life of a Book

2011-02-01T00:00:00.003-05:00

On the morning of Tuesday, January 12th, 2010, I turned on my favorite radio program and sat down to work on one of the illustrations for my forthcoming book: While You Are Sleeping: A Lift-the-Flap Book of Time Around the World. I was painting a nighttime scene of three children sleeping in Haiti. With a collage of photographs up on my computer screen for reference, I carefully assembled a fictitious image based on visual facts.

Like all the scenes in the book, this one features a clock, showing the time of day and an appropriate sky to match. But I want my book to teach about more than just time zones. I want it to convey something about what life is like in other parts of the world – how it is different, and how it is the same. The three Haitian children in this illustration share a tattered mattress on a floor of packed earth. They sleep in their clothes under bare walls and windows without glass. But despite a standard of living which the average reader of my book will never experience, these children have each other, and they sleep peacefully.

Suddenly, a news report interrupted the morning radio program: Haiti had just been hit by a devastating earthquake. I stopped painting, and considered what would happen in an earthquake to a house such as this, built of mud and concrete. That picture would not be so pretty. Clearly, my depiction of Haiti was scarcely grim enough. Yet I'm glad it's included in the book, among many other scenes showing children engaged in daily activities which may not be familiar to the majority of my readers.

Though none are as tragic as Haiti, every illustration in While You are Sleeping shows something real. A young girl in England rises early to milk a goat before school. A boy in Thailand climbs a lychee tree and picks the ripe fruit for his afternoon snack. A pre-teen in India carries her baby brother to an outdoor public well, where she pumps water by hand and bathes him in an enamel basin. A Nigerian girl carries a bowl of fruit on her head past neighbors grinding millet in a large wooden mortar. While these places have not gained the world attention the earthquake brought to Haiti, they show children the reality of how other people live even in today's modern world.

The seed idea for While You Are Sleeping had been planted several years earlier while I was signing books at a local elementary school's "Author Day." A teacher who stopped to chat made an offhand comment that not one decent book existed for teaching about time zones. Students understood the turning of the earth and the changing of the seasons. But in this era of international travel and instant world news, there was little to teach how time zones work. The idea came to me to show a single moment all over the globe, with a world map at the back of the book showing the placement of each scene in its respective time zone.

But before the time zone map could be resolved, I had to decide on a day. What time of year would the moment take place? My editor, Alyssa Pusey, and I considered. While it is winter in the northern hemisphere, it's summer in the southern hemisphere. While the sun sets in one place, it rises in another. Some parts of the world are always hot. Fruits ripen in different climates and seasons. Depicting a single moment around the world quickly became a complex jigsaw puzzle of geographic, seasonal, and cultural considerations. There was much more to consider than clocks.

I decided to begin with sunset at the beginning and sunrise at the end of the book. Beginning in Alaska, we moved location dots around the globe like chess pieces, distributing them in as many time zones as possible. I had my heart set on showing cherry blossoms in Japan. That placed the book in spring. But were lychee fruit ripe in Thailand at the same time? Did the sun rise late enough in Brazil for a fisherman and his son to set out at the same time the sky darkened in springtime Alaska? Would nighttime in Mexico City coincide with morning in England? Around and around the world my editor and I went. As our press deadline rapidly approached, Alyssa, despite being eight months pregnant, devoted extra time to the book, and patiently helped research the proper times of "civic twilight" (the period of time before dawn and after dusk when artificial light is no longer/not yet needed), while I combed the Internet for the right shape of houses in Nigeria, fishing huts in Brazil, and where the tree line stops in Alaska. The more we searched, the more we learned . . . and the more the world became a tapestry of interrelationships.

In the end, time and place came together, and March 13th emerged as the perfect day for the book. On that day, everything shown is both possible and probable. With every element happily tucked in, While You Are Sleeping went off to press, and I went on to begin work on my next book. And a few weeks later, my editor gave birth to a beautiful baby boy – born into a world of stunning diversity, far-reaching time zones – and with a little help from books and teachers, ever-increasing global awareness.

Posted by Durga Bernhard, author and illustrator of While You Are Sleeping: A Lift-the-Flap Book of Time Around the World.

The Hall of OddAnimals

2010-12-31T10:38:00.025-05:00

Writing and illustrating children's books can be a solitary activity. Sure, there are school, library, and bookstore visits, but much more of my creative time is spent alone at a drawing desk, trying desperately not to be distracted by email, food, or my cat.

That's one of many reasons I'm very excited about my OddAnimals project at the Children's Hospital Boston. Starting this past November and continuing through February of 2011, I will be working with patients, families, and staff of the hospital to create animals that have never been seen before by the human eye. We call them OddAnimals. These newly-discovered species will be displayed in the gallery in the lobby of the hospital. It's being guest-curated by Emily Isenberg and presented by Jessica Finch and her Art for Kool Kids Program.

Anyone can submit their own personal OddAnimal by attending a workshop or filling out an OddAnimal guidebook and dropping it in the mailbox in the Children's Hospital lobby. You, yes you, can even download the guidebook and email your completed form back to me.

"Now, what is an OddAnimal?" you might be asking yourself right about now. Um, I don't know, but through a series of workshops, activities, and conversations, I hope to find out. We've already distributed over 500 guidebooks and have received a bunch of great submissions. I have met incredible kids and awesome families who were excited and willing to help me out with this admittedly weird project.

As always, I am inspired and awed by the imagination of children. In fact, I see my main role in this project as trying not to mess up their perfectly great ideas and drawings. I haven't really even had to explain what an OddAnimal is, and most of the children already have an idea of what theirs will look like as soon as I sit down with them.

To introduce myself to the population of the hospital, we have installed a wall's worth of my artwork, including 2 pages from my Charlesbridge book, A Call for A New Alphabet, as well as pages from some of my other books and some cool, big wall stickers of the letter X and his friends.

Here are a few examples of the work we've created so far:

The Chale by Kaleb
"The Chale is a joyful, ocean-dwelling creature. Its slimy, elephant-sized body resembles that of a killer whale, but its head is closer to that of a cheetah. This playful animal feeds on penguins, krill, shark, cuttlefish, octopus, and squid, and is known for its ability to swim up to 500 miles per hour."

The Hugo by Kelsey

"The Hugo is a magical animal that is roughly the size of an elephant. Its green, purple, yellow, red, blue, orange, and black scales derive their color from the jelly beans that make up its diet. Its main activity is snooping around its mountain habitat in search of other animals to play with."

The Night Night by Brice

"The Night Night is a dinosaur-sized creature that lives in the mountains. Despite its angry nature, this sleepy animal is an herbivore, eating only leaves. It has fuzzy, green skin with blue spots."

Willy by Lily

"Willy is a horse-sized creature that playfully roams the forest in search of blueberries, which it eats with an extremely long tongue. It has fuzzy black and white fur."

And here is what Willy sounds like.

And my interpretation of him:

You can see some more OddAnimals on our Tumblr page or my Facebook page. Or, better yet, come by the Children's Hospital Boston to see the ever-evolving Hall of OddAnimals!

And here's the link to the book trailer for my new book, A Call for a New Alphabet!

Posted by Jef Czekaj, author and illustrator of A Call for a New Alphabet, due out February 2011.

Hangin’ Out with Uncle Wiggly Wings: Researching and Writing Candy Bomber: The Story of the Berlin Airlift’s “Chocolate Pilot”

2010-12-01T09:13:00.041-05:00

It seems I have a fascination for true stories about children who endure tumultuous events in history, as I tend to write about them (The Children of Topaz; Brothers in Valor). So when I ran onto the story of the Berlin Candy Bomber, it was a natural fit, for it concerned children who suffered through years of war—some young enough to have only known a life of hunger and fear. The candy-laden handkerchief parachutes dropped over West Berlin by Gail Halvorsen, a young American pilot, lit up a dark world for kids who hadn’t tasted chocolate in years. But the mere gesture of kindness also offered those children both healing and hope amidst the rubble of WW II. Forevermore, those kids remembered Halvorsen as Uncle Wiggly Wings (because he wiggled the wings of his plane to signal a candy drop), the Chocolate Pilot or Chocolate Uncle, and, of course, the Candy Bomber. In the photograph above, you see Halvorsen sitting on his cot reading letters from grateful West Berlin children (note the boxes of Hershey bars behind him).

As you know, writers, particularly of nonfiction, must do their homework--in other words: research, research, research. When writing about history, we spend lots of time checking secondary sources—books, magazines articles, etc. But we really get excited about primary source materials, such as letters, diaries, or (better yet) living people who were “there.” Of course, most historical events happened so long ago that finding and talking to folks who experienced those events is impossible (unless you know a good medium who can help you talk to the dead).

The World War II era (and its immediate aftermath) is now far enough in the past that we are beginning to run short of war veterans who can tell us first hand about that great and terrible conflict. Gail Halvorsen, the focus of my book, was a WW II pilot who was sent to Germany three years after the war ended to fly supplies into West Berlin. Our former ally, the Soviet Union (Russia), had turned against us and blockaded the surface routes into the American, British, and French sectors of the former capital city. To keep the West Berliners from starving, we flew in enough food and fuel to keep two million people alive for more than a year. Most of the flyers during what was known as the Berlin Airlift had been pilots during WW II, and not many of them are around anymore. So, to discover that Halvorsen was not only alive but also vibrant—and to realize he lived close to me—was more than exciting. It was exhilarating!

Meeting and getting to know Gail Halvorsen (who just turned ninety this year and is still qualified to fly C-54 cargo planes!) left no doubt this was a book I wanted to write. I discovered he is in constant, worldwide demand to tell his story, and so he travels a great deal. He goes to Germany often, where the children of 1948 still remember and love him, and he is regularly invited to present to school children, church groups, community organizations, and so. As a result of these ongoing appearances, he put together a short video presentation about the origins of the Berlin Airlift and about the implementation of his idea to parachute candy to the children. Here is the link to that presentation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-4vE6DCLeU). Click on it, and you’ll hear Gail’s voice narrating. You’ll also see some of the 8mm movie clips he shot of the Berlin Airlift in progress, as well as his “candy bombing” operations. I must say, it’s educational and inspiring.

As a result of his travel schedule, I usually met with Halvorsen between trips while I was working on the book. That’s when I’d drive out to his small ranch, which lies about 20 miles south of my house in Orem, Utah. It has a beautiful setting, as you can see from the photograph of Gail and me with the mountains in the background. Gail allowed me access to his files, and therefore I was able to scan over 300 of his photos (many of which appear in the book). Of course, we had many long conversations, and he was always available, if not in person then by phone or email, to answer my endless questions, verify facts, or simply to visit. I think it’s safe to say that we became friends, which was the very best outcome of my writing project.

Gail Halvorsen lives in Arizona these days, though he still owns and maintains his place in Utah (which, by the way, is his home state). Therefore, I seldom see him now—only when he blows into town to check on the ranch or visit family. But we still keep in contact, mostly via email. The last time I saw Gail was in early October (2010) when I received a call from him letting me know he’d be in Utah during the next few days. Of course, he was leaving soon after his arrival for far-flung spots—he’s still a veritable globetrotter and was heading to Germany again and then to Afghanistan, where the U.S. Air Force had invited him to participate in an airlift mission. Amazing! At any rate, he came by my house to pick up a half dozen copies of Candy Bomber, as he’d run low on them and needed some for some an upcoming event. Of course, Gail has written his own book for adults titled The Berlin Candy Bomber, and he sells a lot of them everywhere he goes. But he’s also very good at promoting my book during his travels, as well as Margot Theis Raven’s picture book, Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot.

Speaking of Mercedes, one of the best vignettes in Candy Bomber is about her. She was a seven-year-old girl living in an apartment building near Templehof Airport, where the American cargo planes landed every few minutes. She wrote Lt. Halvorsen a letter chiding him (and the other pilots, of course) for flying so low over her place in his approach to Templehof that her chickens were afraid and had stopped laying eggs—but the pain of it all might be alleviated if he were to manage a candy drop nearby. Mercedes ended her letter with these words: “When you see the white chickens please drop it there, all will be OK.” As it turned out, Mercedes and her husband, Peter Wild, were primary sources for me, as well. One important item they provided was a high-resolution photo of Mercedes at age seven. Note that she is wearing black market shoes, which were often mismatched. As you can see, these shoes are not the same size, a detail Mercedes and Peter pointed out to me.

The other vignette that I found most delightful was about Peter Zimmerman, who sent Halvorsen a letter with a map to guide the lieutenant’s plane to his backyard. “Drop the chocolate there,” he wrote. Gail attempted to find Peter’s place and did make a drop—but not close enough, apparently. Another letter from Peter complained that because Halvorsen had missed his yard, bigger kids had beaten him to the candy. A drawing accompanying the letter showed a cargo plane with the words “No chocolate yet” on the tailfin. Finally, in frustration, Peter wrote this: “You are a pilot? I gave you a map. How did you guys win the war?” Drops to Mercedes and Peter were never successful, so Gail mailed packages filled with sweets to both children.

One of the most salient historical concepts is people’s capacity for inhumanity. In fact, our wars often are the events around which we organize the recounting of our history. I suppose one of the things I liked best about writing Candy Bomber was that this little slice of history reveals, instead, our capacity for compassion and love—even for our recent enemies.

Halvorsen at the end of the airfield with German children.

Halvorsen leading German athletes into the stadium during the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

Posted by Michael O. Tunnell, author of Candy Bomber: The Story of the Berlin Airlift's "Chocolate Pilot".