Month: September 2013

Banned Books Week

Perhaps you read my post about the A, B, C… children’s book exhibit at the NYC Public Library. In it I posted this pic of the tower of banned books.

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This is the week that we celebrate all those brave authors, illustrators, and industry professionals who brought these books into the world and the teachers, librarians, parents and others who championed them. By standing behind these books, these gatekeepers also recognized that their role is not to keep gates closed to children but to swing them wide and trust that children will make a choice that is right for them.

This week I’ll be posting links to Banned Books Week articles. Today:

This 2009 School Library Journal Article, A Dirty Little Secret: Self-Censorship
By School Library Journal Archive Content on February 1, 2009 

and

This School Library Journal Article from just a few days ago: NCAC: School Visits Nixed for Medina, Rowell, By Debra Lau Whelan

 

Meg Medina’s book, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, is on my too-tall and ever-wobbly To Be Read list.

I just finished Rowell’s, Eleanor & Park which led me to post this on Twitter.

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I’m a parent, and I’ve seen my kiddos make some bad choices in life (throwing sticks at one’s brother who has climbed a tree and can’t get down) but they choose well in books. I’ve also seen them start a book and then hand it back to me saying, “I don’t get this.” or “This isn’t for me.” or “Maybe in a few years.” or “This is scary.” or “Ick. They kiss in this one.” My policy at home? fREADom.

Ahoy! Magic Marks the Spot is a beaut!

Shiver me timbers! Is it International Talk Like A Pirate Day already? Indeed, Mateys, indeed! Which means it’s time to pull up a barrel and get ready for some of the best middle grade storytelling I’ve seen since Ruthie Bluetooth drank a wee too much grog.


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Caroline Carlson’s debut middle grade novel Magic Marks the Spot is the first in The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates trilogy and I’ll be counting my blessings about that. The action packed adventure is funny and engaging. Caroline’s characters jump off the page and pull you into their watery surroundings. She makes use of her amazing knowledge of the English language (I know. She’s proofread my manuscripts.) to create a send-up of High Society norms and expectations. Main character Hilary, challenges what it means to be a lady, a pirate, and a friend and for that, I admire her. My favorite quote from the book: “Running away and pursuing one’s dream was quite a piratical thing to do.”

Caroline embraces the silly pirate genre but sets it in a world of magic whose rules are well-defined. Letters, articles, excerpts from the Official Very Nearly Honorable Pirate League Guide, and A Young Lady’s Guide to Augustan Society further the plot, provide comic relief and give readers a deeper understanding of the world. The design of the book is incredible. Deckled edges give the book the old world feel. Add to that unique stationary and handwriting for each character, and of course–– a map. According to my children, “If it has a map, it has to be good.” I can tell you that I held 12 children from 8 to 14 in rapt attention as I read the beginning aloud this weekend. As I finish the book, I’m happy to say that there be twists and turns aplenty.

Hilary Westfield has always dreamed of being a pirate. She can tread water for thirty-seven minutes. She can tie a knot faster than a fleet of sailors, and she already owns a rather pointy sword. There’s only one problem: The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates refuses to let any girl join their ranks of scourges and scallywags.

But Hilary is not the kind of girl to take no for answer. To escape a life of petticoats and politeness at her stuffy finishing school, Hilary sets out in search of her own seaworthy adventure, where she gets swept up in a madcap quest involving a map without an X, a magical treasure that likely doesn’t exist, a talking gargoyle, a crew of misfit scallywags, and the most treacherous—and unexpected—villain on the High Seas.

Caroline is another graduate of (NO– not Miss Pimm’s Finishing School for Delicate Ladies) Vermont College of Fine Arts and their Writing for Children and Young Adults program. I’m happy to call her my mate in the League of Extraordinary Cheese Sandwiches– pirates each and every one. And so, with that in mind, I unfurled me sails and boarded me land cruiser (The Concord Coach & Commuter Rail)

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to Wellesley Bookstore and Caroline’s launch last Thursday. 

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(She might look like a Miss Pimm’s girl but she be pirate through and through.)

Where I helped tote in grog and vittles with Caroline’s mom.

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(Caroline’s mom might look like a Governess but she can throw around the orders like the most vicious scallywag on the high seas.)

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She be makin’ fine sweets though, eh?

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When the place was packed to the crow’s nest with family and friends, Allison, who runs a tight ship, introduced Caroline, captain of the evening.

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Caroline read the grab-you-with-her-hook beginning of the book then told about the process of writing and publishing. It was no pleasure cruise even for an experienced sailor like herself.

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Good thing that Wellesley Books had plenty of stock because the lines were long for Magic Marks the Spot.

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Happily, plenty of VCFA mateys came along to celebrate! Congratulations, Caroline.

Book Review Wednesday: Brotherhood by A.B. Westrick

September started with a sprint that included sending my oldest to his first year of high school, both kids auditioning for school productions, my husband off to a full-time masters program and me trying to turn around edits on a manuscript.  It is only now, that I’m finding time to update Creative Chaos. Thanks for your patience.

If you are anything like me, amazing fall releases are pushing your “professional books” budget to the limit. I’ll be posting about two over the next two days!

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Last Thursday was the book birthday of A.B. Westrick’s, BROTHERHOOD. I was lucky enough to receive and advanced readers copy of the book from the author. From the website:

The year is 1867, and Richmond, Virginia, lies in ruins. By day fourteen-year-old Shadrach apprentices with a tailor and sneaks off for reading lessons with Rachel, a freed slave, at her school for African-American children. By night he follows his older brother to the meetings of a brotherhood, newly formed to support Confederate widows and grieving families like his. As the true murderous mission of the brotherhood—now known as the Ku Klux Klan—emerges, Shad is trapped between his pledge to them and what he knows is right. In this unflinching view of the bitter animosity that stemmed from economic and social upheaval in the South during the period of Reconstruction, it’s clear that the Civil War has ended, but the conflict isn’t over.

Shadrach is caught between being a boy and a man. He is caught between the needs of his family and his own needs for self-actualization. He is caught between his allegiance to old ways and his desire to be educated, and forge a new world. He is caught between hating others and being able to live with himself.

This in-between place is the place of the Young Adult and A.B. Westrick writes it beautifully. I felt her characters and their conflicts deeply. My empathy for Shadrach fought with my own sense of right and wrong.

The setting, despite its grit and tension, is beautiful. Geographical details coupled with vernacular and emotions of the period bring the reader squarely into 1867 Richmond. The reader clearly experiences the “tensions ordinary, impoverished, and poorly educated white Southerners might have felt during the period of Reconstruction,” as A.B. Westrick writes in her author’s note.

I urge teachers to add this book to their Civil War & Reconstruction units. Will there be hard questions and difficult discussions? YES! But this is the purpose of good literature.

“Inside the ABC of It” – A Series of Three Panel Discussions With Leonard Marcus and Special Guests

I saw this wonderful exhibition and posted about it here: http://annajboll.com/2013/07/22/summer-blog-lag-and-a-photographic-apology/ Leave a comment below, if you plan to attend the discussions. I’d love to follow you and hear about the events via Twitter, Facebook or blogs.

Bank Street College Center for Children's Literature

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This fall, the Bank Street College of Education will host three lively panel discussions moderated by Leonard Marcus, curator of “The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter,” the critically acclaimed exhibition currently on view at The New York Public Library (42nd Street at Fifth Avenue).

These one-hour programs, each featuring a panel of experts in conversation with the curator, will focus on key aspects of the wide-ranging landmark exhibition, and offer audience members an opportunity to ask questions about the show and discuss the lessons to be learned from it.

All three programs are free and open to the public, and will be held in the Tabas Auditorium of the Bank Street College of Education. A book signing will follow in the lobby immediately following each program.

Share your impressions of “The ABC of It” and be reminded why children’s books do matter by attending one or more…

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We Shall Overcome: With the help of great books and movies that help us remember history

Last night I saw Lee Daniel’s The Butler and it was a privilege.

The story takes on a sweeping scope of civil rights history from the point of view of Cecil Gaines, a White House butler, from his cotton field origins in 1926 to the present day. You can see the timeline here. The film is an amazing juxtaposition of Cecil’s life and the life of his son Louis. Louis, leaves for college and joins the Freedom Riders. He sits at the all white counters of Woolworths.

Teachers interested in this time period should look at Andrea Davis Pinkney’s, SIT IN.

Louis’s activism lands him in prison with Dr. King, and leads him to the Black Panthers.

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail is available in book form and on the internet.
Do not miss Rita Williams-Garcia’s, ONE CRAZY SUMMER.

The whole time, his father is serving white presidents and their guests, excelling at a profession that requires him to be invisible. The fabulous editing of this film allows the viewer to see the “subversive, not subservient” (a line from Dr. King in the movie) contribution of the butler on the path to equality. While many in the African-American movie have been concerned about the constant characterization of Blacks as maids and butlers, I found the back and forth between Cecil and his son balancing.

Kadir Nelson’s fabulous illustrations are always awe inspiring.

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The timing of the film release, so close to the 50th Anniversary of The March on Washington, could not have been accidental, and while I wish that my 12 and 14 year olds had been in the theater with me (They wanted to see Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters and came out hating it. “Nothing like the book.”) I’m even more pleased to see that THE WATSON’S GO TO BIRMINGHAM has been made into a Hallmark movie to air on September 20th.


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Mr. Sharp and Mr. Schu have an amazing post and giveaway at Watch. Connect. Read. about the movie. They post a link to teacher resources and a great collection of video interviews with Christopher Paul Curtis, the cast, and other folks involved in the making of the movie. I hope you’ll check it out. The most moving moment in the trailer is this quote from Bryce Clyde Jenkins, the young actor who plays Kenny Watson.

“The thing that I like most about this story is that it’s a real historical event. This allows people to get a perspective of what people went through so people like me could be where they are now. It’s a really life changing lesson. It makes you feel grateful for what you have.”

Go see Lee Daniel’s The Butler. Then, on Friday, September 20th is a Friday make a date with your children, or have a house party and invite the neighborhood to see and discuss The Watson’s Go to Birmingham. You won’t be sorry.