bookish cheese, with cat & mouse

What was by my side from the Thanksgiving holidays right on through, well, it’s still by my side, is cheese. I’m not talking about the cream cheese with chives of my youth or the brie of my 30s, but the robust hard cheeses of my middle age. And If I look to share blame for this overindulgence, I will charge & convict, but spare a sentence in the Tower of London a particular volume, for being an accomplice in an abundance of cheese love.

The culprit is a deftly illustrated book for ages 9-12  (& for those of us adults who read a lot of children’s books) that is also a beautifully told story of love among unlikely friends: The Cheshire Cheese Cat.

Barry Moser, of his own Pennyroyal Press and many superior  projects, is the artist. And that signals a lot right there. Co-authors are Carmen Agra Deedy,  one of this nation’s most beloved storytellers & a rip-roaring picture book author (The Library Dragon, The Secret Old Zeb  & many more.) I was ever more her fan after I met her last year at the UCF Morgridge International Book Festival. Her co-author here in this is new to me;  Randall Wright  is now a writer I want to become familiar with for titles such as The Silver Penny. 

In this collaboration, an uncommon blue alleycat, Skilley & a London chesse pub’s mouse, Pip,  team up with a perfectly named girl, Nell, & a big bird. It’s fun, it beautifully carries off what the most welcome picture books do-  bringing something clever to the story for adults. It also calls to mind the affection among unlikely characters in the Garth Williams-illustrated classic, The Cricket in Times Square.  Surprises & secrets & yes, some sadness (watch out for that cleaver!) are salted through The Cheshire Cheese Cat, with a fond nod to Dickens & many atmospheric aspects of  Olde London.

“The innkeeper bent forward, hands on knees, and inspected Skilley with a critical eye. London’s alleyways, docks and sewers appeared to have dealt harshly with the young cat. The artful dodging of hansom cabs, chamber pots, and inevitable fishwives’ brooms had left him with a ragged ear, numerous scrapes, and a tracery of scars.”

Workshop Friday/MLK Jr. Weekend

I prowl around for prompts.

And so I found inspiration in HEART TO HEART, edited by Jan Greenberg.

This collection of visual art features  poems created by writers who feel a connection to a work of art.   When I paged to  Faith Ringgold’s art and  Angela Johnson’s poem, “From Above” I felt a tingle. Angela’s poem is inspired by Faith Ringgold picture book, TAR BEACH, a favorite I pulled right off my shelf. I turned  to the starry night, rooftop image in the poem, and  luxuriated in reading both the poet’s words and the artist’s words, seeing the artist’s images, and then I reread the whole story.

Next I pulled from my shelves other titles, centering on the theme of honoring good stories featuring African-Americans, both in fiction and non-fiction genres.

Thus arrived my recent Friday workshop for writers I collect with regularly.

We each selected a  book rich with images. Then we each selected a work of art within that picture book. And then we started a  poem, with the artwork as catalyst.

The title that pulled me to it centers on a theme involving slavery and emancipation that I haven’t seen much about.  The story is WALKING HOME TO ROSIE LEE by A. LaFaye, an author whose historical fiction is a valued staple on my shelves. And we are colleagues, through the Hollins University MFA Children’s Lit. program.  This picture book is illustrated by Keith D. Shepherd. I selected a ROSIE LEE scene where the child character finds his mother. This unfolds in the confusion following Emancipation, when many families searched tirelessly to re-create as whole as possible, their families that had been harshly separated by slavery.

“A Pie So Sweet” by Jan Godown Annino

I remember the exact smell when I found Mama

Walking for days and days, I didn’t find much sweetness in that air

until a lady set a pie out on a window

but the breeze must have decided to carry the scent of those fresh hot blueberries the other way

because I didn’t smell anything

Still, I came down that big hill, closer to  the bottom and that big hotel

until I saw her eyes still sweet gray like a kitten

and a scarf at her neck still covering something not sweet -

the scar from when she tried to run for Freedom and they brought her back by dragging her

but she survived that

Now came this day

It’s Freedom Day

The end of my walking to find Mama, baker of sweet pies

It was the pie that found me my Mama

A pie so sweet

Workshop Friday books:

Mama Miti  Donna Jo Napoli/Kadir Nelson

Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky    Faith Ringgold

Planting The Trees of Kenya Claire A. Nivola

Tar Beach  Faith Ringgold

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice  Philip Hoose

Walking Home to Rosie Lee     A LaFaye/ Keith D. Shepherd

Martin’s Big Words           Doreen Rappaport/Bryan Collier

Always My Dad    Sharon Dennis Wyeth/Raul Colon

SIT-IN   Andrea Davis Pinkney/Brian Pinkney

The Story of Ruby Bridges  Robert Coles/George Ford

The catalytic book is HEART TO HEART, edited by Jan Greenberg.

Update: Bookseedstudio is proud to direct you to the

THE KING CENTER IMAGING PROJECT

Realio, Trulio, Florida

“Let us come alive to the splendor that is all around us, and see the beauty in ordinary things.”  -Merton

What is this speck far beyond in yon water?

Keep watching!

I have that pinch-me lucky feeling – to be in Florida in December with my Family, to see the beauty in our world’s “ordinary things.”

Flowers bloom outdoors on trees. In December!

Oranges hang on branches,  bright as polka dots.

Sea creatures pop up from the water  to say Hi.

happy days to all, especially dear Family & pals – xox

American Indian Perspectives on Thanksgiving

If you are not of American Indian/Native American heritage, have you still ever wondered what some of your  impressions & ideas might be about the holiday, if you were a member of a Tribe? Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian, which I always like to visit first whenever I am fortunate enough to be in D.C., here are some thoughts. I hope your Thanksgiving is the best, ever.

 

From George W. to Joseph B.

When not yet 16, George Washington copied 41 rules of civil behavior, (scroll down if  a list of site topics precede this), at least one of which, I violated Halloween Weekend. After a day that began early I nodded  off at night  during a top-drawer, well-staged & otherwise eye-popping theater performance. I woke quickly so it wasn’t a continuing violation. I offer the ideals our future first President took fountain pen to inkwell for, in hopes they are a timely diversion in this month of  dining & socializing & imbibing for Thanksgiving.    And I am thankful for being directed to them, by The Village Square.  (item #2) Continuing in a spirit of thankfulness I offer a bridge to structured versions of two of my favored anonymous ways of showing thankfulness, and also offer this kind group  , which codify some of the serendipity path- of- life ways to love neighbor, community & World.

ALSO – If you look for children’s books that aren’t of the November turkey- dinner fare variety,  please consider CIRCLE OF THANKS and SQUANTO’s JOURNEY, both from Joseph Bruchac.

Enjoy, be thankful.

3 A’s

APALACHICOLA. AUGUSTINE, ST. & the ALA

Novel-making in early fall prompts a delayed & long, catching-up post, collecting 3 A+ events. PLUS Happy National Day on Writing!

APALACHICOLA, up first.

My husband caught a redfish! From shore. In this quite special place.

67 Commerce Street

Caught a few minutes time , myself, with fine writers I didn’t before know & some writers who are warmly familiar.

JACK RUDLOE

Everyone caught on  – to the idea that Apalachicola, Florida, tucked with salt into the river and bay and estuary of the same name, is the place to hold a literary festival.  It is a delight to walk inside tbe beautifully restored Ormond House, where my hubby & I once stayed overnight during the life it led as a stately B & B. It was also equally grand to stroll into the beautiful restoration work-in-progress Raney House & imagine voices of times past.

It even much more cause for delight to walk into the hall of the restored Fry- Conter House & see a small-sized, child-height book case. And to realize that this bookcase displays like peacock feathers, large colorful illustrated books. And to understand that this bookcase is like at least 30 given to regional children via a mighty fine program. Celebrated at “Autumn-Authors in Apalachicola.”

This mission of the Franklin County/Apalachicola outpost of the national program, Bring Me a Book, is reason to walk with a spring in your step. The best books given to those wee readers who need it most. The furniture to help keep books tidy and to show appreciation for the treasure. A piece of furniture that doubly serves as perfect picture frame, to showcase the picture book cover art.  Furniture that helps the offenders serving prison time locally, who craft the bookcases for young minds. What better place to learn about this synergistic effort, than the historic Fry Conter House, restored, answering to the name, Apalachicola Museum of Art.

The festival is the beneficiary of so much effort from Apalachicola’s Head Reader, who writes with great style herself about books, and also from writers & especially from bookseller Dale Julian, plus other dreamers & doers  who know who they are. Brava to the dynamo Caty Greene, Head Reader, otherwise known as dedicated librarian to the City.

ST AUGUSTINE

SO on the other coast, it’s a honor to be pulled into the 4th annual Florida Heritage Book Awards, where I was fortunate to meet Lucy Anne Hurston.  I treasure her book, about her aunt, the multi-accomplished author Mz. Zora, who I denote here as an anthropologist. It  is important to underscore her work in the field, this month of October 2011, as armor against the idea of Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott,  to dissuade bright minds from concentrating their studies in this field of endeavor.

I gnashed my teeth over missing  Ms. Lucy Anne Hurston’s presentation due entirely to my own fault of yapping with folks at the wrong time & not keeping track of the flow of things, but am not missing the chance to dwell in her book. It is a beauty of design, research & information. Please read it & enjoy the pull -out fascimile manuscripts, letters, notes & what have you, shared so generously in SPEAK SO YOU CAN SPEAK AGAIN: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston. It is from Lucy Anne Hurston and the estate of Zora Neale Hurston. It helps a reader understand Mz. Zora’s hurculean accomplisments in an up-close way. You will tingle. The Christmas cards she drew and sent are priceless, along with everything else, including singed papers recovered when workmen cleared out her home after her death. This is a museum between covers, what it would take a researcher a lifetime to accumulate, in one treasure box of a book. Find an interview with Lucy Anne Hurston here. The book contains a CD with Zora Neale Hurston excerpts.

SPEAK SO YOU CAN SPEAK AGAIN: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston by Lucy Anne Hurston and the Estate of Zora Neale Hurston

Next on the agenda, reuniting with parts of my past  – both at the conference and offsite in a home visit to a friend of days ago who with her devoted hubby, is busy raising a new set of young readers whilst watching the family teen readers spread their wings.  First up, esteemed University of Florida History professor emeritus Dr. Michael Gannon, who I enjoyed visiting with at a head banquet table. He is the prolific author of many manner of in-depth history books. Most easily consumed for novices to the peninsular topic is FLORIDA: A SHORT HISTORY.  A bonus is the CD twinned with this book; you hear his broadcaster voice, which is how I first came to know him, interviewing him as a student reporter, about his radio days past in St. Augustine.  Likewise it was an old times moment with a newsroom pal from days back, Randy White. The prolific creator of the famous derring-do character of the world, Doc Ford, introduced me to the talented pianist and chanteuse Wendy Webb, who creates a quite wonderful treasure trove of music. Paolo & I hope to hear her perform soon!

It was a pleasure to spend time at the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society table.

And to be so finely hosted at my presentation by author Jane R. Wood, creator of an inventive middle grade novel series with history as its rich backdrop. Jane also whips us non-business type authors into shape with the publishing tips seminar she presents with her creative colleague Frances Keiser. I hope to attend.

Whilst there for my presentation on Betty Mae Tiger Jumper and SHE SANG PROMISE, the picture book biography illustrated by Lisa Desimini,  I found my way to some uncommon views of the Ancient City (ongoing research for my SCENIC DRIVING FLORIDA heritage travel guide, ya know. It’s why it’s in the 3rd ed.)

The plaque that follows commemorates an event that never should have happened. Thank you to writing colleague David Nolan, who I also missed seeing there with my yapping  & thanks to whoever else is responsible for this historic marker being in place today.  Having known about the harsh response to those unyielding in the cause of Civil Rights – may their memories always be upheld -  I didn’t before inform myself exactly where the infamous pool incident unfolded. Now I know & I can more readily steer pals to a commercial site that holds this history- the Hilton, at city bayfront, near the lovely Bridge of Lions. Best, please, to walk in, as parking is a bear.

I also journeyed to visit the St. Augustine gravesite of Randoph Caldecott, but found gates closed. While a writer never needs a reason to return to the atmospheric & lovely St. Augustine, if one is required, that visit is part of my to-do list, next St. Augustine jaunt.

THE ALA

WE hopped, skipped & jumped over to New Orleans & the colossal conference of some of the key upholders of our First Amendment, the folks of the American Library Association.

Most daily events were held in a building 1 and 1/3  mile long.  I learned this description at the spiffy early bird orientation, where I also found a cheerful publisher’s representative who knew of  the rural Cherryville to Quakertown, N.J. region, where I played in woods and fields as a beginning reader of comic books.

And there was almost an entire round table of enthusiastic USF information and library studies students playing the ice-breaker bingo game there, too. And well they should have been there as the esteemed professor, Dr. Henrietta Smith, former NYC children’s librarian, and longtime USF stalwart was honored at this ALA with the Virginia Hamilton Practioner Award for lifetime service award for her outstanding contributions to the library world through many decades.

Events glittered throughout at least 5 other venues, including the co-headquarters.

This Marriott at 555 Canal Street turned out to be a hotel filled with accommodating staff. (I hope you are reading this, Mr. Bill Marriott, who is a blogger of sorts – give that property an award.) My family & I were tickled to live on what turned out to be like a club floor, with the 2 pools & a giant deck & also, a room- with- a- view bend & stretch room all just steps away from our large, corner-view room. But of all the fine physical aspects of the hotel, we loved best the quiet of our room & the grand views from two picture windows. Well done, staff.

c. all rights reserved

To feel the geography of the region, we immediately headed to the mighty, muddy Mississippi River.

We crossed over to the community of Algiers on the no-frills public ferry as walk-ons. The commuter boats are said to have churned along on this route since 1827. We enjoyed a walk along the levee & gazed at a giant sculpture of mega-talent Louis Armstrong, commanding a big levee. We decided to dine on lip-smacking Creole dishes from the delicious kitchen of The Dry Dock Cafe, where we also bought a gift certificate for Paolo’s pal, (who was out of town) who was the gem of a person who tipped us off to this gem of a side trip. Our ferry ride back was ever better, as it was darker and thus, we enjoyed our approach to a lit riverfront view. We expect to linger longer in atmospheric Algiers on our next New Orleans’ visit.

c. all rights reserved

Next day, it was time to hop the red, Canal Street electric car (the one that says museums and NOT the one that takes you to a cemetery) & head to the enormous city park, with its miniature choo-choo train, carousel, sculpture garden, swans, boat rides & for our purpose – the New Orleans Museum of Art. Inside we learned about Edward Degas’ months living with & painting family, in New Orleans & we enjoyed his oil of his sister-in-law, who was blind.

We also were thrilled to see the exhibit of famous shoulder pins of the first woman who worked as the U.S. Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright. Not frippery say careful curator notes, which quote world leaders on how they assessed her shoulder pins (wasp or bee for tense times) to denote the mood of Madame Secretary.

We moved through galleries of Fabregre gems, viewed more astounding paintings from a variety of periods, saw sculpture, glassware, drawings, photography & installations. It was almost too much for the eyes & neurons to take in, but fortunately the legendary Brennan’s restaurant dynasty operates a stylish cafe on site & sit & sup on its aqua sofa facing a giant picture window over the city park, we composed our overloaded eyeballs.

My favorite exhibit originated in Florida & included a lovely example of longshirt of the 1930s created in fine detail by a Seminole Indian fabric artist, who made it as everyday clothing for a man to wear in South Florida. I delight in having at hand always some of this sort of art in fabric in a few pieces of modern Seminole Tribe of Florida patchwork myself, so I quite giddy when I find older examples in museum collections.

c. all rights reserved

My favorite single object d’art at NOMA was the giant- format photograph of a retired NYPD officer. This sturdy individual lived in the museum with other retired of New York’s finest, 24/7. The now iconic image, by a talent who will remain unidentified here until I find my notes, was taken at the front of the lobby grand staircase to the second floor galleries. No NOMA art was lost after the August 28,2005 hell of water and wind that was Katrina, I was told. Many thanks to the Museum for hiring the art guards and to the NYPD retiree crew who lived with the art.

As I expected, response to the catastropic disaster wove itself with dignity and thought, through the ALA events.

For those who don’t follow this organization, you should know that it was one of the first groups to NOT cancel an already planned 2006 conference, when many booked convention groups were understandably uncertain about meeting in the devastated region.  And I heard more than once, that New Orleans will always & forever to eternity hold the ALA in high esteem bordering on love, for that.

The first panel I selected  was on the recovery of library service along the coast in Louisiana & Mississippi, following Hurricane Katrina (and also, Rita, the hurricane that followed Katrina.)

I was not the only one wiping away a stray tear when a community speaker, a library trustee, mind you, broke up at the start of  sharing about the aftermath of that event. Everyone appreciated his honesty. And he forged on with his talk, much the way I imagine that the sturdy citizens of the Gulf communities did. We lucky attendees benefited from the heartfelt sharing in this conversation.  I would have more on this here, but as is my habit, I unexpectedly gifted some place along the way with my notes, so Memory serves here. Many thanks to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, for its philanthropy regarding the importance of Books, Library services & community connectivity.

GI-normous LIBRARY OF CONGRESS-MOBILE

After this, events

continued to glow,

each one somehow wonderful in a different way from the next.

A shelf of images of my days of delight in being at ALA,  with gratitude to my publisher, National Geographic, which brought out  the book that brought me here, with fabulous artist Lisa Desimini. It is She Sang Promise: The Story of Betty Mae Jumper, Seminole Tribal Leader.  I also applaud the dedicated folks over at the Amelia Bloomer Project of the Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library Association.

Some Amelia Bloomer Breakfast folks - part C for "clear image"

The best parts of my participation in the breakfast that celebrated the 2011 Amelia Bloomer Project Book List, besides being able to meet & thank the industrious committee members in person, were:

listening to Margarita Engle speak with eloquence about The Firefly Letters, which I love; & also,

meeting the energetic Olga Cossi,  who sharees the opposite side of a particular discussion topic with me but has my huge respect for her life achievements. I am glad to have her sign, Pemba Sherpa.

This goes without saying & will sound shamelessly self-promotional, but I offer my almost favorite photograph of the weekend, of artist extraordinaire Lisa Desimini, presenting at the AB Breakfast on a book I know & love well. One great image of Lisa signing books with a writer nearby her has temporarily disappeared from my files & I plan to contact photographer-daughter who is featured on a bench, below,  to retrieve a copy.

At a separate ALA event, meeting Donna Jo Napoli & having her sign multiple books of hers that I brought from home was quite the ticket.  I am an unabashed fan of  children’s authors who write in great ways.

Some of the Amelia Bloomer Breakfast folks - part B - "blurry image"

The photograph of 3 folks was taken at a festivity, to salute, via our wearing of gold paper laurel wreaths,  this book on Greek legends & myths by Donna Jo Napoli, with museum quality artwork from Christina Balit.  Congratulations Donna Jo!

On the right is Beth Olshewsky of the 2011 Amelia Bloomer Project committee, with (center) celebrated author Donna Jo Napoli & on left, your blogger

My exterior party shots are more adequate, though. Here are some  F & Gs of the Greek legend goodness, Treasury of Greek Mythology,  propped up in the NG pub. party site window by the energeticNG party elfs.

That big black truck cab? Above? Somehow it drove away from this part of the blog. No it’s not a truck character for a picture book. (Although should it be? The lines this beauty drew – just for climbs into the shiny cab and a unique photo op! And also for a visit with rare & fun exhibits inside.)  The Library of Congress  takes this show on the road to rural areas.

c. all rights reserved

Do you know books are benches? The lovely model attending her first ALA, worked part-time in a Florida library this summer.

Mary Fears, Civil War re-enactor

Amanda Cockrell, left with my own self

It was beyond joy to unexpectedly be able to hug my longtime writing colleague, Mary Fears, an expert researcher on slave genealogy, a workshop leader on Civil War re-enactoring, and the prolific author of several books, plus a featured actor in the independent film, Filling the Gap, from Essence of History. How great to run into folks you know well at ALA! Equally beloved is Amanda Cockrell, director of the grad. progran in children’s literature at Hollins University, Roanoke, Va, who stopped by the Nat. Geo booth when looked fuzzy – at least to the camera. Librarians were eager to know about Amanda’s  YA novel, What We Keep Is Not Always What Will Stay, from Flux,   at the round table event earlier that day.  Most wonderful was the chance to indulge in quality time with artist extraordinaire LISA DESIMINI, who is, even as I type, creating new wonderfulness for not only children’s authors but writers of adult fiction.

People who attend conferences are lavished with goodies – most that I collected will be divided up.

A HIGHLIGHTS bag went to a writer I’ve known forever who is multi-published by that wonderful magazine. A SCHOLASTIC bag went to a writer I’ve also known forever who is pubished by them. And my favorite book that I snared at 2011 ALA, Trickster, I asked to have inscribed for the AH-TAH-THI-KI Museum at the Big Cypress Reservation, Florida. And it resides there now, the Museum curator confirms.

Trickster from Fulcrum. All tales are written, or retold, by American Indian/Native American authors

A few more words or images about 2011 ALA in New Orleans.

This is from an artfully designed 2010 collection of stories and photographs, New Orleans, from Seattle’s Chin Music Press (Broken Levee Books imprint) & also available at the 2011 ALA:

“There are a series of bumper stickers…

New Orleans: Proud to Call It Home

New Orleans: Proud to Crawl Home

New Orleans: Proud to Swim Home…:

PLUS – I was happy to find books for sale nearly everywhere I looked in the city, such as this collection of alligator-themed tomes at the clever Jackson Square toy emporium,  Little Toy Shop and this much-appreciated shop, Crescent City Books.

Novel under construction – how many bears…

Novel under construction  –  how many bears….

What I don’t know about our world can fill umpteen trillion encyclopedias.

In my old days I thought how easy it must be, to create fiction. They just make it up.

And now that I’m fictionizing, I find you do just make it up!

A writer can transform the favorite pastime of a girl, age 9,  from hula- hooping to shooting baskets (basketball baskets), to tree climbing. And then back to hula-hooping.

Knowing the real world, say a seaside village, where the characters lick their double scoop chocolate cones, in a real actual state of this Union, is another pile of potatoes, as they say. (There are some 575 potato varieties.) When you set that seaside village in a specific time, such as the 1960s, there are more potatoes to hoe.

Here is a trivia list, in questions, of some topics I’m asking regarding our wonderful world, as I write a novel for young readers. The characters are growing up in suburban New York City. There are many references to Florida in their lives.  It is the early 1960s as my story opens.

I annotate one question here, with a skimpy answer & a brief result it created in my manuscript.

To save space a few other questions are listed-only, sans foloup.  Questions are random.

When did plastic wrap come into wide use?

Answer – after 1966 & the arrival of Glad Wrap, although Saran Wrap was around before then.

Story result –It wasn’t in common enough use at the time of characters lives. As of now, the child’s’ clever grab of plastic wrap to cover a cast over an arm,  before verboten swimming, is yanked from the page.

Other information hunts -

When was the first gated retirement village (development) opened in Florida?

What were the most popular teen songs on Jersey radio stations 1960, ‘61 & ‘62?

When did cranberry bogs originate in Jersey?

Where do bears live in the woods in  ‘60s Jersey?  (I know – wherever they want!)

Why is Shark Inlet called that?

When was the last Jersey shark scare before 1960?

Which coast did most retirees move to in Florida in the 1960s?

Were there notable shark attacks in Florida in the 1960s?

What percentage of families could pick citrus right from their own tree in Florida in the 1960s?

What Jersey county fair is the most popular in the ‘60s.

Does Rutgers have a marine ecology program in the ‘60s?

Where are the nunneries in New Jersey (again in the late 50- early‘60s).

How long does it take to ride the public bus from Philadelphia to Seaside Heights?

How long does it take to ride the public bus from Philadelphia to Jacksonville, FL

What was the 1960s record of reporting on civil rights, of radio stations WOR in New York?

How many private elementary schools were near Seaside Heights in the 1960s?

What kinds of cars flunked inspection most often in the 1960s in Jersey?

You see? Hope that’s a more than ample, sample.

poetry friday

The writer John Agard  wrote these (fine for florida) children’s poetry lines:

Call alligator long-mouth

call alligator saw-mouth

call alligator pushy – mouth …

___

They are from “Don’t Call Alligator Long-Mouth Till You Cross River,” a fun verse included in my copy of The PUFFIN TWENTIETH-CENTURY COLLECTION of VERSE, edited by Brian Patten.  For more on Mr. Agard, who was born in 1949 in Guyana, please check here.

(As always, I thank my Hollins First-Class poetry class professors Morag Styles and Tina Hanlon, for introducing me to the World of poetry for children.

meanwhile,

LAST WEEK -

poetry friday lines here at Bookseedstudio were quoted from Langston Hughes:

Let the rain kiss you 

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops

Let the rain sing you a lullaby…

The lines in “April Rain Song” by Langston Hughes,

were collected by Nancy Larrick in PIPER, PIPE THAT SONG AGAIN c. 1965

A smattering of the abundant material about world traveler Langston Hughes,

can be found here and  here and  here and  also

though POETRY for YOUNG PEOPLE,  by Langston Hughes

(edited by David Roessel & Arnold Rampersad, with illustrations by Benny Andrews.)

poetry friday

Lines from children’s poetry. In celebration of the blog world’s weekly event . Who wrote the lines?

Let the rain kiss you 

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops

Let the rain sing you a lullaby

Check back next Friday for new lines to guess.  And for the name of this well-known poet.

hurricane season

WHAT stories for young readers have hurricanes as the backdrop? We can always react to a seasonal interest with out of print books such as Hurricane Luck by Carl Carmer.  A review of the Katrina-inspired A PLACE WHERE HURRICANES HAPPEN, from Renee Watson in 2010, is here.

And thanks to the timely comment (see below) I’m pleased to post a link to a review and comment  on a new hurricane picture book,  A STORM CALLED KATRINA by Myron Uhlberg, with  illustrations by Colin Bootman.

For my current hurricane reading, I am taking cover against predicted rains from Lee, in the classic 1958 non-fiction from the Everglades’ protector, Marjory Stoneman Douglas.

YURACAN is only one word for the worrisome weather.

To fathom hurricanes, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas studied them for three years in league with the (old) Hurricane Research Project of the U.S. Weather Bureau, Miami.

As we seek from a legendary writer who herself was a force of nature, living until 108, her quest resulted in goodness – a 393-page nonfiction literary volume, HURRICANE.   And yes, the view of destruction on the back cover from my own prized volume is a blurry image from Montauk, Long Island.   So this older book has resonance for today, what with the recently departed H. Irene having discombobulated family & friends in New England.

I recommend the Douglas history of these killer cyclones. It is a keen read, especially for those recently/currently acquainted in a personal way with one. Some dear family &  pals went for days – almost a week for one family, without power.  So a history of indoor plumbing & the shower is more appreciated than ever in these times. But that’s another book.

Also, I can’t talk about hurricanes without sending you to read up on book loss at libraries, as a result of Irene. Be generous if you can, starting with information from an alert & talented author, whose pages I traveled to via an indispensible blog at  School Library Journal.

HURRICANE was first published in 1958. Douglas reports on a 1464 hurricane that dealt a coup de grace to Mayans.  She sails on from there, dropping anchor for interesting ports of call such as : “In 1790 on his trip down the Ohio, George Washington noted hurricane damage to the trees between Steubenville, Ohio and Wheeling, West Virginia.”

Her book reminds us/introduces us to Yuracan & other suspected sources of our term, hurricane, including the Indians we know as Caribs, the island dwelling Tainos  and the good people of Central and South America.  Her recounting of the beliefs about the gods of wind and storms fascinates.

Douglas also covers geography of past destruction, including a detailed section & maps of  “Hurricanes, North.” So the possibility of Irene’s interesting path away from Florida and up into the rivers of Vermont may have come as no surprise if we read our history, which of course we do, correct? No, not nearly enough.

from HURRICANE by Marjory Stoneman Douglas "A boat awash at Montauk, Long Island - photographed by The New York Times"

One of my favorite aspects of this book involves the stories of heroes who risk their lives to save people from injury and death as a result of hurricanes.

In looking backward with Douglas, it is clear how today’s forecast information, which, let’s be honest, we take for granted, would have been worshipped, cheered, embraced & yes, well-heeded in times past.

To not follow it today seems without enough regard for the first responders who can risk their lives in hurricane-affiliated rescues. And some of those stressful storm-soaked saves may be unnecessary, if only said stranded residents had heeded warnings.

We know much more about inevitable hurricanes today, than when Douglas wrote beautifully on them with that era’s limited knowledge, some 50 years ago. So this makes me ponder: What makes sense about new construction or rebuilding, in marshes, on riverbanks that flood hugely after strong sustained storms, on our coastal sands,  & in similar zones?

Despite the heft of this book, it is a fast-paced read. Especially in hurricane season, which lasts, I recall, through October.

It was reissued in 1976 and if you are pondering which library near you carries which edition, a fast way to look is with the wonderful World Catalogue  WorldCat www.world.cat.org

Full disclosure: Douglas personally charmed my reading club during her long visit with us, captured in a photograph of her on my sofa. I am in touch with most book group pals, but if I haven’t heard from you in ages, please give a shout.  I don’t have a functioning scanner at this moment but do want to get that photo up here. Please check back after the next few hurricanes! I expect to have it posted then.

In the meantime, check with your Red Cross folks, follow the forecasts & take a look at hurricane books.

One of Charlotte’s Daughters

The well-fed spider

is a constant reader

when she’s not

browsing the Web

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Lichgate labyrinth

Lichgate Labyrinth

As The Wizard

didn’t give to The Tin Man

anything

“that he didn’t didn’t already have”

a labyrinth arriving at a site

such as Lichgate on High Road

becomes a natural tapestry

illuminating the precious pathways

Laura Pauline Jepsen found

when she first

climbed over the barbed wire fence

into her precious world

A Lichgate labyrinth

will beckon travelers

to discover

the peace of mind

already here

It will beckon travelers

to explore

the spirit

deep within

the one who travels

And as our area glows with

more and more labyrinths

we can become known

as a “city of turns”

much as holy cities have

long been called, for their

spiritual spiral walking paths

image for illustration idea only

source  www.jhu.edu/~chaplain/labyrinth.gif

For information on labyrinths worldwide begin with

Veriditas  http://veriditas.org  or  The Labyrinth Society http://labyrinthsociety.org

Florida garnet and gold

Found in the neighborhood, earlier this week, some Florida garnet & gold.

Let it not be said that The Sunshine State is without an autumn.

Thanksgiving 2008 & American Buffalo in Florida

Native Tribal People &

their heritage

receive the short

stick from our tasty national

holiday in the U.S. , Thanksgiving.

A few days before the 2008

Thanksgiving I took a detour with my

sister & we found this roadside

surprise  in Alachua County,

Florida.

It was late in the afternoon, with a cool breeze

tickling the palm fronds.

As I watched this creature clip the field

for dinner,

near U.S. Highway 27,

I thought of archival reports from

the Old West, of

the thundering herds of bison that

could stampede for days,

which sustained the First Peoples

of North America.

This ranch buffalo of 2008 represents legit Florida

heritage, although the Florida bison were scant

compared to the way their cousins once blanketed the mid-West

& The West.

(Buffalo are featured in the book

SCENIC DRIVING FLORIDA, 2nd ed.

the “Crossing Creeks and Prairie” chapter,

by my own self,  Jan Godown.  The chapter guides

you to the lucky chance for your own encounter to see

(c.) Jan G. Annino 2008

buffalo in a natural setting at

Paynes Prairie State Preserve)

http://www.floridastateparks.org/paynesprairie

For a fine picture book about the adoption & care of a buffalo calf by a father and son and the restoration of the Pablo-Allard herd, please see Joseph Bruchac’s BUFFALO SONG. The author consulted oral history recorded in part in the 1920s & 1930s in Montana. A 1926 Salish tribal story is woven into this lyrical book.  I like the information on it at Oyate.org and at the blog by Debbie Reese American Indians in Children’s Literature

americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com

To begin to understand the interesting work of Carol and Joseph Bruhac, please see

www.josephbruhac.com/

For another picture book about the woman who helped save American Buffalo, please see the story of Mary Ann Goodnight,  BUFFALO MUSIC, by

Tracey E. Fern. I like the review of it by children’s book maven Esme Raji Codell, posted  at her blogspot blog, Planet Esme.

(Look for the Oct. 14.200 blog, it’s after her review of a fine picture book bio on one of my picture book heroines, Wanda Gag, who lived for some time in the region where I grew up.)

http://planetesme.blogspot.com/2008/10/wanda-gag-girl-who-lived-to-draw.html

To fully immerse in the topic, Steven Rinella’s new book, AMERICAN BUFFALO, recently reviewed on NPR (I’m pretty sure it was an interview with the very fine Terri Gross) follows the herds in history & also one particular buffalo that the author brings down on foot in Alaska, after winning a spot in a hunt lottery,  butchers by himself & then packs out for eating later. Not for everyone who reads nature nonfiction,  but if you fish ( I have) or hunt (haven’t, wouldn’t, unless for survival) or if you enjoy the buffalo steak in the cafeteria of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.   this book may be for you.

Florida Christmas

A tree in CEDAR KEY

photo, Jan G. Annino  2008

A pole.

A fishing net cast over a pole.

Seashells in the net.

(Let’s hope they are castaways &

weren’t taken live.)

Colored lights.

Cheers at Christmas.

The necklace of Cedar Key islands tip-toeing into the Gulf of Mexico are where cedar forests were lumbered-out for the world’s pencils (think Faber pencils, etc.)

So I like it that the village of Cedar Key’s marina tree

isn’t using up a living one.

Muir fans know the Cedar Keys as  the region where John

Muir regained his strength after his 1,000 mile walk to

the Gulf of Mexico.  I wonder if in his knapsack on that trip he

kept his journal with the assist of a Faber cedar pencil.

Greetings from Florida &  from  Jan G. Annino, a book-published writer of  creative-nonfiction,   new writer of children’s literature, at work on an  mfa in children’s literature from Hollins University.

City

from our Amtrak window  by Anna Annino (c.)

the city, appreciated in this silver light

if you haven’t ridden a long-distance train lately, be prepared for the romance of the clackety-clack

the convenience of no seat belts & movement at will & seats that include pop-up feet rests

& a community of strangers who are the cause of the lonesome whistle sounding

our conductors were friendly & we loved seeing them carry babies down the aisle to their seats

for travel at such a crunch time – the holidays – the clackety-clack tracks were the best

Obama’s poet

A Poet and a Secretary

THE book I just devoured in celebration of Obama’s elevation to the Presidency of the United States is for children.

And it’s not one of the several handy bios of him for young readers.

It’s a picture book of  poems in several voices, by his poet, Elizabeth Alexander, of Yale, and her equally distinguished colleague, Marilyn Nelson, a much-honored creator of children’s literature.

www.wordsongpoetry.com or

http://www.wordsongpoetry.com/another_starred_review_for_mis.html

Elizabeth Alexander’s presence on the platform at this historic event shouts out that this president lauds the arts & art creators.

Already sensing that, Quincy Jones asks for support to imbed the arts in the White House with a Cabinet level secretary post. See

http://www.petitionsonline.com/esnyc/petition.html

and reach it by typing in US Secretary of Arts

Meanwhile, Poet Elizabeth Alexander will receive a wider audience because of her Jan. 20th role on the world stage.

I want you to know she is already beloved by librarians, teachers, students & many others for  MISS CRANDALL’s SCHOOL for YOUNG LADIES & LITTLE MISSES of COLOR.

This book, with illustrations by Floyd Cooper (winner of three Coretta Scott King Honor Awards) is an unforgettable visit to the true story of a Quaker woman’s dedication to her black students in New England in the 1830s.

Her determination to stand tall against local terrorists affiliated with churches, the town council & local business community makes me, “ache with caring,” to borrow a phrase of Mem Fox, about seeing this history presented to a wider audience.

If you are more interested in the present day than in history,  notes in the book mention more recent updates, including how the 1984 dedication of the Prudence Crandall Museum, was also marked in an undistinguished way by the  Connecticut KKK.

Enjoy. Weep. Share. Rejoice in the presidency of Barack Obama.

(And a palette of color to Janeen Mason

http://www.janeenmason.com,   for the petition tip.

Paint a heart for February

Make a squiggly heart, a loop de loop or pizza at

http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

(A box of colored pencils to author M.R. Street of Blue Rock Rescue fame.)

The Pulitzer-winner on Mount Soledad

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1znhk_the-wubbulous-world-of-dr-seuss_creation

Dr. Seuss is one of my favorite children’s literature icons to smile about.

This genius, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1984,  knew children are intelligent folks who deserved lively literature.

His advertising work called for  short, often rhyming blurbs that were also action packed &  provided a fine catalyst for his real avocation ahead. His doodles from an early age proved his hands were hot-wired to an artist’s heart.

A cool part of the Theodor Geisel book world is his very own flag. His publishing house (where  he also worked as an editor, RANDOM HOUSE) flew the Dr. Seuss flag at its Westminister, Md. warehouse, while his books were being shipped out.

For more on this national treasure, please see “Dr. Seuss from Then to Now,” A Catalogue of the Retrospective Exhibition, (organized by the San Diego Museum of Art, 1986. This catalogue/hardback book is the  source of these tantalizing facts & many more…)

www.seussville.com

March is for mammas & maidens & the Ms., Miss & Mrs. ga-zillions

It’s Women’s History Month!

http://www.redroom.event/brown-bag-lunch-talk-O

If you can’t attend this March 24 event, find a great biography of a wonderful woman to enjoy at your library.

Consider PUSH COMES to SHOVE the autobiography of Twyla Tharpe

In children’s picturebooks, have you looked at:

PLANTING the TREES of KENYA : the story of Wangari Maathai by Claire A. Nivola

(Wangari Maathai is a Nobel Peace Prize winner)

KATE SHELLEY: Bound for Legend byRobert D. San Souce with paintings by Max Ginsburg

Kate Shelley was a child who made a difference

Or check out these online ways to be immersed in women’s history:

National Women’s History Project  http://www.nwhp.org/resourcecenter/whistoryday.php

Jewish Women’s Archive  http://jwa.org

National Organization for Women  http://www.now.org

Womens’ Studies  http://userpages.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/index.html

the fine print: this blog & site are a work in progress, evolving monthly, thanks for your patience…

Irish imps

wee visitors for the st. pat's holiday

4-leaf clovers might be here...

StoryTubes 2009

Children reading books.

Children reading books & taped on video.

You, voting soon,  for the video that tugs your heart. The most.

I especially am drawn to the reading of  BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE, by Kate Dicamillo, &

the interpretation of Laura Numeroff’s IF YOU GIVE A CAT A CUPCAKE and the presentation on

KATE KLISE and … there are too, too many to highlight. Go see!

www.storytubes.info/

for information on this Bookseedstudio site, the online office of writer Jan Godown Annino,

please see Hello…or Books …Home returns you to this blog … THANKS!

Outside

this past weekend, in the woods of Florida…

c. 2009 Jan Godown Annino

… For all things wild turkey, please look for the modern classic Illumination in the Flatwoods, by Joe Hutto.

Hope you are finding time to get outside this spring if spring is already where you are, or

that you can manage time outdoors when spring arrives….

photo c. 2009 Jan Godown Annino

for your school bookshelves

Do you know the work of these  writers?  Take a peek.

Laura Purdie Salas     She has a new poetry book for kids with the word stampede! in the title.

http://www.laurasalas.com

Fiona Bayrock           She has a new science book with the phrase “bubble homes” in the title.

http://www.fionabayrock.com

Check them out at your library soon.

You have landed @ the blog of  Jan Godown Annino, a children’s writer tapping away

in her own Bookseedstudio in Florida. Please look around.

~ jga 4.4.2009

There is a p in April for?

P is for Poetry in April!

http://www.poets.org/

Read a poem ….

Pick purple or perfect or plump words & present a poem to princesses & princes you know…

~you’ve landed at the 2X a month or so,  blog of jan godown annino. more info is at Hello.

5 million minutes

Until JUNE 30 you & your family can read together for travel prizes including a FLORIDA trip.

http://www.rif.org/

You’re going to read with them anyway!  See how quickly you can reach the 5 million words read goal.

For more fun this summer,  join a Read With the Kids team.

(we  suggest Al Roker’s team  because we’ve enjoyed watching him on TV since a chance meeting in the Yorktown Heights health food shop …)

~you’ve landed at the 2X monthly or so blog of writer jan godown annino

more info is at Hello.

The r in April is for?

REMEMBER  the Sweet Children

http://www.holocaustresources.org/html

May 17 is the awards ceremony set up by the Holocaust Education Resource Council, with details at the above site, along with amazing stories of survival.

Every day is the time to read the very special “Angel on my shoulder” story of sweet Miriam, who

lives in Florida & shares the many kindnesses that brought her through Nazi brutality.

Remember the Children  HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

this is the blog of writer Jan Annino Godown in Florida

Eye Candy

c. Jan Godown

Havana (Florida) 2009. The sweet view inside Little River General Store.

Every child should have visits to places like this in their experience, eh? Mine were in Cherryville, N.J. and also in a town in Connecticut where I would stay-over to visit a childhood pal. Until I moved to North Florida, I spent all my South Florida childhood years without a visit to such a fantabulous place. Support your regional general store!

You’ve landed at the pages & blog for Florida children’s writer Jan Godown “JG”Annino . HELLO

is my home page. Thanks for visiting.

c. Jan Godown 2009

In the Library of Congress

To visit the Children’s Literature Center online, in the Library of Congress :

www.loc.gov/rr/child

For an online visit to the Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections

www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook

Cozy in the Children's Literature Center

First readers looked like this

Is this shape a little Kindle-like?

This is a Horn Book.  The kind before we had today’s The Horn Book .

Horn Books were available to learners, especially children (usually boys) who were able to  sit with a teacher,  in the Colonies, especially Massachusetts, New York, Connectitcut, Rhode Island, New Jersey & Pennsylvania, of Great Britain (later the U.S.A)

This Horn Book is for a wealthy family, crafted of silver and ivory & it most likely was made in England.

It is one of many treasures in the Children’s Literature Center of the Library of Congress, where the Chief, Dr. Sybille A.  Jagusch, is herself another treasure for you to discover there.

www.loc.gov/rr/child

Follow the Library of Congress on twitter http://twitter.com/libraryccongress

c. 2009 Jan Godown Annino at the Library of Congress

Palmistry

Chickees

Inspection

The office assistant weighs in on a summer project, experimenting with different materials for miniature chickees.

signs

I am enjoying  The Signmaker’s Assistant, which carries with it a whimsical, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (Cloudy is soon to be in a theater near you) sensiblilty that I like.  More on Signmaker in a second.

This story sends me into my library, to look up at a message high on the wall above the window. The message is in black paint, on wood. It’s a sign.

I grew up with this sign &  I think you can guess that I love it.

Among the houses of pals & family folks I visited in childhood, ours was the only house with a sign in it.

It was given to me by my father, who had been a drill sgt. in the U.S. Army. This sign was made for him by a solider. Dad was good at making the guys write their letters home, in the Writing Room.  I love the uneven sides sawed for the sign and the big block letters. I can imagine him walking through the room where it hung at Fort Dix, N.J., making sure the boys had paper and pencils. The sign later hung over a family desk during my childhood. When it became clear I liked writing, my Dad promised it to me.  I can write when I’m not near it. But I have also looked up at it when stuck & found something in it that helped me forge on.

These days, I find  something stuck above it at the top, red words on white paper  - a Florida sign in the form of a bumper sticker.  Every so often here in the Sunshine State some of us think perhaps a fella named Skink should enliven election coverage by campaigning for Governor of Florida.

Skink is the nickname of  a character  Carl Hiaasen created, a rascal who is a book-toting, wilderness-camping, former Florida governor, living out of a station wagon in the cypress swamps of South Florida. The paper sign says “Re-elect SKINK for Governor.”

Both signs are totems in my writing world.

THE SIGNMAKER’S ASSISTANT

Nathan is the young character in The Signmaker’s Assistant by Tedd Arnold who discovers the power of words when he goes beyond his little job cleaning paint brushes for the town signmaker. Nathan posts a few signs around the village that any child would applaud. But are these the kinds of signs that will help the town run smoothly?

I lucked into this book – signed by the talented illustrator-author – in a small art gallery gift shop in North Florida when my husband & I visited it on a recent weekend. Tedd Arnold is the 2006 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book Winner for Hi! Fly Guy. He also won the 2007 Edgar for RAT LIFE, a Young Adult novel & it was his very 1st novel, after publishing more than 50 successful picture books, which keep on dancing out of his studio in New York State.  The p.b. title in his line up that intrigues me most from the title, is Catalina Magdalena Hoopensteiner Wallendiner Hogan Logan Bogan Was Her Name. Makes me think of Double Trouble in Walla Walla from Andrew Clements with pictures by Salvatore Murdocca.

For more on Tedd Arnold,  sign-maker, book-maker, word-slinger:

http://www.teddarnoldbooks.com

september’s garden

“Flowers are blooming all over the place… “ the character Lydia Grace, in  The Gardener,

by Sarah Stewart with illustrations by David Small, 1997

“… It is that rarity, a pictorial delight that in 20 double pages gives more and more of itself each time it’s read, and whose silent complexities reveal themselves with continuing pleasure.”  Edward Koren/The New York Times Book Review

My gardening pal Ann gifted me with The Gardener ages ago & it’s now part of my late summer ritual, to pull it down from the shelf near my Frost poetry books & enjoy Frost the farmer & then, the character Lydia Grace’s gardening skills in David Small’s artwork & Sarah Stewart’s inventive series of letters. Late summer is the time when I give my vest-pocket patch an imaginary rainbow-ribbon, for its color mix.

The flowers here, shrimp plant, brown-eyed Susan & blue something that I have to ask Ann about the name, grow in my  September garden in the back yard, a flutter of petals and juicy dirt lined with fallen live oak tree limbs that bear the otherwise aboreal resurrection fern…

I like to write outdoors by the garden with a pencil & pad. Then take inside what has taken off on paper & get that into the computer.

september’s garden 2

In the bottom of hurricane season, we check in the morning at the base of our grandmother oak, to see if overnight, something seasonal has arrived.

They are on single tall stalks, like red, curled lollipops.

No leaves, just the long drink of a stem. They bloom once & then are gone for another year.  Hurricane lillies.

& randomly, when you least expect it along your walk, they pop up.

In years when we often take in the lawn chairs in late summer & fall, in advance of tropical storms & hurricanes, I think of them as nature’s red flags. Enjoy!

Books for the Boo!

We keep creepy Halloween in a box 11 months out of the year.

Come October, the ghosties & ghoulies, black cats & bats

are let out of the box.

We hammer tombstones into the yard dirt & place home-made pumpkins

of paper around the living room.

My daughter puts read-aloud Halloween books on a low  table.

And she & her father stuff & dress a scarecrow who guards our yard. We will all

carve the pumpkin closer to the big evening.

What are your favorite Halloween titles? Once you read some of ours, these may become a grand part of

your Halloween bookshelf:

SIX CREEPY SHEEP by Judith Ross Enderle & Stephanie Gordon Tessler, with illustrations from John O’Brien

BAT JAMBOREE by Kathi Appelt, with illustrations by Melissa Sweet

THE LITTLE SCARECROW BOY by Margaret Wise Brown (yes, MWB herself, without a bunny in sight) and brought to a delightful modern art interpretation by David Diaz.

Trick or Treat (I want it to be Treat) to You & Yours

a little help from some friends

Here are 3 places to go when you need a quick pick-up in your writing world.

www.goodreads.com

www.write4kids.com

www.writeonline.com

I’ll have more next time, but these will keep you busy for now.

This is in birthday celebration.  It’s one year for bookseedstudio here online!

a funny Halloween

Is “Smell my feet”  the best greeting  a Trick-or-Treater can say at the door today?

That’s how the green-haired twins, Delia & Ophelia, want the neighborhood children to respond when they ring the bell & the door opens.

The twins are witches who are up to their britches stirring up a witchy brew of trouble in this most-inventive Halloween book.

Trick-or-Treat  SMELL MY FEET! from artist-author Lisa Desimini is a treasure.

Her collage art is a wizardry of the highest order.

I was so unhappy when this beloved book wasn’t in our box of Halloween that we unpacked at the beginning of the month.  Then last night, like a work of magic, I found it in a pile of great items in a box in my office – just in time for Halloween.

trees

In parts of the world, but not where I live in North Florida, plants are stretching tall in springtime.

We always appreciate trees when the leaves are new. But I think in the fall & winter, when the  full show of their

green is absent, this is a time to consider what our every day world would be like, if we lived in a land where the trees as we understood them to grow naturally, in woods, & in clumps at seepages of water, down hillsides and circling fileds, were only planted in rows.  Or if the trees weren’t there at all. Maybe you have lived without the cloaks of trees. But I have not. I grew up by a woods. My mother recited the line, “Woodman! spare that tree,” to me about the youth who was sheltered by a tree & could therefore not cut it, when he was older.

When I read children’s books about the tree woman of Kenya, Wangari Maathai, I felt that she must have loved being a little girl, & that in that time of her life, she must have loved trees.  The shade of them, the fruit of them, the branches of them.

There are several good children’s books about her. The one I currently have is from author/artist Claire A. Nivola.

Like all good books, it made me want to know more about what happened to Kenya’s trees. And about how Ms. Maathai brought them back.

So my bedside reading right now is Unbowed: a memoir by Wangari Maathai.

D.C. days

Try to remember when you first visited Washington, D.C.

For me, as a child.

Tall, white buildings.

Giant animals frozen in time.

Glittering Hope Diamond. And rubies. And emeralds.

The actual monster space travelers from NASA.  (see the re-entry scars!) These were in OUTER SPACE!

Fountains.

Big carved rocks of men on horses at every traffic circle.

I also remember touring The White House with my family in the 1960s. This was before the days of

heritage tourism.  There were no rest room facilities for the public. But a member of our party needed one.

So this person received an unusual private tour to a lovely room reserved for VIP guests.  And the sneak peeks

down halls & opening & closing doors as staff performed their duties, was the top topic the rest of the day.

I visit D.C. as often as I can, which is made sweet by having a longtime college pal who

is generous in sharing her townhouse with friends. And another pal who also shares. Thank you folks!

Recently the trip turned judicial, because my public interest lawyer husband was involved in an important juvenile justice  case at the Supreme Court. First visit to that august body. And naturally there wasn’t time enough to learn enough. A return visit expected.  Let me just say: Go Justice Sonia, Go!

 

 

www.culturaltourismdc.org

WALKING D.C.

The connected folks at Cultural Tourism D.C.

www.culturaltourismdc.org

sent me & my walking boots to their site, to  explore with my eyes before I arrived.

I settled on a tour of The Mall.

Our leader with the blue umbrella, Tim Stewart, a retired h.s. guidance counselor, knew the hills & vales to lead us to,

the front porch & back porch gossip, & the best place to adjust soggy situations.  (I used the automatic hand dryer in a women’s restroom to remove puddles that my boots soaked up.)  For nearly 2 hours – and I’m sure he could have brought us to more sites – he regaled us with his love of our Mall.  We were of U.S., Paraguay & Asian heritage.  Ask for Tim when you make your plans.

Although I have to say that my trip with my husband to gaze with love at our Nation’s Sacred Documents of Freedom &  one of the the Brit’s original Magna Cartas (1297!!!) at the National Archives sits at the top of the list on this visit,  Walking the Mall with our  Guide is a close 2nd.

This was on Memorial Day, folks, we were in the midst of poignant moments, floral tributes, military honor guard at the Vietnam Memorial (s). And it was funeral, the gray sky, the chizzle (chill drizzle).  My heart leapt. My father, the American Legion Commander of his post in Our Hunterdon County, N.J. town, honored his Memorial Days. I placed my hand over my

heart, for our troops’ brave service. Then I hummed as a prayer, brilliant John Lennon’s words,  war is over … So be it.

World War II Memorial

Washington, D.C.  Nov. 11, 2009

Feb. 13, 2010

Meet me & a ga-zillion other folks at the Florida coast, Feb. 13, 2010 just after lunch at 12:30 p.m.
Link hands along the shore.
Let our leaders know how protective we are, of Florida’s shores.

This is organized by a Seaside Florida restaurant owner.

Visit www.handsacrossthesand.com
or the Facebook page of the same name.

If we don’t show our strength & carry the day, we’ll all be searching for appropriate gear to wear for continual beach clean up. Here’s a future newspaper I conjured up from the coast town where I spent childhood time at the beach. Tar balls, anyone?

Books as gifts

It is unlikely that if you are reading this, you don’t gift your friends with books.

Samantha R. Vamos, writing at this site that I find to be a fine connector, Authors Now!
suggests every gift to children be a book.

Authors Now!

What, no candy?

In my elementary school-Mom days, I modified that for awhile, by giving a book AND something else.
A book and a stuffed animal.
A book and a set of magnets.
A book and a Harry Potter jacket.
A book and candy.

If you are looking for picture books about science one idea list to look at is here:

The is the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, a galactic place on Earth, for science education.

Florida Christmas tree 2

Last year the Florida Christmas tree posted on this blog shone with lights.

No branches. Strings of lights at the Cedar Key marina

glowing in the dark like a beacon.

c. Jan Godown Annino

Now for a tree like none you’ve ever seen,

I’ve reprised an image I took years ago, during a visit with

Betty Mae Tiger Jumper in South Florida.

This tree stood tall in the Seminole Tribe of Florida

headquarters, with a palm tree nodding nearby.

The tree is typical. Maybe yours is tall & green.

Red bows are standard. So are basic balls.

But the dolls!

How many trees have you seen, where dolls are the decoration.

Handmade dolls.

Dolls made with palm fibers. And dressed to represent

Seminole patchwork clothing. For the textile, fabric art

& history buff this tree is  worth a detour.

(Respect copyright. All rights reserved with these images.)

This is a little visit, here.

Or maybe it will inspire you to plan your trip.

c. Jan Godown Annino all rights reserved

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Elusive book

copyright Jan Godown

When it is impossible to locate a specific book you own,  on the shelves or

by the bed or on the kitchen counter, ask the Book Fairy, “Wither goest this book?”

You may not receive wisdom,  but you’ll be outdoors on a brisk day & inhaling fresh air

which will clear your neurons so that you can remember that you

lent it out & didn’t remember to make note of that.

And Marian’s nose looks red and raw,

copyright Jan Godown

“When icicles hang by the wall…

And birds sit brooding in the snow,

And Marian’s nose looks red and raw…

Winter Day

FLORIDA 1.9.2010

intentions 2010

With cinnamon sugar bagel bites as nibbles,  SCBWI                                                                       

members sat around a table at a bagel shop this week to

chomp on 2010 writing goals.

Writers will send material off to freelance editor Paula

Morrow &  will tackle a class offered online by

Anastasia Seun.  Conferences will be attended.

Submissions will be made to Highlights and Cobblestone.

Book editors met at conferences will continue to receive

manuscripts from our zip code. And so on.

A straw hat was passed.

We each put our name in &  picked a name

out.  We have committed to boosting the writer whose

name we drew. Maybe that means yodeling at their

door when they win an acceptance. Or composing

a rhyme when they are behind their self-created

deadline.

Roses are red

violets are blue

With a writing pace such as yours

Who will ever read you.

Of course that refers to me.

Onward!

Missionary couple in Fresno have hearts in Haiti – Local – Fresnobee.com

Children’s author  Dorina Gilmore is also quoted in this article. Good luck to The Bridge Project staff.

via Missionary couple in Fresno have hearts in Haiti – Local – Fresnobee.com.

simple abundance

I have been interested in a simpler life for years and especially so when I am reminded how

wealthy this country is compared to others.

So it is a joy to fill in my moments when I enjoy  Jon Stewart’s comedy   & zaniness at The Colbert Report, or when I catch our morning news team, to also work on using some recycled papers I’ve saved for ages. Some of them came in college catalogs & others are salvaged from product packaging, such as the inside of paper tea boxes.

They are inspired by the beautiful traditional wearable art of the Seminole & Miccosukee people of Florida.

For more info, see the programs page of this site.

And enjoy your blessings.

love letters

You remember school love notes in February.

Folded pieces of paper passed fast in the hall to you & notes someone else found tucked into the math book.

Maybe put there by you.

Arnold Adoff &  Lisa Desimini remember those days. They team up for the best book of sweet poems on the school love  topic. Isbn 0.590.48478.8  It’s all here. The shyness, the frustration & the puppy love. It includes mom & dad & the teacher & the whole family. Plus the kid across the aisle

Lisa brings each poem to the page visually in tender & inventive ways. Arnold Adoff deftly gifts us with the words that say I hope you never find out this red heart is from me. I think you will oooh & aaah through this book.

I especially like the chalkboard rimmed with the alphabet page & the dad on the sofa page.  Enjoy!

from "Love Letters" by Arnold Adoff with illustrations from Lisa Desimini

for all folks

One of my informal mentors in history was Florida A & M University’s Dr. James Eaton, a professor and most important, curator of the campus Black Archives, then housed in the aging Carnagie Library in Tallahassee, Florida.  www.famu.edu/index.cfm?BlackArchives&TheFounder

Prof. Eaton taught everyone within earshot ( pre- email) that black history, African-American history, was everyone’s history. It’s the history of this entire country. It’s a lesson I learned & have kept. And I think most of us also today like every month to be a month to teach black history, women’s history, American Indian history, immigrants’ history & on & on. Enuf of the idea that we think of it one month & then think little of it for a year.

But yet, in this month, I present icons whose work is exemplary. They themselves are exemplars, not only for young readers, but for readers of all ages. And for readers of all colors and cultural backgrounds. Almost all are still with us, so run and catch them presenting, signing or singing … while you can!

Jerry Pinkney’s work is on display in New York City at The Schomberg where I remember visiting on tour with my writer pal Deborah Ibert.

www.schomberg.

http://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/jerry-pinkneys-african-american-journey-freedom-seagram-watercolors-collection

Not only did Jerry Pinkney earn 5 Coretta Scott King and Caldecott awards, but he long ago earned a place in every parent and teacher’s heart for his tender work. Here’s one of my favorites, from my shelves. And it’s not surprising that In for Winter, Out for Spring, is so special – he teamed with Arnold Adoff, (whose Love Letters with artist Lisa Desimini, was my post early in February. ) Notice in the cover below, the heart on her overalls ♥

Virginia Hamilton is still with us in spirit via her many fine works and also a delight to find, this love letter  below at the School Library Journal link. You will enjoy columnist Ann Bowllan’s presentation via Jerry Pinkney. I had the wet eyes, reading.

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/620000062.html

I became aware of Elizabeth Anderson last January as she read her

praise poem for President Obama’s ignauration.  Her  poetry in picture book form for young readers is a stunner, about a school in Connecticut that went from being a refuge for black girls to an emblem of  New England racism, a topic that isn’t often discussed.

http://www.sharani.org/category/elizabeth-anderson/

Alice Walker is from Georgia, my next door region here in North Florida. She brought attention to Florida’s neglect of Zora Neale Hurston.

She is read in every high school, and some braver middle schools, via The Color Purple.

I think Alice Walker is a talent one can’t categorize. I had the wet stuff, again, when I read her piece recently on the passing of her beloved mentor, “the people’s historian” Howard Zinn.

http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2010/01/31/alice_walker_says_goodbye_to_her_friend_howard_zinn/

Faith Ringgold is another original.  She is generous & inventive. Here from my shelf, is a lesser known p.b. of hers,  a story that celebrates family ties, those willing to adopt and will take you to war-time Paris.  www.faithringgold.com

You may know Sharon Dennis Wyeth. She is an actress and writer. I learned from her mentoring to ask my characters questions, out loud, on the spot and run right away with the answers to my notebook or keyboard.

www.sharondenniswyeth.com

March on

March

This month begins with too many good ducks in my little world keeping too close company with doctors, medicines, hospitals & various shoulder, foot & ankle restraints & also the medicines for cancers & blood clots & sadly, the rituals of saying so-long to someone you’ve know your entire life.  That’s the lion of March.

Here are some of the lambs.

I learned in these very same days about the kindness of nighttime nurses such as the angel of the 6th floor, Katharine Rose.   And I am reminded how comfortable it is to have a pal who I worked with years back at two newspapers, to have her living right here in town, who can hustle over her perfect, no longer needed,  expensive medical supply store devices in a moment’s notice.     Now I present below another notice, arriving in email the same day as the medical device for a family member.

And honestly as much as I want to frame the notice from Kirkus Reviews (thank you whoever has that opinion of our beloved project about Betty Mae Jumper), it was Janie’s dropping off of the device on our front step at the right moment, that makes me smile most at this moment.

Many, many thanks, Miss Rose, many, many thanks dear Janie & and thank you so very much anonymous writer of the Kirkus Reviews review, for all of your big lifts.

She Sang Promise: The Story of Betty Mae Jumper/ National Geographic Children’s Books March 2010/ Jan Godown Annino/Lisa Desimini/Moses Jumper, Jr.

From KIRKUS REVIEWS

“Short poetic stanzas join jewel-toned illustrations to sing the
satisfying story of Betty Mae Tiger Jumper. Deep in the Everglades in
the 1920s, Seminole tribal leaders threatened to throw this young
daughter and granddaughter of medicine women into the swamp for the
“bad spirits” of her white father. Her family fled to the Dania
Reservation, where she grew up and acquired the Mission faith she
combined with traditional beliefs.Seeking an education, she left
Florida and became a nurse, but she returned to serve her people. She
returned truants to school and helped set up a tribal council and a
newspaper. Her election to tribal leadership in 1967 was a remarkable
achievement in her male-dominated culture, and she continues to sing
stories of her people today. The design of this attractive,
chronological biography reflects the subject. A column of text on a
natural fabric background accompanies each of Desimini’s paintings;
their rounded shapes and glowing colors reveal interesting details of
Seminole life. A glossary serves as the index to pictures and text.
(afterword from her son, maps, chronology, further facts, author’s
note, bibliography)”

—

Happy cookie – Happy Wally & Christine

Happy cookie – Happy Wally & Christine

Who can turn the world on with a smile?

If you relate to Mary of TVland, the answer is: Mary Tyler Moore.

If  you are from Tallahassee where I live, if you have poked around events in support of literacy, or if you just plain love cookies, the answer is: Wally Amos.

Mr. Amos, Famous Amos, The Face That Launched a Thousand Chips, husband, father, creator of the best chocolate chip cookie since Mrs. Fields’ Toll House original, is the owner of an impish grin, a wide smile, a genuine glad hand.

His sunny disposition arrives in prime slices, irresistible chunks &  tasty chips in  books on my shelves: The Famous Amos Story,  The Power in You, Watermelon Magic, & Chip & Cookie. Others, I’ve given away.

“Happy cookie,”  offers the autograph from Wally Amos in our copy of Chip & Cookie .

I crave his happy cookie recipe.

My husband has a torn lisfranc ligament in his right foot. He can’t put weight on that foot, which has a small fracture. He developed 3 blood clots after being immobile due to the injury, from a freak tumble in the back yard. Two clots are lodged in his lungs.

He was hospitalized through the ER for four days & now with daily visits from angel nurses & physical therapists, he is able to revive at home, where his nimble Dad & caring brother came from Rhode Island &  Florida’s east coast, to builtd him a ramp so he can flow through the French doors of our bedroom onto the patio. That is, if  the clouds disperse, the air wafts warm & he feels up to it. The days are sometimes too cool & also rainy. This terrain in North Florida is more southwest Georgia than South Beach.

His appetite improves!  I tempted him with lamb stew from Ray’s Steele City yesterday on St. Patrick’s Day. He liked it lots. Eventually during this half- year on wafarin (anti-platelet clotting medicine) he’ll be back to his normal second and third helpings of spaghetti & meatballs. Now, he doesn’t want to even look at that,  or lasagna. He wants soups.  And he wasn’t overweight to begin with.

We hope next semester he will get back into to the law clinic on public service issues for children, which he co-directs at Florida State University. But my husband, Paolo Annino, is staying as sunny as he can. And this is without his reading the seeds of wisdom & slices of life that Wally Amos offers.

I, on the other hand, I need Wally wisdom. I collect my Wallys from the bookshelves, open a bag of sugar, fat & flour (confession – they aren’t his Chip & Cookie brand, which I don’t find in local stores). I dig in.

I met Wally & Christine, his wife of great talent & calm presence, ages back in Tallahassee, the place he spent a lot of his childhood, when I wrote about Mr. Amos’ returning to town to promote a literacy event. Every clump of years, maybe two, then a gap of many, I dip back into their sunny world, buy another book & see how I can re-apply the Amos awesomeness to my psyche.

I’m glad Christine & Wally Amos are spinning stories, drawing pictures – and, selling Uncle Wally’s muffins & Chip & Cookie brand cookies. I hope I see their smiling faces in Tallahassee, yet again. With my husband, out & about.

www.wallyamos.com

Who is Oscar Romero…?

Who can possibly know everyone we should know of?

This is a world where we hear  (too much) about Lady Gaga.

The stories of the folks who don’t have their own press machinery may  not find their way into the news cycles.

But never fear, there is a dedicated core of researchers out here who are cruising the museums, looking into the Library of Congress, &  refershing themselves at roadside attractions of the world, in search of  picture book biography subjects.

I continue to present on the life of Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, an amazing person born in Florida, who most people don’t know about.

So  I think it’d be fun to begin a list of  lesser-known biography subjects – folks you may want to consider writing about for young readers.

They are excellent exemplars for anyone, especially children.

If you are intent on writing biographries for young readers,  you will arrive at the day that you will be grabbed by the person – or perhaps people -  you want to share with impressionable minds.

That’s how it happened for me.

Today there are four on this list. Check back for more. I’m not claiming these fine folks on this list, so have at ‘em!

Possible picture book biography people:

1 OSCAR ROMERO,  El Salvador

2 POLLY PARKER, Florida

3 JOHN RILEY, Florida

4 MELEE, Florida (correct spelling to be updated, an intriguing part of her story)

5 STERLING ELLIOTT – social reformer, bicycle enthusiast of the 1890s, inventor

mother earth

www.nmai.si.edu

Look at Eartrh Day 2010 events but also plan ahead for August 2010, Living Earth Fest

Earth Day Program
Honoring the Living Earth: Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Communities in Colombia

Thursday, April 22, 2010
12–1:30 p.m.
National Museum of the American Indian
Room 4018, Fourth Level
4th Street and Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C.

This program will also be webcast live.

program flyer

CELEBRATE EARTH DAY with special presentations by Luis Gilberto Murillo-Urrutia and Dr. Alicia Rios Hurtado. Murillo was elected governor of Chocó, Colombia, at the age of 31 after successfully instituting pioneering programs to protect biodiversity and the tropical rainforest, and to defend the land rights of Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities.  As governor, Murillo won wide praise for his innovative proposals and strategies for sustainable development and environmental protection. He is currently the Vice President for Programs and Strategy at Phelps Stokes in Washington, DC.

Alicia Rios Hurtado has served as Vice-President for Research and Director of the Institute of Biodiversity at the Technological University of Chocó and currently leads the university research group on sustainable use of biodiversity. Dr. Rios Hurtado received Colombia’s prestigious National Award for Scientific Merit in 2004. She is one of the nine members of the National Council of Science and Technology, and is the only woman and the only Afro-Colombian on the Council.

Presented by the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in partnership with the Smithsonian Latino Center and the Embassy of Colombia.

To RSVP or for more information, please email NMAI-SSP@si.edu.

happy earth day copyright Jan Godown

book week book week book week

Children’s Book Week 2010 arrives soon. www.bookweekonline.org We will learn which books & which author win, in the annual poll of children, arranged by the Children’s Book Council.  This report covers a few bookish events in prelude to Children’s Book Week, May 10-17. SEALEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL “Young Authors Conference” Sealey is blessed with 15 (FIFTEEN!!!) library volunteers. Media maven Lenita Joe makes sure that each treasured volunteer  gets a color book jacket with their name on it, on a billboard in the hallway outside the media center. Inside the library, I especially like that globes are everywhere. And it’s easy to find the biography section. Writers visit for the annual Young Authors Conference. And it’s always time for books at Sealey (& sometimes there’s a moment for pizza, for readers who are great writers!) Congratulations to the Sealey Seals &

the Young Authors recently honored for their fabulous, illustrated fiction & non-fiction stories.

ST. MARKS WILDLIFE REFUGE “Reading in the Refuge” takes place in a world like no other. The Refuge on the Gulf of Mexico ( volunteers are signing up to help if the BP oil deluge reaches into refuge waters  here) is known worldwide for its alligators & whooping cranes. And it’s fitting that nature books are lovingly showcased in a nook of the Visitor Center.

an author to know in texas

Q & A for JANET S. FOX:  FAITHFUL, May 2010 YA novel debut author

Today’s blog is a visit with Janet S. Fox. www.janetsfox.com

I hope you enjoy your meeting with her, as much as I have.

Please look for her debut novel in your store & library.

Q Hi Janet.

You’re here because of FAITHFUL,  your new YA novel which debuts later this month.

But you are already a successful, published non-fiction author.  SO…

Q How would you introduce yourself to a standing room only crowd of

librarians?  And then, please, to an SRO room of students?

A

What a great question! To the librarians, I’d say, “Hi – I’m a former teacher, mom to a son with learning differences, and writer. I love teens – working with them and writing for them – and I’ve got one book out for middle graders to help them with schoolwork, and a literary young adult novel out this spring that will appeal to teen girls.”

To the kids I’d say, “Read! Pick out whatever you want from the bookshelves in this library. I won’t look. I won’t ask. Just read, and have a good time with it.”

Q   What are your quirky writer habits/processes in which you trust?

A

I write every day. I need a bit of warm-up. Right now that involves email (love/hate necessity); I’m looking forward to the time when it means some writing exercises, like it used to. But by ten AM I’m writing full out for at least 5 hours, every day. I write on the computer. I print out and revise. In my late stage revisions I read everything out loud; then I re-type the entire manuscript, right from page 1.

Q      What non-fiction book about literature, reading, writing, or about

language, do you want new & experienced writers to read?

A

Wow. If I had to pick one, it would be John Gardner, The Art of Fiction. If I could pick two, the second would be Janet Burroway’s Writing Fiction.

Q    What is it about history & writing about historical times, that

speaks to you?

A

I love research. I love the fact that I can use a voice that feels less modern, more lyrical. I love the settings and historical details. But, you know, I fall in love with characters first, and sometimes they just live in the past.

Q    What are the origins of your inventive idea for FAITHFUL?

A

Inventive – thanks for the compliment! My family has a cabin in the mountains of Montana. We’ve been to Yellowstone many times. I find the Park fascinating and a bit frightening – all that edge of life/edge of death stuff jammed together – wolves and bears, hot springs and geysers, gorgeous vistas and sheer cliffs that fall into raging rivers. Everything I treasure about this wild planet is right there. So it seemed a natural thing to set a story about a young girl dealing with death and her future in Yellowstone.

Q     Tell us something that happens in FAITHFUL to Maggie Bennet

your protagonist, that no other book has in it.

A

Maggie comes face to face with a bear. And I’ll say no more so the mystery remains…

Q     How do you want readers to feel when they are finished

reading FAITHFUL?

I’d love it if readers feel moved. If they feel that they’ve been on a journey. If they feel that their lives have been changed and they’ve made discoveries about themselves.

Thank you Janet. We look forward to seeing FAITHFUL on our bookstore shelves! And a fantabulous MOTHER’s DAY to you this year.

A

Thank you, Jan, so much!

FAITHFUL, debut novel by Janet S. Fox

betty white, sleep & stories

Share your family’s favorite original bedtime story with Betty White. If you meet the May 22 deadline racing along fast, your story may be especially featured.

http://www.sleepbetter.org

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://cdn.widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertWidget.js”></script><script type=”text/javascript”>if (WIDGETBOX) WIDGETBOX.renderWidget(‘e92599ea-474b-48c4-8d0c-0057b96b3329′);</script><noscript>Get the <a href=”http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/bedtime-stories-submission-form”>Bedtime Stories Submission Form</a> widget and many other <a href=”http://www.widgetbox.com/”>great free widgets</a> at <a href=”http://www.widgetbox.com”>Widgetbox</a>! Not seeing a widget? (<a href=”http://docs.widgetbox.com/using-widgets/installing-widgets/why-cant-i-see-my-widget/”>More info</a>)</noscript>

an author in alabama to know

Joan Broerman is godmother to many writers, both inside & outside of the Society of Children’s Book Writer & Illustrators, where she nurtured new talent for thousands of days moving into a decade, i’m guessing, as regional advisor.

These days she still nurtures new talent, but has more time to also revise her own work & tackle new projects.

I caught up with her when she had some down time from a poetry picture book manuscript revsion.

Bookseedstudio:  Have you got a book title to share with us – one that wil answer probing questions,  surture sloppy manuscripts, & be just the ticket for weekend reading?

JOAN:

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Children’s Books by Harold D. Underdown is a solid summary of the basics. It covers the range from submitting to publishing to marketing and career building. The publishing world is a bit like a backyard trampoline these days with some jumping high and others bouncing a time or two and falling off. Underdown’s website The Purple Crayon keeps writers updated. www.underdown.org

Bookseedstudio: Is there something you’ve always wanted to do outside writing…?

JOAN:

Since I was ten, I’ve wanted to sit in the press box at a University of Louisville Cardinals home basketball game.

Bookseedstudio: Name or describe something that scared you silly as a child.

JOAN:

I was stuck at the very top of a Ferris wheel at the county fair while the operator went out to lunch. I was about six. My dad was with me and turned it into a teachable moment, but heights are still not my thing.

Bookseedstudio: What word are you dying to work into something you are writing?
JOAN:

A word I like to use in schools when I do author’s visits is “primogeniture.” When I explain what it is, 3rd and 4th graders especially say, “Not fair!” It’s the law of inheritance which gives everything to the first born son. Alabama, the subject of one of my books, was settled by second sons who moved westward from the colonies because their older brothers inherited the lands of their fathers. And what about girls? Provocative word, yes?

Thanks for asking, Jan. You’ve given me ideas for the future.

Spend more time with the wonderful Joan Broerman at

her blog

http://joan-booklog.blogspot.com and also at

www.joan-broerman.com

www.twitter.com/pencilpal

children are different

Children are different, U.S. Supreme Court Rules

The U.S. Supreme Court this week said that children are different than adults.

Previously some children who commited non-homicide crimes could be subjected to cruel & unusual punishment by being sentenced to life in prison with never any hope of parole, which has been happening here in Florida.

Now the court has looked at those situations and concluded that children shouldn’t be considered the same as adults.

Congratulations to the Children in Prison project of Florida State University’s College of Law.  And kudos to my hubby, Paolo G. Annino who directed the outstanding students, Chelsea Boehme Rice, Yale Olenick & Jessica Harmsen.

the sea brings forth update

c. 2010 Jan Annino Godown

The Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory is the go-to

wonderland for families here in North Florida, where the Gulf of Mexico takes its big bend along the marsh shore.  (Scenic Driving Florida & Family Fun in Florida , two of my travel guides, feature this site.) Learn about their new NOAH’S ARK project for the embattled Gulf of Mexico. It’s a way to protect the fish nurseries, collecting & raising young in tanks onshore, during the dark intrusion of oil into the previously productive waters. A positive way to move along, while

engineers remain puzzled about ending the oil gush. And while it appears there are no answers to: When will the oil flow end?

www.gulfspecimen.org/

On YouTube learn how the GULF SPECIMEN lab creators advised 40 years ago, after the barge, Florida spilled oil near West Falmouth, Mass.,  in Sept. 1969, how to document oil spill impact along the shore.

Also on YouTube, look for Young Adult & Middle Grade award-winning author ADRIAN FOGELIN &

her partner songster, Craig Reeder, performing their original and haunting ballad about the oil spill.

Search using

Hot Tamale, the name of this creative duo. Or try the title  which has changed to

Crystal Gulf Waters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84_5Z7h_vPw

YouTube – Crystal Gulf Waters

Cedar Key Florida by Jan Godown

Apalachicola, Florida

And look for this fresh collection in print, of writers defending Gulf coastal beauty in UnspOILed.

It is edited by noted writer Susan Cerulean, with pieces from Janisse Ray, Doug Alderson, Connie May Fowler &  many others.  There is even a 9-year-old inkslinger contributing to this project- that’s just how important this issue is.

http://unspoiledbook.com/

c. 2010 Jan Annino Godown

shrimp 101

Shrimp

I can barely remember that I once wouldn’t eat shrimp.

But  I am also someone who once, wouldn’t eat tiramasu.  Now I relish shrimp, especially like this:

Yum in the making.

We are enjoying local, fresh-caught seafood at Stinky’s, Barnacle Bill’s & other reliable kitchens, such as our own (above) unless we retrieve solid, gulf oil disaster/BP/Deep Horizion -related reasons, not to.

Back to SHRIMP.

Cruising by today is the newest book from Jack Rudloe & Anne Rudloe, Florida scientists & writers & genuine personalities on the ecological battlefront in North Florida, who have been married to each other umpteen years & certainly enough that their youngest son is now running things at the famous Panacea institution that I think must have invented touch tanks, Gulf Specimen Laboratory.

http://www.gulfspecimen.org/

In response to their new book SHRIMP: The Endless Quest for Pink Gold, Florida writers besides myself agree this deserves your attention.

Randy White,  a Gannett colleague of mine eons back at the The News-Depressed (Fort Myers News Press) who now serves shrimp in his own island restaurant that has grown from his appealing Doc Ford character in umpteen popular mystery books, blurbs thusly:

“Jack and Ann Rudloe aren’t just Florida literary treasures, they are national treasures. Their most recent work – Shrimp- is among their best – and that is very good, indeed!” RANDY WAYNE WHITE

And  from pink crustacean expert J. Buffett:

” Most humans are said to be composed 90% of water, but for those of us who grew up on the Gulf of Mexico, I think that other 10% must be shrimp. The Rudloes leave the Living Dock behind for a voyage to the land of Pink Crustaceans, and I for one am happy to be aboard for that voyage.”  JIMMY BUFFETT

The Rudloes travel around the world touring shrimp farms. After reading this report,  you understand that imported shrimp isn’t something you want to consume. It’s not only about the dubious quality of the food, but about the destruction of wetlands, to create the shrimp farms around the world.

As biologists, the Rudloes let us in on all things shrimp. They take us aboard a shrimp boat to see how the gems are collected.

They discuss these cute carnivores (I misunderstood that shrimp were vegetarian) in all ways – from  their common names (if you only know pink & rock & jumbo shrimp you are in for a surprise: opossum shrimp , coon-striped shrimp, pistol shrimp & more) to their biology & life cycle, to  the precarious status of clean water environments.

With 4,000 shrimp species to cover, it’s a lot of territory but Jack & Ann Rudloe serve SHRIMP,  deliciously,

When I tell you that this book is indexed and expertly sourced, you will see why any marine biology, coastal or seafood enthusiast needs this on the bookshelf.

Enjoy.

ISBN 978.0.13.700972.5

Pearson Education/FT Press

http://www.ftpressscience.com

Professor J.D. Stahl

In Memoriam Prof. J.D. Stahl

Climbing Daddy Mountain by J.D. Stahl, with illustrations from Joni Pienkowski

Grace under pressure defines Prof. J.D. Stahl during his last decade as he prepared students wherever he taught. My experience is in his classrooms at Hollins University.  He made it so easy for those of us outside his inner circle to forget the leukemia battle he waged within, except for an opening day remark about please avoiding class if you had some known germs to pass around.  Thereafter his class focus spotlighted  his students and their topics – children’s literature.
I am thinking of his children’s picture book, Climbing Daddy Mountain inspired by his sprites, his two sons,   which he inscribed for a couple daddies for me to send along, much to their delight. I am thinking of his reading of  Climbing on campus in the Wyndham Robertson Library, with the boys present, which felt like a gift to us – birthday & 4th of July & Christmas all at one time.  And I am thinking of his big smile in class and his sharp questions on returned papers with cogent references to material a serious student might want to pursue.   I am thinking  most how he inspired students who now teach, some in the same program where they first met him on the other side of the desk.

It will not feel like a full summer program ever again without him, but in tribute to J.D. Stahl,  we can work to create work – in class or out -  which would earn his grade of “A.”

(A thank you for Amanda Cockrell for this link to his obituary in the July 18, 2010 Roanoke Times:)

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/roanoke/obituary.aspx?n=john-daniel-stahl&pid=144123107

John Daniel Stahl

This is from that obituary
-A Rachel Carson quote he used as his e-mail signature for years reads, “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature-the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” – RT/7.19.2010

Addendum 7/27/2010:

Please know about: Daniel & Hans Stahl Education Fund, PO Box 144, Blacksburg, VA  24063-0144

Teens Read Too! author M.R. Street

Teens Read Too is an online community where YA authors meet their young readers & not so young readers, such as myself.

Aug. 19 a novel I know & enjoy, BLUE ROCK RESCUE, is to be featured at Teens Read Too along with the creative gal who wrote it, M.R. Street. This fast-paced story set in the mountains has already captured a 5 star review at the Teens Read Too site.

My conflict of interest is that we are pals, partners in writing & fans of dark chocolate. M.R. also opens up her rural retreat, The Cove, for occasional writing workshops, which I’ve attended with good results. So, my bias is bigtime for this writer. That said, please do visit

www.teensreadtoo.com

on Aug. 19 for the BLUE ROCK RESCUE day. You can already read the site’s review at

www.teensreadtoo.com/BlueRockRescue.html

Begin to get to know the book BRR & author, today:

www.bluerockrescue.com/

An Author to Know in Florida

Today’s guest at Bookseedstudio is close to home here in Florida.
She is middle grade writer M.R. Street, author of BLUE ROCK RESCUE.

We are excited that the lively online source Teens Read Too, which
recommends BRR,  is hosting M.R. on THURSDAY August. 19th at

http://trtbookclub.blogspot.com/

Here is my review of BRR, from the WorldCat:

WorldCat User Reviews
Softball, darts, a swimming hole, & two horses by the bus stop
by bookseedstudio (WorldCat user published 2009-07-01) Excellent Permalink

How often do we find a book that boys and girls will take to, like
free cherry licorice from the country store?

BLUE ROCK RESCUE is that fine story, set in a masculine mountain
household where Andy is trying to forget everything out in the horse
barn. And down at the swimmin’ hole …

Along comes a new kid on the Blue Ridge, Trudy, whose scientist

parents have instilled in her a love of the outdoors – except for

horses.

How the two middle school neighbors meet & mingle, & how the other
kids react to his new pal, an athletic girl who is also smart, tumbles
this smoothly flowing story along to a twisting & dangerous turn of
events .

This is an ideal read for outdoorsy country kids who are finding a
path between old and new friends. Or for city readers with a yen for
rural ramblings.

A favorite passage:

” ‘You think you’re better than everybody, but you’re not,” Sheryl
continued. “You stink!”

Roscoe’s shoe hit the edge of the curb and he lost his footing. He
pinwheeled his arms, but couldn’t regain his balance.

“Oomph,” he said, as he landed in the pile of manure.

“She’s right, I think,” Nathan said, bending close to Roscoe and sniffing.

BLUE ROCK RESCUE is from an author who is also a horsewoman and her
knowledge of things equine , plus her zest for life, shine through
this delightful story.

Our interview today:

Q

M.R. I have to ‘fess up & admit I, the reviewer above at WorldCat, am
a partisan, as your devoted critique partner.
But I do have one probing question.  Why would a Florida gal set a
first novel so far afield from the Sunshine State?

A
Hi, Jan!  First, thank you for interviewing me for your blog.  I love to
talk about my stories.  Yes, I am a native and life-long Floridian, but I
have always loved the mountains of North Carolina.  My grandparents had a
cabin there, and I spent a lot of wonderful summer weeks among the hemlocks
and garnet rocks, peaking under stones in Cattail Creek for baby salamanders
and crawdads, learning how to clog at a huge dance hall, reading on the
front porch with the sound of the creek rushing by in the background, and
otherwise enjoying the Blue Ridge.

Q

What is your connection with horses, which are a big part of this story?

A
Like most girls, I loved horses growing up.  My grandfather always told the
three of us kids, “I’m going to buy you a horse.”  My mother, the original
spin doctor, would come behind him and say, “He means, he’d like to be able
to buy you a horse.”  When my sister and I were 14, Granddaddy actually
bought us an American Quarterhorse gelding.  Although I love riding, I admit
that my expert in matters of horsiness is my sister (who gets a nod in the
acknowledgements in Blue Rock Rescue).  She has a Quarterhorse ranch not far
from my home, and we ride as often as possible.  I fell in love with one of
her foals, a beautiful sorrel filly, and that horse is now my mare, Juni.

Q

What are your own experiences with river swimming, which also figures here?

A
The swimming hole in Blue Rock Rescue is based on Tater Hole, although
nobody that I know of ever drowned or nearly drowned there.   This swimming
hole is on Cattail Creek, a spring-fed mountain creek, and that means COLD.
The water is crystal-clear, so you can see all the slippery river rocks that
you must walk across to get to the huge boulder on the other side.  At Tater
Hole and various other points on the creek, I’ve also done the ole slip and
slide (both intentional and unintentional) down bumpy boulders, with chilly
splashdowns in swimming holes.  The water rushes all around you, the
hemlocks form a sun-speckled canopy, and the whole experience is
exhilarating!

Q

How do you want readers to feel, when they close the book on that last page?

A
I want them to feel that friendships are awesome, even if they don’t turn
out just the way you think they’re going to.  I hope they will feel that
they have strength inside them that they don’t even realize.  I hope
they’ll want to visit the mountains if they’ve never been — or if they are
familiar with the Apalachians, I hope they’ll think, “That’s exactly what I
love about the mountains!”

Q

Many thanks for your time today & we’re looking forward to Aug. 19 at
TEENS READ TOO! plus all the good events for BLUE ROCK RESCUE

that are sure to be ahead for it.

an author to meet in alabama

JO. S. KITTINGER

http://www.jokittinger.com/
is an author to meet in Alabama.

(My apologies – I had my typical link issues tonight so you may need to type in Jo’s name into your search engine.)

I met the always bizee Jo S. Kittinger,  through the second home that is teacher/friend/cheerleader

to writers & illustrators working on stories for the kiddos,  the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators

http://www.scbwi.org/

Jo is a regional advisor in this group for the Southern Breeze (GA, MS & AL & for Florida, a bit of the roof of the state.)

She is a much-published non-fiction & fiction picture book writer.

She is also an expert photographer. This fall, something new pictures her world.

She presents her debut literary picture book. It’s  about an event in modern U.S. history close to many hearts.

These questions today  are about, ROSA’S BUS, for the Calkins Creek imprint of Boyds Mills Press.

It is  illustrated by Steven Walker  in an arresting style that

makes me think of the grand Works Progress Administration post office &

government building murals.

Q

What do you want readers to feel about the bus that Rosa Parks rode?

JO KITTINGER

When Americans gaze at the Liberty Bell, I imagine they are filled
with a sense of patriotic pride in the freedoms we all enjoy. I would
love for readers to feel the same way about Rosa’s Bus.

Q

Did you always know that the bus, #2857, still existed? Would you
share the story of how you found this historic Civil Rights era icon in Michigan?

JO KITTINGER

No, I was not aware of the existence of the actual bus, #2857, until a
few years ago. I was contacted by Donnie Williams, the Georgia man who
owned the bus before it was sold to the Henry Ford Museum.
Williams had written an adult book about the bus and the Civil Rights
movement, THE THUNDER OF ANGELS, and his editor was interested in a
children’s book about the bus. Donnie acknowledged that he was not a
children’s author, so he contacted me. I was able to interview
Williams and was intrigued. Unfortunately, the project did not work
out with his editor and then Donnie passed away. I decided the subject
was worth pursuing and continued work on the story.

Q

What is your connection with civil rights? And that era the bus represents?

JO KITTINGER

I feel a deep connection with the history of the Civil Rights movement, having grown up during those
tense years in the south. Visiting our Birmingham Civil Rights
Institute is always a moving experience. They have a similar bus from
that era on exhibit, in conjunction with the Freedom Riders.

Q

What do you want young readers to understand, more than anything else,
about the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott?

JO KITTINGER

Freedom is not free. The bus boycott was a difficult year for all
those who participated. But black people were determined to go the
distance, to stick with the boycott until the changes were achieved. I
think it is also very important to realize that non-violent means CAN
be an effective avenue to change.

Q

What is it about writing for young readers on historical topics that
especially speaks to you?

JO KITTINGER

When I was a child, history seemed dry, uninteresting and unimportant.
I hope that by presenting history in an interesting way I can help
children realize that there is much to be learned from what has
already happened in our world. We can avoid repeating mistakes if we
are willing to learn from history.
Q

Can you please share a little bit about artist Steven Walker and his
evocative picture book illustrations for your story?

JO KITTINGER

I wish I’d had the privilege of meeting Walker and discussing his
work, but editors like to keep authors and illustrators separate for
the most part. But I was very pleased that Walker was chosen for this
project. He is primarily a fine artist, rather than an illustrator, so
I was very curious about what approach he might take with my story.
You can see more of his work at http://www.stevenwalkerstudios.com. I
must admit that I was taken aback for just a second by the stoic
nature of his work. But after reflection, I realized that he’d
perfectly captured a mood that I’m sure was accurate for the
situation. As an African American, he added a perspective that I’d
only been able to imagine. I’m very grateful for his contribution to

this book.

Many thanks,  Jo.

I’m sure readers will be at their libraries & bookstores,  asking  for

ROSA’s BUS.

“Made you look!” Made you care…

In celebration of SEPTEMBER as National Literacy Month, I’ve created a

talk on biography basics.

“I was once asked what was the one story I most wanted to publish. This is it.”

biographer Hester Bass, author of The Secret World of Walter Anderson

PICTURE BOOK BIOGRAPHY BASICS or  Is THIS  One the Story for the 978 Shelf?

An incomplete CHECK LIST -

_____EXEMPLAR  young readers can identify with/emulate/learn from this person

_____ILLUSTRATION       story will “pop” off the pages in pictures – in original photographs& documents.   Or with artist-created illustrations.  Or both.

_____ ORIGINAL  introducing an undiscovered achiever?  Star-struck by a famous name? If your subject is the history-making Cleopatra, will your book illuminate exciting & less-known aspects of her story ? See Cleopatra Rules! by Vicky Schecter.

_______ MULTISOURCED  are significant primary & secondary references & resources included in the back copy?  Key specialists/players brought onboard as listed consultants to the project? See Bylines by Sue Macy.

________CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS  teachers may apply the book to important school subjects/study areas; be alert for tie-ins.

________STORYTELLING   conflicts/obstacles, structure, setting, hook, narrative, mechanics & all the usual

_________HEARTBEAT  your heart beats fast for this person? Is the subject someone to enthusiastically present to the world- indefinitely?

websites to explore

Library of Congress “Today in History” & much more

Florida Memory Florida’s version of the Library of Congress

Interesting Non-Fiction for Kids, with award-winning books & their creators

American Library Association has the page,  “Great Web Sites for Kids” From it,  see: Biographies

National Inventors Hall of Fame

fun site

Create a Voki , a moving avatar of yourself – like your own visual/audio mini-biography. Vox + Loki = Voki “Vox” is Latin for voice. “Loki” is a prankster character in Norse Mythology.

some p.b. biography titles

The SCBWI co-founder, author Lin Oliver, has said writers should read at least 100 books in the genre in which we hope to publish.

Writers & illustrators have brought to young readers the stories of lesser- known folks whose paths in the world make me pause. Here are just 8 to know, along with opening lines. (SCBWI = Society of Chilrens’ Book Writers & Illustrators)

Walter Anderson    The Secret World of Walter Anderson

There was once a man whose love of nature was as wide as the world.

Roy Chapman Andrews      Dragon Bones and Dinosaur Eggs

A lifetime of adventure began calmly enough for Roy Chapman Andrews when he was born January 26, 1884 in  Beloit, Wisconsin.

Claudette Colvin     Twice Toward Justice

If like Claudette Colvin, you grew up black in central Alabama during the 1940s and 1950s,  Jim Crow controlled your life from womb to tomb.

Betty Mae Jumper    She Sang Promise

Spring breezes tickle cabbage palm spikes in a woman’s birth camp of the proud Tiger Family in the powerful Snake Clan.

Manjiro     The Boy Who Risked His Life for Two Countries

In 1841 a boy named Manjiro lived with his widowed mother and sisters and brothers in a village called Nakanohama in the province of Tosa in Japan.

Jackie Mitchell     Mighty Jackie

It was April 2, 1941, and something amazing was about to happen.

Esther Morris    When Ester Morris Headed West

Her name was Esther Mae Hobart McQuigg Slack Morris, and in 1869 she headed out to South Pass City in the Wyoming Territory.

Thomas Moran    Yellowstone Moran

Tom Moran had dreams as big as the Montana sky.

more titles

Here, select honors are listed, for a few of the hundreds, of picture book biographies.

When Marian Sang Sibert Honor Book

Story Painter Carter G. Woodson Book Award

Harvesting Hope Pura Belpre Honor Book

Dragon Bones and Dinosaur Eggs 2001 Books for the Teen Age List

Eleanor, Quiet No More Amelia Bloomer Award

Snowflake Bentley Caldecott Award (for illustrator Mary Azarian)

Claudette Colvin National Book Award/Jane Addams Honor

My writing credo is simple, a  6-word artistic statement & writing lesson: “Made you look!” Made you care…

Many thanks.

LUCY and the BULLY

LUCY and the BULLY is a read-aloud picture book I’m taking to second grade for reading on the topic of Kindness. This fabulous teacher, actually a teaching team of 2nd grade wizard educators, selected the topic before this week’s tragic events.

As you know, we lost fabulous young spirits in California and my home state – New Jersey – due to this era’s disrespect of privacy & an unnecessary shame over sexual identity. Immature  fear & insecurity of the unformed  minds who taunted children to their deaths held the day. This time. But more & more straight children & their families will speak out against irrationality.

My heart is heavy for all of us straight or gay, but especially for young people who may be personally affected by this.

Watching tenderness in action among young ones, out & about in the community & at schools – seeing sharing & caring – I’m confident that enough people, working with the younger generation, can make a difference. I’m looking for other picture book titles, such as LUCY and the BULLY,  to share with young readers. Titles that are lively, fun & aovid preachy, most welcome.  This is a tall order, so a kind Thank You to Claire Alexander, who I don’t know, but hope to meet some time, for providing a path.

NaNoWriMo 2010

(UPDATE ALERT – see below.)

Perhaps the season made me do it.

I’m be-witched by the allure of an assembly of writers around the world each attempting to write a novel in a month.

It’s crazee. I have too much travel in November. And other deadlines, such as my thesis that is patient in waiting for my work on it.

I’m onboard for the first time ever with the folks at the Office of Letters and Light, collecting an armload of books for a good cause, donating my $10 to get my halo. And yes, writing many, many words every day  the 30 days of November.

At the end of November, pls check back here for my National Novel Writing Month foloup, an honest reckoning post.

UPDATE , Nov. 10, 2010 – as an official PICTURE BOOK REBEL at NANOWRIMO I pledged to write four new picture books this month & to come up with a picture book idea a day.

This week my critique partners read my 1st of four promised new picture book manuscripts for Novemeber. And they liked it, I have to say. It  benefited from the long trip-time home, after catalytic visits with librarians at the 2010 F.A.M.E, (Florida Association of Media Educators) conference.  This new p.b. manuscript is an Easter story.

I have 8 new p.b. ideas for the November contest, and since I write this update on Nov. 10, I should by now have created 10 ideas. (one a day.)  Not too shabby – I’m giving myself major points for  the entire p.b. (draft) manuscript. There is a charm  to this famed contest, after all. Many thanks to the Office of Letters and Light.

30 days hath November

In her book RADICAL REFLECTIONS, the incomparable children’s author & educator Mem Fox, of Australia, (the creator of KOALA LOU) says that she gets, maybe, four good ideas a year in writing for children.

One, two, three, four.

This cheers me up because, in calculations for my warm fuzzie for the just-ended National Novel Writing Month 2010, I have to ask:

Have I measured up to my goals?

We shall see.

Saturday evening our pals GiGi & husband Jerry came over straight from the airport to endure my spaghetti & meatballs after their day-long flights home to North Florida from a Thanksgiving in NYC that collected their family from hither & yon.

They are good story tellers & their tales helped distract us from the fact that the best teen in the universe, home for Thanksgiving from her first semester of college in New England, had just flown northward that day.

“How did you do with your writing,” GiGi asked me. They had been over for brunch at the beginning of the month & I had announced my goals as a Picture Book Rebel in NANOWRIMO 2010:

four new picture books, written

PLUS

a picture book idea, a day

To put the screws in tight, I had also, impromptu, announced this during the Author Panel, Elementary Section, at the Florida Association of Media Educators 2010 conference, conveniently held in November .

Hah!

Here’s where the four picture books are:

A story set at Easter-time –   written & 1st draft read t0 crit. crew.

A story about the origins of a favorite food – writing begun & pages to date – three- ready to read to crit.crew.  The research tastes yummy.

A p.b. biography  about an abolitionist – writing revised, after a hiatus of three years – not quite ready to read to crit. crew but 7 workable pages nailed.

(big blank space here )

- for unwritten fourth p.b.

But Fourth, Unwritten P.B. is 1 of 23 new p,b. ideas (not 30) that I came up with, which are ready for this Thursday’s meeting with my crit crew.

I have taken my victory laps around the neighborhood on my daily walks.

This would be a I Wish I Could… instead of an I Did!   had I not ponied up, got my NANOWRIMO halo & publicly announced goals. AND the best part of this month was written by someone else.

Jane Yolen (TOUCH MAGIC, one of her books about the craft of Story, great for readers & writers) an incomparable talent of the world, who can’t be categorized, only, as a writer for children, although that is how I came to her, sent me a new, unpublished poem early each morn, which she penned or penciled or keyboarded, each day of November.

Yes, that’s right.

She did this as an advocate for The Center for New Americans.

Her poems sailed out to fulfill her November writing pledge.

It was to create a fresh poem each day, delivered privately for personal use only, to the luckies who pledged in turn, to donate to The Center. I thank my critique partner M.R. Street for her graciousness in alerting me to this.

Do you follow tennis?  Imagine if Chrissie Evert shows up at your doorstep, to show you her swing.

Have you prayed for racial strife to end ? Imagine if you answer the knock & meet Desmond Tutu, there to bow his head in prayer with your family.

Well, this is November  2010 for me.  It’s been birthday & anniversary & Easter & Christmas & New Year’s & like my first successful bike-riding moment at age 8 (“You’re a late – bloomer, Jan,” a newspaper editor once told me) & events of similar good force. In one month.

30 Days Hath November

In 30 days I could fall flat

Or I could soar.

It’s up to me to open the door.

crazy

My dear Dad was fond of Old Order Amish sayings & stories, or at least, sayings & stories he passed off, as Old Order Amish.

These folks were  not the people he was from, being himself  mainly French Huguenot & British. But he had hung around them. One yarn he trotted out, returning from some family event such as a holiday party in the November through end of January days, carried a punchline like this:

Old Order Amish One: “Sometimes Brother, I think everyone in ‘dis world is crazy, but  for Thee & Me.”

Old Order Amish Two: “Yah, that’s true enough, Brother.”

{nice enough pause}

Old Order Amish One: ” And sometimes, Brother, I do I wonder about Thee.”

CRAZY by Han Nolan

Crazy may be something your family or extended family, or the family of someone you love in a huge way, pursues in the bad way, not the charmed way.

And  you may be inserting yourself into those crazy situations between now & the end of January, where you may be coping with the uncharmed, uncute, kind of crazy.  Pick up a new novel from author Han Nolan,  CRAZY.

To write in detail is to give up many spoilers in a fast-paced story that sprints & twists & zings about the area of suburban Washington, D.C. But you will become familiar with the Dad who doesn’t take his meds, the son who doesn’t share anything with the world about his crazy family & the pals who form a second family and bring the son, their new pal, Jason, back into the world of the un-guilty. Once you know about this book, if your world brings you in contact at home or at school or at work with the crazy in a bad way, it’d be almost crazy not to get straight to a library or bookstore & read CRAZY. (Better to buy it if you can & support bookstores.) I especially liked the character, Shelby, & of course, our hero, Jason.

This commentary on the new novel, CRAZY by Han Nolan, is dedicated to the National Center for Youth Law, which advocates 24/7 on behalf of foster kiddos & other adults-before-their-time, who deserve & need, help out of harm’s way.

If you want information about this book try here.

CRAZY by Han Nolan, 2010 from www.hmhbooks.com

mighty fine

Wishing you a new year as fresh as  lemons and red grapefruit,

just snapped off from the branch  (thank you Maria & Joe.)

Wishing good luck to candidates for

the Coretta Scott King Awards & mock awards.

Wishing peace to all, especially the Bamboo People.

Wishing fun for all, especially the Betsy-Tacy folks.

Bye for Betty Mae

It is hard to write about Betty Mae Tiger Jumper being gone but she is no longer on this Earth.

Her funeral service at the House of Prayer Full Gospel Church was lovely & spoken with words of her two Native languages (Creek & Mikasuki)  & also in the language in which she wrote her three books & her newspaper,  The Seminole Tribune – English, amid a garden of floral displays, an overflow crowd of family & some friends. Outside  gray skies opened a deluge to create perfect funeral weather, as if Breathmaker echoed the tears of those within.

I think there were more smiling eyes than wet ones – the stories they told on her were so good, fitting for one whose life was exuberant.

And we also heard about simple things, day old bread and cheap baloney & fried chicken necks  that she made into feasts for children, during the lean years.

We were transported to the chimpanzee tourist zoo of decades back, where she protected a baby who was like her, born of an Indian mother & non-Indian father.  This friend spoke & cried & smiled, following other men who also became emotional in expressing their love, all admirers of this elder, the last matriarch of the proud Snake Clan.

I loved it that her grandson Josh Jumper preached. And that her son, the poet Moses Jumper, Jr.,  told one of my favorite stories, about the day he thought he could skip school because the family truck wouldn’t start. Skip school? Un-huh.  Not likely. Not with Betty Mae your mama.

He told us how she got the family bicycle, made him climb up on the handlebars & she proceeded to pedal him the long way to school down a highway.

Eventually someone who knew them, stopped & offered a ride.

She would have pedaled her kid the whole way.

That was a sweet summary: a mother’s love of her son; a mother’s devotion to education.

She passed on Friday, January 14, 2011, peacefully in her sleep. Bye Betty Tiger, Bye Betty Mae. Bye Betty Mae Tiger Jumper.

(Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, the first woman elected leader of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, in 1967, was an amazing woman whose story I brought to children in a 2010 picture book, with artist Lisa Desimini & an afterward written by Moses Jumper, Jr.)

Our only Amelia Jenks Bloomer

We are anticipating the February Read-In, created by the Black Caucus of the NCTE , but before that introspective time at the library is upon us, it’s time to announce two important events of January. First, Literacy with a capital L was feted  well for a week in official ways here in Florida.

Bears of the kind that can be compelled to look at books enlivened Celebrate Literacy Week. They attended school where I volunteer. At the appointed hour we experienced the fun of  DEAR – Drop Everything and Read . My Book Bear puppet snuggled in his always-attached purple sleeping bag, to read CATWINGS from Urusula K. LeGuin.  I settled in a plastic chair to begin Tracy Barret’s channeling of teen angst in Classical (minotaur) times, THE KING OF ITHAKA. Celebrate Literacy Week  ended for me with a surprise visit from  The Cat In The Hat & a governor of the way past & Mrs. Governor at Children’s Day at the Mueum of Florida History.  As one little girl said, whilst occupied in making an alligator book mark at my table for Children’s Day:  ”I am a STAR reader! ” She is. They all were. Are. Please let us enjoy more weeks like this.

Also in January I’ve been delighted to compose linking information about 10 particular books for our reading pleasure. The links are a work in progress, so check back.

Each title is newly deemed by the Social Responsibilities Round Table’s Feminist Task Force, of the American Library Association, to be worthy of association with the hallowed name of that wonderful editor, writer, public speaker & wife beloved by her husband, Dexter Bloomer, the one and only feminist Amelia Jenks Bloomer  (1818-1894) Dexter so adored Amelia that after her death, he collected her writings in a book.  He was a journalist who urged Amelia, a teacher and caregiver to children, to publish in the first place.  Her good name is lent to an annual list of 60 or so books, dynamic stories, both fiction and non, published each year, for readers from babies through age 18, that are written and illustrated in a way that is thought to “spur the imagination while confronting traditional female stereotypes.” AJB is, of course, remembered for the Turkish pantaloons that another feminist brought back from world travels. Amelia aquired some, wore them rather than 10 pounds of petticoats & stiff corsets, etc. & wrote about them in her newspaper, The Lily. One fine biography where some of this AJB material is from, is given us by Nebraska author Mary Lickteig, to whom I say a rousing, Thank You.

For 2011 (published in 2010) the Top 10 titles of the Amelia Bloomer Project List, announced Jan. 11, 2011  at the ALA’s Midwinter Meeting are:

CLICK: When We Knew We Were Feminists by Courtney E. Martin and J. Courtney Sullivan

FEARLESS FEMALE JOURNALISTS by Joy Crysdale

FEARLESS: The True Story of Racing Legend Louise Smith by Barbara Rosenstock & illustrated by Scott Dawson

I AM NUJOOD, by Nujood Ali with Delphine Minoul

PEMBA SHERPA by Olga Cossi with illustrations from Gary Bernard

SHE SANG PROMISE: The Story of Betty Mae Jumper, Seminole Tribal Leader by Jan Godown Annino with illustrations from Lisa Desimini & afterword from Moses Jumper, Jr.

SOAR, ELINOR! by Tami Lewis  Brown with illustrations from Francois Roca

THE COWGIRL WAY: Hat’s off to America’s Women of the West by Holly George-Warren

THE FIREFLY LETTERS: A Suffragette’s Journey to Cuba by Margarita Engle.

WOMEN AVIATORS: From Amelia Earhart to Sally Ride, Making History in Space by Bernard Marck

http://www.amazon.com/Women-Aviators-Amelia-Earhart-History/product-reviews/208030108X/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

 

 

(2 notes: I am publishing this now before February arrives & I expect to have more links up soon. The month got away from me with an unexpected out of town trip & …. life, sweet life.   Thank you to Jennifer L. Holm for writing the wonderful  Our Only May Amelia, from whence I stole the title idea for this post.)

We are one

“We are all one. And if we don’t know it, we will learn it the hard way.” - BAYARD RUSTIN quoted in WE ARE ONE, an illustrated biography for young readers, by Larry Dane Brimner

In my crowd, I am often late to knowledge.

Clarity about the meaning of the everyday term for where I live in the cosmos – the universe – ONE SONG – only arrived when I became a mother. This  left me giddy.  ‘One song, one song, one song,” I remember lilting to my baby girl as we danced around the room.  And then I thought of the Beatles: “I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together..”

WE ARE ONE is the perfect title for an illustrated biography of one of the most famous men of the Civil Rights Movement you have yet to hear of.  I am late, very late, to know about him. I feel privileged that Larry Dane Brimner is the person who brings him to me.

With recent events in the country of pharaohs,  watching the expression of oneness in Cairo,  it’s a good time to examine WE ARE ONE, The  Story of Bayard Rustin. Without this book, black history months such as this one is, would come and go with nary a mention of Rustin.

I hope this title earned  a shelf of awards.

The author has tackled  a key person in U.S. Civil Rights history who is under-represented on children’s bookshelves, as far as I can tell, from skimming the titles out there.

Secondly, Rustin was gay and a member of the  Communist Party in the United States. To his great credit, Larry Dane Brimner presents these topics with more than a cover-the-bases sentence for each of these area of Rustin’s complex life.

Finally, he knocks the socks off the reader by uncovering one outstanding fact after another of this unsung hero.

For example -

Who convinced the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. not to carry a gun and not to keep an armed guard at his house in Montgomery during the tense days of the civil rights protests of 1955 & 1956?  It was the peaceful protest that Dr. King became synonymous with.

Who repeatedly tested the color barriers on public buses & also the response of Southern bus drivers & riders, in 1942 long before Rosa Parks (1955) , and was hauled off the bus and arrested?

Whose arrest for sitting in a “white” seat while living his peaceful life as a black man, resulted in his working on THE CHAIN GANG in North Carolina?

After getting off the chain gang (think COOL HAND LUKE, there is a movie in Bayard Rustin’s life ) whose article about that chain gang labor, in The New York Post, helped bring about an end to the North Carolina chain gangs?

Who was a Quaker?

Who credited his peaceful protest guidance of the Civil Rights movement to his grandmother?

Who organized  every detail of the Aug. 28, 1963 rally for equality on the National Mall – from details about what kind of box lunch each bus rider should bring for themselves, to how to get 100,000 mainly poor black folks, safely from their small home towns to the nation’s Capitol?

From the author we learn the answer to each of these questions is: Bayard Rustin.

Before reading this book, my answer to a lot of these questions would have been something like,  ”Well, somehow I thought King had done that.”

Rustin is the fella who created the crowd for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , at the Washington Monument that August 28 of 1963. Rustin brought people with no means to travel, with the challenges of  travel & lodging for black folks, to fill up  the long Mall in Washington, D.C. He did this without e-mail, cell phones, tweeting, Facebook, MySpace, ATMs &, well you know the ways of today.

This is a fabulous biography. I enjoyed everything, especially I liked reading about his West Chester, Pennsylvania family, where the grandmother, was a Quaker and therefore a pacifist. Grandma Julia married a man who had been born into slavery, Janifer Rustin. Not only that, he was a slave in the North, so when Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation took effect, it didn’t “free” Janifer Rustin. That happened a year after, when the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. Congress.  We begin to see the kinds of stories the young Bayard learned, growing up with Mr. and Mrs. Rustin. Bayard Rustin was born in 1912 and passed on in 1987.

Faced with this wealth of material, I’m not sure how I would have crafted the story. I might have been tempted to just keep the Bayard Rustin file open, indefinitely, seeking subjects easier to translate to teachers and those they tutor in civics and Civil Rights topics.

We are all fortunate, every one, that Larry Dane Brimner chose to delve into the topic and emerge with a lively and enlightening story.

Unlike many of the authors whose books I choose to write about here, I don’t know Brimner as a pal. I liked  chatting with him at a book-signing table last year as he met teacher fans, but it was a brief contact & I got no sense of who he was, other than another writer sitting on a high chair before a table with a stack of books my his side & a smile on his face for each person who presented a crisp hardbound illustrated book toward him to sign.

I apologize to the school intended to be gifted the copy that I had Brimner sign.  I have kept it far too long since November when I bought it. But with this post going up in mid-February, I will take it there next visit.  And I am grateful to my pal

Joan Broerman for her early recommendation of this title.

For more on Mr. Rustin, in addition to Larry Dane Brimner’s valuable book, there is an excellent resource I found from the material in the back copy of WE ARE ONE, at Columbia University’s oral history project.  You may also want to see Mr. Rustin on the cover of LIFE magazine in 1963. Those were the days we received not only LIFE but LOOK, every week at home. So that means he was in my living room & likely, I saw this same cover on our coffee table, but being a little kid, it didn’t sink in.  I am thankful for this chance to understand, through the teachings of Mr. Rustin that WE ARE ONE.

Without women

Last nite my hubby & I attended a school program to cap Black History Month.

The 5th graders who opened the evening’s commemoration had a take on things that was new to me.

Their potent question to the audience was:

What if there were no black people?  They they took us through a day. How would we manage without traffic lights,  medicines & a host of items from everyday to  exceptional, that were created by black people.

Today I borrow that concept of those bright children, to ask, where would be be without girls & women?

I do this because March 1 launches  Women’s History Month.

So as a published non-fiction writer of a picture book biography about a woman who deserves more attention from this world, I’m happy to share the KidLit Celebrates Women’s History Month  link to resources on women

On March 6, I’ll be part of  the KidLit Celebrates Women’s History Month online community of writers who each day of this wonderful month, provide insight into a book for young readers about women’s history or about an individual woman of notable achievement.

I am keen on reading the posts of my colleagues in this effort.

This collection of essay/blogs is a gift to families, schools, young readers, librarians & to us all from THE FOURTH MUSKETEER and SHELF-EMPLOYED.

Maybe this month will be the 31 days you delve more into the story of that intriguing woman in your family tree.

I hope so!

fatty legs

“My father pulled open the door, and I stepped past him.

I was inside a school for the first time in my whole life.”

******************************************************

Margaret (Olemaun) Pokiak- Fenton & Christy Jordan-Fenton, co-authors,

FATTY LEGS: A TRUE STORY

ANNICK PRESS www.annickpress.com

104 pages, Ooriginal illustrations, photographic scrapbook, afterword

2011 USBBY Outstanding International Books Honor List

***************************************************************************************************************

Margaret Pokiak-Fenton & Christy Jordan-Fenton Artwork by Liz Amini-Holmes

By forcing her to wear harsh red stockings that bag around the legs, a teacher makes Olemaun (OO-lee-mawn) who is also known as Margaret, stick out in the crowd. Others are given snug black hose to buffer the Arctic chill.

The girls discard traditional fur-and-hide warm boots & hand- crafted clothes, for a thin uniform -  jumpers, shirts, and shoes.

Taunting begins for Margaret at this residential Catholic school, with her new nickname: fatty legs.

Putting Margaret in scarlet stockings that stick out is one of the minor attempted shames in this memoir for ages 9-12, about leaving her Native family.

More chilling is a crescendo of crimes from the staff against a young spirit: refusal of an already delayed bathroom break;  refusal of playtime, while Margaret performs extra menial labor such as cleaning “honey buckets” that are nothing like their name.

It doesn’t spoil the story, one of the best 2010 non-fiction books I’ve read, to know that shame is attempted, not victorious.

This story is about a strong sprite who remembers her love of family & how that propels her to triumph over emotional sadism.

Further, it’s about recognizing an ally & it’s also about learning that what you think you want more than anything else, may disappoint when it’s attained.

The woman who experienced this schooling beginning at age eight, and her daughter-in-law who helped her craft the story,  deliver a sober account of the de-humanizing approach that was once standard in teaching outsider skills to Native, or First Peoples’, children.

The story is layered with humor & with cultural details of one childhood in one region in the Arctic part of the Northwest Territories, Canada.

It is an excellent book choice, not only for the quality of the real life storytelling but also for the many insights about the setting, people and experience Margaret endures.

A California artist LIz Amini-Holmes, gifts this book with strong images in folkloric style, which are a key element to the impact of this story saga. They detail a stark Inuvialuit (also Inuit) life, without a romanticized approach.

School scenes are also stark. Amini-Holmes’ striking portraits of Margaret, and also of the unbalanced Raven, Margarent’s name for a cruel nun, and Amini-Holmes’  contrasting images of a kind nun, Sister MacQuillan, known as the Swan, present a progression of dramatic events at school.  The palate makes the red stockings, and the ghost-white face of the mean nun, all the more striking.

At the end I stood up from my love seat reading perch and cheered for Margaret.

And frankly, I wanted to high-five Sister MacQuillan, although I also had this question:  As nun in charge, why didn’t she send the sadistic sister known as the Raven, packing back to Belgium?  Likely because Sister MacQuillan was dominated by priests who were in residence;  their depictions are similar to the Raven’s.

I find that Margaret’s spirit reminds me of Pippi Longstocking, Harriet The Spy, and other bright, independent heroines of the best children’s fiction – but the impact for the reader is that Fatty Legs packs a different power because it is real.

In the 1940s, Margaret, a real child, is isolated from her family with whom she had lived all her life in one room, in their hand-made igloo. The place that is supposed to “elevate” her into the ways of the outside world, emotionally and physically attacks her every day.

Here’s Margaret’s child-reasoning about her mind-battle with the Raven:

“I wasn’t sure what she meant to teach me, but I had something to teach her about the spirit of us Inuvialuit.”

The set-up for Margaret’s journey to the outsider world is her jealousy of her older half-sister, who has been to the school and can now read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Living on isolated Banks Island, we find a seven-year-old Margaret, season after season, begging to be sent away to school at the Mackenzie River Delta.

She finally leaves her settlement, where “the temperatures outside were cold enough to freeze bare skin in seconds.”

In her home world she had commanded her own dog sled, hunted with her father and she enjoyed the local food, such as muktuk, tiny cubes of whale blubber.

She knew almost no English. And she could read none of it.

A five-day boat ride away are the dormitories, a hospital and a church operated by priests and nuns.

Fatty Legs is written in a poetic style. I loved the imagery of birds – the mean teacher is a raven and the kind teacher who rescues Margaret at crucial moments, is a swan.

The children are plucked from their nests.

Mean girls at school who are from another Native group that is actually known to be unfriendly to Margaret’s people, are hatchlings.

This sort of cultural complexity is one of the many strengths of this story that transports us to a system not often covered well in children’s literature – the Native boarding school.

Fatty legs was issued late in 2010 and will surely gain more and more attention as devoted readers share the gold it holds.

Yay! for Oulemaun (Margaret)  Pokiak-Fenton.

______________________________

Kit Lit Celebrates Women’s History Month

You may also want to see Kid Lit Celebrates Women’s History month, (the March 6, 2011 post) about a book on a different child who also went away from her Native family because, like Oulemaun Margaret Pokiiak, she wanted to receive a formal education.

get a book, give a book

News here, of  2 book auction/give-aways I’m promoting.

KIDLIT 4 JAPAN consists of children’s book creators, coordinated by Greg R. Fishbone.

badge from Edna CabCabin Moran

You bid. And  re-bid – to  win the entries.

Auction money collected will assist in relief efforts needed as a result of this month’s tsunami in northeast Japan.

Details, at the site.

My submission is a picture book biography of Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, SHE SANG PROMISE.

Good luck to us all. (When I checked, it seems as if each day, new ones will go up. Not sure which day of the 14 days, for SHE SANG PROMISE.

I intend to win some goodies,.

I may keep a gem I win, for my collection.

But I’m thinking also to gift a book to a school where I volunteer.

And also, to give one for re-auction, in the Hollins University summer graduate program in children’s lit.

from The Fourth Musketeer & Shelf-Employed

KID LIT CELEBRATES WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

And as some of you already know, this month I’m parked (March 6, 2011) over at the site that two firecrackers, disguised as librarian types, update every day.

This is a give-away. No auction.

You leave a suggested title on an American Indian/First Peoples/Native American topic for K-12, in a comment box at the March 6, 2011 post about SHE SANG PROMISE: The Story of Betty Mae Jumper, Seminole Tribal Leader.

Then at the end of the month, one poster receives 2 copies of SHE SANG PROMISE.

One is for you, the poster. The other copy is sent to the library of your choice.

Seeet, no?  Many thanks if you can participate.

april 1, 2011 – april 6, 2011 kid lit 4 japan auction # 74 & “oooooops!”

Two thoughts.

The writer who created at this desk, used them!

ONE

In honor of April Fool’s Day, a fabulous site that I never plan to erase, Teaching Authors ,

offers this end-of-the-pencil point of view, worth a look any day for those of us who make mistakes & revise & edit & fiddle & fix & revise & erase…

enjoy! many thanks to the continually delightful TEACHING AUTHORS. ( hint: be sure to follow the links)

TWO

Please bid on AUCTION ITEM # 74 74 74 74 74 74 at

Kid Lit 4 Japan

Auction #74
From Friday 4/1 @ 10:00AM EDT to Wednesday 4/6 @ 10:00AM EDT
Jan Godown Annino: autographed copy, SHE SANG PROMISE: The Story of Betty Mae Jumper, Seminole Tribal Leader
Value: $30

This is signed by artist Lisa Desimini & myself, our picture book biography about Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, titled:  She Sang Promise.

It is the Florida Book Awards new gold winner, a Notable Trade Book for the Social Studies, & an Amelia Bloomer Project Top 10 of the ALA.

Lisa is excited about signing it also, although I’m not sure that detail is on the site.  Bidding on our item #  74  begins Friday April 1.

The bidding ENDS WEDNESDAY April 6, 2011.

So be sure to check in often! And please spread the word about this wonderful auction site,  Kid Lit 4 Japan.

Its a gallery of art work, critiques offered, book swag & signed editions & more.

And a bit more – get well greetings go out  to  Kid Lit 4 Japan’s overtaxed creator, who has been taken over by the true flu. Best wishes Gregory!

Heal well. You have done such a fine thing with

Kid Lit 4 Japan.

You can be a librarian?

Next to families, teachers, medical folks/other first responders,  & farm folks

(make mine mostly organic farm folk, please – ’twas what my Dad did)

librarians are who I feel  keep our civilization perking along.

Librarians defend books against censorship -

in polite ways, which isn’t always easy to do.

They are the lead characters in many true stories of childhood hours

rescued from inept/inadequate families.

And of course in families where all functions as it should,

libraries are like the cherry on top of the sundae, or they are like the bookmark nestled between the pages of the book, or like the surprise little gift package of book-plates by the dinner plate at the family dinner hour,  or like the timely family visit to the library

puppet show or No. That’s wrong. Librarians ARE the library puppet show…

REQUIREMENTS TO BE A LIRARIAN

A master’s degree in library science is suggested for many important library careers, but my friend from Girl Scout parent days is happy at work in our town library, as an aide/assistant, connecting the right book to the right child.

I’d like to share something about another keen library worker.

Young Adult/ Middle Grade novelist Adrian Fogelin, who is an award-winner for many of her titles, such as THE REAL QUESTION, CROSSING JORDAN, SISTER SPIDER KNOWS ALL & many others, is in fact a Sunday afternoon neighborhood librarian.

Check out her one-of-a-kind check-out system. It  makes me want to stand up and cheer!

This sweet news is courtesy of Danielle Smith, who creates the blog, There’s a Book!.

And you’ll find a FUN sing-along video with it, too!

I hope you’ll be glad that you looked at these books.

If awards are handed out for under-the-radish, non-fadish, unofficial library work,

Adrian Fogelin is your nominee.

Note: April 11, 2011 is the beginning of annual National Library Week.

Suggest to your favorite politician that we can’t do without our librarians.

Readers & writers in joy at UCF Book Fest

Loreen Leedy (left) and Carmen Agra Deedy

If you are a picture book fan as I am,  please  imagine my joy – in hearing children’s authors of fantabulous picture books read their creations. In person.

Read isn’t the right word. They chortled. They sang. They lilted. They trilled. They whispered. They acted. And yes, I guess, they also read.

I’m wishing that my photographs could show the full range of expressions. And that means all the rapt faces of the kiddos. And,  fotos of all the children’s authors. Including private exhibitors who did the hard work of setting up & taking down their exhibitor books. I’m offering apologies that missing in mugs, are the scheduled children’s authors I was delighted to chat with:

Victoria Bond & T.R.Simon (ZORA AND ME), & Sea Grant/UCF authors Suzie Caffrey & Diahn Escue. But still, despite such deficiencies in reportage, please: Read on.

This goodness & joy unfolded like a spring lily at the 2nd annual (it’s a babe as festivals grow) University of Central Florida Book Festival. In Orlando.

Marianne Berkes & her seahorse

And since Florida has lost book festivals nearby, let’s not take the newbie for granted. Check back at the UCF book festival site, to see if the whispered date is a go for 2012; April 21 @ UCF.

(Bulletin – I returned home after a couple extra days away, to find that  M.R. Street, my critique partner, has finished revisions of her new novel.  Since I have novel R’s LOOMING  before me – I cheer for finished revisions. This post is dedicated to M.R. Street. Hope to have you sign your book for me at some future UCF book festival.

BEGINNING at the BEGINNING…

Snazzy opening reception anchored in Barnes & Noble/UCF, surrounded by lovely & hefty books, served with a generous side of  tasty tidbits (as reported by my hubby) , decadent deserts & non-electric (my favorite kind) classy music, performed  just for us. And this included what melts my heart – a talented harpist & her harp. I searched for my next-day co-presenters, but there were so many good book folks to stop & chat with from one end of the bookshop to the other, including poets, novelists (such as new talents powerhouses, Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon, & veteran non-fiction writers such as newspaper columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr., who shared that his FIRST novel is in the works – everyone  didn’t always connect with who they set out to shake paws with.

THEN as if that wasn’t enough, we were treated to a pre-Broadway bound group of hoofers extraordinaire who sing & dance & speak about – reading & BOOKS.

Oh, were they great! My photo is borrowed from Florida Book Award winning author ( THE RED UMBRELLA) & now, book festival photographer, Christina Diaz Gonzalez, whose own mug is in this post, with another knockout UCF BF author presenter. the always Hon. Gov./Sen. Grand Floridian Bob Graham. Who everyone should thank many times over for his advocacy to preserve a portion of Florida’s special lands. (Gonzalez/Graham  foto taken at a different book event, as I didn’t always have  the camera handy,  at UCF.)

The BOOKENDS or BOOK ENDS. Either way - fantabulous!

History mavens: your blogger (left) Amie Leavitt & Judy Lindquist

The fact that this troupe, the BOOKENDS (Book Ends? ) isn’t yet appearing at the New York Public Library & at the Chicago Public Library & Boston PL  & D.C. PL & Seattle, etc. & Miami etc. & such, may have to do with their occupations. They are students, middle school students. Thus, they & their teachers keep a schedule more hectic than that of  published writers.  These young singers/actors/readers/writers/movie makers/ are phenomenal. Their energy alone could have lit the B & N lights, without electric wattage. The encore to the reception performance unfolded Saturday at the festival. (Which I didn’t get to see, alas.) Brava! & Bravo! to the BOOKENDS. I hope I am fortunate enough to experience you again, in other venues. Many thanks to  Christina Diaz Gonzalez for her beautiful online photo posts of these great kiddos, here: UCF Book Festival /Reader’s Theater Troupe

BookPALS/PencilPALS Florida coordinator Natalie Rogers (left) & her fan. Photo Credit: DYLAN

I am a devoted fan of the program that provides letters once a month (old-fashioned, placed in an envelope, with a U.S. postage stamp in the upper right hand corner) called PencilPALS & the companion program, called BookPALS (readers visit a classroom on schedule, to read JUST for the joy & love of reading.)

So it was the high point of my  book fest lunch hour that I found my way from the 3rd floor author’s lounge & lively convo. to the bustling activity of the exhibit floor to meet the maven of all this BookPAL/PencilPAL goodness, none other than Florida Coordinator Natalie Rogers. And here she is! I treasure this moment. If you have  a background in performance, such as theater, advertising voice overs or other stage presentations, please consider signing up with this program.

The photo was taken by 1 of her 2 young sons attending, who has a career in photography if you ask me. This young man also tenderly oversaw the patient waiting of his younger brother.  Mom,  do you think these wonderful young readers deserve an extra book for  this? Yes?

Okay, back to the authors. (And many thanks to dear hubby Paolo Annino for many of the fotos that I didn’t take.)

Marianne Berkes is a Florida interpreter of the natural world for the young bunch – bridging our stale living rooms with the freshness of all outdoors, and doing so in rollicking rhyme.  She manages to teach the newest concepts of space, she helps young ones ones count, while letting them know about science & nature found everywhere, especially under the sea and most recently, over in Australia.  It was a pleasure to spend time with her. She introduced me to Suzie Caffery & Diahn Escue, who accomplish the same challenging job of explaining high science concepts with ease. BUT often to even younger fry. That they also do this whilst at the same time, teaching preschool in Florida in an exemplary fashion, means I am in awe of this dynamic duo. Here are some of the dedicated & delightful Caffery/Escue team’s, wonderful, rhyming, books. The next one will tackle explanation of Florida’s ancient Indian middens to the youngest & I am eager to line up for a copy of THAT gem.

Cute Caffery/Escue Collaborations

Marianne Berkes & I were fortunate to be paired (tripled?) with the generous, multi award-winning, Carmen Agra Deedy, on a panel, ”Opening Children’s Hearts to Culture & Nature.”

After watching & listening to Carmen play all the parts in her picture book ( illustrated in a dazzling yet soft way, by artist Michael Austin) MARTINA, the BEAUTIFUL COCKROACH, (a title of great import in Florida) which I would have bought a ticket to see & hear, ringside as I was, I am more than ever before an unabashed fan.  In my packing before the trip I left behind my 2nd library bag with Marianne Berkes, Loreen Leedy & Carmen Agra Deedy (I love saying Leedy & Deedy in the same sentence) books in it, so I didn’t get those autographs. But I did get this one on the p. book I bought from the wonderful perky B & N staff at the fest. How cute is this image of Martina Josefina Catalina Cucaracha?  Carmen is super not only with writing & storytelling, but also in artful autographing with squiggly lines. Lesson noted. Actually, many lessons from Carmen, and the other authors, noted. Loreen Leedy, you should know, holds more talent than the average bookstore author – as a gifted illustrator AND writer. And, a wonderful aunt, so-  read on.

MARTINA, as drawn by Carmen Agra Deedy

LOOK AT MY BOOK by Loreen Leedy author & illustrator, How Kids Can Write & Illustrate Terrific Books

One of my best moments of a day of  beautiful moments, involved  a young reader  &  my alligator word search hand out. I have the habit of challenging kiddos to make all the words they can, out of the letters in alligator – some 30 words are possible. (This only makes sense if you know that the subject of my p.b. bio, Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, wrestled alligators when her husband was too ill to entertain tourists, his job to keep food on the table for her & the kiddos in South Florida, after his service to the U.S. in World War II.) As a tipoff for the alligator word search, I said there are 3 words with only 2 letters. Wrong! CONGRATULATIONS to the sharp-eyed word-searcher, who has a great career ahead in editing, if you ask me. (The video takes place in front of one of the many fine vendors. I restrained myself with a purchase from those enticing  book crates-  but picture book fan that I am, it was tough. Do visit, online or in Orlando,  Leedy’s Books . ) And see more on the UCF festival as reported in 2010 (the FIRST one) by Loreen Leedy here & with her 2011 video clip, here . Great to finally meet you, Loreen.

As for the Culture & Nature  panel I mentioned, it was sweet for me by Saturday afternoon, to recognize faces in the audience – folks I had chatted with during the weekend. This is the lone unfuzzed foto I have of our panel. The foloup questions made us think. And I appreciate that so many readers are curious about Betty Mae Tiger Jumper; the picture book biography about her, SHE SANG PROMISE, was the reason for my travel to Orlando.

My focus wasn’t novels, but let me not wind down without sharing that I’ve asked at my library for purchase of  SAVING HOME by Judy Lindquist and Amie Leavitt’s intriguing  THE BATTLE of the ALAMO. It has the set-up where the young reader, following an Arkansas farm boy, can select an outcome. Clever, no? And Judy has a Timucua girl character in her St. Augustine-set story. History in novels is what I love to read. And can you sneak any  closer to Florida’s celebrated literary heritage than by treating yourself to the un-airconditioned days back when, in

ZORA and ME? Imagine Zora Neale Hurston’s best childhood friends. Imagine the fun & trouble these 3 kiddos conjured up, in Eatonville, FL. New talents Bond & Simon have looked into that crystal ball , in a clear, beautiful way. BRAVA!

SAVING HOME by Judy Lindquist

Amie Jane Leavitts BATTLE of the ALAMO

NOT FEATHERS YET Lola Haskins (sweet that her granddaughter is the cover model )

And I am nuts about great books on our craft. So it was good to renew an aquaintance with NOT FEATHERS YET author, poet  Lola Haskins, & also to discover that the wonderful novelist Judith Ortiz Cofer, has this gem: LESSONS from a WRITER’S LIFE.

LESSONS from a WRITERs LIFE Judith Ortiz Cofer

As promised, here as coda, I present The Hon. Bob Graham & Christina Diaz Gonzalez, from a moment when  I snapped them at Florida Heritage Month events  in Tallahassee, March 2011. PLUS, an extra bonus,here is the official 2011 UCF Book Festival poster with  calm books above calm water in the unique vision by UCF Book Festival artist Pamela Miller. Everyone who could, got her autograph of their copy. And some lucky folks bought more of her work.

Read about the aritst, here.

"Worlds on the Horizon" by Pamela Miller

social studies

Maps & globes. The state’s symbols. Our national landmarks & parks & wild places. The people who farmed, fished, created artwork & lived off the land before the time of Columbus. And, everything that happened after that.

Such as the people like my Dad, who , as a boy, worked on a tiny 3-legged stool, in a barn lit by a kerosene lantern.

If these topics make your heart beat fast, you may love Social Studies.

A separate subject, accompanired in years past with huge, vivid color pull-down maps on sturdy maple wood poles. Today the maps are downloaded with ease. And the spot on Earth studied is zoomed into by digital devices that delight me each time I play with them. Amazing,

I remember home walls that were map magnets. Mainly maps from the National Geographic magazine . But a special auto road map would be taped up (taped!), too.

Whether you are a card-carrying social studies type or, like me, you enjoy your own study,  here is a social studies oriented link about Betty Mae Tiger Jumper.

photo post May 2011

Florida Map/ May 2011/ all rights reserved c. Jan Godown A photo post is published once in a blue moon, in celebration of my lone photo class at my dear alma mater, UF.

photo post June 2011

A whirlwind visit of wonder and wonderful connections to South Florida – recently concluded.

My hubby received an award for his juvenile justice work. I luxuriated in visits with gal pals I rarely see, including our daughter’s godmother/my dear college roommate & my great newsroom pal who has raised her family in Russia & Kenya & California, but is rarely in here in FLA, her homestate.

Our family walked the beaches.

And found evidence of ocean stalking.

For my biologist pals – This is a rare beaked whale, found on my dawn walk at the same time the turtle patrol came upon it. The study of this creature will help marine mammal specialists understand this deep-ocean dweller. They usually feed in ocean canyons and are little-researched.  The folo- up news from Hubbs/SeaWorld & others onsite is that the animal died of some natural cause(s). It then became a portable cafeteria, in the circle of life as it drifted inshore.

Florida has an extensive system of lifeguarded beaches; please swim in lifeguarded places ya’ll.

POSTSCRIPT: regarding interest in  more images.

I took two additional views & they are gruesome.

Here is a link to a report in local news

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/jun/09/rare-beaked-whale-carcass-found-on-fort-pierce/

Writing

c. all rights reserved JGA

Hello Scribblers!

Sept update -

I’m pleased to report  away from this blog & site until after on a promising project moves onto the – next phase.  25,000 words in Word, 9 chapters, completed  d r a f t . And while the premise of the story is the same, it’s quite a new piece.  Happy, here. Soon I will be gifted with enough reader responses, to dive back in & revise  more. Thank you critique partners near & far.

Another current revision is a p.b.  manuscript. My current major new writing is an academic paper.

 

 

But visit this energizing site I love, which I share in tribute to this sweet back to school time of year.

My thoughts are with you for a fantabulous 2011-2012 school year.

I imagine excited first-time schoolhouse students as they sit at their big school desk for the first time. I wish you many wonderful field trips. And author visits!

This is the ONLY August 2011 I will ever have & so I plan to make it a good one! I know you already have, too.

contact info

cel 850/510.2586    jgaoffice (at) gmail.com

po box 14143 tallahassee fl 32317-4143