Category Archives: Field Reports

May 27, 2010 · 4:52 pm

Counting Down to Mockingjay

Scholastic hosted a lovely cocktail party yesterday for Mockingjay, the third and final book in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy. Suzanne was there, reading the final pages from Catching Fire, asking (to a roomful of avid fans) us to cover our ears if we had not read the book. We all laughed at this little jest.

She then took out a few printed pages — exclaiming how they looked so much like the pages from galleys.  And sure enough, it was the first chapter of Mockingjay.  Suzanne read it.  We were all excited and appreciated the emotional beginning of the new book.  But, alas, no advance readers copies and no reviewers copies for this much anticipated title.  We ALL have to wait until August 24th to read the book.

I think I am going to suggest to my Science Fiction/Fantasy book club to host an August 24th reading party in the Library.  It will be a worthy activity not too long before the start of the year.

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May 19, 2010 · 8:32 am

Recommending Series Books

Updated the Recommended Series Books for my students (4th grade – 8th grade).

The list has grown and is now quite long and there are still titles missing but I’m going to stop here — for this summer, any way.

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March 8, 2010 · 11:08 am

Monday Morning Post

This is a post that catches a lot of stuff from the past few weeks:

1. At the Random House summer 2010 preview presentation, this new term surfaced several times: “Tween Clean” —

Books that feature probably slightly older teen characters, dealing with more mature themes but without the “scary” YA elements such as curse words, explicit portrayal of sex, drugs, and other taboo topics, designed for pre-teens and young teens (mostly girls?) who crave the books in the traditional YA Section in the library and at bookstores.

2. It is only a week away from when the Battle of the Kids’ Books (SLJ) officially starts on March 15th and we want your VOTE!!! for the Undead title at the final showdown!

3. Just finished re-reading LeGuin’s A Wizard of Earthsea and am in the middle of writing a post on figurative writing and its use (and mis-use) in children’s books.

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February 3, 2010 · 11:02 am

Hope Anita Smith: What a Pleasure to Have You Here!

This is an open letter to thank Hope Anita Smith, poet, extraordinary teacher, and author of The Way a Door Closes, Keeping the Night Watch, and the 2010 poetry collection, Mother P0ems, for her amazing, awesome, and artistic ways in leading six poetry workshops for all our 7th and 8th grade students at The Dalton School, NYC.

Dear Hope,

We were all under your spell and now are all in awe of you!  You brought such energy, generosity, and expertise with you into our classroom and every student got a chance to write a poem under your guidance and inspiration.  Some of the poems that were shared brought chills down my and the teachers’ spines: they were good and the students really put their mind and soul into them.

It is not common when we have an author who prepares three different presentations when the audience is on the same level.   But you did.  The students loved working on the Cool Poem, they definitely struggled a bit with Seven Ways of Looking At ________, and were completely engrossed in “reading” the names of the paint color chips that you brought and applying those to their own Paint Me Like I Am poems.

You are going back to LA today and I wish you the best and I want you to come back to us to work with more students and I want many many more other young people to be inspired by you to explore the wonders of words, to stretch their minds and to discover their hidden potentials as writers and poets.  (I know you have many different workshops for different age groups.)

Hope, take care and let our paths cross again soon!

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January 17, 2010 · 9:44 am

Some Book News from Midwinter

The American Library Association’s Midwinter conference is happening in Boston as I post.  The weather has been very gentle on all attendees.

Some books to look forward to (and to wait for…)

* Kristin Cashore is writing the sequel to Graceling.. no Katsa and Po do not get a dog (as some fans want her to write about) … The book’s central character will be Bitterblue.

* The prequel (a few hundred years previous) to Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines is Fever Crumb and will be out in April, from Scholastic.

* A new Rick Riordan series called “The Kane Chronicles” (Book One: The Red Pyramid) will be released on May 4 from  Hyperion Books.

* For the fans of Kiki Strike #1 and #2, it seems that you will have to maintain your patience since there is no release date for the third book yet.  (sigh)

* Yes,  The King of Clonmel (“Ranger’s Apprentice” #8) will be out in May while #7 (Erak’s Ransom) already hit the story earlier this month.

Tomorrow, we find out what books win major Children’s Literary awards.  Quite exciting.

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December 14, 2009 · 12:50 pm

An 8th grade boy said…

“When I’m reading, I’m neither a boy, nor a girl.  I’m only a reader.”  This was said because a fifth grade girl, upon seeing the book with a girl faerie depicted on the cover I was giving to this boy,  remarked, “But he is a BOY!” (meaning, he would not read a Girl Book!)

His reply, my friends, made my day :)

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December 11, 2009 · 9:59 am

What is Reading? To a 4th grader?

This past Tuesday, I surveyed what my 4th graders are currently reading as I do about once a month in Library Class, just to have a sense on some favorite titles and whether they are all engaging in the act of reading.  One boy looked mighty uncomfortable and almost embarrassed when it was his turn.  He squeaked a reply, almost inaudible, “I’m not reading anything.”  I said, “That’s all right.  Let’s find you something to read today.” He replied, “But I am spending a lot of time reading this National Geographics book on the greatest journeys of the world.”  I quickly assured him and the entire class that, “Reading a nonfiction IS READING,” and to never feel bad if you are not the kind of reader who reads only made-up STORIES.

But why, by age 8 or 9, children already have formed this strong belief that if they are not reading Fiction, they are NOT reading?

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October 1, 2008 · 7:37 pm

More on Gaiman’s Graveyard Book Reading

(I was asked to report on the event at Child_lit so I wrote a bit more about it and decided to post the report here!)

It was a lovely free event (I got there at 4:30 for the 7:00
event so I did get very good seating!) at the Teacher’s College Horace
Mann Auditorium. It seats about 500 and the room (orchestra and
balcony) was filled to capacity. Most of the people in the audience
are Neil’s adult fans — many college/late 20s who obviously are great
fans of Sandman since when he made references to Sandman characters,
the entire room responded. There were, however, a dozen or so
children and when he read (he read the entire first chapter — 33
pages,) those children responded very favorably — laughing at the
right moments (also thanks to Neil’s skillful and dramatic reading).
I sensed that the audience got slightly restless toward the end of the
chapter since there were a couple of places that we felt would have
made a natural break. but the story kept going, after shifting gears.
However, I imagine that if it is broken down to two readings, no one
would have felt the reading was just a tad “long.”

Oh, and we were treated to a very cool, not-before-seen, Coraline
trailer. It IS going to be 3D Stop Motion Animation for the whole
entire deal. Let’s hope for the BEST!

His Q&A section was great, talking about his China trip (one month,
researching myths and legends, and breaking a finger,) his haircut,
his characters in books, whether he’ll write sequels to Neverwhere,
American Gods, etc. (yes, he WOULD if he had the time — and yes,
there are stories set in all these worlds.) He was asked if there is
any difference in writing a “more intricate and complex” book for
adults than a “less so” (grumble) book for young adults/children. He
said No. It’s all putting one word after another. And then he said
that the only difference was the length it took him to write the books
— one (American Gods) took longer than the other (Graveyard Book.)

He talked about how he sometimes worries about his characters coming
out of his books to knock on his door and demand to know WHY he
created him and made them live such miserable and dark lives. He
talked about how he indeed is “their maker.” He imagines of his own
“meeting the maker” moment after his unavoidable demise: “When I ask
WHY ME, Why NOW? I’m afraid of hearing a booming voice from the Sky
that says, ‘Because that makes a BETTER STORY.'” The audience
laughed, of course. (He did the God-Booming voice very well… and my
paraphrasing is nowhere near funny as he was in person.)

I posted a link to the audio file from HarperCollins on my blog. No
pictures or video from me, unfortunately. I believe that the reading
will be (is planned to be) put online soonish — since he is doing ONE
CHAPTER per city on this tour until the whole book is read through.
(And he also talked about audio book recording and how much he LOVES
doing it even though it is really hard work.)

– AND INDEED the VIDEO of his reading can be found HERE.

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September 30, 2008 · 10:11 pm

Neil Gaiman in NYC

I feel strangely obligated and slightly compelled to at least mention that I was one of the audience members (around 500) who went to hear/see Neil Gaiman read the first chapter of The Graveyard Book. He was as always, charming and witty, and the Q&A section where he answered many questions written on index cards went beautifully humorous. And I, as always, did not bring a camera. Oh, well. I am sure that if you google Neil Gaiman Graveyard Book New York City — you’ll see some more enthusiastic and better prepared fans’ pictures, videos, and audio clips. Here’s an audio file for the entire first chapter as pre-recorded by HarperCollins.

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July 2, 2008 · 7:42 pm

2008 Anaheim ALA Highlights in Pictures

I’m back home in warm and breezy New York City. It’s beautiful here by the Hudson. The sun just set. And we saw many beautiful white sails on the river in the dimming sunlight…. Now it’s time to upload some pictures from the ALA Annual Conference. I never remembered to bring a camera but this time, I did and boy did I go a bit crazy! I should have taken some pictures of the Notable Children’s Books Committee but I got too nervous and too focused on “work” and never thought of capturing those moments which were super important. These pictures here preserved the moments that I relaxed and had fun with friends — old and new.

But before the people pictures… see the carpet in the Ballroom of the Disneyland Hotel…. can you “Spy Mickey”?

Yes. Monica and I (and Nina) went to Disnleyland!

Peter Sis

Orson Scott Card

Nina Lindsay, Me, Candace Fleming, Eric Rohmann, Richie Partington at the Lucky Strike Bowling Lane (Orange Block)

Andrew Clements

Reunion with the 2002 Newbery Committee
(Kathy Odean, Ken Setterington, Louise Sherman, Jeri Kladder,
Patty Carleton, Me, Vaunda Nelson, Vicky Smith)

Lisa Falk, Vicky Smith, Elizabeth Overmeyer, and Kathy Odean

I also saw Joanne dinner and “glanced” and said hi to Deb. Junko is in Germany and Gail and Shron were not at the Conference.

THE CALDECOTT/NEWBERY BANQUET, JUNE 29th, 2008.

Yup, it’s me with the 2008 Caldecott Medal winner Brian Selznick. Our footwear matched!

2008 Newbery Winner Laura Amy Schlitz with Nina Linday, Newbery Chair.

2002 Newbery winner Linda Sue Park with me.

Me, Kathy, and Louise pre-banquet

Jonathan Hunt, friend, librarian, reviewer, and 2008 Printz Committee member Monica Edinger, friend, teacher, author, blogger of children’s literature, and 2008 Newbery Committee member. At the banquet.

Me with Hope Anita Smith, poet, author of The Way A Door Closes and Keeping the Night Watch.

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November 1, 2007 · 9:23 pm

Drink, Talk, Be Merry, and Eat Cookies!

Last night, a dozen or so child_lit contributors gathered at long-time list member Monica Edinger’s apartment — one floor above the festivities of a New York City “neighborhood” Halloween Party (read: in the lobby for the kids in the huge apartment building on West 111th Street.)

Philip Pullman and wife Jude were the honored guests for the night. We chatted about the “lineage” of our child_lit involvement.. from the creation of the list by Michael Joseph, who was there with Constance Vidor, his lovely partner, and Head Librarian at Friends’ Seminary. We thanked Michael for creating a space in the cyber world for us to exchange ideas and forge otherwise unlikely friendship. GraceAnne DiCandido, Kirkus reviewer and my Library School teacher, was responsible for the two reviews of His Dark Materials’ 2nd and 3rd installments. Other child_lit pals who came to help celebrate the occasion were Waller Hastings, English/Children’s Lit. professor from South Dakota, now visiting professor at Rutgers this year, Pooja Makhijani, writer at Children’s Television Workshop/Sesame Street International, Cheryl Klein, editor at Arthur Levine Books/Scholastic, John Peters, Supervising Librarian of NYPL’s Donnell children’s library, past Newbery Chair, and prolific reviewer, Uli Knoepflmacher, English Professor at Princeton University and expert on Victorian and children’s literature who just recently joined child_lit, and Kerry Mockler, 4th-year PhD student and teacher of children’s literature and baker of a host of His Dark Materials inspired butter cookies. They were incredibly yummy. My students in the sci-fi/fantasy club thanked her for this gift (the next day, while sharing the story Mimsy Were the Borogoves)!

Our dinner was 3 pizzas from, some salad, wine and champagne — but the main ingredient was the non-stop conversation around the room: all about children’s books and once in a while some weird child_lit history surfaced.

Here are just three pictures to mark the evening for me:

This is me talking to Philip. (I didn’t quite wash off all my zombie make-up from the day and had to do a little photoshop-doctoring before posting it on the Journal. Haha.)

This is the tray of cookies waiting to be revealed…

This is a picture of Kerry and Philip. We were all so pleased with this perfect ending for a perfect evening. Yeah for Kerry!

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October 31, 2007 · 11:22 pm

Full Circle and Then Some

I found an entry on my pre-blog reading notes, on the day of finishing reading The Golden Compass for the first time, eleven years ago. The date was 9/11/96…

I wrote,

“I was Devastated.

How could the book end such way? I was all hoping for a completion, a happy reunion, a resolutioin.. and was thrown the cliff-hanger for BOOK II — which is NOT available yet. Oh.. what agony.

/complaint mode off!

What a treat. What a complicated and yet simple, deep and yet playful, violent and yet gentle, and moving and yet chilling book!

One thing that is so charming and yet so unsettling about Lyra is that, even though she has a truth-reader, and she is a truth-teller — she also masters the art of lying. She knows the truth about the people (or creatures) that she confronts, and then uses that knowledge to manipulate them and gain upperhand. Even though, since she is pure at heart and means only well, she does not apply that skill to harm people (just to kill the bad ones!) She is indeed the same as her mother, who is also a master in the art of deceit.

Pullman’s portrayal of a parrallel world to 19th century earth (Oxford, London, The Arctic, etc.) is almost hypnotic. The fascinating description of Daemons (substantial representations of humans’ souls that live and die with their humans and share all pain and joy with them) and the strong BOND between them and the humans is what draws me to the book in the first place and still is what works for me all the way til the end.

This is the 1996 Andersen award winner and rightly so.”

I couldn’t find an even earlier note about how by that time, I was losing heart at the state of Fantasy fiction for children and how I seemed to have lost my appreciation of this genre but The Golden Compass saved me and rekindled my love and faith in this genre.

Then… 11 years and 1 month and 20 days later — I sat in a friend’s apartment, at a small gathering of children’s lit. lovers, eating pizza and sharing stories and toasting the upcoming movies, the online community of child_lit listserv, and the friendship we forged through discussing children’s books — with Philip Pullman! I told him in person how I felt when the first book ended. He asked my opinions over which Harry Potter to read (The Third, of course) and also whether I liked Jonathan Stroud’s work and Megan Whalen Turner’s books and genuinely valued what I had to say about them. We talked about the bench and he related the tender story of discovering a wooden heart left on THE BENCH, with the carving dedicating it to Lyra and Will.

I still couldn’t quite believe that this night had happened, but I do have this to prove to myself:

 

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