MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Upcoming Events for Children’s Librarians
LUCKY 13TH BEATTY AWARD WINNER STANLEY
Jerry Stanley, Beatty award winner for Children of the Dust Bowl, 1993, has again won the John and Patricia Beatty Award for the most distinguished children’s book on California for Hurry Freedom: African Americans in Gold Rush California, Crown Books, 2000.
Hurry Freedom tells the story of the 1849 Gold Rush through the experiences of Mifflin Gibbs, an African American who ended up not as a gold miner, but as a successful merchant. He eventually moved to Canada when he was unable to achieve full equality in 19th century California.
The Beatty Award is administered by the California Library Association. This year’s chair was Chuck Ashton from Redwood City PL, and other committee members were Dora Ho from Los Angeles PL, Elizabeth Krieger from San Luis Obispo City-County Library, Kay Lingo from Alameda County/Fremont branch, and Kim Woo, Los Angeles PL.
ARNE NIXON CENTER OPENS IN FRESNO
The Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children’s Literature opened for business on Monday, April 30, 2001. Located in the Henry Madden Library on the campus of California State University, Fresno, the Center will be open most weekdays, and by appointment. Walk-ins are welcome, but appointments are preferred.
The Center is one of the West Coast’s largest and most significant research centers for the study of children’s literature. The Center’s growing collection includes more than 25,000 books, original art works, letters, photographs, newspaper clippings, ceramic plates and figurines, and other realia.
The late Dr. Arne Nixon joined the CSU Fresno faculty in 1961 and taught children’s literature and storytelling for more than 30 years. He donated 22,000 children’s books to the university library when he retired, and when he died in 1997, he left a generous bequest to ensure the Center would perpetuate his work.
With an emphasis on modern multicultural children's literature, the Center has many autographed first editions. The books and original artwork of Fresno native Leo Politi, a Caldecott Medalist, form the single most important segment of the collection.
Materials are not for loan, but for reading and doing research in the Center. Angelica Carpenter is the Center’s founding curator; she has Master’s Degrees in both library science and education, and has written three biographies for young readers. The Arne Nixon Center’s phone number is (559) 278-8116.
NEWS AND NOTES
Distinguished Books List: By now, ACL members should have received a copy of the Distinguished Books 2000 list, a small booklet with the annotated bibliography of last year’s distinguished books (it has a lavender cover). Check that pages 8 and 13 were printed; there was a printing error and some copies are missing these pages. Email Penny Peck at Pikly@aol.com requesting a replacement copy if yours has the error; be sure your request lists your snail mail address. Thanks!
Eleanor Clymer dies: Author of 58 realistic fiction books for children, Eleanor Clymer died at age 95 at her home in Pennsylvania in April. She based many of her books on her own family, and on the children assisted by her social worker husband. Her many books included picture books, like her first book, published when she was 37, A Yard For John, in 1943. Her other books include novels like The Horse In The Attic, 1983.
Reading the World IV: The fourth annual "Reading the World" conference, entitled "Global Connections," will be held October 12-14, 2001, at the Marriott Hotel in Burlingame. It will also be the annual meeting for the USBBY, the United States Board on Books for Young People. Presenters for this celebration of multicultural children’s literature include authors Nancy Farmer, Carolivia Herron, Virginia Euwer Wolff, Theresa Breslin, Margaret Chang, and Alma Flor Ada. Illustrators Thacher Hurd and Lisbeth Zwerger will also be speakers, as will folklorist Jack Zipes. Contact Sharon Willey for registration information at (408) 924-6106 or at readingtheworld@cs.com.
"Pedro and Me" wins again: The Bay Area Book Reviewers Association named its winners in April. In the Children’s Literature category, Judd Winick’s "Pedro and Me" won; it had been a Sibert Honor Book, and is based on Winick’s MTV "Real World" roommate Pedro, who died of AIDS. This innovative nonfiction book is done in the cartoon style of a graphic novel.
Trivia Question: Who painted the dust jacket art for the first edition of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath? Elmer Stanley Hader, Caldecott winner for The Big Snow, 1949, and Caldecott Honor artist for The Mighty Hunter, 1944 and Cock-a-Doodle-Doo, 1940.
Bank Street Award: The Bank Street College of Education has announced the recipient of the 2000 Irma S. Black and James H. Black Award of Excellence in Children’s Literature: Jim LeMarche for The Raft. The Honor books are Click Clack Moo by Doreen Cronin, art by Betsy Lewin, Mammalabilia by Doug Florian, and Basho and the Fox by Tim Myers, art by Oki S. Han. Since 1973, this award has been given to a book "in which text and illustration are inseparable, each enhancing and enlarging on the other to produce a singular whole."
Error: In the February 2001 issue of BayViews, the review for Philip Coristine’s Serena and the Wild Doll was attributed to Dorothy Dohm. This review was not written by Miss Dohm and we would acknowledge the appropriate person if we knew who it was. Sorry!
BOARD BOOK ROUND-UP
A new season of board books is out, with a few home runs, a couple of triples, lots of singles, and a few strikeouts (please forgive me but after all, it is baseball season). There are fewer versions of picture books crammed into the board book format; maybe the publishers listened to the negative reviews on that trend. If you want to know about past board books, check out the BayNews board book roundups in the June 2000 and September 1999 issues.
Best of the Bunch
Easily the best board book out this spring is Donald Crews’ Inside Freight Train, which is a re-invention of his 1979 Caldecott Honor book. The book’s pages represent the different freight cars; some of the pages slide open, revealing what would be held in that freight car. This original "gimmick" of the pull-out pages really serves the theme, and is not just there for decoration. In fact, the book works as beginning nonfiction, sure to be a hit with the toddler train fans and older kids who are learning how to read. The pages seem quite hearty so in both subject and binding this is one board book to which children will return, even as they grow older.
Crews, Donald. Inside Freight Train. HarperFestival, $9.95, ISBN 0-688-17087-0.
"Gimmick" Books
Other board books that have a gimmick are not as successful. Especially annoying is Ken Wilson-Max’s Flush the Potty! which has a sound effects button that reads "Flush Me!" The sound doesn’t exactly sound like a flush, and the insipid rhyme is cloying.
Wilson-Max, Ken. Flush the Potty! Scholastic, $7.95, ISBN 0-439-17325-6.
Another book that misses the mark is Trick or Treat Faces by Judith Moffatt. Not a board book but a small, square, poorly bound picture book, each opening features Halloween characters with glow-in-the-dark patches (although the glowing part doesn’t work very well).
Moffatt, Judith. Trick or Treat Faces. Scholastic, $6.95, ISBN 0-43918299-9.
More successful are the two "Kipper" board books, based on the animated series on the Nick Jr. cable television network. These books reminded me of Pat the Bunny by Edith Kunhardt. Kipper the dog and his pig friend Arnold each have a cloth tummy; Kipper’s is fuzzy and Arnold’s feels like a bathing cap. On another page they have "sticky" paws, or there is a chicken with a real feather attached to the page. The artwork and very simple text is suitable for the toddler audience; these books will have wide audience appeal.
Inkpen, Mick. Kipper’s Sticky Paws. Harcourt, $7.95, ISBN 0-15-216338-7.
Inkpen, Mick. Kipper and the Egg. Harcourt, $7.95. ISBN 0-15-216332-8.
Board Book Series
As always, there are some new board book series, and some additions to favorite series. One new British import has a definite European feel, with the illustrations similar to paintings rather than commercial art. "The Very Busy Life of Olaf and Venus" is a four-book series by Pierre Pratt, which stars an elephant and a mouse who shop, drive in a car, go to the park, and do other everyday things. Each spread features a full color illustration facing the page containing one word with a simple painting of what the word depicts, on a white background. The characters are appealing and their activities are those to which any toddler can relate; the text and pictures can even serve as very easy readers.
Pratt, Pierre, all Candlewick, $4.99 each:
Car, ISBN 0-7636-1390-8.
Home, ISBN 0-7636-1389-4.
Park, ISBN 0735-1391-6.
Shopping, ISBN 0-7636-1392-4.
Another series from Candlewick stars Pip the Penguin. Each of the four books in the series contain flaps, like Eric Hill’s "Spot" books, that hide something the reader is supposed to identify. I think these will have some of the same appeal as Spot, although the stories don’t seem quite as strong. For example, the Spot character and stories even work without the flaps but Pip doesn’t seem as distinctive. In How Many? Too Many! the reader counts what is under each flap. In Here It Is! you look for Pip’s lost tools. Say Cheese, Please! shows Pip on vacation, where he takes photos of what is under each flap. It’s Only Me! offers various friends of Pip’s hiding in his house. Each book has a text with a repeated phrase that toddlers will enjoy mimicking, and the brightly colored illustrations have minimal detail so a toddler will easily pick out items which are pictured.
McGuirk, Leslie, all Candlewick, $3.99 each:
Here It Is! ISBN 0-7636-1308-8.
How Many? Too Many! ISBN 0-7636-1306-1.
It’s Only Me! ISBN 0-7636-1307-X.
Say Cheese, Please! ISBN 0-7636-1305-3.
Last year, Chris Raschka offered some new, small picture books (not board books) with animal characters and very simple texts. Some found them popular with kids and useful as easy readers, others objected to vocabulary that was too difficult for the audience or bindings that wouldn’t last. Raschka has four new books to add to his "Thingy Things" series, which libraries may or may not want to purchase based on how the previous four in the series were received. In Doggy Dog, the title character is reminded he isn’t a cat, a lampshade, or a footstool. Each book focuses just on the title character in silly episodes. The distinctive illustrations are done with just a few brushstrokes of paint on a variety of colored paper backgrounds.
Raschka, Chris, all Hyperion, $3.99 each:
Doggy Dog, ISBN 078680642-7.
Goosey Goose, ISBN 078680641-9.
Lamby Lamb, ISBN 078680640-0.
Snaily Snail, ISBN 078680639-7.
One two-part series seems more like a "Disney" or greeting card style offering than a substantial, original book series. Carmel O’Mara has done two small books, Rainy Day and Sunny Day, which show a bear and bunny frolicking about. Neither the soft watercolor illustrations nor the simple verb-heavy text are memorable.
O’Mara, Carmel, both Harcourt, $3.95 each:
Rainy Day, ISBN 0-15-201934-0.
Sunny Day, ISBN 0-15-202066-7.
Popular Author/Illustrators
A few authors and illustrators of picture books have jumped into the field of board books. Two distinctive books from Dan Yaccarino are part of the "Playtime Rhymes" series, which feature books with flaps, pullouts, and pop-ups. Yaccarino’s retro-1950’s commercial artwork style has the clarity that appeals to toddlers; just check out the pictures he did for Trashy Town.
In Baby Face, each opening shows a baby’s face opposite a brief four line rhyme about the face. Some have noses that twitch, some have mouths that open to show a new tooth, another has ears that wiggle. Babies of various ethnicities are shown in this clever book.
In So Big! Yaccarino does a variation of the fingerplay. It begins "How big is baby giraffe?" The page unfolds to show a tall giraffe captioned with "So big!" The repetition of the title phrase and the unfolding pages will grab the attention of toddlers and preschoolers. There is a measuring chart attached to the last page, but it can be removed to make the book suitable for libraries. However, the bindings and construction of both Yaccarino books are a little delicate; those under age 3 will need a parent’s help to keep the book from being torn.
Yaccarino, Dan, both HarperFestival, $7.95 each:
Baby Face, ISBN 0-694-01530-X.
So Big! ISBN 0-694-01509-1.
Colin McNaughton’s "Preston Pig" character is now available in a board book Little Goal! Subtitled "A Preston Pig toddler book," it shows Preston and Mr. Wolf playing soccer. The text is very brief, mainly action verbs, and the cartoon characters appear on white backgrounds.
McNaughton, Colin. Little Goal! Harcourt, $5.95, ISBN 0-15-202525-1.
Jean Marzollo has written a follow-up to last year’s Mama Mama, again with illustrations by Laura Regan. In Papa Papa, animal fathers are shown caring for their children, including a penguin, seahorse, swan, gorilla, beaver, and wolf. The full color cartoon illustrations and the brief rhyming text reflect how animals look and behave.
Marzollo, Jean. Papa Papa, Harper Growing Tree, $5.95, ISBN 0-694-01246-7.
Todd Parr has added to his long list of popular, colorful handheld books with Underwear Do’s and Don’ts. Like his previous books, including This Is My Hair, these are not board books but funny picture books; the humor actually works best for those children who can read the book on their own. In Underwear…, two bits of "underwear" advice are contrasted. For example "Do wear new underwear on the first day of school. Don’t bring it for show-and-tell." Silly, but fun. If your library has fans of these books, check out www.toddparr.com.
Parr, Todd. Underwear Do’s and Don’ts, Little Brown, $5.95, ISBN 0-316-69151-8.
Formerly Picture Books
As always, there are a few picture books remade into board books. One of the more successful is Phyllis Root’s One Duck Stuck, a counting book with clear, colorful illustrations by Jane Chapman. The book succeeds by keeping all the text and illustrations from the picture book edition, just reducing it in size, and because of the book’s repetitive, rhyming text, and the numeral showing the number of animals to be counted.
Root, Phillis. One Duck Stuck. Candlewick, $6.99, ISBN 0-7636-1104-2.
Flora McDonnell’s ABC works better in picture book form but is no longer in print, so the board book is all that is available. Each letter of the alphabet is shown in both upper and lower case, along with a large and small object that begins with that letter. The contrast of the large and small, like the elephant and egg for "E," was more dramatic in the large picture book. But the board book is serviceable.
McDonnell, Flora. Flora McDonnell’s ABC, Candlewick, $6.99, ISBN 0-7636-1399-1.
Another "I Spy" board book has been assembled using Walter Wick’s photos from several of the "I Spy" picture books. I Spy Little Bunnies features a rhyming text by Jean Marzollo, describing the objects one should look for in the photos. I don’t think this series works in either format, but kids keep asking for them at my library.
Marzollo, Jean. I Spy Little Bunnies, Scholastic/Cartwheel, $6.99, ISBN 0-439-22158-7.
Board books seem more popular than ever, especially in bookstore sales. If your library does not yet carry more than the Max and Ruby board books by Rosemary Wells, it may be time to add more to meet the demand from parents and toddlers.
Penny Peck,
San Leandro Public Library