BayNews December 2003

NEWS AND NOTES

Mark these meeting dates:

Distinguished Round-up: Sunday, February 8, 2004, noon – 4pm at the home of Penny Peck.
Performers’ Showcase: Saturday, February 28, 2004, at the San Leandro Public Library.
ACL Meetings, beginning in February: At the Thursday, Feb. 12, 2004 ACL will begin meeting at the Berkeley Public Library, corner of Kittridge and Shattuck. We will meet in Berkeley from February until the end of the year, due to construction at the Oakland Main Library, our usual meeting place. Thanks to both libraries for being so generous in hosting our meetings.

National Book Award Winner: The National Book Award winners were announced on November 19, 2003. The winner in the Young Peeople’s Literature Category was Polly Horvath for The Canning Season.

Jean Craighead George Wins Award: Jean Craighhead George, author of Julie of the Wolves and many other novels for kids, was named the recipient of the 2003 Ludington Award, given by the Educational Paperback Association. The award is given to an author who “has made a significant contribution to the paperback book business.” Previous winners include Lois Lowry and Paula Danziger. The award is $2500 given to a charity of the author’s choice. The award committee chose George in part because “her novels are studied in classrooms everywhere.”

Nancy Drew Merchandise: Adult fans of Nancy Drew can now shop online for pajamas, totebags, purses, and other merchandise at the www.zdetails.com website. Two Colorado sisters who own Details, a Denver store that sells giftware, were longtime fans. They negotiated a deal with Simon & Schuster to license Nancy Drew, and they have created a line of merchandise for other women fans. Prices range from $20 for a makeup bag to $88 for pajamas.

Erratum: In the Aug. 2003 volume of BayViews, Carolyn Edwards’ review of Teenage Mermaid appeared with an editing error. The review should have read: “The text states “Lily is upset about losing her purse, then finds she’s lost her purse.” The book contained that obvious error.

“ Flat Stanley” Creator Jeff Brown Dies

Jeff Brown, a magazine editor and short-story writer who created Flat Stanley, the two-dimensional hero of an enduring series of children's books, died. He was 77 and lived in Manhattan. The cause was a heart attack he suffered while walking near his home, his family said.

A native New Yorker, Mr. Brown had worked in Hollywood and as an editor and writer in New York before creating Flat Stanley, a hero for the youngest readers whose adventures, with illustrations by Tomi Ungerer, were first published in 1964. Flat Stanley became the star of a series of perpetually popular books. The latest, "Stanley, Flat Again!," was published this year by HarperCollins Children's Books.

The idea for Stanley came to him one night at bedtime when his sons J. C. and Tony were young and stalling for time. One asked what would happen if the big bulletin board on the wall were to fall on J. C., and Mr. Brown said he would most likely wake up flat. That led to speculation about what such a life might be like.

ALA PRESIDENT NAMED ONE OF MS. MAGAZINE’S WOMEN OF THE YEAR

Remarks by American Library Association President Carla Hayden upon accepting the Ms. "Women of the Year" award at the National Press Club, Washington, December 8, 2003:

Let me begin by thanking Ms. magazine for this truly prestigious honor. I have long been a fan and a regular reader of the magazine, and I cannot tell you how proud I am to receive this recognition. To stand here today in the company of such accomplished women is inspiring. The work that Ms. does to educate women about issues and rights affecting their lives is truly admirable. And as the second African American woman to be president of the American Library Association in its 127-year history, and the first one to receive this honor on behalf of ALA, it makes this recognition even more special. I am pleased to accept this honor - not only on my behalf - but also for all of the more than 65,000 members of our organization nationwide. Librarians are heroes every day.

I started my career as a children's librarian and never thought that I would be standing here today representing my profession's largest organization. Over the years, my late grandmother said that she didn't think that being a librarian could be very exciting. The last few years as president-elect and now president of ALA certainly proved her wrong.

From CNN to CBS' The Early Show, The Washington Post and the New York Times, Ebony Magazine and yes, even Time for Kids, I have had my share of answering the sometimes hard questions about the conditions of one of our nations most valuable resources - the library, the cornerstone of democracy.

Like other women in this room who have worked hard to bring positive change to empower the powerless, I work with librarians and the diverse communities that they serve, to educate people about defending their civil rights and liberties. It is a role that librarians have played throughout our nation's history, but until recent years has gone unnoticed.

With the recent passage of the USA PATRIOT Act, all that has changed. Librarians are committed to educating our citizens about the dangers of many provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act - including its effect of undermining the historical protection of private library records. Instead of being called mousy and dull, we are being called "feisty fighters for freedom." We even have a librarian action figure now!

When Attorney General John Ashcroft called me to express his concerns that librarians may have misunderstood his long-standing commitment to civil liberties, I must admit I became a bit nervous. As I said before, librarians have been doing this type of work but rarely in the spotlight. When the press started reporting our opposition to this act, I knew that eventually it would lead to something like this. Yet we stood firm even when called hysterical and dupes. We even had these buttons made - Another "hysteric" librarian for freedom - as a badge of honor.

Librarians will continue to stand strong and work with organizations and people from diverse backgrounds to oppose laws that infringe on our civil liberties and privacy-related rights.

Thank you again to Ms. magazine for this award. I proudly share it with my colleagues across the country.

Reading the World – March 2004

The Center for Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults at the University of San Francisco presents READING THE WORLD on March 13, 14, 2004. Speakers are Ashley Bryan, Alma Flor Ada, Isabel Campoy, Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith, Suzanne Fisher Staples, UNESCO Award Winner Ruth Starke of Australia, and storyteller Ruth Stotter. Over 40 break out sessions will feature Judy Sierra, Milly Lee, Teri Sloat, Diane Wolkstein Melba Beals, and many others. Celebration Dinner speaker is Gerald McDermott. Book Market and more. Contact Barbara Hood, Conference Registrar rtwconf@socrates.usfca.edu or (415) 422-6878.

“ Have you tried the library?”: the frustrations of a librarian trapped in a bookseller’s body,

by Tracy P. Clausen, Oakland Public Library

When I moved to California last year, I was looking forward to working in a large public library system. I just left a children’s librarian position at a small-town library in Lenox, MA, and was eager for the change. However, moving to the Bay Area a year ago landed me in the middle of hiring freezes and budget cuts, and finding a job proved to be much more challenging than I had anticipated. After sending out applications to several libraries, I grew tired of waiting for an answer, and decided to apply at the Barnes & Noble bookstore near my home in Berkeley.

Choosing to work at a corporate bookstore was not an easy decision. I was torn because I love bookstores! I love being surrounded by new books, soft music playing in the background, sipping my coffee while browsing through displays. However, I also feared that I’d be working for “the competition.” In Massachusetts I worried that the local Barnes & Noble was stealing business from my story hour programs and book discussion groups. It pained me to know the store was profit driven and not focused on education, yet my patrons often mentioned they attended Barnes & Noble programs. Now here I was planning to work for one! In the end, I figured that I’d at least be working with books, keeping up with new titles, serving the public, and, oh yes, making a little money as well.

Working with shiny, pretty new books all the time is not as glamorous as it sounds. Our store received several new shipments of books every day, and our mission was to get them out on the floor ASAP! My time was constantly spent pulling “old” books that had been on the shelves for three to six months, and shelving new books as they arrived. We hardly had time to look at them! Imagine a highly accelerated weeding process in which scanners, not the librarian, decide which books to pull, even if the librarian knows the book is relevant to the community. Imagine if a new book arrived that you felt was not worth the paper it was printed on, and you were required to prominently display it for the next three months. As a librarian, I was always disturbed by the overwhelming quantity of “crowd pleasing” books being published, including anything about Barbie, sound stories that talk, sing, whistle, and whine so that parents don’t have to, and poorly written books based on mediocre new movies for kids. I did have some control over the books in certain displays, and was constantly sneaking well-known, wonderful stories in with the suggested commercial titles.

I also performed story hour for preschool children twice per week. Each store is required to do programs for children of all ages. I suppose the theory behind story hour is vaguely similar in libraries and bookstores in that libraries want patrons to check books out after the program and develop a love of the library, while bookstores want customers to buy books and develop loyalty to a particular store. However, library story hour is driven by a passionate commitment to education, literacy and learning, while bookstore story time is propelled by sales, bottom line. The same may not be true in an independent bookstore, but I can only speak from the corporate experience, where regardless of attendance, programs are not considered successful unless you sell books afterwards.

When customers asked questions, I felt I was in familiar territory. Parents wanted title suggestions for their children, children wanted to know what books we had that were exactly like the one they had just finished, and teachers were constantly looking for new titles to add to their classroom collections. This led me to consider what librarians have been talking about for years. When people have questions, why do they think of bookstores first and libraries second? Why do people spend all day reading books in bookstores, when they can do the same thing at the library? Part of the answer is simple: people are attracted to new books – new books feel smooth and clean, and look shiny, crisp and inviting. Book display is also important, in that people browsing for titles are generally more likely to pick up a book that is face up on a table, faced out in a section, or prominently displayed in some way, than a book with a torn, dingy spine jammed in with row upon row of other spine-out titles. Some displays will work better in a library setting than others – every library does not need an obvious display of Dummies books, but setting up a display on a particular topic might expose a lesser-used section of a library’s collection.

The debate about what libraries could learn from bookstores could go on indefinitely. However, the nicest displays won’t improve circulation if patrons are not in the library to begin with. One major problem is that the general public does not know where to go for answers to specific questions. For example, a teacher who wants to know the latest teen titles by African American authors would be well served in a bookstore with plenty of new titles and a knowledgeable staff. However, a teacher who wanted a book about flying for the first time might like David McPhail’s book First flight, but is not going to find it in print at a bookstore. A library is bound to have a nice selection of older titles on that topic. I can’t tell you how many college students would come to the bookstore looking for research materials, and were shocked when we had nothing! I’d mention the library, and it would be like a light bulb appeared over their heads. “The library? Does Berkeley have one? Where is it?” If they had learned about libraries in elementary and high school, they would not be standing in a Barnes & Noble bookstore looking for literary criticism on Hemingway.

I’m no longer working for Barnes & Noble, but I’ve come away realizing that we librarians need to inform as many people as possible about what services we can provide to the community. Libraries with large collections can advertise heavily to teachers, and take the extra step to select books for teachers when they are covering a given topic – even break the rules and allow them to check out more books than the posted limit! Smaller libraries can invite teachers to visit the library, give tours, and send several notices every year about what is available in the collection for teachers to use. Spend a day visiting not just the school library, but stopping in each elementary school classroom to speak for five minutes about a program sponsored by the library. Attend a PTA meeting and talk about the library’s services. If time is a factor (which it always is), just include an annual greeting in the school’s PTA newsletter describing the services your library can offer to parents and teachers. If parents and teachers know about the library, then so will their children and students.

Working at a bookstore gave me insight into the other side of the book world and serving the public. Bookstores serve their purpose, but in the end libraries are a necessity, with a mission to educate and support the local community. We cannot take it for granted that the public knows about libraries and loves us unconditionally. Libraries can change and improve their services using display ideas from bookstores, but ultimately must focus on being active and visible in local communities to create lifelong library users.

Holiday Board Books

French, Vivian. THE STORY OF CHRISTMAS. Illus. by Jane Chapman. Candlewick, 2003. $5.99, ISBN 0-7636-2202-8.
In a simple but clear retelling of the Nativity story, the angel Gabriel, Mary, and Joseph begin the story. The couple travels to pay their taxes, is turned away from the inn, baby Jesus is born, and the angels celebrate and the three wise men visit. Even very young preschoolers will be able to follow the story, and they will enjoy the simple, colorful pictures, that depict the characters in traditional garb. A great choice for parents looking for the “real” story of Christmas for their toddlers.

Page, Josephine. LITTLE LAMB’S CHRISTMAS. Illus. by David Milgrim. Scholastic, 2003. $7.99, ISBN 0-439-52464-4.
The nativity story told from the perspective of a lamb. The simple story and cartoon illustrations, dominated by a light blue, are not as strong as French’s The Story of Christmas (see above). This is a little too sweet.

Carrier, Lark. HO! HO! HO! A CHRISTMAS PEEK-A-BOO BOOK. Scholastic, 2003. $5.95, ISBN 0-439-38224-6.
A little brown terrier, Leroy, snoops for gifts in this simple book with half-page flaps. No surprises here, but toddlers will enjoy the repetitive text with “Oops!” on every other page.

Dollin, Laura. CHRISTMAS ANGEL. Illus. by Rosalind Beardshaw. Candlewick, 2003. $5.99, ISBN 076362142-0.
Shoolbred, Catherine. FRIENDLY SNOWMAN. Illus. by Liz Pichon. Candlewick, 2003. $5.99, ISBN 076362145-5.
Dollin, Laura. SANTA CLAUS. Illus. by Rosalind Beardshaw. Candlewick, 2003. $5.99. ISBN 076362144-7.
Shoolbred, Catherine. SANTA’S REINDEER. Illus. by Liz Pichon. Candlewick, 2003. $5.99, ISBN 076362143-9.
Although two different authors and two different illustrators created these four board books, as a series they have a uniformity of style in both text and pictures. Beginning with glittery cover art, the boldly colored cartoon illustrations are pleasantly traditional. Santa and the reindeer are depicted doing their customary preparation and travels to deliver gifts; the snowman is made by a group of children, and the angel is a Christmas tree ornament. The text and pictures are just right for the one-year-old board book audience.

“Alice” Pops Up!

Sabuda, Robert. ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. Little Simon, 2003. $24.95, ISBN 0-689-84743-2.

Seibold, Otto. OTTO SEIBOLD’S ALICE IN POP-UP WONDERLAND. Orchard, 2003. $19.95, ISBN 0-439-41184-X.

Timing is everything – if Seibold’s “Alice” were released at any other time, it would be a very popular achievement, but it pales by comparison to Sabuda’s breath-taking pop-up version of the Lewis Carroll classic. Side by side, it is clear that both in text, illustration, and mechanics, Sabuda’s “Alice” is one of the best pop-up books ever made; it stands alongside his ALA/ALSC Notable pop-up version of The Wizard of Oz, (Little Simon, 2000).

Seibold’s is really just an introduction to Alice; the text is very minimal so it makes more sense to the reader who is already familiar with the characters and plot of “Alice.” The hand-lettered, multi-colored text is somewhat difficult to read – it recalls the days of hallucinogenic inspired concert posters. Alice is a bugged-eyed cartoon character, and the openings depict her falling down the rabbit hole, meeting the caterpillar, meeting the duchess, and experiencing the tea party, croquet game, and trial. But it really won’t make sense unless you already know the story.

Sabuda’s can stand alone although, of course, it doesn’t replace the original. Like he did in the Oz popup, he has created mini-books for each popup opening, so much more text can be contained on each spread. He captures the spirit of the original by using much of Carroll’s phrasing; it is just greatly abridged. His artwork is also reminiscent of the original, with characters that resemble Tenniel’s original conception.

Sabuda’s engineering of the popups is masterful. We see the park where Alice first spies the white rabbit, the house where she grows, the Duchess, the tea party, the croquet game, and the exploding deck of cards. Each opening pops up to measure as tall as the book is wide; these are very dramatic yet seem very true to the original.

Will libraries be able to keep these intact for more than a few circulations? That is always the question with popup books; does the cost justify the relatively small group of borrowers? Well, how about a collection of popup books that readers can enjoy while in the library, but that don’t check out for home use? Start with Sabuda’s “Alice” and “Oz,” and you will get lots of happy readers poring over these detailed masterpieces.

Tomie DePaola Website: www.tomie.com

Check out the new website for award-winning illustrator Tomie DePaola. It resembles his illustration style in its color palette dominated by teal and cream, and has an elegant simplicity. It seems geared more for teachers and librarians than kids although the “Resources” section does have coloring pages for printout.

The website includes a short bio and color photo, a full bibliography arranged from his most recent books back to his start in the 1960’s, and a nice interview. There is a printable calendar page, and it includes dates and places of his appearances for bookstore signings.

The website is nicely arranged, featuring his newest books most prominently, and he does talk about his non-book art – gallery artwork.