October 2009 Calendar / News & Notes / Professional Reading / Pop-Up Books MARK YOUR CALENDAR Upcoming Events for Children's Librarians

Mock Newbery Meeting:
Nina Lindsay's "Heavy Medal" Mock Newbery Discussion will be held on Sunday, January 10th, 1pm-5pm, in Oakland (at a location tba). The discussion list is not yet posted, but will be announced at the "Heavy Medal" blog co-written by Nina and Jonathan Hunt: www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/560000656/post/150049615.html. Anyone interested in participating should email Nina at "nlindsay@oaklandlibrary.org".

Author Milton Meltzer Dies:
Author Milton Meltzer died at age 94 in his New York City home on September 19, 2009. For the last several months, he had been terminally ill with esophageal cancer. In the fall of 1956, at the age of 40, Milton published his first book, A Pictorial History of the Negro American, co-written with Langston Hughes. A landmark publication, the book went through six revised and updated editions and remained in print through the 1990s. Meltzer and Hughes became good friends, collaborating on another book. Meltzer wrote a biography of Hughes, published in 1968. That book received the Carter G. Woodson Award and was a National Book Award finalist. Three other of Meltzer's books were National Book Award finalists. Meltzer continued publishing books through 2008. Among his last titles were a biography of John Steinbeck for Viking's Up Close series and his second historical novel, Tough Times, published by Clarion. Meltzer's history books addressed such subjects as Ancient Egypt, the Civil Rights Movement, crime, the Great Depression, the Holocaust, the immigrant experience, labor movements, photography, piracy, poverty, racism, and slavery. In 2001, the Association for Library Services to Children awarded Meltzer the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for his substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.

Politi's Classic Picture Books to be Re-released:
Four of Leo Politi's picture books are being released this month, October 2009, by Getty Publications. His Caldecott Medal book Song Of the Swallows, set in San Luis Obispo was first published in 1950. Two of the others were Caldecott Honor books, Pedro: the Angel of Olvera Street and Juanita, are also being rereleased. Emmet, first published in 1971 is the fourth book being rereleased. Born in Fresno, most of Politi's books are set in Southern California.

BayNews needs you! BayNews welcomes any articles, news, ideas on storytime or programs, etc. Just send any articles as a Word attachment to email, to Penny Peck at baynews@bayviews.org. Thanks!

Skurnick, Lizzie. Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading - A Reading Memoir. Avon/HarperCollins, 2009. $14.99. ISBN 9780061756351.

Based on entries from Skurnick's blog on http://jezebel.com/tag/fine-lines/ , this salute to favorite books includes a combination of perennial favorites and "out of fashion" teen books that could always make a comeback. This is more of a salute to the favorite teen girl books of Skurnick's generation, than it is a contemporary readers' advisory reference. She is not setting out to compete with Nancy Pearl, but to remind other adult women of many of their favorite books and how they may have shaped our attitudes and outlooks.

Skurnick doesn't write book reports either; this is more like juicy book gossip with an old friend. She divides the book into chapters based on a theme or content the books in that chapter have in common. One of my favorites was the chapter entitled "Old Fashioned Girls: They Wear Bonnets, Don't They?" which focuses on classics like Cheaper By the Dozen and The Secret Garden.

Many of the favorites are teen girl "coming of age" novels, from Judy Blume's Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret on the younger end of the spectrum, to Blume's Forever on the upper age range. She also talks about children's novels from Little House in the Big Woods to Harriet the Spy, to The Westing Game, none of which became an "After School Special." She is adept at focusing on what about the book resonated with teen girls at that time.

Some of the entries are by guest authors. For example, Tayari Jones writes the entry on Blume's Forever, and how her perspective as an African-American girl interpreted some aspects of the story. She couldn't relate to water skiing or sleepaway camp, but other aspects of the novel intrigued her and her friends, who were learning about sexuality from parents who often left out too many details.

This is a breezy, fun read. Bring it on an airplane or take it where you will be sitting in a waiting room for a while and you will finish it in one sitting. Some entries are easy to skim, others will demand re-reading; I found the most interesting to be the ones based on books I have read. On the other hand, a few others compelled me to see if my library still owned the book so I could read it, although Skurnick doesn't intend these to be booktalks.

The whole idea of a book celebrating what many dismiss as "teenybopper" books or cheesy reading for tweens is appealing - why do we look down on what girls like and not what boys like (comic books, fart jokes, etc.)? To have someone devote an entire book and a blog to books that were so meaningful to young girls' lives is really validating to book nerdettes everywhere!

Small, David. Stitches: a Memoir. Norton, 2009. $24.95. ISBN 9780393068573 .

Small, best known to children's librarians as the Caldecott Medalist for So You Want to Be President (by Judith St. George, Philomel, 2000), has written a devastating memoir that will stay with the reader a long time. In contrast to the sweet, joyous quality of his children's books, including Imogene's Antlers (Crown, 1985) and George Washington's Cows (FSG, 1994), his life story is filled with sorrow and near-torture at the hands of his parents.

Small's doctor father and very unhappy mother made life difficult for the sickly boy. Clearly, his father cared about him but the medical treatments he was given sound like torture. In fact, the overuse of X-Rays, which his father thought could help his sinus condition, probably caused the cancerous tumor in Small's throat. The surgery to remove the tumor also removed a vocal chord, making him mute for a time. His father felt deeply guilty and tried to make it up to his son.

Even though the details of his life story are almost Dickensian in their harshness, there are episodes of humor, such as the episode where young David goes "sock skating" on the newly polished hospital floors. Also, there are frequent references to Alice in Wonderland, where young David imagines going down a hole, to his psychiatrist who is the White Rabbit. At the end of a session, the rabbit looks at his pocket watch to let him know time's up. In fact, his sessions with the psychiatrist were a huge help to him, and offered hope in what had been his hopeless world.

In some ways, the seriousness of his story may remind readers of Maus by Art Spiegelman. Many libraries may decide to catalog Stitches in the adult graphic novel area and not the GNs for tweens or teens, although I would recommend it to high school students and older.

The artwork has Small's light touch: told in panel art like other graphic novels, the ink outlines are washed with a translucent grey/green wash. Often there are passages of several pages that only contain drawings, no text, which suits the story of a boy who could not speak. This memoir is truly memorable - you won't forget the story or how you felt while you were reading it - and for such a sad story it has a very positive result. Perhaps because we know how successful Small has become, as both an artist and with his family. His wife is author Sarah Stewart, who has written several picture books that Small illustrated.

Carle, Eric. The Very Hungry Caterpillar Pop-up Book. Philomel/Penguin, 2009. $29.99. ISBN 9780399250392.
In celebration of the original's 40th birthday, this popup version of Carle's classic contains all the text and keeps the same book design as the original, just adding popup elements. For example, the fruit eaten each day is there with small die-cut holes, but now the fruit pops up. As one would expect, the most dramatic popup occurs when the caterpillar appears as a butterfly. This won't replace the original version, even for storytime use. For storytime, I like to use the hand puppet and large cutout fruit to demonstrate the story (available at lakeshorelearning.com ), along with the original book. But this popup version is perfect as a gift purchase.

Buxton, Jane H. Undersea Animals. Illus. by Jerry Pinkney. National Geographic, 2008. $14.95. ISBN 9781426303340.
Pinkney's realistic watercolor illustrations are the best part of this brief look at ocean animals. Just six spreads are included, but all have dramatic pop-ups done with mottled, speckly paint to give a clear depiction of the animal. Very little text or information is included; mostly one brief sentence captioning the animals, describing them and the part of the ocean that is the habitat for that animal. Octopus, hammerhead shark, coral, goosefish, giant kelp, and a hermit crab are featured. This won't hold up to library circulation, but would make a nice purchase at an aquarium gift shop.

Green, Jen. The Dinosaur Museum. Illus. by Sebastian Quigley. National Geographic, 2008. $19.95. ISBN 9781426303357.
Containing enough information for a younger child's school report, as well as dramatic popups of dinosaurs, this could be a useful purchase that may even stand up to library circulation wear and tear. Plus, it is sure to be popular with fans of the movie “Night at the Museum.” The design calls the pullout tabs with information "specimen drawers" and the deeply colored realistic illustrations will remind readers of a real museum field trip. Each caption gives a code on how to pronounce the dinosaur name as well as some brief information such as in which period the dinosaur lived (Cretaceaous, Triassic, etc.). The text explains fossils, meat-eaters, plant eaters, giant and smaller dinosaurs, flying and swimming creatures, and there is an index. A welcome library purchase.

Submitted by : Penny Peck, San Leandro Public Library

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