RIP Maurice Sendak

I was reading through my Google Reader this morning, and came across the news that Maurice Sendak had died. I made one of those little noises, that "Oh!" of combined horror, sadness, and disbelief. Here's his obit at the New York Times.

Now, the NYT doesn't exactly have a shining track record as far as children's and YA book coverage goes, but I have to give them props for this lovely obit, which acknowledges Sendak as a picture-book creator that both defined and stood outside the genre.

Even now, Sendak's books have teeth that you don't often find in the picture-book shelves. They're a little sharp, a little hard-edged, a little dangerous, and the kids love them, because their world is not the soft and fuzzy baby-ducks-and-mama-bunnies that we often get in 32 pages with illustrations. Their world is full of uncertainties, new people, desperately dangerous situations. (You try being two feet tall and encountering a 180-lb dog, even a nice one. That's some George-and-the-Dragon stuff right there.) And the kids themselves aren't docile cherubs.

He wrote a small-form picture book called Alligators All Around. A child's world is full of alligators. Sendak knew that. And he sent his heroes out into the alligators, and they beat them. They even romped with them.

We'll miss you.

The End of Knuffle Bunny

This was tweeted awhile ago from @The_Pigeon, the Twitter feed of childlit's most famous bird since that one in Are You My Mother?


Mo Willems discusses the end of the Knuffle Bunny trilogy with his daughter Trixie, on whom the Trixie in the books is loosely based. Everyone together: awww.

P.S. That kid is astonishingly self-possessed. Don't you think? I don't know how old she is, but whatever her age, she's very articulate.

Maurice Sendak on Display

If you're in San Francisco, hie thee to the Contemporary Jewish Museum for what promises to be a completely awesome exhibit titled, There’s a Mystery There: Sendak on Sendak. It's billed as:

the largest and most ambitious exhibition of original watercolors and drawings from more than 40 of Sendak’s books, including his most beloved titles. It also features rare sketches, never-before-seen working materials, and exclusive interview footage.

Woweee. This article from the San Francisco Sentinel elaborates. But get there quickly--it starts today and only goes through January 19th.

Thanks to a tweet from Mitali Perkins.

Are You an Ilk?

Cuz I totally am.

From Trap Door Sun, an interview with Mo Willems. He talks about the difference between TV and books from a writing standpoint, how and why books command respect, and his own glorious uncoolness.

My books are made for un-cool people; that is to say they’re for folks who are willing to be silly, absurd, or just plain weird. Turns out that most kids are joyously un-cool while many adults fear un-coolness. So, my books are put on the kid’s shelves where they can be enjoyed un-self-consciously by children, the occasional goofy grown-up, and their ilk. Especially their ilk.

Hold onto Your iPhones, Kiddies

. . . because the Pigeon is Twittering. Not twittering like most birds, but 140-character "what are you doing?" Twittering while author Mo Willems is at ALA.

No updates yet, but I'm already following.

Krosoczka Interview at Publisher's Weekly

One of the little treasures I've had marked in my Google Reader has been this interview with Jarrett J. Krosoczka. He's best known for his picture books at the moment, but he's starting up a kids' graphic novel series about a crime-fighting lunch lady (I know, right? I know!)

In this interview, he talks about the long and winding process of bringing Lunch Lady to life, being a "goofy kid who loved to draw," and how his attention was turned from comics toward picture books when a teacher brought some to class.

I had never looked at picture books as an artistic endeavor. But I realized that these books are cool, and can sit on bookshelf in a kid’s room and be passed down for generations. The comics I had been working on were, for lack of a better word, disposable.

The first in his new series, Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute, hits the shelves this summer, and is even getting polished up for movie stardom. Pretty good for a goofy kid.

Anthony Browne interview

Jon Scieszka may be getting kids to salaam on this side of the pond, but over in the UK, Anthony Browne has been named their new children's laureate. Thanks to Child_Lit, here's an article from the Times Online, containing a child-driven interview of Browne, and his very interesting answers. Here's my favorite, on what he hopes to accomplish as children's laureate:

“I'm hoping to get us to value looking more than we do,” Browne answers. “We can learn so much by using art. Children, particularly, are taught to move away from pictures into words, but you can read pictures, too. I think all children are very visual, but as they get older and more self-conscious they lose it. The only difference between me and most adults is that I carried on drawing. You could all draw like me! We're taught that in maturity you leave pictures behind, but you don't have to do one at the expense of the other.”

And It Doesn't Look More Than Fifteen

According to Publisher's Weekly, storytime classic The Napping House recently turned 25. Zowie. To celebrate, they cranked up the art using computer technology that wasn't around in 1983. Audrey and Don Wood were initially a little leery of succumbing to the update bug, but:

“The new cover perfectly illustrates the liberating effects of digital technology on design,” Don says. “Suddenly hundreds of design options, unavailable to us in the 1980s, present themselves. This cover is alive and flowing and cozy—a vortex of slumber. Looking at it, we couldn’t resist.”

As long as Grandma isn't shown with earbuds. Check out the article for some fun tidbits about the original creation and the revamp.

Robert Sabuda Talks Pop-Up Books

Courtesy of the Dallas Voice and my Google Reader, an article about a-freakin'-mazing pop-up-book creator Robert Sabuda, who is literally so good he sometimes wows himself. He talks about why he loves what he does.

“One thinks kids are scatterbrained, but they are also very observant when they choose to be. When they open that first page [of ‘Peter Pan’], they look and say ‘That’s Tiger Lily’ and their parent says ‘What? I didn’t even see that.’ I want to see that, too,” he says.

Read on for some giggles about how grown-ups approach children's books.

Okay, maybe I'm being incurably nosy, but the article mentions Matthew Reinhardt as Robert Sabuda's longtime partner. I know they've partnered on a number of these pop-up books, but does the term "partner" in this case mean in their personal lives as well?

<>Don't you wish we had a simpler term, like husband, that we could apply in this case? Hmm? < /political moment>

Michael Rosen is on a Bear Hunt

Via Fuse #8, another delightful video. This time, Michael Rosen performs "We're Going on a Bear Hunt." I settle down to take notes.



Honestly, they should show this in library school classes. Marvelous.

Bill Martin Sings!

Fuse #8 is getting into the "Top" portion of her her Top 100 Picture Books, and along with the witty reviews, she's digging up some mighty treats for us. This one was in the 30-26 post, specifically in the Brown Bear, Brown Bear section (number 30, in case you're counting).

Jane Yolen on Picture Books and Writing

Jane Yolen recently visited a children's lit class at Mount Holyoke College to talk about picture-book writing. My personal favorite:

"if [picture books] can't be read aloud, if the writing is clunky, to me, that's not a good picture book."

She also skewered some of the class's sentimental favorites in her typical forthright fashion. On Love You Forever:

"I think she drugs his cocoa." That's an interesting take. She meant that through the years, the mother expresses her love for her child only while he sleeps, while he is quiet, while he behaves.

While this title is one that many in the children's lit field love to hate, Yolen isn't just bashing for the fun of it. Her statement is an examination of the text and what it says to children. Click through for her opinions on The Giving Tree and Rainbow Fish.

From Bomb Shelters to Butterflies

Newsweek ran an article about Eric Carle the other day with the rather sensational title of "The Surprising Dark Side of the Very Hungry Caterpillar." Turns out it's not that dark, but like fellow picture-book guru Maurice Sendak, Carle spent a fair portion of his childhood in fear. In this case, it was the fear of a child living in WWII Germany, complete with food shortages, bomb scares, and a father locked away in a Russian prison camp. From the article:

There's even something about the way he describes the caterpillar's diet ("On Saturday he ate through one piece of chocolate cake, one ice-cream cone, one pickle, one slice of Swiss cheese … ") that evokes the way he describes what he ate after the war when he went to work for the Americans.

Why are we always so surprised to learn about things like this? Is it because we associate childhood with safety and optimism?

But to a child, even one in the most secure and happy home, the world is a large, mystifying, and often scary place. Maybe it's the authors that still understand this basic truth that speak to children most clearly.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon Teaser

So it's apparently Video Week here on Kid Tested, Librarian Approved. This one's a teaser trailer for Grace Lin's newest picture book, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.



Okay, fine, it's short. But gorgeous! I love Lin's style, a mix of Asian influence and sweet kid-friendliness. Obtained from Lin's own blog, Gracenotes.

Mark Teague Video

Found this one at Fuse #8--a video interview with Mark Teague, best known as the illustrator of the How Do Dinosaurs series by Jane Yolen. Not to mention (for the giant geeks out there) the man who lent his pencil to the Consolidated Summer Reading Program a few years back for the mystery theme. *cough* Really giant geeks.

Anyway, in this video, he talks a little bit about his work and how he got started. First on the list of credits? The public library, a biweekly destination for his family when he was a kid. Awwww yeah.



By the way, I covet that lamp.

So This is What a Picture Book Author Looks Like

Congrats to Fuse #8, who recently had two picture-book manuscripts bought by Greenwillow. Below, her reaction.



As you can see, she's a restrained soul.

Gigantic congrats, Betsy!

Laurel Snyder and Kosher Pigs

Laurel Snyder published a great article in Nextbook called Where the Wild Things Aren't, about the state of Jewish characters and themes in picture books. If you're interested, it's pretty sad.

Most books for young Jewish readers are instructional. They have titles like, Purim Goodies or It’s Israel’s Birthday! and they’re intended to educate kids about specific customs, traditions, events, and places.

Which is fine, if you’re looking for instruction (though most kids aren’t, if you ask me).

I've talked on Confessions of a Bibliovore about my own love for Catholic-themed books, Although it's a different religion, it suffers from the same invisibility. In fact, when it comes to religion, the default setting at all age levels seems to be something I wouldn't call agnostic or atheistic, but merely, "none of the reader's business." What does religion have to do with everyday life?

For many, many kids, a lot. It's for this reason that mention of any religious themes or traditions in a book tends to make my ears perk up.

Laurel makes a good point that picture books especially have a hard time navigating the line between didacticism and invisibility. She's working on changing that, or at least nudging it, with the publication of Baxter the Kosher Pig. Laurel, that's so on my list.

Eric Carle Shows Us How He Does It

I can't embed it, unfortunately, but follow this link to see a video featuring Eric Carle discussing how he got the idea for The Very Hungry Caterpillar (40 this year!) and showing how he does his painted-tissue-paper-collage illustrations. It's beauteous.

Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for showing the way.

You Will Clap Your Hands With Joy

. . . over this video, starring Jarrett Krosoczka and featuring cameos by a number of other children's writers and illustrators. It starts off with an author's life right out of fantasy and gets better from there. My favorite part is Jane Yolen's advice, delivered with the perfect, "Gawd, how many times do I have to SAY THIS?" facial expression. Although Tomie dePaola is pretty freakin' hilarious too.


BOOK BY BOOK: the making of a monkey man from Jarrett Krosoczka on Vimeo.


Apparently Jarrett (what, you think I'm going to try to spell that last name again?!) put it together for a SCBWI presentation. Author, illustrator, and now movie star? If I were a children's author, I would loathe the man.

Lauren Child in Times Online

The Times Online recently posted an article about Lauren Child, including her trip to the slums of Mongolia and Mexico with UNESCO, and her annoyance with the question she gets most often.

How do you write for children when you don't have any children? . . . Would you ask most writers that? Do you ask a crimewriter if he's committed any murders recently? Childhood: we've all been there.

And judging from her books, Lauren seems to remember it awfully well.