UConn Library
Archives and Special Collections Blog
The International Board on Books for Young People has just announced that Maria Teresa Andruetto from Argentina and Illustrator Peter Sis from the Czech Republic are the winners of the 2012 Hans Christian Andersen Award!
Natalie Babbitt was interviewed yesterday by NPR host Rachel Martin to talk about Natalie’s new book “The Moon over High Street” published by Michael diCapua Books. Hear the interview and read the transcript at http://www.npr.org/2012/03/18/148858044/the-moon-childrens-book-tackles-lifelong-themes?sc=emaf.
Susan Raab, CEO of Raab Associates and sponsor of the Raab Associates Prize for Illustration was interviewed by Laurie Cutter for Cynsations. There’s a wonderful reference to the Raab Prize about half-way down this interesting interview about children’s literature, marketing, favorite books, and of course, the Connecticut Children’s Book Fair dinner last year when everyone drew on the dishes (thanks, Mo).
In 2005, Michele Palmer of Storrs, Connecticut, established the Malka Penn Children’s Book Collection on Human Rights as part of the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. The picture books, young adult novels and non-fiction works address issues such as the Holocaust, racism, prejudice, war and conflict. The works below were published in 2010 or were made available in the U.S. for the first time in 2010.Ms. Palmer, who has written several children’s books under the pseudonym Malka Penn, is also a volunteer for the Windham Textile and History Museum.
Chapman, Fern, Is It Night or Day? (New York : Farrar Straus Giroux, 2010).
Ellis, Deborah, No Safe Place. (Toronto : Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, 2010).
Engle, Margarita, The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette’s Journey to Cuba. (New York : Henry Holt and Co., 2010).
Jablonski, Carla, Resistance: Book 1 (New York : First Second, 2010).
Kittinger, Jo, Rosa’s Bus. (Honesdale, Pa. : Calkins Creek, ©2010).
Lottridge, Celia, Home is Beyond the Mountains. (Toronto : Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, 2010).
Molnar, Haya, Under A Red Sky: Memoir of a Childhood in Communist Romania. (New York : Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2010).
Nelson, S.D., Black Elk’s Vision. (New York : Abrams Books for Young Readers, ©2010).
Pinkney, Andrea, Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down. (New York : Little, Brown, ©2010).
Ramsey, Calvin, Ruth and the Green Book. (Minneapolis, MN : Carolrhoda Books, ©2010).
Reynolds, Aaron, Back of the Bus. (New York : Philomel Books, ©2010).
Robinson, Anthony, Hamzat’s Journey: A Refugee Diary. (London, England : Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, 2010, ©2009).
Shimko, Bonnie, The Private Thoughts of Amelia E. Rye. (New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010).
Slade, Suzanne, Climbing Lincoln’s Steps. (Chicago, Ill. : Albert Whitman, ©2010).
Stanley, Diane, Saving Sky. (New York : Harper, ©2010).
Warner, Jody, Viola Desmond Won’t Be Budged. (Toronto : Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, 2010).
In 2005, Michele Palmer of Storrs, Connecticut, established the Malka Penn Children’s Book Collection on Human Rights as part of the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. The picture books, young adult novels and non-fiction works address issues such as the Holocaust, racism, prejudice, war and conflict. The works below were published in 2010 or were made available in the U.S. for the first time in 2010. Ms. Palmer, who has written several children’s books under the pseudonym Malka Penn, is also a volunteer for the Windham Textile and History Museum.
Chapman, Fern, Is It Night or Day? (New York : Farrar Straus Giroux, 2010).
Ellis, Deborah, No Safe Place. (Toronto : Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, 2010).
Engle, Margarita, The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette’s Journey to Cuba. (New York : Henry Holt and Co., 2010).
Jablonski, Carla, Resistance: Book 1 (New York : First Second, 2010).
Kittinger, Jo, Rosa’s Bus. (Honesdale, Pa. : Calkins Creek, ©2010).
Lottridge, Celia, Home is Beyond the Mountains. (Toronto : Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, 2010).
Molnar, Haya, Under A Red Sky: Memoir of a Childhood in Communist Romania. (New York : Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2010).
Nelson, S.D., Black Elk’s Vision. (New York : Abrams Books for Young Readers, ©2010).
Pinkney, Andrea, Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down. (New York : Little, Brown, ©2010).
Ramsey, Calvin, Ruth and the Green Book. (Minneapolis, MN : Carolrhoda Books, ©2010).
Reynolds, Aaron, Back of the Bus. (New York : Philomel Books, ©2010).
Robinson, Anthony, Hamzat’s Journey: A Refugee Diary. (London, England : Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, 2010, ©2009).
Shimko, Bonnie, The Private Thoughts of Amelia E. Rye. (New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010).
Slade, Suzanne, Climbing Lincoln’s Steps. (Chicago, Ill. : Albert Whitman, ©2010).
Stanley, Diane, Saving Sky. (New York : Harper, ©2010).
Warner, Jody, Viola Desmond Won’t Be Budged. (Toronto : Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, 2010).
Terri J. Goldich, Curator, Northeast Children’s Literature Collection
Congratulations to Chris Raschka for winning the 2012 Caldecott Medal for A Ball for Daisy, a wordless book about a little dog whose favorite possession is accidentally destroyed. When interviewed on NPR, Raschka tells Robert Siegel of All Things Considered that creating the book was “certainly a challenge. It went through many, many variations.” This is Raschka’s second Caldecott Medal; his first was for Hello, Goodbye Window in 2006 and in 1994 he received a Caldecott Honor for his Yo! Yes? Raschka appeared at the 2008 Connecticut Children’s Book Fair and we hope to see him again soon. Congratulations, Chris!
Many congratulations to NCLC donor and Connecticut Children’s Book Fair favorite, Katie Davis, for her well-deserved School Library Journal Trailee Award given annually at ALA for the video trailers that best promote books for children and teens. “Book trailers raise awareness about the big power of little books to reach readers,” said Davis after learning that she had won. Davis, who also illustrated the book that she co-authored with her husband Jerry Davis, thanked “all those nice little chickens (and people!) who voted” for her entry. In the category of Publisher/Author Created for Elementary Readers , the trailer tells the story of Little Chicken’s Big Day, when Little Chicken goes with his mother to do errands and gets lost. The School Library Journal web site has more information about the Trailee Awards including winners in other categories, such as Grace Lin’s Award in the Student Created for Elementary Readers category for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Little, Brown, 2009; Trailer by the members of the Bookie Woogie Book Blog). Grace Lin appeared at the 2011 Connecticut Children’s Book Fair and we hope to see her again soon. Congratulations, Katie and Grace!
Many congratulations to NCLC donor Katie Davis, for her well-deserved School Library Journal Trailee Award given annually at the American Library Association’s Midwinter Conference for the video trailers that best promote books for children and teens. “Book trailers raise awareness about the big power of little books to reach readers,” said Davis after learning that she had won. Davis, who also illustrated the book that she co-authored with her husband Jerry Davis, thanked “all those nice little chickens (and people!) who voted” for her entry. In the category of Publisher/Author Created for Elementary Readers , the trailer tells the story of Little Chicken’s Big Day, when Little Chicken goes with his mother to do errands and gets lost. The School Library Journal web site has more information about the Trailee Awards including winners in other categories, such as Grace Lin’s Award in the Student Created for Elementary Readers category for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Little, Brown, 2009; Trailer by the members of the Bookie Woogie Book Blog). Grace Lin appeared at the 2011 Connecticut Children’s Book Fair and we hope to see her again soon. Congratulations, Katie and Grace!
Terri J. Goldich, Curator, NCLC
The Wenham Museum in Wenham, Massachusetts is borrowing artifacts, sketches, and illustrations from the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection for their upcoming exhibit Picture This: 90 Years of Storybook Art (February 3- May 6, 2012). Classic toy stories will come to life through more than 50 original illustrations, vintage toys, and antique books in a colorful display that is engaging for all ages. In the gallery visitors will be able to make their own picture book to take away after their visit, dress in costume to become part of the story, and use story cubes to create their own picture stories all while enjoying the illustrations and reading classics of children’s literature.
The NCLC is lending two artifacts from Nellie, a cat on her own, written and illustrated by Natalie Babbitt and published in 1989 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Ms. Babbitt was born in 1932 in Dayton, OH, the daughter of Ralph Zane and Genevieve (Converse) Moore. She received her B.A. from Smith College in 1954. That same year she married Samuel Fisher Babbitt, who also collaborated with her on her first book, The 49th Magician.
The Babbitt Papers hold the manuscripts, preliminary sketches, finished artwork and models for this and many other Babbitt titles, including her most famous work, the multiple award-winning Tuck Everlasting. Seven paintings and two sketches by Ms. Babbitt will accompany Nellie and her hat to Wenham. 
To keep Nellie company, eight collages by Ed Young will be featured in the Wenham show as well. These collages are the finished works of art for his Pinocchio, published in 1996 by Philomel. Mr. Young, a children’s book author/illustrator and winner of many awards was born in Tientsin, China and raised in Shanghai and Hong Kong, where he was interested in drawing and storytelling from an early age. He moved to the U.S. in 1951 to study architecture but quickly changed his focus to art. Mr. Young has illustrated over eighty books, many of which he also wrote.
The mission of the Wenham Museum is to protect, preserve, and interpret the history and culture of Boston’s North Shore, domestic life, and the artifacts of childhood. The Museum was established in 1922, making 2012 its 90th anniversary. It began as an historic house museum, but the first donor, Elizabeth Richards Horton – who also happened to be the last child to grow up in the house – donated nearly 1000 dolls to the museum that had been her childhood home, thus establishing the Wenham Museum as one of the premier museums of dolls, toys, and the artifacts of childhood from the 17th century to the present. Since then the museum has maintained a tradition of celebrating childhood and domestic life through its exhibitions of artifacts that have been a part of childhood for the past 400 years, including children’s books, toys and dolls of all kinds, electric trains, and textiles and objects of domestic life.
Mac Barnett, a children’s book writer from Oakland with seven picture books and three novels to his credit, wrote the Picture Book Manifesto at the suggestion of one of his former professors. The Manifesto was published as an advertisement in the November issue of the Horn Book. Speaking to Sally Lodge for Publisher’s weekly (http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/49276-mac-barnett-spearheads-a-picture-book-manifesto-.html), Barnett explains, “I think there’s a lot of hand-wringing going on now about the picture book and its place in the market and in our culture…you hear nay-sayers who think the picture book is over, and too often the pro-picture book response is that everything is fine, that the picture books are inherently magical. And great books are a kind of magic, but kids don’t need to be told that: they already know.” The proclamation was designed and executed by Carson Ellis and is signed by 20 other picture book creators, including Brian Biggs, Sophie Blackall, Laurie Keller, Jon Scieszka, and Lemony Snicket. The intended audience is everyone in the children’s literature world, including librarians, parents, writers, illustrators, editors, and publishers. Barnett hopes that publication of the Manifesto will spark conversations about picture books and how to make them more original and thoughtful, with a vitality that will make kids want to read.
Terri J. Goldich, Curator, Northeast Children’s Literature Collection
l-r:Terri J. Goldich, Curator; Billie M. Levy, Donor; Kena Sosa, Researcher. Seated: Mrs. Eva Greenwood, Interviewee
Ms. Kena Sosa of Grand Prairie, Texas, was the 4th recipient of a Billie M. Levy Travel and Research Grant awarded by the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection. Ms. Sosa is a school librarian and teacher, with a BA in English and an MA in bilingual education with emphasis on teaching the gifted and talented. Her topic of research is the experience of Jewish children who escaped Nazi persecution to England and other countries by means of the Kindertransport program. The Northeast Children’s Literature Collection holds works on this topic which Ms. Sosa used to gather information on the experiences of the children faced with new sights, sounds, language, and in some cases, new families. Ms. Sosa also interviewed two women who were transported to England as part of Kindertransport to create oral histories documenting their experiences. (NOTE: Mrs. Greenwood’s interview begins in the middle of a sentence.)
Click here for the transcript interview of Mrs. Eva Greenwood, or:
Here for the transcript of Mrs. Rita G. Kaplan.
Ms. Sosa has published on a wide variety of topics ranging from biracial children’s literature to netiquette for kids. She hopes
to use the results of her research to write a children’s book about the Kindertransport experience. Ms. Sosa presented the results of her research on April 21, 2011, at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.
–Terri J. Goldich