A Little Time Spent With Picture Books

A Poet Kids May Want To Know About

 

I can't claim to be at all knowledgeable about poet e.e. cummings, though I've certainly heard of him. I didn't have to know much about him to find Enormous Smallness: A Story of E.E. Cummings by Matthew Burgess fascinating.

The book spends a lot of time on Cummings' youth (He sounds like the rare artist/bio subject who had a happy childhood.), a great idea for a children's book. Then it makes a smooth transition to his adult life.

The book makes an interesting connection between Cummings and artists working in other artistic fields, such as Gertrude Stein, Paul Cezanne, and Igor Stravinsky. They "were challenging the way we think and see. In all of the arts, people were in pursuit of the new and Estlin wanted to make his mark, too."  Last month, The Millions carried an essay related to Impressionism's influence on Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse. The idea that all sorts of artists in a particular period are connected is new to me.

This is a beautiful looking book, too.

The MacDonalds And Their Farm 

 

It's a rare child who hasn't heard of Old MacDonald Had a Farm, and that's what makes Old MacDonald Had a Truck by Steve Goetz with illustrations by Eda Kabanwork work. Old MacDonald
isn't supposed to have trucks...front loaders...bulldozers...on his farm. He's supposed to have animals. Incongruity. That's funny. In fact, yesterday I read this book to a four-year-old who said, "That's crazy" when he heard the title.

One of the many neat things about this book is all the face time Ms. MacDonald the farm wife gets.

Personally, I don't get children's fascination with heavy equipment. However, I heard someone on NPR suggest a few weeks ago that it has something to do with powerless children associating themselves with the powerful equipment. No idea how accurate that is.

I think this book is a example of what Pegi Deitz Shea was talking about at the Publishing Children's Books panel discussion earlier this month. Old MacDonald stories are concept books in that they teach children about farm animal sounds. Pegi said that if writers can "provide a twist to a concept," they have a totally new book. Old MacDonald Had a Truck is a definite twist.

This Weekend's Unnecessary Creativity Is All About Denim

Yeah, I cooked yesterday. For hours. But what else is new, right?

Well, actually, today I got started...barely...on a sewing project I have to do for Christmas. We won't go into what that's about. What's important here is that this project involves denim.

Denim quilt

Back in the early years of this century, I made a denim quilt. Why? Because I am part of a denim-loving generation; also a member of that generation that spent its youth making things out of other things so those other things wouldn't fill up landfills.

Denim keeps happening. I've been collecting denim since the day I finished that quilt. I have a family member who gives me his cast off blue jeans. I have denim. So when I had to come up with a homemade Christmas gift, of course I thought of denim.

What I needed for today's project was long strips of denim. So I was working on cutting up some pairs of pants I had not yet done anything with when I thought, Why don't you look at the denim you've already prepared? Maybe you have some denim pant legs that have been cut from pants but haven't yet been cut into squares. That would cut down on the amount of work you have to do.

Surely everyone has a denim bag. Right?

You know how you used to hear about scrap bags? Oh, come on. Bags of scrap material belonging to women who sew? Well, I have a denim bag. There's rather a lot of denim in it. And, sure enough, I have a lot of pant legs in there that I could use for today's project.

A Denim And Writing Connection

A LOT of denim

Today's experience was very similar to starting a new writing project and then remembering that you'd tried something similar sometime in the past. So you go looking through your filing cabinet or your hard drive (depending on how far back the original writing goes) and, sure enough, you find something you can use. And you start pulling everything together and something from the past gets started again.

It has happened.

What Did You Do This Week, Gail? Nov. 7 Edition

Goal 1. Adhere to Goals and Objectives. Well, what a week, huh? All that election carrying on, and then family health problems. Thank goodness I'm not trying to crank out 50,000 words this month.

Goal 2. Prepare Mummy Hunters for Submission. Submitted this to an editor.

Goal 5. Community Building/General Marketing/Branding

• Renoir post
• Promoted Renoir post to Google+, Google+ group, Facebook group, Twitter, and Goodreads.
• Leacock Medal post
• Promoted Leacock Medal to Google+ and Twiter
• Time Management Tuesday post
• Promoted TMT to Facebook, Google+, and Twitter
• A Bandit's Tale post
• Promoted Bandit's Tale to Facebook community, Google+,  Twitter, and Goodreads. Added post to my historical fiction Pinterest board.

Goal 6. Generate New Work. NaNoWriMo. I'm going through clippings and notes I've collected over 12 years, using them to help do character, plot work, etc.

I've come up with an idea for a totally new book, also.

An Example Of Serious World Building

As I'm sure I've said here before, conventional wisdom holds that world building relates to science fiction and fantasy. But every story involves a world that must be created for it. Historical fiction, in particular, can require as much world building as any work of scifi or fantasy. A Bandit's Tale: The Muddled Misadventures of a Pickpocket by Deborah Hopkinson is an excellent example. The world here is 1880s New York City, complete with historical figures, establishments, and events.

After being accused of theft (where the bandit comes from in the title) in his Italian village, eleven-year-old Rocco Zaccaro's parents make a deal with a padrone (boss/patron). The man will bring Rocco to the United States as a sort of indentured servant. What will Rocco do for him? Rocco doesn't find out until he arrives in New York City. He's going to become one of the padrone's stable of child street musicians, who are essentially beggars expected to collect a minimum amount of money each day while living in squalid conditions.

Rocco moves from one situation to another, running into historical figures and places. For an a reader with a little historical knowledge, guessing what was real is part of the pleasure of this type of book.

The problems of today's immigrants to the U.S. kept coming to mind while I was reading this. What's the connection? Immigrants have always had a hard time here. I'm not sure if there's something comforting about that because so many groups suffered and then moved on or profoundly disturbing because so little changes. Another interesting point: This book deals with America's  nonAnglo-Saxon, Protestant experience.

The author adds terrific end material, explaining all the historical elements she worked into the story.

Time Management Tuesday: The Reason You Need To Plan To Make Good Use Of NaNoWriMo Time

U.S. Visitors: Once you've taken care of voting, it's time to get back to National Novel Writing Month.

Visitors From Other Countries: No, I have no explanation for what's been going on here.

Visitors From Everywhere: Even if you're not actually taking part in NaNoWriMo this year, there are things we can learn about managing time during National Novel Writing Month that we can use all year long.

Last week I explained that I'm not doing National Novel Writing Month in the traditional sense.  Instead, I'm doing the prep work I should have done earlier in order to really do NaNoWriMo. Now, I'm sure I have readers (one in particular) who are thinking, Prep, prep, prep. Why don't you just sit down and write? Because prepping is how you write faster with a better quality result. What can happen with no prep? you ask. Read on.

A Case In Point

The first thing I did last week for my NaNoWriMo event was read over the work I did for NaNoWriMo 2004. I think I may have done some revision on it sometime in the past twelve years, and I've certainly thought about various things I could do with it. That thinking and all the time that's passed meant that I didn't recall this material in detail.

Well, I couldn't be happier with what I read. Clever dialogue. Clearly defined characters (at least to me). Interesting structure. And, when I did a word count, I discovered I had something like 53,000 words. I'd made the NaNoWriMo word goal. Why, I was nearly done.

No, I was not. All I had were some scenes. I had a situation. Barely. Those 53,000 words were not remotely like a novel.

The Mistake I Made Before My First National Novel Writing Month

In 2,000 to 10,000 How to Write Faster, Write Better, and Write More of What You Love, Rachel Aaron says that an important element in writing faster (which is what you have to do during National Novel Writing Month) is knowing what you're going to write before you get started.  I clearly entered that first NaNoWriMo attempt with just some ideas about a couple of women saying funny things at church. I had not prepared myself with a story. I did not know what I was going to write before I got started.

I won't say that that first NaNoWriMo effort was a waste of time. Very little in life is a true waste. What I will say is that I made very poor use of my time in November, 2004.

Next Week: What I should have done, and what I'm trying to do now.

A Humour Award For Susan Juby

I was doing some research on Stephen Leacock (you'll be hearing about this latter, don't worry) when I stumbled upon the news that author Susan Juby won the 2016 Leacock Medal for humor (or, as I should say since this is a Canadian award, humour) writing. Juby is the author of Home to Woefield, Getting the Girl, and Alice, I Think. Those last two books are YA or YA-ish. She won the Leacock Medal for her new book, Republic of Dirt, an adult book.

It appears to be a follow-up to Home to Woefield, so I must read it.  

But How Does Art Make You Feel?

I pulled Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Paintings That Smile by True Kelley off one of my To Be Read Shelves to take with me on vacation back in September. I have a vague recollection of buying it new somewhere. I often no longer recall how I came to have books on my TBR Shelves. This one was published in 2005, and I'm not sure it's still in print.  (UPDATE: I just did a blog search. I bought this book in 2005. Yikes.)

This book is structured like a child's report on Renoir and makes very good use of page layout--Renoir's artwork, text that is supposed to be the student's text, and her personal comments. While her report tone is enthusiastic, it is pretty much the familiar French Impressionist story. What makes Paintings That Smile unique is those personal comments, in which the narrator often describes her responses to Renoir's art.

For instance, on the cover of her book of piano music is a Renoir portrait of two girls seated at a piano. "They look like they are having such a good time...in lots of his paintings people are smiling and having fun. That's why I picked Renoir for my report. His paintings make me smile."

She likes the dress in one of his paintings, the dog in another. She wonders what a woman is doing with her hands in still another. She has opinions about Renoir's children, who served as models in some of his work. My personal favorite of our young report writer's responses? "Those black eyes look weird to me."

What I think this book does is show people that art can be enjoyed on a very personal level, related only to them. They don't have to be concerned about whether their responses are right or wrong or falling in line with those of anyone else. It's not so much that it shows child readers how to enjoy art. It's more as if it gives them permission to enjoy it.

UConn's 2016 Raab Associates Prize Will Be Announced Next Week

Next Thursday, November 10, the 2016 Raab Associates Prize will be announced at an event at the University of Connecticut's Dodd Center from 4:00 to 6:00 PM. The program will include a discussion of "Human Rights, Children's Literature, and the Art of Youth Activism." Professor Jonathan Todres ( Children's Literature and Human Rights: Imagination and the Narrative of Law, Oxford University Press, 2016), Pegi Deitz Shea (Abe in Arms, PM Press, 2010, and The Whispering Cloth: A Refugee's Story, Boyds Mills Press, 1996), and Reven Smith (spoken word poet, musician, writer, social activist, and UConn student) will be featured.

For the first time this year, the prize has focused on human rights, particularly children's rights.
 
Since 1999 the Raab Associates Prize has been given annually to a UConn student enrolled in the School of Fine Arts' illustration courses and provides him or her with an opportunity to learn about illustrating for children and children's literature. Susan Salzman Raab, a 1980 UConn graduate and the founder and co-owner of the children's book marketing agency Raab Associates, created and sponsored the competition.


 

What Did You Do This Week, Gail? Oct. 31 Edition

Goal 1. Adhere to Goals and Objectives. This was a difficult week. I ended up with an extra day of elder care, and I'm volunteering tomorrow at the New England International Chinese Martial Arts Championships so I'm spending some time today prepping for that. But one of the things you try to do with time management and stick to goals and objectives with whatever time you do have.

Goal 2. Prepare Mummy Hunters for Submission. Except for spellcheck and word count, I finished the revision on Monday. I actually made a submission that day (editor only wanted three chapters) and am prepping for another sub that needs to be the whole manuscript.

Goal 3. Generate New Short Work/Programs. I did a little bit of market research for completed short work. Which doesn't really relate to this goal, but I don't have a goal it does relate to and I want to reward myself.

Goal 5. Community Building/General Marketing/Branding

• Attended "Publishing Children's Books" panel discussion
• Publishing Children's Books post
• Promoted Publishing Children's Books to Facebook, Facebook communities, Google+, and Twitter
• Posted November Connect Children's Literature Calendar
• Promoted CCLC to Facebook, Facebook communities, Google+, and Twitter
• Sent out CCLC newsletter
• Time Management Tuesday post
• Promoted TMT to Facebook, Facebook communities, Google+, and Twitter

Goal 6. Generate New Work. NaNoWriMo. I read over the work I did for NaNoWriMo in 2004. I'll have something to say about that on Tuesday. I will say now that I lost Day 2 when I needed to take over elder care for a sick family member who couldn't go. I bring this up because it supports last Tuesday's TMT post on NaNoWriMo and the What-the-Hell Effect. On Day 2 I was already behind. Day 3, today, was a day I wasn't going to be able to work, anyway, because of my own elder care work. It's November 3, and I'm already behind. What's the point of going on? Well, the point is to get some work done on this project, not to do well on NaNoWriMo. So I'll keep moving on.

"Publishing Children's Books" Panel Discussion At Connecticut's Arts Center East

Exhibit Area

Arts Center East in Vernon, Connecticut just completed a month-long exhibit Creating a Children's Picture Book that ended this past weekend with a panel discussion Publishing Children's Books: Connect! Three published picture book authors and one illustrator described their experience getting published and offered suggestions for writers working to break in to the field.

Some Highlights:

Bill Thomson

Bill Thomson, creator/illustrator of Chalk and Fossil: Bill has done advertising and editorial illustration and is a professor of illustration at the University of Hartford. He advised listeners to accept that they can't control everything that happens or when it happens. They can't let themselves become frustrated because things aren't happening on their schedule. I found this thought somewhat Zenny, so it was right up my alley.

Selene Castrovilla

Selene Castrovilla, author of Revolutionary Friends and By the Sword: Selene's picture books (she also writes YA) are historical nonfiction. She started writing about history because she was always seeing the same things in history books. She wants kids to know that history doesn't have to be boring. "The most important thing about writing history is knowing what to leave out." Not a Zenny thought (or is it?), but one I like.
  

Pegi Deitz Shea

Pegi Deitz Shea, author of The Whispering Cloth, Noah Webster, and Tangled Threads: Pegi traveled as a child and was interested in Vietnam during that conflict. That interest continued as an adult, leading to some of her picture books. "If you can provide a twist to a concept" (such as board books or counting books), " you can do a whole new book."  She also pointed out that even picture books need a beginning, middle, and end, a character, and a conflict or challenge for that character. So true, so true.

Sandra Horning

Sandra Horning, author of The Biggest Pumpkin and The Giant Hug: Sandra has a sister who is fifteen years younger than she is. Sandra connected with her by reading her children's books. She didn't study writing or children's literature in college, but she did do a sociology paper on gender evolution in The Berenstain Bears, because her sister was into them. That is a fantastic story.

The Whole Panel

The panelists also covered the benefits of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, working with large vs. small publishers, and word count--a topic that's almost always on the table when picture books are being discussed. 

Additionally, these authors provided some of the best handouts I've ever seen at a how-to writer event.

Jack and Allie's Book Sale

And, finally, Jack and Allie's Children's Bookstore provided a book sale.

I heard rumblings earlier this year that Arts Center East might do a similar event in the future.