To Bologna!

I've just returned from the Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy!! I arrived in the evening to the loveliest Airbnb picked out by my two roommates, Elisabeth Norton (SCBWI Assistant International Advisor from Switzerland) and Melanie Welfing (SCBWI Global Regions Coordinator-International from the Netherlands). Traveling with friends makes complicated travel so much easier! Here was the view from our lovely flat on the west end of the city. We went to a wonderful restaurant, Casa Alta Bella, where I had my first pasta ragu of the trip. I wanted to get to bed early, though, because the first day of the Book Fair can be a bit crazy!
     Bright and early, the first challenge was the bus. Just when you'd think noone else could fit, five more people would get on. And it was hot. Everyone was heading to the fair! (Or so it seemed.)
The Bologna Children's Book Fair is an enormous, international event celebrating its 61st year, with over 100 countries represented, 1,523 exhibition booths across six huge halls, and over 30,000 attendees. Each of the halls is about the size of a football field (or pitch, depending on where you're from). Walking the fair offsets all the pasta and gelato you eat in this food mecca! Each year, a different country is featured. This year was Slovenia as guest of honor.      It’s important to arrive at the fair first thing Monday morning as the Illustrator Walls fill up quickly, despite the fact that they go on, and on, and on! Illustrators from around the world come to the Fair to share their work on the Illustrator’s Walls. It's really impossible to get the full scope of how much work is represented, but maybe the photos will give you an idea...



I hurried to find space to put up our fantastic Hollins' posters designed by Sharon M. and with Mary Jane Begin's Cat in the Hat (MJ is our Chair of Illustration). Her work really stood out! I found some clear spots...
Although they didn't stay clear for long!
I put brochures on the floor underneath the posters and along the illustrator walls (this is commonly done) and went back to check from time to time and replenish diminishing numbers. Happily, I had to replenish our offerings several times!
     Once that was all in place, I was able to walk around and enjoy the fair and the many, many art shows that display talented illustrators' works throughout the fair. For instance, I found the work of several friends in The Original Art Show. That's R. Gregory Christie's work in the right corner! Some booths are just down and dirty to get the rights work done, like Charlesbridge's booth:But some really go all out and are wildly creative! Here's the Plum booth, for example: and the Moomin booth: and the Anglia Ruskin booth. I think they win for biggest bang for the bucks design in the entire fair.
     The evening was topped off by the private publishers party.I was invited because I was giving portfolio reviews the next day - more on that in my next post!
     Needless to say, it was a long day and it was impossible to do it all. Heck, it's impossible to fit it all into one post. So stay tuned for more!

Bologna Children's Book Fair:
01: To Bologna!
02: More Bologna!
03: Bologna - pretty pictures!

THE MEASURE OF DISTANCE by Pauline Kaldas

Every now and then I like to feature books (and their creators) that are not for children - shocking! But I know so many talented writers, and Pauline is one of them. She is a colleague of mine at Hollins University, teaching in the English and Creative Writing programs, and I'm thrilled to be able to help her celebrate her newest title, The Measure of Distance. Take it away Pauline!      When I set out to write The Measure of Distance, I only knew that it was going to be an immigrant novel and was going to focus on characters moving between Egypt and the U.S. The pivotal experience of my life occurred when I immigrated with my parents at the age of eight. As a writer, I am constantly investigating the immigrant experience and issues related to identity, language, and culture.
      At first, I thought that The Measure of Distance would focus on two generations, but as I started writing, the novel went further back in time and ended up covering four generations from the late 1800s to the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. I realized that to understand where we are, we often have to go back to the past and to those who came before us. The novel begins not with immigration but with migration from the villages of Egypt to the city of Cairo. My own great grandfather made a similar journey when he decided to leave his village of Abu Teeg and move to Cairo for better job opportunities.
      Each chapter of the novel focuses on one or two characters who decide to immigrate to the U.S. While there are multiple factors that influence their decision to leave their homeland, there is a historical/political event that motivates their immigration. Misha decides to leave because of the 1952 revolution that resulted in Egypt’s independence from the British, Hafez leaves because of the 1967 war, and so on. These events serve as a foundation for the characters’ movements, showing how the political intertwines with people’s individual lives.
The 2011 Egyptian Revolution in Tahrir Square
      I grew up speaking both Arabic and English, and language has always been important to me as a writer. When I write, I hear my Egyptian characters speaking to each other in Arabic and then I translate to English, attempting to capture the rhythm, syntax, and meaning of Arabic. In this novel, I wanted to create a visual distinction between the two languages. I decided to not capitalize when people are speaking in Arabic since the Arabic language does not use capitalization. In this way, I attempted to bring both languages to the pages of the novel.
      The novel culminates with the 2011 revolution and the fourth generation who must decide how they will respond to this event. There is Dunya whose father was the first to leave Egypt in the 1950s and never returned; there is Fathy whose father went to Egypt in the 1960s and chose to return, turning his back to America; and there is Yusef, whose father left Egypt in the 1960s to try to protect his son. The revolution pushes each of these characters to make a choice about their lives.

Pauline Kaldas is the author of The Measure of Distance, Looking Both Ways, The Time Between Places, Letters from Cairo, Egyptian Compass, and the textbook, Writing the Multicultural Experience. She is also the co-editor of Dinarzad’s Children: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Fiction and Beyond Memory: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Creative Nonfiction.

France - Paris!

From Southern France, we took the train across the countryside to Paris. Starting in Toulon... We passed through the Provence region and saw castles, rolling farmland, and random Roman aqueducts. Gorgeous, but hard to get a picture of! We arrived in Paris in the evening. Who doesn't love the Paris train station!?Paris lights up like the very best Christmas tree of all! Here was the view from Cathy’s flat in Paris… Not necessarily in order, here are some of my favorite moments in Paris...
The Musée d'Orsay was hosting an anniversary celebration for the museum with an Impressionist exhibit and I had to buy my ticket beforehand to get in - it was crowded!

But mostly, I just wandered... In Saint Germain des Pres I took the classic "I'm in France" photo! I had to swing by Shakespeare and Company! I threw Stan off this bridge in the shadow of Notre Dame! I think he’d like that! 😊 But I was surrounded by a bunch of Italian teenagers who thought it was funny to spit off the bridge. They were shocked when I actually threw something off it! They said (in Italian), “What was that!?” I said, “Mi esposo!” and quickly left. HA! The best thing about my trip was connecting with my "French family." I was an exchange student in my late teens and we have all stayed in touch now for 38 years! (Ask me how I feel about study abroad - DO IT!!!) Here I am with my “French parents” Monique and Claude who drove in from their country house just outside Blois. We were having champaigne in Patrice’s apartment (across the street from Saint Chapelle), as you do… Cathy and her boyfriend Patrice… they are so cute together! Me and Cathy… French sisters! Dinner was oysters and whelks… I'd never had whelks before. They're a bit hard to look at, but dang are they delicious! The Paris flea market… I've done all the touristy things in Paris, so wanted to do something quirky. When I was an exchange student as a teenager, we went to the flea market, where I purchased a leather jacket that I adored (but that smelled awful). I had it for years. It was time to go back. And truly, it was just as fun! Treasures are everywhere!
It's so big you simply can't see it all in a day. So, refreshments were required. I went shopping on Le Rue de Sèvres - a very upscale street in Paris. Stan once bought me a scarf in Hermès because he had to go on a business trip to Paris and I wasn't able to tag along (and I was not happy about that!). So I had to see it. OMG. From there, I went to Le Grand Marché where they were featuring works by Jean Jullien, pulled together by Sarah Andelman, all through the museum. Forget the shopping, this was my favorite part!




But my favorite part about being in Paris was just that... being in Paris. I enjoyed lunches and teas and treats and just sitting and people watching... Cheating… I ate a crepe with Nutella and bananas – sooooo good!! OMG! Lunch... I had tea here and drew my tea with a watercolor kit I picked up at the Impressionists show at the Musee D’Orsay…
There are so many charming cafes, it's hard to choose! I took a walk through a park near Cathy's flat and came across this charming sculpture of a crow handing a round of brie to a fox. It was a tribute to the storyteller Jean de La Fontaine.
My last morning in Paris, Claude and I went to a café for breakfast. (Well, he had an espresso.)There, I cheated with my one chocolate croissant. Just as good as I remembered! There was a road race taking place outside Cathy's apartment. So, I was repacking my suitcase to the cherished sound of "Allez! Allez! Allez!" You can't really see them in this photo, but we were able monitor the race's progress from the terrace. Cathy made sure I took a jar of her homemade olive tepanade, made from olives she grew on her trees in St. Tropez! This stuff is pure gold - the best I've ever had - nectar of the gods! I wish I could have fit more in my suitcase! Cathy and Patrice got me to the airport and made sure I was safely heading in the direction before giving me great big hugs good-bye. I already miss them! Meanwhile, in the airport, I broke down and had a very American lunch before heading to Italy! It was so good to connect with my French family again. I hadn't seen them since Stan and I were heading to Scotland in 2015 and stayed in the apartment in Blois! Too, too long. With any luck, this will become a more regular trip. I can't wait another decade to head back!

France - St. Tropez

Okay, time to get out your small violins to play in pity of my horrible life... Kidding. Grand indulgences lie ahead...
     I knew at a young age that I wanted to experience the world, so I chose to be an exchange student in college. A French student came to stay with us one summer, and then I went to stay with her and her family the next summer. We've been close evr since and I've stayed with them numerous times and visa versa. That was 38 years ago! I call them my "French family." Claude and Monique, my French parents live just outside Blois, which is about 1.5 hours west of Paris. Cathy, my French sister, lives in Paris, but has a small apartment just outside St. Tropez on La Côte d'Azur. Her boyfriend, Patrice, also has a condo there, as does her brother, Marc, my "French brother."
     About a year ago, Cathy sent me a photo of the Meditteranean and said, "come"!
     This month I was heading to Bologna for the Children's Book Fair and it only made sense to take some vacation time on the front side since it only cost a little extra to take the short flight between Paris and Bologna, and I had a free place to stay...
     We visited an olive festival, a vineyard, a beach, a garden, and some fabulous restaurants. Here are some pics!
      That’s the Mediterranean in the distance in this one…from my balcony at Patrice’s condo in St. Tropez… St. Tropez…
A restaurant we ate in… Brad Pitt’s love child… Me and Cathy… The gorgeous Meditteranean…