Building Stories with Leonard Marcus!

You may recall that I took at trip to Washington, DC last fall as a dry run to see what it would take to invite my students on a field trip to the Building Museum this spring. Well, it all came to fruition this past Friday. Several of us hopped on Amtrak at 6:15am to head to DC. Here are a few of us (Hale, me, and Karen) in Union Station upon our arrival. From the station, we walked the pleasant short distance to the Building Museum, where we met up with several alumni and one of our instructors who live nearby. Leonard Marcus met us there.      Don't know who Leonard Marcus is? Well, he is one of the world’s preeminent authorities on children’s books and the people who create them. He is the author of more than 25 award-winning biographies, histories, interview collections, and inside looks at the making of children’s literature’s enduring classics. He is a founding trustee of the Eric Carle Museum, curator of the New York Public Library's landmark exhibition The ABC of It: Why Children's Books Matter (that I visited and talked about HERE, and interviewed him about HERE.) He has served as a consultant to the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, National Book Foundation, Bank Street College of Education, American Writers Museum, Bard Graduate Center, National Book Council (Singapore), Lamsa Media (UAE), and Trust Bridge Media (China). In 2007, the Bank Street College of Education awarded Leonard an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. In 2019, Leonard became the first American to win the Shanghai-based Chen Bochui Foundation International Children’s Literature Award for “special contributions to the development of Chinese children’s literature.” He also recently published a fascinating article in the New York Times: The American Picture Book’s Unsung Parent: Japan Missing for decades from the Anglophile version of its origin story was another great visual narrative tradition, of the East.
     I met Leonard at the Decatur Book Festival following our very successul SCBWI Southern Breeze Illustrator Conference in 2012 and we've been friends ever since. So, when I heard he had curated this new show, I knew I had to connect him with our Hollins students! And what a magical connection it was!      Leonard pointed out so many things I'd missed my first time through on my own. For instance, the arches were designed with twigs, sticks, and bricks from The Three Pigs: Or the tunnel that was designed to look longer than it actually was - like a magical portal into another world, just like in so many picture books that do the same. Or the debut book by Korean artist Yoon Kang-mi (Changbi, 2019) about a girl "gazing out her high-rise window" who reinvisions the polluted city view as what she would rather see.       We all learned new things and so enjoyed Leonard's passion and knowledge. He was an absolute JOY to listen to and learn from! What a rare opportunity - it was an absolute treat for all who came. But my fave photo was of the two of us on the way into the David Macauley room in the exhibit, just under the Chaos of it all! Thank you, Leonard!!!

Leonard Marcus' COMICS CONFIDENTIAL

I met Leonard Marcus years ago at the Decatur Book Festival and we've been friends ever since. I'm also a fan. Not only did he curate the wonderful picture book exhibit at the New York Public Library, "The ABC of It: Why Children's Books Matter." (which I was lucky enough to see and blogged about here), but he is a renowned scholar in the field of children's books. His latest endeavor is sure to be the new bible for graphic novels...
GUEST POST
by Leonard Marcus
      Some time around 2005 I heard a talk given by a librarian about how his library was struggling over what to do about “graphic novels”—whether to purchase them and if so where to put them. I was intrigued. By then I was well aware of the long-standing opposition of American librarians to old-style comic books, which many librarians going back to the 1930s regarded as sub-literary, and which some thought morally or psychologically harmful to young people. I began nosing around. The first graphic novel I read was Art Spiegelman’s Maus, and I found it to be one of the most powerful books I had ever read. In fact I cried when I got to the end. Then when First Second Books came along with graphic novels ear-marked for young readers, I began to pay close attention to their lists. One of the next comics-formatted books I read was Alan’s War by Emanuel Guilbert—a dramatization of one G.I.’s experiences of the Second World War. Next I discovered the funny, bittersweet work of Sara Varon. I kept on going from there.
      I realized that comics were another compelling way to tell stories—both true stories and fictional ones. The best comics feel to me like a cross between a traditional print narrative and a film. When I read a graphic novel now I have almost the sensation of being at the movies, with the text pared down in the same way the captions are in a foreign film, and with images aimed not just at depicting the action but also at setting a particular tone, rhythm, and point of view. Also, for “reluctant readers,” comics have proven to be a gateway to reading generally. How great—and valuable—is that?
      Once I decided to do the book that became Comics Confidential, I immersed myself both in the work and life stories of each author/artist I wanted to interview. After a while, questions always present themselves. I think of an interview as an “encounter”—a sort of meeting of minds—and I try to keep the conversation from feeling too one-sided. I am always on the lookout for any thread that connects the storyteller to the story. My favorite moments are those when the person I am speaking with says, “I never thought of that.” Conversation is usually messy. I don’t ever want to lose that quality altogether but I always edit a transcript enough to give an overarching clarity to what was said.
      People in general surprise me, which is one reason I like doing interviews so much. Gene Luen Yang surprised me when he said that he did not consider himself a particularly strong draftsman--but then B.B. King did not think all that much of himself as a guitarist. I was amazed (though not surprised) by the extraordinary depth of knowledge that Harry Bliss, Geoffrey Hayes, and others have of the comics tradition. I found it fascinating—and surprising—that Catia Chien came to art via a serious interest in entomology and that Matt Phelan taught himself to draw. I was delighted to learn from Hope Larson that after finishing her graphic novelization of A Wrinkle in Time her idea of a good break was to enroll in a class in “ice-cream school.” I am pretty sure that Madeleine L’Engle would have approved.
      One of the best things about how the comics genre has grown is that it offers so much variety now—something for almost every taste and temperament. Readers who enjoy biography might want to try Feynmann, by Jim Ottaviani; illustrated by Leland Myrick; or (as mentioned earlier) Alan’s War. Fans of Harriet the Spy would enjoy Mariko and Jillian Tamaki’s This One Summer and Skim. Sara Varon’s Bake Sale is goofy and poignant—an unexpected combination. For newly independent readers, Geoffrey Hayes’ “Benny and Penny” books are total charmers—and models of fine drawing and composition. The list goes on …Who can resist? Not me.
Leonard at his desk...

And Leonard with some publishers recently in Beijing.

Leonard Marcus' THE ABC OF IT: WHY CHILDREN'S BOOKS MATTER

Leonard Marcus is one of the leading commentors on children's literature and the children's book industry today, so I'm thrilled to have him visit once again (he's visited before) to talk about his lates accomplishment, the very important THE ABC OF IT: WHY CHILDREN'S BOOKS MATTER. He is kind enough to let me share the Introduction of the book for the very first time - so enjoy! INTRODUCTION/The ABC of It
      For 14 months starting in June of 2013, more than half a million visitors streamed through the main gallery of the New York Public Library to view an exhibition about the role that children's books play in world culture and our lives. A favorite childhood book will often leave a deep and lasting personal impression, but as adults we tend to shelve such memories alongside countless others as we go about the business of living. As the curator of The ABC of It: Why Children's Books Matter, my goal was to entice exhibition goers to look again at our first books as part of a larger and perhaps less familiar story: to consider children's books across time and national borders as reflections of the adult world's changing ideas about childhood; as carriers of a culture's hopes and dreams; and as expressions of a vibrant art form that is rarely as simple as it seems.
      The realization that childhood literacy is a key to a better life is one of the modern world's signal achievements. Children's books have flourished wherever a rising middle class sought to provide for its children's future, and it is no great surprise that the West's first epicenter of children's-book publishing activity was the dynamic eighteenth-century city of London. (Less well known to Westerners is the comparable trade in illustrated books for young readers that developed independently, and at almost the same time, half way around the world in Edo, Japan--the sprawling commercial city now called Tokyo.) English philosopher John Locke helped set the stage when, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693), his broadly influential guide to all aspects of child rearing, he detailed his plan for the ideal book for young readers. Locke's idea--that a children's book should be attractively illustrated, not over-long, and a pleasure rather than a chore to read--laid the groundwork for the literature we now take for granted. Within few decades' time, another visionary Londoner, John Newbery, had put Locke's template to the test as a pioneering publisher and bookseller in the commercial trade in children's books that has since grown into a global enterprise.
      The story of children's literature's origins and coming of age is itself a tale with memorable characters and plot turns. There were the writers from Hans Christian Andersen and Lewis Carroll to E.B. White and Madeleine L'Engle who safeguarded a place for wonder in a world increasingly dominated by mechanistic styles of thought, and artists like Beatrix Potter and Maurice Sendak who devoted their extraordinary talents to revealing to children not only the exhilarating beauty of life but also its bracing intensity. There were philosophers like Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Johann Comenius, and John Dewey who as path-finding interpreters of the phenomenon of childhood inspired major strands of book-making and storytelling for the young. There were the librarians who devised rigorous standards for evaluating children's books and effective ways of putting good books into children's hands, and educators who proposed radically different ideas about what those good books should be like. There were the publishers who came to embrace juvenile publishing as a core activity after first having approached it, often warily, as a marginal obligation. And then too there were pioneering collectors of children's-book art, manuscripts, correspondence, and ephemera--the University of Minnesota's Dr. Irvin Kerlan being a superb example--without whose foresight and persistence much of this story would have been lost forever.
      I am deeply grateful to the Kerlan Collection of the University of Minnesota's Andersen Library for giving renewed life to The ABC of It by merging the curatorial plan and gallery text I created for the New York Public Library with the university's own fabled collections. To cite just one of numerous illustrations of this alchemical collaboration, it is wonderful this time around to be able to demonstrate the shape-shifting influence of American progressive educators on the invention of books for children of the youngest ages by exhibiting original art from two of the seminal contributions to that genre: Goodnight Moon and A Hole Is to Dig.
      The wish to provide children with books capable of inspiring a life-long love of reading is felt more keenly around the world today than at any time in the past. The value of regarding that literature in its totality, as both a rich repository of collective memory and powerful engine of cultural change, has accordingly never been greater either. These books have so much to say. Reading The ABC of It catalog, you may well catch yourself being unaccountably drawn back to pictures and words you thought you had outgrown long ago, only to realize, as Lloyd Alexander wisely observed: "On the level of high art, in their common efforts to express human truths, relationships, attitudes, and personal visions, children's literature and adult literature meet and sometimes merge, and we wonder then whether a given work is truly for children or truly for grown-ups. The answer, of course, is: for both."
               --Leonard S. Marcus “Introduction" from The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter" by Leonard S. Marcus. Published by University of Minnesota Libraries, Children’s Literature Research Collections, Kerlan Collection, 2019. Distributed by the University of Minnesota Press. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Friday Links List and Illustrators' Treehouse News - 11 December 2020

From Brightly: Books That Celebrate Diverse Holidays and Traditions

From Claudia Mills' An Hour a Day: The Kind of Writing I Hate Most: or The Terror of Having to Write Something You Are Completely Unqualified to Write especially relevant to my fellow PhDers

From the University of Glasgow's Centre for Fantasy and the FantasticChristmas Hauntings: Ghost Stories for Midwinter

From The Good News Network: 190 years ago today, Emily Dickinson was born



ILLUSTRATORS' TREEHOUSE NEWS
f COMPETITION: CommArts Illustration Competition Call for Entries (deadline, Jan. 8, 2021)

COMPETITION: York County Storm Drain Art (open until Jan. 8, 2021 - $200 award)

CONTEST: Check out the Astra International Picture Book Writing Contest (Astra is the new house headed up by children's lit scholar Leonard Marcus)

PARTICIPATE - SUBMIT TO the: Bologna Children's Book Fair (12 -15 April 2021) Illustrators Exhibition

SCHOLARSHIP: 12x12x12 Scholarship Program for budding children's book writers

PARTICIPATE: From The Bookseller:

From Bobby Chiu: How to Paint with No Reference

PARTICIPATE: From the State of Illustration: Annual Illustrators' Survey

JOB: Steak N Shake, Charlotte, NC is looking for an illustration graphic designer

From RH Graphic: December Spotlight

From The NYTimes: The Best Graphic Novels of 2020

From Print & Pattern: CHRISTMAS 2020 - tesco part/4


From Brightly:
     
     27 Picture Books That Make Great Gifts
     Storytime: The 12 Days of Christmas illustrated by Alison Jay!

From Chris Dunn Illustration: Pop-Up Exhibition and Sale, Sat 12th Dec

From Muddy Colors:
     CREATIVE SKETCHBOOK EXPLORATIONS! with LISA CYR
     BEST OF STUDIO HACKS#2: DESK MODS! with SCOTT FISCHER
     Operation Success: Check out this video interview with Golden Age Illustrator, Albert Dorne, as well as cameos from several other classic artists including Rockwell, Parker, Briggs and more!

From Amplifier: WE ARE AN ART MACHINE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE. ALL ART SALES HELP US TO FUND NEW ART CAMPAIGNS.

From 100 Scope Notes: 2021 Caldecott Medal Predictions

From The Bookseller: Author Marcus Sedgwick and illustrator David McKee have been nominated for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award, administered by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY)

From The National Parks Foundation: CURRENT & OPEN ARTIST RESIDENCIES: 2021 (to Hawaii and such)

From The Art Room Plant:
     Jill Cardinal

     Manon Gauthier




OFF TOPIC BUT INTERESTING
From EAB: Toolkit: Understanding the Impact of Remote Instruction in Spring 2020

From The NYTimes:
     The Best Graphic Novels of 2020 including MENO PAUSE, which I can personally vouch for. The publisher sent me a copy!
     Lockdown Gardening in Britain Leads to Archaeological Discoveries
     The Social Life of Forests: Trees appear to communicate and cooperate through subterranean networks of fungi. What are they sharing with one another?

From Myth and Moor: Terri Windling waxes about being another year older in Climbing into the clouds

In the category of "You know you've made it when"... Winthrop's own Adolphus Belk, Jr. was on Trevor Noah's THE DAILY SHOW (at about the 12:30 mark)

The ABC of It: Why Children's Books Matter

is a new exhibit in the New York Public Library's Stephen A. Schwarzman Building curated by Leonard Marcus. As one of the strongest proponents of children's literature, Mr. Marcus pulled together rare treasures that the most die-hard kidlit lovers will appreciate. I especially love this installation of a fuzzy crown-shaped wall with one of the Wild Things cut out from the middle.
     If you're in New York, I highly suggest you go see this as it will be a fascinating and entertaining learning experience!

     Read more about it and see more images from the exhibit at Publishers Weekly.

Bologna 2018 was for ILLUSTRATORS

Bologna has been making a concerted effort to elevate illustrators in the field of children's books and this year's Book Fair really did a good job. First, the Best Illustrated Children's Books from the New York Times will be awarded at the fair from now on. For its debut, the NYT kicked off with a keynote address by my friend, Leonard Marcus. I couldn't miss the chance to hear him talk and to say 'hello'. He's such a sweet man and gave me a big hug. He also gave a fantastic talk about the history of picture book illustration. Oh, to know what he knows! His keynote was followed by a panel of former judges of the NYT's list - Caldecott winner Brian Floca (who I had a lovely talk with on the bus afterwards), Steven Guarnaccia (Associate Professor of Illustration at Parsons), Maria Russo (Children's Book Editor, NYT), Leonard, and Paul Zelinsky (also a friend—I sat with his wife, Deborah). I suspect this was a highlight of the show as the room was packed!
     Afterwards, I wandered to The Illustrators' Survival Corner where the fair hosted advice and illustrator talks from portfolios...to Chris Riddell. (Click the image below to watch on FB.) And, of course, there were the shows. Good lord, the shows! I didn't even see all of them. But of those I saw, I had some favorites.ChenZexin

Gianni De Conno

Ines Huni

and Xu Kayiyun

It's a huge honor to be featured at the fair as submissions average around 3,000 every year. But even for those who aren't featured, illustrators can make great connections at the fair. There are the portfolio surgeries, which I really took advantage of this year. There are the illustrator walls where you put tabs on your art for people to tear off and look you up later, or where you can scatter your postcards around liberally. Women have the added advantage of networking while waiting in line for the bathrooms. (I'm not kidding - I made a great connection there!)
     Having been overwhelmed by the fair in 2016, I was glad to go back and handle it a different way this time. I was more laid back, less frenzied, didn't try to see it all, brought my lunch, and had a fantastic and valuable experience.
     Add to that, the mystery doors across the street from my Airbnb were open on my last day there. I was able to peek inside as I waited for my taxi. OMG - THIS has been across the street the whole time?Bologna is always full of surprises. I can't wait to go back and see what it looks like in 2020!!! Cross my fingers!!!
All of my Bologna 2018 Links:
Bologna 2018 - The arrival
Bologna 2018 - Day 1
Bologna and Hollins University Outreach
Bologna 2018 - Illustrators’ Dinner
Bologna 2018 - Walking around
Bologna 2018 - A Publisher’s Dinner
Bologna 2018 was for Illustrators

2014 SCBWI New York International Conference Wrap-up!

This was my first time to do the "big" New York City International SCBWI conference. I've done the Los Angeles one twice, and the regional New York conference held at the Society of Illustrators, but this one raised the bar on them all!
      I attended in my official capacity as Illustrator Coordinator for the Southern Breeze region of SCBWI (Alabama, Georgia, and the Florida panhandle), which meant I had to work several sessions in various capacities - something I don't mind at all because it's fun to have something to do in the middle of such seeming chaos. (I also love New York City!) And wow were we busy!
     We barely had time to eat lunch most days and for some reason it kept creeping past midnight when we finally got to bed! (Had nothing to do with the restaurant bar which became our gathering spot.) The Grand Hyatt Grand Central had these funky statues in the lobby, which they had donned with Cat in the Hat hats for our arrival - ha! And I somehow managed to grab a quick breakfast each morning at the hotel restaurant. Can you imagine starting your day with this view every day?

      On Thursday, to kick off the event, we RTs (Regional Advisors and Illustrator Coordinators from all over the world) arrived on Thursday for a meeting and the traditional pizza and a Broadway performance ritual. We ate at John's Pizzeria and went to see MATILDA.

      I have to say, the very expensive ticket was completely worth it. The show with its amazing music, set, dancing, choreography, and fantastic child actors blew me away! If you get the opportunity, go! It was nothing short of impressive!
      Friday was the Illustrator's Intensive (there was also a Writer's Intensive). I was surprised to find it incredibly educational and illuminating - something that doesn't happen often after 13 years in the biz. It was totally worth my time.
     I was also asked to be one of seven attending illustrators (there were about 180 in total - intimidating!) to contribute sketches of my impressions of the conference for the Official SCBWI Conference Blog. I began with the intensive and Tomie dePaola. I even got him to sign the portrait I did of him. He said his nose was too big - and it is. But I can't help it. The sweet man reminds me of Santa Claus!

     Paul Zelinsky also spoke. He's one of my idols of children's book illustration who I hold responsible for making me want to do this for a living. It's so nice that we've become friends. Here's my rendering of him:

      Kathleen Bradshaw (Co-RA), Jo Kittinger (Co-RA Emeritus), and I dashed to Deluca's and Grand Central Station's food court for meals. They were also my roomies, which made for a very slumber party-like vibe for the entire trip. We had a great time! (Here I am with Kathleen being the goofs we are in Grand Central station...)

      The best event to my mind took place Friday night - the portfolio viewing/VIP party. Only 200 illustrators were permitted to show their portfolios and the party was by invitation only to local publishers, art directors, editors, etc. and all us RTs. (Ever wonder what the benefits of volunteering are? This was IT!)
     What a room! It was full of folks I've been sending postcards to for years but had never met face-to-face, as well as industry professionals who have become friends after years of mingling in the same circles. And me being the social butterfly that I am, I think I said 'hi' to almost every single one of them.
     It was also fun being on the hunt for speakers to come to our Southern Breeze conferences. I nearly got whiplash folks pulled their business cards out so fast! If you've ever been in a room full of publishers, you know it is a very odd sensation to have them trying to get your attention! SO much fun!
      (Photo credit: Patricia Wiles - click to see it larger.)

     Afterwards, a bunch of fellow Illustrator Coordinators and I gathered to talk shop and new ideas for our regions. Very cool.
      Saturday the regular portion of the conference began. The line-up of speakers was amazing - what you'd expect from an international conference in the heart of New York City. Jack Gantos and Kate Messner gave the two best talks I've ever heard at any event - no lie. And of course, I was sketching. This was a great quote from Jack:

And this was my view:

     After the morning keynotes, I helped moderate a session with Jeanette Larson, Senior Executive Editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Something she said gave me an idea for a picture book, which I've been scribbling on ever since. It will have to go to her first if I can noodle it out...

     So, I fess up... I skipped the two afternoon keynote sessions to go see Leonard Marcus' exhibit at the New York Public Library: The ABC of it: Why Children's Books Matter. He was still pulling the show together when I met Leonard at the Decatur Book Festival a while back, so I got to hear some of the stories behind the amazing books and letters he gathered for the show. There was no way I was missing it when I just happened to be in New York while it was still showing! (Ironically, there was recently a great write-up of it with some photos at Carter Higgins' Design of the Picture Book Blog.)
     And me being the corrupting spirit that I am, I had a small gang with me. Here's Kathleen and me with one of the lions - anybody know the name of this one? (On the left.)

     Along with some of the first children's books in the world, there were some great photo ops in the show. Here I am with Rob McClurkan in the silhouette of a wild thing. (There were also two other guys with us - Keith Frawley and Adam Winsor - busted!)

And surely I don't have to tell you what this window is from?

     Back at the hotel, we had a gala with tables for each region so we could gather with our peeps. I had a great conversation with Justin Jones and Dennis Jolley - two amazing English teachers from Cherokee County who may very well be the answer to the booking agents soap-box I've been preaching about for the last ten years - cross your fingers - we're talking! (That's Justin then Dennis then me in the photo below.)

     There were smaller gatherings of topic-specific groups afterwards, but I slipped out to catch a cab down to south of Delancy for Michelle Knudsen's birthday party. How awesome that I was in town to help her celebrate! (We met years ago at the Savannah Children's Book Festival and I just love her something silly.)
     It was held in a speak-easy hidden behind a door that looked like a broom closet at the back of a gallery. I had to know a password to get in - "Evil Librarian"! (Or was it "Bruce Willis"? At any rate, I got in.)
     I won't tell you how old Mikki is, but it was a big birthday and ALL her friends were there - even one she'd known since she was two-years-old. How cool is that? They were all super-friendly and I had a great time. I even knew a few folks there - Rebecca Stead (Newbery winner) and Sarah Ketchersid (Candlewick editor). Here I am with Sarah:

And me hugging the life out of Mikki:

     I was still wired when I got back, but the wall was beginning to hit. (Or was I beginning to hit the wall - anyhow...)
     Sunday were more keynotes, including Kate's talk. I'm not kidding when I say how good it was. It was all about Failure and she shared some great quotes:

"A ship in harbor is safe. But that is not what ships are built for." - John A. Shedd

And her own words:

"Fear gives us the opportunity to be brave and awesome." - Kate Messner

     There was a great panel of illustrators, which included my bud Shadra Strickland. And final words from Nikki Grimes.
     Her closing talk was followed by a mad rush on the bookstore and then book signings. I was thrilled to be assigned to help Paul Zelinsky. I made sure folks had sticky notes with their names spelled correctly on the title pages, took photos, and kept the line moving. Paul and I also got to talk some more, which was awesome. Here he is in action (photo by Harold Underdown who was also at our table):

     Kathleen got assigned to the longest line in the place - Tomie dePaola and Lin Oliver who have done a sweet book of poems together. I know this photo is fuzzy - but I will treasure it always:

     And that was it! I hugged all my friends good-bye - for we have all truly become friends in this tight kidlit community. And while I miss them terribly, it is so much fun to have these events where we can connect and squeeeeeee. (Look for Ruth McNally Barshaw - her hugs are the BEST!) So, thank you, thank you to all the folks who worked hard to make this such a special event, and until next time m'dears - I wish you all happy creating!

READ MORE WRAP-UPS!
Shanda McCloskey's Lesson #7: Go To New York
Sherry Meidell (fellow PBAA member) at Teetertottertales

I HAVE MORE PHOTOS!!!
These were sent in by Jo Kittinger, our Southern Breeze RAE - Regional Advisor Emeritus (well earned!)
Here is me and Jo in front of the theater and Matilda!

And me and Kathleen in Times Square.

Here's Lori Nichols winning the entire portfolio show!!!! (This is a BIG freaking deal!)

And here is our Southern Breeze table during the Saturday night GALA:


And almost our entire Southern Breeze Regional Advisor team (we missed Heather Montgomery): Kathleen Bradshaw, Co-Regional Advisor; Jo Kittinger, RAE; Claudia Pearson, Co-Regional Advisor; and Me, Illustrator Coordinator.