Introducing Emily’s Library. Part 1: 62 Great Books for the Very Young
Welcome to a new feature on Nine Kinds of Pie: “Emily’s Library.†It’s named for my eight-month-old niece, and it will feature only the very best children’s books.
Children’s Literature & Comics/Graphic Novels at MLA 2012
For those who may be heading to the MLA in Seattle (5-8 Jan. 2012), here’s a list of all the panels on either children’s literature or comics/graphic novels. I count sixteen panels exclusively devoted to one or more of these subjects, and an additional nine panels in which one ore more paper addresses either children’s
Mock Caldecott 2011: Manhattan, Kansas Edition
With thanks to the Children’s and Adolescent Literature Community (ChALC) for organizing the event and the Manhattan Public Library for hosting it, we held aMock Caldecott at this afternoon. Of course, we weren’t able to get all of the books we wanted to look at – so, there are certainly Caldecott candidates we didn’t get to review. Here are the top
Sunday Color Barnaby: O’Malley in Winter
As has been noted twice before on this blog (see here and here), a color Sunday version of Crockett Johnson‘s Barnaby ran from 1946 to 1948. Courtesy of Colin Myers, here’s a full-page one from the winter of 1948. Though it’s undated, “winter” would have to be January or February because the color Barnaby concluded
Radical Children’s Literature Now! (article)
Since people have asked to be kept informed, “Radical Children’s Literature Now!” — Julia Mickenberg‘s and my article — is out in the latest issue of the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly. Â Here are the first two paragraphs and their respective footnotes: Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Focusing on literature for younger children published in the last decade–as well as on
Accidental Experts: Strategy, Serendipity, and the Places You’ll Go! Free public lecture. Friday, Nov. 11, 2:10 pm
If you’ll be in (or near) Nashville on Friday 11th, Karin Westman and I are giving a free lecture: “Accidental Experts: Strategy, Serendipity, and the Places You’ll Go.” Â We’ll talk about children’s literature (me on Dr. Seuss, Karin on Harry Potter), and about navigating academia. When: 2:10 pm, Friday, November 11, 2011 Where: Vanderbilt University’s
Little Rebels, Little Conservatives, and Occupy Wall Street
The headline reads “Occupying children’s minds: ‘Radical children’s literature at Wall Street protests.’”  Featured prominently is Julia Mickenberg’s and my Tales for Little Rebels.  After reading the piece (though, not, I suspect, the book itself), one commenter, writing under the name of “forcerecon2,” worrries that Tales for Little Rebels represents “the indoctrination of our children.”  Coming from the left but
Eat, drink, and be merry
Bumble-Ardy gets adopted by his Aunt Adeline after his “immediate family gorged and gained weight. / And got ate.” When he throws himself a birthday party without her permission, Aunt Adeline threatens his guests: “Scat, get lost, vamoose, just scram! / Or else I’ll slice you into ham!” On the next two-page spread, Bumble tells
Desert Island Picture Books
On her blog today, Anita Silvey asks her “readers to weigh in with their list of five books that they can’t live without or the ones they read again and again.” So, first, let me encourage you to weigh in over on her blog. As soon as this post is up, I’ll do the same.
Ferdinand at 75
Soon after its publication in the fall of 1936, the title character of Munro Leaf’s Ferdinand began to take on a life of his own. Since the story is set in Spain and the book appeared just months after the start of the Spanish Civil War, people began to speculate on Ferdinand’s political allegiance, labeling him