It’s the End of the World (With Swearing)
“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” –Albert Einstein Author, Charlotte Agell led her televised appearance at The Portland Public Library’s First Friday Author Talk (to be broadcast on CTN) with the above quote and the advice that quoting a genius on TV can only make you look good. Curious City invited 80 King Middle School students who are studying Science Fiction to attend the filming of Charlotte’s talk about her YA dystopia novel, Shift. We solicited Charlotte’s permission to copy the first 4 chapters for students to...
Read MoreForeigner in the House of Comic Con
kAs a foreigner in the house of Comic Con from the much more tepid world of book trade shows, I wondered often and heartily over the weekend at “fandom.” As someone who as a living tries to increase the readership of books for children, I marvel that Graphia (the new haute word for manga, comic books, and graphics novels) has FANS, not readers.How different a writer’s life would be if, say, (our dear departed) John Updike had readers pressing towards him at conventions dressed like Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom. I mean, the costume would not be so hard.I saw many wonders of...
Read MoreOh, So Sweet!
Leave it to me to book my return flight from ALA Midwinter at the same time as the awards are being announced. As I land in Detroit all 100 passengers discover they have missed their connecting flights.Everyone is shouting at the flight attendants or complaining into their cells. I click online to check the awards. There I find that Melissa Sweet has won a Caldecott Honor and Beth Krommes has won the biggie. I start whooping and laughing and jumping up and down in the middle of the angry crowd. Silence descends. The mob is all staring at me.I think, first person killed for a...
Read MoreLunch Box Illustrators Land Caldecott
There was much dancing of jigs by Curious City at the ALA Award news this week.Illustrator, Beth Krommes took the Caldecott Medal for her (beyond) lovely picture book, The House in the Night. Curious City Lunch Box attendees will remember her meticulous illustration style of pulling a reverse image out of ink-saturated scratchboard. Where you there?The dancing continued with much abandon when it was announced that Melissa Sweet took a Caldecott Honor for the illustrations for A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams. Melissa’s layering of colored pencil, bits of paper,...
Read MoreSome Social Justice
NAACP president, Benjamin Jealous not only got a key to Portland, Maine, but a stack of young adult literature as well.As part of Human Rights Day: Marking the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the keynote speaker Benjamin Jealous was presented with books on social justice from Curious City clients, Phillip Hoose, Anne Sibley O’Brien, and Maria Testa.Phil Hoose presented his forthcoming young adult biography of Claudette Colvin, the brave 15-year-old who refused to give up her seat to a white woman in 1955 Montgomery, Alabama. Benjamin Jealous nodded...
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