To pick up a guitar, or to just pick up your chin and sing, is to amplify the voices of millions who pick up protest signs. It’s to speak even for those who don’t dare to open their mouths. Stand Up and Sing! Pete Seeger, Folk Music and the Path to Justice by Susanna Reich, with illustrations by Adam Gustavson (Bloomsbury, 2017), begins with an infectious rhythm. Pete Seeger plucks and strums a banjo, calling out words for a crowd to sing along with him. To Pete, whose youth was impacted by the crash of ’29, when he was ten, “it didn’t seem fair that some folks were rich and some had nothing.” This is a picture book I’d like to see in every classroom across this nation, the biography of a man who, as Peter Yarrow writes in the foreword, “fully lived the message of his music.” The illustrator’s realistic, earthy palette enriches the story of an enterprising young boy, growing up in a socially conscious, musical family, who lived in the best sense of the word. Through many eras— Depression, World War II, McCarthy Witch Hunts, Civil Rights, Vietnam, and the ongoing struggles for peace and to save our planet— Pete never changed his tune to suit those in power, “spreading his folk music seeds song by song and child by child.” Born just four years before Pete, in 1915, but in drastically different circumstances, Billie Holiday became a jazz legend. Strange Fruit, Billie Holiday and the Power of a Protest Song by Gary Golio, illustrated with lush, painterly strokes by Charlotte Riley-Webb (Millbrook Press, 2017), dares to make a song that describes a lynching the subject of a picture book. Billie thought that performing it “might make things better, even though she knew that black people had been killed for less.” The photo that inspired the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Abel Meeropol, to write “Strange Fruit” is not described, but the metaphoric text is included. By the time we get to that page, we’ve traveled a long way with Billie, starting from the moment when she quit a profitable band gig over the racist policies of performing venues. “Enough,” as she put it, became “more than enough.” Mr. Golio does not gloss over her rape, at age ten, though it’s not explicit (“a terrible thing done to her”). Like Mr. Golio’s award-winning book on Jimi Hendrix, the throbbing heart of this brave book is music. Some of the questions it will surely spark may be answered, for older readers, in Carole Boston Weatherford’s Becoming Billie Holiday. This book of poems, with stunning art by Floyd Cooper (Wordsong, 2008 ), is daringly told in the first person. Each poem has the title of one of Billie’s songs. They pull no punches, literally. In the poem entitled I’m a Fool to Want You, Billie says, about her romance with famed tenor sax player Ben Webster, given to slugging her when drunk, “Ben was bad news/I was slow to read.” Copious back matter details the rich, historical underpinnings of these marvelous books. Their characters are fully human. No racial or ethnic groups are glorified or demonized. They remind us that art has a vital role to play in bending societies towards social justice. Orel’s fourth picture book, Thelonious Mouse (FSG), won a Crystal Kite, 2012, from SCBWI. Her third was a Bank St. Best and the second made the NY Times Ten Best-Illustrated list. A Thousand, Peaks, Poems from China (with Siyu Liu) was selected for the New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age list. A Word’s a Bird, her animated, bilingual (English/French) poetry book for iPad, was on SLJ’s list of ten best children’s apps, 2013. Her book for teachers, Metaphors & Similes You Can Eat (Scholastic) has inspired great poems from children in grades 4-8. Orel won the Oberon poetry prize in 2010 and commendation in other reviews and anthologies. She teaches at the Walt Whitman Birthplace, Huntington Station, New York. www.orelprotopopescu.com
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by: Sarah Momo Romero When Mira asked me to write for the Blogateers after taking some of her courses, my first thought was one of disbelief, immediately followed by the obvious answer of, “Yes!! Of course, I would love to!” I am so honored and excited to share my thoughts on picture books and art with all of you. And having just signed my debut picture book writing and illustrating contract, I’m even more excited. So what better way to start a fresh new blog post from an artist’s perspective than a fantastic book featuring a rambunctious girl and her hunt for colors! The book! Swatch: The Girl Who Loved Color by Julia Denos is a surprising take on the story of a girl on a quest. Swatch, the main character of the book, is a wild, and adventurous girl with a passionate love of color. She is a color tamer, and loves color so much, she literally captures colors in jam jars for her collection. How much fun would it be go about your day, capturing the wondrous colors of the world around us? The greens of the first spring blades of grass, the blues of the summer afternoon sky, the reds of a flickering campfire flame. Swatch does just that, until she encounters the strongest and most stubborn of all the colors, the magnificent yellow! Art and the fun stuff! What makes a picture book so wonderful is not only the way the story works with the illustrations, but the intricacies of the art that draw the eyes in, many times things readers don’t really think about. When reading a picture book, we don’t always think about why an illustration is so good, and how it’s creating the world to so effectively draw us into the author’s story. Julia Denos, the author and illustrator, created Swatch’s world with watercolor, pencil, pen and Photoshop, a magical combination for this story. Denos uses these various techniques to create movement, energy, and brightness in Swatch’s world. The brush strokes, the splatterings and layers of colors enhance the playfulness of Swatch’s hunt for colors. I’m sure you can tell how fantastically fun this book is in these photos, but you really have to see this book in person to appreciate all the fun up close. Kids will love it because… of the fun with art and colors! Denos splashes colors on the page with a playfulness and energy evoking a child’s finger painting in the best of ways. Swatch twirls, and jumps and prowls through the pages, chasing and capturing bright colors, showing kids a new way to think about art and imagination. And the Yellowest of Yellows, the King of all colors, comes to life as big as a lion, putting up a fight against the hunt. What an amazing characterization of color! Denos’ unlikely characters and pages brimming with color are a delight to read, one to return to again and again. It might even inspire little artists to pick up a paintbrush and create a King of Color all their own. Sarah Momo Romero is a Japanese Peruvian American artist, a graphic designer by day and children's book author and illustrator by night. She’s loved drawing and painting since she was chiquita and now crafts stories of adventure and wondrous creatures. Sarah is an active SCBWI member who draws inspiration from her life in sunny Los Angeles with her husband/creative partner and dog/infamous escape artist, Peanut. Look out for her first picture book coming out in May 2018! You can find more of Sarah's musings and drawings here: www.sarahmomoromero.com Facebook: thepeanutprojectla + Instagram: @sarahmomoromero + Twitter: @sarahmomoromero What's new and what's brown?Several picture books with beautiful brown characters have caught my eye recently; they are cute and appealing and the books are populated with POC. Sadly, they are not written or illustrated by POC. While I am pleased to see brown faces in the books, it is disappointing to see that white people continue to be the voice for all people. Green Pants by Kenneth Kraegel (Candlewick Press, 2017) is the story of a young boy with a penchant for green pants. When he is asked to be in a wedding and wear a tuxedo, he needs to do some serious soul-searching. I found the illustrations to be sweet and charming, and I especially enjoyed the natural hair on the bride. I Got a New Friend by Karl Newsom Edwards uses minimal text to tell the story of a girl and her dog. Similarly to Green Pants, race is not mentioned in the text. A brown girl and her dog enjoy their lives together, making messes and cleaning up, doing the things that kids and dogs do. No crisis, no racism, no history. Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall is a beautifully designed picture book about overcoming fear and getting out of one's comfort zone. Jabari jumps off the diving board at the swimming pool with support and encouragement from his father. Jabari is African American and the crowd at the pool is racially diverse. Cornwall uses collage and texture skillfully in this gorgeous book. I love that brown faces are shown in books that are not about suffering and being victims and struggling. I love that these books are set in our contemporary world, not in a historical setting. I am curious about how these Caucasian author/illustrators chose to depict POC in these books; were the manuscripts written with this detail in mind, or is this something that occurred at the urging of an art director or editor? Are brown authors and illustrators so difficult to find that publishers must rely on white people to make these books or is this simply a workaround that is more palatable to the heavily Caucasian publishing world? For next month's post and moving forward, please send me questions and topics that you would like to discuss that involve libraries, books, diversity, and the children's literature community. fifiabuillustration@gmail.com Fifi Abu spends her days surrounded by books that have already been created and the rest of her time writing and illustrating books yet to be born. She looks forward to a day when all children can see themselves reflected in the books they read. Ms. Abu holds a master's degree in children's literature and a master's degree in library science, is an active member of SCBWI and a Children's Book Academy graduate and is represented by Linda Epstein at the Emerald City Literary Agency. She is pleased to announce that she has been elected to the 2019 Caldecott Committee. www.fifiabu.com by Orel Protopopescu Do you know any kids who think history is dull? They are bound to change their minds reading Selene Castrovilla’s Revolutionary Rogues, gloriously illustrated by John O’Brien and forthcoming (September, 2017) from Calkins Creek Press/Highlights. This story is rich in fascinating characters, suspense, and surprises— all the ingredients of a good movie. It’s the tragic tale of the traitor, Benedict Arnold, and the British spy, Major John André. Both long for glory but make mistakes that, in John André’s case, prove fatal. In cinematic jump cuts, we flip from one to the other: Here’s André, relishing the intrigue of signing an agreement with the traitor, Arnold, to deliver Washington’s army to the British. Here’s Arnold, “drinking ale and brewing resentment,” as he plots his treasonous revenge on the Congress that failed to give him the rewards he deserved. By the time André utters the words, “I meet my fate like a brave man,” we grieve for this young British soldier. Not so Benedict Arnold, brooding in his exile in London, whose name became a synonym for traitor. Selene’s three other award-winning books on the American Revolution were published by the same press. The third one, Revolutionary Friends, explores the personal and professional friendship between George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette. By the Sword, her second, follows a young teacher, Benjamin Tallmadge, and his beloved horse, Highlander, through the Battle of Long Island. Her first book, Upon Secrecy, happened almost by accident. Selene went to visit a sick friend who’d grown up in Setauket. He told her he missed the place. Selene wanted to know why. His answer, “It’s historic,” led to her researching the Setauket spy ring. That led her to Tallmadge. The editor of Calkin Creeks, Carolyn Yoder, has also brought us Write On, Mercy! The Secret Life of Mercy Otis Warren by Gretchen Woelfle (illustrated by Alexandra Wallner and published in 2012). Mercy used her writing to go beyond the restrictions her era imposed on women. In spite of personal and political tragedies, Mercy wrote on, befriending great Patriots and winning the admiration of George Washington and John Adams. Hers is a tale of perseverance paired with longevity. At age seventy-seven, she finally published her History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution, all three volumes and more than a thousand pages! Another gifted writer was sold into slavery as a young girl. A Voice of Her Own, The Story of Phillis Wheatley, Slave Poet, by Kathryn Lasky, warmly illustrated by Paul Lee (Candlewick, 2003), details how Phillis (named for the ship that brought her to Boston) became the first published African American poet. The naked, frightened child on the slave ship became the poised, elegant young woman who journeyed to England where, feted by royalty, she signed a contract for her first book with a British publisher. The copies arrived in Boston on the eve of the Revolution, before the boycott of British goods. Would we know her name if they hadn’t? History can be fickle and Phillis died when she was only thirty-one. “What is history, but life?” Selene asked, addressing a meeting of the Metro NY SCBWI. Before she starts writing, she thinks about the climactic moment of the story, what makes it one worth telling. That’s an approach we all should emulate.
Ask a Librarian with Fifi AbuAt the April 8th Color of Children's Literature Conference in New York, Cynthia Leitich Smith spoke about her experiences breaking into the writing world as a native author over 20 years ago. The general attitude in publishing was "We already have one." in response to the thought of signing a Native American author. One was enough. Perhaps one was almost too many. And that one author was generally male. There is a quota, apparently, on POC taking seats at the white publishing table. Hearing other authors and illustrators of color speak on April 8th made it clear that despite all of the lip service about diversity, the old rules are still in place. And there is something that feels very calculated and staged going on as the call from publishers for submissions from POC occurs. I've seen agents make graceless cattle calls on social media "Hey, does anyone know any Muslim illustrators?" Widely casting their net while loudly broadcasting the fact that despite the constant inboxing of queries and connections to everyone in the entire publishing industry, no one knows an actual Muslim. Admitting to the world that publishing is such an exclusively caucasian world that no one in it can even make a referral. Because of external pressure, publishers are attempting to make a gesture toward diversity. But due to the exclusionary nature of the industry, the people who have been invisible are not people that publishers have relationships with. I had a recent experience with an art director who was interested in discussing my Muslim-themed work. He was trying to place me in an imprint that deals exclusively with POC. That was the only place he could see me having value. The only place I belong. I politely listened to everything that he had to say, but inside I was shouting "I can do other things! I can draw cats going dancing! I've got a dog who bakes cakes! I've got a book about mothers!" It was clear that I was only being considered because the publisher would be able to check a box. I was useful for one type of book and one imprint, but not as a general author/illustrator. I would prefer to be be seen as a whole person, not as a two-dimensional marketing ploy. I love the idea of diverse books being created by a wide range of diverse people. But even more, I love the idea of the white publishing world seeing POC as a valuable part of the general talent pool. For next month's post and moving forward, please send me questions and topics that you would like to discuss that involve libraries, books, diversity, and the children's literature community. fifiabuillustration@gmail.com Fifi Abu spends her days surrounded by books that have already been created and the rest of her time writing and illustrating books yet to be born. She looks forward to a day when all children can see themselves reflected in the books they read. Ms. Abu holds a master's degree in children's literature and a master's degree in library science, is an active member of SCBWI and a Children's Book Academy graduate. She is pleased to announce that she has been elected to the 2019 Caldecott Committee. www.fifiabu.com |
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