Sunday Brunch with a Hitch

Today's Sunday Brunch asks who calls the shots when reading a book -- the author or the reader? We also look at Halloween books and those great old Alfred Hitchcock anthologies from the sixties.


WE'RE WAITING, NBA....

If nothing else, this week's fuss over the National Book Award nominations has given more publicity to two titles, SHINE by Lauren Myracle and CHIME by Franny Billingsley, than they've probably received in all the months since they were published.

Now I'm wondering if we're ever going to hear what Paul Harvey used to call "the rest of the story," from one of the judges or a member of the National Book Foundation. Because something about this incident still doesn't feel right....

This is my second year serving as one of the judges for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. I well remember how, last year, the chair of our committee had to fill out official forms listing each finalist's title, author, and other pertinent info before submitting our list to the administrators. It seems almost impossible to believe that this info was casually transmitted via a single phone call for the National Book Awards. And I can't help but wonder how many eyes saw the error after that. SOMEONE prepared the official press release. SOMEONE prepared the official announcements. SOMEONE wrapped the book that was revealed to the public during those announcements. So we're talking about an error that was compounded many times over....

I must hand it to author Lauren Myracle, for handling the situation so graciously. In an interview for School Library Journal, she said that she "felt like poor Carrie, invited to the prom just to have pig's blood dumped on her head," but ultimately feels "insanely blessed and humbled by how much love has been beamed my way." You can read the whole interview here.

After being dragged "inside out and back again," it sounds like Lauren Myracle is "okay for now."

But I still want the full story!


AND FROM A BOOK COLLECTING PERSPECTIVE....

Did any copies of SHINE with the NBA "finalist" sticker on the cover make it out to bookstores?

If you see one, you might want to pick up a copy.

Could be worth something.

And even if it doesn't have monetary value, it will be a good conversation piece. Because I imagine that all of us in the children's book community will be talking about this incident for years at come.



IN THE LAND OF THE BOOK, WHO IS KING?

I have spent the last couple days hanging out at Elizabeth Burns’ School Library Journal blog, A Chair, A Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy, wielding an imaginary ruler and rapping the knuckles of any reader who admits to skipping ahead in a novel to peek at the ending.

It all started when Liz wrote a blog called “So I Flipped to the Back of the Book…” which began:

So, I’m reading Lauren Myracle’s Shine and I do something — Well. To some, something unforgivable.

You see, there was something happening in the book and, well, I couldn’t wait. I had to know whether someone was going to be OK.

So I flipped to the back of the book, skimmed a little, got the answer to my question, and returned to my reading.

Hello, I’m Liz, and I read the end of books.

Hello, Liz. Put your hand out, palm down.

Whack!

That’s what you get for paging ahead to the end of a book!

Little did I know that Liz had so many fellow chapter-skippers. Within a few hours of her original post, she had over a dozen responses, ALL of whom admitted to peeking at the endings of books. They said things like:

Sometimes, it’s because I’m reading historical fiction and I want to know beforehand how much is real and how much is made up. Sometimes it’s because it’s really intense and I want to know if things turn out good or bad. Sometimes it’s because I’m bored and I want to know if it’s worth finishing the book.

and

I have to release the OMG what is going to happen tension.

and

Oh I always read the end when there is too much suspense for me.

That's when I had to step in with my two own cents:

Geez, I’m going to send all you guys to Mrs. Peregrine’s Home for Peek-culiar Readers. Whatever happened to patience, forbearance, and self-control? I guess my feeling is that the author crafts his or her book in a very precise way. If they wanted to reveal the ending first, they’d write the book in that fashion: “Gentle Reader, I married him!” followed by an extended 500-page flashback showing how Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester met and fell in love. So I give the author due respect and read the book the way it’s presented.

I think this should be especially true if one is reading the book for review. How can we tell if the author has done an adequate job planting clues, foreshadowing, and maintaining tension if we skip to the end and don’t actually experience those things for ourselves as readers?

I’ve never been a fan of e-readers, but I think I’m going to develop a new type of Kindle for Certain Type of Readers: anytime someone tries to skip ahead to the end of a book, they will get a ZAP from the machine. That’ll teach ya. : )

You'll notice I added a smiley emoti-con at the end of my diatribe, just to show I'm not really a fanatic on the subject.

It's funny that the topic came up this very week, as I just struggled with an adult novel for the sole purpose of getting to the final rewarding lines. In truth, I'd been struggling with SO MUCH FOR THAT by Lionel Shriver for MONTHS. I'd read two of the author's previous books (WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN and A PERFECTLY GOOD FAMILY) and found them brilliant, but SO MUCH FOR THAT was a slow go. Part of the problem was the subject matter: terminal cancer. Not a fun read. However, the book came with a reading guide and one of appended essays written by the author was called "Why Reading This Book Is Not a Big Drag."

She supplies a number of reasons including "It's fun to read. ...Yes, the book is funny." I actually didn't laugh once when I read it.

Another of Shriver's reasons: "It has energy. ...That's right -- this novel, I have heard repeatedly, is a 'page-turner.'" Obviously I did not find that to be true either, or it wouldn't have taken me all summer and half the fall to read it!

I was most intrigued by this reason: "It has a happy ending." Shriver warns us, "Do not, whatever you do, flip to the last page now if you haven't read the rest of the book, but I do fancy that the final couple of lines of SO MUCH FOR THAT are the best (and also the simplest) of any novel I've written. It's a real up yours ending, a 'Take that!' After I bashed out that little paragraph on New Year's Day 2009, I couldn't wipe the smile off my face for the rest of the night."

I must admit that this promise of a "happy ending" was what kept me slogging through the book over the past few weeks. I couldn't figure out how the author would be able to achieve this -- especially with the mortally-sick characters in her story dropping like flies in the final chapters. As the end of the novel grew closer, I became more and more intrigued and ultimately stayed up till 4:00 AM, just to reach those final lines of the book, which were promised to be happy ones.

I couldn't imagine how they could be.

But they were!

The author totally pulled it off!

But I don't think they would have had nearly as much power, or been nearly as satisfying to me as a reader, if I'd peeked ahead to read them in advance. Taken out of context they would have meant very little. And knowing them ahead of time truly would have ruined the last chapters of this cold and almost cruel novel. I was so glad that I had stuck with it and followed the author's instructions to "Do not, whatever you do, flip to the last page now if you haven't read the rest of the book."

...Which brings me to the main point of this long and somewhat unwieldy blog entry:

In the land of the book, who is king? (Or queen?) Do we as readers have the right to read a book any which way we'd like -- sampling it here and there, peeking ahead to the ending, reading the story in a nonlinear fashion? The reader is the one who buys (or at least borrows) the book and is devoting precious hours of their life to this narrative. Isn't it their right to read the book any way they choose?

Or should the author -- the creator of this story and its characters -- have the final say? They've crafted their novel in very specific ways, hoping to create a singular emotional journey for readers. Do writers have the right to tell us "Do not, whatever you do, flip to the last page...." Isn't it their right to expect us to read the book exactly as they've written it?

When a book is published, does the author transfer ownership of the novel to readers? At what point does the author diminish control? When does it change from "their book" to "our book"?

Who should be the final arbiter of how a book is read -- author or reader?

I really don't know the answer to these questions, but they are fun to ponder.



THIS ONE IS ABOUT TEA COZIES, NOT BOOKS

Okay, this little entry doesn't have a thing to do with children's books -- or books of any kind. But I did want to add that I smile every time I see the title of Liz Burns' aforementioned blog, "A Chair, A Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy." Even though one of my grandfathers came from England, as an American male I've never had much truck with tea cozies. In fact, I don't think I've ever even seen one in real life. But every time I see the words "tea cozy," I'm reminded of a story my aunt once told me.

My aunt was in the Air Force for many years. Shortly after World War II she was stationed in Great Britain. One year, at their office Christmas party, an English girl, who worked on base in a civilian capacity, gave an American employee a hand-knitted tea cozy as a present.

The American woman had no idea what a tea cozy was.

The next night they were all invited to a fancy Christmas dinner at someone's country estate. The American woman showed up wearing the tea cozy on her head. Yes, she thought it was a hat! Everyone found it so funny that this lady ended up being the hit the party (though, unfortunately, wearing tea cozies as hats never did take off as a fad.) Still, every time I see Liz Burns' blog title, I think of that poor American lady walking into that traditional English Christmas party with a tea cozy on her head and can't help but smile.


EIGHT MORE DAYS TO HALLOWEEN, HALLOWEEN, HALLOWEEN
EIGHT MORE DAYS TO HALLOWEEN, SILVER SHAMROCK!

Yes, Halloween really is just eight days away.

Last Sunday I solicited your ideas for spooky-type books that we could give out as part of Neil Gaiman's All Hallows Read project.

Lin wrote in to say "I'm hard pressed to think of a Halloween book for upper elementary (except for Bradbury's HALLOWEEN TREE.) For scary: Of course, the 'Scary Stories' trilogy by Alvin Schwartz, BUT ONLY if they are the Stephen Gammell illustrations. Picture books: NIGHT OF THE GARGOYLES by Bunting, pictures by David Wiesner."

Alison said: "In our house, our Halloween library is mainly limited to picture & board books. THE LITTLE OLD LADY WHO WASN'T AFRAID OF ANYTHING was a particular favorite. As my kids aged, we found very few middle grade books that they really attached to Halloween, with the exception of the already mentioned 'Scary Stories,' and David Lubar's 'Warped and Creepy' Weenie series. OH & I did run out last year & get my 12 year old Susan Rich's HALF-MINUTE HORRORS after reading about here, I believe. That was a fun little book!"

Thanks, Lin and Allison, for those great suggestions. I was about to compile a list of my own when, wouldn't you know, Monica Edinger and Betsy Bird beat me to it by publishing this one -- with video, no less! -- listing a lot of recent books just perfect for the holiday!

They sure beat me to the punch, didn't they?

But I guess at Halloween, it's the early bird that gets the gummi-worm.

Here are a few more Halloween books that are fun to read:

THE BEST HALLOWEEN EVER by Barbara Robinson (2006) which continues to the adventures of the Herdman kids from THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER)

THE LITTLE LEFTOVER WITCH by Florence Laughlin (1960), a "cozy" (but not tea cozy) story that starts on one Halloween and ends on the next Halloween. I try to read this one every year.

A NEWBERY HALLOWEEN by Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh (1993) collects spooky stories and chapters from the works of Newbery-winning authors.

WILLIE BEA AND THE TIME THE MARTIANS LANDED by Virginia Hamilton (1983) takes us back to the Halloween when Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" radio broacast terrified the country.

ED EMBERLEY'S DRAWING BOOK OF HALLOWEEN by Ed Emberley (2006) shows how to draw witches, monsters, and other holiday-themed illustrations.

Finally, here'a a gallery of R.L. Stine covers just right for the season:





I hate to admit that I was seduced by all these covers. I love Halloween, and I love Halloween artwork, so all these books reached out to me (with cold, creaky skeleton fingers) demanding to be bought and read. I did buy them and I did read them. And, predictably, they were all pretty bad. In fact, as quickly as I read them I ended up donating them to used booksales. But what does it say about the power of the artwork that, even now, looking at this covered, I'm halfway tempted to track them down and read them again....?


BUT NOT FOR KIDS....

How cool is this?

Chuck Palahniuk's new, definitely-not-for-kids, horror novel, DAMNED, features an eleven-year-girl as its protagonist.

Her opening lines will either warm the heart or chill the soul of all us children's book lovers:

"Are you there, Satan? It's me, Madison."



WITHOUT A HITCH

Speaking of spooky books for kids, here is a blast from the past.

Does anyone remember the series of oversized, wonderfully-illustrated Alfred Hitchcock anthologies for young readers that Random House published in the sixties and early seventies? Doing an internet search today, I came up with the following titles. Is my list complete? Also, have I found the right illustrations for the original covers of these books? There are a few variant covers out there, since some of the cover illustrations changed in later hardcover or paperback printings.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S HAUNTED HOUSEFUL, 1961


ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S GHOSTLY GALLERY, 1962


ALFRED HITCHOCK’S SOLVE THEM YOURSELF MYSTERIES, 1963


ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S MONSTER MUSEUM, 1965


ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S SINISTER SPIES, 1966


ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S SPELLBINDERS IN SUSPENSE, 1967


ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S DARING DETECTIVES, 1969


ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S SUPERNATURAL TALES OF TERROR AND SUSPENSE, 1973


ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S WITCH’S BREW, 1977


One of the things that made these books unique was that, despite their "commercial" appeal (with a well-known director and TV personality on the cover!), they were not considered subpar literature, but seemed to be purchased by many school and public libraries. And why not? The stories in these volumes were written by such literary luminaries as Cornell Woolrich, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Patricia Highsmith.

Does anyone have any memories of reading these books as kids?

And do you think they would still be popular if re-published today, or would the Hitchcock imprimatur no longer work> Do kids still know who he was? Or would we now be subjected to the same books with Scare Tactics' host Shannen Doherty posing ont the cover, with a bubble (and bubble-headed) quote, "Are you scared? You should be! These are SCARE TACTICS BOOKS!)


PICTURE BOOK CREATORS WRITING NOVELS

Caldecott winner Chris Rashka has written his first novel, SERIOUSLY, NORMAN:


My bookstore buddy attended an author event and picked up several signed copies of the book. I bought one from her on Friday. Obviously the published modeled the author's title page "byline" off his real signature because, looking at my copy of the book, it's hard to tell which one is real and which is Memorex:


This volume has got me thinking about the whole phenomena of picture book writer-illustrators who also have the ability to write novels.

I should make it clear: I am not talking about picture-book AUTHORS, such as Jane Yolen and Eve Bunting, who can write in many different genres from pioture books through young adult novels.

No, instead I'm talking about those rare people who start off both writing and illustrating picture books...and later prove they can write full-length novels as well.

I can only think of a short list:

William Steig, who won a Caldecott and had Newbery Honors
Kevin Henkes, who won a Caldecott for KITTEN'S FIRST FULL MOON and wrote Newbery Honor OLIVE'S OCEAN
There's Allen Say who, after many picture books, wrote THE INK-KEEPER'S APPRENTICE
Mordicai Gerstein, Robert Lawson, and Ludwig Bemelmans moved easily between these genres

Can you think of many others?


ANOTHER HALLOWEEN, ANOTHER COVER

Though everyone knows "you can't judge a book by its cover," you also know (from the discussion of R.L. Stine covers above) that I'm a sucker for certain types of illustrations -- and can sometimes be drawn to a book by its front cover.

It actually happened to me this morning.

While trying to track down the cover illustrations for the Hitchcock anthologies, I came across this cover:


TEN TALES CALCULATED TO GIVE YOU SHUDDERS was edited by R. Ross Olney, and issued by cheapie-dime-store publisher Whitman in 1972.

I have no idea how good this book will be, but I was so drawn in by the cover that I decided I wanted to read it. Fortunately, many copies were for sale online -- most for under five dollars. So I ordered an inexpensive copy today -- to read on Halloween.

I hope the book arrives before October 31.

And I hope you'll be back before then too. Thanks for reading Collecting Children's Books!

Okay, Let's See If We've Finally Got This Right....

Sunday Brunch for October 16

Today's Sunday Brunch revisits this week's National Book Award snafu, discusses some recent book-signing events I attended, and asks how you're celebrating "All Hallow's Read."


WHERE ARE THE GREAT MARTIN LUTHER KING BOOKS?

As I write today's blog, the national memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is being dedicated in Washington, DC.

This got me wondering.

There are nearly 2500 chilren's books about Martin Luther King listed on Amazon.com. The vast majority are dreary, cardboardy, standard-issue volumes in educational series, usually written with an eye toward library sales.

While there have been a couple outstanding picture-book biographies of King (Caldecott Honor MARTIN'S BIG WORDS, written by Doreen Rappaport and illustrated by Bryan Collier), I'm hard-pressed to think of an equally strong biography for middle-grade or young-adult readers.

Can you think of one?

Martin Luther King is probably one of the top subjects for school reports, yet it seems that all we have to offer young readers are average-quality books with encyclopedia-quality prose.

Isn't it about time for a major biography written for kids?



UNEXPECTED SEXTUPLETS

I had Wednesday off work, first to meet with a handyman about home repairs, then to take my parents on some errands across town. I knew this meant missing the live announcement of the National Book Award finalists, but I figured I’d be able to get them off the internet when I returned home.

Who knew I’d end up missing all the excitement?

As most everyone knows by now, shortly before noon author Virginia Euwer Wolff announced the following five titles as the finalists in the category of Young People’s Literature:

MY NAME IS NOT EASY by Debby Dahl Edwardson
INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN by Thanhha Lai
FLESH & BLOOD SO CHEAP : THE TRIANGLE FIRE AND ITS LEGACY by Albert Marrin
SHINE by Lauren Myracle
OKAY FOR NOW by Gary D. Schmidt

When I got home from my errands in the late afternoon, I immediately checked the internet and discovered there were SIX titles listed – all of the above, plus CHIME by Franny Billingsley.

Well, how did that happen? Traditionally there are only five books in each NBA category!

Doing a little searching on the internet, I learned that some time after Ms. Wolff announced the five nominees above, the National Book Award stepped forward to add CHIME to the list.

How come? Well, as School Library Journal reported, “Someone screwed up.”

Reportedly, the names of the finalists were transmitted by telephone and somebody transcribed the titles incorrectly.

Everyone immediately thought of those sound-alike titles SHINE and CHIME, but the NBA wasn’t telling. They decided to leave all six books on the list. Though the public will never know for sure which title wasn’t really supposed to be there, I imagine that some of our children’s book world’s insiders and cognoscenti know the truth. This is exactly the type of literary mystery that Elizabeth Bird and Julie Danielson and I try to crack in the book we’re writing for Candlewick Press….

Incidentally, although a draft of our book is now in the first stages of being edited, there may still be time to squeeze in a few more mysteries and true tales behind famous children’s books. So if you know of one, feel free to send it to me, Betsy, or Jules or, as Alfred Hitchcock might’ve called us, “The Three Investigators.”


BUT THERE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN FIVE!

One of the most interesting aspects of the National Book Award controversy is that everyone who saw six titles listed -- including me! -- immediately wondered why. After all, there have ALWAYS been five finalists in each category, right?

Wrong.

Back in the day (or I should say, "back in my day"), the National Book Awards had varying numbers of finalists from year to year.

An NBA category for young people's books didn't even exist until 1969. For the first three years of the award, there were indeed five finalists.

However, in 1972 the field expanded to eleven books: THE ART AND INDUSTRY OF SANDCASTLES by Jan Adkins; WILD IN THE WORLD by John Donovon; THE PLANET OF JUNIOR BROWN (Virginia Hamilton), HIS OWN WHERE (June Jordan), THE TOMBS OF ATUAN (Ursula K. LeGuin), MRS. FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH (Robert C. O'Brien), HILDIDID'S NIGHT (Cheli Duran Ryan), THE BEARS' HOUSE (Marilyn Sachs), AMOS & BORIS (William Steig), FATHER FOX'S PENNYRHYMES (Clyde and Wendy Watson) and that year's controversial winner, THE SLIGHTLY IRREGULAR FIRE ENGINE OR THE HITHERING THITHERING DJINN by Donald Barthelme.

In 1973, there were seven finalists.

There were ten finalists in 1974 and 1975, but seven in 1976 when the award went to BERT BREEN'S BARN by Walter D. Edmonds (it seemed an old-fashioned and somewhat out-of-left-field choice back then...but it's a book I've never forgotten and I suspect it holds up very well today.)

From 1977 to 1979, there were five finalists every year.

At that point the young people's category was dropped, not to be restored until 1987. Since its return, there have been five nominees each year.

So it has been a long time since we've had more than five finalists, but it did used to happen some time back.

And you know what?

I liked it.

I think some years there really could be more than five neat-and-tidy top titles. And occasionally expanding the field to seven or ten or even eleven volumes just made it more fun -- spotlighting some books that might have been otherwise neglected and adding to the discussion of what was best. I'll always be grateful that 1975's "top ten" finalists included three of my personal all-time favorites: I TELL A LIE EVERY SO OFTEN by Bruce Clements, WINGS by Adrienne Richard, and THE EDGE OF NEXT YEAR by Mary Stolz. Would they have made the list if it was shrunk to five? Maybe yes, maybe no. But they at least got recognized when the list was expanded.

My feeling about the number of National Book Award finalists is similar to my feeling on Newbery Honor Books -- the more the merrier!



UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE

I feel like a television network interrupting regular programming with this special bulletin.

Just in: Lauren Myracle has withdrawn SHINE from NBA consideration.

According to this article from the Huffington Post, she was pressured by the organization:

Lauren Myracle has pulled "Shine" from consideration in the young people's literature category. Her decision, announced Monday by Amulet Books, follows a miscommunication last week between judges and the award's sponsors. Myracle was on the original list of five nominees, but the National Book Foundation than announced that her book had been confused with Franny Billingsley's "Chime" and was not a finalist.

The foundation soon changed its mind again and decided there would be six nominees. Myracle said in a statement that she was asked by the foundation to withdraw to "preserve the integrity" of the awards process.



FUN WITH BOOKSIGNINGS!

I'm often envious of my friends who live in or near New York City; they seem to have myriad opportunties to attend booksigning events at stores and libraries and library conferences. Life is not like that here in the midwest, where author events are few and far between. However, this past week was such a whirlwind of booksignings that I almost felt I was visiting the Big Apple. This was mainly because the Great Lakes Booksellers Association conference was being held locally and a number of authors, in town for that event, agreed to visit local bookstores to meet fans.

The only drawback to these events was that they occurred during a week in which they received a lot of competition from Detroit sports events (one booksigning was interrupted by an audience member shouting "Tigers win, seven to five!" while another was held on the day of the annual Michigan/MSU football game.) but enough book fans turned out to make the literary events successful.

Wednesday night for the event for Sarah Weeks, author of the "Guy Strang" and "Oggie Cooder" books, now on the road to celebrate her latest, and perhaps best-yet, book, PIE.


Ms. Weeks spoke about her inspiration for writing this warm-hearted mystery. I was particularly struck by the fact that the author's two sons don't really enjoy reading and have never even read their mom's books. However, they did give their mother with a unique and personal insight into how boys' minds work -- and provided her with lots of material for her stories! I was also gratified to learn that Sarah Weeks reads mostly children's and YA books on her own time!

During her presentation, the author spoke about Oggie Cooder's hobby, "charving" -- which involves carving cheese with his teeth into the shapes of all fifty states. Now when Ms. Weeks visits schools, kids put their charving examples on display for her. Sometimes they use tortillas instead of cheese because it lasts longer.

Personally, I found the whole charving thing a little gross...and wondered what talent those kids will display if William Kotzwinkle ever visits their schools to promote his Walter-the-dog series.

On the other hand, writing about pie was a great idea, because now when Ms. Weeks makes author visits, she is greeted by pies.

In fact, fans brought a total of eleven pies to this event.

Two of them were mine: one sour cherry pie and one caramel apple:


I'd never made a pie in my life until earlier this summer when my bookstore buddy gave me an ARC (advance reading copy) of PIE; Sarah Weeks' novel inspired me to try my hand at making my own pies. Those of you who have followed my Facebook postings (feel free to "friend" me at "Peter Sieruta") over the past few weeks have heard me talk about the succession of "test pies" I've been making in preparation for this author event.

I'm happy to say it paid off!

During her presentation, Ms. Weeks mentioned seeing a "beautiful latticed cherry pie" on the table. Be still my pie-making heart -- she was talking about my pie! Afterwards, she even posed for pictures holding my pie. She asked me to pose with her, but I was far too shy. Heck, I was almost too shy to talk to her. The irony, of course, is that she was the nicest person in the world -- the kind of person you'd like to be friends with. (Holden Caufield wished he could be friends with Eustacia Vye; I wish I could be friends with authors.) Later, Ms. Weeks had a slice of the sour cherry pie, then came up to me and raved about the filling and crust! Several other people told me they liked it too, including one who said it reminded her of the pies her YaYa made. Turns out "YaYa" means "grandmother" in Greek. And I heard that some of the kids in attendance said their favorite item on the table was my caramel apple pie -- probably because it was oozing with warm caramel and melted Heath bars...but, hey, I'll take praise wherever it comes from.

Don't worry, I won't get a big head over it.

...Okay, maybe my hat size did increase momentarily when Sarah Weeks said she thought I could have a second career in pie making!

But my head quickly deflated when I remembered that, despite holding many different jobs over my lifetime, I've never had anything that can remotely be called a "career" of any type.


Saturday afternoon I attended an author event for Lisa McMann, a native of Holland, Michigan back in our state to promote her new novel THE UNWANTEDS.


Though I have not read this book yet (just bought it on Saturday), I've heard many good things about it and can't wait to dive in.

The book, about artistic kids being purged from a futuristic society, was inspired when the author's children brought home notes saying that arts classes were being cut at their school. Writing the book was very much a family project, with Ms. McMann's son and daughter offering suggestions for some of the magic feats performed in the novel. Her son also designed this illustrated postcard (signed and numbered by the author) which Lisa McMann handed out with the sticker below. We book collectors love this kind of ephemera:


I'd write more about this author event, but I'd rather spend the time time starting to read THE UNWANTED, the first book in a series which Lisa McMann hopes will fill seven volumes.


This afternoon I attended the last author event. Canadian-born Moira Young, who now lives in England, was here in America's heartland to discuss her first book, the smash-hit BLOOD RED ROAD.


It was particularly interesting to hear the author read from earlier versions of the novel, written in the third-person instead of the first, and featuring the protagonist at age eight, rather than the eighteen-year-old she is in the published book.

It was also fascinating to learn which literary and even film influences the author tapped into when writing this book -- everything from the writings of Joseph Campbell and the movies GONE WITH THE WIND and THE SEARCHERS. A former professional actress who once sang and tap-danced on London's West End, the author gave particularly riveting readings from her book. My bookstore buddy, who has hosted hundreds of booksignings over nearly three decades felt that Moira Young gave one of the very best author presentations she has ever witnessed.




ALL HALLOW'S READ

Halloween is two weeks away. How do you plan to celebrate it?

According to Neil Gaiman, we should observe the holiday by giving books.

I think it's a fun idea.

My only problem is that the list of book recommendations on the website comes from HarperCollins and (surprise, surprise) contains only HarperCollins books.

I think I'll make an alternate list of Halloween books not published by HarperCollins and post it in next Sunday's blog, in plenty of time for the big day.

What titles do you think I should add?

Remember, they don't necessarily have to be new books that can be purchased at bookstore. They can be older books borrowed from the library and handed to a friend.



ORMONDROYD ORATES

When I was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s, there were a handful of children's books that seemed to be ubiquitous -- turning up on everyone's bookshelves as well as in just about every used bookstore you visited. Among these titles were THE PINK MOTEL and MAGICAL MELONS by Carol Ryrie Brink, and DAVID AND THE PHOENIX by Edward Ormondroyd. I think they must have been among the earliest volumes issued by children's book clubs, as they seemed to be EVERYwhere when I was growing up. I've learned over subsquent years that DAVID AND THE PHOENIX was a personal favorite of many kids who grew up in the late fifties and early sixties.

In Anita Silvy's EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED FROM A CHILDREN'S BOOK, American cultural critic Gerald Early cites DAVID AND THE PHOENIX as an influential novel from his own childhood.

Writer Marc Tyler Nobleman felt the same way about the book and recently stated, "I continue to be surprised whenever I find that someone whose work I loved in a younger day has almost no or literally no online presence -- barely a photo and nary an interview. But then I get excited because it means maybe I can be the one to help change that."

Mr. Nobleman did help change that -- by tracking down now-eighty-six year old author Edward Ormondroyd, and publishing a lengthy two-part interview with him here and here . It's a fascinating look back at one author's experiences and at "long forgotten" novel that, apparently, many people have never really forgotten.


ONLY ONE CHILDREN'S BOOK POP ICON?

For the last couple years, my town's annual autumn scarecrow festival has provided me with lots of blog fodder. One year the theme was children's books. The following year it was movies...with many of those movies (WIZARD OF OZ, etc.) having a children's book source. This year the theme was "American Pop Culture Icons," so I took my camera downtown with hopes of snapping some scarecrows inspired by children's books.

Unfortunately, between scarecrows representing Michael Jackson, Austin Powers, the Oscar Weiner Mobile (very cute), Dolly Parton (you can just imagine what that scarecrow looked like!), I only saw one figure representing a children's book character, the Cat in the Hat:


I hope next year's theme brings us more children's book figures stuffed with straw. It's become an annual tradition for me and I was disappointed that this year's festival only included one.

Thanks for visiting Collecting Children's Books. I'm hoping to return with at least one more blog entry before next weekend, so hope you'll check back this week!