My Friend Irma

Beginning a new job is a bit like starting to read a novel by jumping right into the middle of the book.

Suddenly you're in the midst of a scene and you have no idea who is who or what is what. You don't know the characters, you don't know the plot, and your head starts spinning just trying to keep up.

That's how I felt when I started my current job nearly twenty years ago. Everyone in the library knew each other and shared a history of sorts. As a newbie and outsider, I listened to their memories of a beloved former director who would hire anyone who personally requested a job in the library. I heard them talk about the former employee who was arrested on the job and taken out of the building in handcuffs. Names of old co-workers were tossed around. Miss So-and-So was exacting and precise. Mr. So-and-So was fun and down-to-earth. I also heard a lot about a woman named Connie who was in charge of one of the library departments.

The names didn't mean much; I was still trying to learn the details of the job. One day, while discussing the books in the juvenile collection, a co-worker said, "And of course every year we order the latest Newbery winners..."

(I smiled. Newbery -- at last I was hearing a familiar name!)

"...and the Caldecott winners..."

(Another smile. Another familiar name.)

"...and the Black Award winners."

(I continued to smile, but it was a fake smile -- as I had never heard of a "Black Award." Did my co-worker mean the Coretta Scott King Awards, which are given to African American children's book creators? I was confused.)

Over the next few months, I would occasionally hear other references to the Black Awards. Finally, I had to ask: "Do you mean the Coretta Scott K--"

"No," my co-worker interrupted. "The Irma Simonton Black Awards."

That threw me. I thought I knew a lot about children's books, but this was one award I didn't know. Of course I immediately started doing some research.

The Irma Simonton Black Award was named after an educator and author who was a founding member of the Bank Street Writers Laboratory, famous as the training ground for writers such as Margaret Wise Brown. Mrs. Black was affiliated with Bank Street for her entire professional life -- as a nursery school teacher, a teacher of children's literature, and director of publications and communications. She also wrote a variety of books aimed at parents and professionals (OFF TO A GOOD START : A HANDBOOK FOR MODERN PARENTS, 1946) as well as many picture books for young readers, including HAMLET : A COCKER SPANIEL, 1938; THE TROUBLEMAKER, 1959, and THE OLD MAN WHO COOKED AND CLEANED, 1970.


Researching the Irma Simonton Black Award, I learned that many luminaries of the children's book world had received this honor, including William Steig, Chris Van Allsburg, and Jerry Pinkney. I guess the main reason I'd never noticed the award is that it honors picture books -- and that's never been my top area of interest. Still, it seems a worthy award for many reasons. Over the years, a lot people have complained that the Newbery Medal seldom recognizes picture book texts. Others complain that some of the Caldecott winners are beautifully-illustrated but have weak texts. The Black Award offers an alternative solution. According to the Bank Street's website, the award honors "a book in which text and illustrations are inseparable, each enhancing and enlarging on the other to produce a singular whole." And children have a hand in determining the winner. An initial list of twenty to twenty-five nominees are selected by an adult committee. Students at the Bank Street School for Children narrow the titles down to four finalists, which are then sent to a number of different schools and libraries at which kids choose the winner. According to the Bank Street site, one recent winner was selected by 2500 students at schools in five different states.

A couple years after researching this award, we got our copy of the latest winner at the library. While cataloging it, I told one of my co-workers what I had learned about the Irma Simonton Black Award. She nodded and said, "Yeah, I remember hearing some of that stuff before."

"From where?" I asked, because -- egotistical as I am about kid-book knowledge -- I could hardly believe she knew something about children's literature before me.

"I think Connie told me about it."

"Connie who?"

"Connie, our old boss. Oh, didn't I tell you that Irma Simonton Black was Connie's mother?"

Um...no...nobody had ever told me that.

A few years went by, and one day I happened upon a biographical entry for Mrs. Black in a reference book. She was born in 1906 and died in 1972. But what caught my eye was the cause of death: "died of stab wounds."

Stab wounds?

I ran to my co-worker's desk and gasped, "Did you know that Connie's mom" (because by then I thought of her as "Connie's mom" even though I'd never met Connie in my life) "died of stab wounds???"

"Yeah, I think I remember that," she replied in a dull voice, then returned to her work.

People can be awfully blasé, can't they? I mean, if I had a co-worker whose mother was a famous writer...and had an award named after her...and died of stab wounds, I'd be talking about it all the time. It would be a story I pulled out at every cocktail party I attended -- if I ever attended cocktail parties. But that's just me. Other people don't feel the need to live their lives basking in the shadow of celebrity.

As it turns out, Mrs. Black was stabbed to death in her Greenwich village home in what is still an unsolved murder. Out of this tragedy, her family established the Irma Simonton Black Award in her honor. Beginning in 1992, the name of the prize was changed to The Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children's Literature in order to also recognize Irma's husband. ...Or, as I now think of him, "Connie's dad."

Here is the list of all the winning books:

1972 / MOUSE TALES by Arnold Lobel

1973 / BEAR MOUSE by Bernice Freschet, illustrated by Donald Carrick; HARLEQUEN AND THE GIFT OF MANY COLORS by Remy Charlip and Burton Supree

1974 / SHE COME BRINGING ME THAT LITTLE BABY GIRL by Eloise Greenfield, illustrated by John Steptoe

1975 / MORRIS'S DISAPPEARING BAG by Rosemary Wells; THE MAGGIE B. by Irene Hass

1976 / THE EASTER EGG ARTITS by Adrienne Adams; EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT A DRAGON LOOKS LIKE by Jay Williams, illustrated by Mercer Mayer

1977 / THE MYSTERIOUS TADPOLE by Steven Kellogg

1978 / FELIX IN THE ATTIC by Larry Bograd, illustrated by Dirk Zimmer

1979 / THE GARDEN OF ABDUL GASAZI by Chris Van Allsburg

1980 / GORKY RISES by William Steig

1981 / THE STORIES JULIAN TELLS by Ann Cameron, illustrated by Ann Strugnell

1982 / MUSTARD by Charlotte Graebner, illustrated by Donna Diamond

1983 / NO ONE IS GOING TO NASHVILLE by Mavis Jukes, illusrated by Larry Bloom

1984 / THE MYSTERIES OF HARRIS BURDICK by Chris Van Allsburg

1985 / CHLOE AND MAUDE by Sandra Boynton

1986 / DR. CHANGE by Joanna Cole, illustrated by Donald Carrick

1987 / HECKEDY PEG by Audrey Wood, illustrated by Don Wood

1988 / THE PORCUPINE MOUSE by Bonnie Pryor, illustrated by Maryjane Begin

1989 / THE TALKING EGGS by Robert D. San Souci, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney

1990 / CHARLES ANDERSON by Barbara Abercrombie, illustrated by Mark Graham

1991 / THE ENCHANTED WOOD by Ruth Sanderson.

1992 / THE KING'S EQUAL by Katherine Paterson, illustrated by Vladimer Vagin

1993 / THREE SACKS OF TRUTH by Eric A. Kimmell, illustrated by Robert Rayevsky

1994 / PINK AND SAY by Patricia Polacco

1995 / WICKED JACK by Connie Nordheim Wooldridge, illustrated by Will Hillenbrand

1996 / JOJOFU by Michael P. Waite, illustrated by Yorkio Ito

1997 / AKIAK : A TALE FROM THE IDITAROD by Robert J. Blake

1998 / ZAK'S LUNCH by Margie Palatini, illustrated by Howard Fine; RAISING DRAGONS by Jerdine Nolen, illustrated by Elise Primavera

1999 / A DOG LIKE JACK by DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan

2000 / THE RAFT by Jim LaMarche

2001 / THE THREE PIGS by David Wiesner

2002 / BUBBA AND BEAU, BEST FRIENDS by Kathi Appelt, illustrated by Arthur Howard

2003 / HOW I BECAME A PIRATE by Melinda Long

2004 / KNUFFLE BUNNY by Mo Willems

2005 / SAMMY, THE CLASSROOM GUINEA PIG by Alix Berenzy

2006 / ONCE I ATE A PIE by Patricia MacLachlan and Emily MacLachlan Charest, illustrated by Katy Schneider

2007 / THE WICKED BIG TODDLAH by by Kevin Hawkes

2008 / MAIL HARRY TO THE MOON by Robie H. Harris, illustrated by Michael Emberley

The Mural in the Gym

The economy was a mess. Jobs were impossible to find.

Sounds a lot like today.

But this was back in the thirties.

James Daugherty was an illustrator and muralist who had recently moved with his young family from New York to a small town named Weston, Connecticut. Soon after arriving in Weston, Mr. Daugherty joined a couple Connecticut arts organizations. His work in their group exhibitions attracted media attention and he soon found himself working for the "Public Works of Art Project" -- a New Deal program established by President Franklin Roosevelt to ease unemployment and create art for public buildings. Beginning in 1934 and, continuing for several more years, Mr. Daugherty painted murals in schools and other government buildings.

One of his projects, "The Life and Times of General Israel Putnam of Connecticut," was a 9 by 22 foot mural celebrating the Revolutionary War hero. It was displayed at the Town Hall in Greenwich, Connecticut from 1935 until 1940, when the Town Hall was renovated and Daugherty's mural was transferred to the Hamilton Avenue School. There the mural was hung high on the wall of the gymnasium, where it was battered by basketballs and grew increasingly dark with age.

No one paid much attention to the mural until the Daugherty Archive, which owned preliminary sketches for the work, tracked it down at the Hamilton Avenue School. The Ruth W. Brown Foundation granted $60,000 for the painting to be restored, then moved to the school's lobby.

But a funny thing happened during restoration.

According to a 2006 New York Times article:

...Scrubbed of dirt, the painting became a richly colored scene of snarling animals, tomahawk-wielding American Indians and a half-naked General Putnam strapped to a burning stake.

“We run a very tight ship in terms of behavior,” said Damaris Rau, the principal of the Hamilton Avenue school. “How can I then have a mural that depicts guns and knives, when I don’t accept that from my own children?”

Ms. Rau also said the school, which has the highest minority population in a predominantly white district, could not endorse a painting that cast Indians in a negative light.

After much debate, it was decided that the mural was "too violent for the school" and would instead be hung in the reference section of the Greenwich Public Library.


A different painting, showcasing local (non-violent) history, would replace the Daugherty mural in the lobby of the school.

So the story has a happy ending.

One can't say that Daugherty's mural, "The Life and Times of General Israel Putnam of Connecticut," has been censored. It never was intended for children, after all; the original work was created for the Town Hall. And it's now on view in a public library where children can, of course, look at it if they wish.

But there is something rather ironic about this story.

When James Daugherty's work for the WPA came to an end, he began writing and illustrating children's books. His first, ANDY AND THE LION was named a 1939 Caldecott Honor Book.

1939 was also the year he published DANIEL BOONE. Looking at that book today may cause readers to raise their eyebrows.

People complained that the mural depicted snarling animals and a half-naked Israel Putnam?

Well, here's a picture from DANIEL BOONE depicting a snarling wildcat and a half-naked Baby Boone:


There was concern that the mural showed "tomahawk-wielding American Indians." Well, so does DANIEL BOONE:


Then there was the issue about the mural's guns and knives. You mean like the guns and knives in DANIEL BOONE?


And what's that they said about casting Native Americans in a negative light?


All the controversial images which drew criticism in the mural are also on view in James Daugherty's DANIEL BOONE...


...a children's book which won the 1940 Newbery Medal. Granted, it's probably nobody's favorite Newbery, but its status as an award winner keeps the book on most library shelves even today.

I wonder if it's in the library at the Hamilton Avenue School?

Then Came November's Brunch

I’ve always loved October: the cooler weather...the colorful trees...my birthday...and then, of course, Halloween on the very last day of the month. When I was a kid, we spent the entire month planning and preparing for the big night. What made it special, of course, is that Halloween night only came once a year. And it lasted such a short time. Starting at twilight on October 31, there were only a couple hours before all the porch lights went out and we were back home, pawing through the treats in our pillow cases and desperately trying to trade our yucky Banana Chews for something cool like a Snickers or Hershey bar.

Life seems to be very different these days. Instead of that brief “window of opportunity” for trick-or-treating, kids now seem to have many different chances for trick-or-treat. Instead of going out after dark...in the cold and wind...wearing a coat on top of your best-ever costume because your mom insisted, kids can now trick-or-treat indoors, in the afternoon, in businesses and malls.

I realized this last Saturday (last Saturday -- a full week before Halloween!) when I saw kids in costume trooping from barber shop to restaurant to drugstore, getting candy from local businesses. Later in the week I heard about something called “Trick or Trunk,” held in a church parking lot, which allowed kids to go from car to car to pick up treats. And then yesterday afternoon I was at the grocery store and they had little stations set up all around the store where costumed kids could get treats. By this count alone, some kids could have gone trick-or-treating three times before the big night rolled around. And who knows how many other T-or-T opportunities were out there that I didn’t know about?

Incidentally, the grocery store event was irritating. They had big signs on the front doors that said, “PLEASE REMOVE YOUR MASK BEFORE ENTERING” -- I guess as a security precaution.

I’d barely walked through the doors before a manager said, “Sir, please take off your mask.”

“I’m...not wearing a mask.”

I took a shopping cart and made it to the end of the aisle before a woman behind the deli counter called out, “We’re not allowing masks in the store.”

“It’s not a mask!” I replied.

I went down one of the aisles and a stock-girl said, “No masks in the store.”

“I’m not wearing a mask!”

She winced, then tried to to make up for it. “Well, I like your costume. It’s very funny.”

“Thanks,” I said, “but I’m not wearing a costume. These are my regular clothes.”

That does it. Next year I’m just going to stay home all day on Halloween and eat “fun-size” Kit-Kats and Butterfingers.

Today’s shorter-than-usual post-Halloween brunch provides some brief info on award honor books.


THEN CAME NOVEMBER

Today’s the first day of November and I just came across the perfect book for the season:


I found it for a dollar.

Written by Nan Gilbert and released in 1963, THEN CAME NOVEMBER strikes me as an oddity. For one thing, it was issued by Whitman Books, best known for publishing TV tie-ins or series books. I wasn’t aware they published stand-alone novels at all. Nor did I know that their readership included young adults. Yet this book is labeled “A Teen Novel” at the top of the spine and the plot summary sounds darker than the average Whitman book, describing a high schooler who gets in with a cool crowd -- in crowd known for their “short skirts, bright clothes, charge accounts” -- as well as a sportscar called the Pussycat! “For Dulcy there would never be another October like this one! She was riding high and no one, but no one could stop her ascent. ...Then came November.”

I’m also intrigued by the format of the book. It resembles the typical Whitman volume -- cheap cardboard cover, no dustjacket, low-quality yellow pages -- the kind of book that, as someone once mentioned on this blog, used to be sold in the toy department at dime stores. Yet it strives to resemble a higher-quality trade volume, with the plot description printed on a faux-”flap” inside the front cover:


and an author bio inside the back cover:


I’ve never really seen anything like this before. As for the quality of the novel, I can’t comment. I just got this book and, considering the huge pile of books in my “to-be-read” pile, I may not get to this one until “Then Came November 2010.”

HONOR BOOKS

Blog-reader Sarah-with-an-H wrote to ask, “Could you explain the difference between a Printz Honor book and a Printz Award book? Does one simply mean it won, and the other mean it was nominated?”

To answer the question, every year many titles are nominated for the Printz Award, which is given to that year’s best young adult book. According to the rules of the award, “’best’” is defined solely in terms of literary merit.” Titles are nominated by members of the committee as well as “from the field” -- although authors and editors are not permitted to nominate their own books. Titles with “field nominations” must be seconded by committee members.

The winning book is selected by a weighted vote. According to the ALA website, this means “To win, a title must receive five first place votes and must also receive at least five more points than the second place title.”

After the Printz Award book is chosen, the committee can then go back and select up to four Honor Books from the list of nominated titles. A weighted ballot is used to choose these as well.

So...out of many nominated titles comes ONE Printz Award winner. After that title is chosen, up to four other titles can be chosen as Honor Books.

PRINTZ TRIVIA

Unlike the Newbery Medal, which must be given to either a U.S. citizen or a writer who resides in the United States, the Printz Award is international in scope. Melina Marchetta, the author of this year’s winner, JELLICOE ROAD, is Australian -- as is Margo Lanagan, who wrote the Honor Book TENDER MORSELS; Terry Pratchett, who received an Honor for NATION, is from Great Britain.

In the ten years of this award’s existence, a wide variety of authors have been honored. Some have already merited recognition twice. They are:

David Almond: SKELLIG (2000 Honor Book), KIT’S WILDERNESS (2001 winner.)

Markus Zusak: I AM THE MESSENGER (2006 Honor Book), THE BOOK THIEF (2007 Honor Book.)

Margo Lanagan: BLACK JUICE (2006 Honor Book), TENDER MORSELS (2009 Honor Book)

John Green: LOOKING FOR ALASKA (2006 winner), AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES (2007 Honor Book.)

M.T. Anderson: THE ASTONISHING LIFE OF OCTAVIAN NOTHING, Volume 1 (2007 Honor Book) and Volume 2 (2009 Honor Book.)

The Printz is still a comparatively new award; it will be interesting to see how many of these “double-dippers” continue to be honored in future years. Who will end up having a record-number of Printz Awards and Honor Books?

SPEAKING OF HONORS...

I was honored and delighted to learn that Collecting Children’s Books was included in the article This Blog's for You: Ten of the best blogs for folks who take kids' lit seriously (but not too seriously). One correction -- I’m not a librarian (I just play one on the web...and have worked in libraries for 30-plus years) but I’m tremendously pleased to be mentioned among such fine company in this article by the Queen Bee of children’s book blogging, Elizabeth Bird.

THEN CAME NaNoWriMo

Today is the first day of National Novel Writing Month. You can find out more about it here. Can you write a 175 page novel between November 1 and November 30? Hmm...good length for a children’s book...isn’t it?

Sorry for the brevity of today’s blog, but I’ve been working on another project all week and got a little behind in blogging. Hope you’ll be back!