Banned Books (Last) Week

Last Saturday marked the end of Banned Books Week. Begun in 1982, this annual observance -- sponsored by the American Library Assocation and the American Booksellers Association, among others -- celebrates intellectual freedom and the right to read.

Instead of saying I'm a week late with this blog entry, let's just pretend I'm really, really early (like 51 weeks early) for next year's Banned Books Weeks.

Besides, this is an issue that deserves discussion all year long. Books are challenged every day in libraries. And there are people who devote their entire lives and careers to promoting intellectual freedom. In one form or another, every week is Banned Books Week. And all of our lives are impacted.

In grade school one of our English textbooks included a section of Gilbert and Sullivan lyrics printed as poems. We liked them so much that our teacher brought in a record album of Gilbert & Sullivan songs. We sat listening to the first couple tracks and then a selection from THE MIKADO began to play:

On a tree by a river a little tom-tit
Sang "Willow, titwillow, titwillow"

At the first giggle from the class, our teacher raced over to the record player and pulled the needle off the LP with a SCRRRRRATCH and said fun time was over, we needed to get back to our reading. Then she skipped right past the Gilbret & Sullivan unit and moved on to "Abou Ben Adhem" by Leigh Hunt, which we didn't understand and wasn't nearly as entertaining as Dicky-birds singing, "Oh willow, titwillow, titwillow."

Censorship? I don't know. And was it censorship a few years later in high school when an English teacher passed out paperback copies of SIDDHARTHA by Herman Hesse, with a piece of gray duct tape concealing the bare chest of the Buddha figure on the cover of each and every book? It's not like she wanted to prevent us from reading the novel -- quite the opposite. But she did try to stop us from looking at the illustration.

The 1970s were weird that way. I still remember reading a letter to a review journal back then in which a librarian proudly reported that she'd whited-out the word "bastard" in her library's copy of Thomas Rockwell's HOW TO EAT FRIED WORMS and written in the word "bum" instead.


Then there was the person who created construction-paper diapers and pasted them over Mickey's private parts in Maurice Sendak's IN THE NIGHT KITCHEN.


Around that time I was at the library and overheard (well, eavesdropped on) two librarians talking about a new children's title called FREDDY'S BOOK by John Neufeld. One said, "It was obviously just written to shock people and get publicity." The other responded, "Well, this library system won't be buying it!" I thought about that statement (after, you know, jotting down the title so I could find it elsewhere) and realized there were a lot of books the Detroit Public Library didn't purchase for its shelves. Back in those days, they didn't stock the controversial Judy Blume titles ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET or THEN AGAIN, MAYBE I WON'T. And because someone way back in time had found the Baum's Oz books to have "no value," those volumes were not offered in our library either...and consequently I still haven't read them to this day.

Can this kind of "book selection" be called censorship? I'm not even sure about that. After all, no one said these books couldn't or shouldn't be published. On the other hand, they did block us from having access to them when we were growing up....

Sometimes I wonder if I ever contributed to that situation myself. There was a time when I wrote and published hundreds of book reviews a year. Many of these volumes were pretty bad and I said so. That was my opinion and -- while I contend that it was pretty well-informed opinion -- I do wonder if my opinion ever affected book selection decisions and kept a book out of the hands of the kid who needed it most.

Most of the time I feel like every kid should have access to every book. But then I start to think about volumes published in a less enlightened age. What about titles like this 1950s career series where kids are relegated to various jobs by sex, with boys getting to explore the fields of firefighting, carpentry, aviation and law enforcement, while girls get to be librarians and telephone operators?



What about books that reinforce cultural or religious stereotypes? Should they be removed from library shelves? Is that censorship too?

This is why I need more than just a week to think about banned books. And to celebrate our freedom to read. I'm glad that things have changed so much since I was a kid. The Detroit Public Library now carries Baum and Blume. I hope they always will. Yet we all know that societies constantly change and that winds blow in both directions. For every one of us who peels back the tape on the cover of SIDHARTHA, tracks down a copy of FREDDY'S BOOK, and demands to read freely, there is someone else -- maybe MANY someone elses -- out there covering up illustrations, whiting out words, and challenging our very right to read. Who knows what the future will hold. I just hope it's not a classroom without music...an illustration completely hidden by tape...and entire pages and books whited-out and blank.

Dancing with the Authors

Last night my favorite bookstore, Bookbeat, sponsored a signing event at a local library. Author Heather Henson and Caldecott-winning artist David Small appeared to celebrate THAT BOOK WOMAN, a story about a Kentucky boy whose life is changed by a packhorse librarian who delivers books to his Appalachian home.

I don't know that I've ever heard an entire book read aloud by its author, so it was especially fascinating to hear Ms. Henson recite her story in an authentic Kentucky accent. She then spoke about the history of the Depression-era packhorse librarians and told how she came to write the book. David Small explained why he made certain design decisions, such as creating a volume that is wider than it is tall and keeping the face of the book woman obscured throughout the story. He showed samples from the original "dummy" (mock-up) of the book, created on what was "essentially typing paper," and said that most of his preliminary artwork ends up in a "burn barrel" in his backyard. (Wouldn't it be every book collector's dream to rescue some of that art before it went up in smoke?) Mr. Small works in a studio only a three-minute walk from the home he shares with his wife and frequent collaborator Sarah Stewart, herself a gifted picture book author.

Although Heather Henson and David Small labored on THAT BOOK WOMAN for several years, this weekend marked the first time they had ever met. Their conversation described the give-and-take process that occurs when two individual talents come together to create a work that ultimately develops a life of its own. For example, while Small obviously created illustrations to Henson's text, there were times when details of his artwork would, in turn, lead the author to make some minor changes in the story's wording. When writing the book, Henson had envisioned the protagonist as a young boy with an older sister but, in creating the illustrations, Small opted to draw Cal as an older boy with a younger sister. And he was right -- that decision makes the story both stronger and more touching. Small also revealed that, as work on the book came to a conclusion, the editor called and told him -- to his shock -- that he had forgotten to illustrate one passage. The resulting picture -- of Cal's "pap" offering the Book Woman a "poke of berries" turned out to be Henson's favorite illustration in the volume.

After last night's presentation, there was time for David Small and Heather Henson to sign books. At previous author signings, I have usually tried to get a early spot in line so I can avoid the crowds and get home to, you know, watch DANCING WITH THE STARS on TV. But after a book-collecting friend told me that she usually opts to be last in line I thought I'd try out that method instead, especially since I had a number of books to be signed -- not just THAT BOOK WOMAN, but also Kathi Appelt's much-praised new novel, THE UNDERNEATH, which Mr. Small illustrated, and the Sarah Stewart/David Small Caldecott Honor Book, THE GARDENER. And since Ms. Stewart was also in attendance, that meant there was the opportunity for a wonderfully unexpected double-signing.

I'm glad I hung out at the very end of the line. It gave me the opportunity to eavesdrop (er...listen in) on several conversations and learn that Mr. Small has a new book coming out next year -- an autobiography in the form of a graphic novel -- called STITCHES. My bookstore friend has seen a couple sample chapters and says he can't get it out of his head, calling it the "best thing David has done yet."

Although I'm normally a very reticent person, I found it very easy to talk to David Small, Heather Henson, and Sarah Stewart. The latter said I had a beautiful head of hair. I don't, but -- my gosh -- it was a nice thing to say. She also strung together her and David's signatures on THE GARDENER with this inscription:

SARAH STEWART and her sweetheart DAVID SMALL

Although I loved getting all my books signed, I was especially happy that I'd brought along the program for the 2001 Newbery Caldecott Wilder Awards Banquet


so I could have it signed by that year's Caldecott winner:


Talk about a collector's item!

Mr. Small, who illustrated the entire program, then identified the authors and artists he'd caricatured. Here's the spread featuring that year's Newbery and Caldecott Honor author and artists. From left to right, there's Ian Falconer (Caldecott Honor for OLIVIA), Joan Bauer (Newbery Honor for HOPE WAS HERE), and Sharon Creech (Newbery Honor, THE WANDERER.) Jack Gantos (Newbery Honor, JOEY PIGZA LOSES CONTROL) is dancing in the middle, followed by Kate DiCamillo (Newbery Honor, BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE), Betsy Lewin (Caldecott Honor, CLICK-CLACK MOO), and Christopher Bing (Caldecott Honor, CASEY AT THE BAT.)


The next spread shows that year's winners: Richard Peck (Newbery for A YEAR DOWN YONDER, David Small himself, and Milton Meltzer, who who won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for his body of work. Seated behind them are the chairpersons of the award committees, as well as a presidential band featuring Richard Nixon playing the piano and Thomas Jefferson on the violin. Fala, FDR's Scottie, joins in the dancing.


...And speaking of dancing, I still got home from the signing in time to catch most of DANCING WITH THE STARS on TV. However, exhausted from my busy and exciting night of meeting famous authors, I soon found myself dozing off in front of the TV...and the dancers on the screen soon morphed into the dancers depicted in my awards program banquet.

Did I just dream it, or did I hear DWTS judge Bruno Tonioli telling Richard Peck, "Reeeechard, you are a dans-ing dynamo! Each week, no matta what dans you do, you come through with flying colors. Maybe you learn to waltz by writing old-time stories like THEEE RIVER BETWEEEEN US. Maybe you learn to jive when writing World War II story ON THE WEEEENGS OF HEROES. Maybe you learn the Paso while in Mexico researching UNFEEENISH' PORTRAIT OF JESSICA. I do not know. I only know you have a deeelightful deeeversity of deft and dynaaaamic dans-ing dexterity. Bravo!"

And did I hear head judge Len Goodman telling Milton Meltzer, "Now that is what I call a good old-fashioned effort, with just the right amount of welly! None of that silliness with wigs and unicycles and all that shilly-shally. Instead, you've got the kind of solid, lifelong talent that lasts for years and years while providing just the right amount of entertainment and enjoyment. You're definitely a credit to us seniors, old chap, and may I say that Cloris Leachman could learn a few lessons from you about dignity and grace."

And I finally dozed off for good, envisioning David Small "and his sweetheart" Sarah Stewart dancing off the stage and across the page....

A Brunch for Sunday and Other Days That End in Y

Today’s blog entry contains the usual Sunday mix of random facts and opinions on children’s books old and new...though I may have to cut this brunch short in order to run out to K-Mart and buy myself a new wallet. On Friday night I threw a bunch of clothes in the washing machine and didn’t discover until too late that I’d left my wallet in the back pocket of my pants. Remember Ramona and the washing machine?


That Louis Darling illustration from Beverly Cleary’s HENRY AND THE CLUBHOUSE pretty much represents me on Friday night. Okay, I didn’t open the washer while it was still running. In fact, I didn’t realize what I’d done until the entire cycle was finished and I’d removed all the clothes...then wondered what that limp, melted-looking thing stuck to the side of the drum was. But the look of outrage on Ramona’s face -- including the hair standing on end! -- matches my reaction. Driver’s license, charge cards and other bits of plastic came out fine. So did the money, though it remained clammy all weekend. Some of the other pieces of paper turned to mush though. Now I’ve got to go buy a wallet and pay for it with clammy but clean cash.

TWILIGHT ZONE GETS GRAPHIC

Has any television show permeated our culture in quite the same way as Twilight Zone? Rod Serling’s classic ended its original run in the early sixties, but over four decades later people still talk about their favorite episodes. The familiar theme music is a cultural touchstone; if you tell someone about a spooky incident or odd coincidence you've experienced, they will often respond by singing that unforgettable “doo-doo, doo-doo” TWILIGHT ZONE tune. This series simply refuses to die (sounds like the title of a TWILIGHT ZONE episode: “The Show That Refused to Die”) and returns again and again in new guises. And now it’s returning to life in a series of graphic novels from Walker Books. The first two volumes (of eight), WALKING DISTANCE and THE AFTER HOURS, adapted by Mark Kneece and illustrated by Dove McHargue, have just been simultaneously released in paperback and hardcover. Most kids love the TWILIGHT ZONE, so issuing this new series of books for young readers was a good idea...though I question the specific episodes chosen for adaptation. The whole premise of “Walking Distance” -- a middle-aged businessman returning to his bucolic youth and wanting to tell his younger self “Don’t let any of it go by without enjoying it...because there won’t be any more cotton candy. No more band concerts” is advice that even the protagonist learns cannot be shared with the young.


WALKING DISTANCE is a melancholy story that will be best appreciated by adults. I’m hoping the other seven volumes in this graphic-novel series have more kid-appeal. If they do, I can imagine these TWILIGHT ZONE books really taking off with young readers.

TWILIGHT ZONE / GREEN ZONE

I was impressed to see this notice on the copyright page of WALKING DISTANCE:

“All papers used by Walker & Company are natural, recycable products made from wood grown in well-managed forests. The manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.”

I wonder how many other publishers follow this policy?

SPEAKING OF GREEN GRAPHICS

I just heard on Rachel Maddow’s radio show that the reason the color green is used so much in comic books (the Hulk, the Green Hornet, the Green Lantern, etc.) is that historically green was a cheaper color to produce and purchase...so comic book artists were encouraged to utilize it more frequently than other colors. True or urban legend? And I wonder if the same was ever true in children’s book illustrations. If anything, I think green may have been used less often than other colors in children’s books. I say that because I once read that Arnold Lobel was praised for using the color green so well when many other illustrators had trouble with it.

IDENTIFYING A HARCOURT FIRST EDITION

If you find an Eleanor Estes book, or any Harcourt title from the 1930s through 1950s, and want to know if it’s a first edition, check out the copyright page. If you see a Roman numeral “I” on that page, you’ve got a first!

MY LATEST PURCHASE

I just added a first edition of the 1975 Newbery Honor MY BROTHER SAM IS DEAD to my collection. What makes this book special is that it was signed by both authors, brothers James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier.


I well remember what a huge splash this Revolutionary War novel made when it was first published and I now wonder if it’s still assigned in schools or read for pleasure by kids today. Back in 1975, I was surprised by how modern the dialogue was. But the novel’s afterward explained that contemporary language was used “partly...to make the story easier to read, but mainly it is because nobody is really sure how people talked in those days.” I’d never thought of that before.

LITERARY COLLABORATIONS

From what I understand, the Collier brothers contributed to MY BROTHER SAM in different ways. Esteemed historian Christopher did the initial research, then he and James created the characters together. Novelist James would then plot and actually write the novel.

If the Colliers had won the Newbery (over Virginia Hamilton’s M.C. HIGGINS THE GREAT) it would have been the first time a book by two authors had won the award. Other Newbery Honor colllaborations include 1931’s pretty-much-forgotten OOD-LE-UK THE WANDERER by Alice Lide and Margaret Johansen, the classic MR. POPPER’S PENGUINS by Richard and Florence Atwater and MAGIC MAIZE, THE APPLE AND THE ARROW, and BIG TREE by Mary and Conrad Buff.

MISSING FROM THAT LIST

How I wish I could add a title by Vera and Bill Cleaver to that Newbery list, but this husband-and-wife team never even got a Newbery Honor, despite writing many worthy titles. During the 1960s and1970s they were considered among the greatest creators in the field and today all of their books, with the exception of the classic WHERE THE LILIES BlOOM, are out of print. How sad is that?

COLLABORATIONS FROM PAGE TO SCREEN

The new movie NICK AND NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST is getting great reviews. It’s based on the recent young-adult novel written by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. They’ve also collaborated on NAOMI AND ELY’S NO-KISS LIST which is about to be made into a movie starring Hayden Panettiere.

IN THIS CASE, NEWBERRY IS SPELLED WITH TWO Rs

If you’re interested in the history of children’s books, Chicago’s Newberry Library is the place to be. They are currently running an exhibit called “The Artifacts of Childhood : 700 Years of Children’s Books” which, according to a recent Chicago Tribune article, features sixty-five items “including 500-year-old Italian and French publications of Aesop's Fables, an exquisitely illustrated 1823 early translation of Grimm fairy tales from German to English and an extremely rare 1865 first edition of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." The exhibit is curated by Paul Gehl and Jenny Schwartzberg. According to the article, when Ms. Schwartzberg began working at the Newberry in 1989, there were only 300 volumes listed in the library’s catalog but “since then, she has turned up 10,000 books and games in the Newberry's vast collection, some of them among the rarest, most beautiful examples anywhere.”

What a fun treasure hunt that must have been.

WEEKLY READER

In 2003 Garth Nix began writing the “Keys to the Kingdom” series, each of which uses a day of the week in the title: MISTER MONDAY, GRIM TUESDAY, DROWNED WEDNESDAY, SIR THURSDAY, LADY FRIDAY, SUPERIOR SATURDAY and the upcoming LORD SUNDAY.

If you can read a book a day, you can make it through the whole series in a week.

It crossed my mind that anyone can create their own week’s-worth-of-reading list (my version of N & N’s INFINITE PLAYLIST or N & E’s NO-KISS LIST) using other titles for kids and young adults that incorporate the days of the week.

MISSING SINCE MONDAY by Ann M. Martin
ANOTHER KIND OF MONDAY by William E. Coles
TODAY IS MONDAY by Eric Carle
ONE MONDAY MORNING by Uri Shulevitz
WHO WANTS MUSIC ON MONDAY? by Mary Stolz (did anyone else write such sophisticated novels for young adults in the 1950s?)
MEOW MONDAY by Phyllis Root
MONDAY ON THE MISSISSIPPI by Marilyn Singer

TUESDAY ELEPHANT by Nancy Garfield
A TOAD FOR TUESDAYby Russell E. Erickson
TUESDAY by David Wiesner (the only Caldecott winner with a day in its title)
JUNE 29, 1999 by David Wiesner (because June 29, 1999 was a Tuesday!)
RUBY TUESDAY by Jennifer Anne Kogler

LIBBY ON WEDNESDAY by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
THE WEDNESDAY WITCH by Ruth Chew (it’s October -- time to read it again!)
THE WEDNESDAY WARS by Gary D. Schmidt (the only Newbery Honor with a day in the title)
ALEX AND THE WEDNESDAY CHESS CLUB by Janet S. Wong
WACKY WEDNESDAY by Dr. Seuss
WHAT HAPPENS ON WEDNESDAYS by Emily Jenkins


AWFUL THURSDAY by Ron Roy
GIANT, OR WAITING FOR THE THURSDAY BOAT by Robert Munsch
THURSDAY by Catherine Storr (a boy named Thursday is at the center of this novel, based on the Tam Lin legend; a wonderful book, worth tracking down)
SEE YOU THURSDAY by Jean Ure
GETTING THROUGH THURSDAY by Melrose Cooper
WHERE DOES THURSDAY GO? by Janeen Brian
...and of course any Thanksgiving book!

FRIDAY NIGHT AT HODGES’ CAFE by Tim Egan
FISH FRIDAY by Gayle Pearson (I’d like to see more books by this interesting author; she hasn’t published anything in the twenty-first century)
FREAKY FRIDAY by Mary Rodgers
DOG FRIDAY by Hilary McKay
FLOOD FRIDAY by Lois Lenski
FIELD DAY FRIDAY by Judith Caseley (these last five titles all sound alike!)
...and of course ROBINSON CRUSOE by Daniel Defore.

TODAY IS SATURDAY by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (the only poetry book by this novelist)
ONE SATURDAY MORNING by Barbara Baker
SATURDAY THE TWELFTH OF OCTOBER by Norma Fox Mazer (one of my all-time favorites)
THE VIEW FROM SATURDAY by E.L. Konigsburg (the only Newbery winner with a day in the title)
THE GHOST ON SATURDAY NIGHT By Sid Fleischman
THE SATURDAYS by Elizabeth Enright
JAZZ ON A SATURDAY NIGHT by Leo and Diane Dillon

ALEXANDER, WHO USED TO BE RICH LAST SUNDAY by Judith Viorist
THE SUNDAY OUTING by Gloria Jean Pinkney
CHICKEN SUNDAY by Patricia Polacco
SUNDAY MORNING by Judith Viorist
BABAR’S FAIR WILL BE OPENED NEXT SUNDAY by Laurent de Brunhoff
ADORABLE SUNDAY by Marlene Fanta Shyer (the title character is named Sunday)
WE HAD A PICNIC THIS SUNDAY PAST by Jacqueline Woodson

AWARDMANIA

If you’ve been following any of the children’s book blogs this past week, you have probably seen a lot of controversial discussions about the state of the Newbery Medal. Since some of the participants rank among my dearest of friends and archest of enemies, I’ve pretty much stayed out of the fray, watching from the sidelines:




But I have to admit, I LOVE any and all discussion of book awards. Arguing about past winners and predicting future winners are among my favorite hobbies. In the coming weeks, I’ll be listing some of my 2009 Newbery dreams and guesses on this blog.

Till then, I’m off in search of a new wallet.

Unfortunately, because of our country’s current economic crisis (and the fact that I just spent over $60 on that copy of MY BROTHER SAM IS DEAD) I have almost no money to put in that new wallet.

....Oh well, at least I still have my library card.

Whew!