A "Let's Pretend We're Eating Osso Bucco" Brunch

Among other topics, today's Sunday Brunch looks ahead at a couple young adult novels, looks back at previous Newbery/Caldecott banquets, and discusses what's cooking (literally and figuratively) in New Orleans tonight.


THE RETURN OF CHRISTOPHER CREED

Last week I talked about how excited I was to learn Mary E. Pearson is continuing the story she began with 2009's THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX in a new novel coming out this fall, THE FOX INHERITANCE.

This week I learned that Carol Plum-Ucci has written a sequel to her Printz Honor Book, THE BODY OF CHRISTOPHER CREED. I've always felt that CHRISTOPHER CREED was a near-perfect Printz selection -- a novel both literary and appealing to young readers. So I have big hopes for FOLLOWING CHRISTOPHER CREED, due out September 5 from Harcourt:



"DON'T THINK. JUST JUMP."

A good friend on the east coast got wind of a booksigning for Veronica Roth's very popular YA debut, DIVERGENT:


and arranged to get me a signed copy:


I love the silver ink against the black background -- and I've read enough of the book so far to understand what "Don't think. Just jump" means within the context of the novel.


DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO MISS NEW ORLEANS?

This weekend the American Library Association is having its annual summer convention in New Orleans.

I'm not there. I'm sitting here in my pajamas writing this blog.

If you're sitting there in your pajamas reading this blog, you're not there either.

Isn't it a bummer?

Although I've never been to ALA, I have this "image" of the event in my mind. I imagine strolling up and down the convention floor, picking up stacks and stacks of ARCs from publishers' booths.

I imagine meeting with colleagues to discuss our children's book careers.

I picture myself hobnobbing with famous authors.

I imagine attending the Newbery-Caldecott banquet.

But maybe attending ALA is best left to my imagination.

I've heard that the publishers are persnickety about who gets ARCs; they don't hand them out to "just anybody" who wanders by.

To be honest, I don't have any "colleagues" in the book world and certainly have never had any kind of "career."

And while I've met a couple famous authors in my lifetime, I can't envision ever hobnobbing with them.

No...it's probably better that I just stay home in my pjs.

But even from home, those of us who are un-Conventional can get a sense of what's happening in New Orleans today.

Here's a copy of today's convention newspaper.

And if you go to search.twitter.com and type in "ALA" you can read all kinds of tweets and see a huge number of photos right from the convention floor.

Have you ever wondered how the winning authors and illustrators are announced at the big banquet? If so, here is a Youtube clip of Grace Lin receiving her Newbery Honor certificate for WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON at last year’s banquet.

And here's a video by fellow-Michigander Travis Jonker of 100 Scope Notes fame, which encapsulates all of 2010's conference into less than two minutes and ends with scenes from the big banquet.

Do you want to attend tonight's banquet vicariously? Here is some info about tonight's festivities, courtesy of ALA's website:

The banquet will be held in the Grand Ballroom of the New Orleans Marriott at 555 Canal Street. The ALA says, "The Newbery Caldecott Banquet is a very special celebratory evening. Guests are encouraged to dress in cocktail attire. Please bring a wrap or sweater as the room is large and can become cool."

The doors open at 6:00 PM for a pre-banquet cash bar reception in the Mardi Gras Balloom. The site says to "Come early to mingle with friends and colleagues." See why I couldn't go? I don't drink. Plus no friends and definitely no colleagues.

The banquet room doors open at 6:45 PM.

At 7:00 PM, the ALSC president offer opening remarks and dinner is served.

Here's the menu:

Bibb lettuce salad with roasted tomatoes, artichokes, and feta cheese with a lemon thyme vinaigrette.

Osso bucco style short rib served over smoked gouda grits with asparagus and root vegetables.

Strawberry chocolate shortcake with whipped cream.

Iced tea, coffee, tea.

Yeah, I had to look up what "osso bucco" meant. It's always a little scary to learn the definition of any food term. I mean, sweetmeats sound good until you know what they are. According to Barron's Food Lover's Companion, osso bucco is an "Italian dish made of veal shanks braised with olive oil, white wine, stock, onions, tomatoes, garlic, anchovies, carrots, celery and lemon peel. Traditionally, osso buco is garnished with gremolata and served accompanied by risotto. In Italian, osso buco means 'pierced bone.'" (The problem with looking up any word is that it leads you to other words you don't know. Like "gremolata." I tracked that one down in the Wikipedia. It means "a chopped herb condiment typically made of lemon zest, garlic, and parsley.")

I'm intriged by "smoked gouda grits" and wish Quaker Oats made an instant version so I could try it. On the other hand, I would have to scrape the strawberries off my shortcake because strawberries are one of the very few foods (besides sweetmeats) I do not like and won't eat.

After dinner, the award presentation and speeches begin at 8:30 PM, followed by a receiving line at 10:00 PM. The creators will not be signing books at the event (don't even try!) but you can meet them personally IF you follow "Receiving Line Etiquette" which "is a great way to say hello and convey your congratulations to the Awardees and Honorees. However, with 1,200 people going through the line, we do ask that you keep your comments as brief as possible so that everyone has a chance to meet the Awardees and Honorees."

In other words: shut up, smile, shake hands, and keep it moving, folks.


SCENES FROM BANQUETS PAST

1922: The very first Newbery banquet was held in my hometown of Detroit. No one bothered to save Hendrik Van Loon's acceptance speech for THE STORY OF MANKIND, though it was noted that he spoke "in a merry vein."

1924: Dorothy Cable Hewes had to deliver her husband's acceptance speech for THE DARK FRIGATE because Charles Boardman Hawes died before the awards were announced.

1932: Just like this year, the convention was held in New Orleans. Newbery winner Laura Adams Armer was living in the Hopi village of Oraibi when she left for NOLA and said, "Traveling by train across New Mexico, through Texas to New Orleans, I found myself as homesick as were the Navajoes themselves when forced to take 'The Long Walk' to Fort Sumner." What a drama queen.

1934: When accepting the Newbery for INVINCIBLE LOUISA, Cornelia Meigs gestured to the spirit of Louisa May Alcott with her hand and said, "If I could stretch my voice across the years, I would say, 'Louisa, this medal is yours,'" and brought several librarians in the audience to tears.

1937: Dorothy Lathrop gave the very first Caldecott acceptance speech, stating, "You must all know how happy it makes me to receive the first medal ever given to a picture book for children, and one that bears the name of so beloved an illustrator as Caldecott. When you think that not many years ago the illustrators of children's books were as anonymous as sculptors are now at the unveiling of their own statues, you will realize how much has been done for illustration. We also hear a great deal about how much illustration has done for children's books, thanks to such people as Frederick Melcher, Anne Carroll Moore and Bertha Mahony, and no one cries 'Hear! Hear!' more loudly and enthusiastically than the illustrators."

1942: Walter D. Edmonds (THE MATCHLOCK GUN) despaired of ever having to write and deliver a speech "not to run much over 45 minutes" than proceeded to give a speech that was over 13 pages in length. Think he made the time limit?

1945: In his acceptance speech for RABBIT HILL, Robert Lawson suggested that his winning the medal was predicted by a rabbit who always showed up on his lawn just before he received good news.

1952: When a nervous Eleanor Estes got up to give her acceptance speech for GINGER PYE, she fell to the floor. Her tablemates thought she'd fainted away but, in actuality, her long poufy dress had gotten caught on her chair. She came up laughing and delivered her speech with aplomb.

1956: Caldecott winner for FROG WENT A-COURTIN', Russian-born Feodor Rojankosky apologized to the audience for his accent, saying, "I am really handicapped as a speaker...my English pronunciation is not exactly that of Sir Laurence Olivier."

1958: Accepting his second Caldecott for TIME OF WONDER, Robert McCloskey said, "Since you are predominately an audience of ladies..." then went on to discuss how airbrushing is used to depict weight loss in advertisements. It was a different time. Today those "ladies" would be throwing osso bucco at him for his sexist remarks.

1960: The first two-time winner of the Newbery, Joseph Krumgold began his acceptance speech for ONION JOHN saying, "Surely the most useful, the most proper way to accept this honor is to offer you the one report that, by your bounty, I'm uniquely qualified to make. This is the first time that you've put anyone up here who is able to bring back to you some idea of how it feels not only to accept the Newbery Medal, but to live with that distinction. So I propose to give you a record of that extraordinary experience."

1962: Elizabeth George Speare accepted her Newbery for her religious-themed novel THE BRONZE BOW admitting, "In my portrait of Jesus I failed. I know that failure was intrinsic in the attempt, but I wish that I could have climbed higher."

1963: In accepting her Newbery for A WRINKLE IN TIME, Madeleine L'Engle said that the Medal's founder, Frederic Melcher had written her a letter saying how excited he was about her book; it was one of the last letters he wrote before his death.

1965: When she finished writing her manuscript for SHADOW OF A BULL, Maia Wojciechowska approached a well-regarded librarian about her chances of publishing a children's book concerning bullfighting. The librarian thought it was unlikely. At the 1965 N-C banquet, where Maia accepted the Newbery for that book, she saw the librarian in the audience and reminded her of their conversation. The librarian denied that they'd ever met.

1970: A shy William Steig gave perhaps the shortest acceptance speech on record when he won for SYLVESTER AND THE MAGIC PEBBLE.

1971: Betsy Byars recalled her experience winning the Newbery for SUMMER OF THE SWANS: "The banquet was held in Dallas and the room was huge and elegant. Eighteen hundred people were there, and the people who were to sit at the head table formed a sort of procession through the tables. Leading us were two teenaged boys in kind of King Arthur page boy suits and they were bearing large banners. The boy preceding me had a banner on which there was a swan made of real swan feathers (hand sewn, one by one) and it was gorgeous, I almost felt like I was back in medieval times. Then just before we were to enter, the boy turned to me and said, 'I could just kill my mom for making me do this.' Instantly I was back in the twentieth century."

1972: Real or imagined health problems prevented Robert C. O'Brien from delivering his own acceptance speech for MRS. FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH. His editor, Jean Karl, presented the speech.

1973: During her acceptance speech for JULIE OF THE WOLVES, Jean Craighead George recalled her son's sixth grade teacher saying, "at the end of a long discouraging day: 'Look, kids, if you'll just read all the Newbery books, you'll get a terrific education, and it'll be a lot more pleasant for both of us.'"

1975: Accepting the Newbery for M.C. HIGGINS THE GREAT, Virginia Hamilton noted, "I am the first black woman and black writer to have received this award. May the American Library Association ever proceed."

1981: Second-time winner Katherine Paterson (JACOB HAVE I LOVED) teased that she was tempted to tell the ALA "We have got to stop meeting like this" during her speech.

1983: Maria Brown won her third Caldecott for SHADOW and noted in her speech that "I suspect it took a certain courage for those on the Caldecott selection committee."

1989: Stephen Gammell's infamous Caldecott acceptance speech for SONG AND DANCE MAN has gone down in history. Read about it in the forthcoming book Elizabeth Bird, Julie Danielson, and I are writing for Candlewick.

2002: Winning the Newbery for A SINGLE SHARD, Linda Sue Park walked off the stage and gave the medal to her father, who had inspired her love of books.

2008: Accepting the Caldecott for THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET, Brian Selznick was the first winner to use a Powerpoint presentation as part of his speech.

2011: Tonight, first-time author Clare Vanderpool will accept her award for MOON OVER MANIFEST and first-time illustrator (and youngest Caldecott winner ever!) Erin Stead will accept hers for A SICK DAY FOR AMOS MCGEE.


JUST READ A GREAT BOOK

I just read an ARC of THE SUMMER I LEARNED TO FLY by Dana Reinhardt and think it's one of the year's standout novels. Set in 1986, the story concerns thirteen-year-old Drew, a lonely girl who works in her mother's gourmet cheese shop, secretly reads a diary kept by her long-deceased father, and carries a pet rat in her backpack. Drew's summer -- and life -- changes when she meets a mysterious boy named Emmett Crane.


When she learns Emmett's secret, the two teenagers set off to pursue a legend -- the only element in the novel that, due to its shaky introduction by the author, strains plausability. THE SUMMER I LEARNED TO FLY is a strong portrait of a lonely girl learning to love, learning to let go, and learning, in her own way, to fly.


JUST READ A LOUSY BOOK

Then there's 12 THINGS TO DO BEFORE YOU CRASH AND BURN by James Proimos. Writer-illustator Proimos has created some fun, goofy books for younger readers (most notably the "Johnny Mutton" stories), but his first novel for teenagers pretty much does crash and burn. After the death of his TV performer father, teenage Hercules Martino is sent to spend some time with his uncle in Baltimore. Uncle Anthony gives Herc a list of twelve tasks (the twelve labors of...you got it) which includes "Clean out the garage. Find a place of worship and pray. Eat a meal with a stranger."


Herc accomplishes these tasks, all the while pursuing the "Beautiful and Unattainable Woman" he met on the train, in a rushed and slipshod fashion. The text -- big print, lots of white space, tiny chapters -- almost reads as an outline for a novel instead of the real thing. The tone is sophomoric throughout -- more like a book for young readers with lots of cursing and a sexual episode tossed in. Reluctant readers, put off by the mammoth size of most of today's YA offerings, may be drawn to this skinny book, but the humor is puerile, the plot is contrived, and Herc's eventual insights are superficial and unearned.


STEPPING UP WITH THE ANSWER

Last week I included a photo of this wonderful children's book themed staircase:


I'd found the picture on the internet, but had no idea where it could be found in real life. A big thanks to "Snappy Di," who provided the answer: the stairs are at the "Magic House," a children's museum in Kirkwood, Missouri.

Thanks, Snappy Di!

...And thank you to everyone who wrote to explain why I might have been kicked off jury duty last week. And those who shared their own feelings of rejection and inadequacy when they too were kicked to the courtroom's curb. There was an article in Friday's paper saying the defendent was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Maybe it's just as well I didn't make that jury. Thursday morning I had a plumbing disaster that filled my bathroom with several inches of standing water and it took so long to clean up that I probably would have been late for court. Then the judge would have thrown me in a holding cell for tardiness. Better to pay $525 for a toilet repair than end up in jail.

Thanks for visiting Collecting Children's Books! Hope you'll be back!

Rejections and Acceptances

The last time you heard from me I was whining about being called for jury duty.

I couldn't imagine anything worse.

I have since discovered that there is something worse than jury service: getting REJECTED for jury service!

The day actually started well.

I'd been worried about getting up at the crack of dawn and finding my way to the remote city where the courthouse was located. But I neither overslept nor got lost on the unfamiliar commute. And when I entered the jury waiting room, lugging my battered briefcase containing six or seven children's books (hey, they said we might have to wait around all day), I was cheered to see how many of the potential jurors had their noses buried in books or hovering above Kindles. I haven't been around that many readers in ages. A judge welcomed us, then we watched a movie about the civic duty of serving on a jury -- or, as the narrator called it, "one of the most important things you may ever do for your community."

I had barely begun reading my first book when my juror number (#110) was called over the loudspeaker and I joined about fifty others in filing to a courtroom. We were told that the pending case was for pre-meditated first degree murder. They began drawing numbers for the jury and -- surprise! -- I was seated in the eighth seat. The judge questioned each of us about our backgrounds, then the lawyers began asking questions of individual jurors. Some of the questions were odd. Example: "If someone with a knife attempted to cut your _____ off, would you have the right to shoot them first?" (This question was directed at males.) Another example: "If you hear bad words in this trial, words that rhyme with 'itch' and 'truck,' will you be offended?"

So anyway, I'm sitting there feeling pretty good. I woke up on time. I got to the courthouse without getting lost. I was seated on what looked like a fascinating trial. And I was suddenly bursting with civic pride about participating in "one of the most important things I may ever do for my community."

Then the lawyers began to use their "peremptory challenges" to dismiss people from the jury. This means they are kicking you off for no stated reason, though it could mean, among other things, that they merely want to change the balance, or make-up, of the jury. It could mean they think you will not be impartial. It could even mean that they just don't like your stinkin' looks. You're not supposed to take it personally.

So they dismissed the woman sitting in front of me. Then they dismissed the young father of six-month-old twins (he was showing pictures of the kids while waiting in line.) Next we said goodbye to the guy with all the piercings who had been in trouble with the law himself a few times. I felt fairly secure. I thought I'd answered the questions well and humbly figured that I'd be an asset to any jury.

That's when the lawyer said, "The prosecution excuses Mr. Sieruta."

I was dumbfounded.

It would have been bad enough if the defense attorney had released me, perhaps thinking I couldn't be fair to his client. But it felt even worse for the prosecution attorney -- or, as they called him in court, "the government" -- to dump me. THE GOVERNMENT kicked me off this case???

Here's the part where I have to share a little personal history.

"Rejection" is the main theme of my life.

I think it started when I was five years old and got kicked out of a swimming class within the first five minutes -- for reasons I'm still puzzling over nearly fifty years later.

And it's only gotten worse since then.

I've been fired from job after job. (Not my fault -- really!)

I've had stories, books, and plays rejected by publishers and agents. (I know: welcome to the club!)

So I guess I should have expected I'd be dumped from this jury since, Heaven knows, I've been dumped everywhere else! But it still came as a surprise and it still hit me like a hard punch in the stomach. I sat there in jury seat #8 for a second, thinking "What is wrong with me? Why don't people like me? What negative thing do people see in me that I don't see in myself?" These were questions worth reflecting on, and maybe someday I'll ponder them while sitting on the banks of Lake Woe-Is-Me, but it was time to leave and I departed the courtroom the same way I move through life: inching sadly along like a snail, leaving a slime trail of leaking self-esteem...and lugging a battered briefcase containing six or seven children's books.

Later that day, however, my thoughts turned from "rejection" to "acceptance" when I received an interesting bit of literary ephemera via e-mail. Open Road Media is releasing one of my favorite children's books, MR. POPPER'S PENGUINS (which, strangely, I did not even read until I was an adult) as an e-book. Those who read this blog regularly know that I'm a fan of books -- I love holdling them, smelling them, hearing the rustle of the pages as I turn them -- and I have not jumped on the e-book bandwagon. But what intrigued me about this e-book version of the classic Richard and Florence Atwater novel is that it comes with additional content, such as a biographical essay, photos of the authors and their family and other archival material. Learning about this, I actually began to see one advantage that e-books could have over their paper-and-ink counterparts; they could include supplemental information and ephemera...just like a DVD with extras and Easter eggs!

One of the most intriguing items offered in this new edition is a copy of the original submission letter for MR. POPPER'S PENGUINS. I'm including it here. Click on the image in order to enlarge it.


Pretty fascinating, isn't it?

I was aware that Mr. Atwater was ill when the book was written, but didn't really know the full circumstances till now.

And I wonder if Florence herself, while carefully explaining what type of penguins should be used in the artwork, could ever have imagined how perfect Robert Lawson's eventual illustrations would be for this novel -- the one and only book she or her husband would ever write.

And, hey, do you think she's dissing Laura Ingalls Wilder in that crack about pioneer stories?

Reading this letter made me think that someone who has access to the papers of many authors, or access to publisher archives, should assemble a collection of the submission letters and acceptance letters of famous children's books. It could even include rejection letters for books that were later published and became big hits. (I'd love to see some of the many rejections that Madeleine L'Engle received for A WRINKLE IN TIME before Farrar accepted it...and it won the Newbery. Or how about Ursula Nordstrom's rejection of Robert Cormier's now-classic THE CHOCOLATE WAR?)

Wouldn't that be a cool book?

Wouldn't it be a happy book?

I can just imagine myself turning the pages and reading the various submission letters (some, perhaps, hesitant and timorous; other perhaps boastful; some perhaps naive to the world of publishing) and the corresponding publisher acceptance letters. I can easily imagine the author's joy upon receiving a positive editorial response. Acceptance is so much better than rejection.

...Which brings me back to my jury experience.

Ever since being dismissed (rejected! expelled! ousted! ostracized! kicked to the curb!) yesterday, more than one person has asked me: "Why do you even care? You said you didn't want to serve on a jury anyway, so what difference does it make if you were let go?"

I tried to explain my feelings with this analogy: "What if you were invited to a party by someone you hardly knew and didn't particulary like? You really, really didn't want to go, but you somehow felt obligated to attend. So you FORCE yourself to go and when you arrive, the host tells you that they don't really want you there. How would that make you feel?"

It's bad enough losing jobs you've loved, having favorite manuscripts rejected, or being dumped by long-time friends...but to be rejected for something you didn't even want to do is the lowest feeling of all.

It's like being turned away from a party you didn't want to attend!

Next time I get a jury summons, maybe I'll conveniently ignore it.

I'd rather spend my time daydreaming about authors nervously sending out submissions, getting those happy acceptance letters, and then planning big parties to celebrate the event.

Now those are parties I'd like to attend!

Sunday Brunch for June 19

Today's Sunday Brunch will be more brief and random than usual. I have to report for jury duty tomorrow, so now need to spend the rest of the day fretting about getting up early in morning (what if I get there late? will they throw me in jail?) and driving a long distance into unknown territory (what if I get lost? will they find me in contempt of court?) The only good thing about the experience is that it's just as likely that I won't get empaneled at all and can spend the entire day reading books in the jury room.

On the other hand, if this blog isn't updated for a few weeks, you'll know I've been sequestered on some major case that takes months and months to resolve -- especially since there may be a lone hold-out juror who can't be budged. Listen for the news report that says, "We can't reveal his name, but he's been seen entering court each day with a children's book in hand."

Anyway, I couldn't let today go by without wishing all the dads out there:


And if I do end up sitting on a lengthy trial, let me take this opportunity to wish everyone else a Happy Fourth of July, a nice Labor Day, a spooky Halloween, a Bountiful Thanksgiving, and a Merry Christmas!


NUMBER THE STAIRS

I came across this photo of a children's-book-themed staircase on the internet. Does anyone know where it originated? Is it in someone's house? A bookstore? A library?


If my stairs weren't carpeted, I'd love to create something similar -- a real Stairway to Heaven!


STAIRWAY TO HELL

Thinking about stairs always makes me remember this book:


Published in 1974, HOUSE OF STAIRS wasn't William Sleator's first book, but it was his first science fiction novel. He's written many more since, but this one still remains my very favorite. The story concerns five orphaned teenagers sent to live in a mysterious building full of nothing but endless staircases -- and a food-dispensing machine that directs their behavior. It is not long before the commands to dance for food take a more menacing turn. This fascinating character study of five teens trapped in a mysterious reality is a science fiction book for those who don't usually like science fiction. In many ways, HOUSE OF STAIRS was ahead of its time. It would fit right in with today's "dystopian novel" trend -- though as a stand-alone novel of only 166 pages, it would perhaps be considered an oddity for today's kids who only know this genre to contain massive books in multi-volume series. Sleator's protrayal of a possible future is lean and unembellished, and ends with a sentence that will give readers the chills.


A FAVORITE ILLUSTRATOR

Another reason I like HOUSE OF STAIRS is that the dustjacket illustration was created by one of my favorite children's book artists, Richard Cuffari. Although he never illustrated a picture book to my knowledge, he was one of the kings of middle-grade and young adult dust jackets and interior drawings in the 1970s. I believe I first became aware of his work in Sylvia Louise Engdahl's THE FAR SIDE OF EVIL:


And then his work started popping up everywhere. He had a real knack for choosing the very best projects and his lined and shadowed pen-and-ink drawings distinguished many of my favorite books of the era: THE WINGED COLT OF CASA MIA by Betsy Byars, THIS IS A RECORDING by Barbara Corcoran, THE PERILOUS GARD by Elizabeth Marie Pope, THE MAGIC MOTH by Virginia Lee, and so many more.

When I think back on books from my early teens, Mr. Cuffari's illustrations are the ones I see in my mind's eye.

Richard Cuffari died at the young age of 53 in 1978. Although he left a wonderful legacy, it would have been fascinating to see what he might have accomplished through the 1980s and 1990s, if he'd continued working.

I am surprised by how little information there is on the internet about this artist's life and work. I did find one wonderful blog entry from fellow fan
Daughter Number Three who says that she has been known to pick up a book just because it has a cover illustration by Richard Cuffari.

Me too!


JENNA FOX 2.0

A couple years ago I blogged about my initial encounters with author Mary E. Pearson. It started when AOL sponsored message boards devoted to a varity of topics. I used to hang out on the “Writing for Children” and “Writing for Young Adults” boards. One of the people posting there was Mary E. Pearson, who had just published her first novel, the unique and thought-provoking DAVID V. GOD. Her second book, SCRIBBLER OF DREAMS was about to be released. We exchanged a few notes before AOL shut the message boards down. Several years later Ms. Pearson published the well-regarded speculative novel THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX and a friend arranged to get a signed copy of that book for me. I was surprised and thrilled when it arrived with a note from Mary Pearson, saying that she remembered me from our AOL encounters:


And I was surprised and thrilled this past week when I learned that the author, after taking time out to write the YA novel THE MILES BETWEEN, is now returning to the world of Jenna Fox with a new book, THE FOX INHERITANCE, the second volume in a new series called "The Jenna Fox Chronicles." Set two hundred and sixty years after the first book, THE FOX INHERITANCE will likely be one of the fall's most anticipated novels.


The book will be published August 30. Sounds like great reading for Labor Day weekend.


SUMMER WEEKENDS

If you're a fan of TV's ANTIQUES ROADSHOW, you know that they tape the entire season over several summer weekends at different locations around the United States.

I just read that, during yesterday's taping in El Paso, Texas, a children's book made quite a splash.

A first edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's THE HOBBIT was brought in for appraisal and valued at $80,000 to $100,000!

Can't wait to watch this episode (which probably won't air till next year) to find out how a copy of this book ended up in El Paso.

I watch ANTIQUES ROADSHOW every Saturday night when it's not being pre-empted by PBS pledge drives. (Which means I watch it about once a month because it seems like three weeks out of every month are devoted to pledge drives.) Whenever someone brings in an ugly vase or overly-ornate punch bowl and learns it's worth $50,000 or more, they always say, "It's going to stay in the family."

At which point I usually scream at the TV: "Sell it! Sell it now and pay off your house! Pay off your car! Put the money in the bank! Because if you don't do it now, your kids are going to be calling Sotheby's the minute you die!"

But when I hear about a $100,000 book, I start to question myself.

If I had a book worth that much money, would I sell it?

If it was a book I really and truly treasured?

I'm not sure.

It's possible I might find myself keeping it.

Would you?


BOSTON GLOBE-HORN BOOK AWARDS

The Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winners were announced this past week:

Fiction winner: BLINK & CAUTION by Tim Wynne-Jones
Honor Books: CHIME by Franny Billingsley and ANNA HIBISCUS by Atinuke

Nonfiction winner: THE NOTORIOUS BENEDICT ARNOLD by Steve Sheinkin
Honor Books: INTO THE UNKNOWN by Stewart Ross and CAN WE SAVE THE TIGER by Martin Jenkins

Picture Book winner: POCKETFUL OF POSIES by Salley Mavor
Honor Books: DARK EMPEROR AND OTHER POEMS OF THE NIGHT written by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Rick Allen and PECAN PIE BABY written by Jacqueline Woodson and illustrated by Sophie Blackall

So what do you think -- hurray or ho-hum?

This year I'm going for the latter. The Horn Book has always had the hots for Tim Wynne Jones; this is the third time they've honored one of his books. Second time for Franny Billingsley.

Speaking of Horn Book Awards, what do you think of their 2011 Mind the Gap Awards? I was happy to see Laurie Halse Anderson's FORGE get some kind of recognition, even if it is for "Most Missed" title. I loved that book. There always are one or two books that everyone thinks will win the Newbery or Caldecott and then go completely ignored.

I wonder what 2011's "most missed" titles will be.

I hope I'm back from jury duty by then....

Thanks for visiting Collecting Children's Books. Hope you'll be back!