Nonfiction Monday

Nonfiction Monday is at bookstogether today!  This is the first time I've hosted Nonfiction Monday since announcing my new (although not exclusive) focus on art and museum-related children's books, and to celebrate I'm featuring an interview with Bob Raczka, author of The Vermeer Interviews: Conversations with Seven Works of Art (The Millbrook Press, 2009) and many other books about art, the seasons, and poetry.

Please leave a link to your Nonfiction Monday post in the comments, and then check out the interview (and read the book!) to find out more about Vermeer's gossipy milkmaid, among others.  I'll update this post with your links throughtout the day.  Happy Nonfiction Monday!

Early birds

MsMac is in with a review of Becky Levine's book on critique groups at Check It Out.

Mary Ann Scheuer at Great Kid Books is sharing the Wimpy Kid Movie Diary.  She says, "This movie-tie in goes beyond the simple repackaging, and is a fresh look at what it's like to make a movie - interesting info and lots of fun!"

Practically Paradise explores teaching standards with Enslow's series America's National Parks.  "Let's get those students interested in nature and our great parks again."

Zoe at Playing by the Book reviews a cookbook that's great for kids today.  N.b. her five year old daughter has been making dinner from it every Saturday night!

Sarah posted about Dinosaurs Roar, Butterflies Soar at In Need of Chocolate.

Over at Abby (the) Librarian, Abby's got a review of FDR's Alphabet Soup.

Jama has a review of Jill Esbaum's Everything Spring at Jama Rattigan's Alphabet Soup.  By the way, that is the cutest duckling ever.

Angela reviewed Spies of Mississippi at Bookish Blather today.

Jennifer of Jean Little Library reviewed Jane Yolen's new picturebook biography, All Star!

Shirley has The Grand Canyon today at SimplyScience.

The Wild About Nature blog has a review of The Robin Makes A Laughing Sound: A Birder's Journal.  They were also able to interview the author, Sally Wolf.

On Bookends, Cindy and Lynn are reviewing a terrific multi-age picture book, Shake, Rattle & Turn That Noise Down!: How Elvis Shook Up Music, Me and Mom by Mark Stamaty.

Afternoon delight

Today at The Book Nosher Robin is looking at a picture book about Jacob Lawrence.

Jeannine posted Biography Meets Mary Poppins and Peter Pan, which is about knowing a bit about an author before approaching a book.

Launching a week of Russell Freedman at Challenging the Bookworm, Freedom Walkers. Upcoming attractions include Who Was First? and Children of the Great Depression, with a bibliography at the end of the week.

Jen is in with a review of Nubs this week at Jen Robinson's Book Page.

Shelf-employed's post is on Sonia Sotomayor: a judge grows in the Bronx.

This is Lauren's first time participating in Nonfiction Monday (welcome, Lauren!)--she's got a review of Lois Ehlert's Planting a Rainbow at A Boy, A Book and A Dog.

Anna of Lost Between the Pages is in with The Forbidden Schoolhouse.

Anna J. is in with an older post about poet and children's author Michael Rosen at Full of Grace.

Helaine is in with a snort-worthy (her adjective!) post on how to get boys to read in which nonfiction figures prominently:  Get Those Guys Reading!

Nonfiction Monday: The Vermeer Interviews

There's something about Vermeer that speaks to me and, I think, to a lot of people who are familiar with his work.  But he's never spoken to me quite as clearly as the figures in his paintings speak to Bob Raczka in The Vermeer Interviews: Conversations with Seven Works of Art (The Millbrook Press, 2009).  I knew I wanted to feature The Vermeer Interviews at bookstogether, so--naturally--I asked if I might interview Bob himself, and he kindly agreed.  Read on for more about The Vermeer Interviews and Bob Raczka's latest Art Adventures.

Anamaria Anderson (AA):  Bob, your approach to Vermeer’s paintings in this book is so intriguing.  Which came first, the interview format or the subject matter?

Bob Raczka (BR):  Definitely the subject matter. Vermeer is one of my favorite artists, and I had wanted to do a book about him for a long time. I actually wrote four or five different versions before I settled on the interview format. In my slush pile at home, I have a Vermeer alphabet book, a book of cinquain poems about Vermeer, a “house that Jack built” approach to Vermeer, and a “day-in-the-life” version.

Interestingly enough, the idea to interview the paintings came to me when I was reading Ways of Telling by Leonard Marcus, his book of interviews with several children’s book authors.

AA:  What kind of research did you do to prepare for The Vermeer Interviews? Were you able to look at any of the 7 paintings you interviewed in person?

BR:  Unfortunately, I have never seen any of Vermeer’s paintings in person. My “bucket list” includes seeing every Vermeer that still exists.

However, I have read many books about Vermeer–everything from Girl with a Pearl Earring, a fictional account of how that painting came to be, to Vermeer’s Camera, a nonfiction investigation into his use of the camera obscura, an early version of the camera. And I spent a lot of time poring over details of the paintings in those oversized art books you can find at the library.

AA:  Which of the figures was the most forthcoming? Which was the hardest to get to know?  Do you have a favorite?  (I’m partial to The Milkmaid myself.)

BR:  The Milkmaid was very easy to talk to. I get the feeling she likes to gossip. The Geographer was also very forthcoming–a man of science who enjoys sharing his knowledge of the world.

The student in The Music Lesson was very hard to get to know. She seemed shy about her feelings for her tutor.

It’s tough to pick a favorite, but I would have to say Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, The Geographer and The Milkmaid rank at the top of my list.

AA:  I visit the Woman Holding a Balance at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. fairly frequently. Is there anything you would like me to ask her next time I see her?

BR:  First of all, apologize for me. I was limited to seven interviews for my book, and she was not included.

One thing you could ask her is whether or not she is Vermeer’s wife, Catharina. Many art scholars suspect that Catharina was the model for at least a few of the women Vermeer painted, but no one knows for sure.

AA:  The Vermeer Interviews is the 11th book in Bob Raczka’s Art Adventures series, published by The Millbrook Press. Would you tell me a little about some of the recent and forthcoming books in that series?

BR:  Of course. Action Figures: Paintings of Fun, Daring and Adventure, was the 12th, published in the fall of 2009. Designed to appeal to young boys, it features paintings of a boxing match by George Bellows, a cattle stampede by Frederick Remington and a shark attack by John Singleton Copley, among others.

AA:  What a great concept!  I think I know where to find one of those paintings, too [Copley's Watson and the Shark is part of the NGA collection].  What's next?

BR:  Speaking of Art: Colorful Quotes by Famous Painters is being published this spring. For each artist, I pair an interesting quote with a representative work. For example, Paul Klee once said, “A line is a dot that goes for a walk.” Pablo Picasso said, “To draw, you must close your eyes and sing.”

This fall brings Before They Were Famous: How Seven Artists Got Their Start. This book features paintings by Picasso when he was 8, Dali when he was 10 and Michelangelo when he was 12.

AA:  Congratulations!  I understand you also write children’s poetry. Do you have any poetry books forthcoming?

BR:  As a matter of fact, Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys is being published this fall by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. It’s illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds, of The Dot and Ish fame, and I’m very excited about it.

AA:  Me, too; I'll be sure to look for it in the fall.  Til then, where can readers find more information about you and your books?

BR:  Readers can visit my website at bobraczka.com.

AA:  Thank you so much, Bob, and congratulations again--this looks like an exciting year for you!  I hope you'll keep us posted at bookstogether, too.

Now, inspired by The Vermeer Interviews, I have a few questions of my own for Vermeer's paintings--and for my readers:  Which is your favorite Vermeer?  What might you ask it?

Registered!

I'll be attending the ALSC Preconference "Drawn to Delight:  How Picture Books Work (and Play) Today" this June at the Corcoran.  I'm not a children's librarian, but I do work with children and art in museums using the Visual Thinking Strategies that inform Megan Lambert's Whole Book Approach to picture books.  If you're wondering what VTS and WBA are all about, I highly recommend (another acronym) SLJ's two-part series on "Art in Theory and Practice" by Wendy Lukehart (1/1 and 2/1/2010).  For more information about the preconference, see below:
 
"Drawn to Delight: How Picture Books Work (and Play) Today"
Friday, June 25 from 8:00 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Washington, D.C.

Learn to better utilize picture books in your library's programming by seeing these books through the eyes of the people who create them!  Art directors, museum educators, and award-winning illustrators will take you through the creative and collaborative journey of picture book development during this inspirational Preconference at the Corcoran Galley of Art in Washington, D.C.  Studio demonstrations, hands-on opportunities and original art door prizes are just a few of the elements that await participants.
 
Why the ALSC Preconference?

• Provides you with a one of a kind look into the world of picture books--you won't find a more in-depth, day-long workshop on the subject anywhere else!
• Learn from more than 15 top authors and illustrators including three Caldecott medal winners, two Caldecott honor winners and one Belpré medal winner.
• Transfer the knowledge gained back to your library to provide better experiences for young patrons and families reading picture books.
• Hands-on opportunities during artist-lead small group studio sessions taking place throughout the gallery.
• Unbeatable ALSC member rate of $195 for the entire day; this includes: preconference registration, continental breakfast, lunch, evening reception, admission to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and a chance to win original art work by the illustrators.
• If you're not attending the ALA Annual Conference that's not a problem!  You do NOT need to register for conference to attend the preconference.

Register here! 
Tickets: Advance: ALA Member $249; ALSC Member $195; Retired Member $180; Student Member $180; Non-Member $280.  Onsite cost is $325 for all.
Event Code: ALS1

[Me again.]  I hope to see you there!  Along with Jerry Pinkney, Brian Selznick, David Small, Laura Vaccaro Seeger, Kadir Nelson, Yuyi Morales, and Timothy Basil Ering.  But if you can't make it, not to worry:  I'll write about it here, too.

Art and books together

I've been reading and writing about art and museum-related children's books--and there are so many, from nonfiction picture books to middle grade novels--since bookstogether began in 2007; more so since last fall when I became a school docent candidate at the National Gallery in Washington, DC.  Now I'd like to focus my attention (and yours!) on art and children's books together.

Not to worry:  I'll still post about the Newbery Award, and Swedish children's literature, and what we're reading more generally.  But I'm excited about this new focus for bookstogether, and I hope you'll join me here for author interviews, reviews, activities, and links related to art and children's books.

The Celestial Globe

I adored The Cabinet of Wonders by Marie Rutkoski (FSG, 2008), the magical, historical sixteenth-century Bohemian setting most of all.  I've been wanting to go to Prague ever since I read it, and have had to content myself with repeated visits to the Chamber of Wonders at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore (also highly recommended).  The Celestial Globe, Book 2 of the Kronos Chronicles, will be out in April and, according to PW's starred review, it's even better than the first.

But in Globe, Petra and her friends Tomik and Neel travel (separately, it seems) out of Bohemia, on the high seas and through Loopholes to London and Portugal.  I suppose it could be even better?  And I can't wait to read this book.

Anyone been to Prague?

The Secret of Kells

I may not have seen any of the movies nominated for Best Picture (despite there being ten of them this year), but I have seen one of the five nominees for Best Animated Feature:  The Secret of Kells.  Apparently, I'm one of the few people in the US (outside of the Academy) who has; it doesn't open here until March 6.  But the National Gallery of Art showed it last fall as part of their Film Program for Children and Teens, and the kids and I (not surprisingly) loved it.  According to Variety, "[The Secret of Kells] may be the perfect film for children whose parents are art historians specializing in pre-Renaissance periods."  Close enough!  

Before the screening, the museum educator in charge of the film program asked the kids in the audience to pay attention to the use of color in the movie.  I wish I could remember her exact words (she may have mentioned specific colors and emotions, or not), but her question was short and simple and helped focus the kids' attention, especially when things got a little slow or, conversely, a little scary.  There's an art, I'm learning, to asking just the right question.  What's yours?

Valentine's Day in Xanadu

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

(Kubla Khan, Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

I've been reading about Marco Polo, Venice, the Silk Road, and the court of Kublai Khan in Alan Armstrong's middle grade novel Looking for Marco Polo (Random House, 2009).  Coleridge's poem isn't there, but I couldn't resist posting it in advance of Valentine's Day.

I first read the opening lines of Kubla Khan a long time ago, in another middle grade novel, Next Door to Xanadu by Doris Orgel (1969).  That book has nothing to do with thirteenth century explorers or emperors--it's about two ten-year-old girls who live in an apartment building in Brooklyn, actually--but I still remember the way the poem threaded itself throught the final chapters of the book, and I've always wondered what went on in that pleasure dome.  N.b. that is not the focus of my current research.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Cybils picks

In 2008 and 2009, I had an ambitious Cybils Reading Plan.  The goal was to read one new-to-me book from the list of finalists in each category, and I came pretty close both years.  This year I was a panelist for the Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy category, which involved an even more ambitious reading plan.  By the time the finalists were announced on January 1, I was ready for a break from Cybils reading.  I do have some favorites from among the shortlists, though.  Here they are:

• Easy Readers/Short Chapter Books.  In Easy Readers, I have a soft spot for Mr. Putter and Tabby (and Zeke).  In Short Chapter Books, How Oliver Olson Changed the World.
• Middle Grade Fiction.  I loved, loved Heart of a Shepherd by Rosanne Parry (it was on my personal Newbery shortlist).
• Fiction Picture Books.  My two favorites on this list are probably the Caldecott winner (Lion and the Mouse) and the Caldecott honoree (All the World), even though I don't tend to like wordless and (what would you call All the World?) picture books.  I did manage to read all seven shortlisted books, but the others just weren't for me.
• Nonfiction Picture Books.  Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11.  My son was so disappointed that this didn't get a Caldecott honor (although it did get a Sibert honor).  I love Brian Floca's work, too.
• Poetry.  The Tree That Time Built: A Celebration of Nature, Science, and Imagination.
• YA and Graphic Novels.  You'll have to look elsewhere for those, although I have been reading and loving some YA lately.

This year's winners will be announced on Sunday, February 14.  I'm so curious about what will win in our category!  Here's our shortlist:

11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass
Dreamdark: Silksinger by Laini Taylor
The Farwalker’s Quest by Joni Sensel
Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman
The Prince of Fenway Park by Julianna Baggott
The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories by Joan Aiken
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (also on my personal Newbery list)

Have you ready any of them (or do you plan to)?  Which is your favorite?  I would love to know.  And if you think When You Reach Me should have been on the list, you can let me know that, too.

11 Birthdays on Groundhog Day 2

I didn't like Groundhog Day (the movie), but I loved 11 Birthdays (the middle grade novel) by Wendy Mass.  They share a similar conceit:  the main characters repeat the same day over and over again.  In the case of Amanda Ellerby, it's her eleventh birthday--the only one she hasn't celebrated with her ex-best friend Leo.  Now she has to figure out how to move on, and she needs Leo's help to do so.  But is Leo experiencing the same day over again, too?  Who's responsible, and why?

It's easy to forget that 11 Birthdays is a fantasy novel (and a Cybils finalist in that category), simply because it's so firmly set in a middle grade world.  Mass revisits that world (and some of its characters) in her latest novel, Finally (Scholastic, 2010).  This one is about Rory Swenson's long-awaited 12th birthday--but the weeks that follow it aren't what Rory wanted them to be.  I wonder if Angelina has anything to do with that?

STBA Blog Tour: Margarita Engle, Tropical Secrets

 

Welcome to the 2010 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour!  I'm honored to be hosting Margarita Engle, author of Tropical Secrets:  Holocaust Refugees in Cuba (Henry Holt, 2009), at bookstogether today.  Tropical Secrets is this year's STBA winner in the Teen Readers category.

Anamaria Anderson (AA):  Congratulations and welcome to bookstogether, Margarita!

Margarita Engle (ME):  Thank you.  I am so deeply honored by the Sydney Taylor Award, and I am so grateful for this opportunity to speak about Tropical Secrets. 

AA:  Tropical Secrets is such an evocative title.  Would you share some of the secrets to which it refers (without, of course, giving any of them away)?

ME:  I feel very close to this title.  It springs from my own sense of wonder about the story.  There is a feeling of discovery.  I am fascinated by the safe harbor Jewish refugees found in Cuba, and in other Latin American countries as well.  I am particularly intrigued by the Cuban teenagers who volunteered to teach Spanish to the refugees.

AA:  How did you go about the research for this story?

ME:  I found the factual details in an amazing scholarly study called Tropical Diaspora, by Robert M. Levine.  Without the nonfiction accounts in that reference, I could not have written Tropical Secrets.  I am astonished that the history of Holocaust refugees in Cuba, and in Latin America as a whole, is not more familiar. 

AA:  I agree, Margarita.  The fictional characters of Tropical Secrets—Daniel, Paloma, David, and el Gordo—bring these unfamiliar historical events to life for your readers.  When did your characters, and their personal stories, begin to reveal themselves to you?

ME:  The characters and plot of Tropical Secrets came to me in a huge wave.  It was overwhelming.  I could barely scribble fast enough to keep up with the flow of words.  It was as if this story had been waiting to be told, and was searching for a home.

My mother is Cuban, and was raised Catholic.  My father is the American son of Ukrainian-Jewish refugees.  Tropical Secrets unites the diverse branches of my ancestry.

AA:  I think it found the perfect home.  What would you like your readers to take home from Tropical Secrets?

ME:  I wrote Tropical Secrets because I admire the resilience of refugees, and the generosity of those who help them.  This is a facet of Tropical Secrets that transcends all borders and eras.  It is true of natural disasters as well as manmade ones.  I simply wanted to pay homage to the idea of safe harbors and the kindness of strangers.

AA:  That facet of Tropical Secrets resonates especially clearly right now, in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti; and it is always worth remembering.

Thank you so much, Margarita, for these insights into your work, and congratulations again.  I look forward to your forthcoming books (The Firefly Letters and Summer Birds:  The Butterflies of Maria Merian, both 2010) and wish you all the best.

And thank all of you for stopping by the STBA Blog Tour!  Please be sure to visit the other stops on the tour today and later this week; and of course I hope you'll visit me at bookstogether anytime.

Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour

Announcing:  The Sydney Taylor Book Award will be celebrating its 2010 gold and silver medalists and special Notable Book for All Ages with a Blog Tour, February 1-5, 2010.  I'm especially happy to be hosting Margarita Engle, author of Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba (Henry Holt, 2009), on Monday, February 1.  Tropical Secrets was the SBTA winner in the Teen Readers category; my regular readers already know that I think it's an outstanding book, haunting and ultimately hopeful.

The full schedule for the STBA Blog Tour appears on People of the Books, the official blog of the Association of Jewish Libraries.  I hope you'll join me on Monday for a short interview with Margarita, and then follow the tour throughout the week.  Thank you!

Pinkney's Lion and the Mouse lie down with the lamb

Or rather, the antelope.  One of my favorite details of Jerry Pinkney's Caldecott Medal-winning The Lion and the Mouse (Little, Brown, 2009) is the homage to Edward Hicks's Peaceable Kingdom paintings (with Serengeti animals) on the back cover, under the dust jacket.  Pinkney discussed the influence of Hicks and other artists on his work in The Lion and the Mouse in an interview with Reading Rockets ("A playful, peaceable kingdom"). 

We have a Peaceable Kingdom at the National Gallery, and I look forward to sharing Pinkney's interpretation of the theme with visiting students alongside Hicks's.  Thank you, Mr. Pinkney, and congratulations!

[Sadly, I don't have a digital image of Pinkney's Peaceable Kingdom to post; but you'll want to peek under the dust jacket of your own copy to find it anyway.]

Poetry on ice?

Literally, according to this reference in Louise Borden's The Greatest Skating Race: A World War II Story from the Netherlands (illustrated by Niki Daly; Margaret K. McElderry, 2004):

She could cut letters and words in the ice of the canal
with the blade of her skate,
like the long-ago Dutch poets.

Who were these Dutch poets?  Did they really cut poems in the ice?  Vondel and Bredero wrote poems about skating during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (known as Europe's Little Ice Age), and some of Vondel's poems are even short enough to skate (two words: U / Nu!).  The whole thing is probably apocryphal, but it's a lovely image nonetheless.

[The painting is by Hendrick Avercamp, A Scene on the Ice (1625).  You might recognize it from Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (actually, it belongs to the National Gallery, and you can skate there, too).]

Night before Newbery

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon even though you're not supposed to consider anything but the text.

When You Reach Me for its 1970s New York setting.

Tropical Secrets because Cuba has always been a complicated and beautiful island.

Love, Aubrey and I did.

Heart of a Shepherd for its bravery and, yes, its heart.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate because it's not too long if you love every last word of it.

Finally, Crossing Stones because the Printz alone wouldn't be enough.

 See you in the morning.

What about the Belpre?

Oh--what is the Belpre, you ask?  The Pura Belpre Award goes "to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth." Like the Newbery and Caldecott, the Belpre is awarded by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of ALA; and by REFORMA, an ALA affiliate.  When?  Tomorrow!

Tropical Secrets by Margarita Engle (Henry Holt) and Confetti Girl by Diana Lopez (Little, Brown), are (as you might guess by their covers) representative of the range of Latino cultural experience recognized by the Belpre.  Tropical Secrets is a haunting verse novel about Holocaust refugees in Cuba; Confetti Girl is a more typical middle grade novel, with familiar middle grade concerns, set in the predominantly Latino community of Corpus Christi, TX.  I hope they are both recognized tomorrow.

I think about the Newbery all year (watch for my annual Newbery predictions post to go up sometime before midnight tonight), but I had to scramble to read more than a handful of candidates for the Belpre in time for the ceremony.  This year I resolve (it's not too late!) to read more books by Latino/Latina authors.  And I also hope you'll join me.

Mockingbird in the Furnace

My friend Madelyn Rosenberg is launching her new blog, The Furnace, with an interview with Kathryn Erskine, author of Mockingbird (forthcoming from Philomel, April 2010).  It's an excellent interview, covering everything from Asperger's Syndrome to the April 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech to the themes of tolerance, understanding, and finally hope that are common to all of Erskine's work.

Mockingbird's 10-year-old narrator Caitlin has Asperger's, as does Erskine's daughter.  I think there are more and more middle grade and YA novels with characters on the autism spectrum lately, many of them inspired by personal experience.  Here are the ones I've read recently:

• Rules by Cynthia Lord (a Newbery Honor book told from the perspective of an older sibling)
• Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree and Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love by Lauren Tarshis
• The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd
• Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork (a potential Printz winner)

Some of these, including Mockingbird, are featured in The Voices of Autism by Suzanne Crowley (SLJ, 8/1/2009), a look at recent books about autism and the people who write them.  Have you read any of them?  If so, did you read them because they're in some way about autism, or would you have read them anyway?

Merry Navidad and Felices Reyes

I may have missed Christmas at bookstogether, but I'm just in time to wish you a happy Three Kings' Day with this carol or villancico, collected in Merry Navidad! Christmas Carols in Spanish and English by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy (illustrated by Vivi Escriva; Rayo, 2007):

The Three Wise Kings are coming
across the sandy deserts.
Among the gifts they're bringing
are the softest diapers.

I love that the three kings, in their wisdom, bring the baby diapers.

Feliz dia de los reyes!

Ambassador Katherine Paterson

This just in:  Katherine Paterson will be named the next National Ambassador for Young People's Literature tomorrow (PW, SLJ, and NYT).  She succeeds Jon Scieszka, who was our first ambassador and by all accounts (Mary Lee has collected some from around the kidlitosphere in thank-you post at A Year of Reading) did a bang-up job.  Thank you, Jon Scieszka!

And congratulations, Katherine Paterson!  I'm so pleased with her appointment.  Paterson has always been a favorite of mine; I'll read anything she writes (including her essays on religion and writing).  Most recently, that was her latest novel, The Day of the Pelican (Clarion, 2009), about an Albanian girl and her family who have to flee from Kosovo (and has anyone else noticed that there were a number of excellent middle-grade novels that involved wars in 2009?).  Most often, it's Bridge to Terabithia.

And now for the Newberys

I'm not sure if the books I've read since completing my Cybils commitment last week are benefiting from not being middle grade science fiction and fantasy novels, but they are excellent regardless.  One of them might even win the Newbery (Medal or Honor).  So might one of our shortlisted books, for that matter.  And then there's When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb Books, 2009).

Which is to say I haven't forgotten you, Newbery.

Cybils' Eve

I'm sorry I missed Christmas at bookstogether this year.  I seem to have missed December almost entirely--oops!  But I did read many middle grade science fiction and (mostly) fantasy books, over half of the 98 nominees for a Cybil in that category.  (I may have cheated a little and read some other books, too.  It couldn't be helped!  More about those later.)

The shortlists will be posted on the Cybils blog on New Year's Day, at 6 am US Mountain Time.  Til then, happy new year!