Join us at Bank Street College on Thursday, May 23rd from 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM as we celebrate this year’s award winners and honorees. Peter H. Reynolds will be on hand to deliver the keynote speech and both The Cook Prize and Irma Black Award winning authors and illustrators will be present to accept their awards. It promises to be a lovely morning as always. The ceremony is free and open to all. Please RSVP to attend.
Children’s Book Committee – May Pick
Out of the Easy
by Ruta Sepetys
Philomel, 2013
In the 1950′s in the French Quarter in New Orleans, 17-year-old Josie’s prostitute mother ensnares Josie who is desperate for a college education and a life outside the Quarter (14-17).
Our young reviewer says:
This book shows an interesting concept of family- it’s not blood only. It’s who raised you, raised you most. The character may not notice she is changed but we notice she’s more self-aware – ready for the world outside of New Orleans.
- Olivia, Age 14 (Bronx, New York)
Now I will try and buy books that are different from the usual ones, and as Betsy said, tell people that those books are good too, with my money.
April 2nd, we were lucky enough to host Betsy Bird for a conversation with 6th-graders about book covers. Betsy, of Fuse #8 notoriety, covered topics like race, gender, photographs vs. drawings, and deception in covers. How did the kids feel? I think they liked her. Here are some quotes from them:
On Gender…
It makes a lot of sense that they would try to make covers that appeal to both boys and girls because otherwise it is taking out half of the possible readers. Now it makes more sense to me why Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Hunger Games, and Harry Potter are such big hits.
I thought that many of the things she said about people thinking a girl will not like this book because so and so or a boy will not read this because it is pink, were kind of ridiculous because much of that is not true.
On Race…
Teen books should have a bigger variety of covers. Most of them have the same flowy dress with a skinny girl that is usually white.
I was not impressed with the covers that were supposed to have an African-American character (if there was one in the book) but didn’t show the main character of the story! Now I know which books to look out for!
Now, I will make sure to buy anti-racist and non-offensive books.
On Stereotypes…
A cover that I hate though, is N.E.R.D.S. It is the most stereotypical cover ever! All the people on the cover have braces, glasses, and computers.
I was horrified that they would make covers with stereotypes for books that had no stereotypes in them and maybe were even against stereotypes.
We also talked about how books and book covers could be dangerous to some people, as they could hurt them or make them feel bad. I want to try to pay more attention to the cover.
On Photos vs. Drawings…
It seemed strange that people think putting photos on the covers of books makes them more likely for people to pick up. When I look for a book I think about the cover, but putting a photo on the cover does not make it any more likely for me to pick that book up.
If there’s a person on it, I think “please don’t show the face!”
Betsy said that a longer time ago book covers usually had a scene from the book. Nowadays, it is usually a photograph, and it doesn’t have as much relevance to the plot.
On Misleading Covers…
I was surprised to see all the tricks of the covers. I know now–like really–not to judge a book by its cover.
In the future I will not look at the cover to judge the book. It may have nothing to do with the book itself. I will read the blurb and maybe the reviews online.
On Betsy!
Betsy Bird was amazing! She knew so much about books, advertised them very well, and she was hilarious. When she was talking about the books, she made every single one sound amazing. At the end I wanted to read all the books she talked about. Betsy also kept making hilarious-sarcastic comments that made me cry. Plus she always spoke her mind.
I thought that Betsy’s job was really interesting! It is so cool that she buys and decides what books to put in the libraries around New York!
When Betsy Bird came to Bank Street today it changed the way I thought about the influence of book covers and why we read what we read.
It was also very convenient that it should happen at this time, because I was almost out of books to read, and now I have a list of ones that I want to read.
-Allie Jane Bruce
Thank You, Mr. Snicket, Mr. Klassen, and Mr. Gaiman!
April 2nd, we were treated to what was clearly the best author visit in history. Below, kids express their thanks.
Part III: Are All Book Covers Created Equal? Bank Street 6th-Graders Visit a Certain Bookstore Chain
What happens when you take a group of smart, compassionate, and insightful 6th-graders to a giant bookstore chain and ask for their thoughts? Read on.
If you are new to this project, you may want to check out Part I (race in covers) and Part II (gender in covers).
“It was sickening to look at all the stereotypes, the assumptions.”
Thoughts on the section for young kids:
“In the picture book section, I noticed that everything seemed ‘color coded.’ It was clear which books were for girls and which books were for boys. The books were either pink and purple or blue and black. I also noticed that there were no truck-themed books with female characters and no fairy books with male characters.”
“Most of the covers had one gender. There were boys or girls, not both.”
“I know that kids’ minds aren’t developed enough to understand these issues, but as they grow up, I hope they realize how serious this issue really is. People have the right to like any color they want and be anything they want to be.”
“I think that once the people who buy books realize that boys can bake and girls can fight dragons, authors will start making more books like that.”
Thoughts on the section for middle-grade readers:
“ ’Girl books’ are mostly about friendships or animals, or two best friends go to the animal shelter and save all the puppies.”
“On most of the covers it was really obvious whether they were trying to sell to boys or girls… Even some of the titles made it very obvious, ex: “Just for Girls” “Stories for Girls” “Just for Boys” etc. I know some girls who will want to read “just for boys” books, because maybe they like sports, or aliens, or trucks. But they will not want to read that book, because it says “just for boys.”
“In the chapter book section, I saw that most of the books that had non-Caucasian characters didn’t have that character on the cover.”
“Society is almost afraid of putting a dark-skinned or Asian character on the cover of a book. I feel like these are minor forms of segregation.”
Thoughts on the teen section:
“The teen section was even worse. About half of the books had a name like ‘Sisterhood’ and a subtitle like ‘What secrets shouldn’t we keep?’. They all had covers with two girls glaring away from each other. The other half of the books featured a powerful looking guy and a desperate looking girl that were clearly ‘in love.’ “
“I was disgusted that the authors didn’t seem to realize that not every girl is having problems that she needs her boyfriend to solve.”
” I think I was on the girls side of the bookshelf, but even so, that just shows that Barnes and Noble separates their books by gender.”
“Most girls’ number one priority is not their appearance.”
“I saw all skinny people on the covers which gives the message to teens that they need to be skinny. Also I saw very few books with about diverse sexual orientations or races besides caucasian… Most of the books were about relationships, marketing the message that you should have a boyfriend or else you’re unpopular.”
“On the covers, I saw thin, pretty girls. I didn’t see any overweight girls or anyone with acne. I think that these covers shape an idea of perfect in a girls mind, and makes them want to be like that, even though everyone was born perfect.”
“I didn’t see a book with a biracial main character. I think that they just don’t want to go in to race at a young age… really for the teenager section, it is not fair in any way.”
”When I went to the teenager section, I wasn’t surprised. On every book cover where you could see the person’s face, they were VERY serious. Every cover with boys and girls, and boyfriends, and girlfriends, were almost always white. Or you couldn’t see their faces because they were kissing. Also, basically all of the teenager books were about drama, love, seriousness, etc. But something else I saw they had was, suicide. And I don’t really like that, because I’ll admit, sometimes I get scared. Also a lot of the books were about getting angry and getting revenge. Or even turning on your friends, or getting depressed.”
“All the teen books showed girls as if they always had problems that they needed a guys help with in order to solve. None of them were in a powerful stance or position and all the blurbs talked about the impossible problems that the girls are having with boys and friends and their parents and school work.”
“The books were all predictable, with endings that you could tell by hearing the title.”
“The next section we looked at was the teen section. All this section had was romance, love stories, depressing stories, stories about suicide, etc…”
In Part IV, we host two awesome editors at Bank Street and are pleasantly surprised to find that they share many of our concerns and are invested in changing things.
-Allie Jane Bruce
We Have Our Winners!
The votes are in and we are very pleased to announce that the winner of this year’s Irma Black Award is Big Mean Mike, written by Michelle Knudsen and illustrated by Scott Magoon. Congratulations to Michelle and Scott! More than 7,500 first and second graders around the world voted and Big Mean Mike was their clear favorite.
Big Mean Mike sports a new gold Irma Black Award seal!
And Congratulations to the fantastic Irma Black Honor books!
-
- This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen
-
- The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? by Mo Willems
-
- Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems
In our second annual competition for The Cook Prize for best STEM picture book, we are very pleased to announce that the winner (as voted on by more than 2,000 students) is How Many Jelly Beans? written by Andrea Menotti and illustrated by Yancey Labat. Congratulations Andrea and Yancey!
How Many Jelly Beans? with a brand new gold seal for The Cook Prize!
Last year, 619 third and fourth grade students participated in The Cook Prize voting. This year that number jumped to more than 2,000.
Congratulations also to our four great Honor books, which will each receive a silver seal.
-
- Timeless Thomas by Gene Barretta
-
- Ocean Sunlight by Molly Bang, illustrated by Penny Chisholm
-
- Infinity and Me by Kate Hosford, illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska
-
- Busy Builders by Roxie Munro
Many thanks to all our participating schools! And congratulations to all of the authors and illustrators.
“Early Childhood Literature: What Do You Need to Know?”
On Saturday, April 13, 2013, the Bank Street College Library hosted its first Writers Lab mini-conference, with a focus on early childhood literature.
To open up the conversation about the importance of books in the lives of youngest children, Dr. Perri Klass spoke of a presentation she made to a group of medical experts.
Using Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown (an early member of the Bank Street Writers Lab), Klass asked,“At what age does a child fill in the missing word: ‘In the great green room/ There was a telephone/ And a red balloon/ And a picture of –/ The cow jumping over the ___’?” Audience member (and fellow presenter) Susan Milligan replied, “As soon as they can form words.” Dr. Klass confirmed her answer: “These experts should have known that. They forget.”
A baby’s babble leads to language. “If they’re not babbling, what do I assume?” asked Klass. “There’s a hearing problem.” Dr. Klass cited a piece that had appeared earlier that week in the New York Times, “The Power of Talking to Your Baby,” and echoed the author’s concern that as a society we’ve done little to bridge what’s been called “the 30-million word gap” uncovered in a 1995 study by Hart and Risley. The authors found that a three-year-old with parents in a wealthy socioeconomic household may have as many as 30 million more words in his or her vocabulary than a three-year-old in a household in which the parents receive welfare.
In the hospital rooms and clinics that participate in Reach Out and Read, which focuses on literacy as part of well-baby visits (Klass serves as its national medical director), Klass teaches doctors and nurses how to use board books to gauge a baby’s development. At six months old, they use the pages like a teething ring. By nine months, they should have a pincer grasp, and start to turn the pages. At about one year old, they know to hold the book right side up. At 30-36 months, they’re reciting the book and turning the page at the correct time. While families wait to see a doctor, blue mats serve as havens; the families call them “escuelitas,” little schools.
On a panel about “Creating Books for Early Childhood,” Robie Harris continued in this vein when she described her years as a teacher at the Bank Street School for Children. “The language of a young child gets me going,” Harris said. Her books stem from a child’s emotions, such as Mail Harry to the Moon, or a child’s questions, as with books such as It’s Perfectly Normal (both illustrated by Michael Emberley). Nina Crews talked about the advantages of parent and child reading together from a creator’s standpoint, “I can make a book rich and complex because of the adult reading with the child.”
Robie Harris
Nina Crews
Both Jean Marzollo and Robie Harris spoke of the impact that Bank Street educator Dorothy Cohen made on them as writers. Cohen was an advisor for Let’s Find Out, a Scholastic magazine aimed at kindergartners, and consistently asked questions of Marzollo, who was editor of the magazine, to keep the content child-focused. “The I Spy Books would not have been written without Dorothy Cohen,” Marzollo said of her bestselling series with photos by Walter Wick. One of Amy Hest’s earliest memories involves trips to the library with her mother, who picked out books for her. Crews spoke of her “two great teachers at home”–her father, Donald Crews (Freight Train), and her mother, Ann Jonas (Color Dance). “There was a ‘say what you mean’ emphasis,” Crews said, as well as an emphasis on visual literacy–going to museums, and encouraging Crews and her sister to take photos.
Our distinguished panel (L to R): Moderator Susan Stires, Nina Crews, Jean Marzollo, Robie Harris, and Amy Hest
Moderator Susan Stires, a member of the Bank Street Graduate Faculty, asked the panelists to describe their writing and revision process. “It takes a long time for a good idea to get out of my brain,” said Crews. “There’s a lot of untangling. I write and rewrite.” Crews said she might have an idea of what will “propel” her visually, but the writing comes first. Then she creates a storyboard and blocks it for her photographs. “I’m a better writer because I can’t illustrate,” Hest said, explaining that she has to make the text clear enough for the artist to picture. While Harris finds her inspiration from a child’s language, Hest said it begins and ends with her own childhood experiences, and sometimes you have to go with your gut. Hest used the phrase “a Duck family tradition” in the book In the Rain with Baby Duck, illustrated by Jill Barton. “They wanted me to take it out, but I fought for it,” she said. Like Crews, Hest believes you can challenge children who are reading with adults–they can figure things out from context.
Susan Milligan and Louise Rogers
Susan Milligan, a member of the Writers Lab, and Louise Rogers, who teaches with Milligan at Medical Center Nursery School, a Columbia University affiliate in New York City, led the group in a workshop exploring the possibilities of music in general and jazz in particular as a storytelling approach. They began with Chris Raschka’s Charlie Parker Played Be Bop. Rogers, a jazz musician herself, didn’t understand the book until she started performing it. She led the group in a call-and-response scat-reading of the picture book.
The audience sings along to Charlie Parker Played Be Bop
Milligan then showed us what to do if we don’t have the confidence to perform a book solo: just read along to the Blues. Two ideal texts: Alexander and Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst, illus. by Ray Cruz, which can be read to Buddy Guy’s Blues guitar, and Owl Baby by Martin Waddell, illustrated by Patrick Benson, which may be read to a softer blues accompaniment.
In her closing keynote, two-time Caldecott Honor artist Laura Vaccaro Seeger (First the Egg; Green) emphasized visual literacy. “At some point in our development, we stop seeing the world around us the way very young children do,” Seeger said. In her book The Hidden Alphabet, she plays with negative space. The die-cut provides a frame that points the eye to what she wants us to see, then when the larger image is revealed with a turn of the page, we still see that smaller image within the larger context.
Walter Was Worried grew out of a game Seeger played with her young sons. “What’s the minimum you need to represent something?” she asked. “How much do I need to convey surprise? All my books have an element of play and interactivity.” She explained that in her Dog and Bear books, all the stories begin in the middle. “How did the bucket get on Bear’s head?” she said. “How will Dog get the bucket off his head?” For First the Egg, a book about transformation, Seeger “had to do something” with the die-cut egg shape, so she used it for the in-between stage. She could move from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. “I wanted it to be more meaningful than just a list. The die-cuts force you to see the same thing one way and then another way,” she said. Attendees got a preview of her forthcoming book, Bully, about a group of barnyard friends who experience a rift when one gets mean. She showed the stream-of-consciousness thinking, lists of words, drawings and storyboards. “It all starts in the journal. I love talking with children about sketches and drafts.”
-
- Laura Vaccaro Seeger with fans
-
- Laura Vaccaro Seeger signs Green
-
- Nina Crews signing
-
- Jean Marzollo
-
- Robie Harris and Amy Hest signing
-
- Susan Milligan and Louise Rogers
From babbling to doodling to practicing and polishing, these esteemed presenters demonstrated just how much the creative process shares in common with a child’s development.
–Jennifer M. Brown
Many thanks to Cheryl Simon for our photographs and first time videographer (and outstanding sport) Dan for the video clips!
