Monday, August 30, 2010

CFP: Children's Lit Assoc Convention


Hi everyone,
Below is the call for papers for the 2011 Diversity Committee Panel at the Children's Literature Association annual conference. Please feel free to contact me or Sarah Park with any questions.
Thanks,
Thomas Crisp, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Childhood Education and Literacy Studies
The University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee
8350 N. Tamiami Trail, B322
Sarasota, Florida 34243

CALL FOR PAPERS:
Resisting “Americanization” in Literature for Young People

In the past, children’s and young adult narratives have focused on the assimilation of marginalized populations into U.S. culture, often through a character’s attempts to take on aspects of identity traditionally privileged by members of the dominant culture. In recent years, this “melting pot” mentality has been interrogated by authors, and current narratives frequently depict characters who resist or complicate this process of “Americanization,” choosing instead to retain their cultural and self-identities.
This year, the Diversity Committee seeks paper proposals on the topic of resisting “Americanization.” Papers might examine how authors complicate discourse about what it means to be(come) “American” or consider how narratives resist or reinscribe traditional conceptions of “Americanization.” Essays could address issues of language, naming, and traditions, or explore how sexual identity, gender, class, religion, or family structure factor into representations of what it means and looks like to be considered “American.”
Direct questions to co-chairs Thomas Crisp (tcrisp@sar.usf.edu) or Sarah Park (spark@stkate.edu). Email a 500-word abstract and a 2-page CV only to spark@stkate.edu by December 15, 2010. Please label your abstract in the titles of attached documents, and contact information (email and phone number).

Info on the (Hollins, Roanoke, VA June 2001) ChLA conference at:

Invitation: Contribute to IRSCL Journal


Greetings, Everyone.
The editorial team of International Research in Children's Literature is in the final stage of preparing the manuscript of Issue 3.2 to be despatched to the publisher. It will be sent off within this week, and the issue should appear on time in December.
After quickly drawing breath, we now turn our attention to the next issues (4.1, 4.2, 5.1).
Issue 4.1 will be notionally the last issue devoted to the theme of the Frankfurt Congress. If you wish to submit an article but have not yet done so, there is still time. We would like to have submissions by the end of September, but could accept later submissions (please let us know if you wish to submit but need some further time). Since Issue 5.1 will be our next General Issue, we could also accommodate articles on the Frankfurt theme there.
In Issue 3.2 we invite contributions to a series of articles and notes which will introduce our readers to radical writers for children from around the world -- radical in their political or cultural perspectives, or in their use of textual forms. We invite readers to send us further contributions to this series, either as notes (up to 2000 words) or regular 5000-7000 word articles. The series begins in 3.2 with Yasmine Motawyâ's account of the late (-2010) Egyptian poet Muhammad Afifi Matar, a political and literary revolutionary who wrote several books for children.
Volume 4, Issue 2 Issue 4.2 will be a themed issue: 'Between Imagined Signs and Social Realities: Representing Racial Others in Children's Fantasy and Folktale'. Since its beginnings, children's literature has included depictions of racial others, both from within and outside national boundaries, in processes that colonise, vilify, romanticise, assimilate, acknowledge, or strive to represent complex social fabrics. Fantasy and folk tale literatures often use race to evoke exotic or monstrous others (Tolkien's orcs, for example), or appropriate mythology and folklore from other cultures to effect a shift from consensus reality. On the other hand, to quote Ian McEwan, 'Imagining what it is like to be someone other than yourself is at the core of our humanity. It is the essence of compassion and it is the beginning of morality.'
Contributors may wish to address some aspects of how the following topics appear in fantasy or folk tale literature:
Others and Selves
Race and the body
Versions of intersubjectivity
The senses and race
Race as metaphor and metonym
Race and languages and/or linguistic communities
Replicating/challenging stereotypes (indigenous peoples; immigrant groups; colonisers)
Viewing the mainstream from the margin
Ethnicity and performativity
Audiences watching themselves watching
Nouvelle racism
The politics of race
Otherness as vicarious experience
Otherness and comedy
Race and space
Race and cyber worlds
The geographies of race
Transracial perspectives
'The importance of the intangible cultural heritage as a mainspring of cultural diversity and a guarantee of sustainable development' (UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage)
Deadline and addresses for submissions The initial deadline for the receipt of articles for consideration for Volume 4.2 will be 1 February 2011, with a deadline of 1 April 2011. We would love to receive submissions on a rolling basis, however, as it enables our lives to run more smoothly.
Please send submissions to John Stephens (john.stephens@mq.edu.au) and Ingrid Johnston (mailto:pam.knights@durham.ac.uk).
Best wishes
Â
John-- John StephensEmeritus Professor in EnglishMacquarie UniversityEditor, International Research in Children's Literature http://www.euppublishing.com/journal/ircljohn.stephens@mq.edu.au

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Marah Gubar Vs. the Jacqueline Rose Cult (and Coda)


See coda below..
In a review of a study of Kipling by Sue Walsh, Marah Gubar neatly summarizes the current controversies surrounding the work of critic Jacqueline Rose (The Case of Peter Pan) and her righteous acolytes. http://www.nbol-19.org/view_doc.php?index=99
These days only a few scholars (many of them at the University of Reading) worry about keeping faith with Rose's ideas and rooting out heretics. On the other hand, the question that concerns a new generation of critics is: What would the opposite of Rose's critical practices look like? For example, Rose insists that childhood is "invented"; turning the tables, let's talk about the childhood that is "discoverable."

In her terrific Artful Dodgers, Gubar points out how Rose woefully misses the humor in the very story that she singles out to prove her argument (viz. Peter Pan). And as Perry Nodelman has suggested, this same humorless Jacqueline Rose has spawned a Cult of Neo-Puritans who condemn others to the extent they deviate from the gospel.

While not the only victim of these Roundheads, in reviews of my book Feeling Like a Kid: Childhood and Children's Literature, I was taken to task by zealots who faulted me for not having read my Rose and who could not even conceive that my endeavor was to do something new and turn Rose's literary criticism on its head. Thankfully, other reviewers were not so singleminded and obtuse.

Rose, Walsh, and their kind argue that discussion of "real children" is dubious and they condemn anyone who hazards in that direction an "essentialist." In the end, their righteousness closes more doors than it opens.

Jerry Griswold
Coda. I have since learned that the Fall 2010 issue of the Children's Literature Association Quarterly is devoted to a discussion of Jacqueline Rose's legacy. While my remarks above look to the future, they do not sufficiently acknowledge the past and my gratitude to Rose for problematizing the field. That was shortsighted of me. As F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time."
Perry Nodelman does this balancing in his terrific essay in the Quarterly, while in his own enterprising essay David Rudd aims to redeem Rose by untangling a Gordian Knot. My own feeling remains that after dreary decades of derivative discussions of "colonial constructions," the time has come for critics to turn their heads in a new direction: We can learn more by fresh attention to phenomenology and poetics.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

10/31 CFP Fantasy Conference in Florida


The 32nd Annual International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts
Theme: The Fantastic Ridiculous
Division of Children’s and Young Adult Literature and Art

Guest of Honor: Connie Willis
Guest of Honor: Terry Bisson
Guest Scholar: Andrea Hairston
Special Guest Emeritis: Brian Aldiss

The 2011 ICFA welcomes paper proposals on all areas of the fantastic (including high fantasy, allegory, science fiction, horror, folk tales and other traditional literatures, magical realism, the supernatural, and the gothic) in all media (novels, short stories, drama, television, comic books, film, and others).
The Children's and Young Adult Literature and Art division accepts critical scholarship papers that focus on literature aimed at younger readers. This includes picture books as well as middle-grade and young adult novels, short stories, and graphic novels that involve fantasy, horror, paranormal romance, science fiction, and any other aspect of the fantastic. We embrace a wide variety of scholarly approaches and interests, including genre, historical, theoretical, and textual models. We encourage work from institutionally-affiliated scholars, independent scholars, international scholars who work in languages other than English, and graduate students.
The conference will run March 16-20, 2011, in Orlando, Florida.
Please submit a proposal that includes a 250-word abstract and bibliography directly to the division head, Amie Rose Rotruck, at arotruck@gmail.com. Abstracts should be turned in by October 31, 2010.
The conference encourages graduate student participation and gives an award for outstanding paper by a graduate student each year.
For more information on the conference or other divisions, please visit http://www.iafa.org/.

--
Amie Rose Rotruck
arotruck@gmail.com
http://www.amieroserotruck.com/

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Javits Fellowship for Graduate Study


I just received this fellowship grant notice and thought you might be interested for posting on the ChLit blog.

http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do?mode=VIEW&oppId=56648
The purpose of the Jacob K. Javits (JKJ) Fellowship Program is to award fellowships to eligible students of superior ability, selected on the basis of demonstrated achievement, financial need, and exceptional promise, to undertake graduate study in specific fields in the arts, humanities, and social sciences leading to a doctoral degree or to a master's degree in those fields in which the master's degree is the terminal highest degree awarded to the selected field of study at accredited institutions of higher education. The selected fields in the arts are: Creative writing, music performance, music theory, music composition, music literature, studio arts (including photography), television, film, cinematography, theater arts, playwriting, screenwriting, acting, and dance. The selected fields in the humanities are: Art history (including architectural history), archeology, area studies, classics, comparative literature, English language and literature, folklore, folk life, foreign languages and literature, history, linguistics, philosophy, religion (excluding study of religious vocation), speech, rhetoric, and debate. The selected fields in the social sciences are: Anthropology, communications and media, economics, ethnic and cultural studies, geography, political science, psychology (excluding clinical psychology), public policy and public administration, and sociology (excluding the master's and doctoral degrees in social work).
--Emily Moore

Fellowship for Study in Munich


I just wanted to remind you that the deadline for applications for our fellowship programme is September 30th 2010 – so if you are thinking of applying for a research stay at the IYL for 2011, please do so now!

The International Youth Library offers academic fellowships for up to 12 scholars each year.
The length of the stay can range from six weeks to four months. Applications from junior scholars are especially welcome.

The International Youth Library, housed in the late-medieval Blutenburg Castle, boasts
the world’s largest collection of international children’s and youth literature. The unique collection includes more than 580,000 children’s and youth books in more than 130 languages,
published during the past 400 years. Visit the International Youth Library’s website:
www.ijb.de

If you would like to have some further details, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me or my colleague Petra Woersching (at: direktion@ijb.de ) or have a look at our website at: http://www.ijb.de/files/english/HMe_6/Page02.htm .With best wishes,
Claudia
********************************************
Claudia Soeffner
English Language Section
Internationale Jugendbibliothek/International Youth Library Schloss Blutenburg
81247 Munich
GERMANY
Tel: +49-(0)89-891211-31
Fax: +49-(0)89-8117553
E-Mail: claudiasoeffner@ijb.de
www.ijb.de

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

CFP Fredericton, Canada - May 2011


Note 3 calls for papers below


CFP - WAR, MILITARIZATION, & CHILDHOOD (Association for Research in Cultures of Young People) Fredericton, Canada - May 2011
Dear Colleagues,
The Association for Research in Cultures of Young People (ARCYP –
http://arcyp.ca ), an interdisciplinary, international scholarly association, situated at York University, Toronto, Canada, welcomes you to be part of our annual program (conference papers, roundtable, AGM, and cultural and social events) at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada at the end of May 2011.
Please see details below on a Call for Papers on WAR, MILITARIZATION, & CHILDHOOD. We would appreciate you passing on these details to other interested organizations or individuals.
Sincerely,
Peter E. Cumming
President, ARCYP
Call For Papers
WAR, MILITARIZATION, & CHILDHOOD
A Joint Session Of ARCYP And ACCUTE
80th Congress Of The Humanities And Social Sciences
Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
May 28-31, 2011
DEADLINE: November 15, 2010
The ideologically-loaded Western concept of “the child,” and of childhood as a time of innocence and play, seems to make the idea of a child soldier oxymoronic. Yet, according to UNICEF, “an estimated 300,000 child soldiers—boys and girls under the age of eighteen—are involved in more than 30 conflicts worldwide” despite the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits child soldiers. What activist groups like War Child, with their vision to create a world in which no child knows war, make perspicuous is that there is not an incontrovertible separation between children’s spaces and the theatre of war. This panel invites papers that deal with, and complicate, the intersection of the ideological ideal of “the child,” war, and militarization.
Possible topics may include, but are not limited to: functions of child soldiers in the war on terror; histories and stories of child soldiers; artistic, digital, and literary representations of child soldiers; self-representations through memoirs by former child soldiers; the intersection(s) of the concepts of the child soldier, religion, and international law; the voices and perspectives of male and female child soldiers.
Following the instructions under Option # 1 at
www.accute.ca/generalcall.html , send three documents in separate electronic files directly to admin@arcyp.ca by November 15, 2010: (1) a 700-word proposal or 8- to 10-page double-spaced paper, without identifying marks; (2) a 100-word abstract and 50-word biographical statement; and (3) a Proposal Submissions Information Sheet.
NOTES: You must be a current member of ARCYP or ACCUTE to submit to this session. Rejected submissions will not be moved into the general “pool” of ACCUTE submissions.
ARCYP Membership information is available at
http://arcyp.ca/membership .
Please feel free to print and share the PDF file of this Call for Papers, available at
http://arcyp.ca/archives/221 .
Association for Research in Cultures of Young People (ARCYP)
Dept. of Humanities, PO Box B7, Vanier College, York University
4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3
Phone: (416)736-2100 ext. 60498 Fax: (416) 736-5460 E-mail:
admin@arcyp.ca Website: http://arcyp.ca


Dear Colleagues,
The Association for Research in Cultures of Young People (ARCYP –
http://arcyp.ca ), an interdisciplinary, international scholarly association, welcomes you to be part of our annual program (conference papers, roundtable, AGM, and cultural and social events) at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada at the end of May 2011.
Please see details below on a Call for Papers on YOUNG PEOPLE’S CULTURES & GAMES, GAMING, AND PLAY. We would appreciate you passing on these details to other interested organizations or individuals.
Best,
Peter E. Cumming
President, ARCYP
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
Call For Papers
YOUNG PEOPLE’S CULTURES & GAMES, GAMING, AND PLAY
A Joint Session Of ARCYP And ACCUTE
At The Congress Of The Humanities And Social Sciences
Fredericton, New Brunswick
May 28-31, 2011
DEADLINE: November 15, 2010
Gaming and play culture have long been central components of childhood taking many forms across the Global North and South. The digital format dominates playtime today, but play is, and has been, a more complex set of practices in the everyday lives of young people. This session aims to explore how games, gaming, and play are tied to contemporary forms of social interaction and alternative ways of thinking and learning in the context of a dynamic media ecology that is participatory even while being shaped by an unparalleled moment of media concentration.
Possible topics may include (but are not limited to): forms of participation games and gaming engender for children and youth; forms of learning present, missing or reinforced through gaming; gaming literacies and specific forms of knowledge produced by games; barriers to entry in gaming/game communities; the role of race, gender, and sexuality in gaming cultures; post-coloniality and gaming cultures; identity, performance, and game play; the “burden” of play on children and youth; the expectations that children will learn and be socialized through play; the “right” of children and youth to play.
Following the instructions under Option # 1 at
www.accute.ca/generalcall.html , send three documents in separate electronic files directly to admin@arcyp.ca by November 15, 2010: (1) a 700-word proposal or 8- to 10-page double-spaced paper, without identifying marks; (2) a 100-word abstract and 50-word biographical statement; and (3) a Proposal Submissions Information Sheet.
NOTES: You must be a current member of ARCYP or ACCUTE to submit to this session. Rejected submissions will not be moved into the general “pool” of ACCUTE submissions.
ARCYP Membership information is available at
http://arcyp.ca/membership .
Please feel free to print and share the PDF file of this Call for Papers, available at
http://arcyp.ca/archives/213 .
Association for Research in Cultures of Young People (ARCYP)
Dept. of Humanities, PO Box B7, Vanier College, York University
4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3
Phone: (416)736-2100 ext. 60498 Fax: (416) 736-5460 E-mail:
admin@arcyp.ca Website: http://arcyp.ca


Dear Colleagues,
The Association for Research in Cultures of Young People (ARCYP –
http://arcyp.ca ), an interdisciplinary, international scholarly association, welcomes you to be part of our annual program (conference papers, roundtable, AGM, and cultural and social events) at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada at the end of May 2011.
Please see details below on a Call for Papers on COMMOTIONS: GEOGRAPHIES OF MIGRATION & YOUNG PEOPLE’S CULTURES. We would appreciate you passing on these details to other interested organizations or individuals.
Best,
Peter E. Cumming
President, ARCYP
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
Call For Papers
COMMOTIONS: GEOGRAPHIES OF MIGRATION & YOUNG PEOPLE’S CULTURES
A Joint Session Of ARCYP And ACCUTE
At The Congress Of The Humanities And Social Sciences
Fredericton, New Brunswick
May 28-31, 2011
DEADLINE: November 15, 2010
The world today is commonly placed as one in motion where ideologies, bodies, objects, and capital travel, both literally and metaphorically, across borders as well as across social and communication networks and technologies. Yet, as Buckingham and de Block argue, the perspectives and experiences of young people “on the move” are largely absent “except where they are portrayed as passive victims or (increasingly) as a threat.” We invite papers addressing how various forms of mobility available in young people’s cultures disrupt or support political/cultural /economic circuits of inclusion and exclusion, access and denial, belonging and alienation, incarceration and exile.
Possible topics may include (but are not limited to): travel, im/migration, displacement, relocation, asylum, citizenship; conflict and (in)security; counter-geographies: Indigenous, Non-Western, etc.; the spatial politics of gender and sexuality, disability, race, class, etc.; (re)formations of racial, national, gendered, diasporic identities, politics, subjectivities; mobile communications, social networks, new media; virtual geographies; digital hybridity, remixes, mash-ups; transportation and movement in daily life; place management, place redefinitions; work, “youth-magnets,” upward mobility; “invisible” youth on the move; youth activism and globalization.
Following the instructions under Option # 1 at
www.accute.ca/generalcall.html , send three documents in separate electronic files directly to admin@arcyp.ca by November 15, 2010: (1) a 700-word proposal or 8- to 10-page double-spaced paper, without identifying marks; (2) a 100-word abstract and 50-word biographical statement; and (3) a Proposal Submissions Information Sheet.
NOTES: You must be a current member of ARCYP or ACCUTE to submit to this session. Rejected submissions will not be moved into the general “pool” of ACCUTE submissions.
ARCYP Membership information is available at
http://arcyp.ca/membership .
Please feel free to print and share the PDF file of this Call for Papers, available at
http://arcyp.ca/archives/217 .
Association for Research in Cultures of Young People (ARCYP)
Dept. of Humanities, PO Box B7, Vanier College, York University
4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3
Phone: (416)736-2100 ext. 60498 Fax: (416) 736-5460 E-mail:
admin@arcyp.ca Website: http://arcyp.ca

Books I'm Teaching this Fall (2010): Phillip Serrato



727
Paredes, George Washington Gomez
Villaseñor, Macho!
Villarreal, Pocho
Villanueva, Luna’s California Poppies
Gonzalez, Butterfly Boy
Gilb, The Flowers
Saenz, Last Night I Sang to the Monster
Trujillo, What Night Brings
Gonzalez, The Migrant Farmworker’s Son
Hernandez, Woman Soldier
Jaramillo, La Linea
Herrera, Downtown Boy
Lopez, Confetti Girl


502
ALGER -- RAGGED DICK OR STREET LIFE
BLOCK -- WEETZIE BAT
BRUCHAC -- SKELETON MAN
CARLSON -- AMERICAN EYES
CARROLL -- ALICE IN WONDERLAND
HINTON -- THE OUTSIDERS
JAMES -- ZOMBIE BLONDES
PROSE -- AFTER
RUSHDIE -- HAROUN & THE SEA OF STORIES
SALINGER -- CATCHER IN THE RYE
VOORHEES -- THE BROTHERS TORRES
WHITCOMB -- A CERTAIN SLANT OF LIGHT
WOLFF -- MAKE LEMONADE

Books I'm Teaching this Fall (2010): Joseph Thomas


Engl 306A

(REQ) CARROLL -- ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND & THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS (TENNIEL ILL)
(REQ) CREECH -- WALK TWO MOONS (HARPER TR)
(REQ) LESTER -- BLACK FOLKTALES (GROVE)
(REQ) MOCHIZUKI -- BASEBALL SAVED US (LEE & LOW BOOKS)
(REQ) NESBIT -- FIVE CHILDREN & IT (PUFFIN BOOKS)
(REQ) PATERSON -- BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA
(REQ) PERRAULT -- PERRAULT'S FAIRY TALES (DOVER)
(REQ) RYAN -- ESPERANZA RISING
(REQ) SENDAK -- WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (HARPER TR)
(REQ) SHERMAN -- GREASY GRIMY GOPHER GUTS
(REQ) SOTO -- FIRE IN MY HANDS (HARCOURT TR)
(REQ) TAYLOR -- ROLL OF THUNDER HEAR MY CRY (PENGUIN)
(REQ) TWAIN -- ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (DOVER)

Books I'm Teaching this Fall (2010): Mary Galbraith


1. English 401, Childhood's Literature:
Theme: Original fantasies and adaptations
Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
Pinocchio, Carlos Collodi
The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum
In the Night Kitchen, Maurice Sendak
Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak Just a Dream, Chris Van Allsburg The Snowman, Raymond Briggs Charlotte's Web, E.B. White Howl's Moving Castle, Diane Wynne-Jones The Fellowship of the Ring, J. R. R. Tolkien
In addition to books, we'll look at fairy tales online (Cinderella), comic-strip and film originals (Little Nemo, The Red Balloon, Spirited Away), and movie/anime adaptations of Cinderella, Alice, Pinocchio, Little Nemo, Wizard of Oz, Howl's Moving Castle, and Fellowship of the Ring.
All the picture books derive from Winsor McCay's Little Nemo comic strip.
 
2. English 306A, Children's Literature:
Theme: childhood resistance
Struwwelpeter, Heinrich Hoffman (etext in German with Mark Twain translation) Pinocchio, Carlos Collodi Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll Pippi Longstocking, Astrid Lindgrens The Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling Charlotte’s Web, E. B. White Millions of Cats, Wanda Gág The Story of Ferdinand, Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson Madeline, Ludwig Bemelmans Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak No, David! , David Shannon Emma’s Rug, Allen Say Tar Beach, Faith Ringgold Granpa, John Burningham Tom’s Midnight Garden, Philippa Pearce
The books were selected for child characters who challenge or evade adult dominance. We'll start with Adam and Eve, Little Red Riding Hood, and Mother Goose.
 
All best, Mary

Advert: Study of Margaret Wise Brown


Announcing Have a Carrot: Oedipal Theory and Symbolism in Margaret Wise Brown's Runaway Bunny Trilogy, Look Again Press (Aug. 2010). E-book available in various formats at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/21324. Discounts for professors and students, contact: LookAgainPress@earthlink.net.

Description: A valuable resource for parents, librarians, professors and students interested in picture books, the combination of historical fact from Margaret Wise Brown's life, interdisciplinary perspectives on children's literature, and detailed analysis of the way the text and illustrations work together to convey multiple layers of meaning offers a useful framework for students preparing papers in the fields of children's literature, psychology, and pop culture, and new insights into the ways picture books communicate with children.

What Others Are Saying About Have A Carrot

�Absolutely fascinating. Ran for my copies of the �bunny books� and pored over them as I read it. Whether one accepts Freud's version of the world or not, one thing's for sure - no one who reads this book will ever look at Goodnight Moon in the same old way again.�
--- Simone Kaplan, Children�s Book Editor.

�I am very engaged by the robust inquiring eye Pearson brings to the illustrations ... It is a testimonial to the ongoing significance of these books and a reminder that risk is a huge component of literacy, even or perhaps especially in childhood."
--- Margaret Mackey, Professor, School of Library and Information Studies, at the University of Alberta.

�Extremely well written and intelligently argued ... The pictorial art is analyzed in fascinating detail.�
--- J.D. Stahl, Professor, Hollins University Graduate Program in Children's Literature.

�Brilliant on many levels, very well researched!�
--- Anne Marie Turner, MFA, Vermont College.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

The Picture Books of David Wiesner


How could I have missed David Wiesner?
By Jerry Griswold
When my friend Matt Harris asked me what I thought about his books, my ignorance was unaccountable. I would later learn that Wiesner was a celebrated author/illustrator with a 30-year career and two Caldecott Awards. Moreover, he was, as it were, a friend of friends since he moved in a circle in which I have a keen interest, a group that includes Walter Lorraine (the famed children’s book editor at Houghton Mifflin) and Chris Van Allsburgh (the well known picture book artist who likewise went to Rhode Island School of Design). My ignorance was also unexplainable because, I would subsequently discover, Wiesner creates that very kind of surreal picture book I especially like...

More at Parents' Choice:

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Can Children Save Literature?


Mary Galbraith recommends the following video of a youngster reciting Billy Collins' poem "Litany":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVu4Me_n91Y&feature=player_embedded


Friday, August 20, 2010

Prof Joseph Thomas' Summer: Hollins College


Hi all. I'm back in SoCal after a six week summer visit to the lovely yet humid & insect infested Shenandoah Valley. I journeyed eastward to serve as a visiting Associate Professor at Hollins University's legendary graduate program in children's literature. I was summoned there to teach a graduate course in children's poetry, & I did, although I had to cancel a week of my six week semester while my lungs recovered from a perfect storm of allergens (the campus was isolated from any of the urban distractions I've grown accustomed to, so my primary entertainment consisted of smoking cigarettes on the patio while gazing longingly westward; arguably, the increase in smoking may have had something to do with my lung problems & the resultant hospital visit, but I'm sticking to the allergen story).

I was working on the newest Lion & Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry essay during my visit, & set my Hollins graduate students on the case, bringing fellow judge Michael Heyman to class for a guest talk (via Skype), & sharing the books up for the award this year with my students, just as I forced them to read all of our previous L&U essays (the award essay should appear in the fall or winter issue of the Lion & Unicorn: look for it!).

Despite my lung failure, the experience was a positive one. The students were great, the parties fun, & the location beautiful (I really dug the electrical storms, & had just about forgotten that water could fall so regularly from the sky; allegedly this was a "dry" period for Roanoke, but things seemed pretty wet from my point of view).

I also arranged for Richard Flynn to come to campus, where he gave a beautiful lecture on Randall Jarrell's The Bat-Poet. Children's Literature scholars Christopher McGee & Jennifer Miskec journeyed westward from their Farmville campus of Longwood University for a several-day visit as well, although they didn't contribute directly to the intellectual goings-on (save for a few engaging conversations; it was nice seeing them both, even if I couldn't set them to work).

Mostly, I used the time to grouse tediously about not being in SoCal, but I also read a host of Philip K. Dick and H.P Lovecraft novels, preparing for the Sci-Fi class I'll be leading next spring here at SDSU. The permanent faculty at Hollins were lovely (especially Amanda Cockrell, the director of the children's literature program), & it was an honor to read my poetry alongside the talented writers on the Hollins faculty just before I headed home. Oh, & Maria Nikolajeva showed up to give an address to the students and faculty. It was great seeing Maria, even if only for a few days.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Peter Hunt Queries "Wind in Willows"


The greatest case of mistaken identity in literature – and what follows may well seem to some readers as verging on blasphemy!

To judge from a quick poll of friends, acquaintances, students, and the ladies in the village shop,
The Wind in the Willows is fondly remembered, even by those who don’t actually remember reading it. It is a children’s book, it is about small animals – and it is somehow quintessentially English: for almost everyone I spoke to, it conjured up endless summer, boating on a quiet river, large hampers of food, a peaceful, unthreatening way of life. One or two people looked thoughtful and remembered being frightened by being lost in the wild wood, and some thought immediately of the wild and happy Toad, dashing about the lanes crashing motor cars. But for everybody, it’s a classic – a classic Children’s Book. How could it be anything else? We read it as children, we read it to children, and the hundreds of editions in print are clearly aimed at children, and live in the children’s book section of bookshops. It was even (some of my more erudite interlocutors pointed out) written for a child, and was everything that a children’s book should be – fun, safe, adventurous, and innocent. The idea that I had just produced an edition for adults was regarded as distinctly eccentric (although eccentric in a very English way, so that’s not so bad)...

More at the OUP blog:

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Censorship in Texas

Mary Galbraith commends this blog by Pete Hautman to your attention:

Last week I received an email from wildly-popular YA author Ellen Hopkins (Crank, Impulse) letting me know that she had been “uninvited” to the 2011 Teen Lit Fest in Humble, Texas. Ellen made it clear that she was majorly pissed-off about it.
The biennial Teen Lit Fest (TLF) in Humble (a suburb of Houston) has become one of the premier teen literature festivals in the country. By all accounts, it is a friendly, well-organized event where teens can meet their favorite authors, and authors can connect with their teen readers. The high school and middle school librarians behind the event are a passionate and dedicated group with a deep love of teen literature. . .

More at:

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Leo Politi, Los Angeles & the Multicultural Picture Book


While you would expect the publishing wing of the Getty Museum to offer volumes about classical antiquities as well as studies of European paintings, you might be surprised to learn they also publish children’s books. Their recent catalog (http://www.getty.edu/bookstore/) lists some three dozen juvenile offerings but, to my way of thinking, the most interesting are four reprints of picture books by Leo Politi that appeared some fifty years ago. Politi pioneered “multicultural” children’s book; he was an Italian-American who featured Mexican-American characters and themes in his stories. Moreover, each of these works celebrates Politi’s beloved Los Angeles region, where the Getty makes its home....

Jerry Griswold on Leo Politi. More at Parents' Choice:

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Kids' Books Rediscovered, Again


Every few years, someone has their own personal Eureka! moment and announces there is--contrary to expectation--something of real value in children's books. Some of us--even most of us--have known this for a long time and can only smilingly indulge the johnny-come-lately.

The most recent discoverer is Pamela Paul in a NYTimes Book Review essay "The Kids'Books Are Alright." Those with functioning memories may recall not so long ago the denizens of taste making the same comment (regarding alright-ness) about the Harry Potter books. It has ever been thus. The bestselling books of the 1880's included: Uncle Remus, Heidi, Treasure Island, A Child's Garden of Verses, Huckleberry Finn, and Little Lord Fauntleroy; if these books were the equivalent then of today's adult blockbusters, then someone declaring they are "alright" would have seemed like the village idiot proclaiming his discovery that the ocean is salty. Duh.

Still, Paul's enthusiasm (however naive) is refreshing. She ends her 2010 essay: You "need not be embarassed about still reading kids' books." Since she's keen now on reading. Paul may now wish to turn to a forty-year-old discussion of alright-ness in Russel Nye's 1970 study The Unembarassed Muse. It turns out that embarassment is in the eye of the perceiver.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Regionalism: New Issue of German Journal


Regionalism in YA-fiction has experienced a renaissance in recent years. It provides regional identification and authenticity – and, not least, opens windows and doors to strange worlds for those children and young adults who live elsewhere.

In the new issue of interjuli, we take a tour through the literature of various regions: Christine Lötscher examines the application of legends and myths in Swiss YA-fiction, Grit Alter addresses the concept of identity formation in Canadian First Nation literature and Lara Brück-Pamplona investigates the influence of the Brothers Grimm on Brazilian folklore studies and children’s literature. Helene Ehriander examines the ideological background of the historical novels by Swedish author Solveigh Olsson-Hultgren and Torsten Mergen presents the literary archive as a possibility for extra-mural literary education.

In addition, I am delighted to present our new review section: Starting with this issue, we will regularly review primary and secondary literature concerning YA-fiction, the primary literature always matching our focal topic. Thus, we kick off by reviewing YA- regional literature from Germany, Austria, the US and Italy.

Check out our homepage http://www.interjuli.de/ for more information and abstracts of the articles and order your copy of interjuli 02/10 for 9,80€ online or by e-mail (info@interjuli.de).

Kindest regards,
Marion Rana

interjuli Internationale Kinder- und JugendliteraturforschungOberflecken 25D- 65391 Lorch/Rhein

rana@interjuli.dehttp://www.interjuli.de/

Review Books: Children's Lit Criticism


I have recently taken over from Vanessa Joosen as reviews editor of the IRSCL website and the IRCL journal. I'd like to take this opportunity to invite those of you who would like to write reviews to get in touch with me directly (lydia.kokkola@utu.fi) and send me the following information:
1) Your affiliation.
2) The postal address to which you would like books to be sent.
3) Your areas of expertise.
4) The languages you speak.
I currently have four books for which I am seeking reviewers:
William Gray's Death and Fantasy: Essays on Philip Pullman, C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald and R. L. Stevenson.
Gillian Lathey's The Role of Translators in Children's Literature:
Invisible Storytellers.
Gail Edwards and Judith Saltman's Picturing Canada: A History of Canadian Children's Illustrated Books and Publishing
Colomer, Kümmerling-Meibauer and Silva-Díaz (eds.) New Directions in Picturebook research.
I am expecting other books to arrive soon, so do get in touch even if you are not interested in these particular volumes. I also encourage you to suggest books which you would like to see reviewed. In particular, I would like to encourage researchers who are working outside the anglophone context to offer reviews of books written in languages other than English.
Finally, Vanessa was very careful to ensure I had plenty of information when she handed over to me. It is, however, possible that there has been a glitch in the hand over. If you have written a review but not heard from me, please get in touch as soon as possible.
Yours,
Lydia Kokkola

July 2011 Winkie Convention



Time
Friday, July 8, 2011 at 3:30pm - Sunday, July 10, 2011 at 1:00pm
Location
Asilomar Conference Center
800 Asilomar Avenue
Pacific Grove, CA
Created By
David Maxine, Eric Shanower
More Info
Join Program Director David Maxine as he takes you under the sea for the 2011 Winkie Con! You are invited to attend the 47th Annual WINKIE CONVENTION, celebrating the magical Land of Oz and the many works of L. Frank Baum.In 2011 we journey under the sea to celebrate Baum's underwater adventure, THE SEA FAIRIES, which first introduced us to beloved Oz favorites Trot and Cap'n Bill.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Philip Nel's Blog


Joining the expanding world of children's literature blogs is Phil Nel's blog:
See also:
and
as well as others, including this one.