June Cummins Explains: "What Are Jewish Boys & Girls Made Of"

June Cummins essay "What Are Jewish Bous and Girls Made Of? Gender in Contemporary Jewish Teens and Tween Fiction" has appeared in the most recent issue of Children's Literature Association Quarterly (Fall 2011).

Available online. Subscription required (often you can access through your university library):
http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/childrens_literature_association_quarterly/v024/24.2.article11.html

Dublin Conference: October 2011

‘From Instruction to Delight’:

Reading Traditions in Irish Primary Education

A conference to be held in the Church of Ireland College of Education, Dublin,

to celebrate the bicentenary of the founding of the Kildare Place Society.

Friday 14^th and Saturday 15^th October 2011

The Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in Ireland, popularly known as the Kildare Place Society, was founded in Dublin in 1811. The society was pioneering in its work which pre-dated the establishment of the National School System in Ireland. Notable among its achievements were the publication of a series of ‘library books’ for use in schools and its support for the training of teachers which eventually led to the establishment of the Church of Ireland College of Education.

Conference speakers: James Bennett, Valerie Coghlan, John Coolahan, Roddy Doyle, Harold Hislop, Peter Hunt, Antonia McManus, Emer O’Sullivan, Keith O’Sullivan, Susan Parkes, Amanda Piesse.

Topics include:

• What children read in the period spanning 1811 to 2011.
• The publications of the Kildare Place Society.
• Books read in hedge schools.
• 20^th century text books, including depictions of girls in primary school books.
• Collections of children’s books in Trinity College Dublin and the Church of Ireland College of Education.

Booking for the conference opens in mid-March 2011.

Details on www.cice.ie

www.cice.ie/uploads/documents/news/Conf%20booking%20form.doc

Job in Massachusetts

Museum Educator
The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst is seeking a dynamic Educator with a strong knowledge and passion for picture books. The Museum Educator will develop and present programs on connecting the art and design of the picture book with the development of visual and verbal literacy. As part of a creative and collaborative education team, the Museum Educator will be responsible for providing both in-house and off-site professional development programs as well as engaging, art-inspired experiences for visitors including, gallery programs, printed and online resources, and assistance in the planning of special events. Applicants should have a demonstrated ability to implement an arts-integration model of instruction, make connections between works of art and the ideas they embody, engage audiences.
Applicants should have a BA in a related field and a minimum of four years teaching experience; a post graduate degree in Children’s Literature or Education is preferred. Strong public speaking and written communication skills, experience working with children and families, flexibility and computer proficiency. This half-time non-benefited position, typically 20 hours per week, includes occasional evening or weekend hours. Applicant must have a valid driver’s license and be willing to travel.

Resumes will be accepted until end of day September 26, 2011.

All Museum employees enjoy a generous discount in the Book Store and on select Educational programs, plus free admission to many cultural institutions throughout New England.

Resumes should be submitted electronically and applicants must submit the Museum's Employment Application found below as well as a resume and cover letter. Please submit all materials in one email. If you have any questions regarding the application process please contact Human Resources at hr@carlemuseum.org or 413-658-1107.

The Eric Carle Museum Employment Application (PDF)

Application requires Adobe Reader 9. Follow this link for the free download.

Thank you for your interest in The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.

The Eric Carle Museum is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

CFP: Australia June 2012: ACLAR Conference & Shaun Tan

Call For Papers
‘If We’re Being Honest: The Facts and Fictions of Children’s Literature’
The 2012 Biennial Conference of the Australasian Children’s Literature Association for Research (ACLAR)

National Library of Australia, Canberra ACT, June 20 – 22, 2012

Debates about notions of honesty, openness, innocence and agency have abounded in both the study and practice of children’s and young adult literature. The 2012 Biennial ACLAR conference will explore the contemporary tensions between some of these key debates, with particular emphasis upon the role of children’s literature in the digital world. Confirmed keynote speakers include Prof. Clare Bradford (Deakin University), Prof. Kerry Mallan (Queensland University of Technology) and writer/illustrator Shaun Tan.
Presenters are invited to submit abstracts exploring aspects of the conference theme; ‘If We’re Being Honest: The Facts and Fictions of Children’s Literature’.

More information at: http://www.aclar.org/index.php/callsforpapers/8-cfplisting/28-cfp-aclar-2012-conference

CFP Philippine Children's Literature: Boston June 2012: ChLA Conference

Call for Papers:

Philippine Children’s Literature

39^th Annual Children’s Literature Association Conference

Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts

June 14-16, 2012

The International Committee of the Children’s Literature Association is planning a special country focus panel on the Philippines, to be presented at the 39^th Children’s Literature Association Conference, to be held at Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts from June 14 to 16, 2012. The committee invites paper proposals that focus on any aspect of Philippine children’s literature. Papers may focus on the origins of and/or developments in Philippine children’s texts; issues of regionalism and nationalism; Philippine folklore as children’s texts; Philippine children’s literature in the diaspora; or the state of children’s literature studies in the Philippines. Preference will be given to proposals with the potential to inspire American and international scholars to develop active interest in Philippine children’s literature and to integrate it into their own research.

The authors of two papers selected for the panel to accompany a presentation by a Philippine Distinguished Scholar (invited by the committee) will be awarded a $500 travel grant each. Up to four other proposals may be selected as well, pending the approval of the additional panel by the conference paper selection committee. The papers must be presented in English and must not exceed the twenty-minute reading time. The committee strongly encourages ChLA members and other scholars with an interest in Philippine children’s literature to submit paper proposals for the session. Send 500-word abstracts accompanied by up to 250-word bios to the International Committee, Children’s Literature Association, P.O. Box 138, Battle Creek, MI 49016-0138, USA; fax +269-965-3568; or electronically to info@childlitassn.org . The deadline for submissions is November 30, 2011.

Grimm Bros Conference: Feb 2012 Cambridge, Mass

To mark the the 100-year anniversary of the publication of the seminal collection of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, Harvard University is sponsoring a conference February 3-5, 2012. Deadline for paper proposals is October 1.
http://web.me.com/folkmyth/Folk_%26_Myth/Grimm_Legacies.html

CFP: May 2012 (Ontario): The Great War

CALL FOR PAPERS

From the Garden to the Trenches:

Childhood, Culture and the First World War

9-12 May 2012

Part of the Leverhulme International Network on “Approaching War”

Brock University, The Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books & Trinity College, University of Toronto, Canada http://www.fww-child.org

For children growing up in the nineteenth-century ‘Golden Age’ of children’s literature, childhood was characterized as an enclosed, nurturing space, “a child’s garden,” or “kindergarten” as Wilhelm Froebel christened it in 1832; a place for cultivating imagination and play as in, for example, Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885). Garden mud and puddles were for planting and for playing – how difficult for the children growing up in those gardens to anticipate and imagine the muddy trenches of the First World War.

From the Garden to the Trenches – the second of three Leverhulme-supported conferences, marking the approaching centenary of the First World War – will focus on childhood, culture and war from the perspectives of the Americas and the Caribbean. The first conference – Sydney, Australia in December 2011 – will focus on the global south, and the third – Newcastle, UK – on England and Europe. Our aim is to produce a digital archive out of materials assembled during the three conferences."

We are delighted to announce that so far our confirmed keynote speakers include:

Deborah Ellis, author of The Breadwinner and other war stories Linda Granfield, author of Remembering John McCrae Margaret Higonnet (Connecticut), author of Nurses at the Front: Writing the Wounds of the Great War Michael Morpurgo, author of War Horse (the play of which is in Toronto in Spring 2012) Paul Stevens (Toronto), author of Winston Churchill’s Military Romanticism.

Suggested topics may include, in relation to the war and the Americas and the Caribbean:

● National and global ideas of childhood and nationhood

● Empire and its impact on recruitment

● War in art, fiction, drama and music

● The intersection of cultures of war and childhood cultures

● War, empire and the colonial encounter

● Lives of girls and women in relation to war

● Concepts of ‘home’

● The Boy Scout Movement and the call to war

We are tentatively planning for plenary-only sessions (panels and keynotes), and will give preference to panel proposals. Ideally, panels will consist of four speakers, each giving a 15-minute paper. Individual proposals are, however, also welcomed. Please submit 200-250 word abstracts. Some travel bursaries are available – see http://www.fww-child.org for more details.

Deadline for abstracts: 15 September 2011 Notification of outcome: 30 September 2011 Abstracts should be submitted via email to lpaul@brocku.ca

Dr. Lucy Pearson, Newcastle University