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Growing Patterns Earns Superior Rating in Horn Book Guide
Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature earned a superior rating in The Horn Book Guide. For the uninitiated, this is a 2 on a scale from 1 (outstanding) to 6 (unacceptable). Any book with a 1 or 2 rating is marked with a bold triangle in the guide. I am grateful for the notice.
Also, Growing Patterns has been nominated for a Cybil Award in the 2010 Non-Fiction/Informational Picture Books category. The Cybils awards are given each year by bloggers for the year’s best children’s and young adult titles. The Growing Patterns‘ nomination came from Jennifer Wharton of Jean Little Library. Thank you, Jennifer. Read her review of Growing Patterns here.
Finally, a new librarian friend sent along some photos from last week’s Mississippi Library Association Author Awards dinner. So, Richard makes a rare public appearance on the blog.
Mississippi Library Association Author Award 2010
I had a wonderful time on Thursday at the Mississippi Library Association annual conference in Vicksburg.
I was honored Thursday night by the Mississippi Library Association. For Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator, I won the 2010 Youth Award. I am pictured here with Chris Myers Asch, the recipient of the 2010 Nonfiction Award, and Lynn Shurden (between me and Asch), chair of the Authors Awards Committee. The other two women pictured are also members of the awards committee, (from left) Ann ?, and Donna Fite. Deborah Johnson won the 2010 Fiction Award for her book, The Air Between Us. She was signing books and not available for the photograph.
This is the first time the MLA has given a Youth Award and I was delighted to be the first recipient. During the award speech and also during a session earlier in the day, I gave a short preview of my newest project, which unlike Wolfsnail and Growing Patterns, comes out of my childhood. It was fun to see Gloria Liggans, my school librarian from 4th through 9th grades, and many other librarian friends I have made since I started writing books for children.
My friend Irene Latham gave the luncheon speech for the MLA conference, telling the story behind publication of her book, Leaving Gee’s Bend, published by Putnam.
The story included everything a story must, including ever-more-difficult obstacles. She shared photographs from Gee’s Bend in the 1930s, photographs of quilts made by Gee’s Bend Quilters, and a Ludelphia doll that was made for her by a school librarian.
Irene’s next novel is a contemporary one, titled Don’t Feed the Boy, which is forthcoming from Roaring Brook Press.
It was nice to have Irene join Richard and me at the awards dinner.
We cooked a bit of a celebratory dinner the next night, using a brand new cooking pot called a tagine. We made a lamb tagine (the meal is named after the cooking pot), masala dosas, and a spinach salad. I am no good at food photography, but these will give you an idea of what we ate and how we made it.
Emile Henry Tagine
Tagine base
Lamb Tagine from Mark Bittman's cookbook
Dosa
Masala filling for Dosa
Good News for Wolfsnail
Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator won the Mississippi Library Association’s Children’s Book Award. I am thrilled to have won this award and I thank the MLA’s 2010 Authors Awards Committee for the recognition. I will accept the award during the MLA’s annual conference in Vicksburg, which is October 20-22.
The committee voted in February to add the children’s award to its list, which has traditionally included fiction and nonfiction for adults. A list of previous award winners can be found here.
In other news, my friends at Boyds Mills Press shared today that a professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois is using Wolfsnail in a course on using children’s literature to teach.
When I posted photographs from our recent trip to Oregon, I forgot to include this one, which is actually one of my favorites. Somehow it didn’t get flagged. I hope you enjoy the two semi-circles in the composition as much as we do.
Crater Lake, July 2010
Maryland Blue Crab Award
I enjoyed my trip to Ocean City, Maryland, this week, where I talked to Maryland librarians about how Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator came to be. I also accepted the Blue Crab Young Reader Award for Beginning Nonfiction.
Talking About the Back Matter
With the Maryland Blue Crab Award Committee
I spent time with Janis Cooker, the chair of the Maryland Blue Crab Award committee, Jill Hutchinson, and Catherine DiCristofaro. They picked me up at the airport and took me out to dinner the night before my presentation. I learned about some interesting programming they are doing in the library system of St. Mary’s County — especially with children who are identified for early intervention services and hands-on science. Jill was among presenters for a pre-conference program titled Quality Programming for Pennies and Janis joined others to present on Creating Successful Cultural Connections for Preschoolers and their Families.
Catherine and Jill
Sarah and Janis
Photographs from Ocean City
Pinecone with 5 spirals and 8 spirals
Lovely windy beach
washed up on beach. a ray?
Wild flower growing along sidewalk on Coastal Highway. A five.
shell
A Trip for Wolfsnail
Wolfsnail eating
Today I leave for Ocean City, Maryland, to participate in the Maryland Library Association‘s annual conference. On Thursday, I will accept the Maryland Blue Crab Young Readers Award for Beginning Nonfiction for Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator. In honor of the award, I dug up some old photographs of wolfsnails. They are ones that didn’t make it into the book, but were part of its development. The above photo is a good shot of the Wolfsnail’s radula, the toothy tongue.
One of the best things about Wolfsnail has been that parents, librarians, and teachers are using it in the exactly the way I hoped.
In her recent blog post recommending Wolfsnail for new readers, Jennifer Wharton, a librarian at Jean Little Library wrote: “The simple text tells in riveting detail the progress of a wolfsnail as it stalks its prey. The reader learns many details about these giant snails and how they feed. The vocabulary level is simple enough for most intermediate readers to read on their own. Beginning readers will need some help with the longer words. I encourage adults to listen to the child’s reading – and help with the longer vocabulary words, then spend some time reading aloud the extended information about wolfsnails at the back of the book, or visit the Campbells’ website and talk about their amazing photography! The simple text also makes an excellent read-aloud for elementary students.”
A well-camouflaged wolfsnail
I often say Wolfsnail is the book I wish I’d found in the library when Nathan found the wolfsnails. But, really, I am so glad that book wasn’t there.
The Magnolia Award: Mississippi Children’s Choice
It is almost time for Mississippi’s third through fifth graders to vote for their favorite book among this year’s nominees for The Magnolia Award. I learned about this award at the 2009 Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival and asked Virginia Butler, a writer friend and independent reading specialist who is part of the Award’s nominating committee, to bring me up-to-date.
Voting will take place at public and school libraries in April. Any student who has read at least half of the books is eligible to vote. The creator(s) of the winning book will be invited to receive The Magnolia Award at the 2011 Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival.
Nominees are:
- The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo and Bagram Ibatoulline
- Fly by Night by Francis Hardinge
- Clementine by Sara Pennypacker and Marla Freeze
- John, Paul, George, and Ben by Lane Smith
- Pictures from Our Vacation by Lynn Rae Perkins
- The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis
- The Arrival by Shaun Tan
- Robot Dreams by Sara Varon
- A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever by Marla Frazee
- We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson
- Pale Male: Citizen Hawk of New York City by Janet Schulman and Meillo So
- How I Learned Geography by Uri Shulevitz
In establishing this award, Mississippi joins about 30 other states in recognizing excellence in children’s literature and getting young readers excited about new books. Linda Perez, librarian at Madison Station Elementary, spearheaded the push to create a children’s choice award. It is a goal of organizers to expand the award to other age groups in coming years.
The Magnolia Award is a partnership between the Mississippi Department of Education; the Mississippi Library Commission; the Mississippi Reading Association; the University of Southern Mississippi School of Library and Instructional Science; the Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival; the University of Southern Mississippi School of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education; and the de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection.
If you have questions, or comments, please contact Catharine Bomhold (cbomhold at yahoo dot com). If you have suggestions for next year’s nominees, please follow this link.
Secret World wins 2010 Orbis Pictus Award
Big news today for Hester Bass! Her book, The Secret World of Walter Anderson, won the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children. This is wonderful news for Hester, for the book, and for the legacy of Walter Anderson. Many, many more people will learn about his extraordinary life and art. Way to go, Hester!
In November, I talked with Hester about the book and featured a video of her reading the opening lines. Click here to see that post. Hester also presented at my sons’ school, Power APAC, which I wrote about here. During Hester’s visit to Jackson, a crew from Mississippi Public Broadcasting filmed an interview for their online feature Don’t Lecture Me!
Wolfsnail Wins Maryland Blue Crab Award
We were excited to learn earlier this month that Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator won the Maryland Blue Crab Young Readers Award in the Beginning Non-Fiction category. It was announced today at the MLA’s Kids Are Customers, Too conference in Westminster, Maryland. I will accept the award at the Maryland Library Association conference in April in Ocean City. I have been corresponding with Janis Cooker, the youth coordinator for St. Mary’s County Library. Aside from driving through on my way from Lexington, Virginia, to Dover, Delaware, (the home of wolfsnail researcher Melissa Harrington), I haven’t spent any time in Maryland. I am looking forward to my visit with Maryland’s librarians next spring. And, thanks.
Card Making Plus An Honor
Most of the ways I use photographs these days are digital. I capture them using a digital camera, edit them using Lightroom or Photohop, post them on my blog, website, and Facebook page. When I submit them to editors for magazines or books, I submit a digital file. Every once in a while, I upload my digital images to an online photolab (I use Kodak Gallery) and get prints or calendars made. Most recently, I have purchased photographic prints to make photo albums as gifts. I rarely print photographs at home — unless I am printing on plain paper as a proof of some kind.
Today, I made homemade cards. I printed several copies of the above image on matte photo paper using my Canon IP 4600 printer. They turned out very nicely — except for the one I mis-loaded. Only the front of the paper is appropriate to receive the ink. You can see how the cards turned out. I tried different sizes and mounted some. It was fun to make nice prints and work with them to make a final product at home.
These will go in the mail on Monday.
While I was at the kitchen table putting these together, today’s mail came and with it a nice note from my editor. He passed along a note from Sue Margulis, chair of the Children’s Book Award Committee, of the Animal Behavior Society. Wolfsnail was one of three Boyds Mills Press books (Ookpik and The Puzzle of the Platypus were the others) named as finalists for the 2009 ABS Outstanding Children’s Book Award. Richard and I are honored to have Wolfsnail recognized in this way.