John Green at Carnegie Hall for “An Evening of Awesome” on January 15.

On Thursday, February 14 at 4:50 p.m. EST, popular young adult author John Green will participate in a Google+ “fireside” Hangout with President Obama, following up on the State of the Union address to Congress. A group of participants, including John Green, will ask the president their own questions as well as those submitted by the public.

Viewers can tune in via the White House Google+ page or YouTube channel, and submit questions of their own via video or text through the channel. The deadline for submission of is 11:59 p.m. EST on Wednesday, February 13.

John Green is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and The Fault in Our Stars.

Google+ Hangouts allow up to 10 people to “hang out” via video chat. This is the President’s second time answering Americans’ questions via Hangout. In order to participate in a Hangout, a user has to sign in to Google+ and create a simple profile page.

The event, which was delayed by a day after 30 inches of snow fell in the area, was selected “because we wanted to focus on teaching and learning,” Principal Donna Page tells School Library Journal.

Kid lit authors/illustrators at Sandy Hook Elementary School pose for a quick photo after a day spent interacting with the kids. Back Row: Alan Katz, Bruce Degen, Tad Hills, Katie Davis, Vincent Kirsch, Bob Shea, Meghan McCarthy. Front Row: Susan Hood, Mike Rex, Tracy Dockray, Marc Tyler Nobleman, Daniel Kirk.

Fairfield-based Susan Hood and Newtown resident Bruce Degan, creator of The Magic School Bus (Scholastic) series, filled in for author/illustrators who had conflicts with the rescheduling.

Planning for the event took shape immediately following the tragedy, when Marc Tyler Nobleman reached out to Isabel Almeida at the United Way of Western Connecticut and offered to organize the group visit as part of the process of returning to normalcy. Nobleman is author of more than 70 books, including Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman (Charlesbridge, 2012).

Normalcy was evident when Tad Hills, Bob Shea, Katie Davis, and Mike Rex visited kindergarteners who welcomed the visitors with smiling faces and the enthusiasm of any 5 year old. “You are a good drawer,” exclaimed one kindergartner, as Bob Shea created various animals from jellybean-shaped figures. “I have a book of yours at home,” said another, when Tad Hills shared the trick of drawing his famous duck from his Duck and Goose (Schwartz & Wade) books.

The only reminders of the December tragedy noticeable by visitors are the many snowflakes sent to the school from around the country, and hand prints on the wall of the lecture center from places like Winchell Elementary School in Kalamazoo, MI, and the Queen Anne’s County HS in Sudlersville, MD.

The class visits were followed by two assemblies to grades 1-3 where the group presented an author/illustrator variety show complete with a guitar and song solo from Daniel Kirk, the creator of the Library Mouse (Abrams) series. Silly poems and songs followed from Alan Katz, author of Take Me Out of the Bathtub (S&S, 2001). Vincent Kirsch brought a toy theater to retell the story of his book The Chandeliers (FSG, 2012).  And Tracy Dockray did a hip-hop reading of Fran Manuskin’s The Tushy Book (Feiwel, 2008), which Dockray illustrated.

Non-fiction then took center stage when Meghan McCarthy demonstrated how she uses You Tube to help with her research on topics such as bubble gum, aliens, and astronauts.

“Anytime we can have authors and illustrators in front of kids is a good thing,” says Yvonne Cech, the school librarian who helped coordinate the day.  “So many of our students are writing and drawing their own stories and it’s inspiring to have these people here.”

The group also visited the other elementary schools in the district and met with teachers.

As you probably know, John Green is the author of Looking for Alaska (Dutton, 2005), An Abundance of Katherines (Dutton, 2006), Paper Towns (Dutton, 2008), and this year’s Odyssey award winner, The Fault in Our Stars (Dutton, 2012), four titles sure to appeal to even your most reluctant readers. Dedicate 18 minutes of your life to watching his TED Talk entitled The Paper Town Academy. In this talk, he delivers the best response I’ve ever heard to the question, “Will this be on the test?” It’s worth printing out and putting on the walls of classrooms everywhere:

“Yeah, about the test… The test will measure whether you are an informed, engaged, and productive citizen of the world, and it will take place in schools and bars and hospitals and dorm rooms and in places of worship.You will be tested on first dates, in job interviews, while watching football, and while scrolling through your Twitter feed.The test will judge your ability to think about things other than celebrity marriages, whether you’ll be easily persuaded by empty political rhetoric, and whether you’ll be able to place your life and your community in a broader context.The test will last your entire life, and it will be comprised of the millions of decisions that, when taken together, will make your life yours.And everything, everything, will be on it…. I know, right?”

Hank Green co-founded DFTBA Records, a distribution network to help talented musicians find audiences. His own musical talents are evident in the song “This is Not Harry Potter.” The lyrics, all by themselves, are positively brilliant:

“And in the darkest hours, of my darkest nights

I found myself curled up with twilight

And I couldn’t help but wonder as I ravenously read

Can you avada kedavra the undead

’cause Edward Cullen totally has it comin’

and if he saw Voldemort he’d better start runnin’

Cause there’s not much that the dark lord and I

could agree on but I think that we would both hate that guy.”

I am eternally grateful to Hank for producing The Lizzie Bennett Diaries, a modern twist on Jane Austen’s story. My husband has tried reading Pride and Prejudice, really he has, and has valiantly stayed awake for portions of various movie adaptations of the book, but it wasn’t until Hank’s vlog version that the characters and plot became interesting to him.

Individually, the brothers are talented and creatively prolific. Taken together, they are forces for good on our planet. For the last year, Hank and John have been teaching classes via YouTube. Hank Green earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Eckerd College and a master’s degree in environmental studies from the University of Montana. John Green graduated from Kenyon College in 2000 with a double major in English and religious studies. They both have the educational credentials for their YouTube tutorials in which Hank teaches biology and ecology, and John teaches world history and literature. The buzz phrase in education right now is “student engagement,” and you’ll certainly feel that when you view these incredible videos (CrashCourse and SciShow), which are gateways to engagement: funny, entertaining, and informative.

The brothers Green clearly love learning, reading, and exploring the world we all share.They proudly embrace the word “nerd” and they make learning cool, and all of our students will be stronger, wiser, and kinder having made their acquaintance.

For more on the Green brothers, see SLJ’s coverage of An Evening of Awesome, featuring Hank and John at Carnegie Hall.

All things Dr. Seuss were in the air Monday at the 42nd branch of the New York Public Library, including a sea of students sporting Cat in the Hat  hats in an attempt to set a Guinness Book World Record, a read-aloud of Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? by NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon, and even a visit from the Cat in the Hat himself. These festivities marked Random House Children’s Books and Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ launch of the “Hats Off to Dr. Seuss!” campaign, a yearlong celebration of the famed children’s book author that coincides with the 75th anniversary of The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins.

This first stop for the campaign also included an announcement of a new partnership between Random House Children’s Books, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, and the Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation, an organization dedicated to finding a cure for pediatric cancer.

In Corey’s first book, You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer! (Scholastic, 2000; Gr 1-3), readers learn that, “Amelia Bloomer was NOT a proper lady.” In 1847, respectable women were not allowed to vote or work and dressed in tight, uncomfortable clothes that made it impossible to do much of anything. A visit from Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Stanton’s cousin Libby changed all that. “Instead of a dress Libby was wearing something that was NOT too heavy and NOT too long and NOT too tight and NOT too wide. It looked just right.” Amelia embraced the new attire by sewing an identical outfit and writing about it in the women’s newspaper she edited, The Lily. The controversy over women’s dress made the newspaper, and Amelia, famous—and quite improper.

While bloomers themselves eventually went out of style, women today can wear and do as they please thanks to independent thinkers like Amelia Bloomer. The book’s sparse, engaging text paired with Chesley McLaren’s vibrant, humorous gouache illustrations make this a terrific read aloud. A pattern at the back of the book can be copied and cut out to make bloomers for paper dolls with younger audiences. Older students can explore the history of women’s fashion or even sketch their own innovative clothing for babies, children, men, or women. Highlight Corey’s Amelia with Tanya Lee Stone’s Elizabeth Leads the Way: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Right to Vote (Holt, 2008; Gr 1-4) and Linda Arms White’s I Could Do That: Esther Morris Gets Women the Vote (Farrar, 2005; Gr 2-4), two great stories about other plucky women of earlier eras.

Another rebel and innovator in female fashion is the subject of Corey’s Mermaid Queen (Scholastic, 2009; Gr 2-6). Annette Kellerman was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1906. A childhood illness was responsible for the leg braces she needed growing up, but would eventually lead to the great strength and joy she found in swimming. The daughter of two music teachers, Kellerman grew up in a house filled with singing and dancing. Though she felt clumsy on the dance floor, she was graceful and “fancy-free” in the water, which led to the creation of a new sport—water ballet.

The young woman traveled the world to showcase her invention, “But everywhere they went, people just scoffed. A girl swimmer? Too plain. Too plump. Too weird. Too wet. Too bad!” A stunt in the river Thames in which she swam 13 miles amidst boats and barges earned some attention in the newspapers. One paper challenged her to swim the English Channel; while she didn’t manage to do that, “…people marveled over the young girl who had swum so far and so well…she even made it look artistic!”

When Kellerman arrived in America, she was horrified to see women on the beach donning “stockings and shoes, bloomers and bathing dresses, collars and corsets and caps…How could anyone possibly swim in that?” Although her men’s racing suit got her arrested, she soon designed a sleek new women’s suit that became all the rage. She also wrote two bestsellers on female health and fitness. The vibrant, digitally-created illustrations by Edwin Fotheringham capture the athlete’s spirit and world with humor and accuracy.

Along with Mermaid, consider introducing David A. Adler and Terry Widener’s America’s Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle  (Harcourt, 2005; K-Gr 4), another great read aloud about the first woman to actually swim the English Channel—and break the men’s record doing it. Show students clips from the 1952 biopic, The Million Dollar Mermaid or any of the water ballet videos available online. Cari Best’s picture book When Catherine the Great and I Were Eight (Farrar, 2003; PreS-Gr 2) illustrated by Giselle Potter, is a fun fictional pairing. Use Corey’s biography to introduce students to woman with “gumption,” as well as in units about healthy living.

Another feisty, improper woman, Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low, born in 1860, is the subject of Here Come the Girl Scouts! (Scholastic, 2012; Gr 2-4). “Daisy grew up in Savannah, Georgia, at a time when proper young ladies were supposed to be dainty and delicate.” She was nothing of the sort.

While her peers sipped tea, Daisy “rode elephants in India,” “flew in a monoplane,” and went fishing. She loved the outdoors and yearned to do something important. Then she met Sir Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts in Great Britain; she learned that his sister had subsequently founded the Girl Guides. “‘Why, the girls in America should have something like this!’ Daisy thought.” And so, on March 12, 1912, she hosted the first Girl Scout meeting.

The enthusiastic young girls learned to be honorable, loyal, useful, a friend to all, courteous, kind to animals, and obedient. While troops soon emerged all over the country, there were some, just like in Amelia’s day, who thought the organization “unthinkable” and “preposterous.” Still, eager girls of every class and race donned their uniforms, swam, hiked, and adventured in the great outdoors. “Daisy believed that girls could do anything. And she was right. Girl Scouts have been making a difference even since…” The last spread offers a gallery of portraits of famous Girl Scouts in all walks of life, including Hillary Clinton, Gloria Steinem, Rebecca Lobo, and Lucille Ball.

Once again, Corey makes every word count; the text is brief and lively and Hadley Hooper’s bold ink-and-paint prints are both amusing and add period detail. This title may easily inspire new local scouting chapters. Early scouts were both naturalists and conservationists–students will certainly want to experience the outdoors and possibly get involved in local “green” causes—just in time for Earth Day.

Corey is also the author of two fiction titles—meticulously researched and equally delightful and useful in classrooms and libraries. If your study of Corey’s work includes her fiction titles, be sure to have have a conversation about the distinction between historical fiction and nonfiction and the research that fiction often entails. Introduce your students to the author’s “true stories—partly,” Milly and the Macy’s Parade (Scholastic, 2002; Gr K-Gr 3), illustrated by Bret Helquist, and Players in Pigtails (Scholastic, 2003; K-Gr 4) illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon. Both titles are based on real events with fictionalized main characters that resonate with children.

Milly tells the story of how homesick immigrant employees at the landmark Manhattan department store joined together to create a new holiday tradition in America. More than one thousand costumed employees marched in the first parade in 1924 along with bands, floats, and animals from the Central Park Zoo. Milly, the fictionalized little daughter of one of these employees, brings the magic and wonder of this grand store to life for youngsters. After reading, show clips of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade today and have students design their own two-or-three dimensional balloons of favorite characters. Pair with Melissa Sweet’s Balloons Over Broadway (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Gr 1-5) to learn about the real-life person who created the first balloon puppets for the Macy’s Parade.

Katie Casey, the fictionalized protagonist in Corey’s Players in Pigtails, is not very good “…at being a girl,” but she loves baseball. Like Annette Kellerman, Casey struggles with parental and societal attitudes towards girls in sports until World War II changes everything. With most players turned to soldiers, the fields were empty. “Finally, Phillip Wrigley, the owner of the Chicago Cubs, had an idea. ‘If women can work in factories and even join the army…why can’t they play ball?” Though most people found the concept, “OUTRAGEOUS!,” hundreds of girls from all over the country, including Katie, showed up to play…and played just as good as their male counterparts, despite the silly dresses they had to wear.

Wisecracks such as “Careful, you might break a nail, girls!” and “Is this a ballpark or a ballroom?” quieted when the girls started to play. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League lasted from 1943 to 1954, until “women were encouraged to leave the factories and the ballparks to make room for returning soldiers.” Show clips from the movie A League of their Own (1992), sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”—the words are on the endpapers—or play ball in the schoolyard to celebrate this fascinating slice of America’s national pastime. Share with Doreen Rappaport’s Dirt on Their Skirts (Dial, 2000; Gr 1-4) illustrated by E. B. Lewis and Marissa Moss’s Mighty Jackie: The Strike-Out Queen (S & S, 2004; K-Gr 3) illustrated by C.F. Payne, for nonfiction accounts of the League and star pitcher Jackie Mitchell.

All of these titles commemorate girls or women in history in entertaining, attractive packages. While the illustrators of all five books differ, Corey’s lively, spirited writing inspires each artist to create equally accomplished pictures that will appeal to elementary and middle school students. They empower girls to be the best they can be and follow their dreams. So take a swim, take a stand, wear the pants, and play ball!

Barbara Auerbach is a librarian at P.S. 217 in Brooklyn, New York.

Eds. note: Be sure to visit Shana Corey’s terrific website for more resources for educators as well as information about school visits.

*Amy Haskin’s blog of February 4, 2010

Many of the ELA reading, writing, speaking and listening standards for K-5 informational texts are incorporated into the lessons described. The titles and activities suggested above reference the following Common Core State Standards:

RI.2.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
RI.2.6 Identify the main purpose of a text, including what the author wants to answer, explain, or describe.
W. 2.2 Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section.
W. 2.7  Participate in shared research and writing projects.
SL. 2.2 Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud.
RL. 3.7. Explain how specific aspects of a text’s illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story.
RI. 3.7 Use information gained from illustrations…and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text.
W. 3.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting appoint of view with reasons.

Jane Yolen, Mo Willems, Mark Teague, and Ellen Hopkins gather at the SCBWI event in NYC.

The ballroom of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City was glittering with the stars of the world of children’s literature this weekend as they gathered for the 14^th Annual Society of Children Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Conference.

The two-day event brings together writers, illustrators, editors, publishers, agents, librarians, educators, booksellers, and others involved with producing literature for young people for a series of workshops on the art and business of children’s books.

SCBWI also works with librarians via the Amber Brown Grant. The grant is given in memory of  Paula Danzinger, author of the Amber Brown books, who died in 2004 at the age of 59. It provides funds for an author to visit schools and school libraries. Each year, two schools receive an all-expense-paid visit by a well-respected children’s author or illustrator.

Additionally, one runner up school is selected to receive books valued at $250.00.  The deadline to apply for the next cycle of this award is April 1, 2013.

View a slideshow of the SCBWI event below! (Click on “Show Info” to read the captions.)

Acclaimed storyteller, folklorist and author Diane Wolkstein died on January 31 following emergency heart surgery while traveling in Taiwan. She was 70.

Both Wolkstein’s storytelling and printed works delved into the culture and mythology of many countries, and she often traveled to a country and spent time there when conducting her research. She was in Taiwan last month working on her most recent project, the epic Chinese story of the Monkey King.

Wolkstein wrote more than 20 books, including The Magic Orange Tree and Other Haitian Folktales (Random House, 1978), Oom Razoon (HarperCollins, 1991), and The Red Lion (Crowell, 1977), all of which were named ALA Notable Books.

Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth (HarperCollins, 1983), which she co-authored with Samuel Noah Kramer, is considered a classic retelling of the great Sumerian epic.

However, though praised as an author, it was Wolkstein’s talent as a storyteller that won her international fame, and many credit her for reviving interest in the art of storytelling fairly early in her career. “The meaning of life is in stories,” she once said. “It is the way I understand life and it is the way I often connect to people.”

In 1967, she was named the New York City Storyteller in recognition of the storytelling events she staged in the parks around the city. In 1972, she began the first graduate storytelling program in the country at Bank Street College.  She was also instrumental in establishing a summer Saturday morning tradition where stories are told at the base of the Hans Christian Andersen statue in Central Park.  Well versed in the Danish storyteller, she authored an article for School Library Journal, “The Finest Quality Dirt,” in 2005 in honor of Andersen’s 200th birthday. During the 2012 season, she performed at the park four times.

A founding member of both America’s National Storytelling Conference and the Storytelling Center of New York City, she was recognized in 2007 when New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg named June 22 of that year “Diane Wolkstein Day” in honor of her 40 years of storytelling for the people of NYC.

Wolkstein also taught mythology at New York University for 18 years, hosted the Stories from Many Lands program on NYC public radio for 13 years, and taught the art of storytelling through her many classes, workshops, and conferences.

“She has been a storytelling idol to me and was an inspiration to become one myself as a children’s librarian,” Gretchen Casseroti, assistant director for public services at Darien Library, CT, tells SLJ. “Her gift of bringing the world’s stories to children will be missed.”

Wolkstein was born on November 11, 1942, in New Jersey. She received degrees from Smith College and Bank Street College. She is survived by her daughter, Rachel Zucker, three grandsons, and her mother Ruth, a librarian. A memorial celebrating her life will be planned for later this year.

Kagawa is the author of two previous series—the best-selling “Iron Fey” and “Blood of Eden” series, which are in development for release as a film. The “Iron Fey” series has been published in more than 20 countries, and in 2011, it was a Teens Top Ten selection. The Immortal Rules is the first title in the dystopian “Blood of Eden” series and will be followed by the release of The Eternity Cure in May 2013. Movie rights to the “Blood of Eden” series have been optioned by Joni Sighvatsson of Palomar Pictures. Harlequin Teen plans to publish the first book in Kagawa’s new series in 2015.

See more on Kagawa in her SummerTeen 2012 interview at SLJ.com.

Plush gorilla Ivan visits his book at the Indianapolis Public Library. Photo credit: John Schumacher.

“You know what’s interesting? I’m sort of a Luddite about technology, but I embraced Twitter this year,” Applegate tells SLJ, noting that immediately after the YMA announcements, she viewed “a scary amount of tweets” discussing her win.

It’s this interactive community of online librarian fans, both independent bloggers and Tweeters, that helped boost Ivan’s visibility, she says. “It’s helped tremendously.”

Leading the charge for The One and Only Ivan has been the Nerdy Book Club as well as popular book blogger and K–5 librarian John Schumacher, who has “a huge online presence,” Applegate says.

Once Applegate’s Newbery win was announced, “My students clapped and clapped and clapped. Incredible,” Schumacher tells SLJ. “Ivan will never be forgotten.”

Applegate says she was honored when she learned that Schumacher chose Ivan as the inspiration for his book-character-on-vacation trip in 2012, an annual event that he blogs about for the kids back home. “Every year he takes a plush character from a kid’s book around on adventures, and this year he selected Ivan!” Applegate says. “He took him to meet the actual Ivan at Zoo Atlanta. John was able to go in with a couple of friends and have Ivan sign his book with a green thumbprint. Isn’t that cool?”

(“You have no idea how hard it is to find a T-shirt for a stuffed gorilla,” Applegate adds.)

Looking ahead, Applegate says she hopes her Newbery recognition means even more children will now learn the story about the real silverback gorilla named Ivan. “It’s a chance to really connect with kids and that’s really wonderful. I’m really gratified,” she tells SLJ. “I wish I had been in Seattle. But it makes me very happy that this story could make it into the world in some way.”

Meanwhile, relative newcomer to kid lit Jon Klassen says he was surprised to learn, just in the past few years since the publication of his picture book I Want My Hat Back (Candlewick, 2011), how determined librarians are in their efforts to get a book out to readers. “It’s a big deal,” he tells SLJ.

So far, the illustrator, who began his career in animation, has been relying on children’s book collaborator Mac Barnett—who was also named, along with Klassen, winner of a Caldecott Honor this week for Extra Yarn (HarperCollins)—to help guide him through this “crazy” new world, he says.

“Librarians are very important!” Klassen adds. “It’s not a marketplace angle; librarians are looking for what’s best for kids, so they have different criteria. The opinions that they give out are really thought through. They’re very passionate.” Author events have been eye-opening in this regard, he tells SLJ. “(Librarians) are very organized and they’re quick and super sharp—and smarter than you.”

And as it turns out, the experience of being an author is much more expansive—and involves much more community-building in these areas—than he originally expected.

“I like making the books, but if you get lucky with one, you end up talking about it more than you thought you would,” he tells SLJ. “There’s a cycle that I’m slowly learning about.” However, Klassen says, “Being busy following these books around? That’s the best problem to have in the world.”

Future editions of Aristotle and Dante will display merit seals for the Pura Belpré Author Award for excellence in depicting and celebrating the Latino cultural experience, the Stonewall Book Award for literary excellence in depicting the LGBT experience, and a Michael L. Printz Honor for the best writing in teen literature. Likely, the novel’s cover will have to be slightly redesigned to incorporate these various honors, “a great problem to have” for an author, Sáenz jokes.

SLJ caught up with Sáenz in between his meetings as chair of the MFA bilingual creative writing department at the University of Texas at El Paso for a revealing chat about his reaction to the YMA wins, his personal inspirations for Aristotle and Dante, his writing process, and his next YA project.

How do you feel about being selected by three very different YMA committees?
It was like a mirror of me! It made me very happy in a profound way. It was all the communities that I claim: the gay community, the Latino community, and the mainstream community. I’m part of the mainstream. I was educated and integrated into America by going to school, and when I went to college in the 1970s there were no Mexican-Americans. But I didn’t feel left out; my friends loved me. I was integrated. So even though I’ve always claimed the Mexican/Chicano community, and I’ve been aware of racism, I have not lived a segregated life.

What inspired you to write Aristotle and Dante?
I was married for 15 years, but I really had to come to terms with my own sexuality at the age of 54. One of the things I had to come to terms with is that I was sexually abused as a boy. It’s not that I didn’t remember; it’s that I didn’t want to think about it. The thought of being with a man was unappealing, so it took me a lot of therapy and time to come to terms with my life, and me.

So I thought I wanted to write a gay-themed book, I thought that I wanted to write a book about a young boy who really didn’t know that he was gay. I mean Ari really doesn’t know it. That’s the theme—what does he know? So I created this situation, and I thought about what names I would give them, and I love the name Dante and I teach the Inferno a lot. And “Ari” is not uncommon among Latinos, or at least Mexican Nationals. So I just started to write this story and I wanted it to be set not in the present time, because I think it’s easier now for boys to admit they’re gay. In the 1980s I don’t think it was so easy, and I didn’t want to have all this texting stuff in the book.

And the first thing I wanted to write about was the relationship between Ari and his mother.

How have your experiences shaped the story?
I wanted to represent two very different Mexican-American families. These are families that I knew—there are working class families like Ari’s, and professional Mexican-American families and it’s not a phenomenon. There are professional families and they’re never portrayed; there’s lots of anti-Mexican rhetoric that says we’re all illegals, all recent immigrants. None of this is true. I just wanted to portray a normal Mexican-American family—and they’re very American. I wanted that contrast because I wanted my audience to know that there is a wide variety of Mexican-American experience in this country. But I also wanted to make it feel real. They are real people. I really fell in love with both the mothers. I always fall in love with my characters, but I know women like this. They love their sons and just because they aren’t always wise in the way they love you doesn’t mean they don’t love you. Ari’s mother is very loving but also very controlling—in a loving way, but controlling nonetheless.

Was it a conscious choice to include so many caring adults in the story?
I think that young men need father figures; one way or another they’re going to find them or get them, and (hopefully not) suffer for it. I’ve mentored a lot of young men that have had terrible relationships with their fathers and I’ve been a stand-in, albeit an academic one. But it’s been a privilege for me to be in their lives and I think that impacts my writing.

Maybe too much young adult fiction is about teens that are in a world apart from adults and that’s just not true for a lot of teens. And Mexican-American teens have good parents—it’s just not true that you are ostracized if you are gay. It’s true in a lot of Latino-American families but it’s also not  true in a lot of Latino-American families. My novels are so hard, all of them. I wanted to write something tender. I thought, “I don’t want to write something hard.” Part of it is that I’m such a sentimental man and you wouldn’t know it from my work. And I’m afraid of being sentimental and I was afraid of making this into a sentimental novel, but I thought I could do it. I could make it feel real and make the characters feel real. That was the hard part for me. I like to think I pulled it off.

What is your writing process like? As a college professor, how do you find the time?
I write on Fridays, and I get up early and I write in the mornings, because once office hours begin, I’m just busy busy. Luckily, where I live the walk literally takes 7 minutes. I like being department chair actually; I’ve grown into it. But I’m just a really old-fashioned teacher. I don’t teach online. I’m not against it—a lot of MFA programs have online classes—but it’s not something I do.

I love what I teach and I like young people. I know some writers feel that the teaching takes time away from their writing, but quite frankly it’s never hurt my writing. And my students read the books! And my nephews and nieces read them and analyze me. I get a big kick out of it.

What are you working on now?
The novel I’m writing is about a young man who is adopted (his dad is a Mexican-American gay artist) but he doesn’t feel adopted at all. One of my nephews is adopted, and he doesn’t wonder about his real family at all. So this kid is telling a story about how he came to be and the rest is how he watches this family as they go through this crisis; the matriarch of the family, his grandmother, is dying. He is in pain but he is a watcher, watching his father deal with this loss. We also learn how he came to be adopted in this family. In one of the opening chapters, his father asks him once if he ever thinks of his real father, and he says, “Yes. You’re my real father, and I think about you all the time.”

It’s going to be a painful novel in some ways with the automatic story line of the grandmother dying, but it’s the journey of him watching. Like Aristotle and Dante, it’s a love story between this young man and the family that he’s been adopted into, and how his love for them and their love for him is so profound. And of course I need to write that novel because my mother died a year ago.

I’m very excited about it. I love to write and I love to figure it out. It’s like you’re learning your craft all over again; each project is new and you learn something new. And I just sold a book of short stories for adults and those are not tender. Those are hard. That’s my world. I think I live between violence and tenderness. I think we all do. So I just try to incorporate that somehow into my art.

The audience erupted in cheers Monday morning after “Animorphs” (Scholastic) author Katherine Applegate was named the winner of the Newbery Medal for her heartfelt and unforgettable story The One and Only Ivan (HarperCollins), and Jon Klassen was awarded the Caldecott Medal for This Is Not My Hat (Candlewick) at the American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards for 2012, which were announced during ALA‘s annual Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, WA. Another Klassen project, Mac Barnett’s picture book Extra Yarn (HarperCollins), was named a Caldecott Honor book.

Katherine Applegate

The Newbery for The One and Only Ivan, Applegate’s uniquely creative, fictional take on the true story of a silverback gorilla who once lived in glass enclosure in a shopping mall, surprised many attendees who had not shortlisted it for the win. Nevertheless, the book had many enthusiastic fans among the crowd in Seattle, who agreed that it was—and would continue to be—a hugely popular choice with kids.

California resident Applegate was visiting relatives in Virginia when she was surprised by the call from the Newbery committee this morning, only an hour and a half before the YMAs presentation began, she tells SLJ. ”I was stunned, totally delighted but speechless,” she says. “The speechlessness went on for a while, then I screamed, and my family marched in at that, and there were a lot of screams! Then we watched the webcast and it was great. It was fun to watch with no anxiety, because they had called me already.”

Applegate credits her win in part to a large community of online fans, especially on Twitter, who have been championing the book and who have conducted huge amounts of outreach to middle readers, including John Schumacher and The Nerdy Book Club. “I have gotten so much support from different communities,” she says. “They have helped tremendously in how visible the book was to readers.”

Adds Applegate, “It’s just surreal! I know what a lottery it is because there were so many good books this year. It’s a huge honor but it could have been any one of them.”

Jon Klassen

And although This Is Not My Hat was a Caldecott favorite going into the awards, “I was actually very, very surprised,” Klassen tells SLJ. “I had done a pretty good job of convincing myself not to think about it, so it came out of the blue. It’s such a big thing to think that you were going to get mentioned at all, (the dual win) didn’t register. I’m still getting used to the idea that people are looking at these books, much less giving them the distinction.”

The crowd was also ecstatic to learn that the Margaret A. Edwards Award, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, will be presented to Tamora Pierce for her significant and lasting contributions to YA literature via her “Song of the Lioness” series. The award is sponsored by SLJ.

Other big winners of the day were Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon (Roaring Brook Press) by Steve Sheinkin, which scored the YALSA nonfiction award, the Sibert Informational Book Medal, and a Newbery Honor; and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Simon & Schuster) by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, which also was selected three times: for the Stonewall Award, the Belpré Author Award, and a Printz Honor.

Although Sheinkin knew Bomb was a strong contender for the YALSA nonfiction award, he was “really surprised by the other awards—happily so,” he tells SLJ.

In fact, after the YALSA committee informed him of his win for the nonfiction award on Saturday night, he turned off his phone before the Sibert committee was able to reach him. ”They tried to call me many times last night,” he says, “but then they left a message. But that was cool, too.” (Now he has the message saved, he says.)

Sheinkin hopes his cross-category wins might signal a trend of growing popularity for exciting young adult nonfiction overall among kids.

“It’s really cool to break out of just the nonfiction category,” he says. “That’s my biggest thing—I’m a big proponent of history for kids, of nonfiction, but also trying to win over people who just want to read a good book. To prove to young readers that this kind of book can be fun also is a really big thing. A lot of kids know it (some kids are into history) but some kids are scared of it.”

Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Meanwhile, Sáenz, after hearing of his three wins across categories “had a frantic and beautiful morning, was in class all afternoon and then quietly celebrated by taking a walk in the desert,” he tells SLJ, adding that the Stonewall award was a “complete surprise” and the Printz honor left him “stunned.”

He notes, “the Belpré people called me the night before and I was absolutely thrilled. They were all on speakerphone and I could hear them screaming. They were very sweet and I didn’t know what to say. I don’t know that we as authors should expect awards; they are gifts to us. I get really choked up. I’m just grateful for the gifts. I would hope my mother raised a gracious man, who knows how to say thank you.”

He also notes that the book’s cross-category recognition is a testament to how well it was marketed by Simon & Schuster as well as the word of mouth of reviewers and librarians who recommended it. “They felt that everybody should read this book, they put it into everybody’s hands,” he says. “It takes a village to take the book out into the world. We had a great village.”

The prolific author—who writes poetry, children’s books, and adult novels in addition to YA literature—somehow found the time to write Aristotle and Dante while teaching bilingual creative writing and acting as MFA department chair at the University of Texas at El Paso. He is already deep into his next project, another dramatic YA novel. “I’m always writing,” he says.

* * *

Here is the list of winners of the ALA’s Youth Media Awards:

(John) Newbery Medal
The One and Only Ivan. Katherine Applegate. HarperCollins.

Honors:
Splendors and Glooms. Laura Amy Schlitz. Candlewick.

Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon. Steve Sheinkin. Flash Point/Roaring Brook.

Three Times Lucky. Sheila Turnage. Dial/Penguin Young Readers.

(Randolph) Caldecott Medal
This Is Not My Hat. Jon Klassen. Candlewick Press.

Honors:
Creepy Carrots! Aaron Reynolds. Illus. by Peter Brown.
Simon & Schuster.

Extra Yarn. Mac Barnett. Illus. by Jon Klassen.
HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray.

Green. Laura Vaccaro Seeger. Neal Porter Books/Roaring Brook.

One Cool Friend. Toni Buzzeo. Illus. by David Small. Dial/Penguin Young Readers.

Sleep Like a Tiger. Mary Logue. Illus. by Pamela Zagarenski. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Theodore Seuss Geisel Award
Up, Tall and High. Ethan Long. G. P. Putnam’s Sons.

Honors:
Let’s Go for a Drive! Mo Willems. Hyperion/Disney.

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons. Eric Litwin. Illus. by James Dean. HarperCollins.

Rabbit & Robot: The Sleepover. Cece Bell. Candlewick.

(Laura Ingalls) Wilder Award
Katherine Paterson

Andrew Carnegie Medal
Anna, Emma and the Condors. Produced by Katja Torneman.

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal
Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon. Steve Sheinkin. Flash Point/Roaring Brook

Honors:
Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin. Robert Byrd. Dial/Penguin Young Readers.

Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95. Phillip M. Hoose. Farrar.

Titanic: Voices from the Disaster. Deborah Hopkinson. Scholastic.

Mildred L. Batchelder Award
My Family for the War. Anne C. Voorhoeve. Dial/Penguin Young Readers.

Honors:
A Game for Swallows: To Die, to Leave, to Return. Zeina Abirached.
Tr. by Edward Gauvin. Graphic Universe/Lerner.

Son of a Gun. Anne de Graaf. Eerdmans.

May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award
Andrea Davis Pinkney

Pura Belpré Awards
Author: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Benjamin Alire Sáenz.
Simon & Schuster.

Honor: The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano. Sonia Manzano. Scholastic.

Illustrator: Martín de Porres: The Rose in the Desert. Gary D. Schmidt. Illus. by David Diaz. Clarion.

Michael L. Printz Award
In Darkness. Nick Lake. Bloomsbury. 

Honors:
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Simon & Schuster.

Code Name Verity. Elizabeth Wein. Hyperion/Disney.

Dodger. Terry Pratchett. HarperCollins Children’s Books

The White Bicycle. Beverley Brenna. Red Deer Press.

Odyssey Award
The Fault in Our Stars. John Green. Narrated by Kate Rudd. Brilliance Audio.

Honors:
Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian. Eoin Colfer. Narrated by Nathaniel Parker. Listening Library.

Ghost Knight. Cornelia Funke. Narrated by Elliot Hill. Listening Library.

Monstrous Beauty. Elizabeth Fama. Narrated by Katherine Kellgren. Macmillian Audio.

YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults
Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon. Steve Sheinkin
Flash Point/Roaring Brook

Finalists:
Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different. Karen Blumenthal. Feiwel & Friends.

Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95. Phillip Hoose. Farrar

Titanic: Voices from the Disaster. Deborah Hopkinson. Scholastic.

We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March. Cynthia Levinson. Peachtree Publishers.

William C. Morris Award
Seraphina. Rachel Hartman. Random House.

Finalists:
Wonder Show. Hannah Barnaby. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books.

Love and Other Perishable Items. Laura Buzo. Knopf/Random House.

After the Snow. S. D. Crockett. Feiwel and Friends.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post. emily m. danforth. Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins

Margaret A. Edwards Award
Tamora Pierce for her “Song of the Lioness” series

Coretta Scott King Book Awards
Author: Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America. Andrea Davis Pinkney. Illus. by Brian Pinkney. Hyperion/Disney.

Honors: Each Kindness. Jacqueline Woodson. Illus. by E. B. Lewis.
Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin Young Readers.

No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller 
Vaunda Micheaux Nelson. Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. Carolrhoda Lab/Lerner.

Illustrator: I, Too, Am America. Langston Hughes. Illus. by Bryan Collier. Simon & Schuster.

Honors: H. O. R. S. E.. Christopher Myers. Egmont USA.

Ellen’s Broom. Kelly Starling Lyons. Illus. by Daniel Minter. Putnam/Penguin Young Readers.

I Have a Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr. Ilus. by Kadir Nelson. Schwartz & Wade/Random House.

Virginia Hamilton: Demetria Tucker
Practitioner Award for Lifetime achievement

Stonewall Book Award
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Simon & Schuster.

Honors:
Drama. Raina Telgemeier. Graphix/Scholastic Inc.

Gone, Gone, Gone. Hannah Moskowitz. Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster.

October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard. Lesléa Newman. Candlewick.

Sparks: The Epic, Completely True Blue, (Almost) Holy Quest of Debbie. S. J. Adams. Flux.

Schneider Family Book Award
Teen: Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I Am. Harry Mazer and Peter Lerangis. Simon & Schuster.

Middle Grade: A Dog Called Homeless. Sarah Lean. HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Book.

Children: Back to Front and Upside Down! Claire Alexander. Eerdmans.

Ormerod began her kid-lit career more than 30 years ago after the birth of her first child; previously she taught art and design. Her first book, Sunshine (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1981), a wordless story that follows a little girl through her daily routine, won the 1982 the Mother Goose Award, given to the “the most exciting newcomer to British children’s book illustration.” It was also named the Australian Picture Book of the Year and an ALA Notable Book, and inspired a companion book, Moonlight (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1982). Both books were reissued in 2009 by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books.

“My books have largely been a celebration and savoring of the positive experience of parenthood,” Ormerod once said about her work. She believed her task in the medium was to be a “visual storyteller”—to observe life and to place life’s images into her books.

In Ballet Sisters: The Duckling and the Swan (Cartwheel, 2007), she used dancing as a pretext to explore the ups and downs of a sisterly relationship. “The words and pictures work well together, and depict, with subtlety and humor, the emotional life of an ordinary family,” School Library Journal said in its review of the book.

She also served as artist for other picture book authors, such as Robie Harris, for which she illustrated I Am Not Going to School Today (Simon & Schuster, 2003) and Goodbye Mousie (Simon & Schuster, 2001).

“The world of children has lost one of the greats,” Harris tells SLJ. “I always did and still feel privileged that Jan illustrated my picture books. How ironic that the first was Goodbye Mousie, a story for young children about death? Her caring, loving, honest, and yet gentle art conveyed the range and the depth of feelings—from disbelief, to sadness, sorrow, to anger and finally some acceptance—that young children have about the loss of a beloved person or pet.”

Harris adds, “Jan thought hard about the stories I wrote and talked with me about almost every idea she had so that our work together would hopefully strike a responsive chord in young children. The result was art that made the stories have meaning, emotion, and depth for young children far beyond words. Thank you for all that and more, Jan.”

Throughout his career, Frasconi wrote and illustrated numerous children’s books, many of which were critically recognized. The American Library Association awarded its Caldecott Honor to his bilingual picture book The House That Jack Built/La Maison que Jacques a Batie (Harcourt, 1958), and a Notable Book Award to his bilingual The Snow and the Sun/La Nieve y el So (Harcourt, 1961). The Snow and the Sun also won a Horn Book Fanfare Award.

Frasconi’s other notable works for children include illustrations for Gabriela Mistral’s Crickets and Frogs: A Fable in Spanish and English (Athenium, 1972), which the American Institute of Graphic Arts presented in its Children’s Book Show from 1973–1974, and Mistral’s The Elephant and His Secret (Atheneum, 1974), which was chosen as a Child Study Association’s Children’s Book of the Year.

In 2005, relying once more on his trademark woodcuts, he illustrated a new edition of Langston Hughes’ poem in the picture book Let America Be America Again (Braziller, 2005). School Library Journal described his portrayal of the poem’s characters as “powerful,” with “especially moving faces” and “expressions that are at once individual and universal.”

Born in 1919 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Frasconi was raised in Uruguay but moved to the United States in 1945 after World War II. At age twelve, he worked as a print-maker’s apprentice and eventually went on to study at the Art Students’ League in New York. He briefly worked as a guard at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, where he later he presented his first solo art show.

Originally inspired by the woodcuts of Paul Gaugin, Frasconi’s own distinguished art career spanned over fifty years. He illustrated more than 100 books, including works by Pablo Neruda and Jorge Luis Borges, and his artwork has appeared in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Library of Congress, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, and in exhibitions worldwide.

His major acclaimed work, “The Disappeared,” depicts the torture, incarceration, and deaths of citizens in Uruguay during dictatorship. The dramatic series of woodcuts took him 10 years to complete.`

Book editor-turned-author Lisa Graff’s sixth middle school novel, A Tangle of Knots (Philomel, 2012), which debuts next month, incorporates an unusual feature: a range of carefully selected cake recipes that help illuminate the various traits of its key characters. School Library Journal spoke with Graff about this unique idea, the baking skills she honed for months while writing the book, and what’s next on her to-do list.

Can you tell us about your new book, A Tangle of Knots, and how it came about?
A Tangle of Knots takes place in a slightly magical version of our world, where most everyone has a special talent—something he or she is uniquely gifted at, often to a supernatural degree. The main character, eleven-year-old Cady, has a talent for cake baking: she can bake the absolute perfect cake for any person she meets. When Cady moves into an upstairs bedroom of the town’s Lost Luggage Emporium, she encounters several different characters with a wide array of talents, and discovers that her fate is intricately linked to each of theirs.

This was a book that came about by degrees. Several years ago I saw a feature on a television show about the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama— which buys lost luggage from airports and bus depots and resells it to the public—and something sparked. I knew I wanted to set a story in a similar venue, because I loved the idea of an entire warehouse full of unclaimed belongings—so many hopes and dreams lost and resold. There was something really compelling about that to me. But the story itself was a long time coming. I kept having an image of a young girl opening up a powder blue suitcase, searching for something, but I simply couldn’t figure out what. When I finally landed on the notion that perhaps it was the suitcase that was searching for the girl, well, then I knew I was getting somewhere. The story became a fantasy, and things flowed very quickly from there.

The book has a wide cast of characters, many of whom have special talents.  What would you claim as your special talent?
I am unnaturally skilled at packing suitcases. Honestly. I could fit an elephant in a duffle bag if called upon.

Adoption plays a role in this book, when you were writing this book did you think about your readers who may be adopted?
I did and didn’t. With all of my books, I always try to strike a balance between events that will excite and surprise a reader, and emotional discoveries that will feel truthful. Since A Tangle of Knots takes place in a fantastical world, Cady’s adoption story is pretty far out of the realm of what I am imagine most adopted children today experience (she begins the book as the sole child in a “Home for Lost Girls”). That said, Cady does grapple with anxieties of where she’s come from, and where she belongs in the world, which I think are issues that most of us, adopted or not, can relate to.

Your character Cady has a talent for cake baking and the book contains a number of actual cake recipes.  Why include recipes?
I’ve always loved books that included recipes, or sprinkled asides that take you out of the action of the story for just a moment. Each Little Bird That Sings (Sandpiper, 2006) by Deborah Wiles springs to mind as a particularly lovely example. In my book, Cady is constantly thinking about the other characters in terms of what cakes they are, so I thought it might be nice for the readers to get a chance to see that, too. Each recipe in the book represents one of the nine key players in the story, whose personalities—spicy, zesty, sweet—are perfectly encapsulated in a cake.

All of the recipes in A Tangle of Knots are ones that you adapted especially for the book. Which is your favorite?
I tried out and adapted about 30 recipes over the course of six months, to land on the nine final recipes that appear in the book. All of the cakes are delicious, of course, but my favorite is probably the garlic cake. I’m particularly proud of that one because it was entirely my own creation—I knew I wanted to include a recipe for a cake that sounded disgusting, but actually tasted quite delicious. So I tinkered with some old recipes I found, and came up with this garlic cake. It’s savory instead of sweet, and amazingly tasty. It’s made with garlic and Parmesan and a dash of pepper, and it tastes incredible with stewed tomatoes or a good chili.

A video on your website shows you baking one of the cakes in a tiny New York City kitchen. Did you actually bake all the cakes there? Did you have any help?
That video was actually filmed in my friend’s Brooklyn kitchen, which is about twice the size of mine, if you can believe it. I did bake most of the cakes in my own tiny kitchen, and I was constantly inviting friends to help me. There were a couple months where I was averaging two cakes a week, so mostly I needed volunteers to help me eat it all! Embarking on an epic cake-baking experiment is a good way to make friends, I’ll say that much.

The book definitely has a magical air but is set in Poughkeepsie, NY, my hometown. How did that come about? Did any places or buildings from Poughkeepsie inspire you?
I’m originally from a small mountain town in Southern California, and when I moved to New York City for graduate school I didn’t know a living soul. So when Thanksgiving rolled around that first year I was invited to spend the holiday with my stepmother’s extended family, who I’d only met twice before that. They live just outside of Poughkeepsie, and for a small-town girl who’d recently been thrust into the big city, that first trip up on the train was quite literally a breath of fresh air. There were trees, and water, and deer! I guess the place really did feel a little magical, being both so near the city and so similar to the home I’d come from. When I began writing this book and was looking for a semi-fantastical location in which to set it, I remembered pulling into the train station on that first Thanksgiving, and I knew Poughkeepsie would be a perfect fit for the story. 

What are your favorite fantasy books?
Growing up I always enjoyed fantasy books that kept one foot in the real world. Roald Dahl’s Matilda (Penguin, 1988) was a huge favorite when I was a kid. Since then I’ve expanded my fantasy vocabulary a bit, but I still tend to shy away from the really “high fantasy.” These days I find that beautiful writing draws me in more than anything else. I love, love, love The Lost Conspiracy (HarperCollins, 2009) by Frances Hardinge, and also Fly by Night (HarperCollins, 2005) and its sequel. I could gobble up anything that woman writes. I’m also quickly becoming a big Kristin Cashore fan. Bitterblue is next on my list.

Who is Ilsa Neal? 
Isla Neal is my not-so-secret alter-ego, who—along with co-author Martin Leicht—writes The Ever-Expanding Universe series, a humorous sci-fi girl-power romp for teens. The first novel in the series, Mothership (S&S, 2012), came out this past summer. The series is very different from the middle-grade books I typically work on, both in tone and content, and I’ve had a blast doing it.

What are you currently working on?
Right now Martin and I are hard at work on the third and final book in the EEU series (the second book, A Stranger Thing, is finished and comes out this November). And I’m just dipping my toes into the waters of a new middle-grade novel, tentatively entitled Dummy, about a ten-year-old Manhattanite struggling with a particularly difficult year at school.

McDermott’s career spanned a 49-year period and included such acclaimed and diverse folktales as Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti (Holt, 1972), a Caldecott Honor book and an animated film; Arrow to the Sun (Viking, 1974) the Caldecott Medal winner and also an animated film; and Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest, (Harcourt, 1993), a Caldecott Honor book and Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Award winner. The film version of Anansi won the Blue Ribbon at the American Film Festival when it debuted, and Wilson Library Bulletin called it one of “the two most popular children’s films” produced that year.

From the beginning of his career, those who worked with McDermott recognized his talent.

“He was a totally independent voice at the time, and his technique and training in film taught him a tightness of scale, bravura use of color, and use of symbolism which was utterly unlike other illustrators of the period,” George Nicholson, McDermott’s editor on Arrow to the Sun, tells SLJ.

And after a long career filled with high-caliber works from start to finish, “There is still no one who equals him in my view,” Nicholson says.

Nicholson was head of children’s publishing at what was then Holt, Rinehart & Winston when he first discovered McDermott at a film festival in 1970, at which he was screening Anansi and another film, The Magic Tree, a folktale of the Congo. Nicholson immediately envisioned the possibilities of transforming both works into beautiful picture books.

“I was bowled over by the several films I saw there which were unlike anything I had even seen,” says Nicholson, who is currently a senior agent at Sterling Lord Literistic. “I was so taken with both Anansi and The Magic Tree that after serious discussions with Gerald about how these films might become books I bought them both.”  They soon realized, however, that—though the American picture book was deeply cinematic in its structure—McDermott had to reconceive the art altogether to capture the pacing and dynamism of the film, he says.

When Nicholson moved to Viking, he worked with McDermott on Arrow to the Sun, which scored a picture book’s most prestigious honor. Notably, winning the Caldecott Medal for the book was something McDermott felt was an honor for both book and film, says Nicholson.

“Gerald was a marvelous storyteller,” Regina Hayes, former publisher of Viking Children’s Books, tells SLJ. “He had a deep knowledge of folklore and myth, and he also had the ability to adapt his artistic style to suit each story, from Native American legend to Irish tall tales.”

McDermott also added many more picture book titles to his expansive global “Trickster Tales” series: Papagayo: The Mischief Maker (Windmill/Wanderer, 1980; reissued by Harcourt, 1992 ), a Brazilian folktale; Zomo the Rabbit: A Trickster Tale from West Africa (Harcourt, 1992); Coyote: A Trickster Tale from the American Southwest (Harcourt, 1994); Jabuti the Tortoise: A Trickster Tale from the Amazon (Harcourt, 2001); Pig-Boy: A Trickster Tale from Hawaii (Harcourt, 2009); and Monkey: A Trickster Tale from India (Harcourt, 2011).

“Gerald McDermott’s trickster tales always worked magic with my 2nd graders. The engaging, accessible text and bright art pulled reader-listeners in,” remembers Mollie Welsh Kruger, former 2^nd grade teacher and current graduate faculty of Bank Street College of Education. “One year, my class created their own stage production of Zomo the Rabbit that left the lower school in stitches.”

Considered in his lifetime an expert in mythology and folktales, McDermott was a disciple of the famed mythologist and writer Joseph Campbell, one friend recalls.

Says Arnold Adoff, children’s poet and husband of the late Virginia Hamilton, award-winning children’s author, “When Virginia and I first entered the world of children’s books, Gerald was one of the first people we met. [He] was…unguarded and open…expansive and excited…as he talked about his ground-breaking visual efforts…he and Virginia talked Joseph Campbell long and deep into the night.”

McDermott was the first Fellow of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, and a leader of the “Mythological  Toolbox” workshop at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. “Dream weaver, tale spinner, portrayer of visions, interpreter of the human spirit,” the institute says of McDermott on its website. “Through his bold, graphic renderings of timeless tales from around the world, Gerald communicated his deep understanding of the transformative power of myth.”

Another friend, children’s author and editor Lee Bennett Hopkins, remembers McDermott as “infectious, witty, dashing” and “brilliant about the art of bookmaking.” They first met in 1973 when Hopkins worked for Scholastic, and the fledgling artist McDermott was looking for freelance work. “I was lucky to have Gerald as a friend in my life for over forty years,” Hopkins tells SLJ.

Hopkins, among several others who knew and worked with McDermott, has already posted an online tribute to him, though many remembrances are sure to come from those whose lives McDermott touched in the worlds of publishing, filmmaking, and education.

Fans are confident his storytelling legacy will live on, they say. Adds Kruger, “What McDermott did with words and illustrations will continue bringing stories to life in classrooms.”

Photo credit: Andrea Fischman.

New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall has hosted thousands of legendary performers since it opened in 1891, from the New York Philharmonic to jazz greats Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday to modern notables Isaac Stern and Renée Fleming. Joining their ranks this week? John Green—the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Looking for Alaska (Dutton, 2005), An Abundance of Katherines (Dutton, 2006), and Paper Towns (Dutton, 2008)—and his brother Hank Green, who took to the stage on Tuesday to entertain over 2,800 fans. “An Evening of Awesome,” featuring numerous special guests, was also lived-streamed to sites around the country through a special partnership with Tumblr.

Photo credit: Andrea Fischman.

The much-anticipated and hyped event was part of a 17-city tour celebrating the first anniversary of Green’s most recent bestselling YA fiction book, The Fault in Our Stars (Dutton, 2012); the tour has sold over 11,300 tickets.

For the uninitiated, the Green brothers are also known for their popular YouTube video blog series Vlogbrothers, which has close to a million subscribers. Passionate fans of the series, who call themselves “nerdfighters,” are so numerous and so well organized that they have created their own online social networking group to, as they declare,  “increase awesome and decrease suck.”

“It brought to life the Nerdfighter community,” says Elazar Nudell, 30, of the site. Nudell traveled all the way from Springfield, MA, to attend the sold-out event along with Max Schnaper, 21, and Sasha Zacharia, 21.

However, most of the live audience at Carnegie Hall was comprised of teenage girls.

“John Green understands teen girls,” 17-year-old Samantha from Merrick, NY, tells School Library Journal. She feels that Green’s books helped her during a troubling time in her life. “He made me realize that how I felt was OK.”

Her schoolmate, 16-year-old Johanna, claims that the author encouraged her to be a thoughtful person. While waiting for the show to begin, Johanna read to Sam from a book by her other favorite author, Kurt Vonnegut.

The evening was part rock concert, part author and literary reading, and part talk show.

Shouts of  “We love you!” rang out through the hall as the tuxedo-clad duo took the stage. John entertained the audience with a monologue about his life and work. He told them, “My life is like a very long Emily Dickinson poem.”

Hank sang songs of his own composition on such topics as Helen Hunt, Harry Potter, and Quarks. Grammy-winning musician and former member of The Moldy Peaches, Kimya Dawson, and the folk rock band The Mountain Goats also performed during the evening.

Later, Ashley Clements and Daniel Vincent Gordh, actors in the The Lizzie Bennet Diaries Web series developed by Hank Green, appeared to do a dramatic reading from The Fault in Our Star. The night’s special guests also were on hand to perform a Readers Theater scene from Paper Towns.

The surprise guest of the evening was Neil Gaiman. The award-winning author of The Graveyard Book (HarperCollins, 2008), participated in the Q&A portion of the evening, asking John Green such questions and queries as “Where do people go when they die?” (“Narnia,” interjected Hank) and “Describe yourself in three words,” to which John finally agreed on Handsome, Awesome, and Tall—after some prompting from Hank, Neil, and the audience.  Also during the Q&A, Hank Green admitted to having a crush on his high school English teacher.

During the event, Carnegie Hall became a trending topic on Twitter; already by noon on Wednesday there were more than 35,000 additional views of the event and 18,000 comments. Additional meetups around this event are scheduled for upcoming days; a schedule can be found here.

“This Year” singalong. Photo credit: Andrea Fischman.

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