Why Do History Books Win So Many Awards?

While I was presenting at a recent conference, I tossed out a question I’ve been thinking about for a long time: Why don’t science titles seem to win the BIG awards in children’s literature as often as social studies titles? It led to an interesting discussion, so I thought INK readers might like to join the conversation.

Since I’m a scientist, here’s my data. I tallied Newbery and Caldecott winners since 1995. The Sibert was created in 2001, so I tallied the winners since its inception.

	Newbery Medal	Caldecott Medal	Sibert Medal	Total
biography	0	2	6	8
history	0	1	5	6
science	0	0	1	1

	Newbery Honor	Caldecott Honor	Sibert Honor	Total
biography	3	10	16	29
history	7	0	9	16
science	1	3	7	11

 

I have to admit that when I’ve read through these lists in the past, I came away with the impression that history titles had science books beat hands down. But a closer look shows that history is only the clear leader among Newbery Honors. Biographies are the big winners overall with a total score of 37 (8 medalists, 29 honors). While history (22 overall) and STEM (12 overall) trail behind.

Next, I took a closer look at the people featured in the biographies. It turns out that 23 are key historical figures, and 8 are scientists. The rest are visual artists or musicians.

Combining all these figures, the totals work out to 45 winning history titles and 20 winning science books. In other words, history titles win the big awards more than twice as often as science titles. Why is that?

Frankly, I don’t have an answer, so I’d love to hear any thoughts you have.

Connecting to Nature's Rhythms

Jim Murphy's recent post connected us to the familiar and mundane aspects of our daily lives, those frustrating moments that can crush our creativity.  When we can get away from our routines and experience something different, our creativity can be inspired and renewed.

This Saturday, my husband and I traveled from our home in Missoula, MT, where the temperature was 19 degrees, through Salt Lake City, where the snow fell fast enough to delay our flight by 1 1/2 hours, through sunny LA and on to the Garden Isle of Kauai'i, where it rarely gets below 75 degrees or over 84.  Jeans are traded in for shorts and shoes for sandals.  The phone doesn't ring, and meals become simple.  The seashore calls, and the warm breeze welcomes.  Nature is up close and personal.

The natural world is both my personal beat and my professional one, so I really 'dig' this place.  I believe that when we are close to nature we are closer to our fundamental, creative selves.  On this island, residents and tourists alike are drawn to the natural rhythms of sun and sea, moon and tide.  Every evening, people flock to the sea wall on the west side of the island in hopes of seeing a great sunset.

 And when the full moon rises out of the ocean, families and neighbors gather in the park to watch as the moon spreads its silver mantle over the dancing waves.  No wonder this island is home to many artists and writers.

I don't write about Hawai'i, but I do renew my creative batteries here, not only because of the closeness of nature, but also because being here brings a shift in my daily life, and being jogged out of our routines helps nudge our creativity.  At home in Montana, summer days stretch on deep into what is black night in Hawaii, and winter days end while the tropical sun is still shining.  Here in Hawaii, the record high and low temperatures throughout the year don't vary as much as they do over a normal 24 hour span at home.  Everything is different, and the differences bring about a shift in my being.  I do work here--one of the perks of being a writer is that you can carry out your craft wherever you are--but I try to keep that to a minimum.  I want those batteries to be chock full of creative energy when I return to the deep, dark cold of winter, when writing is the one thing I can do, no matter what nature has to offer my spirit.

Pardon My Rant

Our toaster died a couple of weeks ago.  The event did not make it into the New York Times, but it was still newsworthy in our house.  Being toastless for two days is no laughing matter around here and besides that toaster was only 14 months old (and, of course, just out of warranty).

RANT #1:  Why can't anyone make a toaster (or other small appliance) that lasts longer than a large box of preservative loaded cereal?  I was once in an antique shop that had a shelf of old toasters, all of which worked.  One was from the 1920s called the E-Z Turn Toaster (weighing in at 5 lbs., it was nickel plated and flipped the bread to toast the other side whenever the door was opened).   There were also a bunch of Sunbeam toasters from the 30s and one by McGraw Electric from 1934 simply named the Toastmaster.  I mean, it can't be all that difficult to engineer more life into modern kitchen appliances.

Okay, so Alison went out and bought us a new toaster.  It was the Cuisinart Metal Classic 2-Slice Toaster # CPT-160.  I kid you not.  Oh, and it came with a 7 page instruction booklet!

RANT #2:  Did whoever gave this such a long, clumsy sounding name really think it would impress potential buyers?  Now, I have nothing against using the company name Cuisinart.  Or the word Toaster.  But why stick in "Metal."  I mean, do they have a plastic line of toasters I don't know about.  And "Classic."   One dictionary definition of a classic is: "Having lasting significance or recognized worth," but we all know this thing we have is built to burn out before my next birthday.  And I love adding "2-Slice."  The picture on the box and on the instruction booklet show very clearly that the toaster has...oh, let me count to be sure...yes, TWO SLOTS FOR TWO SLICES OF TOAST!  And the toaster inside confirms this.  I was worried there for a second.

RANT #3:  A 7 page instruction booklet!  Oh, come on!  Is this even remotely necessary?  Here are some of the gems of wisdom provided:  "Unwind power cord...Plug power cord into the wall outlet"  "Insert slice(s) of bread"  "To Begin Toasting.  Press the carriage bar lever until it locks into the down position"  "Always allow the toaster to cool completely before cleaning."  And guess what's on p.7.  It's an entire page for your NOTES.  Yes, 21 lines so you can jot down some of the important tips on toaster operation that you might forget overnight. 

This booklet is an example of everyday nonfiction and it is exactly the sort of lifeless, deadly, and heavy prose that turns off both adults and kids.  Hopefully, the changes in the Common Core State Standards will make kids in the future more demanding and maybe they can get companies to change the way they address customers.  Better yet, maybe some classes could rewrite booklets like this as an assignment on how to write for humans.

I'm not holding my breath on that last idea, so here's my suggestion to Cuisinart when they decide to revise the instruction booklet.  No. 1: name this the Cuisinart Toaster.  If you must, stick the CPT-160 on, too, since it sounds official.  No. 2: the cover can have that nice photo of the toaster on it, and you could even label the parts we see, such as the "cancel" button, etc.  There must be someone who sees the word cancel and doesn't understand what the button is for, right?  This would eliminate repeating all of this on p. 3, plus it would do away with such numbing text as "Extra-Lift Carriage Control Lever: Brings the toast close to the top of the toaster, making it easy to remove the smallest items."  Items?  I get "items of jewelry" and "items of interest," but "items of bread, bagels, and English Muffins" doesn't compute.  No.3: my recommendation for the interior copy.  Direct and to the point is best.  The instructions should be 1 page only.  When the happy buyer turns over the page with the handsome toaster potrait on it, he or she should be greeted with "If you really need an instruction manual to operate this or any toaster, please proceed immediately to your local police station and surrender your driver's license."  It's okay if Cuisinart wants to stick the warranty information under this, but, please, please, please, cut it back from its current 26 lines.

I feel much better now.  I have a very Lewis Black-like glow about me.

Feel free to comment with a rant of your own, be it about nonfiction for kids, about something that annoyed you recently, or even about someone taking up valuable INK blog space for a toaster rant.  I promise to do better in the future.  P.S. Humor is an important part of any book for kids.             

Two Kinds of Marriage

Me with Zach (not Mike!)

On October 28th, I married Zach Klein, a man I've lived with for about 34 years.  Many of our nearest and dearest came to celebrate with us, including my buddy and bookmaking partner Mike Doolittle.  Over the years, I'd joke that I had spent more time traveling around to hotels with Mike than any other man except for Zach.  It is doubtless true.  

Mike's wedding toast touched my heart.  But upon reading the copy he gave me afterwards, it struck me that it is also a wonderful tribute to the joys of having a good working partnership and a close collaborator.  I know that my fellow INK blogger Jan Greenberg has had one for years as well.  I hope others of you have been so lucky, be it with another author, illustrator or editor--and even for a book or two.  It's a special experience.   

Anyway, indulge me, here is Mike's toast:  

I've listened to all these great things about Zach and Susan and it occurred to me that my relationship with them, and particularly Susan, highlights a different side that hasn't been talked about. My name is Michael Doolittle and I have collaborated with Susan since the early 1990's on 14 books. I take the pictures, she does the words. I actually thought about asking her to write this, since that's her thing, but it didn't seem quite fair.

I met Susan around 1991 in Peru at a rainforest workshop where guests paid money to tromp around the forest learning about the plants and animals. Susan was doing a story for National Geographic Traveler and I had just finished the designing and building of a rainforest canopy walkway near the place we were staying. She was supposed to take some pictures for her story, but quickly realized this was a tough place to work. Some of the first words she said to me were something like, "This place is a f**king nightmare for photographing, why don't you take pictures for the story?"

We kept in touch and the next year proposed our first book on middle school students exploring the rainforest, which became Ultimate Field Trip 1, the first of a series on educational field trips for Atheneum. Collaborating is a little like marriage, which is why our lasting collaboration is very unusual. 

So why does it work? To me, it's because we quickly realized that by working together, we did a much better job than we could have done on our own. Susan found stuff out, and I remembered it for her. I did any math that was required and ate all her leftover carbs. We bounced ideas off of each other for several days, made the kids comfortable with us by being adults, but not chaperones. Eventually an outline would emerge, ideas for chapters would fall into place, and we would crank out the book in the last couple of days--at least my part of it, the photography, something Susan would frequently complained about, especially after we'd get back home. By the fifth and last field trip book, we didn't even need a well organized program--we'd just take what was there and turn it into the kind of program it should have been. 

And Susan knew me well enough to know that when I saw what I wanted, I'd just do it. So when I jumped off of the walkway and strapped my camera onto a tree to take the right picture, clambered around on a ledge to highlight an Anasazi ruin, or moved out onto a steel beam 800 feet above Broadway, she could say to worried kids and onlookers, "Oh, it's fine, he never falls..."

You wouldn't know it to look at her in that beautiful dress, but Susan is a great field person. She's up for anything, and has a sense of curiosity and interest in the lives of others that makes her a great writer and interviewer. We've been dumped on by tropical rains, bitten by raging insects in Peru and the Bay of Fundy, and buffeted by such strong winds at the very top of an unfinished skyscraper, an experience that had me thinking for the first time that maybe I was out of my mind. We've rumbled along in military vehicles repurposed to carry elk feed in the bitter Wyoming cold (although Susan was warmer in the heated cab), explored the inky black rainforest nights with flashlights looking for insects and snakes, and felt what it was like to land in a military cargo plane and slide on runners instead of rolling on wheels until we were dropped off on a mile-thick ice sheet with a cold weather survival bag and told that they'd pick us up in a couple of hours "if the weather held."

To me, this collaboration has been the highlight of my professional career. She's everything a partner should be-- great writer, unique mixture of irreverent and professional, sometimes raunchy, and always ready to laugh at something. I will never look at ostriches the same way, or listen to Tina Turner without thinking of the Amazon.

One great bonus to me for the first 8 or 9 books was that I shot them on slide film. So once we came back and she had actually outlined the thing, I'd head up to Susan's house to edit pictures and mentally layout the book. So I got to know Zach and Jake. It's not as much fun now that we do everything online.

As for the wedding, I can't add much to what's been said already. Normally at a wedding, lots of folks wonder to themselves "What are these kids thinking? Don't they know how hard it is to stay married?" I was married at 26, and, looking back, have no idea what I was thinking. In yet another example of doing things their own way, Susan and Zach have reversed conventions, and only got married after they knew that they live in a relationship that exemplifies what a marriage is supposed to be-- the whole is greater than each part.

Searching for Noble

I’ve been distracted. Hurricane Sandy – terrible name, but then, is there ever a good one – knocked out our electricity, hot water, and heat. Then the election raised our blood pressures and anxieties. Trolley cars grew in my stomach, turning round and round. [That’s a Yiddish curse my paternal grandmother used to say.] Though our neighborhood was lucky compared to others in New York and New Jersey, it was a difficult time to concentrate on writing. We were lucky too, our Maple tree tipped over but is otherwise intact.

During this period I had a front row seat observing neighbors and strangers at their most noble. People shared food, batteries, hugs, and information. Whoever was going somewhere bright offered to bring back goods to those in darkness.

Real people who help others is a leitmotif in many of our books. We ask the questions, “When faced with adversity does one rise up or fall down? What does a person have to do to live a noble life?” This theme is not only an important one for kids, but it is usually implanted inside a damn good story.

“Noble,” stayed with me throughout the hurricane and election. I asked myself which nonfiction stories for kids include the search for virtue? I called my friend and YA librarian Karlan Sick to brainstorm titles because Karlan remembers every book that has ever been written. She talked about the obvious greats who made a difference in society: FDR, Eleanor, Jane Addams, Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King, Jr. But these were not the first people she came up with. Her first title happened to be one of my all-time favorites: Russell Freedman’s Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor. 

The book is about the dazzling photographer Louis Hine, and how his photographs changed the way people think about working children. 

In the early twentieth century Hine, who was a photographer, sociologist, and a New York City schoolteacher, documented working children on behalf of the National Child Labor Committee. His powerful, heart-wrenching photographs helped to awaken America’s conscience and later contributed to social reform with much needed labor laws. Unfortunately Hine never knew what an impact he made. Museums had no interest in his photographs; he survived on welfare, and died penniless.

Frankly, I cannot understand why he is not on EVERY list of great photographers. If you click on his name you will see more images, many of which are very well known.

Russell Freedman is a superb writer and a wonderful colleague. His impeccably researched books sure influenced me. I particularly love the way he includes old photographs as both documents and art. When I set out to write a modern version of working children, Iqbal Masih and the Crusaders Against Child Slavery, he graciously introduced me to the director of the National Child Labor Committee, who gave me access to their files and Hine’s photographs. What a day that was, going through some of Hine’s original prints. [Sadly, Iqbal is out of print.] 

            Iqbal Masih’s story along with the “crusaders” who helped free him from his thekedar at the carpet factory in Pakistan where he worked from age four to ten, is eerily similar to Freedman’s American kids: Exploitation supported by unknowing shoppers. Economics skewed to favor the rich. Danger to those who try to bring about change. Sound familiar? Half a world away … half a century away … things haven’t changed for many. No wonder our subtitles are so similar – I just this moment realized that.

Louis Hine was noble. Iqbal Masih was noble. And so were crusaders who risked so much to speak out for what is right. What have you written, or read, that inspired you to write about someone noble? Can we make a list?

At The Core (The Sequel)

Last month, I blogged a bit about the School Library Journal Leadership Summit and my preparation to discuss Those Rebels, John and Tom in light of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

I thought I'd report back on our panel, "Nonfiction at the Fore of the Common Core."

We four authors—Steve Sheinkin, Sally M. Walker, Deborah Hopkinson, and me—were in excellent company. The room was filled with librarians passionate about their work. There was a buzz in the room as the discussion ranged from how to engage tech-savvy readers to how to best set up the physical space in a library. Also, there was cake.

Our task on the panel was to share how our books (all nonfiction, all set in the past) were relevant to events today and then to use specific Common Core Standards as a way of exploring our books. Led by Mary Ann Cappiello (one of the intrepid members of The Uncommon Corps I blogged about last month), we dove in.

The discussion was divided into four sections.

Steve began by discussing how Bomb: The Race To Build—And Steal—The World’s Most Dangerous Weapon remains chillingly relevant today as many countries around the world monitor Iran’s nuclear future. He added his hope that his book was relevant in “helping kids become engaged with history.”

Sally then turned to a discussion of a specific CC Standard on the balance of primary and secondary sources during the research process. She shared photographs of the prehistoric bones at the center of her book Their Skeletons Speak: Kennewick Man And The Paleoamerican World, focusing on the stone spear point embedded in Kennewick Man’s hip bone and discussing how scientists used computer modeling to analyze whether Kennewick Man—literally—saw the spear coming.

I talked about another CC Standard on exploring how an author’s purpose shapes the content and style of a book. I shared how the text reflects my purpose in Those Rebels, John and Tom of introducing the two men through the lens of their differences and then showing how they looked past those differences to find common ground and work together. I followed up by pointing out the many ways in which Edwin Fotheringham’s art supports this purpose, from his use of opposites (opposing pages of dark vs. light; action vs. passivity; loud vs. quiet) to aspects of the book design, such as the fact that the two men’s profiles face away from each other on the book’s flaps and face toward each other on the title page.

Finally, Deborah Hopkinson discussed another CC Standard on analyzing how word choice shapes meaning and tone. Reading a passage from Annie and Helen, about Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller, she discussed her love of language and how much the act of reading shapes writing.

The panel was great. I loved listening to and learning from the other authors. I also left inspired to learn more about the Common Core Standards and how I can use them to explore my books with teachers, librarians, and kids.

And if you'd like to read more about the panel, see this write-up in School Library Journal.

Jumping Through Hoops

Last February, while driving to Vermont, I received a phone call from a businessman friend, Mike Landau, who has watched the development of iNK Think Tank  with great interest.  He called to let me know that Apple had just released a new FREE program, iBooks Author,  that formats books for the iPad so they can be sold in the iTunes store.  iTunes saved the music industry by monetizing each song so people could create  individual playlists.  Wow!  What an opportunity!  iPads are the tablet of choice in schools.  The playing field has been leveled.  It’s now possible for our publishing company,  iNK Books & Media (we reserved the domain name as part of iNK Think Tank) to come into being.  Since we don’t have enough money to invest in our hiring someone, I could now learn to format books myself.

That afternoon, I downloaded iBooks Author.  (I learn by plunging in and making mistakes, so I never hesitate to try something new.)  It required a free upgraded operating system for my Mac, which meant I had to pay for an upgraded Microsoft Office for Macs, but hey—we were on our way.  One of the BIG issues for us children’s book creators is that other devices for ebooks are mostly for text only and don’t show art well (although that is now changing).  The iPad, with its backlighting and relatively large (7” x 9”) screen is a stunning way to display images.  I knew that I had to learn the program, but first I had to find a way to take apart a book and get it scanned.   You Tube has some videos for that but it still takes some skill to do a good job.  I took my first deconstructed book (with all rights reverted--an earlier battle) to my local Staples where my name on the book stopped them from questioning me about my right to get it copied.  (Now I have a relationship with all the copy folk so I can get any book copied.)  I enclosed a flash drive and had them make high res scans (600 dpi) in both the pdf and jpg formats.
I uploaded the images first into iPhoto to crop off ragged edges, enhance the color, and make small touch-ups and orientation corrections.  At first, I wasn't all that familiar with iPhoto so there was a learning curve for this step; but by April I was finally ready to try and create my first book with iBooks Author.  The program offers a lot of templates where you can design a book by dragging art and text into their boxes.  I have a feeling that they had their designers work with textbook people, who are fighting hard to maintain their hegemony in the school market, and then threw their text-booky-looking templates out there for us to play with.  With the help of an online support community, I learned I could use the blank page option as my template to drag, drop, and resize images to create our books.  But the hair-tearing-out aspects of learning iBook Author, pale in comparison to the other hurdles thrown my way.

            Rather than bore you with the countless frustrations let me itemize all the learning curves:        

• We had to become paid vendors in the iTunes Store.  Apple has a 32 page contract (enough said!)
•  Each book requires an ISBN number.  This means learning how to assign ISBNs to new titles and register them in the Bowker database so that Apple will recognize them.  (iNK now owns 100 ISBNs. We've used 14.  I'm optimistic about using them all. )
• After the book has been formatted, you have to create a "book package" for delivery into the iTunes store.  This means learning a totally different program called iTunes Producer for Books, which includes a lot of "metadata" about each book. (I’m lucky I’m not bald!)
•  Finally, each book package is sent to the iBookstore. At first, they don't make the cut and error messages abound.  But they have a help phone line.  ( I now know everyone in that office.) 
• After the books are uploaded, I have to wait for the iTunes book review committee to review each book and issue a ticket for infractions.  BTW, the iBooks people communicate with the iTunes people only by email.  There are no humans talking to humans.

By last week, I had successfully uploaded 14 books, of which 13 were on sale in 5 markets, the US, UK, Ireland, Australia and Canada.  The last book was not approved because it had “scanned text.”   They want the words laid into text boxes from a word-processing program so that they can use their new live dictionary and voice-over pronunciation function.  With the vague feeling that I was waking a sleeping dog, I spoke to an iBookstore person and sputtered, “But all of our books are scanned, and they were approved!”  Guess what!  I am now the proud possessor of 14 tickets and none of our books are in the market! Still fighting the good fight, I responded  to each of the 13 tickets with a highly articulate (possibly politically incorrect) letter about why we don’t need the dictionary look-up and that they were denying the bookstore superior works by well-established professional authors. No response so far from the anonymous powers-that-be at iTunes (the iBookstore people are sympathetic but relatively impotent).

After a few days, I bit the bullet.  For many of the books, the text (not fully copy-edited) exists in Word files.  This means that if I remove the text from the art with PhotoShop, I can reinsert the stripped art into iBooks Author and cut and paste text into text boxes—a LOT of tedious work.  But I’m a knitter and can handle it.  My new challenge is learning PhotoShop Elements so I can strip the text and match the background color.  I am now a one-trick-pony with that program but it was enough to get one of the scanned –and-banned books back into the iBookstore, where it is now awaiting approval.  (New error messages appeared on the other two books I prepared.)

This post is my long-winded explanation for why we haven’t triumphantly announced the opening of our publishing division, iNK Books & Media.  It’s also therapy for me. Thanks for reading this far. xxxo

O, THE SCANDAL!!!!!

 

Hooray… it’s finally time to vote, and luckily times have changed since pre-Revolutionary days when only white males who owned property could cast a ballot.   So let’s proudly get out there and go for it!  But does anyone think this was the dirtiest presidential campaign ever?  Are you tired of all the name calling?  Convinced that special interest groups have spent more money than ever before to spread lies and to buy your vote?  Think again….’twas ever thus.

 

As for name calling, that’s been going on ever since the U.S. of A. became a nation.  Thomas Jefferson secretly hired a Scottish scandal monger named James Callender to write scurrilous tales about John Adams, so Callender obligingly called Adams a repulsive, hideous, mentally deranged hermaphrodite who wanted to crown himself king.  (Later Callender got so mad at Jefferson that he printed the story of Jefferson’s affair with his slave, Sally Hemings.)  To carry on this interesting tradition, during the 1837 election, Davy Crockett accused Martin Van Buren of wearing women’s corsets, in 1861 Abraham Lincoln was accused of having stinky feet, and Teddy Roosevelt called William Howard Taft “a rat in the corner.”
 
During the 1880’s, presidential candidates and their backers were infamous for their dirty tricks.  In order to buy votes, Republicans sent a bunch of guys nicknamed “Soapy Sams” to grease the voters’ palms by passing out hundreds of thousands of dollars in two dollar bills.  In 1828, partisans of incumbent president John Quincy Adams and his challenger, Andrew Jackson, had lots of fun accusing the candidates of just about any false charge they could dream up.  Jackson had murdered 6 militiamen, they claimed! He suffered from an uncontrollable temper! And he committed adultery too!  Then they said John Quincy Adams was a pimp who procured an American woman for the Russian Czar.  And what's more, they accused him of using government money to buy a billiards table for the White House (oh, shameful game)!

A dirty presidential election in 1876 planted Rutherford B. Hayes in the White House under some highly questionable circumstances. The race was vicious from the start; Hayes’ opponent, “Honest Sam Tilden” was accused of making dishonest railroad deals and was mocked big-time because he never served in the Civil War. Samuel Tilden readily won the popular vote anyway, but due to some sneaky calculations and other shenanigans by the opposition, he came up one vote short of winning the electoral vote. Because Republicans controlled the US Senate and Democrats controlled the House, Congress set up an Electoral Commission that allowed seven Democrats and seven Republicans to decide the result.  But since the tie-breaking 15th member was a Republican Supreme Court Justice, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner. Thereafter he was jeeringly nicknamed "Rutherfraud" B. Hayes and "His Fraudulency."

More recently, Lyndon Johnson supposedly created a group of 16 pols called “The Five O’clock Club” to make his opponent, Barry Goldwater, look bad.  In a flash, they came up with an anti-Goldwater joke book called You Can Die Laughing and a coloring book that let kids color in a picture of Goldwater dressed like a member of the Ku Klux Klan. 
 
And then there’s the infamous political trickster named Dick Tuck.  Back in 1968 when Richard Nixon was running for president, Tuck paid a very pregnant black woman to roam around at a Nixon rally in a white neighborhood while wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with Nixon’s campaign slogan.  It said "Nixon's the One!"

I’m sorry to report that there’s plenty more where that came from, but may the cream rise to the top anyway.  See you later, my fellow Americans—I have to GO VOTE! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Jersey Strong

What a week! Right up front, I must admit it’s been hard to concentrate on work with the world crumbling around me. By extension that means it’s been a challenge to write this blog post. I live in Northern New Jersey, and Hurricane Sandy has left a devastating path of destruction all around me. (I’m sorry, but I can’t help but think of Olivia Newton John—Sandy in Grease—every time someone talks about Sandy. What a ridiculous name for a hurricane.) My family was relatively lucky. My folks lost heat and electricity, but for some reason still have hot water. I lost heat, electricity, and hot water, but my condo complex has a generator that keeps the heat on for part of each day. My brother came through amazingly unscathed. I’m wondering what he did to deserve that. Perhaps it’s because he’s a vegetarian.

Thanks to my L.L. Bean Mini Solar Emergency Radio, I’ve kept up with reports of the heartbreaking tragedy that this storm has brought to folks on the Jersey shore, in lower Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, and so many other places. But it wasn’t till I used my guest privileges at a gym an hour away (in search of a place to work out, but also to get a hot shower and use a hair dryer!) that I actually saw footage of the damage. Seeing so many familiar places flooded or broken apart is sobering. A map of the Jersey shore—my Jersey shore, not the ridiculous version that gave name to the TV show I refuse to watch—could be overlaid with a timeline of my youth. That family trip to Ventnor and Atlantic City when I was five; the weekend at the Long Beach Island home of my friend from camp when I was 16; the overnight trip to Seaside Heights after my high school senior prom; the drive to Asbury Park at the beginning of a college romance.

When I took a photography course in New York City after 9-11, I fulfilled our landscape photography assignment by driving down to Asbury Park to take pictures of the decaying boardwalk. I returned toward the end of my class to restage photographs captured on postcards from the early 20^th century. It was somehow comforting to revisit the boardwalk, despite the sad condition of the once glorious casino, which was designed by the same architects who created Grand Central Station. That was 10 years ago, and I haven’t been there since. But I recall hearing that a refurbishment had taken place. This week, Asbury Park took quite a hit, along with Atlantic City and many other shoreline communities.

I dug through my collection of archival postcards to bring you some views of better days—way before my youthful adventures—from the Jersey shore. Let’s hope there will be more “colorful beach scenes” in the not-too-distant future.

To send aid to those who were affected by Hurricane Sandy, go to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief page. And a shout-out to Staples in Englewood, NJ, for scanning the postcards and letting me borrow their WiFi for a little while.

I.N.K. News

We thought we'd start off the month with some quick updates from our bloggers.

It's down to the wire, and Susan E. Goodman is still talking about elections and her book, See How They Run.  She is Nov. 3 at 1 p.m. at the Andover Book Store in Andover, MA, and the Connolly Branch Library in Jamaica Plain, MA, at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 5.

Want to win a signed copy of It's A Dog's Life?  Enter this month's "write a caption" contest at

http://www.susangoodmanbooks.com/?page_id=2866. 

Tanya Lee Stone has two new books coming out in the new year and both have been selected for Junior Library Guild. The forthcoming titles are COURAGE HAS NO COLOR and WHO SAYS WOMEN CAN'T BE DOCTORS? The first review just came in for COURAGE, from Kirkus, which gave it a star! "richly layered narrative...groundbreaking insight...An exceptionally well-researched, lovingly crafted and important tribute to unsung American heroes."

Melissa Stewart updates us on herself and a couple of fellow bloggers:

My book A Place for Bats is a finalist in the AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books in the picture book category. so is Steve Jenkin's book The Beetle Book.

Invincible Microbe : Tuberculosis and the Never-ending Search for a Cure , by Jim Murphy is a finalist in the Middle Grade category.

Here's a link to all the finalists:

http://www.sbfonline.com/Subaru/Pages/2013Finalists.aspx

Gretchen Woelfle will present a workshop on writing nonfiction, November 17, 2-4:40 for SCBWI-San Diego. For more information, see http://www.sandiego-scbwi.org/scbwimeetings.htm

Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan have been chosen as the 2013 winners of the Children's Book Guild of Washington , D.C. Nonfiction Award for their body of work. The award will be presented in Washington, D.C. on April 20.

Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan with illustrations by Brian Floca has been chosen by The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) as the Honour List book (for illustrations) from the United States.

Jan Greenberg's Interview (with Sylvia Vardell) will appear in ALA's Book Links November 2012 issue.

And something kind of interesting happened to Steve Sheinkin:

I was working in the library a couple of weeks ago, and got this brief and cryptic email stating, "Dear Mr. Sheinkin, Will you please call me today on a confidential matter?" It looked kind of official, not like a scam, and came from the National Book Foundation. I called the number, and asked for the name on the email, and the man came on and told me that my new book Bomb, had been chosen as a finalist for the National Book Award - but that I couldn't tell anyone until the announcement the next morning. Those with more experience winning awards may know how to handle this - do you really not tell your editor? Anyway, I just told my wife and kids. My wife was impressed; kids (6 and 3) less so. And then we all watched the award announcement on TV the next morning. Exciting stuff!