PINKNEY'S PASSION

After 45 years, Caldecott Medal winner Jerry Pinkney still feels excited about his craft

After having received five Caldecott Honors during his long and illustrious career, it's not too surprising to hear that when Jerry Pinkney got the call in January informing him that he had won this year's Caldecott Medal, the highest prize for a children's illustrated book in the United States, he kept waiting to hear the word "honor."

Instead, Pinkney learned that he had won the Caldecott Medal for The Lion & the Mouse (Little, Brown, 2009), his wordless retelling of the classic fable about a lion who spares a mouse's life and then, in turn, is saved from a hunter's snare by the mouse. Pinkney became the first individual African American artist to receive this honor since the award was established in 1938. (The multiracial couple of Leo and Diane Dillon won in 1976 and 1977.)

The award marks what Pinkney calls "the frosting on the cake" for a career that has spanned 45 years and more than 100 books. Even before The Lion & the Mouse earned the Caldecott Medal, he felt the book was special—a feeling borne out by the response from librarians, reviewers, teachers, and, above all, children.

Pinkney had illustrated this story a decade ago in a collection titled Aesop's Fables, and he felt a special affinity for the tale. He said he always keeps a list of potential projects that he discusses periodically with his publisher. "The Lion & the Mouse just kept appearing on every list," Pinkney said. "I knew it was worth the effort to revisit that fable."

Whereas illustrating someone else's text involves "responding and interpreting," along with a lot of "collaboration and partnership," retelling gives you more of a sense of ownership, said Pinkney, because you find "your own lens for retelling that story." It's an evolutionary process in which sometimes the text suggests what the illustrations might be like and other times the illustrations suggest how the text might go.

The Lion & the Mouse did not start out being a wordless book. The text was always in the back of Pinkney's mind as he developed the project. He decided to start out with the thumbnails and then add the text. But upon seeing the thumbnails, he realized the book did not require words—except for animal sounds. When he showed his editor, Andrea Spooner, she agreed.

The book features Pinkney's trademark watercolor artwork. He enjoys watercolor as a medium because, as he said, "I love the idea of drawing and line; you can say so much with lines." Because watercolor is transparent, it allows the line to show through.

Looking back

In looking back over his career, Pinkney can see the role he played in helping bring books by African American authors and illustrators to higher prominence. In the 1960s, when he did his first children's books, publishers were just beginning to note the void in that area. "I was interested both in children's literature and in my own culture," Pinkney said, placing him at the right place at the right time.

Those circumstances may have aided Pinkney in getting started, but sheer talent carried him from that point. In addition to winning the Caldecott Medal and having five Caldecott Honor books, he has earned five Coretta Scott King Awards (which salute outstanding African American authors and illustrators), and a host of other honors.

Many of Pinkney's books speak to African American culture. "It was a calling for me and a way of expressing my feelings about my roots," he said. "We all find our special interest. I had this interest and a way to speak about it to an audience."

Furthermore, he has passed this interest on to his family. His wife, Gloria, is an author, and two of his sons and their wives are also involved in writing or illustrating children's books. Together, the family has about 175 books to its credit, creating what noted poet Nikki Grimes has called a family "dynasty."

Looking ahead

At the age of 70, Pinkney feels as passionate as ever about his craft. "When I speak to students about my work, I often ask if they think I am as excited today as I was when I first started, and they always answer 'Yes'," he said. He plans to keep working "as long as the passion for making images is there and as long as I can find the right projects and feel I have more to offer."

Right now he is working on a retelling of the story of the Three Little Kittens. A lighthearted story, the project offers a different set of challenges than The Lion & the Mouse. "The reality is that each story, each project, offers up its own richness and its own experience," Pinkney said. "It's demanding something of you, and it's also rewarding you when it works." An added benefit of the current project, Pinkney says, is that "it makes me laugh."

Some of Pinkney's continuing passion for his work comes from the teachers who use his books. He believes there is a real synergy between teachers and authors. "Teachers feed off me in that they are so interested in what I do," he said, "and I feed off them because I know they are out there promoting the idea of reading. We are all in this together to inspire children and get them to read."

Teachers and children alike hope that he maintains his passion for many years—and many books—to come.

LIFE AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT

Newbery Medal winner Rebecca Stead masters the art of time travel in When You Reach Me

Talent, like light, moves really fast.

Rebecca Stead's First Light, published in 2007, was her first book. An environmental science fiction/fantasy, it was recognized by the International Reading Association as a "Notable" book in the intermediate fiction category.

In the time light travels about 12 trillion 305 billion miles—749 days—Stead's second book was published. When You Reach Me, a time travel novel woven with coming–of–age and mastery–of–life threads, sped her all the way to the 2010 John Newbery Medal, one of the most prestigious awards in children's literature. Announced in January by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, the Newbery and Caldecott Medals honor outstanding writing and illustration of works published in the United States during the previous year.

Fascinated with the notion of time since childhood, Stead said she set out to write a time travel story—but one driven in terms of ideas like how we relate to family, our assumptions about "categories," friendship, identity, and independence. In When You Reach Me (2009, Wendy Lamb Books), 12–year–old Miranda receives mysterious notes that seemingly predict the future. She gains friends, loses friends, learns to value her mother and her choices, all the while navigating a sometimes scary, but always interesting city landscape where a homeless man on a street corner kicks the air violently and sleeps under a mailbox.

Stead's book, set in 1979, gives a nod to another Newbery Medal book (1963), A Wrinkle in Time. Miranda and her schoolmates read and reread the Madeline L'Engle classic, wondering how the protagonists landed in a "broccoli patch" before they actually leave to go on their adventure in space and time. It makes for some thought–provoking reasoning by the characters and gives adult readers something to puzzle over. Stead, who is a big fan of science fiction, likes Star Trek time travel episodes and movies. Her favorite time travel movie is the romantic Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.

Anyone who has ever read a time travel book or seen a sci–fi movie picks at what sometimes seems an improbable chain of events. In a recent interview, Stead said not only did she strive to make When You Reach Me a logical story, "making sure that it did add up, but I wanted it to be satisfying in some emotional way." She opted for a looping "comeback" view of time travel rather than a "do–over" version like Ray Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder, she said, in which everything goes off track in the present because a time traveling hunter of Tyrannosaurus Rex eons ago trampled a butterfly. In her book, "You're already living with the consequences of coming back in time," she said. "You're not changing destiny, but fulfilling it."

After winning the Newbery, Stead went on a whirlwind tour of schools in the daytime, libraries and retail outlets at night. She said she learned that 10–year–olds are very facile in dealing with time travel, but also learned something that surprised her a little. "Kids are taking themselves seriously as writers and are inspired to be creative. They wanted to talk about the craft of writing, structure, and other elements of writing."

Stead said she doesn't remember being that focused on such skills at that age. "They also wanted to talk about how to share a book, what makes a good critiquer, and how to offer constructive criticism of others' writing."

Stead, who lives in Manhattan with her husband and two sons, 8 and 11, said she wrote the book from the perspective of a 12–year–old because that is the age when kids are becoming aware of identities—their own and others. They are beginning to see life in a more complex and interesting fashion. Miranda begins to see her mother as a person with needs and dreams of her own and not just the supplier of Miranda's needs, material and emotional. She starts to realize the struggles and sacrifices her mother has made for her and begins to understand what a family is and can be.

Miranda also learns that unlike on the game show, The $20,000 Pyramid, people and situations are not easily categorized. Such a view of life doesn't serve us very well and we can and should go beyond that way of looking at reality, Stead said.

"Kids at that age are learning 'I am in charge. I am my own master,'" Stead said. And it's something that is very important, "the idea that you are smart, capable of making good decisions, and possess good judgment."

Time travel, if you analyze it too deeply, can lead to a splintering of reality that it can be overwhelming, Stead said. She wants her readers to know Miranda wasn't struggling to understand the seeming randomness and infinity of the universe, but learning that her world has value and that people do care about her.

One community, one book

The One School, One Book (OSOB) program, spotlighted in the December 2009/January 2010 issue of Reading Today, has broken new ground, as the entire community of Bentonville, Arkansas, joined together in February to read E.B. White's classic book, The Trumpet of the Swan.

The goal of OSOB is to engage an entire school (including students, parents, teachers, and other staff )—or in this case, an entire community—in reading the same high–quality children's novel simultaneously. The program was developed by Bruce Coffey and is administered by the nonprofit literacy organization Read to Them.

The key ingredient is that parents read the novel aloud with their children at home on a daily basis, with the pace being prescribed by the school. The program creates a common experience for literary discussions, encourages parental involvement in children's literacy development, and creates a significant schoolwide "buzz" about books.

In Bentonville, Apple Glen Elementary School completed the OSOB program in 2009. Principal Lisa St. John was so impressed by its success that she approached Bentonville Superintendent Gary Compton with the idea of having all nine elementary schools in the district participate simultaneously. "This is the first time a large school district has attempted this approach," said Gary Anderson, executive director of Read to Them.

The districtwide approach encouraged organizations throughout the community to promote the program and support participation. Indeed, the book buzz in Bentonville became a roar that was heard in places ranging from Cub Scout meetings to Wal-Mart (which is headquartered in Bentonville) and other local retailers.

The program got families buzzing about books as well. As one parent put it, "With afterschool activities, friends, and a general lack of common interest in books, it is rare that I can get my kids to listen to a book together. Having a school program has given them incentive and interest to participate. I have so enjoyed this time reading to my children and hearing their daily updates."

IRA Executive Director William B. Harvey visited Bentonville in February to see the program and talk with some of the participants. "This program utilizes peer pressure and community support for a positive literacy influence like I have never seen before," Harvey said. "Rather than waiting for peer pressure to be a negative influence, the Bentonville model is proactive in building a community of readers and can be reproduced across America."

The concept of One School, One Book is spreading, with schools in 30 states and three provinces having participated. "Our vision is that all families in North America will spend time reading aloud to their children on a daily basis to nurture their literacy development," said Shelley Allen, director of special projects for Read to Them.

To help encourage the growth of the One School, One Book program, IRA is exploring ways that local and state/provincial councils might get involved. To learn more about the program, visit www.readtothem.org.

Newbery Honor Books

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose, published by Melanie Kroupa Books/Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, an imprint of Macmillan Children's Publishing Group

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly, published by Henry Holt

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin, published by Little, Brown and Company Books for Young Readers

The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick, published by The Blue Sky Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.

For information on the John Newbery Medal, visit www.ala.org/yma.

THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT BAD NEWS

Vaunda Micheaux Nelson earns Coretta Scott King Author Award for tale of Western hero Bass Reeves

As it turns out, Bad News is good news—really good news for Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, winner of the 2010 Coretta Scott King Author Book Award. This nonfiction account of a black hero of the old West who always got his man, Bad News for Outlaws, The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal, (Carolrhoda Books, 2009) has been recognized as an outstanding book for young adults and children by an African American author. The award is given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, which also selects the Newbery and Caldecott award winners for children's literature

Bass Reeves worked in the Indian Territory for more than 30 years, arresting more than 3,000 people and was never wounded. Known for his fair–mindedness and honesty, Reeves even arrested his own son, Benjamin, who killed his wife over an affair she'd had.

In an interview on the Brown Bookshelf (www.thebrownbookshelf.com), a website that promotes African American writers to young readers, Nelson said she'd been fascinated with Reeves since 2003 and was excited to see the book finally in print.

Asked in a recent interview if there were plans to turn Bad News into a movie, Nelson said that Art T. Burton, a historian and Bass Reeves expert, has been lobbying for a movie for years. Morgan Freeman also has expressed interest in the character. "I'd love to see it happen," Nelson said.

With more than a half dozen books and many awards to her credit, Nelson's work explores a variety of topics. Always Gramma, about elder memory loss, was named a Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies and Beyond Mayfield, about a small town in Pennsylvania during the civil rights era, won a Parents' Choice Gold Award. Her picture book, Almost to Freedom, won a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award and was made into a play.

A public librarian, Nelson taught writing to college freshmen and adult learners for a time. She also was a school librarian at a K–5 private school for boys in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where reading was popular: "It was cool to excel and to have read the latest, most coveted books. Often my challenge was finding new titles to recommend to students who seemingly had read everything."

Nelson says that in her work as a public librarian, she is "lucky to work with many children and teens who are enthusiastic readers." She is, however, "concerned that many parents do not read to their children. I'm not talking about parents who have literacy challenges of their own," she said, "I'm talking about parents who could but don't. Even many of those who diligently read to their toddlers and preschoolers, sadly discontinue story time at home once their children begin reading on their own. Parents simply say, 'Go read,' not realizing what their children and they themselves have to gain from the experience of sharing books well into their children's teenage years."

Nelson herself was lucky, she says, to have parents who fostered a love of reading—by her mother reading bedtime stories consistently and her father reciting poetry, sometimes his own. "Since the beginning of time, story has brought people together. We adults love hearing stories, as evidenced by the popularity of audio books. Children and teens love hearing books, too, especially when read by their parents," she said.

In addition to her concern about the lapse in family reading, Nelson worries about meager book budgets in schools, reading programs that focus on computerized testing, and a lowering of standards in the mechanics of writing, including penmanship, and correctness of speech. "And that so many young people spend much of their time texting," she added.

She acknowledges some of the concerns may be generational. "I'm sure my parents and grandparents had similar concerns when I was growing up, but it does make me wince when the language is butchered by broadcast 'journalists' and when I hear educators deemphasize spelling and punctuation. Our language seems to have lost some of its precision and beauty. As a writer, I reach for this beauty. Even if I don't always succeed, I reach for it."

"Children, like all people, need language," Nelson said. "It provides a way of defining, of clarifying, giving meaning to, making sense of experience. Reading can play an important part in making this happen." One thing that does hearten her is that there is plenty of great nonfiction being published for kids, she said, "so much more now than when I was growing up."

Nelson did say she will be working with R. Gregory Christie, who illustrated Bad News, on two future books. Both are historical, but beyond that she's not saying much. "I never know what will find its way into my heart and become a book, or what form it will take—fiction? nonfiction? poetry? faction? For now, I'm hunkering down and trying to stay focused on the work," she said.

My People: Like the night, they're so beautiful

He's a writer, a photographer, an athlete and sports fanatic—and now Charles R. Smith Jr. is the 2010 winner of the Coretta Scott King Book Illustrator Award for My People.

Publishers Weekly lauded Smith's picture–book presentation of the Langston Hughes poem for "its visual simplicity," and called it "a tour de force."

Smith has a quieter approach. "I am deeply honored and humbled to have received it. Honored because of the name attached to the award and humbled to be the first photographer to have ever won it," he said in a recent interview.

Given to African American authors and illustrators, the Coretta Scott King Book Award promotes appreciation of the cultures that make up the American dream of a pluralistic society.

My People, published by Ginee Seo books, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, is a mere 33 words long, but holds an inestimable power that evokes a deep, inner, timeless beauty. Smith's portraits of African Americans in sepia tones capture phrases of the poem in bursts (The night is beautiful, So the faces of my people) that illustrate the simple words dramatically. His passion for the art of photography is apparent throughout.

Smith's love of taking pictures developed in high school—after he already had learned to love reading and sports, especially basketball. After a year working on his high school yearbook, "I knew I wanted to learn how to be a professional photographer," he says on his website (www.charlesrsmithjr.com). He graduated from the Brooks Institute photography program in California, and moved to New York to pursue his dream. He didn't, however, let go of his earlier loves, which, besides reading and sports, also included writing stories and poetry.

He has since written or illustrated more than 20 books, many of which revolve around sports—Rimshots, Hoop Kings, Diamond Life, Twelve Rounds to Glory, among others. He has written about Greek gods and goddesses in The Mighty 12 and celebrated diversity in I Am America. Smith also has recorded a CD of rap–influenced poetry, Portrait of a Poet, and his website has podcasts and lesson plans and activities for teachers to use in class.

He and his wife have two boys and a girl and live in Poughkeepsie, New York. Smith says he encourages his children to read by example: "My wife and I constantly read, but I stress to them that reading comes in many forms; from comic books to instruction manuals to the newspaper." He doesn't necessarily buy into the conventional wisdom that boys don't read and don't like to read.

"That's just a big misconception," he said. "Boys love to read also. We just read different things. While it's probably true that girls read more fiction, boys read everything else. That includes magazines, comic books, and nonfiction. Sadly, our schools (on purpose or not) create a hierarchy when it comes to books and big, fictional works sit at the top, while comic books and magazines wallow in the mire. If you were to ask a roomful of boys how many like to read, depending on demographics, you probably won't get too many hands—but if you ask how many like to read comic books, or magazines, I'm sure there will be a difference."

What's next for this multi–talented artist?

Smith has lots of ideas, and says he wants to do more novels, more books using photography, and more CDs.

"My current and permanent challenge will be creating books that are relevant," Smith says. "With so much technology today, books have plenty of competition. On top of that, there are so many authors and artists out there that I have to continue to work to keep my individuality."

LAUNCHING PAD FOR SUCCESS

IRA Children's Book Awards help jump–start stellar careers

By Margot Campbell

The International Reading Association (IRA) Children's Book Awards are given annually in the categories of Primary, Intermediate, and Young Adult fiction and nonfiction. The awards honor the first or second book of an author who shows unusual promise in the field of children's literature.

Since the program's founding in 1975, the awards have helped launch the careers of some of the most successful children's authors. Several of these authors remain involved with IRA, speaking regularly at Association conferences, and some have credited the awards with contributing to their success.

This article presents a sampling of IRA award winners who have gone on to write numerous books and receive many honors. Three have even won the most coveted medal for children's authorship—the Newbery Medal, presented by the American Library Association in recognition of the year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children."

The first IRA award winner to receive the Newbery Medal was Lois Lowry, who won the IRA award in 1978 for her first children's book, A Summer to Die. Lowry is one of only five authors to win the Newbery Medal more than once—first in 1990 for Number the Stars and again in 1994 for The Giver, which is the title book of her best–selling trilogy. Lowry has credited the IRA award with jump–starting her career.

The next IRA winner to win a Newbery Medal was Karen Hesse, who won in 1998 for her novel Out of the Dust. She received the IRA award in 1993 for her second novel, Letters from Rifka, and has gone on to produce at least one book nearly every year since then.

The third Newbery Medal winner is Christopher Paul Curtis, who won both the Newbery Medal and the IRA award in 2000 for his book Bud, Not Buddy. This became the first book to win both the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Author Award, which honors an outstanding African American author writing about the African American experience. In addition, Curtis has earned Newbery Honors in 1996 for The Watsons Go to Birmingham and in 2008 for Elijah of Buxton.

Laurence Yep, the second IRA award winner in 1976 for his book Dragonwings, has also received two Newbery honors. These honors are intended to confer recognition on authors—other than the Newbery Medal winner—who also have made significant contributions to American children's literature during the year. Yep received this honor in 1976 for Dragonwings and in 1994 for Dragon's Gate.

Popular and prolific

Some very successful past IRA winners are well known for their diversity of subject matter and the large volume of books that they have authored. Patricia Polacco, Deborah Hopkinson, and Megan McDonald all fit this category and have contributed extensively to children's literature.

Polacco won the IRA award in 1989 for Rechenka's Eggs. Since that time, she has written and illustrated more than 50 books. She also remains a frequent and popular speaker at IRA conferences at all levels.

Hopkinson has published a wide range of books on various subjects. After winning the IRA award in 1994 for her first book, Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt, she has written extensively in different genres. She also served as the author of the final book in the acclaimed Dear America series.

Megan McDonald is best known for her Judy Moody series, but is also the author of over 30 other books on different subjects and for different reading levels. She won the IRA award in 1991 for Is This a House for Hermit Crab?

Focused on themes

Other authors have more focused and specific themes for their books. Two IRA award winners who have been quite successful in writing and publishing books concerning nature are Douglas Wood and Ben Mikaelsen. Wood is best known for his book Old Turtle, a classic tale with a powerful message and an ever–relevant theme, which won the IRA award in 1993.

Mikaelsen also writes many of his books around the themes of animals and nature. He won the IRA award in 1992 for Rescue Josh Maguire, a story about a boy who attempts to save an orphaned bear cub, which reflects his own adoption of a pet bear. Mikaelsen is also a popular IRA speaker.

Although most IRA award winners have focused on children's literature since they began writing, Esmé Raji Codell had quite a different background experience. Codell began in the field of writing professional books about educating children and classroom instruction. When she stopped teaching and began writing these books full time, the void left by her lack of interaction with children prompted her to write a children's book—Sahara Special. Codell won the IRA award for this book in 2004 and since then has continued her crossover from instructional books to children's literature with four other stories.

British blockbusters

Although all of the aforementioned authors have written and published much of their work in the United States, the IRA award has also contributed to the success of authors in other countries. Two British authors, Philip Pullman and Rob Scotton, have both received IRA awards and have also gained international acclaim for their books.

Scotton, a fairly new writer, has already brought recognizable characters such as Splat the Cat and Russell the Sheep into the lives of children world–wide. He won the IRA award for the latter in 2006.

Pullman is a well–established writer who is best known for the His Dark Materials trilogy. One of these books is The Northern Lights, known in North America as The Golden Compass, which was transformed into an Academy Award–winning Hollywood film. Pullman won the IRA award in 1988 for The Ruby in the Smoke.

These authors and their accomplishments are simply representative samples of the great things IRA award winners go on to achieve. Who knows what success these and future award winners may yet achieve?

Margot Campbell, a senior at the University of Delaware, is serving as an intern for Reading Today.

Spotlight on Children's Literature. (April 2010). Reading Today, 27(5), 24–27.