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| Artists who participated in Friday's preconference for the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott Medal at the Art Institute of Chicago: Back row, l.- r.: Chris Raschka, Paul Zelinsky, Leonard Marcus, Marla Frazee, Brian Selznick, Kadir Nelson. Front row, l.-r.: Peter Brown, Pamela Zagarenski, Melissa Sweet, Erin and Phillip Stead. (photo: School Library Journal) | |
Traffic came to a halt in Chicago last weekend when librarians, publishers, book lovers and Black Hawks fans all flocked to the city to celebrate the Newbery Medal, the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott Medal and the Windy City's Stanley Cup win. Traffic also stopped for the filming of Divergent by Veronica Roth. One could call it the Renaissance City.
"Did they narrow the aisles?" That was the question most often asked in the exhibit hall of McCormick Place. Although the final count hasn't been released, the estimated attendance was 20,000-25,000, which certainly have contributed to the feeling of crowding in the halls.
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| John Lewis, Caldecott Medalist Jerry Pinkney, Gloria Pinkney, CSK Author winner Andrea Davis Pinkney, artist Brian Pinkney. | |
At the Coretta Scott King Breakfast on Sunday morning, Congressman John Lewis lit up the room. Lewis walked in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom with A. Philip Randolph, one of the men featured in CSK Author winner Andrea Davis Pinkney's Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America, illustrated by her husband, Brian Pinkney. She spoke of the first hands to hold her--her father's (one of the first black interns in the House of Representatives), and his promise to his daughter that her life would be "very different from his own."
Bryan Collier, CSK winner for illustration, connected the Pullman porters featured in his winning book, I, Too, Am America, with his neighbor, who served as model for the boy on his cover, and called the Pullman porters "conduits of culture," as they spread newspapers and magazines discarded by white passengers to African Americans across the country in their travels. Jacqueline Woodson, an honor winner in the author category for her picture book Each Kindness, illustrated by E.B. Lewis, underscored Collier's message with her call to action. She spoke of recent Supreme Court decisions and said, "Tomorrow is not a promise." She urged publishers, writers and artists to think of this as "the beginning of the work we all have to do to keep changing the world," and to discover the new writers and artists who will continue to carry the message.
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L.-r.: Carol Tilley; authors Gene Luen Yang, Raina Telgemeier and Brian Azzarello; Charles Brownstein from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund; moderator Robin Brenner. (Photo: Scholastic's Emily Heddleson) |
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Programming included "Busting the Comics Code," moderated by Robin Brenner (of No Flying No Tights, the graphic novel review Web site), and led off by Carol Tilley, whose research uncovered misinformation spread by anti-comics child psychologist Frederick Wertham in the 1950s. Questions from the audience suggested that librarians and teachers still confront the same obstacles that those in the 1950s did. To convince library directors to carry graphic novels, Brenner suggested purchasing 10 and keeping them on a cart--that's what she did, and their circulation rate convinced her director to carry them.
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| Patrick Ness, visiting from the U.K., spoke at the Booklist Forum Friday night; he's with Candlewick publisher Karen Lots (l.) and his U.S. editor Kaylan Adair. | |
At the Hyperion/Disney presentations, Mo Willems announced his forthcoming app, "Mo... on the Go," featuring a "Dance-O-Rama" from Elephant and Piggie, a "Dream Drive" with Pigeon, "Sticker Pictures" with Knufflebunny and a Leonardo "Monster Maker."
We'll have a wrap-up of the Newbery-Caldecott-Wilder banquet next week. --Jennifer M. Brown