Kadir Nelson, award-winning author and illustrator, had the crowd laughing at pictures he drew at five and learning from research he spent years on during his interesting and engaging talk at the PLA Children’s Author Luncheon on March 26.  (thanks to Simon & Schuster for sponsoring this event!)

Nelson opened by telling the audience the story of his beginnings as an artist.  He always thought of himself as a serious artist, even at the age of five, he considered his paper and pencil his tools, not toys.

Visits with his mother to his childhood public library in Atlantic City helped Kadir find art books, which helped mold his style, and books from the classic Lee J. Ames “How To Draw” series, which helped him with tracing and drawing practice.  Nelson shared childhood drawings (preserved by his mother) showing the evolution of his style from a very young age.

cartoon characters copied from Nelson’s math textbook

Nelson’s entry into a “create your own superhero” contest

Nelson kept drawing as he grew older, drawing his favorite athlete, Michael Jordan, and exaggerating the human form to try to use his illustrations to show feelings in his work.  Years later, he would collaborate with author Ntozake Shange on the book Ellington Was Not a Street.  Shange explained that in her work she strove to have “beauty overcome negativity”, something Nelson recognized had long been a goal of his own art and creation.

Graduating from college with a degree in illustration, Nelson spent some time developing the look of films through his illustrations.  Though he found his work on Stephen Spielberg’s Amistad particularly satisfying, he longed for more involvement in the end result of his work and he soon found himself illustrating picture books.

Still, Nelson found himself wanting to combine his more adult, painterly side with his work in children’s books.  He just wasn’t sure how.  Years ago, when he discovered an episode of the Ken Burns documentary Baseball that dealt with the Negro Leagues, he had been inspired to make a series of paintings about the Leagues.  Nelson sold them to Sports Illustrated in 1999 and had continued to make paintings in the series.  Maybe creating a children’s book about the Negro Leagues using some of these paintings was the combination he was looking for?

An editor agreed and asked Nelson who he had in mind for writing the accompanying text.  Though Nelson had many ideas, the editor mentioned it would take time to line up an author.  It was then he decided he would become the author and he dove into the complicated research process, not only conducting hours of interviews with surviving Negro League Players but reading dozens of books about the subject.  Nelson, who had admitted to the crowd earlier that as a boy he “hated” reading now found himself enthralled by his research, feeling that “it wasn’t reading, it was learning.”

Nelson shared some slides of the long, detailed research process that went into creating his 2009 title We Are The Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball. This included process such as taking detailed notes before starting a painting; a laundry list of every detail that had to be included in each painting to make sure it was accurate, from the weather to the way uniforms fit.  The research process took seven years, from 2000-2007, but the results were stunning, his author debut winning both the 2009 Coretta Scott King Author Award and the 2009 Robert F. Sibert Medal.  The paintings from We Are The Ship are currently on a nationwide tour.

Nelson then shared with the crowd some of his newest work, including his foray into working with fabric arts in the newly released Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya by Donna Jo Napoli and a painting from his upcoming biography of Joe Lewis to be written by Matt de la Pena.

In wrapping up his presentation, which was full of laughter and not only glimpses into the artist’s development and his artistic process, Nelson summed up his work so far as the continued effort to turn something negative into something positive and there was no doubt the crowd at the 2010 PLA Author’s Luncheon agreed he had succeeded.

This was a truly enlightening and engaging speech from one of the most influential and creative children’s illustrators (and authors!) working today.  I’m sure everyone in attendance felt, like I did, that it was a highlight of the PLA conference.

What Children’s SpacesFamily Places has in common with the session I remember from Charlotte is that ideas were presented at the macro level and the micro level.

One of my two favorite parts of today’s session was the presentation by Kim van der Veen from Burgeon Group. She showed us the incredible creations and installations that their firm has done to support Early Learning in library environments. Her talk was utterly inspiring!

AND there are a lot of us who don’t have that kind of money, or aren’t involved in a building project, and still want to create a language-rich Early Literacy environment in our plain-old ordinary libraries. For us, the presentation by Dana Bjerke, Joanna Redman and Kelly Wussow from Hennepin County Library was utterly inspiring also. What a bunch of librarians can do with “cold laminate” and paper! I’d never even heard of cold laminate before today. Now I’m ready to go out and make cold laminate creations!

Orders are being accepted for only the quantities listed below:

• 5,000 each of the three brochures (15,000 brochures total) $2,850 ($.19 each)
• 10,000 each of the three brochures (30,000 brochures total) $4,500 ($.15 each)
• 20,000 each of the three brochures (60,000 brochures total) $7,200 ($.12 each)
• 30,000 each of the three brochures (90,000 brochures total) $9,000 ($.10 each)
• 50,000 each of the three brochures (150,000 brochures total) $13,500 ($.09 each)

Plus a $45 set-up fee for each brochure and shipping cost.

Your library’s logo, address, phone number and web address will be imprinted on the back panel of each brochure. Place your order by November 2, 2007. For more information, or to obtain an order form, visit the www.ala.org/everychild.

The webinar’s speaker, Nina Hess, is a Senior Editor at Mirrorstone, an imprint of the very famous and popular gaming company, Wizards of the Coast (publishers of Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and much more). She edits fantasy fiction for children and teens. She is also the author of A Practical Guide to Monsters, which follows the company’s New York Times bestseller, A Practical Guide to Dragons. Needless to say, she is quite the expert.

I was invited to attend a preview of the webinar, and it’s an excellent Fantasy 101 crash course. Nina talks about:

• her experiences working at Mirrorstone (where she works in a “fantasy world”),
• why fantasy is so popular with kids, especially boys, and keeps them reading,
• the different flavors of fantasy plus a little on fantasy vs. science fiction,
• how fantasy and gaming can go hand-in-hand, and how tabletop role-play can lead to more kids in the library *and* more reading,
• program ideas that incorporate fantasy and fantasy reading

This webinar is a great place to start if you’re lost in fantasy, or just need a push in the right direction. Nina also talks about the many resources offered by her company (many of them free!) to help your library begin its journey into fantasy.

The program is coming up soon, so now is the time to register!

Event details:
A Practical Guide to Fantasy
Friday, September 28, 2007
11 a.m. – 12 p.m. Eastern Time [10 a.m. CT / 9 a.m. MT / 8 a.m. PT]
To Register: Send your name and contact information to . You may either email or call in your credit card information at 914-241-2117.
Cost: $50 per person
Group discounts:
10-49: $45/person
50-99: $40/person
100+: $35/person

What you’ll need: This is a Web-based seminar. Registered participants will receive participation instructions, log-on information and a toll-free number to dial in by telephone for the audio portion of the seminar upon payment of the registration fee.

•Gender gap
-Between 1980-2004, gender gap of leisure-time reading
-1 in 10 boys now reads for fun
-Gender gap has become a chasm (“…a marker of gender identity: girls read, boys don’t.” –Bauerlein & Stotsky 2005, Bauerlein 2007)

•Sex differences in brain development (Harriet Hanlon, et al. 1999)
-studied 224 girls, 284 boys, ages 2 months to 16 years
-fine motor skills and language : girls develop faster
-gross motor skills, spatial memory, visual targeting : boys develop faster

•Learning styles
-Boys listen better when they are standing (rather than sitting – “their brains shut off”)
-Most young girls learn better when sitting
-Does not mean there is a difference in rank (or abilities)
-Boys are taught to sit still in school like the girls (so then school = girly … why they hate it)
-Best temperature to learn: 60 degrees boys, 75 degrees girls (children and young adults for normal size) – 6 degrees of separation

•Extraneous noise (Colin, Elliot and assoc.)
-Bother girls and women at sound levels 10 to 40x lower than boys/,men
-Girls are aware of what’s going on around them
-90-92% of boys not bothered by noise

•Storytime
-Offer Noisy Time Story Time (and Quiet Time Story Time)
-Noisy:
-Turn the thermostat down
-Seats are optional (bean bag chairs?) – boys love to crouch
-Rule: No hitting, can’t disturb others
-Choose stories boys enjoy (Watch out for “demand characteristics” – what’s the right choice?)
-Allow buzzing/tapping/clicking

For more information, visit Dr. Sax’s website: www.boysadrift.com (same title as his new book, being published in August 2007)

The description for the session, which was presented Saturday, June 23, was as follows:

Audiobooks are a growing portion of library collections. Here is an event to celebrate and learn about the creation of quality audiobook products from the perspective of authors, narrators and producers who build the blocks that create great listening experiences. This program will focus on audiobooks for young adults and children and is cosponsored by ALSC and YALSA.

Many thanks to ALSC for working with us to record and podcast the session!

Here’s the list of when each speaker begins in the recording, and a little tidbit about each speaker’s segment. It sounds like it was a very interesting and entertaining recording, and I’m sad I missed it (even though I wouldn’t have normally attended this session in the first place), so I’m glad we have the podcast to share with all of you.

Intro: Mary Burkey, Moderator, Odyssey Award Committee Chair, introduces the session, and talks a little about the Odyssey Award, a collaboration between ALSC and YALSA.

5:37: Bruce Coville, Author, Full Cast Audio:

16:03: Judy Blume, Author, Books on Tape/Listening Library – very humorous presentation with bits about reading her books to audio. Her advice to writers is to read aloud!

31:00: John Green, Author, Brilliance Audiobooks – Creator/contributor to the videoblog Brotherhood 2.0 who has worked for NPR, includes bits on the relationship between text and audio.

47:00: Jack Gantos, Author, Books on Tape/Listening Library – Oh my word, he’s funny. Jack tells the story of how a reading of his book that was like “Miracle Whip on white bread” led him to read his own books for audio.

58:40: Question and Answer
Really interesting stuff about sending books to audio before print, behind the scenes at an audiobook recording from an author’s perspective, Fisher Price mp3 players, enhanced audio book CDs, and the fabulous emotion in audiobooks. Unfortunately, the recording stops short of the conclusionary comments, but we still got a good bit of it, and it’s still a good listen.

Rachel Payne, Coordinator of Preschool Services at the Brooklyn Public Library, spoke at the program Brooklyn Reads to Babies. She was followed by Susan Straub, author and director of the Read to Me program, and Sally Anderson, executive director of Mother Goose.

There are a number of initiatives to promote and foster early literacy, but the two I hear the most about at conferences are Mother Goose and Read to Me. The three most important things everyone needs to know about reading to babies:

• it is important to language development
• it helps children enter school ready to succeed
• it is an opportunity for parent/child bonding

The basics were covered, but they also talked about how to get the word out, saturating the area with publicity (e.g. beauty parlors, places of worship, messages on ATM screens). Sally Anderson spoke about working with smaller populations and less money than Brooklyn Public was blessed with, giving suggestions of who to invite to the table when planning an early literacy initiative.

Though not all the information was new it was a good session, and I’ve got a couple ideas I’m looking forward to utilizing.

10:30 From that session I tried moving across the hall to Bringing in the Boys: Using Multiple Intelligencces to Plan Programs that Appeal to Boys, but when I got there the room was packed, without any room left on the floor.

WGBH/Boston, a leading producer of quality children’s programming and award-winning resources for educators, is pleased to offer librarians a FREE Peep and the Big Wide World Event Kit. The kit has resources for organizing 3 different hands-on science events for preschoolers.

This free kit is available as part of the educational outreach linked to the WGBH-produced, EmmyR Award-winning series, Peep and the Big Wide World. The goal of the series and its outreach is to nurture young children’s interest in science play and discovery.

The kit includes informative Leader’s Guides that outline how to set-up and run the 3 separate events, which focus on the themes of Shadows, Structures, and Ramps. Related reproducible materials for families attending the events are also provided.

To get your free kit, contact by September 30th (one Event Kit is available per library branch while supplies last). You can also download components of the kit and other resources from the site.

For details on the television program, visit the PEEP and the Big Wide World site.

I’m on the PLA Services to Preschool Children and Their Caregivers Committee, and we met Sunday to discuss our plans for upcoming conferences and the like. We will be having an excellent program at ALA Annual in Washington, D.C. titled “Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales: Every BOY Ready to Read @ your Library”.

Dr. Leonard Sax, author of Why Gender Matters, will be presenting the latest research on the male brain, how this research may change the way librarians do story times for boys and how this research can be communicated to parents and caregivers. Dr. Sax will present and there will be a question/answer forum.

As any children’s librarian out there can tell you – there is definitely a difference in the behavior of little boys and girls during storytime! This looks to be an great program and I hope y’all can make it!

PLA and ALSC jointly developed the Every Child Ready to Read® @ your library® program to provide public libraries with vital tools to help prepare parents for their critical role as their child’s first teacher. Based on research from the PLA/ALSC Early Literacy Initiative, the three Every Child Ready to Read® programs target parents and caregivers of children ages: 0-2 years-old (Early talkers), 2-3 years-old (Talkers), and 4-5 years-old (Pre-readers). Since the program’s training and materials were introduced in 2004, hundreds of libraries have held programs for parents and caregivers to prepare them to help children get ready to read. To learn more about the program, please visit www.ala.org/everychild

To order Every Child Ready to Read® materials, visit www.alastore.ala.org. For more information on Every Child Ready to Read® @ your library®, contact the PLA office at 800-545-2433. ext. 5PLA, ALSC office at ext. 2164, or visit www.ala.org/everychild. PLA and ALSC are divisions of the American Library Association.