Blogging for a Cure: The Final Week

Time certainly has flown in the past four weeks. Think about this: The final week of Blogging for a Cure begins today. Once again, I would like to thank Jules and Eisha, the fine ladies of 7-Imp for spearheading this effort to promote Robert’s Snow: for Cancer’s Cure, a series of online auctions that will raise money for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and cancer research. Please visit the Robert’s Snow website to learn more about this unique fundraiser, which was co-founded by Grace Lin and her late husband Robert Mercer.

Jules coordinated the efforts of dozens of bloggers who have been posting features about the picture book illustrators who created snowflakes for Robert’s Snow 2007. She also organized the master schedule for our postings. In addition, I would like to thank Tricia Stohr-Hunt of The Miss Rumphius Effect and Jen Robinson of Jen Robinson’s Book Page for providing participating bloggers with weekly schedules to post at our blogs.

NOTE: I have linked to the blogs that will be posting features about the Robert’s Snow artists this week—not to the specific posts. Jules and Eisha of 7-Imp have created a special page that includes a list with links to all the Blogging for a Cure posts. Their list is updated every day.
Monday, November 12
John Nez at ChatRabbit
Liza Woodruff at Check It Out
Jane Dippold at Just Like the Nut
Mike Wohnoutka at laurasalas

Tuesday, November 13
Cynthia Decker at The Silver Lining
Cecily Lang at Kate's Book Blog
Jane Dyer at Whimsy Books
Akemi Gutierrez at AmoXcalli and Cuentecitos
Lee White at Please Come Flying

Wednesday, November 14
Philomena O'Neill at Jo's Journal
Maggie Swanson at Chicken Spaghetti
Timothy Bush at Here in the Bonny Glen
Peter Emmerich at Loree Griffin Burns: A Life in Books

Thursday, November 15
Yangsook Choi at What Adrienne Thinks About That
Laura Jacques at cynthialord's Journal
Mary Newell Depalma at Wild Rose Reader
Leanne Franson at Just Like the Nut

Friday, November 16
Mary Haverfield at Your Neighborhood Librarian
Lisa Kopelke at Lisa's Little Corner of the Internet
Salley Mavor at ChatRabbit
Greg Newbold at The Longstockings
Elizabeth Sayles at AmoXcalli and Cuentecitos

Saturday, November 17
Paul Brewer at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
Aaron Zenz at Jo's Journal
Wendy Edelson at What Adrienne Thinks About That
Joan Waites at Chicken Spaghetti

Sunday, November 18
Giles Laroche at Book, Book, Book
Annie Patterson at Check It Out
Teri Sloat at The Miss Rumphius Effect
Annette Heiberg at Lisa's Little Corner of the Internet
Wade Zahares at Wild Rose Reader

These are the Robert’s Snow artists who will be/have been featured at Wild Rose Reader.

October 16: Scott Bakal
October 29: Alissa Imre Geis
November 3: Wendell Minor
November 9: Susan Kathleen Hartung

COMING SOON TO WILD ROSE READER
November 15: Mary Newell DePalma

November 18: Wade Zahares

Thanksgiving Book Lists

Online Thanksgiving Book Lists

From the New York Public Library: Thanksgiving Books

From Kaboose.com: Thanksgiving Books

From About.com: Top 8 Children’s Books about Thanksgiving

From Apples 4 the Teacher: Thanksgiving Books for Kids

From NOBLE (North of Boston Library Exchange): Thanksgiving Books for Kids

From Oyate: Recommended Books about Thanksgiving and "Books to Avoid"

From ESSL (Education & Social Science Library) Children’s Literature Blog: Thanksgiving Books for Children

Resources for Teachers and Parents from Enchanted Learning

Thanksgiving K-3 Theme Page

Thanksgiving Printable Books

Blue Rose Girls Panel Discussion

Some of you may remember a previous Wild Rose Reader post, PAS North Shore Council: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner???. Well, last Wednesday evening, the fabulous Blue Rose Girls participated in a panel discussion at the fall dinner meeting of the PAS North Shore Council. Our council had never hosted a panel discussion before…and I have to admit that I wasn’t sure how it would go over with our members and other attendees. I shouldn’t have worried. The panel discussion was a resounding success—one of the best events we’ve ever had! That’s really saying something because our council has had some mighty awesome speakers in the past: Jack Gantos, Lois Lowry, Natalie Babbitt, Joseph Bruchac, Mary Ann Hoberman, Wendell Minor, Robert San Souci, Kathryn Lasky, Anita Lobel, Natalie-Kinsey Warnock, Andrew Clements. I could go on and on and on.
Grace Lin, Anna Alter, Libby Koponen, Meghan McCarthy, and Linda Wingerter all sat on the panel. I served as moderator. The “girls” told the audience how they met each other; how they got started in publishing children’s books; why they formed the Blue Rose Girls; how they help, support, and advise each other about their creative processes and works-in-progress; and about books and projects that they are currently working on. Of course, the name of fellow Blue Rose Girl Alvina Ling came up in the conversation a number of times.

The panel discussion was over much too soon! Lucy Pikul, our council treasurer, told me she had only one complaint: “It wasn’t long enough!”

Which panelist is missing from this picture?

On Friday, my friend Pat Purdy, owner of the Banbury Cross Children’s Book Shop, left a message on my answering machine. She told me that two reading teachers had been in her shop absolutely raving about the panel discussion. This positive response has me wondering if I should arrange for more panel discussions for our council dinner meetings.

Now you see the missing BRG: Meghan McCarthy

For me, last Wednesday was a special—and an especially enjoyable—evening. Having my friends speaking and sharing their experiences with a group of teachers and school librarians with whom I have been affiliated for many years was a memorable occasion. It was also great to have my daughter Sara and her good friend Elaine there with me.

My daughter Sara & her friend Elaine

(I'm sorry that most of my photos came out so dark.)

Dates of upcoming events in the 2007-2008 Speaker Series of the PAS North Shore Council:
March 5, 2007 at the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, Massachusetts
May 21, 2007 at the Corinthian Yacht Club in Marblehead, Massachusetts

Robert's Snow: Starring Susan Kathleen Hartung

I remember well the Robert’s Snow Artist Open House held at the Child at Heart Gallery in the fall of 2004. It was so exciting to meet a number of the picture book illustrators who had contributed their creations to this worthy cause. I was dazzled by all the beautiful snowflakes. The gallery seemed like a wonderland to me.

Trying to decide which snowflakes to bid on in the 2004 auction was difficult. One of the snowflakes that caught my eye at the exhibit because it was so different from the others had been painted by Susan Kathleen Hartung. On her snowflake, koi swam amidst lily pads and lotus flowers on a bright white background.

I realized later that Susan had done the lovely illustrations for One Leaf Rides the Wind, a wonderful haiku counting book that was written by Celeste Davidson Mannis. (I wrote a short review of the book in my Happy Haiku to You post at Blue Rose Girls in February.)

Well, I won Susan’s snowflake in the auction. I had decided that I wanted a piece of her original art because I had fallen in love with her work. You may, too, if you read One Leaf Rides the Wind and some of the other books she has illustrated. They include One Dark Night, Dear Juno, and Christmas Mouseling.

Here are excerpts from reviews of some of the picture books Susan has illustrated:

ONE LEAF RIDES THE WIND
Kirkus Reviews: “Hartung's delicate illustrations with varying perspectives effectively complement the haiku and add touches of visual humor throughout. Just as each element of a Japanese garden contributes to a calming, satisfying whole, the elements of this work—poetry, subtly integrated additional text, illustration, design, and even the endpapers—all meld together into a lovely whole that both entertains as successful poetry and educates as an introduction to several aspects of ancient Japanese culture.”

DEAR JUNO
Kirkus Reviews: "The illustrations, done in oil-paint glazes, are beautifully lit; the characters, particularly Grandmother, with her bowl of persimmons, her leafy garden, and her grey bun that looks ‘like a powdered doughnut,’ are charming." ONE DARK NIGHT
School Library Journal: “The heart of this story is its illustrations, created by the manipulation of oil-paint glazes. Hartung’s blotting technique provides contrast between a complex detailed background and the simple drawings of people and animals in the foreground. This contrast and the opposition of the dark night and the well-lit house reduce any fear children might have about the storm.” Booklist: “Outdoor scenes, awash in dark blue and gray hues, are often framed with silhouettes of recognizable objects; indoors, rooms are warm and glowing. Alternating perspectives add further drama and intimacy. The dark, Gothic-looking book jacket implies mystery, but the story itself is about the welcome comfort of safe havens, for humans and animals alike.”
CHRISTMAS MOUSELING
The Horn Book Magazine: "The rhythmically repetitive text is greatly enhanced by Hartung's blustery pictures, equally effective at conveying the wintry night and the warm and loving tableau in the stable."

Publishers Weekly: "Hartung's chilly images painted in oil glaze and a bevy of swirling snowflakes on a backdrop of blue turn to burnished hues of gold as the pair enters the welcoming stable, where the mouseling nestlesnext to the infant in the manger."

Click here to read Step-by-Step in which Susan explains her process for crafting a picture book.

Click here to take a Studio Tour.

Interview with Susan Kathleen Hartung

Elaine: Susan, you use oil glazes and a blotting technique to create your wonderful picture book illustrations. Is that something you learned about in art school or a technique you developed yourself?

Susan: The basic glazing technique is loosely based on the oil glaze technique used by Maxfield Parrish, which I was taught in college. However the original impetus behind the actual process I currently use came when I had an assignment due in a matter of hours and I realized I had a limited quantity of supplies available. I created some interesting effects while messing about with what supplies I could find and began experimenting. Through trial, error and a series of happy accidents, an actual repeatable technique began to emerge. The process has been developed and refined over the years and is now something uniquely my own.

Elaine: Your first trade picture book was Dear Juno, which was written by Soyung Pak. It certainly garnered a number of accolades, including the Ezra Jack Keats Award. That was a most auspicious entry into the world of published children’s books for you. Could you tell us how you felt when you met with such great success with that first book?

Susan: I don't think it really hit me just how lucky and remarkable it was that I had such an auspicious entry into the world of trade books until just a few years ago. It was certainly thrilling and exciting at the time, but I also had nothing to compare it to. Now with well over a decade of experience in the industry and an ever-growing list of titles – some that have done well and others that have simply muddled along – I realize that it was a remarkable stroke of luck.

Elaine: I love your illustrations in the haiku counting book One Leaf Rides the Wind. The setting of the book is a Japanese garden. Did you have to do any research before beginning your art for the book?

Susan: I research all of my projects quite thoroughly. One Leaf was a bit easier for me to do than some others due to a fascination I had with Japanese culture many years ago. Primarily I do a barrage of visual research before starting any book. For example ­– if it's a book about cats, I look at 100's of pictures of cats. Then I put all of it aside, usually sleep on it, and then draw from my visual memory. No matter how familiar I might be with the subject matter, I basically run my brain through a visual refresher course on a subject before attempting to draw it.

Elaine: Have you ever thought of writing a children’s book?

Susan: I think most every picture book illustrator entertains this idea and more often than not your publishers will ask if you have ever considered the notion at some point.

The one thing that I have come to realize is that although over the years I may have become a relatively good judge of manuscripts, and have even developed some reasonable skills as a story editor, I have yet to achieve any real viable ability or talent as a writer. However, I do still keep a journal of story ideas and make attempts from time to time to develop my ideas further.

One of the biggest issues in my inability to achieve any success as a writer, is that I simply don't have the time. Illustration is very much a full time job for me these days. Writing, although intriguing, is at this point low on the priority list.

Elaine: Are you working on any picture books at the present time that you would like to tell us about.

Susan: I just recently finished a project for Viking by first time author Rita M. Bergstein titled Your Own Big Bed that will be coming out in May. I also have the third book in the Mittens series from HarperCollins coming out around the same time.
I am currently in the process of finishing up my second project with Celeste Davidson Mannis through Bloomsbury, currently titled Midnight in London . It's all about time zones. After that I am slated to begin work on a project for Peachtree Publishers currently titled Three Scoops and a Fig about an Italian-American girl and her family’s restaurant. Also in the works is a new early reader series for Zonderkids, and a retelling of an old Scottish folktale for Boyds Mills Press.

Elaine: Are there any artists—whether fine artists or picture book illustrators—whose work you especially admire?

Susan: There are quite a few – Maxfield Parrish, Sendak (of course), Edward Gorey, Lane Smith, David Wiesner, Ponder Goembel, Ross MacDonald, Ian Falconer, Michael Hague, Chris Van Allsburg, William Joyce, J. Otto Seibold, Garth Williams, and on and on. What can I say, I'm a big fan of picture books.

Elaine: The snowflake you created for Robert’s Snow 2004 was inspired by One Leaf Rides the Wind. Your 2005 snowflake was inspired by Christmas Mouseling, which was published in that same year. Would you care to tell us what the inspiration was for your 2007 snowflake of a dragon?

Susan: The dragon originated from a private commission piece I was working on for a close family friend. It was one of several dragon character concepts I was playing around with. Although not used in the final commissioned work, I decided to use this particular dragon in a piece for my personal Christmas card several years ago. I never did finish the image and it has just sort of been floating around with the "someday" tag on it. When it came time to do the snowflake for this years Robert's Snow auction, it just seemed like the right image for the ornament.

NOTE: All illustrations © copyright Susan Kathleen Hartung. No image may be used in whole or in part without written permission.

REMINDER: WIN A PRIZE!!! I do hope you’ll stop by to read all of my Blogging for a Cure interviews and to comment about the artists and their work. I have a special prize for some lucky person who leaves a comment at any of my six posts featuring a Robert’s Snow artist: a limited edition giclee print of an illustration from Grace Lin’s book Robert’s Snow!

Each time you comment at one of my Blogging for a Cure posts about a Robert’s Snow artist, I’ll put your name in a hat. If you comment at all six posts, your name will go into the hat six times! The drawing will take place on November 19th, the day bidding begins on the first of three Robert’s Snow 2007 auctions.

I also have several consolation prizes for commenters who don’t win the “big” prize: five small prints of the Robert’s Snow mouse(mice).

Read about the following Robert's Snow artists that I have already interviewed for Blogging for a Cure:

Here is a link to my Blogging for a Cure interview with Scott Bakal.
Here is a link to my Blogging for a Cure interview with Alissa Imre Geis.

Here is a link to my Blogging for a Cure interview with Wendell Minor.

Happy Blogday to The Miss Rumphius Effect

Today is the First Bloggiversary of The Miss Rumphius Effect. I thought I would celebrate Tricia Stohr-Hunt’s special “blogday” by posting a poem that I wrote in the autumn of 1994 when I was traveling in the People’s Republic of China with a Children’s Literature and Language Arts Delegation led by Professor William Teale. Not so long ago Tricia traveled to China herself—so I thought this poem would be fitting.

A Little Background
My delegation arrived in Beijing on October 24, 1994. We were met at the airport by a tall, handsome young man named Lee Jian-Xin (Mr. Lee). He was to be our national guide. (We also had local guides in the cities we visited.) Mr. Lee was really knowledgeable and had a wonderful sense of humor. We were all smitten!

There I was traveling around Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Shanghai with Mr. Lee and other teachers, librarians, and professors. We visited schools and universities and children's book publishers. We had roundtable discussions with teachers and professors and authors and illustrators about children’s literature! It was like a dream come true for me! I had the time of my life on that trip.

Mr. Lee told us that the Chinese call autumn the golden season. That inspired me to write a poem, which I dedicated to Mr. Lee before we left on our return trip to the United States.

Today I dedicate my poem to Tricia.

In the Golden Season
by Elaine Magliaro

When autumn comes
The cricket strums
A wishful song—
The echo of a summer gone,
Warm memories to
Dream upon.

This is a picture of a piece of Chinese folk art I bought when I was in Shanghai.

Happy Blogday to you, Tricia!!!