Authors (and Illustrators) In Love, Kids Book Edition

Um, have I mentioned how much the Kids Department loves themed displays? Well, the above photo is the sign for the display we've got up on the wall right now, and I'm mighty proud of it. Every year for Valentine's Day we make a display of the requisite heart-covered red and pink books, and every year we want to do something a little different. We also have a young adult fiction display of love stories and not-so-love-stories: breakup/tragedy/unrequited/singleton tales. One year there was a full display for each kind of love story (happy and sad, I mean). But we've always figured there has to be a slightly more unique take.

This year we've finally done it up right! The following pictures are from our first ever display of authors and illustrators of kids books who are also couples. Some of them (Peter Dickinson & Robin McKinley, Helen Oxenbury & John Burningham) totally blew my mind; some are pretty well-known as couples (hey Scott & Justine!). In any event, we hope you enjoy them.

There were actually way more than we originally thought.


Scott and Justine, sittin' in a tree...

Awwwwww.


Like I said, this one blows my mind. Too much talent in one household, come on!


Somebody loves YOU, Mrs. Spinelli! (And it's Mr. Spinelli, of course. And we love both of you.)

Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) & Lisa Brown

Kevin Henkes & Laura Dronzek: Their joint effort, Birds, is one of my favorite picture books of all time.


Arnold Adoff's Black is Brown is Tan is actually a poem about his and Virginia Hamilton's multiracial family (their marriage was illegal in half the country when they married), written and published in the 1970s.
"this is the way it is for us
this is the way we are"
and
"kiss big woman
hug big man
black is brown is tan"
are quotes from the book. Please come take a look at it; it makes me tear up every time.

Also included in the display: the married author/illustrator team behind Curious George (Margret and Hans Rey, who, I am not kidding, escaped Nazi-occupied Paris on bicycles with the manuscript for Curious George tucked away), The Dillons (who have been married for over 50 years!), this year's married Caldecott winners the Steads, collaborative graphic novellers Shannon and Dean Hale, the Pinkwaters, the Pinkneys, Donald Crews and Ann Jonas (and their author daughter Nina Crews), local couple Steven and Carmela D'Amico, Sarah Stewart and David Small (squeal!!!), and one couple who book world gossip says has broken up and who shall remain unnamed. Probably not an exhaustive list, but definitely long enough to remind us all that books are the best way to get a date for Valentine's Day, whether you're reading them or writing them (or illustrating them). So I guess what I'm saying is, come in and see if it works for you.

-Anna, Kids Books

What We Talk About When We Talk About Blogs

I thought it would be nice to offer a small roundup of the blog posts and online articles that had us all talking this week. We are pretty much blogosphere addicts here in the Kids Department, and with good reason. Why, it was just this time last year that we were all wrapped up in the Justine Larbalestier Liar cover controversy. Not to be missed (and an example of the power of the book blog community). But what was it this week?

1) Matthew and Laurie Amster-Burton alerted us to this hilarious and also sad (or angry-making?) post by Dan Gutman, author of a whole slew of beginning reader chapter books, on his personal experiences with angry letters. Don't miss the "Hit List" at the bottom, which shows the most frequently challenged books last year and why they were challenged.

2) Checking in on Debbie Reese's blog, I found her post with links to first Ellen Wittlinger's piece in the Horn Book and then Arthur A. Levine's post about her article. Wittlinger writes about the Lambda Literary Foundation's decision to change the parameters of their literary award so that it can only be won by GLBT-identified authors, as opposed to anyone who writes books that the committee feels reflect the GLBT experience (Wittlinger, a straight author who writes lots of books with gay characters, isn't happy). I have to say, reading the comments section of Arthur Levine's post is a fascinating way to spend 15 minutes.

3) And has everyone heard by now (thanks for that link in the last post, Kitri) about the class-action lawsuit against Apple's iPad? Because, to quote the lawsuit:

Indeed, according to the www.apple.com website, "[r]eading on iPad is just like reading a book." However, contrary to this promise, using the iPad is not "just like reading a book" at all since books do not close when the reader is enjoying them in the sunlight or in other normal environmental environments. This promise, like other portions of APPLE's marketing material for the iPad, is false.

Hmmmmm...

Please leave your article/post of the week in comments. We won't read them when we're supposed to be shelving, we promise.

-Anna, Kids Books