Hooray for "Soldier Bear"

With the annual announcement of the American Library Association's Newbery and Caldecott prizes, January is always an exciting month for anyone interested in children's literature, and even more so for those of us who write, illustrate, translate, edit, publish, or have any connection with this vibrant field of literature. But what many people don't know is that the ALA awards other prizes each year as well. One of them is the Mildred L. Batchelder Award. Yesterday, I was thrilled to learn that Laura Watkinson's translation of "Soldier Bear,"written by Bibi Dumon Tak, illustrated by Philip Hopman, translated by Laura from the Dutch, and published in the United States by Eerdmans' Books for Young Readers has been awarded the 2012 ALA Batchelder award for translation of an outstanding children's work from a foreign language. Only the very best translators receive this award, and Laura is more than deserving: the story is beautifully and seamlessly rendered in English. When I read it last December, after happening upon it at the Eerdmans' booth at the NCTE conference in Chicago, I was both moved and delighted. BRAVO, Laura! And Bravo as well to Eerdmans' Books for taking a chance on a story from outside our sometimes very insular American borders!
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Erica Silverman's visit

She came.
She read.
She conquered.

Children's author Erica Silverman recently visited our school. Erica's books, from "Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa" to "The Halloween House," from "Liberty's Voice: Emma Lazarus" to "Big Pumpkin," are well known and loved by the children at Rochambeau. The CE1 students were particularly lucky to have two hours with the author at the library where Madame Domenge graciously welcomed us. During the first hour, Erica explained how, after growing up in New York in an apartment and never owning a horse, she was able to imagine the latest story in the "Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa" series: "Spring Babies." She talked abou ther love of the library, mwhat fun it is to do reserach about subjects she knows very little about, and how reading (and writing) books allow us to travel to faraway places and enjoy some "make-believe." After an eye-opening Question + Answer, Mrs. Paul's and Mrs. Ermler's students performed a Readers' Theatre of "Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa," which Ms. Silverman thoroughly enjoyed and applauded. She was especially thrilled when she got her "surprise!": The students sang Cocoa's lullaby… in French.

After the recess break, during which students from all grades crowded around Erica for a quick chat, it was back to the library for her presentation of the story behind "Big Pumpkin." She explained that as a child, her grandmother would take her to the most wonderful place in the world: the New York Public Library, where there was an entire room just for children's books. Erica's love of books as a child, and in particular, her of of an old Russian folktale called "The Turnip" were an inspiration for "Big Pumpkin." After playfully reading the book all together (…and that pumpkin just sat!), there was again time for a Q+A, followed by another surprise: Jules, a student from Ms. Dorit's ESL class, read "La Nuit de Halloween," in French, to Erica, who doesn't speak more than a few words of la langue de Molière. When the bells rang at the end of the school day, we all wondered how the time had passed by so quickly.

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Eagerly Awaiting Erica's Visit

My second graders at the French International School are eagerly awaiting the visit of author Erica Silverman. They adore Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa, those two sparky and tender friends. They've come up with questions for the author, they've prepared a Readers Theatre performance for the author, and they will all wear bandanas on the day of her visit to show how we psyched we are, and how we'd all like to live on a ranch. They will even sing a French version of Cocoa's Lullaby!

Our school librarian, Elodie Domenge, has prepared a display to make Erica feel at home. We can't wait! Yee-haw!

Children Love Poetry

The first graders I teach at the French International School in Washington, DC, love poetry. Every year, I am thrilled to see that no matter what anybody says about memorizing poetry, kids lap it up! And they adore the freedom of expression that it gives them once a poem is learned by heart.

Last week, these 6-year olds joyfully and raucously recited Dorothy Aldis's poem "Everybody Says." It goes like this:

Everybody Says

by Dorothy Aldis

Everybody says

I look just like my mother

Everybody says

I'm the image of Aunt Bee

Everybody says

my nose is like my father's

But I want to look like ME!

Dorothy Aldis (1896-1966) was a children's literature author and poet. 

Summer Flowers

Kinda groovy, this stop-motion video of a still life…
Click the link below and see it happen…
http://www.vimeo.com/27130532

Pippi Longstocking

I've just finished reading, for the first time ever, Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking. Wow, am I flabbergasted! Wishing now that I would have read this earlier in life, I can only guess how much I would have enjoyed this as a girl. Irreverent, strong, eccentric, subversive - she's a girl's role model, and a woman's delight. Refusing authority to those whom we never dare disrespect, ie, teachers and policemen, Pippi delights in being her own person, her own nine-year rebellious, natural, wonderful self.

Pippi Longstocking came out in 1945 in Sweden, but it wasn't until the book's translation into English by Edna Hurup in 1954 did it become a worldwide sensation, and with it Pippi, a classic, trans-cultural archetype of children's literature.

She reminds me of characters from Roald Dahl's world, of creatures from Dr. Seuss's crazy galley. She is as good as Alice in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, turning us all on our heads, making us totally topsy-turvy.


For years, Pippi has been available to my students in my classroom, but it's just one of those books I never took the time to read. Lately, when I heard that Lisbeth Salander, aka The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, was based more on Pippi than on anyone else, I was intrigued. What an eye-opening and fun read it's been.
2007 Oxford University Edition with cover illustration by Lauren Child

I wonder… what editor would take a chance on Pippi today?

Prix « Coup de Pouce »

Quelle bonne surprise ! Je viens d'apprendre que Combinaison gagnante, publié dans la collection « Livres et égaux » des Éditions Talents Hauts, a été sélectionné pour participer au seizième Prix Coup de Pouce décerné par la ville d'Eaubonne, catégorie ROMANS. Ce prix de littérature jeunesse est décerné par un jury d'enfants des établissements scolaires de la ville et récompense l'auteur d'une première ou seconde œuvre jeunesse publiée entre le premier janvier 2010 et le 31 décembre 2010.

Les votes auront lieu début mars, ainsi faudra-t-il attendre la semaine du 13 mars 2012 pour en savoir plus…

J'ai été ravie de voir que le livre Philo mène la danse, écrit par ma consœur aux Éditions Talents Hauts, Séverine Vidal, a également été sélectionné.