Beyond the Book: Dave the Potter by Laban Carrick Hill, illustrated by Bryan Collier

Beyond the Book:
Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave by Laban Carrick Hill, illustrated by Bryan Collier

To us
it is just dirt,
the ground we walk on...
But to Dave
it was clay,
the plain and basic stuff
upon which he formed a life
as a slave nearly 200 years ago.

Dave was an extraordinary artist, poet, and potter living in South Carolina in the 1800s. He combined his superb artistry with deeply observant poetry, carved onto his pots, transcending the limitations he faced as a slave. In this inspiring and lyrical portrayal, National Book Award nominee Laban Carrick Hill's elegantly simple text and award-winning artist Bryan Collier's resplendent, earth-toned illustrations tell Dave's story, a story rich in history, hope, and long-lasting beauty.

I'm way behind in writing my "Beyond the Book" posts--I have two Fall 2010 picture book I haven't yet written about, and two winter novels waiting in the queue. So, I'd better get cracking.

Dave the Potter, as you probably know by now, just won the Caldecott Honor and the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration. What you probably don't know is that this book has had a long road to publication. Now, the beginning of this publication story is not my own, so I apologize in advance if I recount any of the details incorrectly. But to the best of my knowledge, here you go.

The author, Laban Carrick Hill, first came to the Little, Brown list with the nonfiction book and National Book Award finalist, Harlem Stomp, which Megan Tingley had acquired in the early 2000s (back when I was still assisting her). When editor Jennifer Hunt joined Little, Brown in 2002, Megan passed the book to her to handle, and Jen finished up the editing, and also acquired and edited Laban's follow-up America Dreaming. Sometime during all of this, Laban told Jen about a slave named Dave who not only made amazing pots, but also wrote poetry. He had first heard about Dave the Potter at a conference on the Middle Passage, and then later saw one of Dave's pots end up on the TV Show "Antiques Roadshow," and his curiosity was piqued.

There wasn't too much known about Dave at the time, but Laban was inspired by what he was able to find. He wrote a poem that honored the spirit of Dave's life. He and Jen went back and forth to refine the text and shape the story.

Apparently our acquisitions committee didn't see the vision at first, because it took two tries before we were able to sign up the text.

I'm not positive on the timing, but I believe it was a good five years later that Jen asked me if I would be open to handling the book going forward. They had approached several illustrators who, for various reasons, were not able to sign on, and Jen, who was now Editorial Director in charge of fiction, wasn't editing many picture books any more and didn't feel she was able to give the project the attention it needed.

I was intrigued, but hadn't read the text before, so I read it before accepting, of course--although, truth be told, even if I didn't like the text, I would have said yes. (Part of your job as an editor is to take on whatever is assigned to you, even after you've risen beyond the assistant/associate editor level.) But thankfully, I found it beautiful, profound, and deceptively simple. I was excited to work on the book.

My first task was to find an illustrator, and as I read the text, I knew it would be perfect for Bryan Collier, an artist I had long admired. I ran the idea by Laban, who told me that Bryan had also been his first choice, but when Jen had initially inquired about his schedule, he had been too booked up to consider new projects. Well, as so much time had passed, I thought it would be worth asking again. After getting the go ahead in-house, I called up Bryan's agent, Marcia Wernick, who said that Bryan was open to start a new project in less than a year, so I sent along the ms. She called a few days later to say that Bryan was really interested in the project, but wondered if there was any back matter material to read. I sent along the rough author's note that Laban had written. A few days later she called again and said that Bryan wanted to know if the author's note was final. I said no, that it was unedited. Bryan didn't want to sign on until it was farther along. Laban was extremely impressed at Bryan's thoughtfulness before committing, and was happy to work on revising. I also talked to Jen about the direction she wanted it to take. We decided to focus on Dave's achievements as an artist and poet, and how he would still be considered an accomplished artist in his own right, that his art transcended his circumstances.

After a few rounds of revision, Bryan officially signed on officially. Hurrah!

Six months later, Marcia called me to say that Bryan was ready to start working on Dave the Potter. I hadn't been expecting him to start for another six months, so I was surprised, but thrilled. We invited Bryan to come in for lunch to meet the team.

As soon as I met Bryan, I was charmed. I had met him once in passing at a conference, but didn't know him beyond that. But he was warm, friendly, and passionate. And he gave the best hugs! I knew it was going to be wonderful working with him.

Bryan told us that he was planning on taking a trip down to South Carolina where Dave had lived. He had read a book, Carolina Clay: The Life and Legend of Slave Potter Dave by Leonard Todd (incidentally, this book had not been published when Laban had originally written the text). Bryan went down to Edgefield, SC, and met a potter who owned some of Dave's original pots. Bryan took photos, watched several pots being thrown, and toured the town. I loved that Bryan threw himself into the book, and that the research he did complemented the research Laban had done five years earlier.

Speaking of Laban's research, as so much more was now known about Dave and his life than when Laban had first written the text, we had to go back and make a few adjustments. We added to the extensive back matter that talked about Dave's life, and we also added both an author's note and illustrator's note where they both talked about their inspiration and research.

The final book is a real testament to the hard work and passion of its creators. They met for the first time at ALA Annual last year:

As I mentioned in my ALA wrap-up at the time, we had a breakfast in honor of Dave the Potter and had several of Bryan's original pieces on display:

This is one of my favorites, and was in the running to be the cover image:

This is a close-up (bad quality, sorry) of one of the paintings. If you look closely, you can read the hidden message...

It's really some of Bryan's best work. I'm so pleased he and this book was recognized for it.

To be sure, a picture book about a slave potter is probably not the most commercial of subjects for a picture book, and is perhaps not for very young children, but I think kids interested in pottery and poetry will be drawn to this book, and as the NY Times stated, this book can work as "a gentle way for adults to introduce slavery to young children."

Read this entire review in the NY Times.
And read this great interview with Laban in School Library Journal 
To see photographs of Dave's pots and to read his poems, visit Leonard Todd's website.

Life imitates children's books

Some of you may remember that I'm writing articles for our local PATCH. The one that posted yesterday is my favorite so far, and it IS kids' book related -- something I've wanted to do ever since I read about it in the Little House Books. And no, it's not go sledding.


Here's the article.


But, until it snowed and I was sledding with three children, never thought of doing it when it was actually possible TO do it.

To me, it's surprising how different writing for a newspaper is than writing fiction or even this blog. I leave out so many details about the children that I would normally put in. For example, if I'd been posting about this, or writing a chapter in a novel about it, I would have had Mitchell (the boy in the blue snow suit) saying eagerly:

"I'll do it for you because I'm quicker!"

and then running out to fill his saucer with snow.

from the BRG archives: this or the

In my current work, I’ve driven myself mad trying to make the colors brighter at the end of the book (when the girl is happy) than those at the beginning (when the girl is sad)--even though she is wearing the same red coat. It becomes an insane process as I struggle with whether to use jewel red or crimson…and probably when the book is printed, the color difference won’t even be noticeable.

But it’s these little things that we, as creators, can’t let go of. Mary Newell Depalma, when writing A Grand Old Tree, told me a story of how she got into an argument with her editor over a “this” or “the.”

“…the roots of her grandchildren sink deep into the earth,” her editor had marked.
“…sink into this earth,” she had marked back.
“THE earth,” he had replied.
“No, THIS earth,” she insisted.
“I can’t believe you’re being so difficult,” he said.

And I suppose we are a difficult bunch. Exacting, demanding and a bit crazy-- but the ones who really feel the brunt of this is ourselves. While we toil and labor at the subtle nuances, do others, in the end, even notice the difference between a “this” vs. a “the” or a jewel red vs. a crimson? Probably not.

And nor should they. Because that is what makes what we do so beautiful.

Originally published Aug. 7, 2006

call for bookshelves

I'm putting out a call for photos of bookshelves. On my new blog I did my first bookshelf post. Believe it or not my friend Julia actually shelves her books by color like seen above! Well, not as perfect, but still (kind of nuts if you ask me - in the best of ways of course). Please send me photos of your shelves! My email is my first name last name 007 at yahoo.com

thanks!
meghan

FOR SALE: An Original Fairy Tale Poem

Here’s another poem from my unpublished collection Excerpts from the Fairy Tale Files. It's about Snow White's evil stepmother.


FOR SALE

My magic mirror is for sale.
It’s such an awful tattletale!
It told me things about my foe
I’d really rather never know.
I MUST be fairest in the land…
Not second best! You understand?
I want to be the most divine.
My reputation’s on the line!
The seven dwarfs? Those little cretins!
They should be in the dungeon, beaten.
They foiled my plans to kill the lass.
I’ve got to sell my looking glass
And spend the cash on wrinkle cream,
A nose job, and a health regime,
Two weekends at a beauty spa.
Then I’ll look like a movie star.
I’ll be the fairest in the land!
And Snow White?
She can go pound sand!




Here are links to the other fairy tale poems that I’ve posted at Blue Rose Girls:

Not All Princes Are Cut from the Same Cloth
Fairy for Hire

********************

At Wild Rose Reader I have A Snowstorm Poem Three Ways.

Tara has the Poetry Friday Roundup at A Teaching Life.

ebooks - self published mixed with the non

I posted this on my new blog but I'll mention it here too: I''m irritated by the way B&N mixes self published ebooks and regular ebooks all together, side-by-side on their website and when you browse on the Nook (or I guess just "Nook" - they don't want you to say "the"). This makes for a disaster in my opinion. I'd posted images of some of the covers - very amateurish. One must imagine that the text also mirrors the covers - as in needing much editing, etc. I find this insulting. Is this what they think of published books? That all the editing and design and illustrating means nothing because they'll just throw them along with something that someone did without 10 or more years of training.

Well, this is the impression that I get and I don't like it. Not one bit. This is just one of the many reasons that I don't like where ebooks are headed.

meghan

FEELING THE NEED TO PRODUCE

I watched a documentary on Keith Haring the other night. If you don't know, he died of aids at the age of 32. He kept painting and painting and painting until he died. He never took a break.





I feel like this also. The minute I'm okay enough to get work done I feel like I have to start dozens of new projects--whatever pours out of my head... like I can't take a break... like it would be a waste if I did. Why is that?

90-Second Newbery Film Festival!

Many students often ask me if Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is going to be made into a movie. Unfortunately, Hollywood has not called (or at least not yet, I can dream--right?) but thanks to a very cool project called the 90-second Newbery Film Festival, it could be a possibility!

But it's up to you. The 90-second Newbery Film Festival will be made up of reader-made videos that compresses the story of a Newbery award-winning book into 90 seconds or less. Selected films will be shown with much hoopla and excitement at an event at main branch of New York Public Library. Think of it as a kid-film Oscars.

Well, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a Newbery book. That means someone (hint hint) could make it into a 90-second movie for this film festival. And if someone (hint hint) does happen to find Where the Mountain Meets the Moon as an inspiration for a 90-second movie, I'll send you a free print from my etsy shop!

Not that you have to use Where the Mountain Meets the Moon(sniff), any Newbery book can serve as your 90-second movie inspiration. Here are the rules according to the creator of the contest, James Kennedy:

1. Your video should be 90 seconds or less. (Okay, okay: if it’s three minutes long but absolute genius, we’ll bend the rules for you. But let’s try to keep them short.)

2. Your video has to be about a Newbery award-winning (or Newbery honor-winning) book. Here’s a list of all the winners.

3. Just to be clear: we’re not looking for book trailers. We’re looking for full-on dramatizations, with mostly child actors, that manage to tell the entire story of a book in an ridiculously short amount of time.

4. Your video must condense the plot of the book in 90 seconds or less. Again, exceptions will be made for something really ingeniously bonkers, but it has to be related to a Newbery winning book.

5. Upload your videos to YouTube or Vimeo or whatever and send the link* at kennedyjames [at] gmail [dot] com. Make the subject line be “90 SECOND NEWBERY” and please tell me your name, age, where you’re from, and whatever other comments you’d like to include, including whether you’d like me to link to your personal site. You can give an alias if you want; I understand privacy concerns.

6. Sending the link to me grants me (James Kennedy) the right to post it on my blog and to other websites where I sometimes post content (like Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and to share at public readings, school visits—and hopefully the “90-Second Newbery” Film Festival at the New York Public Library in the Fall of 2011.

7. Deadline is September 15, 2011.

(*if you do happen to use Where the Mountain Meets the Moon as your movie inspiration, please send me the link too!)

Just to note, I am pretty sure this is a film festival for students (ages 0-18) though, of course, teachers, librarians and parents are encouraged to help and guide (I think this great idea for a project!). Here is a 90-second film of A Wrinkle in Time as an example and inspiration:



Hope to see your 90-second film soon!!

dear friends

For those of you who read my blog, you can probably guess that the word "extrovert" would never be used in a description of me. Even though I do a lot of public speaking, it is not something that comes naturally to me. It's taken me quite a while to be able to talk fairly comfortably in front of group and I am only able to do that after preparing and practicing hours ahead of time.

Having this blog does allow me to share and communicate more than I would in person. This is sometimes good, sometimes bad. During Robert's illness and death, I chose to let my personal life and emotions seep into the cyberworld-- even harnessing its power to create a fundraiser.

I know that these are things that I put "out there" and I do acknowledge that I have blurred the lines of public and private. However, those very things that I have chosen to share are difficult for me to discuss in a public forum. Yes, I have moved forward with my life and I live each of my days as fully and with as much happiness as possible. But that doesn't mean I ever forget about Robert or wish with all my heart that he could've lived the life we so desperately wished for him. There is never a day where I do not think of him, that is not tinged with the sorrow of a love lost.

So, dear friends, this is what I ask of you. I'm so honored and touched if you feel connection to my story--real life or fiction--and I am always happy to talk to you. But please do not ask me questions about Robert in a public forum in front of a large group, consider saving it for a one-on-one conversation afterwards. Or if you wish for me to speak about Robert's Snow to a group, please ask me ahead of time so that I can emotionally prepare myself.

And I will sincerely thank you.

Caldecott Call

As anyone who would ever read this blog already knows, last Monday the ALA Youth Media Awards were announced. Two of my clients were recipients of honors.

Our very own Grace has now been recognized two years in a row by award committees: last year with a Newbery Honor for WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON and this year with a Geisel Honor for LING & TING: Not Exactly the Same!



I must admit, before Grace received both honors, there was a significant level of expectation (despite the fact that that one should never expect an award doled out by a committee). WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON had been named on numerous mock Newbery lists, some bloggers even predicted that it would win the 2010 medal. Because the midwinter conference was in Boston last year and Grace was present throughout the weekend at the convention center, many attendees told her that they were confident she would have a seal on her book by the same time next week. In my BRG entry recapping 2010, I have already detailed the hours leading up to calling me that Monday morning. To describe it one word? Nerves. Grace’s call to me was the end of an emotional journey which included hopefulness, anxiety, and melancholy. The last stop in that journey came with Grace’s call; it was relief, happiness, and pride all at once but most importantly calm.

I had a similar experience with Grace’s Geisel honor. Even before the holidays, Alvina had suggested to Grace that she answer the phone if an unknown caller rang the Saturday or Sunday of Midwinter 2011 weekend. It may seem overconfident, but how could Ling & Ting not receive a Geisel distinction? So when Grace called that Sunday evening, I answered the phone with the slightly cocky, “Oh, you already know something do you, Ms. Lin?!” The call brought closure; Ling & Ting was indeed award-worthy.



But oh how different Monday morning was.

To back track, I first met David Ezra Stein at the SCBWI annual conference in the summer of 2006. He seemed like a wonderful person, and I really liked his book Cowboy Ned and Andy. But, it wasn’t until the next year, his book LEAVES came out, and I KNEW I wanted to work with him and our agent/client partnership began. Toward the end of 2007, there was a lot of buzz for Leaves; it had received five starred reviews, and I distinctly remember, my colleague Steve Malk saying on the phone, “I think Leaves is going to win the Caldecott.” That would have been great, but I just began working with David; I hadn’t sold Leaves, we hadn’t worked together through its development. When it was not acknowledged with an award or honor, I simply thought “onward!”

The following year, I sold Interrupting Chicken to Sarah Ketchersid at Candlewick at auction. It was the first book David would write and illustrate for Candlewick, and I was excited to help forge this new relationship.


These images are part of the submission material from Interrupting Chicken. David’s sketches tend to be very loose and many changes come about from this stage to final art.)

Two years later after a lot of hard work on David’s part, but also from Sarah and his designer, Ann Stott, Interrupting Chicken was published to good reviews. David and Candlewick made a wonderful trailer for the book. PW had just included it in their article “Don’t Write the Obit for Picture Books Yet” as a new picture book by a non-household name that can still sell well.



But…on Monday morning, I had no expectation that David’s non-household name status could change in a matter of hours. Of course, there is always the possibility, even though, no other clients had a lock on an award the way Grace did on the Geisel. I have several clients who were eligible for Coretta Scott Awards. There are very few predictions made publicly/online on awards other than the Caldecott, Newbery, and Printz, so I was unsure who the frontrunners were except in those races. My client, Matt Phelan, had received some Caldecott buzz for his illustrations in Flora’s Very Windy day.

Despite the fact that I had no Monday morning expectations, I was experiencing a sense of unrest. On my walk to the office, I called my mom and jokingly asked “Why hasn’t anyone called me this morning?” Once in the office, I involuntary jerked forward any time I heard the phone ring… anywhere in the office; I wondered if life-changing news was being relayed, and I kept thinking that in San Diego and in New York editors, agents, and publishers were rejoicing with secret news that the entire country would be privy to in the next couple of hours…as I sat in anticipation. At 9:54, I posted on twitter “I’ve been unreasonably antsy all morning.”

I need to shake some of that energy off, so I walked away from my desk, got a drink of water, went to the ladies’, stopped for a quick chat with a colleague. When I got back to my desk and looked at my Outlook, the top email was from my assistant. It came in at 10:02. The subject line was “Sarah at Candlewick called.” My heart leapt, my hand shook as I opened the email which simply said “Sarah called to talk about David Ezra Stein. She’s out of the office, but her cell is [number omitted, because…duh!]…

And then I remembered that I had called and left a message the previous Thursday for Sarah saying that I wanted to catch up about David. Immediately, I thought “who in their right mind returns a call the morning of ALA awards announcements?”

A brief tangent for those that don’t know; this is how an author or illustrator finds out about an ALA win. Early in the morning of the award announcement, all employees of any given publishing house that are in attendance at ALA midwinter conference gather in hotel rooms and wait for committees to call. If/when the phone rings, the committee tells the school & library marketing contact and all those in the hotel room “your book X by author and/or illustrator Y has received award Z.” Then school & library marketing contact gives the committee the winner’s phone number so that the committee can call the winner and deliver the news. After that call, the winner would call to celebrate with the editor who most likely already has been told either because she is in the room or because the publisher has called the editor from Midwinter. AND, a client should call their agent to break the good news.

So, I was instructed to call Sarah the morning of the award announcements, not David. Chances were Sarah was returning a call, but as I dialed her number, there was a hopeful part of me that thought, “She wouldn’t do that the morning of the awards; Interrupting Chicken could have won something.”

Here is a reenactment following Sarah picking up the phone and saying hello…
Agent: (warbling) Hi, it’s Rebecca; I’m returning your call? (Question mark intentional though, yes, that should be a statement).
Editor: (with hesitation) Have you spoken to David this morning?
Agent: noooooooo? (again, should be statement; voiced as question)
Editor: BlabberingStammeringHemmingHawing (note: editor should be cast as a woman who normally has a relaxing confidence, level-headed with a soft voice; we can tell something is off here).
(Though editor has not said a thing, agent suspects she knows the very thing editor is not saying)
Agent: (not meaning to, but yelling) WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY!
Editor: somethingsomethingwhitenoise We Just Got a Caldecott Honor whateverwhateverwhatever

And scene.

Actually, this phone scene ran long, because Sarah and I then tried to guess if David had already been called or not. If he had, maybe he didn’t know that he was supposed to call us; after all, this had never happened to him before. If he hadn’t been informed yet, we didn’t want to ruin the moment when the committee called him. Luckily, David and Sarah were supposed to meet at 10:30 to go over the dummy for his next book. Between the two of us (muddled by emotion), it took far too long to come up with a plan in which Sarah would call David. If he knew something, he would tell her of course, if he didn’t say anything, Sarah would pretend she was calling about their meeting.

Agent: (again, at an unintentional volume) WELL, IF HE KNOWS, WILL YOU TELL HIM TO CALL HIS AGENT! (Yes, that should be a question mark.)

We hang up.

As I explained in my 2010 recap, when an agent gets news on ALA awards morning, we are supposed to swallow the excitement until it has been announced to all. I am not proud of this, but last Monday morning after hanging up with Sarah, I proceeded to run around my office building like a maniac. I ran up the stairs to tell Simon Lipskar. Not in his office, I veer right toward his assistant, who sits next to my assistant, who sits next to another assistant.

Manic Agent: WHERE’S SIMON?
Simon’s Totally Together Assistant: It’s Monday…
Manic Agent: DAVID EZRA STEIN JUST WON A CALDECOTT HONOR FOR INTERRUPTING CHCKEN
Simon’s Totally Together Assistant: Would you like me to call him at home?

Manic Agent then tears down the stairs, calls her own mother, interrupting a class of preschoolers to relay the good news. Her mother marvels, “two years in a row,” and says a whole bunch of things about pride and loving her daughter, but her daughter quickly gets off the phone to keep the line clear. She can’t sit still though, so she runs down the hall to the office of the Children’s Subsidiary Rights Director (who had already sold audio rights to Interrupting Chicken to Recorded Books). Said rights director has her assistant in the office, but in honor of the title character…

Interrupting Agent: (blurting out): INTERRUPTING CHICKEN JUST WON A CALDECOTT HONOR

Agent’s unruffled assistant comes down the stairs, peaks into her boss’ office doesn’t see her. Agent sees this happen, and gets her attention.

Agent: I’m over here!
Unruffled Assistant: (in everyday voice) David’s on the phone
(Stage direction: without saying a word, Agent swiftly walks away from slack-jawed colleagues in subsidiary rights’ director’s office back to her desk. Unruffled Assistant heads up to her office to put through the call).

Agent: (answering the phone) IsThisCaldecottHonorWinning David! Ezra! Stein! (agent notes, in the future, when a client calls with award news, she will let them tell her without blurting out that she already knows).
Just Slightly Less Than Cool As A Cucumber Client: They told me not to tell anyone.

Honestly, I can’t remember much of our conversation, except that always level-headed and measured David did say at one point…

Just Slightly Less Than Cool As A Cucumber Client: (imagery not verbatim): I’m not the type to do jumping jacks and shoot off fireworks, but I really am very excited.

And, I told him I could tell. I also remember that during David’s effusive gratitude, I was distracted by my colleague, Dan Lazar who came to my doorway. While trying to listen to David, I pointed to the copy of Interrupting Chicken on my shelf, smiling and then wildly put up my hand to Dan to high-five…but Dan thought I was trying to say that Interrupting Chicken had won FIVE awards… well, that is one way to deflate the mania.

Honestly, I did feel revved up all day. It powered me through a spin class that night, and only started to ebb later in the evening. It wasn’t until my book club meeting the next night, when I could explain it. Unlike the announcement of the Newbery Honor for WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON, which ended an emotional journey, the news that David had won a Caldecott Honor STARTED the day’s emotional journey. Experiencing an ALA awards day that began without expectations and found a client winning an honor was completely different from my experience the previous year.

I wonder what emotions a Medal phone call will bring. Get crackin’, clients!



In all sincerity (and poking a bit less fun at myself), I am over the moon happy for the deserving, David Ezra Stein. As David said in our call, we are thrilled that the committee has recognized a “funny book.” Trying to remain sensible, David says, “I know it doesn’t change the world,” to which I interrupted, “so many more children are going to read and be read Interrupting Chicken now. They’ll remember it as adults as one of their favorite books and part of their childhood, and in that way it does change their world.”

Rebecca Sherman is a fabulous agent with over 9 years of experience at Writer's House. Her clients include Lunch Lady author/illustrator Jarrett Krosoczka, the Scott O'Dell Award Winner Matt Phelan, Caldecott Honor Illustrator Brian Pinkney and Blue Rose Girls Anna Alter and Grace Lin. You can follow Rebecca on twitter @rebeccagent.

It was a good ALA (Midwinter 2011)

Yes, it was a good ALA:

Jen and I celebrate with the honored books*

But let me back up. Midwinter was held in beautiful San Diego this year. ALA Midwinter is generally quieter than other conferences--we don't usually bring authors to the conference, because many librarians are busy meeting with their committees to decide the Youth Media Awards. No authors means no "author care" for editors. So, what do editors do at Midwinter? We work at the booth, we meet with agents, we walk the floor and check out our competition, and we sit in on open committee meetings. I sat in on a few sessions of the Best Fiction for Young Adults (BFYA--formerly known as BBYA--Best Books for Young Adults. They changed the committee to only consider fiction, as the list was unwieldy when it included nonfiction. There is a separate YA nonfiction award and list now), and a bit of the Notables committee meeting, too. It's fascinating to hear the members talk about the books, and I especially love it when they get really passionate or emotional about the books. Although, it can also be nerve-wracking when they talk about books that I've edited!

This year, since I was already in Southern California for the holidays, I arrived in San Diego early to help a little with setup:

boxes everywhere

Zoe and I are proud of our tower of power. And no, we did not match on purpose.

enjoying our post set-up treat at Ghirardelli

The food eating and tower of ARC building continued throughout the show:

fish tacos!

Malinda Lo's HUNTRESS

13 CURSES by Michelle Harrison

FALLING FOR HAMLET by Michelle Ray
(the original pile was bigger, but these piles are prettier.)

chocolate souffle

tater tot nachos!

bouillabaisse

But it wasn't all food and building. We also hosted a preview breakfast bright and early Saturday morning (7:30 am!) where we highlighted around 25 of our upcoming titles for 2011. This is what the room looked like:

Our special guest star was debut author Holly Goldberg Sloan. Her YA novel I'll Be There is due out this May. Holly was so lovely and funny and her publishing story was captivating.

And now, on to the awards. ALA Midwinter is always buzzing all weekend with people speculating on and trying to predict the winners of the Caldecott, Newbery, Printz, and more. To be perfectly honest, aside from having fairly high hopes for a Geisel medal of some color for Grace's Ling & Ting, we weren't expecting anything else this year. Not that we ever expect awards, but we've had a little more buzz going into a conference in prior years. (Well, make that last year, and no other year before that....)

A few weeks prior, the Morris finalists (for debut YA) had been announced, so we knew going in that we would have at least one medal for Karen Healey's Guardian of the Dead (yay Karen!).

We found out Sunday morning that we had won the Printz Medal for Ship Breaker. Amazing. Well, I didn't find out till a little later, but suspected when our library marketing director Victoria Stapleton and the editor of Ship Breaker, Editorial Director Jennifer Hunt ran out of the booth together...

We heard about Grace's silver Geisel honor later that afternoon evening. Happy, good news. Of course, we were not to reveal any of this news before the press conference on Monday, so we had to keep poker faces at the booth and not look too happy. But it was a good day, and my colleagues and I celebrated with champagne and Karaoke later that night (speaking of poker faces, I sang Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" up on a stage. Thankfully, there is no video or photo evidence, to my knowledge.)

On Monday morning, as per tradition, we were to gather in Victoria's hotel room at 6:30 am to see if we were getting any additional calls. At 6 am, as I was getting ready, I received a call from Victoria.

"You should sit down" she said. For some reason, I thought this meant there was bad news of some sort, although what kind of bad news she could share with me at that day and hour is beyond me.

"Dave the Potter has just won the Caldecott Honor," she tells me.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the first words out of my mouth were "Holy f*ck" which is saying a lot because I really hardly ever curse. But I think that wrapped up what I was feeling at that moment. For whatever reason, that possibility hadn't been on my radar, not because I didn't think Bryan Collier's absolutely breathtaking art wasn't deserving, but because there had been very little buzz on the book. But...wow.

"Get here as soon as you can!" she said. I hurried to get ready, and while I was in the elevator, she called again. "Dave the Potter has also won the Coretta Scott King Medal for illustration," she informed me. I wasn't alone in the elevator, and in the off chance the woman was a librarian or in publishing, I couldn't give anything away. "That's very interesting. I'm in the elevator. I'll be there in a minute." and then I went to the hotel room and proceeded to jump up and down in glee.

We also found out that Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes had won a Coretta Scott King honor for text. Woo-hoo! Room service delivered bagels, pastries, coffee, juice, and champagne, and we toasted our wonderful books with mimosas.

And then it was on to the press conference for the announcements of the awards. We actually got lost trying to find the ballroom in the conference center and missed the very beginning, but we soon settled in. One of the first awards announced was the Stonewall Children's and Young Adult Literature Award. And SURPRISE! Freaks and Revelations by Davida Wills Hurwin won an Honor! The committee hadn't informed us in advance. And, as I found out later when I called Davida, they hadn't called her, either. I was double surprised because the book was published in 2009--but it had published in November, so was eligible. I love this special book so much--read more in my Beyond the Book post. It hasn't seemed to find its audience, so I hope this award will bring a new readership to this powerful book.

Our other winners, adorned with their fancy medals:

For a complete list of the winners, go here.

To be honest, I'm still in shock. After the amazing conference we had last year, this feels a little bit...greedy, somehow. I also can't believe that I've almost achieved my pie-in-the sky goal for 2011 that I posted two weeks ago:

-Win an award for books I've edited in every category: picture book, early reader, MG, and YA

With Dave the Potter, Ling & Ting, Freaks and Revelations, and Guardian of the Dead all winning honors, I "only" have a MG award left to attain. That doesn't seem as daunting a goal as when I first stated it! I can't help but wonder if this is a case of me throwing a wish out into the universe and having it answered.

I do want to say that these awards really are a crap shoot, or, as another editor said, winning is like winning the lottery--who knows what each committee is going to think about any book. There are so many deserving and wonderful books out there, and authors and illustrators who weren't honored last Monday shouldn't feel disappointed. As one author on Facebook said, "we're in good company!" So true. But for those books that do win, it's wonderful when the hard work of the authors, illustrators, editors, designers, production people, copyeditors, proofreaders, marketers, publicists, etc. etc. is rewarded.

And of course winning is happy and giddy--all in all, not a bad start to the year!


*As Freaks and Revelations was published in 2009, we did not have a copy in the booth to display

it worked for Betty White

Someone has started a Campaign to bring the 2011 Newbery and Caldecott winners to the Today Show on FB after the show's decision to break the 11 year tradition of featuring the winners to showcase Snooki!

Maybe if enough people hop on board, the Today Show will reconsider. Or at least not make the same choice next year.

A NEW BLOG FOR THE NEW YEAR

I had to work yesterday so I'm posting today:

I'm starting a new blog:

CHILDREN'S BOOKS: THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY
http://childrensbooks-goodbadugly.blogspot.com/

I DON'T wish for it to compete with this blog in any way. I felt that I had to compartmentalize myself because some of my posts didn't fit here. Perhaps I'm too opinionated or whatnot what but the BRG are a peaceful lot and the blog is peaceful - like snow - if you want to run with the metaphor theme. I love all of the ladies and don't want to ever cause any hurt feelings because of anything I post. SO my solution? A new blog. There were also some things that I started a long, long time ago on my website. You can take a peek for yourself - http://www.meghan-mccarthy.com/articles.html - that I abandoned--author and publishing folk interviews and that sort of thing and I'd really like to start doing them again (I believe that Grace is even interviewed from way back when!) Why not give myself that kick in the pants?

So check it out and let me know what you think! I'm very open to opinions and new ideas for the blog right now. And if you're an author, illustrator, editor, designer, bookseller, teacher, librarian, or other children's publishing industry person and would like to be interviewed, let me know!

One topic for next week will be e-books. I'm just itching to say a few new things that I've found out about them.