BEST WISHES FOR THE NEW YEAR

As we look forward to a new year, I share with you fortune cookie message I got with my recent order of take-out food from a local Chinese restaurant.

"We must always have old memories and young hopes."

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2021

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, 2020

Window display at Alpine Village, Torrance, CA

On this shortest day of the year, Caroline Arnold Art and Books sends you best wishes for a

 HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON!

FAVORITE CHILDREN'S BOOKS

The Little Fur Family by Margaret Wise Brown

Perhaps my favorite book when I was a child was The Little Fur Family by Margaret Wise Brown. Mine had a real rabbit fur cover that could be slipped off and on into my small hands and was oh, so soft and silky. I loved the lilt of the story and heard it so often I had it practically memorized.

Books make the perfect holiday gift. Recently, as I was cleaning out my files I found a list that I made more than twenty years ago of some of my favorite children's books. While I have read many good books since then, these titles remain among my all-time favorites. Perhaps they will inspire a holiday gift for a child you know.

Stella Luna by Janelle Cannon
Ghost Wings by Barbara Joose
Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel
Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers by Karen Winnick
Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney
The Ever-Living Tree by Linda Viera
Wump World by Bill Peet
Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary
The Little Fur Family by Margaret Wise Brown
The Wall by Eve Bunting

THANK YOU CARDS from CERRITOS SCHOOL

In response to my virtual author visit on November 17 at Cerritos Elementary School in Glendale, California, I recently received thank you notes from each classroom that I visited. I am so pleased to discover how teachers and students have adapted to using a virtual format and interested to see how each class did their thank you notes in a different way. Some created their cards on screen, while other students drew pictures on paper and then took a screen shot to record it. Other students wrote a class letter. I loved finding out which parts of my presentation the students liked the most.
Many, many thanks again to the ALG for providing this experience for both authors and students. And many, many thanks to the teachers who do such a great job helping their students learn, and to Principal Perla Chavez Fritz for all her support.

Read a report of the visit here: https://carolinearnoldart.blogspot.com/2020/11/zoom-author-visit-at-cerritos-school.html
 

FOCAL Award Ceremony, November 14, 2020

FOCAL Award Ceremony

Two weeks ago, on Saturday, November 14 at 1:00pm, FOCAL held its annual awards ceremony online on Zoom. (FOCAL, Friends of Children and Libraries, is the support group of the Los Angeles Public Library children's services.)
This year’s award went to Todos Iguales: Un Corrido de Lemon Grove/All Equal: A Ballad of Lemon Grove by Christy Hale, author/Illustrator. Children in the Los Angeles schools were invited to write essays after reading the book. The winners of the writing contest read their essays telling how the book connected with their lives and why they would like to meet author Christy Hale. Christy Hale responded to their questions and then gave an inspirational keynote speech. Puppets made by Jesse Kingsley and Moira Lael Macdonald depicting the main character from the book were then presented--one for the author and the other to be part of the permanent collection at LAPL. The program concluded with FOCAL president Caroline Gill thanking all attendees, speakers and supporters of FOCAL and LAPL for coming.

My traditional role at this event has been as photographer. This year, because of the pandemic, the event was virtual, and my role as photographer was to make screen shots. The picture above depicts author and award winner Christy Hale, Brooke Sheets the award committee chair, and puppet makers Jesse Kingsley and Moira Lael Macdonald. I hope that by this time next year, the event will be a luncheon as it has always been in the past and I can use my camera again. Meanwhile, the screen shots will provide a record of this year’s event.

TRAPPED IN TAR at SCBWI BOOKSTOP, Now extended to Dec 15

BlackFriday and CyberMonday are almost here. Check out my book TRAPPED IN TAR on SCBWIBookStop for the perfect holiday gift.
SCBWIBookStop has over 1300 books for readers who enjoy curling up with a good picture book, a middle grade or YA novel, or any other of the nonfiction, graphic novels, audiobooks, chapter books and others that can make great holiday gifts. Or buy and keep one for yourself. My book can be found at https://www.scbwi.org/scbwibookstop-display/?id=701261

BookStop has been extended to December 15. Hurry and check it out!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving, whereever you are celebrating! Even animals at the zoo will enjoy special treats. Instead of pumpkin pie, the orangutan on the cover of my book, Mealtime for Animals, is enjoying his pumpkin as a fresh vegetable.

ZOOM AUTHOR VISIT AT CERRITOS SCHOOL, Glendale CA

Screen shot of the set-up in my home office for my Zoom visit to Cerritos School

On November 17, I did a Zoom author visit with kindergarten, first and second grade children at Cerritos Elementary School in Glendale, California. For my first ever virtual Authors and Illustrators Day school visit, I thought it went surprisingly well! The teachers and children were excited and responsive in my presentations. I had a bit of a bumpy start to my first session due to internet problems on my end, but luckily they were quickly solved. The other three sessions went very smoothly.
The teachers were the key to making my visits work, as they are the ones managing the technology. By making me a co-host it was easy for me to use the share-screen mode to do my slide show and to show images from the books so the kids could see them easily as I read the stories. The teachers were also very helpful in calling on the children as they raised their hands to respond to my questions or to ask their own. I am impressed by how well both teachers and students are managing in this virtual world–especially the youngest children in TK and K.
Many, many thanks to the Glendale Assistance League for making this Authors and Illustrators Day possible. And thanks to the teachers and the school principal for working to make it such a success.

68th BREAKFAST WITH THE AUTHORS, Santa Barbara, CA, Pajama Party Zoom Edition

Screen shot of authors and participants at the Santa Barbara 68th Breakfast with the Authors

On Saturday, November 14, I and eighteen other authors participated in the first ever Zoom Breakfast With the Authors in Santa Barbara. There were two sessions. The first was a set of three 20 minute workshops, with authors and illustrators sharing tips with participants. In my session, I worked with students to create a pyramid poem inspired by a photo of an animal. This is a writing project I have often done as a writer's workshop when I do author visits at schools. Using a photo of a mother bear and her cubs as our inspiration, we created the following poem:

Bear

Mother bear

Mother brown bear 

Mother brown bear drinks slowly

Mother brown bear drinks slowly in Alaska.

Mother brown bear looks like a vacuum cleaner as she drinks slowly in Alaska.

If I were a brown bear I would eat all the fish in the river.

In the second half of the mornng, I and each author gave a 3 minute presentation, followed by an informal question and answer session in small groups.

Many thanks to Scott Spector, Rachel Lawton, Matt Zuchowicz and Fred Borchers at the Santa Barbara County Office of Education for organizing the event!

REMEMBERING MY EDITOR, VIRGINIA BUCKLEY (1929-2020)

Virginia Buckley, 2005

Amid all the momentous events of the past days, I learned that Virginia Buckley, my editor for more than ten years at Clarion Books, passed away on October 21, 2020, at the age of 91. Virginia had a distinguished career as a children’s book editor and I was proud to work with her. As one of Virginia's colleagues described her, she was “an old school editor.” She took a deep personal involvement in all the books she edited–from working with the author on revisions, to final editing and the production of the finished book. My years with Virginia were before the current age of online editing programs. My manuscripts were submitted on paper and came back peppered with corrections marked in red pencil. Comments were attached on yellow post-it notes to the side of the page. If a question arose, sometimes it was easier to discuss it over the phone. Together we made changes to make sure that the final product was the best that it could be.
Virginia’s  career in publishing began at Thomas Y. Crowell in 1971 and in 1980 she moved to Dutton to be editorial director of Lodestar Books. In 1997 she went to Clarion Books where she became my editor after Dorothy Briley, the editor I had worked with previously, died suddenly. Over the next thirteen years Virginia and I worked together on eight books.
Because Virginia lived on the East Coast and I in California, we did not meet in person very often. Occasionally I made a trip to New York, or I saw her at a national conference. The last time I saw Virginia was in 2005, when I received the Washington Post/Children’s Book Guild Award for Nonfiction for my body of work and she was invited to give my introduction at the award luncheon. (Unfortunately, my only photo of her is from that event and the picture is fuzzy because my camera did not work well in low light.)

Award from the Washington Post/Children's Book Guild

Many of the books Virginia and I worked on were illustrated with beautiful watercolor illustrations by Laurie Caple. Laurie put as much effort into researching her artwork as I did in researching my text. Virginia told a story about how Laurie had purchased a giant fossil tooth as a model for her illustrations for my book Giant Shark: Megalodon, Prehistoric Super Predator.

The last book I worked on with Virginia was Global Warming and the Dinosaurs, published in 2009, about dinosaurs that had lived in Earth’s polar regions. Virginia retired from Clarion in 2010 and I lost contact with her. I often think of her when I share my dinosaur and fossil books with children at my school visits. I was sad to hear of her passing. Her work will live on in the many books she edited, both mine and those of many other authors.

For more about Virginia Buckley and her work with other authors and editors, see her Obituary in Publishers Weekly.

 
My Clarion Books (Houghton Mifflin) edited by Virginia Buckley:
Giant Shark: Megalodon, Prehistoric Super Predator (2000)
Easter Island: giant Stone Statues Tell of a Rich and Tragic Past (2000)
Dinosaurs With Feathers: The Ancestors of Modern Birds (2001)
When Mammoths Walked the Earth (2002)
Uluru, Australia’s Aboriginal Heart (2003)
Pterosaurs, Rulers of the Skies in the Dinosaur Age (2007)
Giant Sea Reptiles of the Dinosaur Age (2004)
Giant Sea Reptiles of the Dinosaur Age (2007)
Global Warming and the Dinosaurs (2009)

CLCSC Virtual Fall Gala and Award Ceremony: Nonfiction Award for Butterflies in Room 6

Caroline with CLCSC Award for a Notable Work of Non-Fiction for Butterflies in Room 6

Yesterday, November 7, 2020, the Children's Literature Council of Southern California held their Fall Gala and celebrated this year's children's literature awardees at a virtual ceremony. I am proud to have received the award for a Notable Work of Juvenile Non-Fiction for my book Butterflies in Room 6. Other award winners this year are Laura Taylor Namey, Margaret Dilloway, Roseanne Greenfield Thong, Rebecca Constantino. Following an inspiring keynote address by author Deborah Heiligman, the award winners was introduced, and then we each gave a short acceptance speech. My award was presented with a lovely introduction by Annalisa Engh. Here are my remarks:

It is indeed an honor to be receiving this year's nonfiction award for my book Butterflies in Room 6. Thank you. 

I have been writing books for a long time, and pleased that a number of them have been honored by Children’s Literature Council in the past. For this book, Butterflies in Room 6, it is the first time as both author and photographer. A challenge in taking photographs of children and animals is that neither stay still for long! For many years I worked on books with photographer Richard Hewett, now passed away. I learned a lot about photography from him—a key being patient and willing to take LOTS of photos to get just the right one. I have also learned from my husband Art, my in-house tech guru, who is an excellent photographer and who helped me with the close-up pictures in this book

The idea for Butterflies in Room 6 began with an author visit several years ago at Haynes School in Los Angeles where I met Jennifer Best, a kindergarten teacher, who told me how she hatches eggs every year with her students as they learn about life cycles. The following spring, I embedded myself in her classroom, which enabled me to follow the process and get the photos I needed for my book Hatching Chicks in Room 6. At the time, I noticed that the children were also raising Painted Lady butterflies--watching the caterpillars grow in a jar, turn into chrysalises, and, after a week or so, emerge as beautiful butterflies. It seemed like the perfect sequel to Hatching Chicks. So, two years later, I was back in Room 6, learning about caterpillars and butterflies.

But this time, I wanted to do the project myself at home first so I could anticipate the pictures I would need and get some practice taking pictures of butterflies.  Most people who raise butterflies start with caterpillars. But I wanted my book to show the whole butterfly life-cycle, from egg to adult. So, I ordered Painted Lady butterfly eggs from a scientific supply house. The tiny blue eggs, no bigger than a grain of salt, came in a small vial. A note with the package said there were 35 eggs, with a few extra, in case some didn’t hatch. In fact, there were 100 eggs in the vial and every single one of them hatched! I soon had 100 very hungry caterpillars in containers all over my house! I had also ordered special caterpillar food to feed them, and within a few weeks, I had 100 beautiful butterflies.

Mrs. Best also ordered butterfly eggs, and I followed the students in Room 6 as they raised their butterflies, documenting the children’s excitement at each step of the process—looking through magnifying glasses, watching the caterpillars grow, and letting the butterflies rest on their hands for a moment before thy flapped their wings and flew away into the neighborhood. 

I couldn’t have written Butterflies in Room 6 without the help of Jennifer Best and her kindergarten students. I thank them for welcoming me into their classroom and for sharing the wonder of metamorphosis with me. I am also grateful to the children’s parents and the school principal, Barbara Meade, for their enthusiastic support. And I thank everyone at Charlesbridge Publishing, especially my wonderful editor Alyssa Pusey, who contributed to making this such a special book.

I want to express my gratitude to the Children’s Literature Council for choosing Butterflies in Room 6 for this very special honor today, especially Charmetria Marshall and everyone on the award committee.  And to President Jennifer Driscoll and all the people who worked so hard to make the arrangements for this special virtual celebration—Thank You!  

And here is my beautiful plaque!

 

PHOTO TIP #5 for Illustrating Your Next Book: THINK ON YOUR FEET

For many years I worked with professional photographers who illustrated my books with their photos. We worked as a team--I wrote the text and the photographer took the pictures. I learned a great deal about photography from them. Recently, I have been both author and photographer for several of my books, including Hatching Chicks in Room 6 and Butterflies in Room 6.
As I was cleaning out files recently I found a list of photo tips from my friend and fellow Grinnellian, Martha Cooper, a professional photographer best known for her photographs of subway art in New York City. She is also the illustrator of three children's books, My Two Worlds, Lion Dancer and Anthony Reynoso: Born to Rope. 

At a class we taught together some years ago she handed out a list of photo tips. Today, almost everyone is a photographer--we carry cameras in our pockets in our phones. Whether you are illustrating a children's book, creating a magazine story, or assembling a slide show or family album, or even just sharing a favorite photo with a friend, I think you will find her advice useful. She says:

LOOK and THINK before you shoot. A good eye is more important than a good camera.
Tip #5:  Be prepared with all equipment you will need and ideas for shooting. Many subjects have little time or patience for photography. However, be ready to think on your feet. If your pre-planned ideas are not working, be open to other options. You may not have a chance to come back. It's up to you to make the best of the existing situation. Editors aren't interested in hearing excuses about why you couldn't get the shot. (Martha Cooper)

Example: My 100th published book, African Animals, an overview of African wildlife, is illustrated with a single photo of each animal. As the author of the book, I was responsible for obtaining all the photos. Many of them were taken by me or my husband Art when we spent four months in Africa in 197l. But there were some animals for which we did not have good pictures. So, my solution was to get the photos from other sources. Most are from our good friend Owen Floody, who had traveled to Africa several times and has a special interest in animal photography. Here is his picture of two ostriches battling one another. He had the luck and patience to be at the right place and the right time to get this amazing photo. 

BREAKFAST WITH THE AUTHORS in Santa Barbara, Virtual Edition, Nov 14, 2020: Save the Date

TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY! 

I am looking forward to the 68th annual Breakfast With the Authors in Santa Barbara, Pajama Party Zoom Edition, to be held Saturday, November 14, 8:00-9:30, and 9:45-11:30. The first session will be for students and will consist of three writing/illustrating workshops. The second session, for librarians, teachers, and other adults, will include presentations by 18 authors, including myself.

To register for the event and receive the Zoom link, go to s.sbceo.org/breakfast2020 . The event is free for Santa Barbara County residents; a small fee is charged for those outside the county.

PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY Announcement of JULIET'S LIGHTHOUSE

The announcement of my book Juliet's Lighthouse, to be published in the spring of 2022 by Cameron Kids, appeared in this week's issue of Publisher's Weekly. I am excited about the book, which was inspired by a trip to Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, where I learned about Juliet Nichols, light keeper on the island at the time of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and her courageous ringing of the fog bell by hand during two long foggy nights after the mechanism of the bell machine failed. The book will be illustrated by Rachell Sumpter.

PHOTO TIP #4 for Illustrating Your Next Book: DIFFERENT SETTINGS, ANGLES and ACTIVITIES

For many years I worked with professional photographers who illustrated my books with their photos. We worked as a team--I wrote the text and the photographer took the pictures. I learned a great deal about photography from them. Recently, I have been both author and photographer for several of my books, including Hatching Chicks in Room 6 and Butterflies in Room 6.
As I was cleaning out files recently I found a list of photo tips from my friend and fellow Grinnellian, Martha Cooper, a professional photographer and illustrator of three children's books, My Two Worlds, Lion Dancer and Anthony Reynoso: Born to Rope. At a class we taught together some years ago she handed out a list of photo tips. 

Today, almost everyone is a photographer--we carry cameras in our pockets in our phones. Whether you are illustrating a children's book, creating a magazine story, or assembling a slide show or family album, or even just sharing a favorite photo with a friend, I think you will find her advice useful. She says:

LOOK and THINK before you shoot. A good eye is more important than a good camera.

Tip #4: Try different settings, angles and activities. Move your subject around or move around your subject. Shoot wide, medium, and close-up shots as well as horizontals and verticals of the same shot so that you (or the editor) will have choices for a layout. 

Example: During the years I worked with Richard Hewett, my role was both writer and photographer's assistant. I helped carry equipment, spot photo opportunities, and sometimes posed as model to give human scale to the picture. For the photo that we used for the cover of our book, The Ancient Cliff Dwellers of Mesa Verde, I agreed to climb a ladder in one of the cliff dwellings so viewers could see the relative size of the structures. In another photo, a close-up of my hand holding pottery fragments gives the reader a sense of the relative size of the pieces. The Ancient Cliff Dwellers of Mesa Verde is available as an ebook on Amazon.

Photo by Richard Hewett

PHOTO TIP #3 for Illustrating Your Next Book: TELLING A STORY

For many years I worked with professional photographers who illustrated my books with their photos. We worked as a team--I wrote the text and the photographer took the pictures. I learned a great deal about photography from them. Recently, I have been both author and photographer for several of my books, including Hatching Chicks in Room 6 and Butterflies in Room 6.
As I was cleaning out files recently I found a list of photo tips from my friend and fellow Grinnellian, Martha Cooper, a professional photographer and illustrator of three children's books, My Two Worlds, Lion Dancer and Anthony Reynoso: Born to Rope. At a class we taught together some years ago she handed out a list of photo tips. Today, almost everyone is a photographer--we carry cameras in our pockets in our phones. Whether you are illustrating a children's book, creating a magazine story, or assembling a slide show or family album, or even just sharing a favorite photo with a friend, I think you will find her advice useful.

LOOK and THINK before you shoot. A good eye is more important than a good camera.

Tip #3: Your photos will probably tell some kind of story. Even if there is no inherent chronological order, you will need strong opening and closing shots and logically sequenced photos in between.  (Martha Cooper)

All of the books in the zoo animal series published by Morrow Junior Books are life cycle books--beginning with the birth of a young animal and concluding with the animal's independence. The logical sequence of the photos was the real time development of the story. I worked with photographer Richard Hewett on these books.

Pages 4-5, Penguin, photos by Richard Hewett

In Penguin, the story of Magellanic penguins at the San Francisco Zoo, we began with the parents building a nest. The story then proceeded to show the egg, baby chick, and the young chicks ready to be on their own. The final photo looks to the future and shows an adult penguin, bringing the story full circle.

Page 45, Penguin, photo by Richard Hewett

Penguin is no longer available as a print book, but you can find it online as an ebook.

LETTERS FROM STUDENTS

I always love receiving letters from students, especially in response to an author visit. Last February I visited third and fourth grade students in Elizabeth Williams’ class at Esperanza School near downtown Los Angeles. I recently received the letters they had begun after my visit, but didn’t finish because school was closed for the pandemic. I’d like to share a few of their comments. It is always so gratifying to find out how much the students learn from my visit. I hope that it won’t be too long before children are back in school and it will be possible to do author visits again.

“Thank you so much for coming to tell us a little bit about you. Something that I liked about you is that even when you were a little girl you liked to write.”

“You taught us lots of stuff that we didn’t know about. You showed us how big a California Condor’s wingspan is.”

“One day I want to be like you. I am an artistic kid. You inspired me so much. Thanks for the inspiration!”

“You showed me a lot of facts and surprised me with how many books you made.”

“I liked the book that you wrote All About Birds.”

“When I grow up I may want to be like you.”

“Thank you for coming. You took some time out of your schedule to come here. Not everyone is like you. Some people are too busy to visit us.”

“Thank you for telling us about global warming.”

“We are delighted and hopefully you can come again another time.”

PHOTO TIP #2 for Illustrating Your Next Book: Double Page Spreads

For many years I worked with professional photographers who illustrated my books with their photos. We worked as a team--I wrote the text and the photographer took the pictures. I learned a great deal about photography from them. I have been both author and photographer for several of my newest books, including Hatching Chicks in Room 6 and Butterflies in Room 6. The first book for which I was both author and photographer was Easter Island (Clarion, 2000)

As I was cleaning out files recently I found a list of photo tips from my friend and fellow Grinnellian, Martha Cooper, a professional photographer and illustrator of three children's books, My Two Worlds, Lion Dancer and Anthony Reynoso: Born to Rope. At a class we taught together some years ago she handed out a list of photo tips. Today, almost everyone is a photographer--we carry cameras in our pockets in our phones. Whether you are illustrating a children's book, creating a magazine story, or assembling a slide show or family album, or even just sharing a favorite photo with a friend, I think you will find her advice useful.

LOOK and THINK before you shoot. A good eye is more important than a good camera.
Tip #2: Keep space restraints in mind. Sometimes a single photo is enough to tell a whole story. If your photos are likely to be used small, keep your compositions simple. If there is a chance of a double page spread, be sure to shoot some horizontals. (Martha Cooper)

 
Example: When I visited Easter Island, I purposely shot the picture of Ahu Tongariki, the row of stone figures at one of the historical sites, as a horizontal leaving plenty of room in the sky for text, anticipating that it would work well for the copyright and table of contents at the beginning of the book. (Easter Island is out of print but available as an e-book at Amazon.)

LITLINKS GUEST POST: Kids See Chicks Hatch With Their Own Eyes

This article first appeared on September 16, 2020, as a guest post at Patricia Newman's blog, LitLinks, Authors, Educators, Scientists sharing the natural connections between STEM and Language Arts. 

 

Life Cycle Reinforces Reading:

In 21 days, chicks will hatch in Room 6! A hen laid the eggs, and Mrs. Best brought them to school and put them in an incubator. Soon the chicks will PECK, PUSH, and POP right out of their shells. The kindergarteners are counting down to hatching day. When it happens, they’ll be ready.
Among the many lessons learned in HATCHING CHICKS IN ROOM 6 is the life cycle process–from incubating the eggs, seeing the shells break open, to watching the chicks grow from fluffy balls to fully feathered chickens. It is one thing to be told that chicks grow in eggs, but another to actually see an egg hatch with your own eyes. This photo essay follows an egg from the time it is laid in the henhouse, through the incubating and hatching process in a school classroom, to the time when the chicks are ready to go back to the flock. Children observe the eggs and chicks up close as they learn firsthand about a chicken’s life cycle.

Strategies for reading Hatching Chicks in Room 6:

 

Main text: The text of HATCHING CHICKS IN ROOM 6 is written on two levels—the main narrative, printed in larger type, and sidebars, printed in smaller type. Headings are red and in capital letters for emphasis. What is the effect of telling the story in the present tense? Does it make you feel as if you are participating in the process?
Sidebars and captions: The sidebars and captions add information, provide the opportunity to introduce more difficult vocabulary, and expand on material in the main text. Note that the sidebars are printed over a photo of an egg, reinforcing the theme of the book.
Photos: “Reading” the photos is an important part of understanding the book. Photos:

• Add information to the story (such as showing what an incubator looks like),
• Show the children in their environment (in the classroom and outside in the chicken pen),
• Provide a sense of scale (we see the size of a newly hatched chick as it rests in a child’s hand), and
• Enlarge details for a closer look (the parts of a chick’s body).
• The photos also reveal the children’s emotional response to the chicks. We see and share their sense of wonder as they participate in each step of the process.

Back matter:  Back matter includes answers to questions about eggs and chicks, vocabulary, links to online information about hatching chicks, and a list of books for further reading.

Hands-on: How many days to hatch a chick?

The events of the story in HATCHING CHICKS IN ROOM 6 occur in chronological order. You can use these events to create a time line, beginning with the day the eggs go into the incubator.  Click HERE for a downloadable coloring page.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

In one classroom of second graders, the children made a mixed media presentation to show the life cycle of a chicken. They used packing material to represent the chicken’s nest, real feathers to represent the growing chick, a hand-print for the body of an adult chicken, markers for drawing, and googly eyes for all. Mounted on a large poster board cut into an egg shape, with black arrows drawn to indicate the circular process, it is a dramatic and colorful presentation.

Ready to hatch!

When a chick is ready to hatch, it uses its beak to poke a hole in the shell.

For this project you will need: Construction paper, pencil, scissors, glue, black marker.
1. Cut out two large egg shapes from yellow and brown paper. Cut a small hole in the middle of the brown paper. Glue the egg shapes together around the edges.
2. Carefully tear back the hole in the brown paper, pulling the pieces to reveal the yellow paper underneath.
3. Use a marker to draw two black eyes. Cut a triangle of orange paper and fold in half to make a beak. Glue it on.
Now your chick looks like it is ready to hatch!

---

Caroline Arnold has been writing since 1980 and is the author of 170 books for children, including  Butterflies in Room 6 (2019) and companion book Hatching Chicks in Room 6 (2017), a JLG Premier Selection and CRA Eureka Award winner. She illustrated both books with her own color photos. Other recent titles include A Day and Night in the Rain Forest in her Habitats series, illustrated with her own cut paper art. A noted science writer, Caroline Arnold has had thirty-three books on the NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Books list including Too Hot? Too Cold? and  A Warmer World. Her books are inspired by her travels, her love of animals, fossils, and the out-of-doors. She lives in Los Angeles, California. www.carolinearnold.com

SCBWI BOOKSTOP, FALL 2020: Trapped in Tar

Please check out my webpage featuring TRAPPED IN TAR: FOSSILS FROM THE ICE AGE at the SCBWI Bookstop, Fall 2020 page. The "Buy the Book" feature takes you directly to Amazon where you can order either a paperback copy or the digital edition.

BookStop, a super compendium of books published by SCBWI members 2018-2020, will be online from October 6 to November .

BANNED BOOKS WEEK: SEPT 27 - OCT 3

Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read, launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. It highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community — librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular. For more info on Banned Books Week...

And, for a sampling of both classic and contemporary books that have been banned, click HERE for a list put together by PEN AMERICA: The Freedom to Write. 

FOCAL AWARD WINNER: TODOS IGUALES: Un corrido de Lemon Grove by Christy Hale

The 2020
FOCAL Award Winner!

Todos Iguales: Un Corrido de Lemon Grove = All Equal: A Ballad of Lemon Grove
Christy Hale - author/Illustrator
Congratulations to Christy Hale!
This year's FOCAL award luncheon honoring Christy Hale will be held virtually at a date (to be announced) in November.
Check the FOCAL web page https://www.focalcentral.org/ for updates and further information.

PHOTO TIP #1 for Ilustrating Your Next Book: Point of View

For many years I worked with professional photographers who illustrated my books with their photos. We worked as a team--I wrote the text and the photographer took the pictures. I learned a great deal about photography from them. For several of my newest books, including Hatching Chicks in Room 6 and Butterflies in Room 6, I have been my own photographer.

As I was cleaning out my teaching files recently I found a list of photo tips from my friend and fellow Grinnellian, Martha Cooper, a professional photographer best known for her photographs of subway art in New York city. She is also the illustrator of three children's books, My Two Worlds, Lion Dancer and Anthony Reynoso: Born to Rope.

At a class Martha and I taught together some years ago, she handed out a list of photo tips. Today, almost everyone is a photographer--we carry cameras in our pockets in our phones. Whether you are illustrating a children's book, creating a magazine story, assembling a slide show or family album, or even just sharing favorite photos with a friend, I think you will find her advice useful. She says:

LOOK and THINK before you shoot. A good eye is more important than a good camera.

Tip #1.  Think carefully about how and where and with what text your photos will be used. Are you aiming for specific documentation or evocative illustration or a combination?
Shoot with a point of view. Concentrate on situations which best express the proposed or existing text. No matter how picturesque or graphically interesting a photo is, it will wind up in the reject pile unless it is relevant to the particular story you are working on. (Martha Cooper)

Example: Both Hatching Chicks in Room 6 and Butterflies in Room 6 are photo essays. In both books I needed to document the growth process in real time, which meant photographing each step of the life cycle--from egg to adult. This involved some close-up photography. But I also was documenting the children's participation in the process and their emotional reactions. This involved wide-angled shots placing the activity within the classroom. One of my favorite pictures in the butterfly book shows the children clearly entranced as they observe the chrysalises in their enclosure.

Photo for p. 15, Butterflies in Room 6

Look for more of Martha Cooper's tips in coming weeks on this blog.