CLCSC GALA AWARDS CEREMONY 2024

At the Luminarias Restaurant for the CLCSC Fall Gala.

A week ago I attended the gala awards ceremony of the Children’s Literature Council of Southern California, held at Luminarias Restaurant in Monterey Park in East Los Angeles. Many members of our Book Chat Thursday group were there helping to celebrate excellence in children's literature. 

Book Chat Thursday group: Ann Whitford Paul, Linda Guthrie, Dana Middleton, Colleen Paeff , Caroline Arnold

The event began with a delicious breakfast buffet and fund raising auction followed by the presentation of awards. Poet Mason Granger was an excellent Master of Ceremonies for the program. Awards were presented to Marla Frazee for In Every Life; Sally J. Pla for The Fire, The Water, and Maudie McGinn; Tracy Badua for The Takeout; Abdi Nazemian for Only This Beautiful Moment; Dan Santat for a Distinguished Body of Work; to Stephanie Moran and Muammar Reed of MiJa Books for Distinguished Service in the Field of Children’s Literature; and to Olivia Bates who received the Caroline Gill Award for Exceptional Volunteer Service. After short introductions by members of the award committee, each of the winners gave engaging talks as they accepted the award. The morning ended with a book signing by the winners of the awards.

Book Signing. Dan Santat, Marla Frazee and other awardees.

I attend this event almost every year and enjoy the opportunity to see teachers and librarians and meet with other authors. I am always impressed by the talent and breadth of the children’s literature community in Southern California.

Colleen, Dana and Me

Many thanks to Dana Middleton for the photos.. 

SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL at the PIONEER BOOKSTORE, Grinnell, Iowa

On my recent visit to Grinnell, Iowa, I was pleased to discover SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL prominently displayed at the Pioneer Bookstore, along with books by other Grinnell alumni authors.

Grinnell College, founded in 1846, is the oldest college west of the Mississippi. Its teams and students have always been known as the "Pioneers" reflecting the early days of the town and college. But, recently, a new mascot has appeared--the Grinnell Squirrel--reflecting the numerous small furry residents that scurry around on the tree lined campus. Hence, all the images of squirrels and toy stuffed squirrels alongside the books at the bookstore.

CHILDREN’S WRITING WORKSHOP at Big Sur

Andrea Brown and Caroline

Last weekend I participated in the Children’s Writing Workshop, held at the Big Sur Lodge in Jules Pfeiffer State Park on beautiful Highway 1 on the California coast. It was my second time as a faculty member and I enjoyed the opportunity to get to know the other authors, agents and editors on the faculty as well as many of the writers attending the conference. The Big Sur Writing Workshops are for writers of picture books, early reader, middle grade and young adult fiction, courtesy of the Henry Miller Memorial Library and the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. As my agent Andrea Brown says, “It’s like writing boot camp, except there are no push-ups.” For more information about this and future workshops, click HERE.

View from my deck at the Big Sur Lodge

BREAKFAST WITH THE AUTHORS, Santa Barbara, CA

Last Saturday, October 5th, I had the pleasure of participating in the 61st annual Breakfast With the Authors in Santa Barbara, California.  It was a morning of delicious food, good conversation with teachers, librarians, authors, illustrators, and children’s book lovers of all kinds, plus a panel discussion about the impact of the new Core Curriculum, which was followed by short presentations by the authors, all in beautiful Santa Barbara.  There were twelve other authors besides myself and we each had three minutes to update the audience on our latest work and to give our views on the Core Curriculum.  I love hearing what other authors and illustrators are doing and I’m always amazed how we each manage to get so much into our allotted time. The panel discussion of the of the Core Curriculum, expertly moderated by Matt Zuchowicz from the County Education Office, included Barbara La Corte, principal at Hope Elementary School in Santa Barbara, who has hands on experience in putting the new program in place at her school; me, representing the author’s point of view; and Erin Frazer, buyer at Chaucer’s book store in Santa Barbara, who commented how the Core Curriculum is affecting her business. After the initial discussion, an open mic forum allowed people in the audience to express their points of view.  I felt honored to be part of the panel–I learned a lot in preparing! I’ll put my thoughts in a future blog.

I have attended in the Breakfast With the Authors many times in the past.  I believe the first time I came was in 1981, when I was a new author and one of my new books was Animals That Migrate.  The last time I came was in 1999.  It was great to be back!  Thank you Rose Koller, Matt Zuchowicz, Fred Borchers, and all the staff at the Santa Barbara County Education Office for putting on another great event!  Hurray for children’s books and reading!

The authors and illustrators who were there:  Caroline Arnold, Susan Casey, Tina Nichols Coury, Joan Bransfield Graham, Carol Heyer, Valerie Hobbs, Sarah Lynn, Michelle Markel, James Mihaley, Karen Lee Stevens, Greg Trine, Lee Warlaw and Eugene Yelchin.

We Love California Authors and Illustrators Luncheon: California Readers

On Saturday, the 23rd of February I attended the We Love California Authors and Illustrators annual luncheon, a gala affair sponsored by California Readers celebrating the connection between the creators of children’s books and schools and libraries.  It was held at the Castaway Restaurant in Burbank, with a spectacular view of the city on one side and the beautiful hills and golf course behind the restaurant. I always enjoy the luncheon because it is an opportunity to visit with teachers and librarians and other authors; to see the amazing displays by the winning schools showing how they have used books in the California Collection; and to hear inspiring talks, this year by Kendall Haven, winner of the Leo Politi Award, and award-winning authorTony Johnston, our keynote speaker.  I thank all the hard-working members of the California Readers board and luncheon committee for putting on such a successful event.

Raffle Basket of Caroline Arnold books

Before the luncheon a raffle was held to raise money for the organization.  Most raffle items were baskets of books, perfect for a classroom or school library.  I was pleased that one of the baskets featured my books and a polar bear print that I donated.  There were a number of other raffle items as well.  I was the lucky winner of a beautiful necklace!

One of the goals of California Readers is to promote author visits to schools in the Los Angeles area and I have done many such school visits over the years.  California Readers also partners with LA's Best to bring authors to speak to children participating in the after school young authors program.  I am currently involved in visiting several LA's Best schools and enjoying it very much.

Author Chair: LA's Best Young Author Program

Every author needs a special chair!  I found one waiting for me when I arrived at Micheltorena School in Los Angeles last week to meet with kindergarten, first and second grade students in the LA’s Best Young Author program.  Each one of the students had a book in progress and was becoming a young author and illustrator.  In my presentation I shared how my process of creating a book is much like theirs.  At the end of the hour I asked the students to share some of their favorite pages from their books.  I was impressed by their lively examples, their use of comparisons, their imaginations and their overall creativity! Here are some examples from their books:
 

I like dinosaurs because they play with me.
I am riding my skateboard because I do tricks.
I am a dancer because I practice and practice, and then I become one, and I show every body.
My sister is like a star.  She is pretty like a butterfly.  She is smart and I love her.
Dedicated to: my Dogs and cousins and Brother and Mom and Dad and Tia and sister and friends.
I am growing up to be a Firefighter because I help people.

The author visits to students in the LA’s Best Young Author program are funded by Target and coordinated through California Readers. California Readers is a group of educators, librarians, authors, artists, parents, book sellers, and business representatives whose mission is to connect California children, young adults, and their school communities with California authors, artists, and their creative works.

Educator Reception at Barnes and Noble: Meeting Teachers and Librarians

At Educator Reception, Barnes and Noble, Valencia, CA with Laurisa Reyes and Greg Trine

On Saturday, October 13th, I participated in an Educator Reception at the Valencia Barnes and Noble where I enjoyed meeting teachers from the Valencia and Santa Clarita area and had the opportunity to talk about my books and my author visits to schools.   I want to thank the Joelle Beigel, the Community Relations coordinator at Barnes and Noble for hosting the event, and author Candace Ryan (Moo Hoo, Ribbit Rabbit, and Animal House), the SCBWI PAL coordinator in our area, for helping to organize the author panel.  Other authors who were there were Greg Trine who writes the Melvin Beederman Superhero series, Laurisa White Reyes, with her new novel Rock of Ivanore, Janet Squires, author of the picture book The Gingerbread Cowboy, and Scott M. Fischer, author of the popular Scary School books.  We each made a short presentation and then answered questions from the audience.

StoryFaire, Santa Barbara

Authors Jody Fickes, Caroline Arnold and Joan Graham at StoryFaire, Santa Barbara, April 30, 2011

On a sunny Saturday two weeks ago, along with about a dozen other authors, I participated in StoryFaire, a day long celebration of books and the arts for families and children in Santa Barbara.  Kids could do crafts, art projects, get free books, buy books and have them autographed, and watch performances on stage.  Authors each had 12 minutes to perform on stage.  The challenge was to attract and keep an audience in the free flowing outdoor venue!  The key was to offer kids the chance to participate, whether in helping to tell the story (as Alexis O’Neill did when reading her book The Recess Queen), holding props (as Ann Paul did while reading her book Tortuga in Trouble) or interacting with the audience (as Erica Silverman did while reading her book Big Pumpkin.)  I talked about my book Birds: Nature’s Magnificent Flying Machines and invited children to come up to the stage and have their “wingspans” measured.  (Most kids were red-tailed hawks.)  Then I read the first two chapters of Wiggle and Waggle while two children acted out the story with my Wiggle and Waggle sock puppets.  You can see a sample of my performance in this video.  Enjoy!