Hey all,

I found this article a while ago but forgot to post it here. It is an account from a modern day mom trying to expose her child to the same books that the mom read when she was young, but finding that they almost all contain questionable content. It’s an interesting read! We so often focus on censorship from the ideological “right,” but sometimes it goes in reverse.

http://www.vox.com/2015/7/10/8901109/childrens-books-racist-sexist

Enjoy!

-Chris Kimsey

I’m currently taking an editing for publication class that has a lot to do with editing all different types of books and we have come to a children journal. Our professor informed us that editors for children books are completely in a different department because they look for different things inside the story plot. For one thing, most children books have a lot of illustration and those illustrations must be approved by so many different editorial departments in case the images weren’t appropriate world-wide. They have to do so much background information for every sentence and every illustration that is approved out so that all children can come to the same conclusion. Children books are viewed more critically because of the age of the audience that call out to. Parents will have to buy those books but it’s the child who pick out what they want to read, so even the book cover should be reviewed very crucially. I found that very interesting because I would have thought, considering children books are for young minded kids, that the effort would be minimal. Even the stories that children books tell are very decisive because it has to have the right type of punctuation, spelling and mechanical fixes that will be easier for the child to read. I didn’t realize how much work and consideration was put into to make a successful children book.

I browse Buzzfeed throughout the day way more often than I would like to admit, but I stumbled upon this cool list of Young Adult novels…

YA Novels

The book I decided to choose for the picture book essay is, “The Spider and the Fly” written by Mary Howitt in 1829, but an illustrated version of the poem was published in 2003 by Tony DiTerlizzi becoming a Caldecott Honor Book.  This book stood out to me because it’s a cautionary tale teaching children to be aware of those who use flattery and other trickery to get what they want.  The illustrations by Tony DiTerlizzi brings an old time glamour to the haunting story.

For my Caldecott Medal winner I chose “Kitten’s First Full Moon” illustrated and written by Kevin Henkes. This book caught my attention because it is about a cute little kitten, illustrated in black and white and tells an adorable tale. This picture book was awarded The Caldecott Medal in 2005 along with these Honor Books: “The Red Book” by Barbara Lehman, “Coming on Home Soon” illustrated by E.B. Lewis, written by Jacqueline Woodson, and “Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale” illustrated and written by Mo Willems. It a sweet story about how a little kitten mistakes the moon for a bowl of milk. She tries with all her might to get to the bowl of milk until she becomes tired, wet and hungry and wants to go back home. It is at home where she finds a big boof milk waiting for her as soon as she arrives. 

What distinguishes Middle Grade from YA? This article offers some keen observations: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/63358-middle-grade-and-ya-where-to-draw-the-line.html

http://www.yalsa.ala.org/jrlya/2011/06/are-all-lists-created-equal-diversity-in-award-winning-and-bestselling-young-adult-fiction/

We are pleased to announce that we will be hosting Barbara Ras at GSU on Monday, October 6th. She will read from her poetry and be available afterward to sign books. The reading will take place at 2:30pm in the Troy Moore Library, located on the 23rd floor of the Sun Trust Building, 25 Park Place.

Barbara Ras is the author of three poetry collections: Bite Every Sorrow, which won the Walt Whitman Award and was also awarded the Kate Tufts Discovery Award; One Hidden Stuff; and The Last Skin, winner of the Award for Poetry from the Texas Institute of Letters. Ras has received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others. Her poems have appeared in the New Yorker, Tin House, Granta, Five Points, American Scholar, Massachusetts Review, and Orion, as well as in many other magazines and anthologies. She is the editor of a collection of short fiction in translation, Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion. Ras lives in San Antonio, where she directs Trinity University Press.

This year Banned Book Week has a special YA focus. Please check out their website—it offers many great resources for your censorship paper.

http://www.bannedbooksweek.org