I’m still gathering my thoughts from the wonderful experience that was the IBBY Congress in London Thursday to Sunday 23-26 August.  Four days of inspirational speakers and meeting kindred spirits from all over the world.  I’ve now added a selection of photographs to our Flickr – you can see them here.  I haven’t quite finished tagging and describing yet, but I’m getting there… and here is a smaller selection for you to enjoy on the blog – again, I’ve numbered them so that I can come back and label them!

A London children’s theatre company Theatre Peckham helped the Opening Ceremony go with a swing with their delightful performance of an extract from the theatre adaptation of Kate DiCamillo’s The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.  Then fuelled with a piece of Wally’s delicious 25th birthday cake (but where was he?  Answer: everywhere, in the guise of the very game Imperial College staff!), we headed back to the auditorium for our first plenary session – and what a line up!  Three UK Children’s Laureates – the current reigning Julia Donaldson and two of her predeceesors, Michael Morpurgo and Anthony Browne.

Each spoke about what particular passions they had brought to their role as laureate: Michael  described how he and poet Ted Hughes had first come up with the idea, and how Hughes had been instrumental in making it all happen; Anthony played the ‘shape game’ and showed how it appears everywhere in his work and outside it; and Julia talked of the three areas close to her heart: enhancing children’s experience of reading through drama; keeping libraries open (a big issue in the UK); and promoting stories for and about deaf children.

Julia and her husband Malcolm, on guitar, then showcased some examples of what theatre can do to enhance literacy, from the chorus of a very fast Italian pasta song written while on holiday in Siena, Italy, to a virtuoso performance of The Gruffalo in French, German and (its most recent language) Scots.  In between, we were treated to the song that inspired Julia’s book A Squash and a Squeeze with audience participation… and I say treated, well, it was a real treat for me as I got to be the hen!  Thanks to Australian author Susanne Gervay (yes, that was one of my top thrills of IBBY, meeting Susanne in person…), you will shortly be able to see it on Flickr too – don’t laugh too much!!

Well, that was just the first few hours of the Congress – I will certainly be writing more about it over the coming weeks.  In the meantime, hello to all those PaperTigers friends I got to meet for the first time in real life – Shirin Adl, Candy Gourlay, Dashdondog Jamba; and to old friends and new.  I’ll now be dreaming of IBBY Mexico 2014…  In the meantime, head on over to Flickr and enjoy my photos – and much better ones on the official IBBY Congress 2012′s photostream.

Everybody has a song,
be it short or be it long,
in the right or in the wrong key,
Like the hee-haw of a donkey,
Twitter, tweet, tu-whit, tu-whoo,
howl or growl or quack or moo.
[…]
Don’t be silent
nor afraid,
you must sing
as you’ve been made.

Translation by Stan Dragland of the South African poem “Elke outjie…” by Philip de Vos

Welcome, everybody, to this week’s Poetry Friday, which we are delighted to be hosting.  Please leave comments below with links to your “songs” and I’ll be updating this post throughout the day.

The above poem comes from the joyous anthology Under the Spell of the Moon: Art for Children from the World’s Great Illustrators.  This superb book, first published by Groundwood in Canada in 2004, then in the UK in 2006 by Frances Lincoln, is now available for the first time in paperback (Frances Lincoln, 2012). Produced by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), the book is edited by erstwhile President of IBBY and founder of Groundwood Patsy Aldana, and has a thought-provoking Foreword by award-winning author Katherine Paterson.  It provides a fantastic showcase of 32 illustrators from across the globe, who have all donated their work to benefit IBBY – indeed 12.5% of the book’s proceeds go to IBBY.  Illustrators include Piet Grobler, who illustrated the poem cited above, as well as many others of my personal favorites such as Mitsumasa Anno (Japan), Peter Sís (Czech Republic/USA), Anthony Browne (UK), Isol (Argentina), Pulak Biswas (India), Luis Garay (Nicaragua) – and the book has also introduced me to many illustrators whose work I intend to explore further…

Each illustrator was asked to “illustrate a text of his or her own choosing, be it a poem, nursery rhyme, song, piece of prose, riddle or street game.”  The result is a wonderfully eclectic gathering of mostly verse that is given in its original language, sometimes incorporated into the artwork, and, where necessary, in English translation: and indeed a special shout-out must go to Stan Dragland’s virtuoso translations.  The quirkiness of the collection probably comes from this freedom of choice given to the global spread of illustrators: so each page turn brings a surprise, both in text and artistic style.  The one thing that links every page is the joie de vivre of the texts and the virtuosity each illustrator has brought to his or her contribution.

And now we turn to the eclecticism of the Poetry Friday gathering – what a joy it is to be hosting today!

Blythe revisits Peter Pan via Helen Marshall’s Skeleton Leaves.

Mary Lee has been as amazingly creative as ever: “I’m recycling words this week. I made a Wordle of some poems I wrote recently, then used only the words I found in the Wordle to create a new poem.”

Renee LaTulippe shares a video reading by Lori Degman (1 Zany Zoo) of her poem “A Snake Ate My Homework”, plus an interview with Lori and follow-up resources.

Liz Steinglass has four witty couplets animal couplets that I know will have me chuckling for the rest of the day.

Robyn Hood Black is “offering something hot and something cold from H. D. (Hilda Doolittle)” to help counter the heatwave in the US.

Joy has been posting poems all week based on her recent field trip to the Tambopata Research Center in the Amazonian rainforest – today she has A Room in the Jungle and challenges us to write a poem about “My Room”.

Tara brings sunshine to Poetry Friday with her focus today on Sunflowers, a poem by Mary Oliver, including a video reading.

Diane has a full platter of offerings – at Kurious Kitty’s Kurio Kabinet she has a very satisfying poem, “Perpetual Between” by Maggie Dietz; there’s a neat quotation from J. Patrick Lewis at Kurious K’s Kwotes; and an ekphrastic poem about “Degas’s Laundresses” by Eavan Boland at Random Noodlings.

Steven Withrow has a new poem, Cormorant that will have you grabbing the binoculars and heading for the sea, in your mind’s eye if you can’t manage it in reality.

Jama has a fabulous, lip-smacking feast today – oodles of brown-ness as well as a proposal for the UPS man… Excuse me while I go and raid my secret stash!

Heidi shares Denise Levertov’s What My House Would Be Like If It Were A Person as she reflects on her imminent move to a new home.

Irene Latham shares her favorite beach poem, along with her own poetic descriptions accompanying photographs of both of Florida’s coasts following a recent research trip.

Laura Shoven commemorates a very special meeting with Chu Chen Po’s Hedgehog: “I’ve been teaching the poem “Hedgehog” for years, but I met my first hedgehog last week. It was love.” Check out the beautiful photos too.

Carol shares Linda Pastan’s “To a Daughter Leaving Home” because her oldest son is moving to Phoenix to attend junior college today.

Jeff has a review of Out on the Prairie, a rhyming book set in South Dakota’s Badlands region.

Violet Nesdoly has an ode to a summer storm, “Lightning”, in a dramatic string of haiku format.

Linda Baie has a great review of our fellow-blogger Greg Pincus’ ebook The Late Bird, a collection of fifty of his witty, funny and thought-provoking poems first featured on his blog.  Go Buy!  (In her Poetry Friday post, Linda also asks us to take a look at her previous post – I’m glad she did – it’s a review plus giveaway of what looks set to becomg a very important book for teens feeling vulnerable because of their sexuality – The Letter Q.)

Andi at A Wrung Sponge has an original haiku with one of her equally beautiful photographs.

April Halprin Wayland says of her post over at Teaching Authors: “We teach you how to write a Hidden Words poem and give you a pretty stinky example of one I wrote. (We’re also announcing our latest book giveaway winner and talking about taking your writing to a different locale to refresh your creativity.)”  – And by the way, it’s not a “stinky” example at all!

Tabatha Yeatts focuses on James Flecker’s work today.

Iphigene continues Gathering Books’ focus on the Festival of Asian Literature and the Immigrant Experience with Emma Lazarus’ poem The New Colossus.

Janet Squires takes a look at Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Beth Krommes.

Karen Edmisten has “some rambling”! This post about posting about poetry will make you smile and nod!

Father Goose aka Charles Ghigna has some new snickersome snickers – “a few for the funny bone”.

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater has a wonderful original poem about an imaginary mechanic.

Donna has “written about farming the land this week to add to my Tugging of Tides poem…”

Betsy has been inspired by Mary Lee’s Wordle idea (see above) and Teachers Write Camp.

Kerry Aradhya highlights the rhyming picture book Subway by Anastasia Suen and Karen Katz.

Lorie Ann Grover has an original haiku “Puckered Pear” (such a great title!).

Julie Larios is on a Poetry Roller Coaster at Books Around the Table (her critique-group blog):  “I offer up some thoughts about the up-and-down nature of my love of poetry, and I post a poem by William Jay Smith titled “Moon” which is not about the moon at all.”

Ruth brings us extracts from Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey “in honor of the nature on our vacation”.

Jone has been inspired to write Summer Room by Joy Acey’s call at the beginning of the day to write a poem about “My Room” (see above).

Greg Pincus points to his interview on Katie Davis’ podcast  in which he talks “about poetry (and self-pubbing poetry, too). Ya… a self-reflexive Poetry Friday!”

What a wonderful Poetry Friday gathering – a veritable feast.  I know the day’s not over yet in some parts of the world so if any more links come in, I’ll update them on my morrow… in the meantime, happy reading!

Founded in 1978 by Sebastian Walker, Walker Books is Britain’s leading independent publisher of high quality books for children of all ages. From a modest start, with just 18 titles in 1980, the company now produces over 300 paperback and hardback titles a year, more than any other children’s book publisher in the UK. A sister company, Candlewick Press, was set up in the US in 1992, and Walker Australia was launched a year later. Publishing purely for children for over a quarter of a century, Walker Books offers a diverse range of books, including picture books, board and novelty books, anthologies, fiction and non-fiction.

Denise Johnstone-Burt, Publisher and Associate Director at Walker and one of Britain’s leading children’s book editors, kindly answered our questions about the company, the children’s publishing industry in the UK, and Michael Foreman’s A Child’s Garden: A Story of Hope, one of the books selected for inclusion in the 2011 Spirit of PaperTigers project.

Interview by Aline Pereira, former Managing Editor of PaperTigers and currently an independent writer, editor and editorial consultant specializing in multicultural children’s books.

***

Please tell us about your path to becoming a publisher and Associate Director at Walker Books.

I joined Walker Books as a publisher and Associate Director twelve years ago from Andersen Press where I was Editorial Director, and where I had been working for ten years.

You run a varied and successful list of authors and illustrators, which includes former Children’s Laureates Michael Morpurgo and Anthony Browne, and Kate Greenaway winner Michael Foreman. When it comes to children’s books, where is your passion? What kinds of stories do you mostly enjoy publishing/reading?

I couldn’t pick one type of book over another – it wouldn’t be fair. I love them all!

The most important thing for me in regards to authors is good quality writing. It doesn’t matter if it is a picture book text, a piece of factual non-fiction or a novel – the quality needs to be there. I also look for emotion and humour.

As far as illustrators are concerned, I look for an artist who understands about telling story through pictures. It is extremely difficult to do, as you know, but when it works (for example with Michael Foreman’s work) the story speaks to the reader, whatever their age.

What attracted you most to Michael Foreman’s A Child’s Garden: A Story of Hope, when you first read it?

I loved the way A Child’s Garden was about such a sensitive and important idea seen through a child’s eyes. It felt as though it represented a bit of Michael’s thoughts, a special bit that you could partake in by reading the story. A Child’s Garden is spreading the idea that everyone can do something even in the most dire situation.

Can you tell us a little bit about what working with Michael is like, and about the process of bringing A Child’s Garden to life?

I have worked with Michael for more than twenty years, and it has always been wonderful. We always discuss the story, the shape of it, what it’s about and the approach he wants to take. In the case of A Child’s Garden, Michael came in with the story and read it to me and Ben Norland, Walker Books’ Art Director. We knew instantly that this was a story we had to publish – its message was so important. We discussed how the colour in the book should reflect the growing hope expressed by the text, and Michael took the idea and ran with it.

Wherever Michael goes he sketches and records the small moments that he sees around him. Mia’s Story was inspired by the children he encountered during his travels in South America. He brought in his sketchbooks and we developed the book together. We looked at the pictures, again with Ben Norland, and discussed how we could recreate the feeling that we saw in the sketchbook. The resulting book feels like a cross between a sketchbook and picture book, and has an autobiographical feel to it.

Since its publication in the UK and the US, in 2009, A Child’s Garden has garnered many accolades. Where else has the book been published, or have rights been sold to?

The book has indeed been very successful in the UK and the US, and has also been published all over the world. Foreign language editions have appeared in South America, Japan, China, Denmark, Brazil and Spain.

Do you have a favorite among Michael’s books?

It would be wrong to pick out one since Michael has created so many incredible books, but I loved working on A Child’s Garden with him, as it was, and is, such an important book. We also had great fun working on Say Hello (with Jack Foreman) and Mia’s Story.

Has the role of editors changed much since you first started in this industry?

The role of the editor has changed since I first started in publishing although there are things that are reassuringly still the same. For example, the thrill of receiving a story or discussing an idea with an author or illustrator is as exciting as it ever was, and the process of developing the idea and thinking about how to present it to the reader is still an enormously stimulating, exciting and creative process. It is a great privilege to be able to work creatively with authors from the very early stages of a book’s conception.

I always sit down with an author or illustrator when they have a new idea for a picture book, for example, and he or she will talk me through the new idea. Then we discuss what the story is about, what the emotional heart of the story is and whether the shape of the story is right.  We also talk more practically about whether it is the right length, whether there are parts which don’t quite work, and whether we can make them work, and so on. This conversation can continue over many meetings.

Things have changed, though, so it is much more difficult these days to attract attention to a new author or illustrator and to get them established than it was when I first started working as an editor. There are fewer outlets for books, which means we have to be very clear in our minds where a book might be sold and how visible it will be. This involves much more detailed conversation with sales and marketing, at all stages in the process of making the book, than before. There is only a limited amount of money to spend on marketing individual authors and titles, so I often have to discuss with authors what they can do themselves to help promote their work.

What’s a typical day like for you (if such a thing exists)?

I work partly from home and the rest of the time in the office.  For those days when I am in the office, I find that I spend most of my time either meeting with authors and illustrators and discussing their new or ongoing ideas, or working through projects with my fellow colleagues in design and editorial. I spend most of these days in conversation about books. We also have regular meetings with sales, marketing and production where we discuss the programme and the costings of different projects, as well as development meetings where we float new ideas. There is no such thing as a typical day at Walker Books.

What was your favorite book growing up?

I loved so many…The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier, Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner, The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico, Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson…

Can you give us a snapshot of the children’s publishing industry in the UK these days and how digital publishing is affecting things?

Wonderful books are published in the UK for children, but sadly there are fewer and fewer outlets where they are sold, and not many places where children can browse and choose books to buy. That’s why projects such as PaperTigers are so vital for helping keep children’s books visible.

Regarding the movement toward e-books, many children growing up today have never known a world without electronic methods of delivering information, so as a publisher, it is exciting to me to think about new story platforms. The methods of delivery may be changing, but good stories will always endure. We no longer sit round the campfire but children continue to read and listen to stories, albeit in new ways.

What is Walker’s digital publishing strategy, and how does it fit in with the company’s long-term goals?

After signing up for the iBookstore and with many other visible market places opening up for four-colour content, Walker is assessing suitability from both front- and backlist illustrated titles. We aim to support both fixed format ePub and ePub 3 along with other relevant formats in due course. [ePub is the abbreviation for electronic publication, a widely adopted digital file format.]

Walker has a long history of supporting children’s charities. Please tell us about some of the charity-related initiatives the company has developed or been involved with.

Last year we worked with the UK Children’s Laureate, Anthony Browne and created a book in aid of Rainbow Trust (who work with families of children with life-threatening illnesses) which promoted visual literacy. In 2010 we celebrated our 30^th anniversary with a fundraising spectacular, which raised over £30,000 for the National Literacy Trust. We also have a volunteer reading scheme at our local primary school, which pairs Walker Books staff with children needing reading help.

Would you give us a taste of your Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 catalog?

We have some wonderful books coming up, including: The Pied Piper retold by Michael Morpurgo and illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark; Pop-up London by Jennie Maizels; Aladdin (a magical three-dimensional carousel edition) by Niroot Puttapipat; How Do You Feel? by Anthony Browne, and George Flies South by Simon James.

I am also very excited about the release of the paperback version of Patrick Ness’s new novel, A Monster Calls, inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd [read Denise and Patrick’s joint interview to Publishers Weekly, about working together on this unusual project, here].

***

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions, Denise. PaperTigers is very grateful to Candlewick Press, the US Sister Company of Walker Books, for its generous discount for A Child’s Garden: A Story of Hope in support of the Spirit of PaperTigers project. Congratulations on your great work, and we wish you continued success!

To find our more about Walker Books, visit their website, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

When I was about eight, I wrote a poem about Silly Billy, well more of a ditty really – but it has stayed with me. I therefore knew I had to read UK Children’s Laureate Anthony Browne’s picture book Silly Billy (Walker Books, 2006) as soon as I saw it… It is, as my children will tell you, so much better than my juvenile work; Little Brother and I have really enjoyed sharing it together.

Billy is a worrier – or, as it says at the beginning of the story, “Billy used to be a worrier.” The story takes us through some of the things Billy worried about, and his parents’ attempts to reassure him – but it is only when he goes to stay with his grandma that a solution is found. She presents him with a set of tiny Guatemalan worry dolls, who will “do all the worrying for you while you sleep.” And so all is well, until Billy starts to worry about the effect of all those worries (in extra large letters) on the poor dolls… but then he comes up with the perfect solution.

Anthony Browne’s story is narrated simply and eloquently, with words emphasised in larger font all the way through. This format calls out for the words to be shared and since this is one of those books that is likely to be in demand again and again, small people will love shouting out those larger words, which they will soon know by heart. Browne’s illustrations are as virtuoso as one would expect – from the (not too nightmarish) worries to the larger-than-life image of grandma’s hand holding out the brightly colored worry dolls. The reassuring past tense at the beginning means that young readers/listeners experience the story from a secure perspective – and any small worriers might be tempted to follow Billy’s idea for themselves too. There’s also a well-pitched description of worry dolls and their Guatemalan origins at the end of the book. Read what the judges of the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal had to say about Silly Billy here.

Take a look at Sally’s recent Books at Bedtime post for other books by Anthony Browne, as well as Aline’s comment about her daughter’s love of The Shape Game on this post.

Anthony Browne is the UK’s Children’s Laureate for 2009-2011.    A friend recently brought his work to my attention through a Guardian article containing a gallery of Browne’s artwork.  As I was going to the library that day, I decided to take out some of Browne’s books.   Well, what a delight!  I took out a stack and on arriving home, devoured them all with my daughter that very afternoon after she got home from school.   She was already familiar with a few of the titles like Willy the Dreamer and Little Beauty because they were in her classroom, but a few other ones were new to her like the deliciously funny and parodic Piggybook.  In fact, I read the latter, snickering aloud in the library.  The story although funny enough isn’t the half of it,  — with Browne’s work, it is really also all about the pictures.  It was my daughter who pointed out to me how — as the Piggot family slowly turned into pigs — everything else in the house began to resemble pigs as well, right down to the wallpaper and the paintings on the wall, and gulp, even the moon!   Clearly, my daughter was already better-versed  on how to ‘read’ this man’s books!   She was especially fond of Willy the Dreamer in which William (a gorilla) dreams of what he might become.  The pleasure in the reading of this book for her was finding all the bananas in each picture — all very cleverly disguised.  Two books of Browne’s that I was particularly taken by were The Tunnel and Through the Magic Mirror.   Using two very symbolic items, Browne explores’ a siblings relationship in The Tunnel, while Through the Magic Mirror is about a boy who discovers through the mirror, an alternate and absurd world on a day when he is particularly fed up with everyone (including himself, my daughter added.)   Browne’s books are a true visual delight and anyone familiar with painting will get a kick at all his pointed references to famous artists like Dali and Magritte in some of his books.   You’d do well to seek out Browne’s books like I did and enjoy an evening or afternoon’s reading pleasure with your child.

Congratulations to Sita Brahmachari, whose first book for young readers, has won the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize 2011. Children’s Laureate Anthony Browne, who presented Sita with her award, described Artichoke Hearts as “a beautifully written book about family, friendship, grief and hope, which made me laugh and cry – sometimes at the same time”. Here’s a review from Wondrous Reads, and you can listen to Sita reading an extract here.

Press Release:
New Children’s Laureate announced!

Anthony Browne was announced as the sixth Children’s Laureate at a ceremony at Centre Point, London, on 9 June 2009

Andrew Motion, chair of the selection panel, awarded Anthony Browne with his medal in front of 180 guests at Paramount, Centre Point.

Andrew Motion said:

‘Anthony Browne is an absolutely distinctive and extraordinarily skilful artist – someone whose work entrances children, and has influenced an entire generation of illustrators. His pictures and stories give deep and immediate pleasures, while also insisting that we – children and adults – return to them – and when we return, we have a gradually-expanding sense of discovery. It is a great pleasure to be able to recognise the achievement of Anthony’s work by celebrating his appointment as Children’s Laureate.’

Anthony Browne responded:

‘I hope to encourage more children to discover and love reading, but I want to focus particularly on the appreciation of picture books, and the reading of both pictures and words. Picture books are for everybody at any age, not books to be left behind as we grow older. The best ones leave a tantalising gap between the pictures and the words, a gap that is filled by the reader’s imagination, adding so much to the excitement of reading a book.’

To watch a video of Anthony Browne at the announcement click here.