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Picture Book Month

American Indian Heritage Month~ USA

National Novel Writing Month: NaNoWriMo for Youth~ Australia

ALA Online Course: Introduction to Graphic Novels for Children~ongoing until Nov 4, USA

Kuala Lumpur Children’s Book Festival~ ongoing until Nov 4, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The Art Institute of Chicago Presents: Artful Alphabets: Five Picture Book Artists~ ongoing until Nov 6, Chicago, IL, USA

2012 PBBY-Salanga Prize~ entries accepted until Nov 11, Philippines

31st Santiago International Book Fair~ ongoing until Nov 13, Santiago, Chile

The Children’s Bookshow: Stories From Around The World~ ongoing until Dec 7, United Kingdom

The Original Art: Celebrating the Fine Art of Children’s Book Illustration~ ongoing until Dec 29, New York, NY, USA

Adventures in the Soviet Imaginary: Children’s Books and Graphic Art~ ongoing until Dec 30, Chicago, IL, USA

2012 South Asia Book Award~ entries accepted until Dec 31

Budding Writers Project~ entries accepted until Jan 6, 2012, Singapore

Exhibits of Winning Entries from the 2011 Growing Up Asian in America Contest~ ongoing until Feb 2012, USA

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NAME’s (National Association for Multicultural Education) Annual Conference~ Nov 2 – 5, Chicago, IL, USA

SCBWI Israel Event: Interactive Digital Children Books~ Nov 3, Tel Aviv, Israel

Children’s Literature Council Fall Gala~ Nov 5, Los Angeles, CA, USA

15th Annual Rochester Children’s Book Festival~ Nov 5, Rochester, NY, USA

OKI (Ohio Kentucky Indiana) Children’s Literature Conference~ Nov 5, Crestview Hills, KY, USA

Once Upon A World Children’s Book Award Ceremony~ Nov 6, Los Angeles, CA, USA

21st Annual Children’s Illustration Show~ Nov 6 – Jan 1, Northampton, MA, USA

National Young Readers Week~ Nov 7 – 13, USA

Northern Children’s Book Festival~ Nov 7 – 20, United Kingdom

Bookaroo in the City~ Nov 8 – 24, Delhi, India

Two-time Caldecott Medal-winner Chris Van Allsburg at Kidsbooks~ Nov 9, Vancouver, BC, Canada

CILIP YLG Wendy Drewett Ireland Book Day~ Nov 9, Bangor, Ireland

Green Inking: Graphic Novels & Comic Books by and about the Irish~ Nov 9, Dublin, Ireland

National Black Storytelling Festival and Conference~ Nov 9 – 13, Atlanta, GA, USA

A Journey Without End: Ed Young~ Nov 11 – Jan 28, 2012, Abilene, TX, USA

The 18th Annual British IBBY/NCRCL MA Children’s Literature Conference: It Doesn’t Have to Rhyme – Children and Poetry~ Nov 12, London, United Kingdom

SCBWI Belgium Event: A Day with the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award Nominees~ Nov 12, Brussels, Belgium

Connecticut Children’s Book Fair~ Nov 12 – 13, Storrs, CT, USA

Istanbul Book Fair / IBBY Turkey Announces Children’s Books of the Year~ Nov 12 – 20, Istanbul, Turkey

Reading Association of the Philippines Midyear Demofest~ Nov 13 – 15, Dipolog City, Philippines

National Book Awards~ Nov 14 – 16, New York, NY, USA

National Book Week: Wings  of  Imagination~ Nov 14 – 20, India

2011 Governor General’s Literary Awards Winners Announced~ Nov 15, Toronto, ON, Canada

Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable and the Museum of Anthropology Panel Discussion: Joy Kogawa and Maggie DeVries~ Nov 15, Vancouver, BC, Canada

2nd Annual Children’s Poetry Festival~ Nov 16 – 18, San Salvador, El Salvador

Sharjah International Book Fair and Announcement of the Etisalat Prize for Arabic Children’s Literature Winner~ Nov 16 – 26, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Children’s Literature Assembly Events at the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention~ Nov 17 – 20, Chicago, IL, USA

Children’s Africana Book Awards Ceremony~ Nov 18, Washington, DC, USA

Penang International Kids Storytelling Festival (PINKS)~ Nov 19, Penang, Malaysia

Bookamania~ Nov 19, Chicago, IL, USA

10th Annual International Children’s and Young Adult Literature Celebration: Open a Door, Open a Book, Open your Mind..to the World~ Nov 19, Madison, WI, USA

Savannah Children’s Book Festival~ Nov 19, Savannah, GA, USA

SCBWI British Isles Conference~ Nov 19 – 20, Winchester, United Kingdom

USBBY Co-sponsored Session at the NCTE Annual Convention: Outstanding Books For and About Young People with Disabilities~ Nov 20, Chicago, IL, USA

Assembly on Literature for Adolescents Workshops~ Nov 20 – 22, Chicago, IL, USA

UK Muslim Book Awards Presentation~ Nov 22, London, United Kingdom

Oh the Places You’ll Go! Journeys for the Young Interdisciplinary Traveler | Music and Literary Arts Workshop~ Nov 23 -25, Singapore

2011 Governor General’s Literary Awards Winners Ceremony~ Nov 24, Ottawa, ON, Canada

Authors Sarah Ellis and Julie Lawson at Kidsbooks ~ Nov 24, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Bookaroo~ Nov 25 – 27, Delhi, India

Keeping Books Alive Conference~ Nov 26, Melbourne, Australia

Guadalajara Book Fair~ Nov 26 – Dec 4, Guadalajara, Mexico

Calgary Children’s Book Fair and Conference~ Nov 27, Calgary, AB, Canada

I Have a Dream | Writing for Social Change by Pooja Makhijani~ Nov 30 – Dec 2, Singapore

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Tulika Books Author Events~ India

Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre Exhibits and Programs~ Fremantle, Australia

Dromkeen National Centre for Picture Book Art Exhibits~ Riddells Creek, Australia

Books Illustrated Events and Exhibitions~ Middle Park, Australia

Screenings for Library of the Early Mind: a documentary film exploring childrens literature~ Canada and USA

International Youth Library Exhibits~ Munich, Germany

Newcastle University Programme of Talks on Children’s Books for 2011-2012~ Newcastle, United Kingdom

Seven Stories (the National Home of Children’s Books in Britain) Events~ Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Discover Children’s Story Centre~ London, United Kingdom

The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature Exhibits~ Abilene, TX, USA

PaperTigers is delighted to be hosting author and illustrator Grace Lin on Day 2 of her Blog Tour to introduce her latest book, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, which, as Aline pointed out last week, has already received its first award! We’ll be publishing a full review in our next issue of PaperTigers… in the meantime, Grace has kindly answered some questions and shared some pictures with us.

Welcome, Grace: thank you for joining us!

In an article you once wrote called “Why Couldn’t Snow White be Chinese?”, you talk about an experience you had as a child when your school put on a production of The Wizard of Oz and you were told by a friend you couldn’t be chosen to play Dorothy because “Dorothy’s not Chinese”. How would you relate that experience to your writing of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, which has been described as being written in “the Wizard of Oz tradition”?

Wow, that is a very astute observation of my work. While I did not write Where the Mountain Meets the Moon as an attempt to create an Asian Dorothy, it is probably one of the reasons why I felt so strongly that the main character needed to be a girl and why this book is an Asian-inspired fantasy (a story influenced by my Asian-American values rather than an attempt at a traditional Chinese tale).

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is very, very loosely based on the Chinese folktale “Olive Lake,” Aside from adding many layers and changing plot points, I also changed the main character from an adult male to the girl, Minli. In some ways it may have been easier to leave the character male; I would not have had to worry about how I bent /ignored some Chinese customs that inhibit women — like the fact that there is no foot binding, for example. But I very much wanted the main character to be a girl, a strong and brave and clever girl who (now that you mention it) was someone I would’ve wanted to pretend that I was as I child.

You have referred to your illustrating of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon as being “like the classic books of yore” – do you think illustrated books for independant readers are starting to be published a bit more nowadays and how important do you think they are? (more…)

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Announcement of the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature~ Jan 3, USA

SCBWI Speaker Event: Lara Saguisag on “The Filipino Child and Filipino Children’s Literature”~ Jan 7, Makati, Philippines

Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities~ Jan 11 – 14, Honolulu, HI, USA

American Library Association Midwinter Meeting~ Jan 11 – 16, Philadelphia, PA, USA

American Library Association Literary Awards Announced~ Jan 14, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Mumbai International Book Fair~ Jan 16 – 20, Mumbai, India

Cooperative Learning in Multicultural Societies: Critical Reflections Conference~ Jan 19 – 22, Turin, Italy

Costa Book Awards Winners Announced (formerly the Whitbread Literary Awards)~ Jan 22, London, England

Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias~ Jan 24 – 27, Cartagena, Columbia

SCBWI Tokyo Author and Illustrator Showcase~ Jan 26, Tokyo, Japan

Family Literacy Day~ Jan 27, Canada

Kolkata Book Fair~ Jan 30 – Feb 10, Kolkata, India