Meet Your Friends from Japan!
ともだちは日本にもいるよ！

Ongoing until September 20, 2011

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art has a substantial collection of Japanese picture books donated by Japanese publishers, picture book art museums, illustrators, and friends of the museum. These books form the basis for the museum’s new exhibit Meet Your Friends from Japan! ともだちは日本にもいるよ! where guests are invited into the world of modern Japanese picture books that share similar graphic qualities or imaginative themes as those in Eric Carle’s works. Highlighted in the exhibition is the bilingual Japanese/English book  Where Are You Going? To See My Friend, a collaboration between two outstanding children’s book artists: Eric Carle and Kazuo Iwamura. For more information about the exhibit, click here.

Click on event name for more information

Black History Month~ Canada

African American History Month~ USA

National African American Read-in~  USA

The Katha Chitrakala Award (Excellence in Children’s Book Illustrations) Winners Announced~ India

The Golden Age of the Picture Book: 1920s & 1930s – History’s Message to Children~ ongoing until Feb 6, Tokyo, Japan

The 11th Annual National Storytelling Week~ ongoing until Feb 5, United Kingdom

Kolkata Book Fair~ ongoing until Feb 6, Kolkata, India

Tales in the Garden Festival~ ongoing until Feb 12, Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand

Mirror, an Exhibition by Children’s Author and Artist Jeannie Baker~ ongoing until Feb 13, Australia

2011 Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award~ submissions accepted until Feb 25, United Kingdom

International Youth Library Exhibit: The Fabulous World of John Kilaka, Pictures and Drawings by a Tanzanian Artist~ ongoing until Feb 28, Munich, Germany

Entries Accepted for The Growing up Asian in America Contest~ ongoing until Mar 10, San Francisco, CA, USA

2011 PBBY-Alcala Prize~ submissions accepted until Mar 30, Philippines

International Youth Library Presents Walls: A Book and an Exhibition~ ongoing until Apr 5, Munich, Germany

International Youth Library Exhibit: Manga From Japan~ ongoing until Apr 5, Munich, Germany

Making Books Sing Presents a One-Woman Play Based on The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de los cuentos by Lucía Gonzalez~ ongoing until spring, New York, NY, USA

Partners in Wonder: Selections from the Collection of Jane Yolen~ ongoing until May 1, Amherst, MA, USA

Look! The Art of Australian Picture Books Today~ ongoing until May 29, Melbourne, Australia

The Art Institute of Chicago Exhibit: Real and Imaginary: Three Latin American Artists – Raúl Colón, David Diaz and Yuyi Morales~ ongoing until May 29, Chicago, IL, USA

Witness: The Art of Jerry Pinkney~ ongoing until May 30, Stockbridge, MA, USA

Animal Fair: Birds, Beasts, and Bugs in Children’s Book Illustrations~ ongoing until Jun 5, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

Seven Stories Exhibit: There’s Nuffin Like a Puffin!~ ongoing until Jun 27, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

International Youth Library Exhibit: The World in Miniature. The Family in Historic Picture Books and Children’s Literature~ ongoing until Aug 31, Munich, Germany

World Congress of Asian Studies~ Feb 2 – 6, Kolkata, India

Children’s Literature Symposium: Critical Perspectives on Children’s and Young Adult Literature, Images and Illustrations in Children’s and Young Adult Literature~ Feb 5, Sarasota, FL, USA

2011 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour~ Feb 6 – 11

36th Congress of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association (AULLA): Storytelling in Literature, Language, and Culture ~ Feb 7 – 9, Auckland, New Zealand

Translated! An Interactive Festival of Literary Translation~ Feb 7 – 12, Melbourne, Australia

iConference 2011~ Feb 8 – 11, Seattle, WA, USA

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art Exhibit: What a Circus! The Art of Etienne Delessert~ Feb 8 – Jun 5, Amherst, MA, USA

Nordic Children’s Literature Conference~ Feb 9 – 11, Norway

Taipei Book Fair~ Feb 9 – 14, Taipei, Taiwan

Sun Gallery’s Twenty-second Annual Children’s Book Illustrator Exhibit~ Feb 9 – Apr 16, Hayward, CA, USA

The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature Exhibit: Anita Lobel – All the World’s a Stage~ Feb 10 – May 28, Abilene, TX, USA

Book Launch: Out of the Way! Out of the Way! by Uma Krishnaswami, pictures Uma Krishnaswamy~ Feb 11, Chennai, India

Rhizomes VI – Other Words, Other Worlds: Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in a Globalizing Era~ Feb 11 – 12, Brisbane, Australia

Imagine Children’s Festival~ Feb 12 – 27, London, United Kingdom

2010 Cybils (the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards) Winners Announced~ Feb 14

First Nations Public Library Week~ Feb 14 – 19, Province of Ontario, Canada

LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival: Crossing Borders~ Feb 16 – 19, London, United Kingdom

12th International Vilnius Book Fair: Literature Without Frontiers~ Feb 17 – 20, Vilnius, Lithuania

All In! Young Writers Seminar~ Feb 19, Singapore

25th Jerusalem Book Fair~ Feb 20 – 25, Jerusalem, Israel

Freedom to Read Week~ Feb 20 – 26, Canada

2010-2011 Mathieu Da Costa Challenge Winners Announced~ Feb 22, Canada

Challenging Books: Who Should Decide What Our Children Read?~ Feb 23, Toronto, ON, Canada

The International Society for the Social Studies Annual Conference~ Feb 24 – 25, Orlando, FL, USA

The Arabian Reading Assocation’s (TARA) Conference~ Feb 24 – 26, Manama, Bahrain

International Conference for Writers and Translators (IBBY Flanders, IBBY Netherlands, Friedrich Bödecker Kreis Germany)~ Feb 24 – 26, Antwerp, Belgium

SCBWI’s Annual Golden Gate Conference At Asilomar~ Feb 25 – 27, Pacific Grove, CA, USA

Bath Lit Fest~ Feb 25 – Mar 6, Bath, United Kingdom

The Graphic Novel Today, a Special Children’s Literature Network Presentation for Librarians and Educators and Bookology~ Feb 26, Plymouth, MA, USA

Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable Presents: Serendipity – a Graphic Novel Extravaganza~ Feb 26, Vancouver, BC, Canada

The Irish Society for the Study of Children’s Literature Presents: Children’s Literature, Classics, and the City~ Feb 26, Dublin, Ireland

19th Annual Hubbs Children’s Literature Conference~ Feb 27, Saint Paul, MN, USA

Meet Your Friends from Japan!

August 20 – September 27, 2009

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art located in Amherst, Massachusetts, has a collection of Japanese picture books donated by Japanese publishers, picture book art museums, illustrators, and friends of the museum.

In this exhibition, Meet Your Friends from Japan!, you are invited into the world of modern Japanese picture books that share similar graphic qualities or imaginative themes as those in Eric Carle’s works. Consequently, you may see Japanese culture in a new light as something that is very different and yet familiar to you. For more information click here.

(Click on event name for more information)

Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award Week~ ongoing until Jun 3, Sweden

World Book Fair~ ongoing until Jun 7, Singapore

Once Upon a Time: Children’s Book Illustrators, Then and Now~ ongoing until Jun 14, Oakland, CA, USA

Books Illustrated Traveling Exhibition: An Australian Menagerie – Australian Picture Books~ ongoing until mid Jun, China

Seoul Arts Center Exhibit: Voyage to the World of Illustration~ ongoing until Jun 23, Seoul, Korea

Skipping Stones Magazine’s Youth Honor Award Program – Multicultural Awareness and Nature Appreciation~ entries accepted until Jun 25

Illustration Exhibition for Children: Pictures of Fantasy~ ongoing until Jun 30, Siena, Italy

Exhibition of Prize-Winning Works of 16th Noma Concours (2008) “Palette of Dream Colours IV”~ ongoing until Jul 5, Tokyo, Japan

READ!Singapore 2009 – Dreaming A Good Read~ ongoing until Aug 31, Singapore

Picture Perfect: Art from Caldecott Award Books, 2006-2009~ ongoing until Nov 8, 2010, Chicago, IL, USA

Reading Matters on the Road Series~ Jun 1 – 2, Bendigo, Australia

Don Quixote in “Sunny Spain”: the Mediation of National and Cultural Identity in Children’s Literature~ Jun 2, London, United Kingdom

Mitali Perkins and Rachel Vail, Resonating with Young Readers~ Jun 4, Greenwich, CT, USA

Nairn Book and Arts Festival~ Jun 5 – 13, Nairn, United Kingdom

Building Bridges – Bilingual Tandem Telling for Multicultural Audiences~ Jun 6, Singapore

Antioch University’s 2nd Annual Children’s Literature Conference~ Jun 6, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Book Launch for Grace Lin’s Newest Book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon~ Jun 6, Cambridge, MA, USA

Librarian’s Day~ Jun 7, Cuba

A Passion for Poetry Series Featuring Steven Herrick (Australia) in conversation with Paula Green (New Zealand)~ Jun 10 – 12, New Zealand

FNLIJ’s 11th Book Fair of Children’s and Young Adult Literature~ Jun 10 – 21, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

36th Annual Children’s Literature Association Conference~ Jun 11-14, Charlotte, NC, USA

The Art of Children’s Books~ Jun 12, Toronto, ON, Canada

Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival~ Jun 12 – 13, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Eric Carle’s 80th Birthday Bash and Children’s Book Festival~ Jun 13, Amherst, MA, USA

Cape Town Book Fair~ Jun 13-16, South Africa

Enchanted Worlds – Art of Fairy Stories & Mermaid Tales exhibition~ Jun 13 – Sep 5, Lancashire, United Kingdom

Giving Voice to Children’s Literature~ Jun 15, Sacramento, CA, USA

International Day of the African Child~ Jun 16,

Borders Book Festival~ Jun 18 – 21, Melrose, United Kingdom

The Great Story Picnic Season~ Jun 20, Oxford, United Kingdom

The Torquay Froth and Bubble Literary Festival~ Jun 20 – 21, Torquay, Australia

New Rochelle Festival of Books ~ Jun 20 – 21, New Rochelle, NY, USA

The Nye Memorial Children’s Literature Tour of the Ukraine~ Jun 23 – Jul 10, Ukraine

CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Children’s Book Awards Winners Announced~ Jun 25, London, United Kingdom

International Authors’ and Illustrators’ Forum~ Jun 25 -26, Munich, Germany

Sunthorn Phu Day (celebrated poet)~ Jun 26, Thailand

Canadian Multiculturalism Day~ Jun 27, Canada

In keeping with one of the themes of the current issue of PaperTigers – books published for good causes, I just wanted to flag up the visual treat recently published (September) to raise funds for The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and presented by Eric Carle himself. Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk about Their Art is awe-inspiring and down-to earth at the same time. This is the book for anyone with an interest in getting behind the scenes and finding out what makes different illustrators tick. Each artist has written a letter about how/ why they became an artist and/or their musings about being an artist – and these are some of the big names in children’s book illustration today. In fact, if they weren’t all listed both on the museum’s website and here (with links), I would feel compelled to list them all, so inspirational is what they each have to say.

The layout of the book provides a photograph of each illustrator as a child, a full page illustration and then a fold-out containing further examples of their work. Take a look at this full review from Planet Esme.

And if you’re lucky enough to live in the US and are aged 6-9, you still have a chance (until 28th December) to win a copy of the book and more – for details look here! Thank you Book Worm’s Diary for pointing this out (ages ago!).

Books of Wonder in New York is hosting an Artist to Artist event on Thursday 6th December – but it’s for Museum Members only and you need to book ahead… See here for information on how to become a member.

One event I will be missing this year, being on the wrong side of the Atlantic, is the exhibition of Allen Say’s work to celebrate his 70th birthday, which is currently running at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art – but if you can get to Amherst, Massachusetts before 28 October, I should imagine it would be well worth doing so. Writer, Lois Lowry certainly recommends it…

We love reading Say‘s books together. Particular favorites are Under the Cherry Blossom Tree: An Old Japanese Tale, which appeals especially to my younger son’s sense of the absurd; and Kamishibai Man, which has inspired my older son to create his own storyboards. We also read Home of the Brave recently, following the discussions arising from A Place Where Sunflowers Grow. Say’s rich illustrations here and the slightly abstract conveying of the story stretch young children into asking questions… the bedtime storytime can certainly be drawn out beyond the deceptive brevity of the story. As Karen Edmisten says, it is “not a happy book but an excellent one”.

Podcast Just One More Book has reviewed Emma’s Rug and I think they sum up Say’s work as a whole when they say: (more…)

Here are two books for sharing which take children on a good-night (and good morning) journey all around the world. They both celebrate differences in customs and lifestyles, and emphasise what we all share as members of the human race…

The first, for very young children, is The Nights of the World by Corinne Albaut and illustrated by Amo, which focuses on five children from different parts of the world, who all sleep in different kinds of beds. When the magic sliding window is opened, readers can see what their days are like too, and although their activities may be different, they all laugh and enjoy playing games – then close the shutter again, and they all are quiet and go to sleep!

The second is All in a Day by Mitsumasa Anno in an amazing collaboration with nine other well-known artists from all around the world: (more…)

I would like to draw your attention to this Family Reading page on The Horn Book’s website – there are lots of ideas and shared experiences to hearten and encourage reading with and to our children. I especially love Martha Parravano’s article “Reading Three Ways“ about reading with her two daughters; and I laughed aloud at the end. It reminded me of a holiday when Son Number One was still toddling. Rapunzel had been the perpetually chosen audio tape on the day’s drive up to the North of Scotland. A few days later:

Daddy: Where’s Mummy?
Son (cackling): The bird has flown, my pretty!

…I wish I’d actually been there to hear it!

Thinking back to that time when books had to be repeated ad infinitum, here’s a list, in no particular order, of only some of our family favorites from the very early years:

All the Hairy Maclary books by Lynley Dodd – in fact, all her books!
Owl Babies by Martin Waddell, ill. Patrick Benson;
Can’t You sleep, Baby Bear? – and the rest of the series, again by Martin Waddell, but ill. Barbara Firth
Each Peach Pear Plum and Peepo! by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
Mrs Armitage and the Big Wave by Quentin Blake
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen, ill. Helen Oxenbury
Little Beaver and the Echo by Amy MacDonald, ill. Sarah Fox-Davies
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss
The Gruffalo and all the other books by Julia Donaldson, ill. Axel Scheffler
Mrs Goose’s Baby and Mr Davies and the Baby by Charlotte Voake

When I look at this list I realise that nearly all these books were given to us by friends whose own children had loved them – and we in turn have handed them on to our smaller friends…

So let me just leave you with a something the illustrator Howard Pyle once said:

“The stories of childhood leave an indelible impression, and their author always has a niche in the temple of memory from which the image is never cast out to be thrown on the rubbish heap of things that are outgrown and outlived.”