The story follows Diva, a courageous little dog, and Flea, a confident street-smart feline. Disney-Hyperion has scheduled the release date for October 13, 2015. (The Mo Willems Blog)
With over two dozen titles to choose from — including contemporary classics and new releases — there’s a free comic book to spark every young reader’s imagination! To find a …
Here’s a superb line from Cece Bell’s graphic memoir El Deafo (Amulet Books/Abrams, 2014): See other quotes in the series, and share your favorites!Quote #1: Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little …
Other than reading to them every night, I just made sure the books were there for them to discover. I think the most important thing I did to raise kids …
This post is only meant to be representative of my own personal experience—that of an editor of a small YA list at an indie press—working to sell rights at the 2015 Bologna Children’s Book Fair. It is wildly subjective, tainted by extreme bias (towards the “D” word of Diversity; capitalized for this post), and informed by very little time for reflection, spent almost exclusively stuffing my face with delicious food.
With that said…
Good Diversity News from Bologna
I found that the vibe was different in the best possible ways from 2014. For instance, whenever I discussed books involving LGBT characters, there was no mention of Diversity whatsoever. There was, however, plenty of discussion of the story, of the voice, of the surprises—the reason we all got into this business (I think/hope?) in the first place. The only time people brought up Diversity, in fact, was because of a fear of American cultural references that other markets might not understand. Some might have wondered why I was smiling when at first they essentially told me “not sure…?” But (I think/hope?) I was persuasive in convincing them to give a read, at least.
Not-So-Good Diversity News from Bologna
Everyone I met with, across the board, pretty much looked like me. (All were better groomed; most were female.) But among American and European publishers and agents, there was homogeneity reminiscent of the minions from the Despicable Me franchise, who were also present.
Lovely Encounters at Bologna
Finally, apropos only of the current political climate, I stumbled upon this booth for the first time in my six years of going to the Bologna Book Fair. The publishers from Iran were mostly there to sell rights, like I was. The two representatives at the booth—one male, one female; neither who looked like me—were lovely and gracious. They weren’t interested in acquiring YAs, though; and to be fair, I was not interested in acquiring picture books. We wished each other well and looked forward to seeing each other next year.
About Children’s Book Week Established in 1919, Children’s Book Week is the annual celebration of books for young people and the joy of reading, and the longest-running nationwide literacy initiative …
NEW YORK, NY – HarperCollins Publishers has refurbished the library of Public School 81 in Brooklyn, and yesterday revealed the results to school administrators, teachers, students, parents and community leaders. …
NEW YORK – April 6, 2015 – Today, Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL) launches student pre-registration (K-8th Grade) for the 2015 Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge at scholastic.com/summer. Now in its ninth year, …
NEW YORK, NY – Scholastic Reading Club and 1-800-Flowers.com are joining together for a special spring campaign to say “thank you” to teachers and school administrative professionals nationwide. In celebration of Administrative …
Toronto, Canada – Corus Entertainment’s Nelvana Enterprises, one of the world’s leading international producers and distributors of children’s animated content, is partnering with internationally renowned actress and author Julie Andrews and her …
Though tall and awkward, Andersen originally dreamed of becoming an actor. He moved to Copenhagen in hopes of performing at the Royal Theater. The directors were less than impressed and …
Burbank, CA/New York, NY – “Fancy Nancy,” the New York Times bestselling book series by Jane O’Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser, has been optioned by Disney Junior for development of …
NEW YORK, NY — Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the global children’s publishing, education and media company, has acquired world rights to 18-year-old YouTube personality Jenn McAllister’s (JennXPenn) Really Professional Internet Person, a …
To enter the giveaway, follow us @CBCBook and tweet this image with #CCBA15. Meet this year’s CCBA finalists and remember to vote online for your favorites at ccbookawards.com! About the …
“I remember the day that I became colored,” Zora Neale Hurston wrote in How it Feels to be Colored Me. In that essay, she related how she’d never thought much about her own skin color until she turned fourteen and moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where she encountered discrimination that transformed her from “Zora of Orange County” to “the little colored girl.”
I first read that essay when I was in college, and it blew my mind out of my ears and onto the pile of pizza boxes in the corner of my dorm room. I’d never imagined that experience for anyone. What was it like to have your identity redefined into a category you never knew existed? What was it like to go from just being a girl to being “just a girl”? To go from being one of the guys to being “one of those guys”? To realize that, no matter your achievements or accomplishments, people would first notice the color of your skin?
Years later, I would understand that the very fact I’d only just then been exposed to those feelings was, in itself, a similarly defining revelation. Having the freedom to live without such discrimination and restriction is the essence of Privilege, as is being blissfully unaware of what the heck Privilege is and how it affects life (you might recognize that state of being from its proliferation on Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, and Facebook).
When I decided to write The Troubles of Johnny Cannon, I hoped to open the eyes of middle-school readers to the reality I didn’t see until I was an adult. I had been thinking about the “default protagonist” in literature, i.e. the Straight-White-Male character that we often imagine until a rogue character description informs us otherwise. And when that darn character description tells us the character is not straight, or not white, or not male, we expect the story to be about what it’s like to not be the default character.
In other words, Diverse Characters often teach the reader what it’s like to be different, while Straight-White Characters get to go on any adventure they want and happily ignore their own state of being.
And so, like Kristoff when he almost told Olaf what happens to snowmen in summer, I felt compelled to clue the little white guy in on how the world really works.
When Johnny’s story begins, he has it pretty bad. He lives in poverty. He’s in a single parent home. His father is disabled. He doesn’t fit in at school, doesn’t know how to talk to his dream girl, and can’t stay out of trouble to save his life (hence the name of the book, right?). If you told Johnny that he was privileged, he’d laugh in your face. “If I’m privileged,” he’d probably say, “then whoever ain’t privileged is better off dead and buried.”
But everything changes when he is forced to befriend his African American neighbor, Willie Parkins, and realizes there’s a difference between privilege and prosperity.
As a minister’s son with both parents, Willie ought to be better off than Johnny, but he’s not, and it doesn’t make sense. Johnny is as poor as Job’s turkey, but he can go into any place of business even if he can’t afford anything. Johnny has to hunt for his food, but at least the community trusts him with a gun. Johnny gets into fights at school, but when they’re over he doesn’t have to hear about how violent his kind of people are.
The unexplainable disparity between them helps Johnny finally see the world he’s in for what it is. Like it or not, this is a world in which the cards are stacked in favor of Straight-White-Male characters.
And so, in the midst of all his other troubles, Johnny encounters one he can’t fix, and that’s kind of the point. The story isn’t about turning Johnny into a Civil Rights Messiah, swooping in and making the world better for minorities. That would be counterproductive. Instead, the point of the story is to help Johnny, and hopefully the reader, learn empathy. In middle-school.
Empathetic middle-school students. What will the world think of next?
Isaiah Campbell spent eight years coaching students in English before he took his own advice and wrote The Troubles of Johnny Cannon (Simon & Schuster). The second Johnny book, The Struggles of Johnny Cannon, comes out this fall. Go yell at, I mean follow, Isaiah on twitter (@isaiahjc).
The fellowship offers an emerging children’s author a $20,000 stipend and an office at the Boston Public Library to complete his or her work of fiction, nonfiction, dramatic writing, or …
New York, NY – HarperCollins Children’s Books announced today the acquisition of THE ELEMENTIA CHRONICLES trilogy, an unofficial Minecraft-fan adventure series, from debut teen author, Sean Fay Wolfe. Scheduled for publication …
The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum will feature mini-recreations of the Springfield landmarks that inspired Seuss’s stories, and is scheduled to open in June 2016. A second floor, which …
New York, NY – Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the global children’s publishing, education and media company, today released the exclusive cover image of the fully illustrated edition of J.K. Rowling’s bestselling Harry Potter …
The panelists agreed that this age of innovation may be attributed to the expansion of social media channels and the abundance of creative influences…social media has enabled [publishers and agents] …
