Archives for category: Readers Advisory

Amazing News! Warhol Children’s Book Illustrations for Sale

June 29, 2011 //


From the Guardian UK:

They are a long way from the iconic pop art for which he is best known but a set of illustrations for a children’s book series by Andy Warhol are set to go up for auction in New York next month.

Warhol’s pictures illustrate the story of the little red hen, a folk tale about the value of team work, and show a perky little red hen happily sowing her grains of wheat, as a lazy cat, mouse and dog – who is reading the paper – look on. They were drawn by Warhol early in his career, between 1957 and 1959, for the Doubleday Book Club’s popular series Best in Children’s Books.

The Warhol illustrations will be auctioned on 9 December as part of Bloomsbury Auctions’s sale of 365 original illustrations and books, alongside a host of pictures and letters from 19th-century fairytale illustrator Arthur Rackham, a privately printed edition of Beatrix Potter’s The Tailor of Gloucester, rare Oz books by L Frank Baum and the artistic estate of award-winning African American children’s illustrator Tom Feelings.[source]

Cool, right? I love when artists chip in for children’s lit., even if it’s just for the cover. Anyways, here’s some info on the A. Warhol kid’s book opus.

Also, I’m jealous and want to break my watercolours out!

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Categories Amazing News!, Book News, Readers Advisory, Young Readers

Reimagining Indie Bookstores in an eBook Future

June 7, 2011 //

Last week, the National Post printed an interview with some Canadian independent booksellers to discuss the future of the indie bookstore in the eBook future. The overall consensus is this: as the bottlenecks in what books gets published online disappear, the new niche will be curating collections for buyers. And of course, community, community, community.

Here are some highlights:

Mark L: I think that the shift and trend toward digital positions independent booksellers as more important than ever. After all, it’s one thing to find something to read, it’s quite another to find something good to read. You can get to the world’s largest buffet, but you might need help determining which of the dishes to sample. What becomes important for booksellers is determining how they’ll be in that game (and for some, if they even want to be in that game). Bricks-and-mortar bookstores, while they can and will be part of making digital books available to their customers, are likely going to continue to see a good portion of their successes and a good portion of their business within the realm where they are already firmly established.
Alana: I’d take Mark’s point one step further. Not only do independent booksellers help you find something good to read from among their carefully curated collection, they help you find something you’ll like -they’re all about community, and if you’re a regular, the staff will know you and your tastes. They host events and plenty of social opportunities -I can’t walk into my local indie without running into at least three people I know. I’ve yet to find an e-tailer that offers such an opportunity.[full article]

Independent booksellers, small-press publishers, and libraries share a lot of the same woes right now. As eBooks take-off, it seems like everything is in the hands of big publishers who control the content.

I really believe, though, it’s not big money’s game to lose. The ePublishing economy presents for libraries and indie-press/booksellers the opportunity to carve out (or maybe reclaim or expand) niches as curators and portals to good, rare, and/or reliable content. For readers inundated by so much content, this sort of service will be valuable.

And heck, it’s something libraries have been doing since like always.

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Categories Book News, Libraries in General, Public Libraries, Readers Advisory, Services, Technology, User experience

Science Reads for Non-Science Literature Nerds

May 9, 2011 //

With all the news, hype, and buzz of the Internet, I haven’t yet written about books I like to read offline.

I’m into a lot of different genres and things, but I honestly find non-fiction histories the most relaxing and enjoyable. Especially, when they are compact overviews of a certain idea, period, or event. It results in an accumulation of facts and ideas that I’m sure makes me a maddening conversationalist sometimes. Whatever.

Anyways, books like Simon Shama’s Citizens are amazing, especially when followed by fictionalized accounts like Mantel’s A Place of Greater Safety.

Right now, I’m reading Lavoisier in the Year One, by Madison Smartt Bell. The book is about Lavoisier, a French Revolution-era scientist who formulated our modern idea of chemistry. But really, it’s not so much about the science as how the person and his times make fertile ground for the discovery to happen.

This book is typical of the Great Discoveries Series, a series that collects novelists, essayists, critics, biographers, and historians (and some scientists) and then pairs them with important scientific breakthroughs.

The results are  eclectic, and this is a strength. Each author brings their own voice and style, which allows the books to evolve into a conversations the author  has with the subject. Because they are not experts, their own learning process comes through (particularly in William T. Vollmann’s Uncentering the Earth on Galileo).

This makes it easier to wade into what would otherwise be hard to swallow concepts (like early applications of calculus) and allows the reader to be OK with not getting all the hard details.  With maybe one exception I’ve found: the late David Foster Wallace’s Everything and More – a book on infinity that required another beginner’s book on infinity for me to get anywhere in it.

At any rate,  these are good reads for those of us who’d love to actually sit down and talk science with some of today’s great writers – or for anyone looking for a (sometimes) casual introduction to interesting periods in science history.

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Categories About Me, Library Bric-a-brac, Quicky Reviews, Readers Advisory

Someone Has to Win: 2011 CLA Illustrator’s Award Announced

April 15, 2011 //

Winner.

The Canadian Library Association has announced the 2011 Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award Winner and Honour Books.

The winner is Roslyn Rutabaga and the Biggest Hole on Earth! (Groundwood Press), written and illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay. Honour books are Book of Big Brothers (Groundwood Press), illustrated by Luc Melanson and written by Cary Fagan, and Owls See Clearly at Night: a Michif alphabet (Simply Read Books), written and illustrated by Julie Flett.

Roslyn’s exuberant and adventurous spirit comes in handy when she decides to dig her way to the South Pole. In Roslyn Rutabaga and the Biggest Hole on Earth! Marie-Louise Gay uses expressive mixed-media illustrations that offer intriguing details, textures and perspectives. The reader is invited to share Roslyn excited determination and to spend time exploring each page. This is the third time that Gay has won the Amelia Award.

Honourable mention goes to Luc Melanson for Book of Big Brothers, a fun and affectionate story told from the point-of-view of the youngest of three brothers. With a touch of humour, nostalgia and joy, Melanson’s retro-style illustrations complement Fagan’s narrative perfectly and bring a fresh approach to the timeless story of growing up with siblings.

Honourable mention also goes to Julie Flett for Owls See Clearly at Night: a Michif alphabet This is a unique linguistic and visual treat. Flett’s striking illustrations are deceptively simple. The use of silhouettes with bright spots of colour, create compositions that are striking in their beauty and elegance. They convey a connection with the natural world and also a sense of loss and isolation. This book has a subtle, gripping power.[read the whole thing]

I’m on the committee (and helped write the press release). It was hard to exclude some books, but after long discussions and some secret ballots we came up with winners. All the illustrators and authors on the short and long lists were amazing, making this job both fun and hard.

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Categories About Me, Book News, Library Bric-a-brac, Library News, Public Libraries, Readers Advisory

I’m Sure the List is Greater than 50

March 25, 2011 //

From the Independent UK:

Education Secretary Michael Gove says that children aged 11 should be reading 50 books a year to improve literacy standards.

We asked three of Britain’s leading children’s authors and two of our in-house book experts to each pick 10 books, suitable for Year 7 students.

The authors chose books that have brought them huge joy, while expressing their outrage at the “great big contradiction” of Mr Gove’s claim to wish to improve literacy while closing libraries across the country.[check out the list and the full article]

The Independent’s list is heavily weighted towards older books. Is it nostalgia? Likely it’s a nod towards those worn, well loved youth novels that are probably sitting in any (presently threatened) UK  public library.

I can’t say it’s a bad list. I also can’t say, having read constantly my whole childhood, that I’ve read half of what’s on there.

Actually, child of the 80s I am, I think I’ve seen more of them as movies (i.e. the Phantom Tollbooth, which i felt was fairly inscrutable).  I don’t see Watership Down there (another amazing movie and book, by the way). I’m sure there’s a lot that could be added. How would a list like this look in Canada?

That said, spring’s almost here. It’s time to start thinking about  summer reading lists.  I think I’ll slip a few of these classics on mine.

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Categories About Me, Book News, Literacies, Public Libraries, Readers Advisory, Review