Albany City Area Reading Council–Best Books of 2009 event

Best Books of 2009 at the Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany December 2^nd was a HUGE success with eighty people attending. Of course, the delicious homemade scones by the president, Susan Moose, added to the evening as well. The Book House did an amazing job in seating almost everyone comfortably to listen to the favorite books of Dr. Sherry Guice, Matthew McElligott, Marggie Skinner, Liz Yanoff, and Mary Beth Farr.

Dr. Guice’s favorites:

• Hunger Games & Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
• Bog Child by Siohban Dowd
• Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick
• Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Meyers
• Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Matthew McElligott’s favorites:

Picture Books

• The Duchess of Whimsy by Peter de Seve and Randall de Seve
• Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca
• Darwin by Alice B. McGinty

Middle Grade

• When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
• The Yggyssey by Daniel Pinkwater

Adult

• How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely
• Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
• Cartoon Modern

Margaret Skinner’s favorites:

Hardcover Fiction

• Cutting for Stone by Verghese
• War Games by Alexie
• Year of the Flood by Atwood (done in back, not in front of store)
• Museum of Innocence by Pamuk
• That Old Cape Magic by Russo
• Sacred Hearts by Dunant
• Italian Shoes by Mankell
• The Lacuna by Kingsolver (forgot to include this, but it is WONDERFUL!!

Hard Cover Nonfiction

• Strength in What Remains by Kidder
• Healing of America by Reid
• Goat Song by Kessler
• Hudson Valley A Cultural Guide (in back, not front of store)
• Crow Planet by Haupt (back of store only)

Paperback Fiction

• Housekeeper & The Professor by Ogawa
• There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby by Petrushevskaya
• Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Drayson
• Next Queen of Heaven by Maguire

Paperback Nonfiction

• Travels with Herodotus by Kapuscinski

Mary Beth Farr’s favorites:

• Peace, Locomotion by Woodson
• After by Efaw
• The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Burd
• Al Capone Shines My Shoes by Gennifer Cholendenko

Liz Yanoff’s favorites

• Lunch Lady by Jarrett Krosoczka
• Baby Mouse Dragon Slayer by Jennifer Holm and Matt Holm
• The Blue Shoe by Roderick Townley and Mary GrandPré
• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

Submitted by Josephine Sorensen. Vice President of Albany City Area Reading Council.

Win a copy of Kimchi & Calamari

Visit this website

http://www.authorbuzz.com/kidsbuzz/kent.shtml

to learn some insights into the NYSRA Charlotte Award nominated book Kimchi & Calamari and to write to Author Rose Kent.  You may win a free autographed copy of the book!

Liz

New audio version of Over in the Jungle!

Visit the “Charlotte Audio” section for a musical version of Over in the Jungle (sung by author Marianne Berkes).  Your young readers will have great fun.

Liz

Jeanette Canyon Resource

Jeanette Canyon, the illustrator of the NYSRA Charlotte Award nominated Over in the Jungle, has a new website with many insights into her illustration process.

Check it out!

http://www.jeanetteandchristophercanyon.com/OfficialWebsite/Welcome.html

Rose Kent Interview

High school readers in upstate New York shared these interview questions with Rose Kent, author of NYSRA Charlotte Award nominated Kimchi & Calamari, and Rose Kent sent these thoughtful answers.  Thank you Rose!

Being your first novel, did you have many difficulties getting ideas for this book?

Fortunately, no. Actually, ideas kept pouring out like a broken faucet! The more I got into writing Kimchi & Calamari, the more characters I wanted to add with more action — more everything. The challenge was to keep it simple, to tell the story purely. I think all writers — and especially students — can relate to this. Writing is a lot of fun, but it also takes discipline to stick with the task at hand and not go off on tangents.

Kids often ask where ideas for stories come from. I believe they are literally everywhere: in quirky conversations that we overhear on the bus, in encounters we have as we wait in line at the store, in what-if thoughts that form in our heads as we stare at birds flying overhead. They all make us wonder and wondering is good for writers.

Do you believe a sequel might come to Kimchi & Calamari?

Readers often email me at my website, www.RoseKent.com, with this very question. The thought of revisiting with Joseph and the rest of the Calderaro family is very appealing. Characters do become like friends to me. I never say never. A sequel could happen. For now, I’m deep into a new story about a spunky redheaded girl named Mimi who wants to set a world record. Whichever book I am writing at the moment consumes me.

When, and if, you have writer’s block what do you do for help?

For me, writer’s block is a fancy way of saying, “This part feels really hard.” You bet writing gets hard for me. When I’m challenged and I don’t know where to go next in my story I try to shake up my routine. Sometimes I’ll take my laptop and leave my office and write in a different room or location. (Thank goodness for public libraries.) Or sometimes I’ll take a short break from writing the story and “interview” my character and write down the responses. I’ll ask about his or her problems and interests. It’s amazing how revealing this can be, and how it can often “lift” writer’s block.

While writing this book did you and your kids look back at your heritage to help with Joseph’s heritage?

We did indeed. My family is multi-ethnic so we have a lot to look back on and celebrate. Like Joseph, two of my kids are adopted from Korea. Joseph’s nickname as a baby was Buddha Baby and that was my son Connor’s nickname too. Joseph was born in Pusan, as was Connor. And Sohn Kee Chung, the South Korean gold medalist, is from Taegu, where my daughter Theresa was born. Of course Kimchi & Calamari belongs to my character Joseph. I don’t turn my children’s life stories into books because it wouldn’t be fair to them or the characters.

How do you come up with characters and their names?

I like names to be distinct. They also have to work with the character’s background. In Kimchi & Calamari, Joseph comes from a proud Italian family so it makes sense for him to be called Joseph, a name that hails back to Saint Joseph, the patron saint for many Italians. (Okay, I’ll admit it. I have known and liked plenty of “Josephs” over the years too.)

Sometimes I use names that give readers insight to a character. My next book, Rocky Road (Knopf Publishers, June 2010), introduces Tess, an artistic, determined girl who moves to upstate New York in the winter and opens up an ice cream shop with her mother. The name “Tess” comes from the Greek word for “harvester,” and in many ways that epitomizes her hard working, never quit spirit.

 

Why did you write Kimchi & Calamari?

For one I’m a storyteller and, for me, there’s nothing better than writing (and reading) a juicy tale.

I also wrote this story because I wanted my kids, Connor and Theresa, as well as other adopted kids — and all kids, for that matter — to realize that it’s okay to have mixed emotions about their life stories. Young people have a right to learn about their origins, even the parts that are sad. Who we are as people is an amazing combination of nature, how we are nurtured, and our own special individuality. Wanting to grasp all this is an important part of growing up.

Rose Kent

November 2009