boingboing + Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves

Wonderful news for a wonderful blog: 

Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves 

is the subject of a boingboing post. 

Marvelous! 

We are very excited about it 

all...click here for more.

Ella's Apartment Therapy and bb's Thrill Trill

What's not to love about swissmiss, a.k.a. Tina Roth Eisenberg, with her impeccable eye, charming sense of humor and sunshine-y disposition: here's a woman who comes into many of our lives each morning and shows us, over and over again, things to be thankful for...

Well, today I'm thankful for Ella, her photo shoot for Apartment Therapy, and the trillingly happy email I received a short while ago (I subscribe...so might you, it's a delightful thing to receive!) from the brilliant bb-blog, who is completely "geeked...that my long-distance roommate, swissmiss, and my home-away-from-home in Brooklyn are going to be in Apartment Therapy's upcoming Small Spaces book. I'm talking big sister proud here, folks. Girlfriend is a constant wonder to me."

Now, I ask you, how cool is that? Personally, it makes my day to see a friend so thrilled about another friend's good fortune. 

That's what friends are for, isn't it? To take joy in each other's accomplishments and success. Nice stuff. 

Congratulations to all!

Put a Little More Art in Your Life, via Reading the World, March 28-29, in San Francisco

add some art to your life! 

click here to 

find out about 

the rtw

 art auction: 

be there or be square

What the Smart Set Reads

A Wonderful Source for Readers

(this one's for the grown-ups,

or mostly-grown-ups)

The Daily Beast

"Sis’s speech was definitely the buzz of the conference—everyone I talked to raved about how moving and powerful he was."

This morning, Buffy Hamilton posted more about the 40th Children's Literature Conference at UGA:

"I had the privilege of hearing Peter Sis speak—-I have been a fan for many years, but I discovered on Friday that not only is he an incredibly talented author and illustrator, but he is also an amazing storyteller. 

We all sat enthralled as he shared stories about his childhood behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia, his early experiences in the United States, and his journey of becoming a children’s illustrator and author. 

I only wish that I could have heard more of his stories—I easily could have listened to him all afternoon! If you are interested in his work and art, check out my favorite pages at theunquietlibrary/petersis; if you are in Georgia, there are several great (and recent!!!) full text articles about and by Mr. Sis in the Academic Search Complete database from EBSCOhost via GALILEO...

What I find most inspiring about his work is the common theme of celebrating those who dare to dream and to engender change. In his speech (which really felt more like the most wonderful informal conversation of storytelling!), he repeated his admiration of those who bring about change just as he did in this 2003 article he wrote for School Library Journal:

'As an author and artist, I want my work to celebrate innovative thinkers. And I want to show that the discovery process is not easy. Let’s face it, very few individuals have changed the way we view our world. That’s why visionaries like Columbus, Newton, and Einstein continue to inspire me.'

I think the idea of having the courage to believe in your dreams and ideals in the face of difficult circumstances resonated with many of us in the audience... 

Hearing Sis’s own story of overcoming adversity and overwhelming odds personally renewed my spirit and commitment to my vision of school libraries and librarianship. 

For me, being a school librarian is not just a job—it is a way of a life, a calling, an art, a mission. I think that is where the power of story lies—we can often find or even discover ourselves in the stories of others to help us find our way."

To read the entire post, click here. 

Well worth your time.

Go, Unquiet Librarian! 

Love your style.

Peter Sis and The Unquiet Librarian: The 40th Annual Conference on Children's Literature at the University of Georgia

Peter Sis and The Unquiet Librarian 

at the University of Georgia.

The Unquiet Librarian is Buffy Hamiliton, 

and she's got an absolutely delightful blog. 

What's more, you can 

follow her on twitter (here).

Additional goodies: a video of Peter's talk that 

Buffy's included on her blog,

and a wonderful set on her flickr account 

(this Unquiet Librarian is the bomb! she's terrific!)...

looks as though the 

40th Annual Conference on Children's Literature

at the University of Georgia 

is a smashing success.

Reading The World in San Francisco! Soon!

Reading the World is almost here; 

you're in, right? Here! Check! Now!

Alexandra Boiger's Amelia

We have visited Alexandra's Amelia

 before (see labels, below).

And today, we are revisting her 

because she just makes us happy.

Also, forgot that our little mac (see here) 

was named Amelia two Junes ago. So we clearly 

have a fondness for the Amelias in our life. 

Simply Divine: M. B. Goffstein's New Look

photo copyright M. B. Goffstein

M. B. Goffstein's website has delectable 

new photographs, links to all of her novels, 

and a complete bibliography of her work. 

Best of all, at this moment, is the promise of an

upcoming new release: Miss Go Chi in Heaven.

I am besotted with Mr. Po, 

Mr. Go, Miss Go, Miss Fine...

and

Po Chu-i at the Waldorf

is a perfect introduction

to their magnificent world.

Good Morning, Darwin: Happy Birthday!

celebrating Darwin's birthday with 

the glorious work of Mr. Sis, of course:

here, a link to a wonderful post 

at bioepherma on The Tree of Life

by Peter Sis

Happy Birthday, Mr. Darwin

[more darwinian delicacies available @ new bioepherma]

Plus: Get Your Fresh 

Animated Darwin, HERE!

More Sis: Coming Soon!

To See Work From 

The Czech Center

 Exhibit 

for 

Peter Sis, click here.

Roald Dahl Hut and All

Hangin' with Roald in the Hut. Tap here.

A Day In San Francisco, A Night In The Ukraine?

goodies in store, here

you did want to go to the Ukraine, right?

we thought so

well well well

We here at art.books.children are having a heckuva time trying to upload, to said blog, a few photos that seem to have gone AWOL. 

There is little rhyme to this reason, except for the fact that most of the photos were in a group that was being re-organized by yours truly (not a technical guru, I fear) on picasa. One never knows, do one? 

Well, until we get to the bottom of this and get the photos back up, we leave you with one of our favorites:

Maira Kalman by Rick Meyerowitz. 

What could be better? 

(Actually, if you click either of 

their names, above, your life 

could be infinitely better, truly.)

Thank you, 

The Management.

photo copyright magnificent rick meyerowitz

Come See Us!

Curtain is Up at 

Victoria Thorne:

Click Here for Front Row Seats!

Thanks to one of 

our all-time favorites, 

Peter Sis, 

for 

the star that leads the way!

Looking for Buried Treasure? We're Camping Out at Victoria Thorne.

We're giving ourselves a little vacation and only posting 

on one blog right now...it saves on holiday cheer, 

and will certainly help ease into the new year. 

Just click HERE to get to where we are now. 

See you there!

Our boy's room, here.

Wabi Sabi: some notes from a conversation with Ed Young

Below, a bit from a few notes taken while talking to Ed Young in the Spring of 2006; at the time, I was working on a magazine article/shoot that would feature rooms I'd created for children...and the best part of the preparation was a chance meeting with Mr. Young and the opportunity to spend a few minutes talking to him about his thoughts on design for children.

Here are the notes, just as I transcribed them in another little blog I had at the time:

"...Mr. Young, who trained as an architect, had such important things to say about environments. The first thing he said was that I needed to talk to Ashley Bryant, who lives near the shore and takes daily walks there and collects various things and writes poetry and turns his play into work. Mr. Y thought this was of great importance (these are my weak notes, written fast because I could not breathe and was trying to get it all down and nothing made sense to my hand 'tho it was all making the most primeval sense to my brain. When I look at the entry I made after talking to him, I know somehow I got it because, two entries later, I used a quote of Mr. Y's that I found, and realized--later, again--that they were remarkably similar) because...notes, finally:

• [children are] 'hungry for something that's not made already'

• 'branches | personal | imagination' (think this was in connection with the walks on the shore of A. Bryant, and his making things...play into work...as children love to do)

• 'express themselves through their imagination'...[by taking bits and pieces and making] "things out of them" (this might have been in connection with the statement--Mr. Y. talks softly, and almost lowered his voice to a whisper when he said this--and I didn't write it down, so this is paraphrased - 'do you know where children really love to get things? From the dump...')

• 'architecture' (I think this is when he told me that is what he had been trained in)

• [questions for architects should be] 'is it healthy?' | 'is it human?'

• 'when humans use it and play with it - it becomes beautiful' (this in thinking that architects want the things they build to be beautiful, and that the mistake they make, often, is that pure 'beauty' becomes the most important end result to them--but if humans don't use it, it isn't beautiful. Mr. Y. said that places that were supposed to be beautiful but are not used by humans, because they are not people-friendly, often become the most blighted areas of a city...)

• [for] 'creating a culture in' - (the highest use of architecture, I believe this was his thought)
  

• 'once it's used, it becomes healthy'
  

[The following were a few more of my own thoughts:]

Okay, so there you have it. The bottom line (literally) is that once it's used, it becomes healthy.

This, therein, is the problem I see with many designs created by decorators|interior designers today. They are beautiful (perhaps), but who on earth really wants to live in them? I've seen dozens of immaculate, awfully expensive houses that look like untouched museums. Nobody's home. Who would want to be?

Little ones, above all, are not supposed to be perched on the edge of a chair trying not to spill on it...rugs are not supposed to be pure white unless you are the boy in the plastic bubble...people need to be able to stretch and read and eat and play and write and be happy in a room, and this includes, most especially, children.

And I do believe, with all my heart, that this can be achieved: that we can begin to make beautiful spaces that can be lived in, and not just admired, so that we can function better as a society, and members of a society."

Peter Sis: 2009

holiday greetings

Tomi Ungerer Returns (thank goodness): “I think children have to be respected...there should not be a limit of vocabulary."

“No one, I dare say, no one was as original,” Mr. Sendak said of him. “Tomi influenced everybody.”

Burton Pike, a professor emeritus of comparative literature who became friends with Mr. Ungerer in the 1950s, said: “He’s never lost the feeling of how a child sees the world. And a child’s view is not really sentimental.”

There's a wonderful article and slide show on Tomi Ungerer and his work in the New York Times this weekend. "The Three Robbers" is now an animated film. 

And if Mr. Sendak has the above to say about Tomi, isn't it a good idea to find out a bit more? 

More on Tomi from the New York Times, here.

Characters for a Spun-Cotton Storybook

Wouldn't it be fun to put a story together 

with these characters, 

all ornaments? 

 

(Have a complete fascination with Russian spun-cotton.)

Turnip Pullers,

Deer, and Friends

all 

here

a quick muse on this week in publishing

December has been a cruel month for many in publishing.

My belief, as stated earlier in the blog - actually, the reason the blog was started - is that we are undergoing a profound change in the way we read. Books will not go away. It is my hope that the strong will survive.

And it is my belief we can help make this happen.

We have a choice: why not, with great discernment, choose the best words and the best art?

Let's choose to accept that great reading and inspired art can, and will, continue in many forms (many more that we might have ever thought possible) and in a variety of formats.

Does this mean fewer books? Probably.

But the ones that continue to exist can be better books: the best.

And new authors, and new illustrators, will still find ways to be seen. You're looking at one of the most efficient ways right now: this screen.

The glowing field in front of you will never trump a great tome. But it will inspire them (tomes), abet them (tomes), and bring new forms to life.

Isn't it our prerogative, as the public, to find ways to continue to support this great art?

Go buy a book. A good book.

Never stop choosing the classics.

Never stop supporting the great art of the past, and that of the present.

And keep your eyes open for new work, champion it when you see it, follow it where you can.

Please.

A Window On Elizabeth Street | Peter Sis

When I am drawing pictures for a book about Prague or Tibet, for weeks or months at a time it is nice to look outside and see the real world. The models and junkies and kids from the Catholic school across the street. The dogs - one of them has a set of wheels instead of hind legs - who romp by.

What books and art did I do in this studio? Starry Messenger, Galileo Galilei, Madlenka, Tibet, The Wall. Every time transferring myself to a faraway place. Except for the character of Madlenka, who lives on a block just like this one. I have been here ever since our son Matej was born, and he is fourteen and big now.

What did I see from my window? The World Trade Center for sure - for the last time on the afternoon of September tenth. Marching processions and bands with statues of St. Anthony or St. Gennaro, lots of car crashes because of a silly stop sign on Elisabeth St., lots of bums, transvestites and panhandlers from the Bowery, the next street to the east. The transformation of a bodega, a hardware store and a shoemaker into boutiques and more boutiques. Dustin Hoffman shopping, the owner of the Connecticut Muffin café shot to death, the old italian lady sitting on her chair outside of the Albanian butcher place. Martin Scorcese grew up and slept on the fire escape in that same building. Italian home cooking on the corner of Prince and Elizabeth streets. After years of emptiness, the greasy spoon just outside my kitchen became a trendy café, the Café Habana. Lenny Kravitz shot one of his rock videos there.

The condo buildings are growing like mushrooms, and old wrinkly artists of the past are disappearing. The New Museum of Contemporary Art on the Bowery one block away means a constant flow of tourists, who are happily shopping because the dollar is so low. 

Jim Jarmusch lives across the street, but I haven’t seen him in a long time. So maybe he moved? Or maybe he is making another film in Finland?

These old tenement buildings, still full of people from Asia, have bare and dim-lit kitchens I can see into. But there are hipsters too. Models. Japanese models. People who look like characters out of Pokemon. Mafia guys in Ray’s Pizza. 

Robert Plant in the Café Gitane. David Bowie in the Brazilian restaurant. The pigment store under my studio became a handbag boutique. I will have to draw with markers now….

Lives of the Artists

Arrived in my mail basket today. 

It is impossible to tell you how beautiful this book is. 

The artists? 

Rembrandt,

Guardi, Van Gogh, Bonnard, 

and Nevelson.

Once you have read this 

you will never forget 

why 

they are the artists.

Or why that is important.

And you may wonder, as I do, how you might have lived

without this incarnation of beauty.

Lives of the Artists

by 

M. B. Goffstein

FILIJ: Peter Sis in Mexico

Peter Sis 

at the 

Feria Internacional del Libro Infantil y Juvenil 

in

Mexico 

November 18, 2008

It's a Great Week to be in the Windy City: A Thousand Madlenkas and The Films of Sis

In 2003, Peter Sis was named a MacArthur Fellow, 

an honor bestowed 

by the 

John D. and Catherine T. 

MacArthur Foundation 

in Chicago. 

The foundation recognizes "talented individuals 

who have shown extraordinary originality 

and dedication in their creative pursuits and 

a marked capacity for self-direction."

This December, Peter Sis Returns to Chicago 

to Donate 1000 Copies of the 

Spanish version of Madlenka 

to 

the Children of Chicago Public Schools, 

to support the mission of 

the Center for Teaching through 

Children’s Books 

at National-Louis University 

and to Participate in the 

Chicago Premiere 

of his 

Short Animated Movies at the 

Facets Cinémathèque.

Cinémathèque

presents

Artist in Residence

Peter Sís

MacArthur Fellow 2003 

and his book 

Madlenka 

offered as a 

gift to the 

children 

of Chicago Public Schools

on 

Friday, December 12, 2008, 9:30 a.m.

at José Clemente Orozco Community Academy

1940 West 18th Street 

Chicago

R.S.V.P. 

t312-861-1037, ext. 100 or chicago@embassy.mzv.cz

You can also attend

A presentation of Peter Sís’s book 

The Wall 

for teachers and librarians

followed by a Q&A and book signing by the author

on Saturday, December 13, 2008

2:00 p.m. at National-Louis University’s Lisle Campus

850 Warrenville Rd, Lisle

R.S.V.P. 

 CTCB@nl.edu

The screening of Peter Sís’s 

Animated Films 

at 

Facets Cinémathèque

 followed 

by a Q&A and Book Signing 

by the author on 

Sunday, December 14, 2008, 12:00 p.m. 

1517 West Fullerton Ave.

Chicago

Admission $9/$5 

R.S.V.P. 

 laurenw@facets.org

General Eric Shinseki

Wonderful and long-awaited news.

We have learned so much about strength from General Shinseki.  

There is no weapon more powerful than the truth. To accompany this with wisdom, patience, and good intention: this is the stuff of greatness. 

Thank you, Mr. Obama.