The American Library Association Mid-Winter conference was held virtually from January 22-25. Some of the excitement and all the one-on-one conversations are missing on-line, but the speakers, publisher information, demonstrations and awards are every bit as inspiring.
Highlights of featured speakers included:
The Academy, Tony, and three-time Emmy Award-winning actor and trailblazer, Cicely Tyson, tells her story, looking back at her six-decade career and life. On Sunday, January 24th, Cicely Tyson was a featured speaker at ALA, the interview had been pre-recorded but it was sad to hear of her death later in the week.
In the interview she talked about purchasing a copy of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest Gaines when it first came out in 1971 and knowing it was a role she needed to play. Three years later she was given the chance. The role earned her two Emmys. I was impressed with her honesty, her passion for reading, her desire to work for her beliefs not money.
Hawke’s narrator is a young man in torment, disgusted with himself after the collapse of his marriage, still half-hoping for a reconciliation that would allow him to forgive himself and move on as he clumsily, and sometimes hilariously, tries to manage the wreckage of his personal life with whiskey and sex. What saves him is theater: in particular, the challenge of performing the role of Hotspur in a production of Henry IV under the leadership of a brilliant director, helmed by one of the most electrifying—and narcissistic—Falstaff’s of all time. Searing and raw, A Bright Ray of Darkness is a novel about shame and beauty and faith, and the moral power of art.
Ethan Hawke impressed me with his respect for writing, knowing the importance of punctuation in conveying how he performs on stage or screen. He is well read, knowing the importance of books to understand life. This is his first book in twenty years—it is on the top of my February release stack.
An inquest into how the mysterious deaths of two teenage girls shone a light into the darkest corners of a nation. The girls’ names were Padma and Lalli, but they were so inseparable that people in the village called them Padma Lalli. Sixteen-year-old Padma sparked and burned. Fourteen-year-old Lalli was an incorrigible romantic.
They grew up in Katra Sadatganj, an eye-blink of a village in western Uttar Pradesh crammed into less than one square mile of land. It was out in the fields, in the middle of mango season, that the rumors started. Then one night in the summer of 2014 the girls went missing; and hours later they were found hanging in the orchard. Who they were, and what had happened to them, was already less important than what their disappearance meant to the people left behind.
During a publisher Buzz session, author Sonia Faleiro talked about her new true crime investigation about sexual violence in India. Faleiro has earned a national reputation for smart commentary on contemporary social issues of India through her frequent contributions to the New York Times, Guardian, Financial Times and others. She talked with passion about social justice as she exposes political maneuvering, caste systems and codes of honor in a village in northern India.
The ALAMW is when the leading awards for children’s literature are presented. Here are some of the big winners this year:
Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children:
It affects and connects us all.Told from the perspective of a Native American child, this bold and lyrical picture book written by Ojibwe/Métis author Carole Lindstrom and illustrated by Tlingit artist Michaela Goade is a powerful call to action to defend Earth’s natural resources—inspired by the Dakota Access Pipeline protests and similar movements led by Indigenous tribes all across North America.
Water is sacred.
My people talk of a black snake that will destroy the land,
Spoil the water, wreck everything in its path.
They foretold that it wouldn’t come for many, many years.
Now the black snake is here.
John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature:
Would you make a deal with a magical tiger? This uplifting story brings Korean folklore to life as a girl goes on a quest to unlock the power of stories and save her grandmother. Some stories refuse to stay bottled up…
When Lily and her family move in with her sick grandmother, a magical tiger straight out of her halmoni’s Korean folktales arrives, prompting Lily to unravel a secret family history. Long, long ago, Halmoni stole something from the tigers. Now they want it back. And when one of the tigers approaches Lily with a deal—return what her grandmother stole in exchange for Halmoni’s health—Lily is tempted to agree. But deals with tigers are never what they seem! With the help of her sister and her new friend Ricky, Lily must find her voice…and the courage to face a tiger.
Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults:
"A patchwork story is the shame of the refugee," Nayeri writes early in the novel. In an Oklahoman middle school, Khosrou (whom everyone calls Daniel) stands in front of a skeptical audience of classmates, telling the tales of his family's history, stretching back years, decades, and centuries. At the core is Daniel's story of how they became refugees—starting with his mother's vocal embrace of Christianity in a country that made such a thing a capital offense, and continuing through their midnight flight from the secret police, bribing their way onto a plane-to-anywhere. Anywhere becomes the sad, cement refugee camps of Italy, and then finally asylum in the U.S. Nayeri deftly weaves through stories of the long and beautiful history of his family in Iran, adding a richness of ancient tales and Persian folklore.
More about the rest of the top children’s books can be found here
One final note, the new Read poster, The Child is my favorite!
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