From: Miriam Lang Budin <miriammeister>
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:30:50 -0500

This is probably an opportune moment to reveal that GARMANN'S SUMMER's author, Stian Hole, is the winner of the 2009 Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award.

It's Saturday and I'm not at work, so I can't refer to the actual book or to the laudatory comments of our committee members, but I do remember that we admired Hole's ability to evoke the universal emotions of apprehension and fearfulness while telling a very specific story about a very specific little boy. The marriage of text and illustration is wholly felicitous, as the reader sees Garmann's peculiar interpretations of "butterflies in the stomach"; the startling images of his great-aunts, sprouting hairs from their chins and taking off on skateboards; and those horrid little twins next door who can do everything AND have lost their front teeth. And that poignant depiction of Garmann cradling the dead bird--the curve in his back--his tender, stalk-like neck--it says everything there is to say about vulnerability...

You can tell that I'm a HUGE fan of this book!

Miriam Lang Budin Chair 2009 Ezra Jack Keats Award Committee


On 2/21/09, ccbc-net-request at ccbc.education.wisc.edu < ccbc-net-request at ccbc.education.wisc.edu> wrote:
>
> Send CCBC-Net mailing list submissions to
> ccbc-net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> ccbc-net-request at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> ccbc-net-owner at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of CCBC-Net digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Garmann's Summer (Barthelmess, Thom)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:22:31 -0600
> From: "Barthelmess, Thom" <Thomas.Barthelmess at ci.austin.tx.us>
> Subject: [CCBC-Net] Garmann's Summer
> To: "ccbc-net, Subscribers of" <ccbc-net at lists.ad.education.wisc.edu>
> Message-ID: <1C428BDEE2C6934AAAF8618C5594B078F1A67C at COAEVS3.coacd.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> I think that Garmann's Summer succeeds in just about every possible way.
>
> As a text, it marries a lyrical, colorful narrative with an ambling,
> utterly child-like structure. You sense that you're experiencing
> Garmann's apprehension and disquiet personally, because it's presented
> in so genuine a fashion.
>
> And the artwork, with it's own marriage of the poignant and the
> ridiculous, crafted in vibrant collages of snippets and details, has a
> nostalgic quality that is accessible and discomforting, all at once.
>
> And then, the text and the illustrations come together, leaving the
> reader with an indelible impression of what it feels like to be scared.
>
> Wow.
>
> My $.02.
> Thom
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.ad.education.wisc.edu
> [mailto:ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.ad.education.wisc.edu] On Behalf Of Megan
> Schliesman
> Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 9:27 AM
> To: ccbc-net, Subscribers of
> Subject: [CCBC-Net] Batchelder Award
>
> I want to echo Tessa's appreciation for "Garmann's Summer." When I
> first read it I didn't know what to make of it--visually it's so
> unusual. But the story struck me as extraordinary, especially given its
> length. While it's a long text for picture book format, the depth and
> richness of the narrative was striking to me--I felt like I was reading
> a novel, full of backstory and character development. I had been dropped
> into the middle of Garmann's life and mind, but everything I needed for
> a satisfying story and literary experience was contained in the pages of
> that slim volume.
>
> I thought the Batchelder winner, "Moribito," was fascinating. It works
> on one level as a fantasy adventure story, but I thought the author
> deftly examines weighty ideas along the way, most notably, the
> understanding that "history" is often a version of the past from the
> perspective of those who conquer. The setting of this story--in an
> imagined world meant to evoke medieval Japan--brings specificity to that
> idea as the future of the kingdom becomes dependent on someone
> remembering the stories and rituals of the indigenous people whose
> traditions--if they can be remembered in time--reflect the truth about
> the past, and hold the answer to the immediate crisis surrounding the
> fate of the 12-year-old prince. (Now I've made it sound heavy-handed,
> and it isn't at all.)
>
> Megan
>
>
> Megan Schliesman, Librarian
> Cooperative Children's Book Center
> School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison
>
> 608/262-9503
> schliesman at education.wisc.edu
>
> www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> CCBC-Net mailing list
> CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
> Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe...
> http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> CCBC-Net mailing list
> CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
> Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe...
> http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
>
>
> End of CCBC-Net Digest, Vol 43, Issue 14
> ****************************************
>

-- 
Miriam Lang Budin
Chappaqua Library, NY

Received on Sat 21 Feb 2009 03:30:50 PM CST