Minnesota!

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I am currently in the Twin Cities while my husband is on a job detail, and I have attended more cool book related things n the last couple of weeks than I have in the past few years. Last night at the Red Balloon in St. Paul, there was a signing event for Invisibility by David Levithan and Andrea Cremer. John was there as well, so we had two Spuds representing.
And then a couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be around for David's launch party for How Martha Saved her Family from Green Beans. (Such a fun read!)
I'm thrilled to be moving back to the area in August so that I can continue to be involved in such an exciting place for children's books.

A Spud Celebration

Copies of the new edition of TWO OLD POTATOES AND ME are now available and to celebrate Norton Stillman, the publisher of Nodin Press, and John Toren, the designer, and I went out for a celebratory lunch. That's Norton, who has been in the book business for fifty years, holding a copy of the book and John and me holding potatoes.

We were even able to include illustrator Carolyn Fisher's wonderful Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head portraits of me and her on the back cover of this edition.

Even though we have another snow storm on the way, it's just about potato planting time here.
Enjoy your spuds!

"If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that."
 

                                                                                              Stephen King

From Blog to Blog

early sketch for When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky

Julie Danielson, the woman behind the curtain at the blog: Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, just interviewed me here. She loves lots of pictures to narrate her interviews so there is lots to look at, just like picture books!

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast is one of my favorite blogs to follow. I hope you make it one of yours too!

Poem for the Living

My Aunt Cornelia has an unusual name, which has been changed to "Nini" by
her once young nieces and nephews, who found Cornelia too difficult to
pronounce, and to "Corey" by her old friends, who found Cornelia too formal
for their artsy California culture.  When she moved to New York about 25
years ago she returned to her given name, and it fits her perfectly.

She plays the piano, speaks French, and discusses quantum physics with
my son with ease.  She is an avid hiker, Sierra Club supporter, painter,
teacher and campaigner for environmental issues. She is also an adventurous
cook. Hint: Oxtail stew is in her recipe book. 

A renaissance woman, she has influenced my choices in art, travel, and
ethics.  Her paintings and sketches of German castles, Yosemite landmarks,
and abstracts fill my house and my thoughts.  But her most important gifts
to me are intangible: her respect for the rhythm of life, her celebration
of winter solitude, her love of the Romatic poets, and her wisdom during
difficult times - "It is what it is." 

She is 82 now, still observing life, still breathing, in and out, in and out.
 The sketchpads have been set aside, though.  The daily hikes have stopped.
It will not be long before the breathing stops and and the cancer that has
greedily invaded her brain returns her to the earth that she loves.

Friends stop by to serenade her, "You are my sunshine, my
only sunshine..."  They bring over her paintings to decorate the stark
nursing home walls.  They tell us, her nieces, what an important person
she has been, and still is, in their lives. They embrace us, because we are
connected to her.  Another gift to us.

Whatever we call her, Nini, Corey, or Cornelia, those of
us fortunate enough to know her, are graced by her presence. 
The earth is a better place because she has hiked its trails, weathered
its seasons, and loved its inhabitants.

Poem for the Living (by Theodora Kroeber)
When I am am dead
Cry for me a little,
Think of me sometimes
But not too much.
It is not good for you
Or your wife or your husband
Or your children
To allow your thoughts to dwell
Too long on the Dead.
Think of me now and again
As I was in life
At some moment
   it is pleasant to recall.
But not for long.
Leave me in peace
As I shall leave
   you, too, in peace.
While you live
Let your thoughts be with
the living.

Book to film challenge

When I was growing up my mother had a rule that I had to read a book before I could see the movie based on the title. Movies were for the most part seen only in the theater. They were not available "on demand;" no one had their own private "queue." The return of a classic film was a much-anticipated event.

The summer before I started seventh grade my mother gave me a summer project, Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind. The movie was coming soon and Mom wanted me ready. Gone With the Wind was the longest book I'd ever read and subsequently the longest movie I'd ever seen. It was also the first time I consciously compared a written work to a film adaptation. Even 238 minutes was not enough time to capture all of Mitchell's subplots. I remember being upset that Scarlett's other children were left out of the screen version.

I rarely choose to read a book if I have already seen the movie. I want to discover when I read. I want my own fresh canvas where I can paint my own mental images. I dislike book covers that feature movie characters. Moreover if I really love a book I don't want to see a movie rendition until much time has passed; I want to hold onto my inner vision of the story. A movie automatically replaces this with someone else's vision. I wonder if picture book authors go through a stage of grief letting go of their imagined characters and scenes once a book takes form with an illustrator's interpretation.

First impressions can be strong. When I see a movie first, that becomes my measure of the story. I saw Mary Poppins as a child, but read the P. L. Travers series as an adult and could never reconcile the sour governess in the books with Julie Andrew's portrayal.

Like Stephanie I'm reaching back toward an older book and movie adaptation to discuss. Unlike Stephanie, I'll pan my choice. Our family read aloud Philip Pullman's wonderful trilogy, His Dark Materials. The movie version of the first book, The Golden Compass, boasted an amazing cast—Nicole Kidman, Sam Elliot, Eva Green, Dakota Blue Richards, and Daniel Craig. We were hopeful the film version would do justice to the book. What a disappointment! This review sums up my sentiments:

"By failing to trust viewers to stick with a story and pick up on things as they become relevant, it winds up over-explaining, oversimplifying, and dropping into klutzy exposition mode.

So The Golden Compass film tells you baldly up front everything that the novel is trying to get you to wonder about and to explore slowly."

The film has a rushed pace. Compressing a complicated novel into a movie length meant extensive editing. The story doesn't unfold. Exposition, the shortcut, just doesn't engage and respect the audience on the same level. The characters were not developed enough and I didn't care about them. Special effects abounded, but they couldn't substitute for a good story.

From Page to Screen

With the Oscars taking over the internet and television last week, it got us thinking about books that have become movies, and this round, our topic will be exactly that. I love both books and movies, so this is fun for me. There have definitely been some clinkers that probably should have remained only a book, but there are lots that I have enjoyed. In fact, it was hard to narrow it down to one. Most recently, I'm a big fan of The Hunger Games books, and I loved the movie. But for this post, I'm going to focus on an older one.

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo is a sweet story about ten-year-old Opal who finds a stray dog and names him Winn-Dixie. She lives in a trailer park with her preacher dad, and the story has many colorful characters that Opal encounters on a daily basis. And I absolutely loved the movie version of this. Anna Sophia Robb plays Opal with big, wide eyes, and a sweet voice.Winn-Dixie is a big doofus of a dog that you can't help but love. For me, the most brilliant casting was Dave Matthews as a lonely introvert who runs the pet store.I'm a huge fan of his music and one of my favorite scenes is when Opal walks in to the pet store only to find all the animals out of their cages, charmed by him playing the guitar.If you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend it.