Yes, ALA was a heaven; it was full of librarians.

Two days before the ALA conference I found out that I didn’t have a plane ticket, uh-oh! The most important event of year for me, and I wasn’t going to make it. The traveling agent said I didn’t make it clear I wanted to have a ticket to Chicago, even though I bought the tickets for my husband and my son so that they will sit next to me on the plane and be with me when I received my award. Oh, well. Fortunately, the gods of the airplanes came to my rescue and got me to ALA just in time for the celebrations.

Some of the most anticipated events at the American Library Association conference are the award ceremonies for the different children’s books categories, including the Caldecott and Newberry medals. This year I went to the conference to receive the Pura Belpre Medal for my book Just in Case: A trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book. And it was heaven!

I did not exercise, I did not tour the city, I did not shop for souvenirs; instead I ate lots of dinners with librarians, signed books at the exhibit, and found new treasures among new books.

Some incredible books I saw at the exhibit:
Stitches, by David Small. What a book! This graphic novel (not exactly for little kids) is a masterpiece. Not only David has an incredible life story to tell, but he is a master at telling it with pictures.
Chicken Dance, by Tammi Sauer and Dan Santa is a visual riot!
Then for something softer there was Henry’s Night by D. B Johnson and Linda Michelin, with its soft and luminous illustrations. Looked at it for hours.
The book I can’t wait for? The Dreamer, by Pam Muñoz Ryan and illustrated by Peter Sis. Could there be a most perfect match? this book isn't coming out until Spring next year. Too long to wait.
I also saw my sister Magaly’s two new books, What Can You Do with a Paleta? and A Piñata in a Pine Tree.

But, of course, my day was Sunday. The Pura Belpre Award Celebration started at 1:30. Me? I Started with a signing at 11 am, and ended up signing books after the ceremony at about 5 pm, with only a short time to get ready for attending the Caldecott and Newberry banquet that evening.

But it was all so joyful! At the Pura Belpre Ceremony I finally met Rudy Gutierrez, who not only creates striking art, but who gave a much felt acceptance speech for his Pura Belpre honor book, Papa and Me.
I also met Francisco Jiménez for the first time, and people were right. He is so gentle and noble. Amazing just like his books.

Have you ever been at a Pura Belpre celebration? If you haven’t you are missing a great fiesta. There were multicolored ornaments hanging from the ceiling, Latino books on the tables, presenters and award winners—some dressed on rebosos, Virgin of Guadalupe printed dresses; I wore huge red dangling earrings to go with the merriment. Of course there were also speeches, tears (muchas lagrimas, many of them mine), singing, and little girls dressed as Jarochas (a traditional dress from Veracruz, my state) dancing to the son Jarocho tunes.

I created the artwork for the program. This is what the art looked like:


I was the last one to receive my medal and give my acceptance speech (here you can find the list on winners). A few minutes before I also received an honor award for the narrative on my book Just in Case, but they put me at the end of the speaker’s lineup so that I could give thanks for both awards. Except my speech was a trick! Instead of giving only a speech, this year I brought an extra present for everybody; something I made with the help of friends and with mucho corazón. If you were at the ceremony you received it. If you weren’t there, you can still have it here (or here):

Invited from Yuyi Morales on Vimeo.

I hope you enjoy it!

“I wrote because I wanted to know what happened to next to people I made up”-- Neil Gaiman at his 2009 Newberry acceptance Speech.

Celebración at ALA!

I am in my way to ALA in Chicago this year. I'll be having a a couple of book signing on Saturday and Sunday morning, and then the big Pura Bepre celebration on Sunday afternoon (right before heading to the Caldecolt and Neberry banquet). If you are there, come to the Puira Belpre Award cerebaration! the event is free and the it is a fiesta like no other.
Here is the scoop:

2009 Award Ceremony
Sunday, July 12, 1:30 -3:30p.m.
Hilton chicago Hotel, continental Ballroom A/B
720 Michigan avenue, chicago, IL 60605

So, you comming?

How I learned English

A while ago public television of Sacramento contacted me because they had heard author Erin Dealey said during a presentation something about me: that I learned English watching Sesame Street.

KVIE, the public station from Sacramento eventually came to my house and filmed a testimony where I explained how that happened. I know that my testimony was aired in Sacramento because once I went to do a school visit there, and some parents were telling me how they had seen me in their TV, although it took me some time to figure out what they were talking about!

I have just found out that CPB received earlier this year a PRWeek award for their My Source initiative in which KVIE had participated with one of their spots, and there, featured in the news, is the spot they made with me.




You can take a closer look at article here, and can find more filmed testimonies here.

So you want to be a children’s book writer or illustrator?...

How does one become a children’s book writer and illustrator? A marvelous question! And so, have I ever told you that the answers to your questions and desired exist in one place called the SCBWI?
It is true!
When I first began learning how to find my way towards the children’s book world, I stumbled upon the SCBWI and have never let go. In 2000, when I was just an aspiring illustrator, I won the Don Freeman SCBWI Grant, which gave me not only some cash to further fund my learning, but also gave me the confidence I needed to see my work as valuable and valid, and keep doing it more and more. In the years I have attended conferences, gone to retreats, joined groups, made strong friendships, given workshops, been a speaker, and won awards given by the organization.
This morning, when my friend Laurent Linn sent me the link for this tribute video to SCBWI, I …how do you put it mildly? OK, I almost fainted from laughing:

SCBWI Tribute from Kimberly C. Baker on Vimeo.

Human

Copyright © 2008-2009 cimarrones.org

Logo Design: A. Flores

Fruitful

Yesterday was the Northern California Book Awards event at the Main Branch of the San Francisco Public Library. I have special fondness for this place because it was brand new when I discovered it, and to me it seemed so monumental and out of this world.
My book Just in Case was nominated in the children’s category. This event is somehow particular (for being a book award, I mean) because they announce the winner “academy award” style. No one knows who the winner will be until his or her name is announced.
The winner this year was Pamela Turner, with her amazing book A LIFE IN THE WILD about animal conservation Schaller.
Ok, I didn’t win, but while I was waiting for the winner to be announced a message was left in my cell phone. At the end of the event I found out that the call was to announce to me that Just in Case is the 2009 Americas Book Award winner! (Chicago D.C. here I come!) I don’t have the information about other books selected yet. The Americas Award committee comes up every year with a rich list of award, honors, and commended book to look for. I look forward to hear more about all of them.

In the meantime I will report another list that Just in Case made it into just recently; the 2009 Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts. Here the criteria for the selection of these books:

“The charge of the seven-member national committee is to select thirty titles each year that best exemplify the criteria established for the Notables Award. Books considered for this annual list are works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry written for children, grades K-8. The books must meet one or more of the following criteria:

1. deal explicitly with language, such as plays on words, word origins, or the history of language;
2. demonstrate uniqueness in the use of language or style;
3. invite child response or participation.

In addition, books are to:
4. have an appealing format;
5. be of enduring quality;
6. meet generally accepted criteria of quality for the genre in which they are written."


This has been a busy time of the year, and will only keep getting busier as I approach the end of another book deadline and the ALA ceremony award before the end of my summer in Mexico. But there are so many exciting things happening (like, for example, my garden in bumming all red, and yellow, and fuchsia). So, in the name of good times, here are some images from the Revisionaries, my writer’s group trip to Asilomar.

It is true, our group can’t get enough of being together (even after our bimonthly meetings and numerous of celebrations), so this year five of the six of us went to Asilomar and rented a house. While some of us walked by the beach some others attended the traditional SCBWI Asilomar Conference.

In her way back home from the conference, Jackie Woodson came and visited us. At the beach we found these strange marine plants.

At our little rented house, and unexpectedly, we hosted the faculty and volunteers party for the conference. Here are Maria and Gianna getting ready for the night.

But before the party we found a stray dog! She was running among the cars, but stopped when we called her. She was loving and tame but I couldn’t take her home with me. Eventually we drove her to the police station to wait for her owners.
End of the party. Dishwasher machine dysfunction!
Afterward we had too much free time on our hands.

We began cooking spying plans.
Here is Jim resting and unsuspecting of being a spying target ( Lynn was a target too, but she is not supposed to know about it).
We had a yellow mysterious liquid to deliver to his rightful owner (in reality it is only shampoo, but it had Jim’s name on it)Spying...


looking,
Hiding!

Ah, we are already looking forward to next year.

Fuse#8 challenge: Top Ten Picture Books

Fuse#8 announced her Picture Book poll and I decided to be brave and come up with my own list of the Top Ten Picture Books Of All Time According To Me.

Consider that, although I have read many many picture books, I still wonder which I might have missed since I began reading them fourteen years ago after I arrived to the USA. Because I was already an adult when I started, I did not grew up with the titles I am about to mention. Instead, I grew some more with them.

These books are in this list because perhaps they made me cry, or because I kept thinking about them years after I met them for the first time, or because I couldn’t stop imagining what it would be like to make a book like those, or because they changed my mind, or my heart, or my body, or taught me something I still live by, or simply because I adore them with inexplicable, irrational fervor. But only ten books? I’ll do my best…

A Small Tall Tale From The Far Far North. Peter Sis.

The most powerful and unforgettable of Sis' books. I literally drank this book with my eyes when I found it.

Amos and Boris. William Steigh

My son and I would read this story at night over and over again, transpired by the sea and the love between this small mouse and a whale.

Chato’s Kitchen. Gary Soto and Susan Guevara.

Barrio cats in a picture book? I couldn’t believe my eyes the first time I saw this book! Chato is some kind of Pedro Infante of the children’s literature.

The Stray dog. Marc Simont.

Marc Simont is a genius. There is such a simplicity in his art, and yet, no emotion si too big for him. I cheered so much with this book.

A Mother For Choco. Keiko Kasza.

Some of the best endings ever in a picture book.

Calling The Doves. Juan Felipe Herrera and Elly Simmons

This book is soulful. A song itself.

Going home. Eve bunting and David Diaz

There is something in this story that makes me weep. Is it the longing?

Sitti’s Secrets. Naomi Shihab Nye and Nancy Carpenter

I love the letter at the end of this book. I just found that Shihab Nye wrote a different kind of letter one day.

Good Night Gorilla. Peggy Rathmann.

For the longest time I wanted to be just like Peggy Rathmman. I still do…

The Day I Swapped My Dad For A Goldfish. Neil Gaiman and Dave Mckean

Storytelling at its best. There are some many undercurrents in this story.

Dear Fuse#8, ten books would never be enough; a hundred books would never be enough…how could I leave out the following titles?

Lon PoPo. Ed Young

Monster Mama. Liz Rosenberg and Stephen Gammell

Freight Train. Donald Crews.

Madlenka’s Dog. Peter Sis.

The Arrival. Shaun Tan.

Emeline At The Circus. Marjorie Priceman.

Northern Lullaby. Nancy White Carlstrom, and Diane and DianeDillon

Wild Child. Lynn Plourde and Greg Couch

The Mountains Of Tibet. Mordicai Gerstein.

John Patrick Norman McHennessy: The Boy Who Was Always Late. John Burningham.

Making Señor Calavera

Publia asked me the other day about getting a Señor Calavera puppet like mine, and she decided to give a try to making one for her class.
I made mine a while ago, but I found this picture I took while I was making it. I have marked some of the material I used to make him.

Basically my Señor Calavera is made out of pulp paper mache. The recipe I used called for ripping strips of paper (I used tissue paper for mine), boiling it with water over the stove fire, putting in the blender until it was of smoothie consistency, straining off the water, and finally mixing it with white glue, wallpaper paste, whiting, and linseed oil.

The result is a paste soft and sticky like clay.

Here are some fact about Señor Calavera Puppet:

• It took me about a week to create it

• I sculpted the head on plasticine first, the layered with news papers, until it was thick. Then I cut the head in two and took the placticine out leaving me with the newspapers shells only. I glued together the newspaper head and continued sculpting over with pulp paper mache

• I did a lot of drying in my kitchen oven (paper mache can be dry safely at low temperature).

• The spine is made out of wooden beads strung with thick wire

• The feet carry fishing weights inside it as to make then flop down.

• The limbs are attached with leather strips

• The head, being hollow, it attached it to the spine with a special but simple mechanism that allows it to wobble (I learned how to do this from a master puppeteer).

• Pulp paper mache has a rough finish. A lot of sanding is required.

• I sealed the paper mache with a special formula of plaster of Paris, talcum powder, and glue.

• One day one of Señor Calavera’s eyes popped off its socket right before I presented him to the kids, and I had to scramble to put the eye back in place before anybody screamed.

Challenge weekend

I attended a fundraiser this weekend, went with my son not knowing exactly what to expect; I only knew it had to do with providing teens and people with the tools and space to make a difference, and this is what I found:

Teen Files 15 Minute Preview from Rodrigo Torres on Vimeo.

Quilt Project square

Muriel Feldshuh is putting togehter a new quilt (her fourth one) with squares made by artist of children's books. Six months after her request, I have finally sent mine in the mail. Here is what I made:

Almost there, Muriel!

I wanted to sleep over, give the kid lunch money and have the dogs wait a little longer for breakfast. Instead I got this:

Give what you appear not to be getting.

Give what you think you have been searching for.

Give what you believe you are waiting for.

Give generously, without thought of loss and sacrifice.

Give openly, that you might receive what you want.

Give freely, that you may find what you are after.

Give fully, that your waiting may be over.

Above all, give what you want.

Robert Holden

So, yes, I got out of bed.

Ethnic corazón

I could not evermore claim innocence after reading Mitali’s and Esme’s thoughts and reflections about Ethnic awards. These two women had the courage to start a conversation that others might run from. Furthermore, as they opened the forum, they inspired me to wish for a more perfect world.

I have added my thoughts to both their blogs as a response to their posting. And now I am adding them here, if only to remind myself that this conversation is valid and necessary.

Ethnic book awards: Discriminatory or Necessary?

I have received them, I have enjoyed them, I have them shine light to my work, and I have loved them.

I can only talk from my experience. I can’t claim to represent anybody else but me.

When I think about the questions that Mitali and Esme as well as other people have expressed about this awards, I don’t find myself with any answers but only more questions of my own. I confess I am partial to both sides of the equation. While I vote for inclusiveness rather than discrimination—no matter from what side—there is something I have experienced about the nature of these awards that eludes my reasoning and instead runs with my heart. Let me see if I can explain myself.

What I know from receiving these awards is that they are a celebration. People cheer, committees champion your work, put the word out, make you a party with music and all, invite everybody, give your book a medal to paste on the cover, and tell everybody to look, look, look! at your book

And so, if the function of an ethnic award like the Pura Belpre is to celebrate a writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth, why not then make the celebration broader and invite everybody to love the Latino culture and be eligible to win the award? After all , anyone who dedicates his or her time, talent, and efforts to create a great book about the Latino cultural experience, could only do it out of admiration and love for that culture, whether she or he is Latino or not. Or, is there any other reason to spend one’s precious time cranking a book about Latinos?

I understand that awards like the Pura Belpre and the Coretta Scott King award were born out of the need to encourage the work and shine light upon the otherwise obscured books of people from minorities at a time where authors and illustrators of color were everything but missing from awards like the Caldecott and the Newberry. Is it perhaps that the time has come to change things around? Have we reached the equilibrium we dream of? If not, I hope we will soon. My friend Rose tells me it is just a matter of time before love and lust erase the race lines completely. For now I find it interesting (and fortunate) that the Coretta as well as the Pura Belpre are being announced as part of the ALA crop of awards, because it is from this announcement that they receive their moment in the spotlight as well as their prestige. Were those awards to be announced in a different day or without the support of ALA, we might not be discussing them right now. Their impact upon readers would be different. And perhaps the audience looking for the result of such announcements would be different, even smaller in number.

To me the USA is a country of surprises. Anything unexpected can happen here. For instance, it was a surprise to me that here in the USA existed a book award that celebrated the efforts of people like me--multicolored skin, even Indian looking, heavy accent. I was surprised to know that all what I had believed to be against me in the past, was exactly what made me eligible. I must explain that I come from a beautiful and hardworking country that from colonial times and all the way to my parent’s generations, and more, had lived under the social unwritten code that claims that beauty comes in white skin, light hair and blue eyes, and that intelligence and reason does evade indigenous people, peasants, or anyone with dark skin. For generations we have been taught to give preference to others whiter than us. Breaking that mold has been the life work of many, many of my country people, but still there is much more to accomplish.

And yet, in my new learning, do I want people to lower the bar for me because of my history? Certainly not. I might have had a self-dubious start, but I am not without the capacity to amaze myself and others with what I do. If the ethnic awards were to disappear, or integrate, would I miss the celebration? Yes I would. Would there be other challenges to obtain? Certainly yes, because what I am is not Latina but a force.

But here is the other side. I have expressed in the past that I see the Pura Belpre Award as a regalo, a gift that is given to someone when you least expected it. At first the regalo goes to a book creator; an artist or a writer, and we receive the gift joyfully and gratefully. But after that, the gift is given to everybody. Once the award brings out the voice that there is a book worth of looking at, it is the readers who receive the gift next. In a way, the decision of the Pura Belpre committee to give an award to a person (an "ethnic" person for that matter) and not exactly to his or her book, has interesting consequences. You need to go to the schools to see it. You will understand it when you are propped in front of children—those of all possible colors, including brown, like me; who speak all kinds of languages, including Spanish like me; who perhaps struggle with their English, like I did; who feel like“tontos”, fools, unable to fit in the foreign culture, like once I did too. And then, in that moment when the teacher introduces you, and tells the audience that you have been the winner of this prestigious shiny golden medal stuck on the cover of your book, given here in the mythical United States to a person like YOU in recognition for the quality of your work, you can see it with your own eyes and your heart, that very moment when a child begins to dream that if you did it, he can do it too.

It was a great celebration!

We ate great food with family and friend, had tres leches cake, flan Napolitano and we toasted with champagne last night. There was so much in my list much to celebrate!:

1. I love my work
2. My friends surround me
3. My editor rocks
4. My agent believes in me with fury
5. My son inspires me
6. My husband cheers for me
7. When the ALA book award announcements were made, I a got a flurry of emails from people all over the websphere (and Facebook)
8. Margarita Engle won the Pura Belpre medal for narrative AND a Caldecott Honor for her book THE SURRENDER TREE; POEMS OF CUBA’S STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM. Viva las Latinas!
9. I adored THE GRAVEYARD BOOK, absolutely my kind of story—dead people, witches, ghouls and a boy raised by all of them.
10. The celebrations have just begun

On Sunday morning we went to the movies. And an s a good patron I turned off the ring of my cell phone. Mesmerized my son and I watched Slumdog Millionairie and took on its terror and its incredible beauty. Then, of course, I proceeded to forget to turn back on the ring of my phone. And that is why, when the ALA Pura Belpre Committee called me that night with the news that my book, JUST IN CASE, was the winner of their prestigious medal and an honor, instead of receiving the call, I continued knitting my last winter hat.
Second year in a row that I miss their call. Would they ever give me another opportunity?

I realized I had a message before going to bed as I took my phone to be recharged. The good thing about missing the call is that now I have the “secret” announcement recorded in my messages, and I can hear it again, and again—as I did that night—and dream of my work being cherished by librarians yelling in unison, “Just in Case!”

Of course I didn’t sleep that night! If, in its kindness, the Pura Belpre committee believes that they spare me sleep by not calling me on Monday mornings as is costmary, they are very wrong (they do this when the conference is taking place in a time zone ahead of mine, given that the official award announcements happen very early in the morning). Who could sleep with such news! Instead I spend my nigh jumping around the house, brewing a new Señor Calavera video, and anticipating the excitement and the surprises of the official announcements of all the awards in just a few hours.

There is much more to come; the planning for ALA in Chicago, the ironing of my best tie, the putting on cologne, the pumping the tires of my bike. But for now, it is time to get my butt back on the chair, my hand on the pencil, and continue dreaming books.


Making Just In Case from Yuyi Morales on Vimeo.

A joyful day!

The ALA childrens books awards have been anounced this morning and guess what?
Here is the Pura Belpre announcement--JUST IN CASE!:

http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2009/january2009/ymabelpre.cfm

Ajaua!!!