Watermark Teacher Feature – January 29, 2007

The star-spangled Kansas Day edition!

In this issue:

BOOK NEWS
2007 Caldecott, Newbery, and Printz Award winners

Fresh new titles

UPCOMING WATERMARK EVENTS
Kansas Center for the Book sponsors KANSAS READS

“Learning Tree” book discussion with David Parks: Wed., Jan. 31 at 11 a.m.
February KMUW Literary Feast: Friday, Feb. 2 at 7 p.m.
Bill Gardner logo trends talk & book signing: Friday, Feb. 9 at 7 p.m.

BOOK REVIEWS
“Gordon Parks: No Excuses” by Ann Parr & Gordon Parks

“The Learning Tree” by Gordon Parks

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Happy Kansas Day, everyone!

Today marks the start of the “Kansas Reads!” program sponsored by the State
Library’s Kansas Center for the Book, and this issue of Teacher Feature is
(largely) all about supporting the effort. Look below for more information on
the initiative itself, including a review of the inaugural book selection, a review of a recent children’s book about author and artist Gordon Parks, and Wednesday’s Watermark-sponsored book discussion with Gordon Parks’s son David Parks.

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2007 ALA Youth Book Awards

In other news, the American Library Association recently announced its various
annual awards for youth books. The big three we get the most inquiries about are
the Caldecott Medal for illustration, the Newbery Medal for middle-reader books, and the Printz Award for teen literature. We’ll have more on the winners and honorees in future issues, but for now, here are some quick peeks and links to reviews.

For a full list, visit the ALA Web site:
http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/2007MediaAwardWinners.htm


Caldecott Medal Winner: “Flotsam” by David Wiesner (Clarion Books, 0618194576, $17.00)

I’m going to brag and say I totally called this one: I even gave my niece a copy
for Christmas. This wordless picture book shows--in beautifully textured
watercolors--how a young boy finds an amazing camera washed up on the beach.
When he develops the film, he catches a glimpse of the wondrous and comical
things to be found on the ocean floor. (For ages 4 to 8) Read review


Newbery Medal Winner: “The Higher Power of Lucky” by Susan Patron, illus. by Matt Phelan (Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books, 1416901949, $16.95)

This one’s a bit more of a surprise; this book has been very much under the
radar. It’s the story of Lucky, a young girl who has lost her mother and been
given over by her absent father to a French guardian, who is raising her up in a
tiny town in rural California. Lucky has a lot of Ramona Quimby in her, and her
setting and colorful cast of friends bring to mind Kate DiCamillo’s “Because of
Winn-Dixie.” (For ages 9 to 12) Read review


Printz Award Winner: "American Born Chinese" by Gene Luen Yang (First Second Books, 1596431520, $16.95)

This excellent graphic novel by a Bay Area teacher was also a finalist for the
National Book Award. It tells three interwoven stories about a school kid, a
mythical Monkey King, and a sitcom character who all try to change who they are
in order to fit in. The artwork is inspired by video games and animation, and
the very funny stories speak right to teens' desires to be individuals and also
to be one of the gang. It’s fantastic and beautifully designed. (For teens and
adults) Read review

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FRESH TITLES

These new releases are out on the shelves but still cold from truck:

“Akimbo and the Elephants” and “Akimbo and the Lions” by Alexander McCall Smith (Bloomsbury USA Children's Books, 1599900319 and 1599900327, each $4.95) New in paperback, these chapter books are set in Africa and filled with animals and youthful adventure. They follow a Kenyan boy growing up on the edge of an immense wild-animal reserve and carry strong messages of environmental conservation and conscience--perfect for boys and girls who love the zoo! (For ages 4 to 8) Read a review here: Read review


“Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie” by David Lubar (Puffin, 0142407801, $6.99) Also new in paperback, this novel straddles the divide between middle school and high school. What begins as a somewhat generic story of comic bullying and freshmen confusion becomes totally awesome as the main character Scott gradually
discovers his love of reading and his talent for creative writing. This is a
great pick for bookworm kids who need a dose of encouragement and support: it
will introduce them to even more favorite books! (For readers 10 and older)


“Cupcake” by Rachel Cohn (Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 1416912177, $15.99) A follow-up to the novels “Gingerbread” and “Shrimp,” this hardcover teen novel is the third and final installment in the Cyd Charisse series. Cyd
has just finished high school and is pondering all her options while helping out
in her brother’s bakery in New York City. Just when things seem settled, her old
boyfriend Shrimp appears and reignites all their shared feelings (think Veronica
and Logan from TV’s “Veronica Mars”). The book is a rom-com with lots pop
culture and fun banter, and Cyd is a tough, atypical teen-novel heroine. (For
older teens)

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UPCOMING WATERMARK EVENTS


Kansas Center for the Book sponsors “Kansas Reads!”

Beginning today, Jan. 29, the Kansas Center for the Book is sponsoring a
state-wide reading program focused on the novel “The Learning Tree” by Kansas
native Gordon Parks. You can learn more about participating at the center’s Web
site: http://skyways.lib.ks.us/orgs/kcfb/

Watermark has supply of the book laid away, and we’re happy to offer you a 20%
discount on bulk orders. You can fax an order to (316) 682-1506 or shoot an
e-mail to: lisa.johnson@watermarkbooks.com


“The Learning Tree” book discussion: Wednesday, January 31 at 11:00 a.m.

David Parks, son of Gordon Parks, will lead a discussion of his father’s novel
“The Learning Tree” as a part of the State Library’s "Kansas Reads!” program.
The discussion will be held in the bookstore and it open to all.


KMUW Literary Feast: Friday, February 2 at 7:00 p.m.

The book for both February and March will be the new novel “Against the Day” by
Thomas Pynchon, author of “Gravity's Rainbow.” Feast participants will enjoy
dinner together, with a menu specially created by our Watermark chef, then take
part in a book discussion over dessert. Tickets are available at the Watermark
book counter or by calling (316) 682-1181. Places are limited, and we recommend
purchasing your ticket well in advance. Read more about the book, author, and
menu on the KMUW Web site at:
http://www.kmuw.org/LiteraryFeasts.html


Bill Gardner presentation and book signing: Friday, February 9 at 7:00 p.m.

Bill is a nationally-acclaimed graphic designer, and his firm, Gardner Design,
is based right here in Wichita. His "Logo Lounge" book series is a Rockport best
seller. He’ll be at Watermark to sign copies of his new book “Logo Lounge 3,”
and he'll also speak about logo trends. This talk is similar to keynote
presentations he's been asked to give around the globe, most recently in Moscow
and San Diego.


For a full listing of Watermark events, including book clubs and art openings,
visit the Events page of our Web site at:
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/events.html

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BOOK REVIEWS

The first is a children’s book about the author of the current “Kansas Reads!”
selection; the second is the selected book itself.


“Gordon Parks: No Excuses” by Ann Parr, illus. by Gordon Parks & Kathryn
Breidenthal (Pelican Publishing Company, 1589804112, $15.95)

The title of this photograph-rich picture-book biography comes from Gordon
Parks’s mother, who always insisted to him, “What a white boy can do, you can
too--and no excuses.” Parks grew up in Fort Scott, Kansas, before moving to
Minnesota at the age of sixteen to work. He found a job as a waiter with the
Northern Pacific Railroad, and after borrowing a customer’s “Life” magazine one
day, he became determined to teach himself photography. Through years of hard
work and experimentation, he built up his skills and eventually became “Life”
magazine’s first black photographer, and later he went on to paint, compose
music, produce and direct films, and write two dozen books, including the novel
“The Learning Tree.” Children’s author Ann Parr is also a Kansas native, and
“Gordon Parks: No Excuses,” published last February, is her first book. It makes
extensive use of Parks’s black-and-white photographs and of Kathryn Breidenthal
graphite drawings to illustrate the arc of life that Parks followed through
small towns and small jobs to become one of the Twentieth Century’s most
acclaimed photojournalists and fashion photographers.

Recommended for ages 4 to 8.

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“The Learning Tree” by Gordon Parks (Fawcett, 0449215040, $6.99)

Gordon Parks’s novel “The Learning Tree” is a semi-autobiographical
coming-of-age story set in southeast Kansas in the 1920s and 1930s, when racial
segregation was still legal and pervasive. Parks published it in 1963 as his
first work of fiction, and six years later, he made his directorial debut when
by adapting it as a film.

The book’s main character is a teenage boy named Newt Winger, who repeatedly
encounters stark racism from a young age but meets each affront with composure
and steadiness. Newt’s best friend Marcus, however, is a hothead more prone to
lash out in anger, and his lack of control threatens to drag Newt into trouble
with him. When Newt witnesses the murder of a white man, he must choose whether
to testify honestly: he can save the man framed for the killing, or he can
follow Marcus’s path of anger and loyalty and permit the true killer to escape
blame.

Throughout the novel, Parks writes in a style akin to oral storytelling, with
one scene or experience moving fluidly into the next. It’s an approach that
erodes the distinctions between individual characters’ actions and allows for
the creation of a group identity that is at once both easing and restricting.
Newt is a single person, but he’s also part of something much larger than
himself: his allegiances go beyond the boundary of his skin, no matter how often
the world tells him otherwise.

By testifying to the rampant racism of America in the Twentieth Century, Parks
makes his readers witnesses to the harsh treatment he experienced as a young
man, and he also offers them a form of recourse: they can choose, like Newt, not
to bow to double standards and dishonesty. “The Learning Tree” stands alongside
books like Richard Wright’s “Black Boy” and Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”
as a poignant and deeply moral testament to the destructive force of racism in
America--and to its utter needlessness.

Recommended for teens and adults.

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Past reviews and archived issues of Teacher Feature can be read on-line on the
Watermark Web site at: http://www.watermarkbooks.com/teach.html

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Ad astra per aspera,

Mark David Bradshaw


 

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