Charlotte Zolotow ~R
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A PROFILE OF CHARLOTTE ZOLOTOW ~R. b k iveri an ----:;.-- - ~~ --~~ ~ of books for .rorzng -readers Navigating the Neighborhood THE TEACHER'S ART : Dreaming of Kansas .,' Tales of ' Changelings -- INTERVIEW: Kevin Henkes Imagination ... and Risk By Emily Arnold McCully PLUS ~ New Books for Fall FALL 2001 ______ ,,,, .. ...,. 1 3 > 0 74470 94662 5 :$5.95 US $7.95 CAN It's Storytime! AUAN AHLliERG & RAYMOND BRIGGS The Adventures of 6arky Mavi~ BR OCK COLE THE ADVENTURES OF BERT Allan Ahlberg Illustrated by Raymond Briggs * "Top-drawer, absurd entertainment from two English masters of the droll ... This is brilliant stuff: simple tales that unleash great ponderings, li ke Bert's role in the universe. He could-believe it-be a savior of a sort. Bring us more Bert, please." -Starred, Kirkus Reviews $16.00 I 0-374-30092-5 / Ages 3-U EARTHQUAKE SOME FROM THE MOON Milly Lee SOME FROM THE SUN Illustrated b y Yangsook Choi Poems and Songs for E veryone "A good way to introduce the youngest Margot Zemach of readers to a calamitous event ... * "Wam1, lively, funny watercolors The illustrations' sculptured forms and ill ustrate nursery rhymes .. It will be geometric shapes make a pattern of well appreciated at the bedside, on the stability against dark vistas of smoke, lap, or at storytime. As a tribute to an fire, and destruction . .. enabling young artist or simply a book for sharing, readers to take in the scene and still it's a top-notch selection." find reassurance and comfort." -Starred, School Library Journal -Kirkus Reviews $17.00 I 0-374-39960-3 / All ages $16.00 I 0-374-39964-6 / Ages 4-8 Frances Foster Books LARKYMAVIS Brock Cole SHRINKING VIOLET * "Cole (Buttons) delivers a lyrical Cari Best and ever-relevant picture book ... Illustrated by Giselle Potter The tale's enigmatic quality elevates * "This is a first-class choice." it above a simple moral tale, and the -Starred, School Library Journal. scenes conveying Mavis's kindness "Potter's piquant watercolors put the will win sympathy for her. Cole draws crowning touch on this humorous tale material from fab les, fairy tales and of a shy child who saves her school play mythic ai·chetypes to create a story from disaster." -Publishers Weekly that will resonate deeply with readers." $16.00 I 0-374-36882-1 / Ages 4-8 -Starred, Publishers Weekly Melanie Kroupa Books $16.00 I 0-374-34365-9 / Ages 4-8 FARRAR • STRAUS • GIROUX ntustration by Margot Zemach from Som e j hnn th e Moon, Some.from th e Su n Fall 2001 .contents Essays Abou t th e Cov er Art ~ Navigating the Neighborhood .... ..... 4 We live on a bend of the St. Joseph River By Jennifer Armstrong in Michigan. The bridge shown here divides our land, resting between our Switch Craft ......... ............ .. 16 home and the smaller house I use as a studio. Patrice Marantette, the French By Christine Alfano trader who built our home in 1833, was a farmer with large landholdings who In the Ring ............. ... ......... 23 ran a trade with Potawatamee Indians in By Mary Lou Burket the area. He built the bridge for business purposes, desiring a shorter route when he took his wagons into town. Now the Reviews bridge is used only by walkers, swim ~ mers, fishermen, and (although I made her up) dreamers like this girl, who has New Books for Fall . ........ ..... ... .. 28 taken a moment away from her book to gaze at her reflection in the water. My wife, the writer Sarah Stewart, Features has led a decade-long effort to save this ~ increasingly rare iron-truss bridge from THE TEACHER' S ART Dreaming of Kansas .......... .... ... .. 7 inappropriate use, even demolition. Its By Kirkpatrick Hill future now appears solid as we await official confirmation of its status on the National Register of Historic Places. INTERVIEW Kevin Henkes . ................. .. .... 10 I haven't actually seen readers on By Susan Marie Swanson the bridge, but people often come there and stand and do nothing for A POEM FOR FALL "Autobiographia Literaria" . ............ 13 long periods of time. Like reading, By Frank O ' Hara what they do is quiet and contempla tive, so this girl's book stands for what BOOKMARK Ten Great Books about Trees 15 ever might be going through their heads, or, for that matter, whatever the PROFILE Charlotte Zolotow ..................... 19 river has drawn their thoughts away By Christine Heppermann from for the time being. -David Small HUBBS LE CTU RE Imagination and Risk .................. 25 David Small's most recent picture book is By Emily Arnold McCully The Journey, written by Sarah Stewart (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001). He ONE FOR THE SHELF Melba Patillo Beals's Warriors Don't Cry . 60 received the Caldecott Medal this year far So, By Martha Davis Beck You Want to Be President? by Judith St. George (Philomel, 2000). 1 Riverbank Review A new Young Spirit book by Editor Martha Davis Beck Art Director Kristi Anderson Two Spruce Design Con tributing Edi tors Christine Alfano Mary Lou Burket Christine Heppermann Susan Marie Swanson Marketing Director Christine Alfano Circulation Manager Jodi Grandy Controller Greg Triplett Bookkeeper Michele Tempel Copy Editor Lynn Marasco House Artist Julie Delton Computer Consultant Eric Hinsdale The Riverbank Review is grateful to the fol lowing individuals for their advice and sup port during the magazine's transition into independent operation: Barbara Davis, Carol Erdahl, Hervey Evans, Lee Galda, Ginny Moore Kruse, Eden Ross Lipson, Paula Qyint, David Reuther, Janet Schulman, Rebecca Sterner, and Mary Wagner. Fall 2001Nolume IV, Number 3 Copyright © 2001 by the Riverbank Review. All rights reserved. Please direct correspondence to: Riverbank Review 1624 Harmon Pl ace, Suite 305 Minneapolis, MN 55403 Phone: (6 12} 486-5690 E-mail: [email protected] Fax: (866) 261-6729 JR Web site: www.riverbankreview.com fGr th jril ll1e Riverbank Review (ISSN I 099-6389) is pub e evolving human sp lished quarterly, in March, June, September, and Hampton Roads December. Subscriptions are $22.95 for one yeJr $37.95 for two years (in CJnadJ: $32.95 for Publishing Company, Inc. one ye.u, $52.95 for two years). www.hrpub.com 2 Fall 2001 Acknowledgments The Riverbank Review is grateful to the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library for serving as our fiscal agent until our tax-exempt status is confirmed, and to the Metropolitan Library Service Agency (MELSA) for an in-kind contribution of computer equipment. The magazine would also like to acknowl In this issue of the Riverbank Review, Jennifer Armstrong writes about edge the contributions of individual donors children's need to freely explore the communities they live in. She to the Riverbank Review Transition Fund. remarks on the fact that mobility is a characteristic of many protag Contributors through August 28, 2001 in onists in children's fiction, and she asks a provocative question: If clude: Isabel Baker, Kathryn Beck, Dorothy Bickley, Barbara Borsi, Tom Braun, Cathy this freedom is central to an exciting narrative and to character devel Brockington, Margaret Bruell, Bruce Burket, opment, why do we not also recognize it as essential in the lives of Irene Haas Clark, Nancy Collins-Warner, Tara real children? Crudden, Kathleen Dahl, Tracey Daniels, Many of us might wish for our children to have broader territory Barbara Davis, David Brion Davis and Toni Davis, Frannie Davis, Jeremiah Davis, to roam in. As a city-dwelling parent, I'm conscious of the narrow Deborah Dean, Sue Disbrow, Jan Donley, ness of the boundaries imposed on my own sons. Yet I'm reminded Francesca Eastman, Minnie Ellmauer, of an observation attributed to the narrator's grandfather in Franz Kafka's Darlene Frybarger, Beverly Gallagher, Barb "A Country Doctor" (in a segment entitled "The Next Village"): "Life Gecas, Arthur and Bonnie Geisert, Laura Gimby, Arnold Griese, Kathleen Hall, Donna is astoundingly short. To me, looking back over it, life seems so fore Hanson, Anne Hernandez, Jean Hilligas, shortened that I can scarcely understand, for instance, how a young Susan Hopkins, Linda Hoyer, Patricia man can decide to ride over to the next village without being afraid Hubbell, the Ronald Hubbs family, Treva that- not to mention accidents-even the span of a normal happy life Inzerillo, Margaret Jensen, Marthe Jocelyn, may fall far short of the time needed for such a journey." Joanna Johnson, Nancy Johnson, Bruce and Coleen Johnston, Elizabeth Orton Reading is one form of adventurous journeying. Working through Jones, Deborah Keenan, X. J. and Dorothy a novel, a child constructs each step with his or her imagination. I Kennedy, Linda Koeckert, Pat Koegh, sometimes worry that our well-meaning efforts to get children to read Corinne Kuhlmann-McHie, Colette Lafond, are a bit too goal-oriented-or perhaps have the wrong goals. Do we Nina Lehman, Michael Libera, Carolyn Malden, Anthony Manna, Denise Matulka, want them to be avid readers so that they will do better in school, Michele Melander, Susan Messerich, Tracy score higher on tests, and have broadened opportunities as adults? Morsi, Cathy Morton, Bonnie Percival, Mary Though I've read plenty of material that makes such claims (and, I'll Ann Peterson, Rebecca Rapport, Martha admit it, I've used some of it in my shameless promotion of this mag Rice, Lisa Brown Roberts, Cheryl Robertson, Mary Lahr Schier, Joyce Sidman, Margot azine!) in my heart I know that reading isn't necessarily the magic Snyder, Lee Straayer, Lauren Stringer, Kelly door to those appealing ends. Telech,Joan Thron,Joanne Toft, Nancy Torok, Yet it is a door to worlds and experiences that are inaccessible by Jean Troy-Smith, Beth Warner, Claudia other means.