Children the journal of the Association for Library Service to Children

Libraries● June 2018 ISSN 1542-9806 & Digital Supplement 2018 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture

Naomi Shihab Nye Refreshments Will Be Served: Our Lives of Reading & Writing Table Contents of Digital Supplement ● June 2018 Editor Sharon Verbeten, De Pere, Editorial Advisory Committee Randall Enos, Chair, Middletown, New York Anna Haase Krueger, St. Paul, 2 Introduction Jeremiah Henderson, Renton, Washington Lettycia Terrones, Urbana, Lisa Von Drasek, St. Paul, Minnesota Virginia A. Walter, Los Angeles, California 3 Lecture Nina Lindsay, ALSC President, Ex Officio, Oakland, California Refreshments Will Be Served: Sharon Verbeten, Editor, Ex Officio, De Pere, Wisconsin Executive Director Our Lives of Reading & Writing Aimee Strittmatter Managing Editor 12 Arbuthnot Luncheon: Feast for the Mind Laura Schulte-Cooper Website and Soul www.ala.org/alsc Circulation Children and Libraries (ISSN 1542-9806) is a refereed journal published four times per year by 12 About May Hill Arbuthnot the American Library Association (ALA), 50 E. Huron St., , IL 60611. It is the official pub- lication of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of ALA. Subscription price: members of ALSC, $20 per year, included in membership dues; nonmembers, $50 per year in the U.S.; $60 in Canada, Mexico, and other countries. Back issues within one year of current Cover photo credit: Rajah Bose, Gonzaga University. issue, $15 each. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Children and Libraries, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. Members send mailing labels or facsimile to Member Services, 50 E. Huron St., Photos on pages 5, 6, 7, 8, and 11 courtesy of Naomi Shihab Nye. Chicago, IL 60611. Nonmember subscribers: Subscriptions, orders, changes of address, and inqui- ries should be sent to Children and Libraries, Customer Service—Subscriptions, 50 E. Huron St., Event photos on pages 2, 3, and 10 by Courtney Jones. Chicago, IL 60611; 1-800-545-2433, press 5; fax: (312) 944-2641; e-mail: [email protected]. Statement of Purpose Children and Libraries is the official journal of ALSC, a division of the American Library Association. The journal primarily serves as a vehicle for continuing education of librarians working with children, which showcases current scholarly research and practice in library ser- vice to children. It also serves as a vehicle for communication to the ALSC membership, spot- lighting significant activities and initiatives of the Association. (From the journal’s “Policies and Procedures” document adopted by the ALSC board, April 2004, revised, 2014.) Production ALA Production Services: Chris Keech, Tim Clifford, Lauren Ehle, and Hannah Gribetz. WELCOME|||||||||||||||||||| Advertising Bill Spilman, Innovative Media Solutions, 320 W. Chestnut St., PO Box 399, Oneida, IL 61467; 1-877-878-3260 or (309) 483-6467; fax: (309) 483-2371; e-mail: bill@innovativemediasolutions Welcome to the second annual Children & Libraries digital .com. The journal accepts advertising for goods or services of interest to the library profession and librarians in service to youth in particular. It encourages advertising that informs readers and supplement, featuring the 2018 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor provides clear communication between vendor and buyer. The journal adheres to ethical and com- monly accepted advertising practices and reserves the right to reject any advertisement not suited Lecture presented this spring by Naomi Shihab Nye. to the above purposes or not consistent with the aims and policies of ALA. Acceptance of advertis- ing in the journal does not imply official endorsement by ALA of the products or services advertised. Each year ALSC chooses a lecturer to prepare a paper consid- Manuscripts ered to be a significant contribution to the field of children’s Manuscripts and letters pertaining to editorial content should be sent to Sharon Verbeten, editor, 820 Spooner Ct., De Pere, WI 54115; (920) 339-2740; e-mail: [email protected]. literature. The paper is delivered as a lecture, and subse- Manuscripts will be sent out for review according to the journal’s established referee proce- dures. See www.ala.org/alsc, “Communications & Publications” for author guidelines. If you are quently published here in Children & Libraries. interested in serving as a volunteer referee for manuscripts submitted to CAL, contact Editor Sharon Verbeten at [email protected]. More information about the referee process is avail- able on the Web at the above address. Naomi Shihab Nye is a tireless champion of reading, writing, and books and a true believer in the exciting possibilities they Indexing, Abstracting, and Microfilm Children and Libraries is indexed in Library and Information Science Abstracts and in Library can provide. Her passion for words and language is palpable Literature and Information Science. throughout her presentation. Whether describing listening Children and Libraries is indexed, abstracted, and available in full text through EBSCOhost. to poetry as a child as “the joy of text carefully shaped enter- For more information, contact EBSCO at 1-800-653-2726. Children and Libraries is also available from ProQuest Information and Learning in one or more ing [her] ears” or contemplating the existentialism of Byron of the following ways: online, via the ProQuest information service; microform; CD-ROM; and via database licensing. For more information, call 1-800-521-0600, ext. 2888 or online at www Barton’s My Car and My Bus, her words in this lecture posi- .il.proquest.com. tively glow, conveying the hope, comfort, and nourishment The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI that reading and writing offer. Z39.48-1992. Copyright © 2018 American Library Association Enjoy! All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be photocopied for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted Sharon Verbeten by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. For other photocopying, reprint- CAL Editor ing, or translating, address requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions. Introduction Writer and Poet Naomi Shihab Nye delivered the 2018 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture, “Refreshments Will Be Served—Our Lives of Reading & Writing,” on Saturday, April 28, at the Western Washington University Performing Arts Center.

The daughter of a Palestinian father and finalist for 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems an American mother, Nye grew up in St. of the Middle East, and has been named Louis, Jerusalem, and San Antonio, Texas. a Guggenheim Fellow, amongst many 2018 Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Committee: Monica Edinger, Describing herself as a “wandering poet,” honors. she has spent 40 years traveling the coun- Betsy Bird, chair, and Wendy Lukehart (l to r). Not shown: try and globe, leading writing workshops The 2018 Arbuthnot Honor Lecture com- Timothy Capehart and Sharon McKellar. and inspiring students of all ages. Drawing mittee selected Western Washington on her Palestinian-American heritage University (WWU) and Whatcom County particular brilliance to illuminate our and world travel experiences, Nye uses Library System to serve as the host site for diverse and word-hungry communities.” her writing to demonstrate our shared Nye’s 2018 lecture. humanity. She is a professor of creative Members of the 2018 Arbuthnot Honor writing at Texas State University Sylvia Tag, curator of The Children’s Lecture Committee are: Chair Elizabeth Literature Interdisciplinary Collection Ramsey Bird, Evanston Public Library (Ill.); The author and/or editor of more than 30 at WWU, noted that, “Naomi Shihab Timothy D. Capehart, Beavercreek () books for adults and children, Nye’s The Nye spreads hope and light through her Community Library; Monica Edinger, The Turtle of Oman, a children’s novel, was poetry and prose. Western Washington Dalton School, New York; Wendy Lukehart, chosen as a 2015 Notable Children’s Book University and the Whatcom County District of Columbia Public Library, by ALSC. She has received four Pushcart Library System are honored to host the Washington, D.C.; and Sharon McKellar, Prizes, was a 2002 National Book Award Arbuthnot Honor Lecture and invite her Oakland (Calif.) Public Library. &

The podium at Western Washington University Performing Arts Center, site of the 2018 Arbuthnot Honor Lecture

Arbuthnot Honor Lecture • Children and Libraries • Digital Supplement • June 2018 2 Lecture Refreshments Will Be Served: Our Lives of Reading & Writing NAOMI SHIHAB NYE|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

I took the name of my first cat—Puff— from May Hill Arbuthnot’s books, which had entered our home before I went to school. Our Puff came to live with us in Ferguson, Missouri, when I was three, following my mother and me home from the market. Puff was placid and mellow and maintained cozy habits, curling up at the foot of my bed, following me patiently, frolicking with leaves. When I was six, in first grade, and my class read Dick and Jane every day, Puff froze to death in a blizzard. It took a while to find him. I cried and cried, till my mother suggested I could try to thaw him on a cookie sheet in the oven. I remember hovering in the kitchen, hoping to open that oven door to see him raise his head Naomi Shihab Nye (c) with Sylvia Tag (l), librarian, Western Libraries, and Nancy Johnson (r), professor, again and mew. Of course, this did not Western Washington University happen. We buried him under the cherry trees. Our Puff was gone. But Puff was still It’s very nice to see the great state of before that (and also moved away). But in the book. Washington again. You know, among state Bill belonged to the world. He was a mottoes, you really have the best one of global hero, and he cared so much about And therein shimmered a great comfort all: “Bye and Bye.” It’s been getting me everything connected to children’s liter- of literature: bigger lives. My Puff—Big through the days for a while now. We also ature and . Everyone who heard Puff. Already I had learned that when like Bellingham’s unofficial motto: “City him speak or studied with him loved him. my mother or the local librarian read of Subdued Excitement.” There must be He supported us more than we could ever a poem or story from a book, the lan- a story here. have known. I ran into him in airports— guage in the air felt clarified—better than he was always laughing, encouraging. conversation. No one was bossing any- Recently our beloved next-door neigh- Bill and his wondrous wife, Junko Yokota, one. Someone was describing. A neat- bors and our daughter-in-law’s fun par- gave deeper, wiser sense to the magical ness shaped by carefully chosen lines felt ents all moved from San Antonio to Port kingdom of reading. Bill, you are with delicious, containing decisive precision. I Angeles, Washington, just because they us always, we miss you terribly, and we could hover in the air afterwards, holding wanted to. They didn’t have to. Cut it out, thank you for your belief. these calmer notes. you guys! Stop taking our people. Also, thank you to Sylvia Tag and Nancy The Dick and Jane books were always Today’s humble remarks are dedicated Johnson, superstar hosts here at glori- urging us to Look! Look! See! Pay better to all of you who took time to come ous Western Washington University. We attention! And now, in my books, Puff still and listen to me. But also I dedicate appreciate all you have done so thought- had adventures. His eyes were open. He them especially to one of the heroes of fully to welcome us, and we love your was still going places. our shared book universe—Dr. William inspiring campus. Thanks to everyone * * * Teale of Chicago. Bill lived in San Antonio from HarperCollins Children’s Books,

Arbuthnot Honor Lecture • Children and Libraries • Digital Supplement • June 2018 3 especially publisher Suzanne Murphy Contemplating Virginia Duncan and her Because of Libraries We Can Say and Patty Rosati, director of School & work, I’m not just thinking with gratitude These Things Library Marketing. I thank the Arbuthnot about my own books we have made. So Selection Committee and chair Betsy many other books Virginia edits have She is holding the book close to her Bird, as well as the Association for Library been crucially important to our reading body, Service to Children and their president lives, as well. I can’t imagine having lived carrying it home on the cracked (and also fabulous poet), Nina Lindsay. without Kevin Henkes, for example. Try sidewalk, Today at our luncheon at the university Wemberly Worried—my central sacred down the tangled hill. we were privileged to hear local young text as an American since Election Day If a dog runs at her again, she will poets, and to view an amazing play per- 2016. “Wemberly worried about every- use the book as a shield. formed by young actors and receive thing. Big things. Little things. And things copies of A Forest of Words anthology, in between.” Flap copy for America. She looked hard among long lines containing art and words by young peo- of books ple of Whatcom County. Bravo! to find this one. When they start talking about money, Also, I dedicate these remarks to the best when the day contains such long luck I ever had in life—Virginia Duncan, and hot places, my longtime editor and friend, who took she will go inside. the time to write me an old-fashioned An orange bed is waiting. envelope letter way back in 1991 and Story without corners. ask if I’d ever thought about writing for She will have two families. younger readers. Well yes, I had. Since They will eat at different hours. I was little. And the door to life opened wider. Although she enthusiastically She is carrying a book past the fire rejected the first two manuscripts I sent station her, everything suddenly got better once and the five-and-dime. we started on our first project. Virginia, What this town has not given her kids love hearing about any time you the book will provide, a sheep, have rejected something from me. Or a wilderness of new solutions. asked me to develop passages or change The book has already lived through course. This is their favorite thing. Forget its troubles. successes. Knowing of your wise and fre- The book has a calm cover, a quent counsel—Work on this—makes Teen Services of Whatcom County Library System publishes straight spine. them feel better about teachers’ com- two anthologies annually, A Forest of Words and Whatcomics. ments suggesting further drafts of their When the step returns to itself own papers. as the best place for sitting, I’m happy that our grandson has recently and the old men up and down the Together Virginia and I made This Same become addicted to Kevin’s A Good Day, street Sky, a contemporary world poetry anthol- about a bad day that turns good—at two, are latching their clippers, ogy compiled by two novices who had he marches around the house waving never made an anthology before. The the book, shouting Day! Day! And if any- she will not be alone. gorgeous book is still in print. It stunned one turns on the news, he conveniently She will have a book to open even the contributors, some saying they switches it off. And open and open. recovered from chronic illnesses the Her life starts here. moment they first held it in their hands. Thank you, Kevin. Thank you, Susan This Same Sky has been used in fifth Hirschman, first editor in chief at Our grandson has also been addicted grades as well as university classes, which Greenwillow, for being Kevin’s first edi- since he was born to Greenwillow’s My was one of my secret hopes. Penetrating tor; and thank you, Virginia, for these Car and My Bus, by Byron Barton. In that age borders in readership—belonging to many years since. And thank you—all old way of high school English class, if all. If you do not know this book, it is not librarians and teachers everywhere, you stare at something long enough it too late to get a copy. Strangely many of who open up our worlds. No young starts to take on many more resounding the poems mean even more to me now, person ever asks a teacher or librarian, metaphorical layers—the “1,2,3” on the in our current universe, than they did “Help me make my world smaller.” No bus has become much more important when we made it. This Same Sky—all of student says, “I wish to know fewer peo- to us in recent months. These are exis- us connected. ple, have fewer ideas.” tential texts. You drive around with a dog, you drop off the dog. You pick up three

Arbuthnot Honor Lecture • Children and Libraries • Digital Supplement • June 2018 4 dogs. They all want to go somewhere. (no one ever played with him—in One wants to get on a boat. One wants to those days move to a sane country. Just kidding. bullies weren’t popular) and committed me to attending Today, it’s a good day. We are a roomful of a children’s Christmas party with family because we all value books, carry him books everywhere, give books as gifts, in the basement of a Methodist find homes in books. We have tickets to church. sanity and ways of escape. A realm of Somehow she arranged this plan delight that remains private, portable, with his mother inviting but also collective. For some of as they waited for us by the school- us there is nothing more delicious than yard. tucking up with a really good book. We Impressive he had a mother who have whole worlds waiting beside our waited— beds, in our satchels, on our shelves and he seemed like a person who tables. We have better compasses and sprang from a forest, maps. growling. My parents argued about the I’m curious how many people here grew Christmas party My parents, Miriam Allwardt and Aziz Shihab, on their wed- up in sugar-free households. Please raise every night before it happened. your hands. Keep your hand up if you still Daddy said Mom was “sacrificing ding day in Topeka, Kansas, 1951. They both loved words and eat no sugar or gave it up along the way. me to her idealism.” had wide-open minds. Very few hands, people! He kept calling it my “first date.” I was only interested in what smorgasbord worth cheering for. No mat- Well, how many of you joined the Girl or people did ter how many times you visited a library, Boy Scouts because you heard a rumor in basements of churches you never read all the books. New ones that there would be treats? and what I would wear and would were always arriving. Popular ones kept there be cake. going out into houses on their little jour- I had no great desire for badges, though of Since we ate no sugar at our house neys, then returning. They would wait for course once you’re in the ranks, your fer- (idealism), you. I felt personal victory and nourish- vor grows. Swimming badge! Of course, I I dreamed of meeting sweets ment in checking out books I thought no can! Sewing badge! A whole basket by my everywhere else. one had paid attention to for a while. bed filled with my family’s tattered socks. The night of the party, Bully wore a suit Students always ask why I wanted to It was mortifying to me that when it was and striped tie. He didn’t growl. write poems as a child. It is because I my turn to bring treats, my mom sent It was his church, but he didn’t had heard poems. For years already by unsalted almonds and dried apricots. seem to know the age of six, I had felt the joy of text anyone. carefully shaped entering my ears. I had Everyone else brought cupcakes. I stood in my puffed pink icing of a been lifted by it, calmed, held. I still ruffled dress remember floating in the hallway outside by the cake table and watched him. my childhood bedroom repeating Hope Bully He skulked around is the thing with feathers over and over while the choir sang Christmas inside my mind. Exposure opened me. I One boy in our grade school was songs, knew what a poem was, therefore I had considered looked embarrassed when Santa something to model on. I knew four lines a bully— appeared. might be enough. muttering rude insults under his I talked to him any time he came breath, near. It was a place to rest. A small quiet shape tripping girls as they walked to Would you like some cake? I don’t in the great body of language. their desks. recall him He bothered everyone equally, bothering me again at school for These days, we have to remind ourselves. shook his shaggy the rest of our years. I’d like to share a passage from the intro- blond hair when teachers called his duction to my newest book, Voices in the name. So for me, my personal refreshments Air: Poems for Listeners. My mom, hearing the tales, were usually reading-related. No candy decided he was lonely bars, no lollipops. Library shelves were a

Arbuthnot Honor Lecture • Children and Libraries • Digital Supplement • June 2018 5 Not so long ago we were never the Middle East is so much more than the ones they had finished—they would checking anything in our hands, the sorrowful place too many imagine) line up with pride at the Return Desk, scrolling down, pecking with a . . . I remembered years earlier being at then buzz like little honeybees around the finger, obsessively tuning in. My a library/reading conference in Bahrain shelves in harmony, whispering together. entire childhood did not involve a where we all attended an amazing talk Since they celebrated International Dress single deletion. These are relatively by Dr. Munir Fasheh, a visiting scholar Day during those weeks, it was possible new acts on earth. who had worked for the Harvard Center to see how many countries they hailed for Middle Eastern Studies. Something from—astonishing. No walls between any In those archaic but still vivid he said has always stayed with me: “Arabs of them. days, there might be a meander- are known for their hospitality and gen- ing walk into trees, an all-day bike erosity. Reading is a form of hospital- My visiting author colleague Todd Parr, ride, a backyard picnic, a gaze into ity; it is inviting ideas, perspectives, and from Berkeley, California, was delight- a stream, a plunge into a sunset, experiences of others into your inner- ing them every day with his Animals in a conversation with pines, a dig most home—yourself. At the same time, Underwear books and his credo of Be in the dirt, to find our messages. reflecting on and expressing one’s expe- Who You Are. To hear the kids laughing When we got home, there was noth- riences is a form of generosity; it is giving from the next room when Todd spoke ing to check or catch up on—no one the most valuable thing you have—your was like a healing waterfall in a world speaking to us in our absence. innermost self.” of broken news. I was meeting up with large groups of older students, talking Recently, when I had the honor of The deep exchange. about observation, writing regularly, and visiting Yokohama International possibilities of language, sharing Gary School in Japan to conduct poetry My Palestinian father always emphasized Snyder and Bashō of ancient Japan and workshops, student Juna Hewitt hospitality when we were growing up poems by Arab poets and American kid taught me an important word— too, so this touched me with expanded poems and some of my own about my Yutori—“life-space.” She listed var- resonance—suggesting a different kind of Palestinian grandmother, and passing out ious interpretations for its mean- hospitality. funny scraps of paper from recycling bins ing—arriving early, so you don’t for them to write on if they didn’t have have to rush. Giving yourself room their own notebooks. And here are some to make a mistake. Starting a diet, lines they wrote: but not beating yourself up if you eat a cookie after you started it. Giving I wish to remember to stitch my yourself the possibility of succeed- words— ing. (Several boys in another class to stitch them tight defined the word as when the cord and to sew them with purpose for your phone is long enough to (Allia) reach the wall socket.) Juna said she felt that reading and writing poet- Silence will always be waiting, ry gives us more yutori—a place to staring . . . (Sammy) stand back to contemplate what we are living and experiencing. More I’m lost and confused— spaciousness in being, more room I keep finding myself in my old in which to listen. house in Syria —what is this life? (Sufyan) I love this. It was the best word I learned all year. My Palestinian grandparents (date unknown) Why does my door to my dream close? Not that sense of being nibbled At the American School of Dubai, a very Why can’t I just dream all day? up—as if message minnows sur- large fifty-year-old school on an expan- (Jazlyn) round us at all moments, nipping, sive elegant campus that seems more nipping at our edges. like a college, each morning before 8 The pencil was running on the a.m. the youngest students—ages three page * * * and four—would march into the library. blooming with new ideas (Dorra) Truly a global community of kids—every Recently while on a beautiful working trip background you can imagine. They were When I was born the light post was to the Middle East (and I have to throw so serious and focused about picking out my friend, that word “beautiful” in there, because their new books to read, and dropping off the diaper was my enemy,

Arbuthnot Honor Lecture • Children and Libraries • Digital Supplement • June 2018 6 my brother was my stepstool, It’s impossible to be lonely if you have a my dad a horse, my mom a chair . . . good book. (a 2nd grader—Lila) * * * Loneliness says nothing, sips on a cup of tea, thinking, Today I think of May Hill Arbuthnot, who giving me a long hollow face went to college in Chicago (I wrote my like a valley . . . (Sami) first poem at age six about Chicago). She believed in children and voices and the Naturally, when kids write like this very encouragement of voices. She described quickly, seeming surprised and uplifted “that long stretch of years when I was by their own words (teachers also sur- dashing from one end of the country to prised—and teachers also writing)—one the other, bringing children and books feels encouraged to continue visiting together by way of the spoken word.” She classrooms even forty-two years after also said, “I am a strong believer in the one planned to stop. This refreshment efficacy of direct speech . . . a forthright of happy contagion—words sparked by vigorous lecture can set fire to a piece of other people’s words—is nourishing to literature that had failed to come to life us all. from the printed page.”

I would go out walking in the evenings in Well, I don’t know about the word “lec- I was in second grade when I started sending poems to Dubai—when the heat softened and the ture”—it has always given me the shiv- magazines for children. sun sank and the coastal breezes blew ers—but I do agree that talking about and the little shop that sold lilies locked poetry a little more, aloud, with others, knows what might happen? What else its door and the Arabic sweets vendor stirs it into action. I’ve never yet vis- might it awaken? waved his spatula at me through the win- ited a place where it didn’t live. I like to dow. I would watch the sun set between tell kids we are getting onto the poetry These strange days, maybe we have to the tall, tall buildings, over the sea. And channel together. They know about listen harder, share more good news, be a then I would go back to my room and channels. Once we click in, stirring up tiny bit nicer, upgrade our optimism any take a hot lavender bath and hop into bed some remembering, describing, making way we can, work a little harder . . . to try with my book. I was reading Elizabeth a few metaphors or wild leaps in lan- to recalibrate reality. What else can we do? Crook’s recent novel The Which Way Tree, guage, good things happen. I like to say which takes place in Civil War Texas (not poems or parts of poems to them aloud— I have noticed that audiences of children an era which ever particularly interested thank you for the last ten years to the have not changed much recently. But me)—the main characters are a teenaged Poetry Out Loud initiative of the National audiences of adults these days often have boy, his younger wounded sister, and an Endowment for the Arts!—and it seems a more desperate feel, as if they want any elusive very mean panther. I hope this to me that hearing poems in a room with speaker to hand them passwords for san- book will be picked up as high school other listeners changes the air, and the ity—a magical code for survival during reading coast to coast, because I cannot capacities of language. I believe what my weird times. And all any of us can do is remember a better sense of a teenager’s wondrous teacher friend Lisa Siemens tell the best things we know. voice than Benjamin’s—he tells the whole of Manitoba, Canada, believed with her story in his unforgettable letters to a students for many years—exposure may The best thing I know is children. judge. be the most important thing of all. Forget Spending time with them all these about expertise—exposure and enthusi- years—staying close to their interesting And every evening this ritual was the asm matter more. And definitely, please ways of thinking—continues to seem the sweetest, most incredible reading time— forget about explanations. Poetry prefers best possible realm. Last week a boy from even after whole days with words and hinting, insinuating, suggesting, leaping, Afghanistan asked me a question no one talk talk talk and kids, being transported triggering. As poet Charles Simic once had ever before asked in quite this way: into a long-ago time in history, and the said, “It’s a great disservice to paraphrase “You are an author. You could be with very tough lives of kids on their own and poems in duller language.” grown-ups all day. Why do you choose to how they got through, restored me. I be with us, kids?” would fall deeply asleep to dream surreal Richard Jackson reminded us, “Nobody time-traveling stories and images and can guarantee fans for a poem or a film, He looked stunned when I said, “I think awaken profoundly refreshed, ready to go a sculpture or a dance.” Or a song or any- you are the best people. I want to remem- see those loads of kids again. thing else. But once it’s out there—who ber what you know.”

Arbuthnot Honor Lecture • Children and Libraries • Digital Supplement • June 2018 7 wearing coats; they think it’s summer— Americans from different climates.

Years ago, I sat with one of my Palestinian uncles under our ancient Texas pecan trees. He was wearing a white shirt, as he did every day. It was summer. He never looked hot. He had eleven kids—my dad had two. They were half-brothers—same dad, different moms. He was debonair and dashing, and on that day said, “I have a story to tell you about your dad. A story you never heard before. It explains every- thing about him.”

Really? I thought I knew my dad pretty well.

“You will be surprised,” Uncle Mufli said. “You might be shocked.”

Tell me! Two of my favorite books from childhood. I argued with The Important Book, by Margaret Wise Brown, pictures by Leonard Weisgard. I thought everything was important. Helen Ferris edited my first anthology of poems, a treasure still. He looked at his watch. “I don’t have time today. It’s a long story. I’ll tell you the next Another great thing you all might look up of—soldiers, guns, tanks, things blowing time I see you.” to restore faith in humanity when yours up. Here I am not sure what to be scared feels lagging is a project called Every of. So mostly after school we stay in our Then he got on an airplane, flew to Jordan Campus a Refuge, founded by Dr. Diya apartment.” It took him a long time to say to see some of his kids, and died. Abdo of Guilford College, Greensboro, this. He wanted to speak properly. Two of North Carolina. See the story in a recent his teachers had tears running down their Boom. No story. We loved him and we Chronicle of Higher Education titled “We faces. They said, “That’s the most we’ve were all so sad. Can Eat, We Can Live”—this project sup- ever heard him talk.” ports welcoming refugees (now called I asked my dad, “What was Uncle Mufli newcomers, in San Antonio, anyway) to Scrap of a story. Such a hard story. How going to tell me about you?” American campuses where they may get one person’s story encourages another’s. organized, balanced, and helpfully inte- When I was a child living my simple life, “Heck if I know,” my dad said. “Who did grated into their new lives. They stay for the book Mister Dog, by Margaret Wise he think he was? He had a big revelation? a few months, then move on to their own Brown, gave me a place in my mind to I could tell you some things about him apartments or homes. The vivid talents go when things didn’t seem to fit well. too.” of college students in all departments The dog belongs to himself. The boy are available to help them. Dr. Abdo is belongs to himself. The very carnivorous That was that. Palestinian and was chair of the English “conservative” dog who’s a little obses- Department when I visited—she is a true sive about having things in their proper Then my dad died too and we couldn’t hero to me, and we could all advocate for places—I didn’t eat meat and never had even speculate anymore. The untold campuses in our own areas to participate. a dog and wasn’t conservative at all, but story. Like that song—“The Lost Chord”— I loved him. that all piano students had to learn in the There are so many great and under- 1950s and 1960s. sung projects in the world. Sharing good Does your story have room for me? news—it’s not a luxury these days. We When I’m visiting their classrooms I tell really need it. My story has room for you. kids—Ask questions. Before it’s too late! If they say, “Oh, it’s nothing . . .” urge them A boy from Iraq, after reading The Turtle We live on the edges of stories we don’t again! Press! Most of poetry is probably of Oman, raised his hand to say, “Many hear. Every person walking past us on the asking questions. things are different in my new life too. pier at Bellingham is full of stories. Those Like Aref, the boy in the book, at least tattoos! Those tank tops naming bands Think of the wisdom given us by teachers back home I knew what to be scared or coffee shops we never heard of. We’re along the way. Sometimes it takes years

Arbuthnot Honor Lecture • Children and Libraries • Digital Supplement • June 2018 8 My Texas high school art teacher told us Fly low, love a shadow. And sing, each to pick a word to be ours for the sing freely, entire semester. “You will paint this word, never let anything get in the way of batik this word, make a sculpture to sig- your singing . . . nify this word, carve this word into wood and clay; it may turn out to be your word About Peter Matthiessen: for life.” Good thing I chose SIMPLE. Never too proud to tip his head As Isaac Newton said, back in the sev- back. enteenth century in England, “Truth is To gaze, look beyond. ever to be found in simplicity and not in Something nesting in leaves, the multiplicity and confusion of things.” unseen, Check! Some simpletons hang on forever. presence on a boulder beside water, These days, thanks to our grandson I’m single strong leg. reminded of the great refreshment I Fine if it took a long time to walk always felt emanating from offbeat texts— there. surreal tinges—like a cinnamon scent Better if it took time . . . from a cooling pie in a window. (Does anyone still place a pie on a windowsill to About Maya Angelou: cool?) Our grandson is currently loving an And if anyone told her they were alphabet book from Platt & Munk, 1966, going photographed by Thomas Matthiesen. It to Gloomy Street, is somewhat bizarre. He asks for it every she’d say, What? Lift those eyes. day we are together. These are some of the Take a look at the Signed, limited edition broadside commemorating the 2018 lines that appear in the text: sea to your right, buildings full of Arbuthnot Honor Lecture mysteries, schools “D—No one has ever seen a doll grow up.” crackling with joy, open porches, for the refreshments to be served—for the watch the world whirl by, wisdom to come into focus. Scribble it “E—It is not good to drop an egg unless all we are given without having to down. Muse upon it. I have always urged you like to mop the floor.” own . . . everyone to keep a notebook and write at least three lines a day. Not a great invest- “K—Have you ever seen a closed door Kids ask me if it’s important to have men- ment of time, but wow! What a possible and wondered what was on the other side tors. Without a doubt! And what a great payback. of it?” (image of keys) time, searching for them, following up.

Mrs. Harriett Lane of second grade told “L—Never growl at a lion.” Never lose the pleasure of being a fan. us if we memorized poems they would be with us always. Check! We would hear “O—Some people think owls are very A few months ago, a tall, elegant African those voices—Langston, Walt, Emily— smart. No one knows if owls think people American IT expert stepped into a library inside our heads forever and they would are smart.” where I was meeting with kids. He stood belong to us in a different way. Check! with his head tipped, listened for a min- Somehow I find this book helpful right ute, and began weeping. I paused. All the She told us never to be ashamed of speak- now. See, you don’t even need the whole kids looked at him. He said, “When I was ing up, using our voices. She taught us text. Even a line or two can lift your spir- a kid you came to my school and told not to mumble. We whispered among its. No, I don’t think owls think so! Maybe me my voice mattered. That I was orig- ourselves, “What does mumble mean?” this is why I became a poet. A single bite inal. You clapped and everyone clapped satisfies. when I read my poems. No one had ever My teachers in the ancient Sts. Tarkman- clapped for me before. I’m taking the day chatz Armenian School of Jerusalem Here are a few lines about my mentors off starting right now, and I’m going to sit suggested that if we sat in dullness and from Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners. in here and write poems with you all.” boredom long enough our brains would give us better things to think about. We’d About William Stafford: The kids looked stupefied. This older man become more creative because we were Stay humble, blend, belong to all had been my student too? He stayed desperate. Check! directions. in the library all day. He stood up and

Arbuthnot Honor Lecture • Children and Libraries • Digital Supplement • June 2018 9 a living organism.” We all think of books that way—they are the living air we breathe. He also said, “One is all the time looking at financial returns—that is not only what life is. I think wellness is miss- ing.” He described “wellness” as how we can connect with silence, how life can be lived at your own pace,” and “how do we avoid the use of an automobile.”

I think about the wellness factor when I think of the overdose of standardized testing emphasis in too many public schools. I think about how poorly I did on some tests—and how fine my life has been. I think about the questions about an essay I had written that a Houston journalist smuggled out of a standard- ized-testing lab a few years ago and how I could answer only three out of ten of them with conviction. The questions about my own essay.

This is why kids need to exercise their own voices. So there is something else thrumming in their heads. A better story. A real true, spoken, shaped story. Watching the Dubai kids enter the library every morning for two weeks, or the beautiful kids in Muscat, Oman, writing and volunteering to read the next week— everyone felt their pride. Library time was a crucial part of their days, expected and anticipated. This was glory in selec- tion. This was freedom.

Members of the 2018 Arbuthnot Committee with Nye before the lecture. Monica Edinger, Betsy Bird, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Mohsin Hamid, the novelist, makes it Sharon McKellar (l to r) simple when he says, “Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in your- shared. It was impressive to them that Words have been given to us and we want self.” Why is it sometimes hard to feel their tech expert cared so much. to respond in words. Collecting so many those echoes? It shouldn’t be. passionate testimonials by now warms Or, I recall the day I volunteered at our the heart but also haunts me. Let’s make a Richard Jackson said, “Art comes from son’s middle school, and a mom stormed world together where reading and writing imagined life—no matter the degree to into the classroom I was visiting and are among the most essential things we which it’s based upon real people and said loudly, “Why don’t kids get to do trade. actual family or historical events.” this every day? Share their thoughts with a page? You came to our school when I I’ve never met people who didn’t have This opens up the world. was little and it was the only time anyone something to say. asked me to share my voice EVER the Tell this to high school kids—their eyes whole time I was growing up!” She was Last month, a ninety-year-old architect widen hopefully. OK, so maybe I’m not ferocious. I said, “Take this to the top!” and urban planner from India, Balkrishna stuck, then. Doshi, won the Pritzker Prize, archi- No, really. I didn’t know what to say. tecture’s highest honor—and he is the Tell this to elementary kids and they nod first recipient from India ever. He said, vigorously! Of course, we knew that! That We want it to be obvious. “Architecture is not a static building—it’s imagined life I was living in my head this

Arbuthnot Honor Lecture • Children and Libraries • Digital Supplement • June 2018 10 morning before I jumped out of bed is also Here we are, in a world we cannot explain, my real life! It’s not nothing! which we love so much. Here we are with histories and beautiful dreams and hope The novelist Kurt Vonnegut’s son Mark for one another, and try one day of break- said, “Reading and writing are in them- ing news. Here we are with every single selves subversive acts. What they subvert world religion saying Thou Shalt Not Kill, is the notion that things have to be the and what do people do? way they are, that you are alone, that no one has ever felt the way you have.” No one needs to ask why we need liter- ature. Why we need stories and poems I thank Virginia Duncan for never hav- and dreamy images and songs and essays ing backed away from the notion that Sitti, age 105, and son Madison, age 5, in the West Bank— and novels to lift us out of breaking news Palestinians are human beings too. She only one hundred years between them. They really hit it off. headlines deftly, and quietly. and I published Sitti’s Secrets more than twenty years ago, and the picture book, Strong and content I travel the open There is something else. We know where illustrated by Nancy Carpenter, is still road. it is. in print. The Afghani kids last week told me that my Sitti is their grandmother. I loved this so much, except for the librar- They said this with conviction. Virginia ies phrase, and I still do. You can only Every Day Duncan and I published Habibi, about wonder—what had just happened to him (For Aziz, and Palestine) the friendship between an Arab American in a library? Did a library refuse to shelve girl and a Jewish Israeli boy, with the his book? He loved the world and what might subtle mention of adolescent kissing on happen in it. the very first page (I heard this caused a Once on a plane in the midst of turbu- Some people labor to get up but little consternation in Saudi Arabia). But lence, a child behind me began crying he was so ready to rise. an Arab dad recently wrote to me from out, “I want to touch the houses! Where Refreshed and still alive —Very tricky, putting that kiss- is our house?” after the dark hours, ing part up front. Snagged my daughter! glistening with hope and cologne. It seemed such an accurate longing, at a Must we love the world doubly Arthur Murray had a mission in his danc- bumpy moment. How do we touch the much now ing. He wanted to use dance to “bring houses? How do we feel grounded some- in his absence? ease for universal heartache, desolation, where again? And which adult could say and loneliness.” What a model! Think of that so simply? He is not absent. those feet gracefully swishing across a Still living in the fig tree, floor, then think of the dance of any text Always take a book on a plane. the carefully placed stone, you have loved in your life—how it gave the draping mimosa. you hope and dreams of a better way to I’m thunderstruck when some writer In his empty notebooks, the lonely be. mentions a text saying, I wish I had writ- wooden chair. ten that. It shakes me up. Aren’t you glad We will keep it pulled up to the In second grade, we read Walt Whitman someone else wrote it? Why do you want desk, just in case. for the first time— to own it? Don’t you own it as a reader? Just in case Justice suddenly walks into the room and says, Afoot and light-hearted I take to the Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked, Yes, I’m finally here, sorry for the open road, among other great books, and truly one delay. Healthy, free, the world before me, of the finest people I met in my life, Tell me where to sign. The long brown path before me said, “May we regard the read- He tried to think the best of people. leading wherever I choose. ing life of the young as the His drawer was not stacked with Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I most vital homeland protec- disappointments. myself am good-fortune, tion strategy going—for our Only folded white handkerchiefs Henceforth I whimper no more, home—for this planet—and still waiting. postpone no more, need nothing, our family the farflung tribes After the storm, frogs and toads Done with indoor complaints, who shelter therein.” chorus along the pavement, libraries (no, Walt, no!), queru- We believed! We believed! & lous criticisms,

Arbuthnot Honor Lecture • Children and Libraries • Digital Supplement • June 2018 11 Arbuthnot Luncheon: Feast for the Mind and Soul

A special luncheon, celebrating young people and expression, Contest, which encourages young was held on April 28, prior to the Arbuthnot Honor Lecture. writers to explore through poetry The event showcased the literary and dramatic talents of themes like apologizing, listening, Whatcom County youth in presentations that often touched building peace, and anti-bullying. A on themes of peace and finding common ground, which Forest of Words is a print collection perfectly underscored and complemented the work of Naomi of original poetry by young people Shihab Nye, 2018 Arbuthnot lecturer. in grades six through twelve, pub- lished by Teen Services of Whatcom A one-act play was performed by BAAY: Bellingham Arts County Library System and distrib- Academy for Youth. “Us & Them,” written by David Campton uted to area schools and libraries. and directed by Ian Bivins, portrayed the story of two neigh- boring groups who arrive in the same space and proceed to “The voices of the young people build a wall to keep their communities separate. The drama, speaking truth were a profound performed by 13 to 18-year-olds, brought into focus what tonic to all present,” said Nye. “The unites people and what keeps them apart. play was eerily prescient in light of our current moment—walls and breaking up of immigrant families and racism and all The lunch and program would not have been complete with- the sorrows abounding. I felt as if the luncheon cleansed and out poetry, of course, and there was plenty to be enjoyed. refreshed our spirits beyond measure, gave testament to what Numerous young poets from Whatcom County read their works, honest, beautiful, brave voices can do.” among them Mia Clarke and Emma McCoy, whose poems appear in A Forest of Words: 2018 Poetry Anthology, and Lily Luncheon guests enjoyed an engaging and lively afternoon of Patterson and Jessica Jimenez, two winners of the Whatcom community, the ideal refreshment and precursor to the spe- Dispute Resolution Center’s (WDRC) 2018 Youth Peace Poetry cial evening ahead. & About May Hill Arbuthnot

The May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture is an annual event featuring an was published in 1947. In 1927, she joined the faculty of Case author, critic, librarian, historian, or teacher of children’s liter- Western Reserve University, and there she met and married ature, of any country, who shall prepare a paper considered to Charles Arbuthnot, an economics professor. She also served as be a significant contribution to the field of children’s literature. editor of both Childhood Education and Elementary English. This paper is delivered as a lecture each April or May, and is Her other works include The Arbuthnot Anthology of Children's subsequently published in Children and Libraries, the journal Literature and Children's Books Too Good to Miss. of ALSC. To link Arbuthnot's name with an oratory award makes perfect May Hill Arbuthnot (1884–1969) was born in Mason City, Iowa, sense. When accepting the award in 1969, she recalled “that long and graduated from the in 1922, receiving stretch of years when I was dashing from one end of the country her master's degree in 1924 from Columbia University. Along to the other, bringing children and books together by way of the with educator William Scott Gray, she created and wrote the spoken word.” She also affirmed, “I am a strong believer in the Curriculum Foundation Readers — better known as the “Dick efficacy of direct speech.... a forthright vigorous lecture can set and Jane” series — for children published by Scott, Foresman fire to a piece of literature that had failed to come to life from the and Company (now Pearson Scott Foresman). printed page.” She was thrilled at the prospect of this award pro- viding a forum for “new voices speaking with new insight and Her greatest contribution to children's literature, however, was new emphasis in the field of children's lectures.” (Quote from her authorship of Children and Books, the first edition of which The Arbuthnot Lectures, 1970–79, ALA/ALSC, 1980.) &

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