2000 CHILDREN'S BOOKS OF DISTINCTION AWARDS erbank Review --~ - ~~ --~--::;:::::::=-- -:::-. of books for Young -re3ders THE TEACHER'S ART: ONE FOR THE SHELF: SPRING 2000 $5.00 PUBLISHED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ST . THOMAS Guess what( It's time for Spring I GOTTA GO! GOTTA GO! BIG MAMA by Sam Swope by Tony Crunk Pictures by Sue Riddle Pictures by Margot Apple * "The experience of one tiny * "A quiet, satisfying picture creepy-crawly bug ... drama­ book with a small town setting tizes the astonishing journey of and a big heart." the Monarch butterfly ... This -Starred, Booklist is a story that brings the wonder "There is a mellowness here of the natural world right up that is tangible." close to a preschooler ... The -Kirkus Reviews rhythmic storytelling bears $16.00 I 0-374-30688-5 I Ages 3-7 repeated readings." -Starred, Booklist AROUND MY ROOM $12.00 I 0-374-32757-2 I Ages 3-7 by William Jay Smith Pictures by Erik Blegvad BUTTONS ln this winning collaboration, by Brock Cole twenty-nine poems for small * "Cole's range, empathy, children and delightful illus­ and imagination continue to trations demonstrate the astonish. This puckishly perfect enduring wit and charm of picture book insinuates itself two masters whose work into the heart immediately ... has delighted young readers The language sparkles and begs for over four decades. to be read aloud." $16.00 I 0-374-30406-8 I Ages 2-{i -Starred, Book/ist TONY CRUNK $16.00 I 0-374-31001-7 I Ages 5 up 'BIG ' I MAM.A P i<'1uro h Marxoc App l e P•••s t_y Williani Ja y ~iith lll•st1•t10•1 6v t:o ik Bleg"ad Farrar • Straus • Giroux Spring 2000 contents Essays ~ Foreign Goods ...................... .. 4 About the Cover Artist By Michael Patrick Hearn When I was a child in Korea, my Expanding the Boundaries . 8 brothers and I often played on the By Mary Lou Burket paths between the rice paddies and ponds. Each spring we Reviews would watch the tadpoles ~ swim around and eagerly await New Books for Spring .................. 28 u their change into frogs. Butter­ flies and bugs were our playmates. -YumiHeo ROUNDTABLE Sparking Interest in Nonfiction 10 Yumi Heo was born and raised in Korea. Contributors: Her introduction to art began when she Emily Arnold McCully Kathleen Krull was .fouryears old and was given a box ef Deborah Hopkinson Jim Murphy crayons by her mother (her favorite colors were pink Joanne Ryder jean Fritz and sky blue). Her mother encouraged her Lisa Westberg Peters Diane Stanley drawing as a child and later sent her to an Jim Arnosky Jeanette Winter art studio to study. Arthur Geisert Julius Lester Heo came to the United States in 19 8 9, and received an MFA from the INTERVIEW Lynne Rae Perkins ...... .............. 15 School of Visual Arts. Her style incorpo­ By Martha Davis Beck rates oil paint, pencil work, and some col­ lage. She is the author and illustrator of THE TEACHER'S ART Adventuring with Alice ................. 20 several picture books, including One Sun­ By Monica Edinger day Morning {Orchard), The Green Frogs (Houghton) and Father's Rubber PROFILE Daniel Pinkwater ................... 23 · ~ Shoes {Orchard). She is also the By Christine Heppermann ~-; ~ illustratorefNancy VanLaan's So Say the Little Monkeys A POEM FOR SPRING Haiku by Matsuo Basho ............... 25 (A theneum), Verna Aardema's The Lonely Lioness and the Ostrich 2000 Children's Books Chicks {Knopf), and Cynthia Chin-Lee's of Distinction Awards .................. 26 A Is for Asia (Orchard). ONE FOR THE SHELF Peter Spier's Rain ......... ........... 52 By Christine Alfano A is for angel asleep in his bed Bfor the beauty of birds overhead Editor Martha Davis Beck Art Director Kristi Anderson Two Spruce Design Marketing Director Christine Alfano Circulation Manager Christine Heppermann Editorial Committee Christine Alfano Martha Davis Beck Mary Lou Burket Christine Heppermann Susan Marie Swanson Copy Editor David Caligiuri House Artist Julie Delton Computer Consultant Eric Hinsdale Cattails Andy Nelson Interns Emily Carlson Kirsten Keto Letters are the foundation of language; out of language is Advisory Board born the ability to express the concepts of the mind, heart, Rudine Sims Bishop, Susan Bloom, and spirit. A Spin.ted Alphabet connects the letters of the Barbara Elleman, Carol Erdahl, alphabet with such important values as beauty, faith, spirit, Karen Nelson Hoyle, Susan Huber, and wonder. Ginny Moore Kruse, Margaret O'Neill Ligon, Trudi Taylor, Mary Wagner By Parent's Choice award-winners Morgan Simone Daleo Spring 2000 and her husband, illustrator Frank Riccio, the artist of The Volume III, Number I Copyright 2000 by the Riverbank Review. Little Soul and the Sun by Conversations with God author All rights reserved. Neale Donald Walsch. Please direct correspondence to: Riverbank Review University of St. Thomas 1000 LaSalle Avenue, MOH-217 A YOUNG SPIRIT BOOK COMI G I OCTOBER FROM Minneapolis, MN 55403-2009 Phone: (651) 962-4372 Fax: (651) 962-4169 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.riverbankreview.com The Riverbank Review (ISSN 1099-6389) is pub­ H AM PT 0 N R 0 A D S P U B LI SH I N G C 0 M PA N Y, I NC. lished quarterly, in March, June, September, and December. Subscriptions are $20 for one year (800) 766-8009 • www.hrpub.com (four issues), $35 for two years. The Riverbank Review is published in affiliation with the School of Education at the University of St. Thomas. 2 Spring 2000 editors note I often hear the complaint that there isn't much good non­ old, or when their son becomes interested in origami. All fiction published for children. It's frustrating for me to hear good reasons. The too well kept secret is, many of the books this, since I believe there is actually a lot ofgr eat nonfiction on these shelves can also satisfy the desire for a gripping out there; many readers just aren't aware of it. My response story. And, as Mary Lou Burket points out in this issue, the is usually to select a favorite title-Jim Murphy's The Great field of children's nonfiction has undergone significant Fire, David Getz's Frozen Man, Russell Freedman's The Life change in recent years: more and more titles break the mold and Death of Crazy Horse, or Jennifer Armstrong's Shipwreck of what we expect from "information books." at the Bottom ofthe World, for example-and make a pitch for The Riverbank Review's annual Children's Books of Dis­ it, not simply as a solid source of information but as a com­ tinction Awards, also featured in this issue, recognize non­ pelling read. fiction as well as picture books, fiction, and poetry. As with I've come to realize that there are reasons why people are the judging in each category, what we look for in the non­ unaware of the riches in this branch of literature. In most fiction we read is that magic combination of elements that bookstores the children's nonfiction section is dominated makes a book literature. By literature, let's say we mean a by series titles. In libraries, nonfiction picture books, which book of outstanding quality in its writing (and illustration, encompass such wide-ranging subjects as folklore, biogra­ if applicable), a book that is compelling to both children phy, and natural science, are shelved (logically enough) by and adults, a book that we feel is of lasting value-worth their nonfiction subcategory, rather than in the general pic­ rereading, and worth passing on to others. ture-book section where most parents of young children Of the qualities that make a book a contender, given browse. I feel especially tender toward these diverse and cre­ these criteria, I think the most important is voice. Does the ative picture books that remain obscure to many readers­ writer have a viewpoint that is clear and distinctive? Is the books like Lisa Westberg Peters's The Sun, the Wind, and the writing lively and engaging? For anyone who has doubted Rain, which the author succinctly calls a book "about the that they'll find these strengths in nonfiction, our first impermanence of mountains," or Juan Felipe Herrera's Call­ Roundtable offers evidence of the passionate and distinc­ ing the Doves, a picture-book memoir of the poet's child­ tive perspectives that can be found in children's nonfiction hood as the son of migrant farmworkers, or any ofJeanette today: twelve writers whose work incorporates nonfiction in Winter's splendid picture-book biographies of artists. some fashion share their insights and approaches. Their Too few of us include the nonfiction section in our brows­ voices are inspiring-and that's a fact. ing. And when we do, I think there's a difference in the way -Martha Davis Beck we tend to approach nonfiction that works against our dis­ Acknowl edgments covering some of the terrific books that are on the shelves. Publication of the Riverbank Review is made possible It's a more goal-oriented approach than that which charac­ in part by a gift from Margaret S. Hubbs, and by a terizes a perusal of the fiction shelves. People wander into the grant from the Minnesota Humanities Commis­ IIM rNN Esor A sion, in cooperation with the National Endow­ nonfiction section when their daughter needs a book about HUMAN1r1Es coMM1ss10N ment for the Humanities and the Minnesota State whales for a school report, or when they need to find a good Legislature. The magazine gratefully acknowledges this sup­ book about sexual development to share with their ten-year- port, along with the contributions of individual donors.