Judaica Librarianship

Volume 8 Vol. 8 no. 1-2 113-113, 115

9-1-1994 Sydney Taylor Book Award Acceptance Speeches (1993)

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Recommended Citation . 1994. "Sydney Taylor Book Award Acceptance Speeches (1993)." Judaica Librarianship 8: 113-113, 115. doi:10.14263/ 2330-2976.1247. 1 Association· of Jewish Libraries, 28th Annual Convention, New York City Sydney Taylor Book Award Acceptance Speeches

Picture Book Award Winner Introduction by Michlean J. Amir We had no difficulty coming up with clear Of course, as the blanket grew older, winners this year. In the picture-book cat­ Joseph grew older too. Now it so happens egory, the winner is Something From that when I was growing up, my younger Nothing, by Phoebe Gilman, who wrote brother, Mark, had a blanket that he loved and illustrated this beautiful North Winds and refused to part with, no matter how Press book. The book is a magnificently much our Mother begged and pleaded. It adapted old Yiddish folktale in which a tai­ was known as his shmate [rag]. This bit of lor continues to find ways to use an old family history found its way into the story coat even as it becomes worn and tat­ too. When Joseph's blanket became tered. As Ms. Gilman very sensitively puts "frazzled and worn, unsightly and torn," it, "when the last shred of the coat is his mother insisted that he throw it out. Of gone, he still finds enough material to turn course, Joseph didn't want to throw it out. it into a story." What did he do? He took it to Grandpa and asked him to fix it. Ms. Gilman is a native New Yorker who was born and raised in the Bronx. She The internal logic of the story necessi­ graduated from the High School of Art Phoebe Gilman tated further elaboration. Joseph was and Design and attended the Art Stu­ growing up as my story progressed and, dents' League and Hunter College. She Our families are our first audience. All since Joseph was older by the end of my lived in Europe and Israel before settling artists need an audience. We do not story, he decided to be the one to turn it in 1973 in Canada, where she lives with speak to the wind. We speak to you. into a story. Grandpa had taught him well. her husband, Brian Bender, and their Thank you for listening. Thank you for Or, as our Father would say, "The eggs three children. hearing, understanding, and appreciating are getting smarter than the chickens!" what I did. She has published numerous books and Illustrating a story is a bit like solving a has exhibited in Europe, Israel, and The old Yiddish folktale from which I mystery. Where do the characters live? Canada. I have had the pleasure of talk­ adapted Something from Nothing tells of When do they live? What do they look ing on the phone with Ms. Gilman and am a tailor who keeps finding new uses for like? I thought to myself: It's a traditional delighted to present her with the Sydney his old coat as it wears thin. When the Jewish folktale, it should be set where it Taylor Award for the best Judaic picture last shred of it is gone, he still finds originated ... in the shtetl. One does not book published in 1992-Something enough material to turn it into a story. enter this world that my grandparents FromNothing. came from lightly. As I worked on the This happens to me all the time. Anything drawings and researched the book, I was Remarks by Phoebe Gilman can become grist for the story mill. When filled with sadness at the memory of this my daughter's balloon popped on a tree world that was destroyed in the Holocaust Thank you for honoring me with this branch, that tree eventually turned into of World War II. The people in the pho­ award. I can't tell you how many times I my first book, The Balloon Tree (1984). I tographs called out to me to act as a wit­ have secretly rehearsed these words in never know what will be the catalyst for a ness to their vanished world. my fantasies over the years. When I was new story. My children's first venture into growing up, getting Bat Mitzvah[ed] wasn't business became The Wonderful Pigs of The book took on another dimension. It popular yet ... at least not in our neighbor­ Jillian Jiggs. Their grandmother's choco­ became a way of remembering and re­ hood. I feel like I'm finally getting to write late chicken wrapper-present eventually co rd in g the lives of my people. The my own Bar Mitzvah speech. Today I am turned into Grandma and the Pirates. house, the street, the people in Some­ a "mensch." thing from Nothing once lived and I've come to accept that stories develop a laughed and cried. The bagel vendor, the When Michlean Amir contacted me with life and a will of their own. Even a story organ grinder, the knife sharpener, the the news, the first thought that flew into like Something from Nothing, which is chair mender, the woman bringing water my head was, "I wish my Mother could be adapted from an old folktale, changed as from the well, the people in the market­ here today. My beloved Mother, who the characters created themselves in my place are all portraits of actual people always believed in me, how I wish she hands. I meant to parallel the original tale, which I painted from these old pho­ could be sharing this with me." Through but as soon as I decided to turn the tailor tographs. the two long years I struggled to create into a grandpa, he wanted to make all this book, my mother was fighting a much these things for his grandson instead of I decided to mirror the repetition in the harder battle-with cancer. She saw the himself. He wanted to give his grandson text by repeating the image of the interior rough dummy book and kept a color xerox the moon and the stars. And he did. He of the house and the exterior of the street of the first painting framed on her wall, but made him a blanket, a wonderful blanket, like a stage setting. This solved the illus­ she never lived to see the book completed. upon which he lovingly sewed the moon trator's problem of how to portray a repeti- She never lived to see this day. and the stars. (Continued on p. 115, col. 3)

Judaica Librarianship Vol. 8 No. 1-2 Spring 1993-Winter 1994 113 , Association of Jewish Libraries, 28th Annual Convention, New York City AJL Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award Competition, 1993*

Introduction by Dede, you have succeeded. I am de­ Thank you so much for this award. As one Lillian Schwartz lighted to present to you the Association of only a handful of Jews in my commu­ of Jewish Libraries' Eighth Annual Sydney nity, it means a lot to me that this award Just as I was deeply thrilled to expect Taylor Manuscript Competition Award. comes from the Association of Jewish Ralph Taylor to be here with us to partici­ Libraries and that the award honors one pate in this evening's awards, I am deeply of my favorite children's authors, Sydney disappointed and saddened that he is not Acceptance Remarks by Lilia,n Taylor. here. He established this program as a "Dede" Fox Ducharme pathway to encourage unpublished fiction A special thank you to Lillian Schwartz, writers in the field of children's literature. One day when my great-uncle was fishing contest coordinator, who is consistently He knew they were out there ... strug­ on Pelican Island near Galveston, his kind and helpful, and to my husband gling, disappointed, creative people friend turned to him and said, "Did you Chuck, who always reads what I write aching to know that their talents ... what know this island used to be a detention even when he'd rather be reading a com­ they have to say ... could be appreciated. center for immigrants?" My uncle just puter manual. [As noted in JL vol. 7, p. 87, Ralph Taylor baited his hook and said, "You don't say!" died on June 24, 1993. -Ed.] What my uncle didn't say was that in 1914 he had spent his very first night in *Remarks at the Banquet of the Associa­ The Sydney Taylor Manuscript Competi­ America on that very island. tion of Jewish Libraries' 28th Annual Con­ tion has found its own special niche in this vention, New York Hilton, June 22, 1993. maze of publishing. This year I received From 1900 until 1917, the Jewish popula­ 258 letters requesting the rules; 21 manu­ tion of Texas more than doubled, from scripts were accepted. At least that num­ 15,000 to over 31,000. Many who immi­ ber were returned as ineligible. The grated through the Port of Galveston had criteria are clearly outlined, but the writers an opportunity to bypass the difficult tene­ send along their work regardless ... des­ ment experiences of the East, but a new GILMAN perate to find a sympathetic heart. The life in the American West offered its own (Continued from p. 113) award winner this year is Lilian Fox challenges. Ducharme, who presents an adventure tive action in a visually interesting way. It from a rarely mined locale ... the Galve­ My story, "The Treasure in the Tiny Blue allowed me to move the people around, ston Project. Tin," is about a fictional character, Max creating mini-picture stories while remain­ Miller, a recent Texas immigrant whose ing consistent with the form of the text. By Ms. Ducharme is known by the nickname family lives above his uncle's store. When doing this I was also able to create a Dede. She lives in The Woodlands, Max's father, a peddler, fails to return panorama of shtetl life. Texas, and has devoted her professional home in time for their first American life to teaching. She is currently in the Passover, Max takes a bike and runs At this point, two questions began to con­ Language ArtsFor the Gifted Program for away from Houston to find him. cern me: (1) Was my story becoming too grades 3 to 5. Her special interest is, of somber and adult for its intended audi­ course, writing, and she has won several Max is not your typical Texas hero. He'd ence, and (2) Where was the wonderful awards: a Rice University Workshop rather go to school than fish. He doesn't button? I guess the child in me was not Scholarship, Honorable Mention by the know how to swim, and he's afraid of completely satisfied with the story's solu­ Golden Triangle Writers Guild Writers horses. He's completely different from his tion of turning it all into a wonderful story. I Conference, and the Southwest Writers enemy Joe, the blacksmith's son, who fol­ wanted to know where the button went! Conference Golden Pen Award. lows him out of town and joins him on his journey. The solution to that mystery was the cre­ In a letter to me she wrote, " 'The Trea­ ation of a family of mice under the floor­ sure in the Tiny Blue Tin' is not my family's Together the boys face Texas at its worst. boards of the house. They became the story, but creating this story gave me an They encounter thieves, storms, floods, ones to find the button, which their father opportunity to express my Jove for my snakes, and even death. Along the route then turned into the cushion of a little family and my pride in being a Jewish north, however, Max finds more than his mouse chair. The last page showsJoseph Texan. I tried to tell this story in a way father. He finds himself, new friends, and reading to his family. Down at the bottom, that all children could understand and a lot about what it means to be an Ameri­ a little mouse is sitting on the button chair appreciate." can Jew. reading his story to his family. If you want to hear and see the story they wrote, you "The Treasure in the Tiny Blue Tin" is not must turn back to the beginning of the Lillian Schwartz, Librarian of Temple my family's story, but creating it gave me book and begin again. Emanu-EI in Providence, Rhode Island, an opportunity to express my love for my for the past 20 years, is a past president grandparents-my grandma, who grew A good story can be reused and recycled of the New England Jewish Library Asso­ up in an All-of-a-Kind New York family, by generations of readers as long as ciation, and has been Coordinator of the and my grandpa, who as part of the there are generations of good listeners. AJL Sydney Taylor Manuscript Competi­ Galveston Plan became a Jewish Texan Thank you for honoring me with this tion since its inception in 1985. at age 22. award.

Judaica Librarianship Vol. 8 No. 1-2 Spring 1993-Winter 1994 115