W.H. Beck » articles http://www.whbeck.com children's author~school librarian Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:57:26 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 And We’re Back http://www.whbeck.com/2009/07/15/and-were-back/ http://www.whbeck.com/2009/07/15/and-were-back/#comments Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:49:07 +0000 W.H. Beck http://whbeck.com/?p=1181 Whew! What a whirlwind trip. We did the visit-the-relatives, attend-part-of-ALA, tour-Chicago combo vacation. We even celebrated a birthday in there!

Our Nonfiction Book Blast presentation at ALA on Sunday was a huge success. The (enormous) room was full. We had crowds waiting to come in! This was–frankly–amazing to me. Not because we didn’t deserve it (all the other authors were superb in their presentations), but I’ve been to pretty many conferences now, and nonfiction usually doesn’t get this much love. But the audience seemed to enjoy it and we’re already getting hits on our wiki.

Want to join us? You can add your nonfiction booktalk to our wiki. We’re hoping for a big collection of them for teachers and librarians to use. Our wiki also includes our own booktalks and handout.

In the meantime, here are some photos…

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]]> http://www.whbeck.com/2009/07/15/and-were-back/feed/ 1 New Article: Talking with Carolyn Marsden http://www.whbeck.com/2009/01/24/new-article-talking-with-carolyn-marsden/ http://www.whbeck.com/2009/01/24/new-article-talking-with-carolyn-marsden/#comments Sat, 24 Jan 2009 23:52:53 +0000 W.H. Beck http://rhwojahn.wordpress.com/?p=513 The January edition of Book Links includes an interview I did with Carolyn Marsden. It was great fun to read all Carolyn’s lovely middle grade novels and to find out how her multicultural stories grew. Check it out!

Carolyn Marsden’s Books

]]> http://www.whbeck.com/2009/01/24/new-article-talking-with-carolyn-marsden/feed/ 0 A Visit with Lois Ehlert http://www.whbeck.com/2008/09/28/a-visit-with-lois-ehlert/ http://www.whbeck.com/2008/09/28/a-visit-with-lois-ehlert/#comments Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:00:18 +0000 W.H. Beck http://rhwojahn.wordpress.com/?p=382 My article for Book Links on Lois Ehlert is out!

Last spring I was in Milwaukee for our state school library/media conference and I met up with Ms. Ehlert at her apartment/studio to talk about her latest book, Oodles of Animals. I was so nervous! I’m not the most outgoing person, and I had never interviewed someone in person before. So not only did I have to navigate the Marquette interchange construction on my own, but once I got there, I had to sound (and look!) coherent while making sure my new Zoom H2 Handy Recorder was working. But it went great and Ms. Ehlert was very gracious. The full interview is in the September 2008 issue of Book Links. In the meantime, here are some tidbits I found interesting that didn’t necessarily make their way into the article:

  • If you haven’t read Oodles of Animals yet, all the animal illustrations were created from the same 9 shapes used over and over again.
     


    I’m dying to try out a similar activity with students.

  • If you have enough of something, it makes a cool collection and visual statement. I took this photo for my sons. These are antique wooden fishing lures displayed on a windowsill.

 

  • She also had a collection of wooden birds. You could tell she loves color–outside of her books, too!

 

  • She has a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree!

    Well, not really. This is a wooden papaya tree, not a coconut tree. But it was still cool.

Links a-plenty:

]]> http://www.whbeck.com/2008/09/28/a-visit-with-lois-ehlert/feed/ 0 RULES Coattails http://www.whbeck.com/2008/05/17/rules-coattails/ http://www.whbeck.com/2008/05/17/rules-coattails/#comments Sat, 17 May 2008 22:43:51 +0000 W.H. Beck http://rhwojahn.wordpress.com/?p=185 I just found out from Scholastic and Booklinks that my Booklinks interview with Cynthia Lord is going to be included in a new paperback teachers’ edition of Cynthia Lord’s Newbery Honor-winning novel, RULES. The entire article will appear in the back of the book–including the sidebar on the literature circle blogging unit I did at my school with the book! Cindi (the teacher I did the unit with, not Cindy Lord, the author, who graciously guest blogged for us in our unit) and I are now feeling the urge to straighten up our  links. People other than our students may be visiting it!

]]> http://www.whbeck.com/2008/05/17/rules-coattails/feed/ 0 Cynthia Lord and the Schneider Award! http://www.whbeck.com/2007/11/10/cynthia-lord-and-the-schneider-award/ http://www.whbeck.com/2007/11/10/cynthia-lord-and-the-schneider-award/#comments Sat, 10 Nov 2007 20:20:50 +0000 W.H. Beck http://rhwojahn.wordpress.com/2007/11/10/cynthia-lord-and-the-schneider-award/ My November Book Links articles are here! Inside are an interview with the Newbery Honor-winning author of RULES, Cynthia Lord. She talks about the book, writing, raising a family with a son who has autism, and the awards. I also wrote a second article on the emerging Schneider Family Book Award. This award is just a few years old, but it fills an important niche in children’s literature: books that portray the disability experience. It also has a local connection for me. The award is funded by Katherine Schneider, faculty emerita at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. The article profiles the books that have won, as well as a talk with Katherine Schneider about why she started an award like this.

Take a peek at your local library or in the links below!

The Schneider Family Book Award (HTML)
The Schneider Family Book Award (PDF)

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