Mississippi Book Festival

Val & Kathy in presentation gear (Val's librarian glasses and Kathy's library brain T-shirt)

Kathy's Rainbow Boys Booktalk.

Ellen & Kathy.  Ellen is the Curator for the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Hattiesburg, Mississippi

These are some pictures from a recent trip to Mississippi.  Kathy and I went to present at the University of Southern Mississippi Book Festival.  We drove from New Orleans to Hattiesburg and arrived around 7pm. We went straight to our favorite restaurant where I ordered a shrimp po'boy and Kathy ordered fried green tomatoes.  She is so happy!  Our favorite restaurant (we went there 3 of the 4 nights for dinner) is the Crescent City Grill.  Yummm!

Our presentation was the first session on the first day and the room was packed.  We had a great time.  We went to 3 book signings at the Barnes and Nobel on the USM campus.

Since we presented first, we got to step back and really enjoy the rest of the conference right away.  One highlight was meeting new young adult author, Matt de la Pena.  I won his book Mexican Whiteboy at his presentation.  He was kind enough to autograph it for me.

Here we are back at the Crescent City Grill on our last night.  The waiter was so impressed with our commitment to the restaurant he gave us a free dessert.

At the airport we also enjoyed some binets stuffed with fruit, lemon, chocolate, and French cream.

Ezra Jack Keats

The Ezra Jack Keats award was given at the Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival for the first time this year.  Keats' papers are held at the University of Southern Mississippi's de Grummond Children's Book Collection - an amazing archives of children's writers and illustrators.  To celebrate the award and the festival, the archives had an exhibit of Keats' work.  It was beautiful!  I just love his animals.

When I saw the picture below I knew he had lived with kittens and puppies.  This is how it is to live with young animals - crazy and fun and you don't always see what is happening!

I love the motion of the picture below in the tiping of the bowl and in the picture above I really like the shadows.

Keats is known for creating culturally diverse children's books in the early 1960s.  He was one of the first children's book writers to draw diversity and cityscapes.  His book Snowy Day changed the landscape of children's literature when it won the Caldecott Award in 1963 (an award given for children's book illustrations).

Waffle House at Night

Cemetery in Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Buying Boiled Peanuts

Boiled peanuts may be an acquired taste.... but I liked them from the first time I tried them in Georgia. We stopped at this fruit stand between Hattiesburg and Jackson to buy a pound. Kathy tried one and was not pleased, so I got to have the whole pound of peanuts to myself.

Curious George

The de Grummond Children's Literature Collection houses historic literature and illustrations from children's book authors. One of their most famous collection is the manuscript collection of H.A. and Margret Rey, the writers of Curious George.

While we were there we were lucky to hear author Louise Borden speak about her book entitled The Journey That Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey. Borden used the collection at the de Grummond and went on a journey of her own to piece together the Reys' escape from France during World War II. The rode bicycles to the French border with the Curious George manuscript in their bags. They eventually ended up in the United States and published the first Curious George book a year later. The book is aimed at kids in middle school. Borden reasons that kids read Curious George as kids, and they shouldn't have to wait until they are 40 years old to pick up a book about how the authors survived WWII and were able to publish their books.

Below is a picture of Kathy standing in front of the Curious George display at the de Grummond.


Below are original drawings from the Rey Collection.


Below are two images of cards the Reys sent out in celebration of New Years in the 1940s.

Images from University of Southern Mississippi

This is on of the buildings in the middle of the USM campus.



Brett Favre is one of USM's famous graduates.




Below is an image from the Cochran Center were the conference was held. The campus has done an amazing job of mixing old and new architecture.

Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival

Kathy and I had the honor of presenting our session Banned Books Exposed! at the Children's Book Festival held every year at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Along with presenting, we also got to go to lots of amazing sessions. We heard authors, illustrators, librarians, and teachers speak about children's literature.

One of the sessions I attended was about selecting the 2009 Caldecott winner. The Caldecott is given to a picture book based on its illustrations (not the written text). This year's winner was a beautiful little book called The House in the Night.

The person who gave the presentation spoke about the other books he reviewed and really liked. Here are my notes from the presentation.

The House in the Night - this is a really simple written story but the woodcut art is beautiful and tells an amazing story without the words.

A River of Words - a Caldecott Honor book. I really liked the images. The story is about the life of William Carlos Williams.

A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever - the cover looks cheesy, but I think the story is good and the pictures really complete the written word story.

Bats in the Library - has a lot of literary illusions. Really cute book.

Cat and Mouse - the cat in this story is drawn really realistically. The images in this book keep flashing in my mind. The artwork is really outstanding.

Wonder Bear - I just saw this from a distance, but it looked interesting and the presenter really liked it.

Just in Case and Just a Minute - these are really beautiful books and the main character is a skeleton. We were so lucky to hear the author of these books, Yuyi Morales, speak and tell stories. She is an amazing performer, and I really love these stories. Below is a picture I took of her story telling table at the end of the evening.