Name Those Lions!

No, not "those" lions.  The Riverdale branch of the NYPL was given two (sleepy!) lion statues and they need names.  You can vote by emailing communications@nypl.org.

I suggested Darwin and Einstein as well as Shakespeare and Aesop.

What are you going to propose?

Dr. Seuss Exhibit, Updated

I went to see the exhibit of Dr. Seuss's hats  at the Children's Center at 42nd Street, located in the Stephen A. Schwarzman building on Fifth Avenue, known to my children as the "wide library," the other day.  My 5-year-old refused to go and it was just as well.  The exhibit consisted of one display case with the dozen hats.  As I had suspected, it was certainly more interesting to adults than to children!   I took a few pictures before being reprimanded and told not to do so.  I hadn't seen the tiny sign forbidding it - honest!

The Children's Center itself, however, as I may have mentioned before, contains a beautiful mural of New York City landmarks, including the Schwarzman building itself.  Note it is not drawn to scale and landmarks that are next to each other on the mural are not necessarily next to each other in reality.  The Children's Center also contains the real stuffed animals upon which the Winnie-the Pooh stories were based, which are also  probably of interest to adults more so than to kids.

Have you been to the Children's Center?  I want to get around to taking one of the free tours of the Schwarzman building, with its lion motifs throughout.  

The One Dozen Hats of Dr. Seuss

There is a new exhibit at the NYPL of a dozen hats that actually belonged to Dr. Seuss himself!  An article in the New York Times gives more details about the exhibit which will be on view only through next Monday February 11!  I wish the exhibit lasted longer and was bigger!  Dr. Seuss apparently had hundreds of hats and I wonder why only such a small fraction will be on view.  The hats were an inspiration for many books, particularly the The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, which is the one place I think fewer hats would have been better.  That book needed a little more editing... 100 hats would have been enough!

Why Middle-Grade Fiction?

This weekend I attended a panel discussion at the NYPL entitled Middle Grade: Surviving the YA Onslaught about how middle-grade novels are being rebranded as Young Adult (YA).  The panelists were authors Jeanne Birdsall (The Penderwicks series), N.D. Wilson (The Dragon's Tooth), Adam Gidwitz (In a Glass Grimmly) and Rebecca Stead (When You Reach Me, Liar and Spy).  I was especially fascinated by how these authors considered their readers and the age of their readers as they wrote.  They didn't just write a children's book that turned out to be middle-grade fiction; they purposely chose their audience and tailored their writing to it.  That might be obvious to the writers among you but it wasn't to me.

I appreciated the comment that they write for middle-graders because "they have all the intelligence and none of the hormones" as well as Jeanne Birdsall's idea that the author assures the middle-grade reader of "safe passage" through the book.  I love middle-grade fiction for its story-telling, its exploration of identity, friendship, and family.  I'd say middle-grade readers are ages 8-12, although the upper end of that spectrum overlaps with YA.  (I wish there were a different name for this audience, though; middle-grade has unfortunate connotations of mediocrity.)

The blog From the Mixed-Up Files, written by a group of middle-grade authors, has some great quotes about middle-grade fiction and its intended audience.

Being in middle grade is like being in limbo. You're not a little kid anymore, yet you're not a full-fledged teen. I love writing middle grade novels. It's an exciting and scary age, and the gateway to becoming who we are meant to be.  Lisa Yee

Middle grade readers are intrepid explorers: excited, unafraid, seeking the clues that will show them the way to the larger world.  Stephanie Greene

Middle grade fiction is for the young (or young at heart) person with one foot on the playground and the other foot on the path to growing up. It is for readers who are still filled with wonder but who have also begun to feel the weight of their internal and external world.  Ingrid Law

Middle grade is that age when you believe you're old enough, but often need confirmation from your parents that you really are.  Jody Feldman

Middle-grade is what Natalie Babbitt once called 'the last best years of childhood.' I have never felt anything more intensely or deeply in the rest of my life, as what I felt then, and it's those extremes of joy and sorrow, caused by events that can seem so small and insignificant to others, that I try to capture and honor in my books. Claudia Mills

To me, middle grade means that wonderful place sandwiched between easy readers for the very young and the mature, issue-centered books for young adults. Middle grade readers are still happily hunkered down in childhood, eager to move on from the more 'babyish' fare of their beginner reading days but not ready for (or even wanting) the more mature topics of teen reads. 
Barbara O'Connor

I believe the books we read at this age have a certain power. The characters can live on inside us and help us figure out who we want to be, and what we want to do with our lives. I wanted to write for this age to give something back to the next generation of readers the types of books that meant so much to me.
Wendy Mass

It's a fabulous age to write for. The kids are old enough to know that magic isn’t real, but young enough to wish that it might be. These readers are curious, creative, incredibly loyal, and just beginning to taste their own independence. And they crave characters that reflect their experiences.  Bruce Hale

Middle grade is a magical time when you're no longer a baby and not quite a teenager. The only thing that could be better than being a middle-grader is writing for them.  Laurie Friedman

Which of these quotes do you like?  What do you think is special and important about middle-grade fiction?

Doll-Lending Update

The story in the New York Times last week about an NYPL branch that was lending out an American Girl doll has resulted in tons of offers and donations of the dolls.  Sadly, the library has refused the offers.  I'm not sure why and it seems like such a shame.

Meanwhile, my daughter has discovered the existence of the dolls and may use some birthday money to buy one.  She is having a hard time deciding which one!

Does your daughter have one?

Lunch at the Library

Today I met my husband for a brief date and we had lunch at the library, both figuratively and literally.  First we checked out the NYPL's exhibit about lunch in New York.  I loved it!  From pushcarts to a re-created (but sadly not operational) Automat, from delis to pretzels, from pizza to Chinese take-out, from the power lunch to school lunch, the exhibit was fascinating.  Somehow we missed the part about that quintessential New York lunch, the hot dog, but this review assures me it's there.  To top it all off, a different food truck will be serving lunch every weekday on the south side of the library through Labor Day.  I lucked out today with the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck. 

We also visited the famed Reading Room, which embarassingly I think I had never been to before.  It has an amazing view of the Empire State Building, among other charms, of course.  And I discovered that tours of the Schwartzman Building (aka the "main library") are given twice daily on weekdays and once a day on Saturdays. 

Do you plan to go to the lunch exhibit or tour the Schwartzman building?

Library Way

I am always discovering new (to me, at least) things in this city and today, while walking from the far east 30s to Times Square, I made a wonderful book-related discovery.  My zig-zag path serendipitously took me to Library Way.  Embedded into the sidewalk on 41st Street from Park Avenue to 5th Avenue, leading to (or from) the "main" library are sculpted bronze plaques illustrating accompanying quotes about literature, knowledge, information and reading.  I forgot to bring my camera, but the link above will take you to images of the plaques.  There are so many wonderful quotes and images it is hard to choose a favorite, but the poem by Bohumil Hrabal, a poet I had never heard of, might be mine.  Which is yours?

What serendipitous discoveries (book-related or otherwise) have you made in New York?

We Already Have A People's Library!

I don't blog about politics and I'm not commenting on the Occupy Wall Street movement.  Except for one thing: what the protesters call "The People's Library," described here and here.

We already have a People's Library!  It's the New York Public Library and the Brooklyn Public Library and the Queens Library  and the Boston Public Library and the public library in every city the Occupy Wall Street movement has spread to.  It's free.  It's open to the public.  It doesn't get more populist than that.

The NYPL branches closest to Zuccotti Park are probably the Battery Park City branch and the New Amsterdam branch.  I strongly urge protesters - and the passers-by checking them out - to go have a look.

Find Your Inner Artist (or Stop-Motion Animator)

On Thursday, I took my girls to our local library branch for this program on the works of Ezra Jack Keats.  We all (including me!) had a chance to make Keats-inspired collages, ostensibly of our neighborhood.  Can you guess which one of us did which collage?  Here they are:

The workshop was run by an educator from the Jewish Museum in connection with its exhibit, The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats. The woman who led our program, who is an artist herself, did a fantastic job.   It looks like the museum is doing the workshop at one more branch, so go check it out!

Then today we went to the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, to see the exhibit Jim Henson's Fantastic World.  It was absolutely fascinating and the fact that there were plenty of TV clips allowed me and my husband to take turns viewing the exhibit while the other of us would watch the TV clips with the kids (on comfy beanbags!).  Not to mention that we got to make our own stop-motion animations!  I know this doesn't involve books but since Henson is known, at least in part, for educational television, I figured I'd throw it in.

What book-related exhibits or activities have you been to lately?

Happy Birthday, Pooh!

The NYPL is celebrating Winnie the Pooh's 90th birthday tomorrow and you can, too!

Impostors!

Last week I decided to give myself (and my daughter) a break and take her out for a long walk in the stroller.  As we walked we saw so many interesting things in our neighborhood (we walked south, into the Upper West Side, rather than north into the heart of Morningside Heights), that I was inspired to take some pictures of our finds.  To my delight we discovered two pairs of lions guarding buildings... sound familiar?  They are probably about the same age as Patience and Fortitude and may have even come first, so perhaps impostors is not the right word...

Library vs Museum (Redux)

As promised, I went to what my children call the "wide library" and I call the "main library" at 42nd Street to see the children's book illustration exhibit (very small and not worth a separate trip, but the children's room itself is - more on that below) and the centennial exhibit.  And just outside the centennial exhibit are the Lego Lions!  It was quite a day if you like that sort of thing which, of course, I do.

The exhibit showcases the great variety of objects the library owns, which is staggering.  From a Gutenberg Bible to diaries of Malcolm X, from original scores by Beethoven to works by Matisse, from a lock of Mary Shelley's hair to a model for the set of Sunday in the Park with George, from e.e. cumming's typewriter to a Ku Klux Klan robe, from art by Kiki Smith to Charles Dickens' letter opener (incorporating, creepily enough, his cat's paw)... it was just amazing. 

The New York Times review of the exhibit criticizes its lack of focus.  But to me that was exactly the point.  To show the vastness and diversity of items the library has collect.  And it raised the question for me, again: what is the difference between a library and a museum?

As for the "wide library" itself, it manages to be both grand and peaceful.  A real oasis in the city.  More so than some of the better-known museums, which are often so busy that it is hard to get close enough to see whatever you came to see. 

The children's room, worth a trip even without the exhibit, is cheerful, with lovely murals mostly featuring New York locations, the standard cut-out cardboard book characters and bright-colored, inviting furniture.  I wanted to move in. 
Have you been to any NYPL exhibits?

Right Up My Alley - And Yours?

Tomorrow what sounds like a fantastic exhibit of children's book illustrations opens at the NYPL.  I plan to check it out and to see the centennial exhibit too.  Maybe I'll see you there!

And if you love the library like I do and are concerned about impending budget cuts, consider signing this petition.  Thanks!

Patience and Fortitude: The Library Lions At 100

Check out this article about the upcoming birthday of the soon-to-be centenarians!  I contacted the NYPL and the Lego artist referenced and they said the Lego homage to the library lions should be on display at the 42nd Street library the weekend of the centennial of the 42nd Street library building (May 20-22) and should be on display this summer.  You can learn more about the 42nd Street Library's Centennial Festival here.  You can also find more information about the Lego lions at the sculptor Nathan Sawaya's website at http://www.brickartist.com.