A Look at Disney's Magazines

I've reviewed a few apps in recent months and as I've been looking at ebooks and writing interactive samples myself my attention's gone back a great deal to traditional print material. It generally seems that as digital material proliferates that print will play an increasingly diminished role in the media pie--for children and adults--but I think that it's actually because of the multitude of electronic options that paper-based media will come to hold increased importance for readers. We're still an app-free household, for better or worse, but it's great to see Loretta's eyes light up whenever a National Geographic Kids magazine arrives or we take little Izzy into the library.

With that in mind I had a great time going through some of the latest issues of Disney's print magazines (or we all did, actually). The Disney magazine family includes Disney Princess, Disney/Pixar Cars, Disney Fairies, Phineas and Ferb, and Disney Junior Magazine. They're all based on pre-existing properties, obviously, a target the respective demographics of each one. While girls tend to like fairies & princesses and boys like cars (it was the only magazine Loretta had no interest in), both the Phineas and Ferb and Disney Junior magazines cater well to both genders, just like their programs on TV; for the latter magazine that's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Jake and the Never Land Pirates, Little Einsteins, Handy Manny, Secret Agent Oso, and Jungle Junction, all of which play well to both boys and girls.

All the magazines have a good variety of material. No prose fiction, but comics, games, and activities, in different proportions, and they each have a foldout poster at the center, a really great example of something an app will never do. Disney Junior leans almost entirely toward interactive material; there are pages about matching, colors, shapes, counting, etc., as well as a board game or two. The issue I read was all about health and nutrition, so it included recipes as well. Cars and especially Phineas both have a lot of show trivia (Cars, I guess, is as much about the actual cars as Cars, I or II), and Phineas, which had the most regular typed material of all the magazines, also had "extra-curricular" material like facts about actual platypuses. Trivia is the kind of stuff die-hard fans--the kids who would subscribe to something like this--would want, and I was actually a little shocked I didn't know it all (I mean, I thought I knew every Doofenshmirtz jingle!). This issue also had a cut-out paper theater, another low-tech toy possible in a print medium that reminded me of the magazines of my childhood--and which kids can still enjoy today.

Loretta, who turned eight last month, was very into the Fairies magazine, which was centered all around the recent "Pixie Hollow Games" television special, although it had less comics than we both expected. She read all the comics it had, though, and gave a thorough look through to everything else. Just like with the retail merchandise the Princess magazine skews a little younger than the Fairies, and even though much of it was over her head my two-year-old Isabelle actually really got into this one. This magazine was animal-themed, and Izzy loved having us read the comic about when Ariel (as a human) got a horse, or when Snow White lost hers. There were puppies, fish, and other animals, and Izzy loved looking at them all--she stared at the poster of Snow White and her "woodland friends" forever, and she even did one of the cut-out activities with us.

The magazine editors aren't ignorant they're pushing a print product in a digital world. There are tie-ins to past episodes, promotions for upcoming events like Peter Pan's appearance on Jake and the Never Land Pirates, and the extension of storyworlds in lots of directions, like human Ariel getting a horse or Meap returning to visit Phineas and Ferb. What's missing are stories that originate in print and move online for exclusive gaming through a URL or QR code or something; but while maybe that's the future of integrating print and digital content, as a parent I'm more pleased to see my daughters interacting with a strictly single medium product. I want them to know what it's like to flip, rather than scroll, through a magazine, to browse something, dog-ear a page, cut things out, and store it on a shelf rather than a hard drive. These aren't just quaint practices, I don't think, but are integral to how we read and how the mind processes information. They're digital natives and I'm not worried about them not adjusting to contemporary technology, but I certainly don't think it will make them Luddites to also be familiar with--and love--print, and how things like tables of contents work. Disney may get a lot of criticism for charging subscriptions to what many may deem multi-page advertisements for its TV shows, but it's pushing to grow its magazine division at a time when dozens of children's magazines are dying, it's incorporating curriculum into its titles for younger children, its giving them a periodic surprise in their mailbox that's good for patience and maturation, and it's giving kids something tactile to read and store. For many they may be big ads, sure, but for others, like reluctant readers, the movies and shows may be their gateway into reading via these magazines--I could see the Cars mag do that quite a bit, in fact.

I guess this has turned a bit into a defense of magazines, which isn't what I had in mind. The content within the Disney magazines I've seen is really good, and I just wanted to talk a little bit about why parents should make magazines like these a priority for their kids.

New Beauty and the Beast app

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We were able to go down to Virginia Beach to see my brother's family, play with cousins, work on riding a bike without dozens of cars all around, and visit Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg on Black Friday. It wasn't Plymouth, but it was great to see the site of America's oldest English settlement and the recently excavated site of their first church, where Pocahontas was married. (At least I think the covered hole in the ground was the site referenced in the article, which came out a day or two after we visited.) Loretta's just suddenly gotten into the American Girl books, so it was nice to have two in hours in Williamsburg so that she can identify with the place when she reads the Felicity books, which she started this morning on the subway. It was a really unexpected "text-to-self" connection, as they say at her school.

Recently I've really been trying to get up to speed on all the kids' literary/narrative apps out there, like the Mo Willems app I wrote about the other week. A new one came out on 11/11 that looks really promising, Disney's Beauty and the Beat Storybook Deluxe:

Here's the description as posted in the app store:

Experience a tale as old as time in this fully interactive Storybook Deluxe app. Complete with games, movie clips, puzzles, coloring pages, and sing-along songs from the film, you’ll find a surprise on every page. Hear the story read aloud, record your own narration, or explore at your own pace.

In this unforgettable story of love and adventure, a young woman named Belle finds herself in a castle with talking furniture, an enchanted rose, and a grumpy beast. Despite an awkward beginning, Belle and the Beast gradually become friends, and Belle learns not to judge a book by its cover. A beloved Disney favorite retold in a magical new format the whole family can enjoy!

Features:
* Interactive Storybook Deluxe app features your favorite characters from Disney's award-winning Beauty and the Beast.
* Two reading modes allow you to follow along as the story is read aloud, or explore at your own pace.
* Engage in exciting activities based on scenes from Beauty and the Beast—help Belle make her way to the Beast's castle in the hedge maze, or go on a hunt for hidden roses.
* Puzzles and coloring pages for all ages!
* Record your voice reading the story and hear it played back as narration.
* Jump to your favorite page with the Visual Page Index.

I haven't been able to try it out yet--I guess I need to put an iPhone or Pad on my Christmas list--but it shows the promise of the expanding field of e-publishing. The combination of gaming and print is interesting, expanding the story world of the experience in ways that can engage new readers or lengthen the experience for established fans, and the games and coloring pages look really fun. But I'm a little more interested in the ways the app lets kids interact with the text itself. Essentially, different reading levels and reading out loud yourself remind me exactly of reading a print book, but it is a little different. Hearing your voice back, for instance, is something a book can't do, and I'd love to hear more about users' experiences--or professional research--about how this influences kids and the act of "reading" a text.

If you watch this demo video, however, you'll be reminded that the Disney Beauty and the Beast that's being adapted here to app form is not a book but a film. At first I was hesitant about the use of the full-motion video, but it looks like it actually works with the printed text quite well; the music, visuals, and Linda Woolverton's narrative innovations are obviously the strength of the film version, after all, so it wouldn't make sense to ignore those in bringing the film to the iPad (plus the performances by all the actors). What you're left with is a nice mix of video, print, and gaming, which should be a great treat for any Disney Princess fan. I hope that with future adaptations the mix becomes more and more fluid, but how to do that will be the state of the art of narrative app design.

Off to Bed! with Dada Company

So even though I haven't yet been able to get an iPhone or iPad, I'm trying to get more informed about the children's media, particularly narrative media, that's appearing on their screens. One app that I've recently come across is the interactive picture book Off to bed! by Mariam Ben-Arab and David Yerga. It's produced by the Spain-based Dada Company and is now available in English as well as Spanish. Here's a video trailer:

And here's a little promotional film about the company in general, including their title on transportation. This is in Spanish and I wish the music were mixed a little lower because it's hard for me to follow what they're saying when Zooey Deschanel is so much easier for me to understand, but even if you don't speak the language there are some good shots of their art and design work.

It looks like companies like this are starting to get their head increasingly around what interactive storytelling is and how it differs from traditional A-Z narratives. But what are these hybrid forms? Is this really a goodnight storybook or should we call it something else? Beyond semantics, is this really helpful in getting kids down for bed? I tried a Pajanimals clip tonight and it initially quieted my two-year-old down, but when it ended and we closed the laptop she broke down, so I'm not sure how helpful it was.

But those are the kinds of questions creators and parents will have to ask now, because there's obviously no going back to the pre-digital days, even for late adapters like me. (I don't want to be a late adapter! I'm just semi-employed!) So I'm excited by the enthusiasm and commitment on Dada's website and the respect they show both their young audience and their new tools. Whenever a new medium's been introduced theorists and practitioners have had to labor over finding its inherent comparative advantages vis-a-vis old media, and I think titles like Off to bed! will help move us in that direction--and entertain kids along the way. I can definitely see Izzy--and even Loretta--playing with those lights, swings, and the kissing moon for quite some time. Bien hecho y buena suerte con sus proyectos en el futuro!

Don't Let the Pigeon Run This App

Hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend. Ours was full of candy, pumpkin carving (Harry Potter again...), some Wallace and Gromit were-rabbitting, a little partying, and, for the first time, the Halloween costume parade by Ft. Tryon Park in Washington Heights. Izzy bit into her glow stick and immediately threw up, but she recovered almost immediately and remained the cutest little chicken in the crowd (as profiled on the Today show!).

Before the holiday, however, I had the chance to learn about a cool new app from Hyperion Books and Mo Willems (seen here): Don't Let the Pigeon Run This App. (For everything the Pigeon can't do, evidently sitting on heads is allowed.)

I'm sure that nearly all parents will be familiar with Mo's work in print--he's the author of the Pigeon picture books (starting with Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus in 2003), the Elephant and Piggie easy readers, the Cat the Cat books, and numerous other stand-alone books. Recently Loretta took a break from her Harry Potter craze to really get into Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed, which we had gotten for Isabelle. There's no way a naked mole rat isn't funny, and leave it up to Mo to be the first to exploit that in a book for kids. I first saw his work when Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus was being passed around the Strand Bookstore office--which is run by adults--when I was there in 2003. Through all this he's earned my everlasting envy by doing everything I want to do better than I ever could: he's won six Emmys while working on Sesame Street, created his own kids' shows, and racked up the awards with his books: three Caldecotts, two Theodor Seuss Geisel Medals, and probably others I'm losing track of. And he's pushing boundaries as well: on October 23 Jonathan Hunt wrote a column at School Library Journal arguing that the Elephant and Piggie book I Broke My Trunk should be considered for (and win) the Newbery Medal, an award given purely on the merit of the text and hence not traditionally given to picture books; Hunt's somewhat controversial argument, illustrated through a really thorough analysis, is that Mo has blown right past all other easy readers and expanded the state of the art of the storybook or illustrated book in what most publishers and librarians would consider just a picture book. Whether that argument will persuade the ALA remains to be seen, but last month Mo published a new Elephant and Piggie book (the excellent Happy Pig Day) and installed an large-scale sculpture at the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst; and another Pigeon book, The Duckling Gets a Cookie, will be coming early next year. Talk about polymathic. Maybe he should let the Pigeon do some of this stuff!

And now there's an app. At the event last week Mo said he'd long resisted doing something interactive. After his move from television to literature this reasoning makes sense: he's astute enough to know that each property needs to fully exploit the capabilities of its medium, and he didn't want to create any type of app that didn't fully capitalize on the interactive capability of iPads and handheld devices. He didn't want it to keep going if you set it down and left the room. (That would be a TV show on a tablet.) So when the inspiration came about how to create the right kind of app in March he and the folks at Hyperion jumped right in, working on it over the summer and launching last week. And it is a pretty great piece of software; Apple noticed and named it "App of the Week" last week. At $7 it's definitely on the pricey side, but that reflects the work that went into it and the variety of activities it presents youngsters.

This is the most basic: shake the Pigeon. Mo made sure that you could shake the Pigeon--causing him to freak out as seen here--indefinitely. Tickling works too. Beyond small creative corners like this, the app breaks down into two basic categories: drawing the Pigeon and telling stories with him. The first is fairly self-explanatory, with the tutorials introduced by Mo himself. This is enough to keep budding artists busy for some time, but it's with the storytelling where things really come to life. The Disney Interactive Publishing people described this as their first author-driven app, and Mo's drive for true interactivity (much like the original books themselves) means kids are intimately involved with shaping the narratives: the title page even credits it as an app "By Mo Willems and YOU." (So kids can "infringe on my copyright in interesting ways," Mo said.)

There are three levels of interactivity here for different age ranges: Egg, which lets the youngest kids change a few nouns to create new stories; Chick, where slightly older kids can create stories through multiple-choice options; and Big Pigeon, where audio cues tell kids to supply various words, Mad Libs-style, that are then plugged into the resulting story. With all the variables built into the app--let alone the creativity of the kids using it--there are over 100,000 stories in there. (One youngster last week suggested Don't Let the Pigeon Poop on the People, and Mo promised to read it if the boy wrote it.) So there are quite a few train rides built into this thing--although given its aural interface it might be better built for quieter car rides than the straphanger kids here in the city.

Mo's influence is all over this--in a nice Freudian touch he even voiced the Pigeon himself--and I really hope it indicates the direction future narrative-based apps will be going. Thankfully, the Disney/Hyperion folks indicate that it is. After this maiden voyage--the first collaboration between the teams at Hyperion, a book-only imprint of Disney, and Disney Interactive Publishing, the app people--they have several other properties lined up and are even interested in new authors angling to write in this new space. And that bodes well for the state of art of the app; we'll see what suggestions the Newbery committee is dealing with ten years from now.

As for now, there's one cool app out there starring one surly but lovable pigeon. Check out this video and more Willems-related stuff at pigeonpresents.com.

Why we like Harry Potter

Astute readers will notice that my posts here have been steadily declining for quite some time. This is mostly because other interests have taken my time and attention elsewhere, and those other activities remain incredibly, well, active, right now. I won't go into them all, which would be boring even for me, but I will say that there's been a lot of things I've wanted to write about here that have fallen to the side during all my craziness and disorganization. (And I'm oh so sorry to those publicists and musicians who I haven't followed through with yet!! It's still coming!) I'm writing for my own film/transmedia blog and have now started posting for Filmmaker magazine, plus I'm also revising my own website--randyastle.com--with the intention to migrate a lot of my blogging there. My writing docket's pretty full.

So what to do here, on my oldest and truest little blog? Long term I don't know, but for the next little while I'm going to try shaking it up and seeing what kind of effect that can have on my own writing and consistency. In a nutshell, I'm going to try treating Red Balloon more casually, more autobiographically, and more like any other daddy blog out there--although I'll certainly retain my bias toward media. Loretta and Isabelle are seven and two now, and their adventures through the digital world are well worth chronicling.

A couple weeks ago I was cleaning out some computer and camera stuff from our storage closet and ran across a roll of 35mm film. "Look, Loretta," I said, "this is what people used to take pictures on."

"Why didn't they just use a camera?"

Oh, my dear sweet digital native. Last night she said Izzy sounded like a "record on repeat" and I realized she'll never see or hear a broken record in her life. A hair turned gray but I got a bit more insight into her seven-year-old worldview.

In monitoring all this familial activity, I won't lose my perspective as an active participant in the children's entertainment industry. I'll try to increase my reviews--helpful for both creators and users--and continue speaking about industry information, news, etc. -- just all from the perspective of a father who's both a creator and consumer in this biz.

So I'm going to try to upload a rather large video file of Loretta talking about her favorite books. She accompanied me on a shoot for a nonprofit organization, and while we had a little pause for that I had Loretta take a seat in front of the camera and asking her about books was just the first thing that popped into my head. But I think it turned into an insightful little interview.

Sorry about the squeeze and grain on the image. I shot it HD but am still figuring out all the compression codecs, etc.

So for the record, we've let her read the first two Harry Potter books but we're taking a several-month break before #3. Call us conservative, but I also think that will help draw the experience out longer and help her as the actual reading level pushes upward toward The Deathly Hallows.

Here are some of her favorites, then:

and

The Anderson School, where Loretta goes, doesn't technically celebrate Halloween, not during the school day anyway (tonight they're watching Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Wererabbit as an evening event). Next Monday is Storybook Character Day, not Halloween, so every kid's costume has to come out of a storybook somewhere. Loretta's is Annie's kimono here from Dragon of the Red Dawn. And if you're really interested in seeing it in action, here she is on the Today show this last Tuesday. A film crew caught us near the end of the day at Boo at the Bronx Zoo a couple weeks ago. So Loretta, little Isabelle (a chicken holding Cinderella's hand), and some friends are in the video at 2:41.



It was just a moment of screen time but it made Izzy's day. Happy Halloween!

New Study on Children's Books and Bookstores

A few days ago Publishers' Weekly had a good article about a new study on youth reading and book-purchasing habits. It's a very interesting short little read, with some expected information and some surprising findings, such as that teenagers rate reading books as their third favorite leisure activity and that over 80% of them don't read ebooks. Interesting.

Kids' Lit for Haiti

I've been able to post a few times about children's media and the Haitian reconstruction effort, so I was pleased to see this Publishers Weekly article linked in a recent KidScreen email. By Rachel Steinberg, it's about two new children's books about the earthquake that will also give financially to recovery efforts: Hope for Haiti by Jesse Joshua Watson and Eight Days: A Story of Haiti by Edwidge Danticat. If anyone knows of other children's books, films, etc. contributing to relief, please let us know!

Katherine Paterson Named the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature

Here's some news from the world of youth literature: the Library of Congress recently named Katherine Paterson, author of Bridge to Terabithia, Jacob Have I Loved, and numerous other books, the new National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. Here's a little news brief:

A two-time winner of the National Book Award and Newbery Medal, Paterson will serve in this role for 2010-2011, and has selected Read for Your Life as the theme for her platform. She succeeds author Jon Scieszka, who was the first to hold this title (2008-2009). The National Ambassador for Young People's Literature was created to focus on the importance of young people's literature and lifelong literacy, education and development and improving the lives of kids/young adults. The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, the Children's Book Council (CBC), and Every Child a Reader, the CBC foundation, are the sponsors of the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature initiative (www.read.gov/cfb/).

Congratulations to Paterson and good luck during her term. For her own work you can check out her website or read a bio and watch a video interview at Reading Rockets, which also has links to other sites about the announcement.

New Kids' Festival in Singapore

I'd like to thank Jade Young of the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS) for letting me know about the upcoming Asian Festival of Children's Content (AFCC) happening this May in Singapore and--hopefully--traveling around to new countries and venues in the years after that. In this inaugural session the organizers hope to bring together authors, illustrators, filmmakers, television producers, and everyone else involved in creating (or consuming!) children's media in Asia for a few days of workshops, classes, networking opportunities, an Asian Media Market, a Children's Book Award, Children's Writer Award, and other fun activities. There's a little information on this website. The whole program is an offshoot of the ten-year-old Asian Children's Writers & Illustrators Conference, so although this specific event is new the organizers themselves are not neophytes, as the following information from the NBDCS shows:

1. Asian Content for the World’s Children

Over a billion children in Asia lack good resources, both for their education and entertainment. Those who have the means and the access, benefit from a wide selection of edutainment material available from the West. Asian material, even those available, is seldom promoted and is therefore left unexplored. Bringing quality Asian content to children is paramount as it would make children aware of Asia’s unique environment and cultural values, promote understanding of, and love for, the literary and visual arts. It will thereby lay the foundation for a good and all-round education.

Asia is rich in culture and tradition; a heritage from which content could be developed. What’s more, the region has talent to produce content based on these sources. It is therefore critical that an annual programme called the Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) be organised to draw the attention of content creators and producers to this vast opportunity AFCC will also showcase content already available, and promote new materials that are produced and published. This will benefit parents, teachers, librarians and children in Asia as well as the world.

For the past 10 years, the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS or The Book Council in short) has organised the Asian Children’s Writers & Illustrators Conference (ACWIC) to develop new materials for children. It now aims to expand ACWIC’s reach by including the new initiative that AFCC promises. The Festival, with a series of innovative programmes, seeks to fill the direct need for quality Asian Children’s content worldwide, particularly in Asia.

The inaugural AFCC will be held in Singapore in May 2010 and will be organised by the Book Council and The Arts House.


2. Advisory Board

Ms Claire Chiang, Senior Vice President of Banyan Tree Holdings (Singapore) is the Chairperson of the Board.

Please see Appendix 1 for the full list of members in the Board.

3. Vision, Mission & Objectives

a. Vision

To provide the World’s children with quality Asian content for education and entertainment.

b. Mission

To foster excellence in the creation, production and publication of children’s materials with Asian content in all formats and to facilitate their distribution and access, first in Asia and then to children worldwide.

c. Objectives

• Develop children’s materials with Asian content for information, education and entertainment.
• Promote publishing of Asian children’s content in all formats.
• Provide children in Asia and the world with ready and easy access to Asian content.


4. AFCC Programme Outline

a. Core Programmes (6 & 7 May 2010)

• Asian Children’s Writers and Illustrators Conference (ACWIC)
• Asian Children’s Media Mart (ACM) including Asian Children’s Rights Market
• Special programmes, master classes and workshops on a variety of specialised topics
• ASEAN / India Writers and Illustrators Dialogue (AIWID)
• Asia / Australia Writers and Illustrators Network (AWIN)

b. 8 May 2010 (Saturday)

• Primary and Pre-School Teachers Congress (PSTC)
• Asian Children’s Librarians Seminar (ACLS)
• Asian Children’s Publishers Symposium (ACPS)

c. 9 May 2010 (Sunday)

• Asian Parents’ Forum (APF)
• A special session on suitable content for children and young adults

Please see Appendix 2 for the AFCC programme structure.

5. Target Audience

The entire community of children’s content creators in all formats, i.e. aggregators, disseminators, retailers and consumers etc.

• Writers, illustrators, digital artists, producers and designers of children's content, including comics, books, e-books, graphic novels, videos, films and educational games
• Librarians and institutional buyers
• Publishers and broadcast media executives
• Educators, primary and preschool teachers
• Literary agents, translators
• Media distributors and vendors
• Multimedia professionals
• Parents
• Vendors of educational products and services

More than 400 hundred participants from the region are expected to participate in the Festival.


6. Conclusion

Over four exciting days, the AFCC delegates will get to celebrate and learn about Asian children's content in all formats and subjects from diverse sources. It will provide a platform to trade, exchange and access Asian children’s content.

The participants will network with fellow producers of children’s content, as well as meet solution-suppliers from the region.

Very crucially, AFCC provides a unique opportunity for professionals involved in developing Asian content for children to reflect on how these materials could be produced, distributed and effectively used to provide quality education and stimulating entertainment for the young people.


R. Ramachandran
Executive Director
National Book Development Council of Singapore
www.bookcouncil.sg
November, 2009


* I've omitted the appendices, but those interested in more information can contact the NBDCS. Best of luck to the organizers!

Fallen Angels

I'm focusing enough on my own writing and directing, and reading material that directly supports that, that I've completely missed the whole Twilight phenomenon thus far. But about two weeks ago I was watching Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders and had the brief thought that they (meaning the YA people) ought to explore angels (and demons?) to escape from the vampires/werewolves rut. Well, seems I'm a few steps behind the industry because Disney just optioned the film rights to the YA novel Fallen by Lauren Kate. You can read all about it in the Hollywood Reporter.


Now I just wish we could get American teenagers--let alone adults--to actually watch Wings of Desire and Far Away So Close...

The New Parents in Kids' Lit

Here's another article I've run across that's gotten swamped in my backlog. It's a New Yorker piece by Daniel Zalewski about how parents are depicted in today's picture books opposed to the classics of the past. Brief summary: stern and authoritative is out, bumbling and befuddled is in. I wonder if such findings are statistically significant, but as I browse titles in my head I see that Zalewski is probably on to something. I just hope it doesn't reflect too accurately how I myself teach and discipline my daughter. But either way I'm sure the kids will turn out all right, and the new trend makes for some great new characters, like Ian Falconer's Olivia and her wonderful family.

Where Gossip Girl Comes From

I feel like I've been incredibly behind in blog posts--and everything else--since the whirlwind of MIP in October. Here, for instance, is a New Yorker profile of Alloy Entertainment, the midtown teen media company responsible for such fare as the television version of Gossip Girl, the cast of which is seen here.

The article, by Rebecca Mead, ran in the October 19 issue, meaning that I'm a full month behind here. You can read a long abstract, but a digital subscription is required for the full text. It's worth digging up, though, for those interested in teen literature and television; I don't think the profile was biased in any direction, but it does take a critical look at the kind of story factory environment that produces a lot of kids' and teens' entertainment. We're somewhat used to that in publishing--where certain houses commission authors to fulfill projects according to their preexisting specs--but moving the formula into television and, now, feature films, seems to be a new creature than we've seen in the past. Creation by formula isn't always anathema to art, and heaven knows Gossip Girl is popular enough, but it's worthwhile for those of us interested in the quality and artistic merit of youth media to examine how this production model will impact future shows and books. That model will probably prove more pervasive and influential over the next five to seven years than the Twilight phenomenon or anything else, except interactivity (which is a subject for a different post). If you're interested, Alloy's website is here.

More Diary of a Wimpy Kid

If you've been avoiding young adult literature or galavanting off to Cannes to learn more about kids' TV, then you may have missed the release on Monday, October 12, of the latest book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney. In it Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is back at it, getting bullied at school, slacking around the house, and finding ways to avoid doing his cryptology homework. Oh wait, that's actually Greg Heffley--got some wires crossed. But the kind of anti-drama Kinney goes in for should actually be much more grippingly dramatic than learning that the Washington Monument is--gasp--actually a giant phallic symbol. If you're going to read any new book this fall, you'd do best to start with this one, whatever your age.

I of course was one of those folks not aware the new book, number four in the series and subtitled Dog Days, until yesterday; I certainly didn't know a film version was in the works until this very moment. So with apologies I'd like to now share some reviews and things I've come across, starting with one on the same page of yesterday's Times that I cited yesterday. 

Comic Mix on the film

Jeff Kinney's blog

And then the books' official website

Milton Meltzer

Milton Meltzer was one of the most important and prolific nonfiction children's authors of the past half century; he died last Saturday, the 19th, at home here in Manhattan; he was a Worcester native, though, and evidently lived and wrote in Massachussets a while as an adult. 

Here are the obituaries from the New York Times, the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and the School Library Journal. Also, here's a fascinating interview I found about his time as a young writer with the WPA during the Depression (from the website History Matters). This isn't exactly about his later children's writing, but it does show where he came from as a progressive and how and why he chose to write about organized labor, civil rights, and similar topics for children and youth. 

Sergei Mikhalkov

On August 27 Russian poet, children's author, and patriot Sergei Mikhalkov died. He's a figure I admittedly hadn't encountered before, but in surveying his work now it appears he is primarily known for two seemingly divergent strains of work: writing multiple versions of the Soviet national anthem and many books and poems for the children of Russia. His Uncle Styopa character, a policeman designed to instill respect for rule of law, was particularly beloved. Such a terse description makes it sound like another bland foray into socialist realism, but the character and Mikhalkov's verses were apparently quite charming and beloved. If anyone knows about English translations I'd love to hear about it.

Here's the notice I received in my SCBWI online newsletter:

"Sergei Mikhalkov, an author favored by Stalin who wrote the lyrics for the Soviet and Russian national anthems, has died at age 96. In 2005, he received a state award for "literary and social achievements, " personally handed to him by Vladimir Putin.

"Mikhalkov also received numerous state awards for his children's books, film scripts, plays and fiction. He churned out adaptations of Russian and European classics—including Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper"—transforming them according to Politburo-prescribe d ideological recipes.

"Millions of Russians can recite lines from his other famous work—the 1935 children's poem "Uncle Styopa," about an unusually tall police officer—which is still taught in Russian kindergartens and primary schools.

"Mikhalkov's survivors include: his physicist wife Yulia Subbotina, his son Nikita who won an Academy Award for the 1994 film "Burnt by the Sun," his other son Andrei Konchalovsky who has made a career as a Hollywood director and whose films include the Oscar-nominated "Runaway Train," ten grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren."

Here's an obituary from the Daily Telegraph.

Another from the Guardian.

And of course the Moscow News.

Chinese Picture Book Awards

Well, first things first. Part of the cause of my most recent hiatus is that Carol had our second child last Friday, September 11. Her name is Isabel Vivian Astle and she weighed 6 lbs. 4.4 oz., 19 in. That was on top of an end-of-summer family trip to Coney Island and the circus on Monday and Loretta starting Kindergarten on Wednesday, so all in all it's been a busy week. Tomorrow I get to join the PTA!

So in the interest of passing along some interesting information without having to write anything myself, here are two interesting articles I got a while back from the SCBWI about a new set of awards for children's books in China. Presented in conjunction with the Hong Kong Book Fair last month, the Fengzikai Children's Book Awards (named for a great Chinese illustrator) will hopefully help improve the quality of children's book authorship and illustration in the People's Republic and bring recognition, including in the West, for those who create them. Here is the official press release with all the winners and here's an article from the English-language Taiwan News.

The Little House in New York(er)

Judith Thurman has a fantastic article in last week's New Yorker about the Little House author Laura Ingalls Wilder (above) and her daughter Rose. I've been reading the New Yorker every week for about a year and a half and I've been quite pleased with the number of articles they've published about children's literature in that time, with both Babar and Stuart Little springing to mind. I'm grateful for such in-depth looks at the lives of children's authors of which this is the latest. Here it is.

Seven Pleasures: A Kid in the Library

After I wrote the other day about the Dallas library, Willard Spiegelman graciously took the trouble to write me with an update about events since he wrote the D Magazine article in April. Long story short, since then there have been major cuts in the city library budget, resulting in reductions in hours, staff, purchasing, and all other areas of library operations. Lamentable but typical of what's happening all over the country.

The good news, however, is that Spiegelman also has a new book out. It's called Seven Pleasures: Essays on Ordinary Happiness. The way in which it fits into this blog's subject matter is in its first chapter on reading, which includes recollections of his childhood trips to the Free Library of Philadelphia. 

I have not been able to read it yet, but here's a review--with links to other reviews and an excerpt from the beginning--from the Dallas Morning News. Here's another from Boston.com, and the book's amazon page, where it's under $16. 

I obviously haven't read it yet, but I am a fan of a good personal essay, and an obvious advocate for taking kids to libraries. It would be nice for each of us, especially as we deal with little ones of our own, to take a moment to recollect how the low-tech libraries of our childhoods affected us and try to recreate that--incorporating all the new technologies and wonderful children's books of recent years--for children today. 

My Latest Library Post: Dallas

This is the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library in downtown Dallas. I've never been to the city but I recently came across a few items that resonate with what I've written about libraries here in New York and in Philly and elsewhere. Like in other cities, the Dallas public library system is having its financial woes as the municipal budget is cut. But this central unit could be in an even worse predicament due to a recent emphasis on renewing other areas of downtown with a new arts center and other architecturally daring new buildings--not to mention a lot of attention diverted to the Trinity River project and other things going on in the greater Dallas-Ft. Worth area. The possible result: that the central library could fade in importance and fall into disuse, disrepair, and disregard as patrons use the branch libraries and head to the newer venues downtown.

That's why I was pleased to read this story by Willard Spiegelman in last month's D Magazine. (Yes, I do indeed read D Magazine.) In it he reports that, despite this potential neglect, the library remains as central as ever. It is well used and well kept, and I'm sharing this because I think it's true of most libraries across the country. Patronage is up and librarians are responding with remarkable vigor, keeping things running, advocating for increased (or maintained) budgets, improving collections, serving job seekers and other community members, and even developing an innovative program or two. 

The latter is true in Dallas, though it predates the recession by a few months (particularly since, as I understand it, the recession came to Dallas a bit later than other parts of the country). But I am referring to Bookmarks, the city's first library exclusively for children that opened just over a year ago. A branch library devoted exclusively to kids is pretty unique in and of itself. What makes this even more of an entity to watch is its location in the NorthPark Shopping Center, an indoor shopping mall in the northeast part of the city. The idea was evidently to situate the library in a trendy new venue that would Bookmarks that would attract children anyway. I don't have any report on how it's doing, but hope use is up--despite a decrease in consumer spending at the surrounding stores! Here is Bookmark's official site, complete with an extensive line-up of kid and toddler entertainment, and here is a short article about its opening last June 13th (2008). Here's the main page for the Dallas Public Library. Good luck to them and librarians in every city, big and small. 

Two Annotated Wind in the Willows

We recently celebrated the centennial of one of the great children's books of all time, Kenneth Graham's The Wind in the Willows. Though that event was last year, the festivities are continuing. Most recently there has been the publication of two commemorative annotated editions. One is by Seth Lerer for Harvard UP (the Belknap imprint, actually), and the other by Annie Gauger for Norton. 

Both of these editions were reviewed in today's New York Times by Charles McGrath. I don't agree entirely--or much at all--with his evaluation that the Toad material is the thematic center of the work; I myself was much more drawn into the elegiac, nostalgic portions involving Rat and Mole. But that is of course an eternal point of controversy. The point is that both new editions reveal much fascinating material amidst other moments of tedium (too much annotation, evidently, doth not a classic make). You can read the review here.