A sneaky woman wins a high honor!!!!

The Forest Pool

Written and Illustrated by Laura Adams Armer

Bio from: http://www.everything2.com/title/Laura+Adams+Armer

Laura Adams Armer was born in 1874, in Sacramento. As a child, Laura was considered "puny" and "dreamy" and a total mama's girl. By age sixteen, Laura had shown a talent for sketching and painting, and her uncle paid her way to the San Francisco School of Art.

Laura married her former art school classmate Sidney Armer, who later achieved fame as the highest paid commercial illustrator in California, whoop. They had one son and one daughter, but the daughter died as an infant. Austin, the boy, became the nude child pictured in many of her art photographs until, at age sixteen, he finally rebelled.

Laura returned to the southwest and spent a great deal of time with the Navajo and Hopi people, teaching an art class at a government school on a reservation. She set up a tiny private studio in two tents in the Blue Canyon. She weaseled her way into lots of secret native rituals and meetings. When the Navajo objected to her photographing their sand paintings, she asked what exactly about it was sacred. Learning that the "sprinkling of pollen" was the forbidden part, she convinced the elders that perhaps it would be ok to photograph the sand paintings before the pollen was put on. She eventually photographed more than one hundred sand paintings, which had never before been done.

My impression: Not a lady I think I would want in my circle of friends.  Who makes their son pose nude  until the age of 16!!!!  SICK SICK SICK  Ms. Armer was a sleezy type of lady who worked her way into other peoples cultures to use it for her own benefit.  (like I have said before, just my opion)

Book Summary

                Two boys (Diego and Popo) and a parrot(Polly)  try to capture an iguana.  In the end they solicit  Diego’s Fathers help to capture the wise iguana.

                Ummmmm, not sure what to say.  I was eager to get to the end.  The story line did not capture my interest and at times I felt it would never end.  I had great difficulty finding the message or point behind this story.  Anyway the reason I am looking at this book is for it’s illustrations.  So let’s talk about them. 

Illustrations: 

Art Medium: Paint

 Sample of one of the pages, do you want to see more, check out the link at the end.

This book had bright, bold colored pages every so often.  They colors were plentiful and vivid!  The story was set in Forest of Mexico and the colors reflect this.  Between the full color pages there were small, detailed pencil drawings.  This reminded me of Seven Simeons.  The small pictures on the edge were like sneak peeks into the story.  They would be odd events or animals that were mentioned in the story.  Over all I don’t understand the implication that the illustratiosn have on the story.  They seem to me to be just slapped thru the story at times when Ms. Armer felt the need.  I am not impressed with this book.

If you would like to see the book yourself I got it thru Pierce County Library who had to borrow it from Pacific Lutheran University.  Just as your local librarian to help.

Final Thoughts:
1. Would this be a book I would pick up again?  no
2. Would I recommend it to others to search out and take a look at? no
3. Would I spend my hard earned money on the book? no
Want more information?  Here you go!

http://www.humboldtarts.org/Collection/artists/LauraAdamsArmer.html

Note of correction

well that didn't take me long to make a mistake!  he he!

Cock-A-Doodle-Doo belongs to the year 1940, not 1939.  Still enjoy!

On a side note I just got a UPS package with the brand new Caldecott winner from 2010!  I may just have to take a peek out of order for this one!  Okay who am I kidding, I have already looked!  More later!

Another Seattle Connection!!!!!

Cock-A-Doodle-Doo

By Berta and Elmer Hader

We will see other books from this couple, because of this I have shared bio’s of them before they were married. Later I will share bio’s about them as a married couple.  Again the bio information I have shared came from Wikipedia.

Berta Hoerner (1891 – 02/06/1976) and Elmer Stanley Hader (09/07/1889 - 09/07/1973) were a husband-and-wife team that illustrated more than 70 children's books, about half of which they also wrote. Their most notable contribution to children's literature was in 1949, when they won the Caldecott Medal for The Big Snow.

Berta was born in San Pedro, Coahuila, Mexico. Her father died when Berta was five, and the family soon moved to the northeast of the United States (probably to New York). Berta, perhaps inspired by her mother's colorful sketches of Mexican life, took art classes and read intensively while still in elementary school, winning literary and artistic prizes for her work. The family again moved in 1917, this time to Seattle, Washington. While Berta's mother worked for Charity Organization Society and Washington's Home, Berta continued painting and reading, and eventually attended the University of Washington School of Journalism (1909–1912).

Elmer was born in Pajaro, California, but spent much of his youth in San Francisco. At the age of 16, as a member of the National Guard, he helped restore order to San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. He worked briefly in a survey party up the American River (near Sacramento, California), then returned to San Francisco to work as a firefighter on the State Belt Railroad (a dock-side railroad that acted as a shuttle for goods and people^[1]), where his father worked as an engineer. Elmer used his earnings from this job to pay for his first term at California School of Design. He then obtained scholarships to finish at the school (1907–1910). Hader returned to France in 1918 as a member of the Camouflage Corps, just at the time that Berta was asked by Ms. Beatty to come to New York to work in fashion design illustration at McCalls.

Book Summary

                If you are a fan of the Ugly Duckling story, then this is the book for you!  Little Red ends up in a nest of duck’s.  He is different and not sure where he belongs.  We follow his adventures as he finds his place. 

Illustrations:  color and black and white

                I enjoyed these soft, warm, darling illustrations.  On the cover of the book you see Little Red standing on a Windowsill.  The blue boarders are evident throughout the rest of the book, only they are white.  This makes me think, the story of Little Red is all about how you perceive the world.  Right?  And here we are starting the story looking out thru a window.  So does the window=perception?  Just a thought!

                The illustrations go from color to “brown and white”, they rotate back and forth.  I don’t know the why.  But the window sill or box is evident in the entire book.  What is interesting about the window box is that things can move out of the border and into the border.  For example, when Little Red is just hatching out of his egg shell we see him on the left hand page standing along and just slightly into the white border.  Does this show how he was different and not part of the group?  I think so.  There is another time when the duck family goes for a swim, which of course is something Little Red can not join in.  So the illustrations show the mother duck and ducklings swimming away and Little Red standing again in the white border, soaking wet and looking soooooooooo darn sad and wet!  As a reader you just start to feel so sad for this little guy!  There are many examples of this in the book!  I encourage you to check the book out, (I got it from Pierce County Library) and tell me which part is your favorite.

Art Medium: Couldn't find the answer to this.  Gives the apperance of Water Colors but there is something more to them!

Final Thoughts:
1. Would this be a book I would pick up again?  Yes!
2. Would I recommend it to others to search out and take a look at?  Yes
3. Would I spend my hard earned money on the book?  Yes, this would be a great book to show my students what a border is and how when you are doing art work you can use the space.
Want more information?  Here you go!

http://www.haderconnection.com/

If you in near the University of Oregon you can visit the library and see some of the artwork from this couple in person.  They have stored a large collection of original artwork!  I have included some information here for you to share with the Library if you go for a visit!  I would really enjoy doing this someday!

Guide to the Berta and Elmer Hader Papers
1906-1974

Overview of the Collection Creator: Hader, BertaHader, Elmer, 1889-1973 Title: Berta and Elmer Hader Papers Dates: 1906-1974 ( inclusive ) Quantity: 54 linear feet (43 containers) Collection Number: Ax 441 Summary: Collections comprises papers of American children's book authors and illustrators Berta and Elmer Hader, including manuscripts and original illustrations for books (including The Big Snow), 1927-1958, original Christmas cards designed by the Haders to send to their friends, miscellaneous artwork, correspondence, 1906-1947, family papers, and reviews. Repository: University of Oregon Libraries Special Collections & University Archives 1299 University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403-1299 USA URL: http://libweb.uoregon.edu/speccoll/index.html

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Translated and Illustrated by Wanda Gag

Wanda Hazel Gág (March 11 1893–June 27 1946) was an American author and illustrator. She was born on March 11 1893 in New Ulm, Minnesota. Her mother (Elisabeth Biebl) and father (Anton) were of Bohemian descent. Both parents were artists who had met in Germany. In 1917 she illustrated A Child’s Book of Folk-Lore, following which she worked on many different projects, and became a well-known artist/author. Her art exhibition in the New York Public Library in 1923 was the true beginning of her fame. She was especially esteemed for her lithographs, though today if her name is known at all it is usually from her children's books, specifically the classic Millions of Cats. Gág received the Newbery Honor Award for this book, and the combined effects of it and her exhibition had given her the funds she needed to carry on her work without stress. She died in New York City on June 27 1946.

Book Summary

                Another fun twist to the tale we all know.  Snow White runs away to escape the evil queens jealousy.  Only to be found again later by the queen.  In the end the Prince saves Snow White!

More about the Author/Illustrator

This section was taken straight from the following web site.  I pulled my favorite parts, if you want to know more check it out.

http://www.ortakales.com/illustrators/gag.html

She was eventually noticed by Ernestine Evans, the new children’s book editor at Coward-McCann. Evans asked Gág if she ever thought about writing a children’s book. She pulled one of the manuscripts from the ‘rejection box’ and the resulting book was Millions of Cats published in 1928. It was very different from the books that children were used to and was named a Newbery Honor Book for that year. Gág is credited with being the first artist to utilize the double-page spread and to revive hand lettered text. (Walter Crane had hand lettered his texts forty years earlier but this practice was never followed, therefore Gág’s books seemed innovative at the time.) Her brother Howard was contracted for the text, at her suggestion.

Drawing and painting was put on hold for a while because of the depression. Children’s books gave her a good income during this hard time that she could not afford to give up. An illustration commissioned by the New York Herald-Tribune re-ignited her passion for folktales. She started working on a series of translations of the work of the Grimm Brothers, the first of which was published in 1936. Since she found that translating was less strenuous than writing, she continued this trend with three more books of their folktales.

The advent of World War II cut back on large printings and reprints of her books. Humphreys and Howard both took jobs with the defense industry and Gág continued to grow vegetables in her garden to supplement the ration coupons.

Two of her books, Millions of Cats in 1929, and The ABC Bunny in 1934, were Newbery Honor Books. Two more books, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1939, and Nothing at All in 1942, were Caldecott Honor Books. She also received the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award posthumously for Millions of Cats. At the age of 53, it can be said that she fulfilled her father’s wish for her to become a celebrated artist, not only in the fine arts but in children’s literature as well.           

Illustrations:  I loved these illustrations.  They are the ideal image for me of a snow white fairy tale.  The illustrations were present on each page but did not take over the page.  They were snapshots into parts of the story.  The lines were soft and curved.  Illustrations were placed throughout the story.  They could be as simple as a single small object or as detailed as an entire setting with characters.  They were softly inserted in the story, no hard corners here!  Perfect for a children’s book!  Read a little, look a little, read a bit more, then see a beautiful, simple picture.  The overall feel of the art work was one of magical imagination.  Sort of suggesting, come and play!  I just loved it!  I would love to have a copy of this book for myself.

Art Medium: black and white line drawings

Influences, Style and Technique
Gág was equally at home in the worlds of fine art and children’s books. Her training as a printmaker in school influenced her work just as much as her European roots influenced her subject matter.
Her first three books, Millions of Cats, The Funny Thing, and Snippy and Snappy, were all done in pen-and-ink and in a similar format. The ABC Bunny was done in lithographs and admired by critics for being ‘real art’. Her distinct black and white style had a folk quality and was very different from the full color tipped in plates of classic children’s literature. 
For some of her fine art work, Gág drew or painted directly onto sandpaper, a technique that she developed herself to achieve a unique texture. When she didn’t have the funds to buy lithography equipment, she drew with lithograph crayon on the sandpaper instead of stone or a metal plate. She also painted watercolors on sandpaper.
Gág admired the work of Jessie Willcox Smith, whose work she came across in her childhood books. During her student days in New York, she spent her free time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There she enjoyed the paintings of Delacroix and Cézanne the most.

Final Thoughts:
1. Would this be a book I would pick up again?  Yup, it is darling!
2. Would I recommend it to others to search out and take a look at?  Yes
3. Would I spend my hard earned money on the book?  Yes I would, it would be a great addition to a fairy tale collection! 
Want more information?  Here you go!

http://wandagaghouse.org/Home_Page.html

http://www.ortakales.com/illustrators/gag.html

1939 Winner: Mei Li

Mei Li   1939 Caldecott Winner

Author and Illustrator Thomas Handforth

Thomas Scofield Handforth (1897–1948) was an American artist and etcher. He wrote and illustrated the book Mei Li about his personal experiences in China and won the 1939 Caldecott Medal. Born in Tacoma, Washington, he studied at the University of Washington.

Book Summary

                A little girl in China wants to go to town to experience the New Year.  She is told no but she sneaks out and goes anyway.  Good thing her brother was there to help her navigate the dangerous city.

Okay now the real summary:

There is a hidden message in the story.  Little girls are not good to do anything.  At first when I began reading I was not happy about this message.  Little Mei Li is a girl from China who is visited by her Uncle.  Her Uncle plans on going to the City for the New Year and also plans to take Mei Li’s brother.  But not her, “Mei Li stopped to listen sadly because little girls always had to stay home.”  AHHHHHHHHHH  WHAT!!!!!  Well Mie Li is a lot like me and does what she wants anyway!  She sneaks out and takes an adventure to the city.  Good for her!!!!  She was ahead of her times! J Once she arrives at the city she takes it all in!  Running around the city looking at everything there is to see and do.  In the end she makes it home before night time, the deadline given in the book in order to please the Kitchen God.  Interesting story, got even better once I began researching the author!

More about the Author/Illustrator!

                I was very thrilled to see that my home town of Tacoma, WA is where this winner came from.  “At the age of three my favorite outing was to be taken to the lily pond in Point Defiance Park and to be allowed to climb alone across the rustic Japanese half-moon bridge.” (autobiographical paper by Thomas Handforth, Personal Progress Toward the Orient.)  WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT….WAIT!!!!  I know the place he is talking about!  I have been to that place!  I have been there many times!  You mean to tell me that I have a personal connection with this award winner and that he has a connection to the area I grew up in!  I think this is pretty cool!  To bad the story is so negative towards girls, think of all the learning that young students could do with this connection!

Illustrations: 

                The interesting things about the pictures are not that they are beautiful but the connection they have to the illustrator.  Everything that he drew was something he himself experienced while in China.  Even the main character Mei Li is a true person.  This helped to bring life to the illustrations.  They appear extremely realistic.  If you want to know about the connection between the book and the illustrator you may want to check out a book called, Caldecott Medal Books 1938-1957  For me it provided a rich background of the artwork.

Art Medium: Brush and lithograph pencil

Front matter, full-page and double-page spreads in black and white.

Final Thoughts:
1. Would this be a book I would pick up again?  Probably Not
2. Would I recommend it to others to search out and take a look at?  Yes they are magical
3. Would I spend my hard earned money on the book?  No the message of the text is just a bit harsh for today’s culture. 

Let's learn about 1939!!!

Year 1939 History Facts from Wilikipedia.

Wow, after reading over historical facts from this year, many more educated people than I, already know that this is the year that WWII began.  What a crazy time period to be learning about.  Something we hear about from education all our teenage and young adult life.  I am interested to see how the literature of this time is effected by the on goings taking place.

January

• January 5 – Amelia Earhart is officially declared dead after her disappearance.
• January 27 – Adolf Hitler orders Plan Z, a 5-year naval expansion programme intended to provide for a huge German fleet capable of crushing the Royal Navy by 1944.

February

• February 21 – The Golden Gate International Exposition opens in San Francisco, California.
• February 27: Sit-down strikes are outlawed by the Supreme Court of the United States.

March

• March 15 – German troops occupy the remaining part of Bohemia and Moravia; Czechoslovakia ceases to exist. The Ruthenian region of Czechoslovakia declares independence as Carpatho-Ukraine.
• March 22 – After an ultimatum of March 20, Nazi Germany takes Memelland from Lithuania.

 April

• April 1 – The Spanish Civil War comes to an end when the last of the Republican forces surrender.
• April 3 – Adolf Hitler orders the German military to start planning for Fall Weiss, the codename for the invasion of Poland.
• April 14
• John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath is first published.
• April 30 – The 1939 New York World's Fair opens.

May

• May 1 – Batman, created by Bob Kane (and, unofficially, Bill Finger) makes his first appearance in a comic book.
• May 2 – Major League Baseball's Lou Gehrig, the legendary Yankee first baseman known as "The Iron Horse", ends his 2,130 consecutive games played streak after contracting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The record stands for 56 years before Cal Ripken, Jr. plays 2,131 consecutive games.

 June

• June 4 – The St. Louis, a ship carrying a cargo of 907 Jewish refugees, is denied permission to land in Florida after already having been turned away from Cuba. Forced to return to Europe, many of its passengers later die in Nazi death camps during the Holocaust.
• June 12 – The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is officially dedicated in Cooperstown, New York.
• June 24 – The government of Siam changes its name to Thailand, which means 'Free Land'.^[1]

July

• July 2 – The 1st World Science Fiction Convention opens in New York City.
• July 2 – Theodore Roosevelt's head is dedicated at Mount Rushmore.
• July 6 – The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed by the Nazis.
• July 23 – Mahatma Gandhi the spiritual leader from India writes a personal letter to Adolf Hitler addressing him "My friend", requesting to prevent any possible war.

 August

• August 2 – Albert Einstein writes to President Franklin Roosevelt about developing the atomic bomb using uranium. This leads to the creation of the Manhattan Project.
• August 23 – Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact: Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin agree to divide Europe between Germany and the Soviet Union (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, eastern Poland and Bessarabia (today Moldova), north-east province of Romania to the Soviet Union; Lithuania and western Poland to Germany)..
• MGM's classic musical film The Wizard of Oz, based on L. Frank Baum's famous novel, and starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, is released in theaters everywhere.

September

• September 3 – World War II:
• The United Kingdom, France, New Zealand and Australia declare war on Germany.
• September 5 – World War II: The United States declares its neutrality in the war.
• September 10 – World War II: Canada declares war on Germany.
• September 17 – World War II: The Soviet Union invades Poland and then occupies eastern Polish territories.
• September 29 – Gerald J. Cox, speaking at an American Water Works Association meeting, becomes the first person to publicly propose the fluoridation of public water supplies in the United States.

October

• October 11 – Manhattan Project: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt is presented a letter signed by Albert Einstein, urging the United States to rapidly develop the atomic bomb.
• October 14 – The German U-Boat U-47 sinks the British battleship HMS Royal Oak.
• October 24 – Nylon stockings go on sale for the first time anywhere in Wilmington, Delaware.

 November

• November 8 – In Munich, an attempt to kill Adolf Hitler is made by Georg Elser while Hitler is celebrating the 16th anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch.
• November 15 – In Washington, D.C., U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial.
• November 16 – Al Capone is released from Alcatraz.

December

December 2 – La Guardia Airport opens for business in New York City..

• December 15 – The film Gone with the Wind, starring Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Olivia de Havilland and Leslie Howard, premieres at Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. It is based on Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel. It is the longest American film made up to that time (nearly four hours).

 Undated

• CBS Television begins transmission.
• General Motors introduces the Hydra-Matic drive, the first mass-produced, fully automatic transmission, as an option in 1940 model year Oldsmobile automobiles.

Okay I want to know what you thought was interesting in the dates?  Yes I understand the heavy importance of WWII, so I want to know one WWII fact that made you think and then one other.  For example

My WWII fact: the boat that was turned away. (June) 

My other fact: so many historical places were just starting.  Jefferson Memorial, San Fran Bridge, NY Airport.  Funny how these places I have always excepted as being there!  Never really thought of when they were made!