No appeasement

 I'm pleased that Harpers has published Maggie Tokuda-Hall's account of Scholastic attempting to bowdlerize her book Love in the Library:

There is no appeasing this vocal minority, nor should there be an attempt to do so. This is an existential threat to all of literature, one the publishing industry should be combating, not cowering before. If we cannot depend on the publishers of these stories to defend the truth, if they cave to the political pressure manufactured by the few to the detriment of all, then we are truly lost.

 Not only true of book publishing. 

Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Born this day in 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts!

And (consequently) happy Read Across America day!

Fun history from the Writer's Almanac this morning:

"...Seuss's publisher bet him $50 that he could not write a book using only 50 different words. Seuss won the bet with his book Green Eggs and Ham (1960), which uses exactly 50 different words, and only one of those words has more than one syllable: the word "anywhere.""

Annual Joe and Shirl Scholarship auction

The annual Joe and Shirl Scholarship auction to fund children's art classes at the Worcester Art Museum is going on now! This is the yearly drive that children's author and illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka* does in honor of his grandparents, who were those who made sure that he had art to get him through.
There's some things over there that you certainly aren't going to find anywhere else, and it's the perfect combination of Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday, so why not go bid?

*Gates Lane alum. Yes, I've mentioned that before.

School Lunch Superhero Day at Gates Lane

Yesterday, author/illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka was at Gates Lane School for the celebration of School Lunch Superhero Day. The T&G covered it, and Krosoczka has some photos up on his Twitter feed.

Gates Lane Elem. in Worcester, MA students sharing Thank You cards with their #schoollunch Superheros! twitter.com/SchoolLunch/st…
— SchoolLunch (@SchoolLunch) May 3, 2013

Today was a remarkable day on many levels. Here I am with some new friends at my old school. #SchoolLunch twitter.com/StudioJJK/stat…
— Jarrett J. Krosoczka (@StudioJJK) May 4, 2013

And he'd want me to tell you that the books he gave  away were through First Book, which heavily discounts books for Title I schools. If you're part of such a school, be sure you're signed up!

Lunch Lady = superhero

There was a fun profile of WPS alum* Jarrett Krosoczka in the Boston Globe this weekend:

Back in 2001 Jarrett Krosoczka was visiting his old elementary school in Worcester to talk to students about his first book, “Good Night, Monkey Boy,’’ which had just been published. While he was there, he ran into the school’s longtime “lunch lady,’’ Jean Cargilia, who started chatting about her grandchildren.
“I was like, Wait a minute, you leave the cafeteria? You have a life outside this?’’ Krosoczka says. “Even at 23, I’d never thought of that.

Krosoczka has established a scholarship fund at the Worcester Art Museum in honor of his grandparents; when WPS cut arts funding, he took a class at WAM that piqued his interest in illustration.

*(Gates Lane!)