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Newsletter Archive

Spring 1998

Contents

The 1998 Kerlan Award

On Saturday, April 25, author/illustrator Dahlov Ipcar will become the twenty-eighth recipient of the Kerlan Award, which is presented annually "in recognition of singular attainments in the creation of children's literature and in appreciation for generous donation of unique resources to the Kerlan Collection."

The Collection has original manuscripts and illustrations for nearly forty of Ms. Ipcar's titles, as well as thirty-nine of her published books. Some of her publications include Ten Big Farms (Knopf, 1958), The Lobster Man (Knopf, 1962), Bright Barnyard (Knopf, 1966), and Hard Scrabble Harvest (Doubleday, 1976).

A hallway exhibit outside the Kerlan Collection's reading room, 109 Walter Library, displays a selection of the Award recipient's manuscripts, books, and art. For additional information about Ms. Ipcar's career as an illustrator, visit her internet web site at http://www.exitfive.com/exitfive/dahlov.

The 1998 Kerlan Award luncheon will be held at the Radisson Metrodome Hotel, located at 615 Washington Avenue SE at Harvard Street near the East Bank campus, beginning at 12:30 P.M. To attend, please use the reservation form on page eleven of this newsletter.

Following the Kerlan Award presentation, Ms. Ipcar will give an acceptance speech and autograph copies of her books. The Red Balloon Bookshop will sell books before and after the luncheon. The program, which will begin at approximately 2:00 P.M., is open to the public at no charge.

Parking is available in the Washington Avenue parking ramp across Harvard Street from the hotel. To request disability accommodations for this event, please call the Kerlan Collection at 612-624-4576.

We hope you will be able to attend this special Kerlan Friends event.

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From the Curator

Preservation and Conservation

"Preservation" and "Conservation" are two non-interchangeable words with definitions specific to archives and special collections. Preservation is what is done in-house to care for books, manuscripts, art, and artifacts. Good housekeeping is basic and imperative for these materials. Air conditioning precludes the necessity for open windows. Library custodial staff clean the floors and empty trash cans. Smoking is forbidden in the building, and smoke detectors abound throughout the entire structure. The CLRC staff handles the rest of the cleaning procedures such as vacuuming and dusting shelves and exhibit areas. Astrict no-food policy for the reading room and storage areas undergirding the building policy. Food and sweet drinks attract insects, which in turn lay eggs that hatch and cause damage, especially in the larva stage. Security guards patrol the building in the evening.

The Kerlan Friends have a fixed-line item for preservation student staff and materials in its annual budget. Harcourt Brace & Company provided several grants for further effort in this area. In addition, CLRC promised an in-kind contribution preservation effort for the two-year National Endowment for the Humanities grant. New acid-free folders now hold manuscripts. Art listed in the finding aids now has acid-free barrier paper between each sheet, a task completed by student staff and volunteers. For example, the Sid Fleischman manuscripts that just arrived will be preserved following established guidelines. Student staff will press creases, remove paper clips and rubber bands and place up to fifty pages in each acid-free folder. Then they will label each folder in pencil and stand them in acid-free boxes.

Conservation involves professional treatment handled outside of the Collection workroom. Some institutions, such as the Minnesota History Center, have a professionally staffed conservation lab; the Kerlan does not. Because the procedures for conservation are more expensive than for preservation, outside funding is sought for special projects. The Collection is grateful for three such gifts. Gustaf Tenggren's widow, Mallie, bequeathed to the CLRC the royalties from her husband's books. With this income, some of the Tenggren illustrations have been cleaned, restored, and matted. Western Publishers Golden Press paid for the restoration of Gustaf Tenggren's The Poky Little Puppy (Golden Press, 1942) during its 50th anniversary year, and Information Conservation Inc. conserved the remaining art by Tenggren. A Lenski Covey Foundation grant provided funds for conserving the Lois Lenski books, manuscripts, and art. The Lenski illustrations needed to be cleaned and archivally matted, and the books are now wrapped with a transparent covering to prevent damage from dust.

With preservation and conservation efforts underway, the Collections will remain intact longer for future generations to enjoy.

Karen Nelson Hoyle

CLRC Curator

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Submissions

Keats/Kerlan Fellowship

The Ezra Jack Keats/Kerlan Collection Memorial Fellowship financed by the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation will provide $1,500 to a "talented writer and/or illustrator of children's books who wishes to use the Kerlan Collection for the furtherance of his or her artistic development. Special consideration will be given to someone who would find it difficult to finance the visit to the Kerlan Collection."

The Ezra Jack Keats Fellowship recipient will receive transportation cost and a per diem allotment. Applications for 1998 must be received by May 1, 1998. For application materials, please send a self-addressed envelope with $.55 in postage affixed to: The Ezra Jack Keats/Kerlan Collection Memorial Fellowship, 109 Walter Library, 117 Pleasant Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455.

1998 CLRC Award

The Friends of the Kerlan Collection are pleased to announce the fifth annual award to be presented for an outstanding paper written during the past school year by a college or university student using the resources of the Children's Literature Research Collections. This award will consist of a citation and the sum of $100. The purpose of the award is to promote the use of the Kerlan Collection, and it is given in recognition of outstanding research utilizing original resources available in the Kerlan Collection.

In evaluating the papers, judges will emphasize the formulation of a research topic that provides a contribution to knowledge and utilizes original resources, especially manuscripts and illustrations in the CLRC. The writing style and organization of the paper are also important.

Information and Rules:

  • Three copies of the paper (unsigned) must be submitted in an envelope to the Children's Literature Research Collections Essay Award, 109 Walter Library, University of Minnesota, 117 Pleasant Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, and postmarked to arrive by June 1, 1998.
  • The paper should be typed, double-spaced, on white 8.5" x 11" paper and include a bibliography noting CLRC resources used. On a cover sheet, please type your name, address, Social Security number, college, year, and major. (Your name should not appear anywhere other than on the cover sheet.) The award selection committee will read the papers without the cover sheet.
  • Papers may be of any length and must have been written between June 1, 1997, and May 31, 1998. The writer must have been a student of a college or university at the time the paper was written.
  • The winner will be invited to be a guest of the Kerlan Friends at their annual meeting during the summer of 1998.

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    The Anne Spencer Lindbergh Prize in Children's Literature, established in 1995 as an annual recognition of the best English-language childrenís fantasy novel pub-lished during the year, will be awarded on a biennial basis because of the smaller-than-anticipated number of submissions in 1997.

    The deadline for entries in the 1997-98 program is November 1, 1998. Send four copies of each book being submitted along with a $25 application fee for each title to: The Lindbergh Foundation, 708 South Third Street, Suite 110, Minneapolis, MN 55414-1141. The winner of the $5,000 prize will be announced in January 1999.

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    Keats/Kerlan Report

    NOTE: David Pelletier, illustrator of The Graphic Alphabet, a 1997 Caldecott Honor Book, is the recipient of the 1996 Ezra Jack Keats/Kerlan Collection Fellowship. In September, he spent a week doing research at the Collection and also spoke to students and others about graphic design and illustration.

    If I were to assign a shape in my mind, illustrative of my visit and subsequent research at the University of Minnesota's Kerlan Collection, it would be not that of a line, a circle, or a square, but that of a spiral--one that begins in the past looping continually forward through today. Revisiting Gustaf Tenggren's art for Golden Tales from the Arabian Nights--a book from my childhood--I came around again, viewing it seemingly for the first time and in a new way, discovering that the experience of interacting with books is not unlike a spiral. Books, and our relationship as a culture to them, change and move as do our lives and experiences. So for me, Arabian Nights is now a different book because the act of looking at it and my interpretation of it today are from a new perspective. Cultures are not distant and abstract as they seemingly once were, and we do not have stagnant relationships with those other than our own. As a child, I recall Arabian Nights as being sort of a cultural mystery to me--foreign--a response perhaps now impossible or unlikely as our world gets smaller. Our ability to experience and decipher books in finite terms has lessened as we become more culturally infinite.

    In his book, Design, Form and Chaos, the internationally renowned graphic designer/illustrator, Paul Rand (Sparkle & Spin, I Know A Lot of Things, Little Blue and Little Yellow) argues that design issues are not social and political issues (a belief that was the impetus for a potion of his later writings on design theory). Indeed, this may have been true. Design (and illustration) issues may not have been social and political issues, but now are--or at least can be. The blue and yellow character dots may very well have been just that "simple dots" or they may have been veiled allegorical references to race and difference. Today, we may view them as literal references to race and difference. Similarly, Leo Leonni's Swimmy, the story of a fish that is black living in a sea of fish that are red, has a different interpretation when now read. This book--not unlike Garth Williams' The Rabbits' Wedding that depicts two rabbits (one black, one white), a book once interpreted as subliminally racially divisive--is now almost overtly racial, and happily so. And, once again we have spiraled--looking at books from a new cultural vantage seeing them in a new way. Thanks to the Kerlan staff for their hospitality and for the opportunity to view this great work and to allow me the chance to see their books in a new light (and for managing to hold off the Minnesota winter for one extra week).

    David Pelletier

    Graphic Designer/Illustrator

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    Coming Events

    March 11: The Friends of the Library Symposium "A Collection of Collectors" will be held at 7:30 P.M. in the Arthur Upson Room, 109 Walter Library. Participants are Karen Nelson Hoyle, Rob Rulon Miller, John Parker, and Tom Reiersgord. Gerhard Weiss will serve as introducer and moderator. For more information, please call Judy Hedin at 612-624-8207.

    March 13-14: Northern Illinois University's Eighteenth Annual Children's Literature Conference will be held at the Holmes Student Center in DeKalb. Featured speakers include CLRC donors Marion Dane Bauer, Mary Downing Hahn, Kathryn Lasky, and Peter Sis. For more information about the conference, please call Northern Illinois University's College of Education, Office of External Programs at 815-753-6926 or E-mail: mailto:jheinisch@niu.edu.

    March 25-26: The American Swedish Institute hosts Christina Bjork, author of the Linnea books. Her appearance will include a talk and book signing. For more information, please call 612-871-4907.

    April 30, May 1-3: View the IBBY Honour Books (see page 12) at the 1998 Festival of Nations at RiverCentre (formerly Saint Paul Civic Center), which features 100 ethnic groups with exciting dance performances, delectable ethnic foods, creative folk artisans, intriguing cultural exhibits, an international bazaar, guest entertainers, and more! Presented by the International Institute of Minnesota in cooperation with 100 ethnic groups, the City of Saint Paul, and co-sponsors. For more information, please contact the Festival of Nations office at 612-647-0191 or visit their web page at www.iimn.org/festnations

    June 23: James Ransome, noted children's book illustrator, will give the 1998 Chase Lecture at 2:30 P.M. in 306 Folwell Hall, University Avenue at 15th Avenue, on the University of Minnesota campus (East Bank). His lecture will be followed by an autographing session. The event is free and open to the public.

    August 7-9: "Founders Footprints," a Norwegian Explorers of Minnesota 50th Anniversary Conference, will be held at the Holiday Inn Metrodome. Featured speakers are Thomas J. Joyce, BSI ("Early Writings on the Writings"), C. Frederick Kittle, M.D. ("Arthur Conan Doyle"), Alfred A. Levin, BSI ("Reichenbach and Plaques"), Robert J. Mangler, BSI ("Starrett and Briggs"), Steven Rothman, BSI ("Christopher Morley"), Richard U. Sveum, M.D. ("Norwegian Explorers"), and George A. Vanderburgh, Mbt ("Canadian Sherlockian Scions"). Registration began in January. For more information, contact Bruce Southworth, BSI, Conference Chair, E-mail: bruce1@mindspring.com

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    CLRC in the News

    An article, "Boundless Gag: Weisman Exhibit Illuminates the Tip of the Wanda Gag Iceberg," appeared in The Minnesota Daily on Thursday, November 13, 1997.

    The January 1998 issue of School Library Journal included information about Kerlan notecards in its "Send For: Inexpensive Resources for Librarians" column along with an illustration of the Ashley Bryan card, "Where Shall I Be?" Other Kerlan notecards that are currently available are Dahlov Ipcar's "Zebra Mare and Foal," Lois Lenski's "Fireside Poems," Wanda Gag's "Millions of Cats," Ellen Raskin's"Mice," James Marshall's "Little Red Riding Hood," Karen Ritz's "CLRC Reading Room," and Lynd Ward's "Hope for All Seasons." Each box of notecards is $5. For mail orders, add $2 for postage and handling for the first box and $1 for each additional box.

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    A Call for Papers

    "Scorned Literature"

    Contributors are sought for a collection of essays on popular mass-produced literature, for juveniles or adults, which was scorned by librarians and other custodians of high culture and published in the United States from 1860 to the present. The study will include (but not necessarily be limited to) such genres as literary erotica, literature from the evangelical Christian right, story papers, dime novels, series books, pulp magazines, comic books, and romances. (Mysteries, Westerns, and science fiction are excluded unless they were scorned.)

    The purpose of this book is to describe and to define these major genres of scorned literature, to explore their value historically and culturally; to trace their publishing histories; to ex-amine how and why they were scorned by some yet read avidly by target audiences; to analyze reading experiences, plots, characters, authors, editors, modes of writing; and to offer present-day librarians' perspectives on such literature.

    The University of Massachusetts Press has expressed an initial interest in the book, which will be edited by Lydia C. Schurman and Deidre A. Johnson, for its series "Studies in Print Culture and the History of the Book." All submissions are subject to peer review and final approval by the University of Massachusetts Press.

    The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th Edition, will be used. Please send two hardcopies of each manuscript submission by June 1, 1998, to Lydia C. Schurman, 3215 North 22nd Street, Arlington, Virginia 22201-4338. Inquiries via e-mail are welcome to either Lydia (schurman@erols.com) or Deidre (djohnson@wcupa.edu)

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    Recent Book Awards

    Karen Hesse, author of Out of the Dust (Scholastic), is the 1998 John Newbery Medal winner for "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children" published during the preceding year. Three 1998 Newbery honor book authors were cited: Patricia Reilly Giff for Lily's Crossing (Delacorte), Gail Carson Levine for Ella Enchanted (HarperCollins), and Jerry Spinelli for Wringer (HarperCollins).

    Paul O. Zelinsky, illustrator of Rapunzel (Dutton), was named the winner of the 1998 Randolph Caldecott Medal for "the most distinguished American picture book for children" published during 1997. The Caldecott committee also cited three honor book illustrators: Christopher Myers for Harlem (Scholastic), David Small for The Gardener (Farrar), and Simms Taback for There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (Viking).

    Henry Holt & Company, publisher of The Robber and Me by German author Josef Holub (translated by Elizabeth D. Crawford), received the 1998 Mildred L. Batchelder Award for "the most outstanding book originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country and subsequently published in English in the United States." Two honor books were named: Nero Corleone: A Cat's Story by German author Elke Heidenreich (translated by Doris Orgel), published by Viking, and Hostage to War: A True Story by Tatjana Wassiljewa (translated from the German by Anna Trenter), published by Scholastic.

    Sharon M. Draper, was awarded the 1998 Coretta Scott King Author Award for Forged by Fire (Atheneum). I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, A Freed Girl by Joyce Hansen (Scholastic) and Bayard Rustin: Behind the Scenes of the Civil Rights Movement by James Haskins (Hyperion) were named honor books. Javaka Steptoe received the 1998 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for In Daddy's Arms I Am Tall (Lee & Low). Three honor books for illustration were named by the King selection jury: Ashley Bryan's ABC of African American Poetry, illustrated by Ashley Bryan (Atheneum); The Hunterman and the Crocodile: A West African Folktale, illustrated by Baba Wague Diakite (Scholastic); and Harlem, illustrated by Christopher Myers (Scholastic). The King Awards honor African American authors and illustrators whose books are "outstanding inspirational and edu-cational contributions to literature for children and young people."

    The Pura Belpre Awards honor Latino writers and illustrators whose work "best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in the work of literature for youth." Receiving the Belpre Author Award was Victor Martinez for Parrot in the Oven (HarperCollins). Spirits of the High Mesa by Floyd Martinez (Arte Publico Press) and Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems by Francisco X. Alarcon (Children's Book Press) were honor books. The Belpre Illustrator Award was given to Stephanie Garcia for Snapshots from the Wedding (Putnam's). Honor books for illustration were The Golden Flower, illustrated by Enrique O. Sanchez (Simon & Schuster); My Family illustrated by Carmen Lomas Garza (Children's Book Press); and Gathering the Sun: An Alphabet in Spanish and English, illustrated by Simon Silva (Lothrop).

    Madeleine L'Engle is the 1998 winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for Out-standing Literature for Young Adults for "lifetime achievement in writing books for teenagers." L'Engle, author of more than forty fantasy and science fiction books as well as realistic family stories for young adults and children, is being honored for the Time Fantasy Series, including A Wrinkle in Time and A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and the Austin Family Series, including Meet the Austins and A Ring of Endless Light. Russell Freedman is the winner of the 1998 Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for making "a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children." Freedman was cited for his body of work including Newbery winner Lincoln: A Photobiography (Clarion) and two Newbery honor books, The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane (Holiday) and Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery (Clarion). Tom Davenport is the 1998 winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Children's Video for Willa: An American Snow White (Davenport Films), a classic Grimm tale reset in Virginia in 1915.

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    Recent Aquisitions

    MS--manuscripts, IL--illustrations; published titles are indicated by italics; unless otherwise indicated, these materials have been donated by the authors and/or illustra-tors and their families. Titles for which additional materials arrived are not listed if reported in previous newsletters.

    Enrico Arno: IL The Blue Rose: A Collection of Stories for Young Girls; Brendan the Navigator; Down from the Lonely Mountain; The Fourth World of the Hopis; A Game of Functions; The Hat-Shaking Dance and Other Tales from the Gold Coast; House of Cats and Other Stories; The King s Drum and Other African Stories; Leon-ard of Pisa and the New Mathematics of the Middle Ages; The Lost Half Hour; Meet the Orchestra; The Milky Way and Other Chinese Folk Tales; Olode the Hunter and Other Tales from Nigeria; Other Worlds, Other Beings; People of the Short Blue Corn: Tales and Legends of the Hopi Indians; Rough Men, Tough Men: Poems of Action and Adventure; The Shepherd s Nosegay; The Sword of the Prophet: The Story of the Moslem Empire; A Taste of Chaucer: Selections from Canterbury Tales; Turi s Poppa; The Wicked Enchantment

    Marion Dane Bauer: MS Alison's Fierce and Ugly Halloween; Alison's Terrible, Awful, Mean Second Grade Teacher; Christmas in the Forest; Grandmother's Song; The Hottest Day; Turtle Dreams

    Francesca Lia Block: MS Baby Be-Bop; Girl Goddess #9

    Frank Bonham: MS The Temporary Expert: Field Research as Literary Life-Support; Street of the Crying Woman

    Barbara Brenner: MS Chibi: A True Story from Japan

    Eleanor Cameron: MS At Your Age: Stories About the Childhood of Writers; Beyond Explanation; The Cool Changes; A Definition of Fantasy in Relation to Reality; The Eternal Moment; Griselda s Great Ambition; The Hovering Hawk; The Ideal Critic; I m Afraid of Virginia Wolf; Jane Lear; Jewels from the Moon; McLuhan, Youth, and Literature; The Multitudinous Seas; Not All Journeys Are Across Space; Hidden Mysteries; Portrait of an Unknown Woman; The Private Worlds of Julia Redfern; The Seed and the Vision; Small Mysteries: Life Poems with an Afterward; A Woman I Knew; A Writer s Journey; "Writing from Experience" for The Five Owls Magazine; The Truants

    NOTE: Eleanor Cameron, who died in 1996, bequeathed her literary estate to the University of Minnesota. This includes manuscripts for her children s and young adult books, lectures and critical articles, and her private collection of books. Duplicates and books not cataloged for the Kerlan Collection will be placed in the University s general circulating collection.

    Mary Casanova: MS Wolf Shadows

    Jane Leslie Conly: MS Crazy Lady!; Racso and the Rats of NIMH; R-T, Margaret, and the Rats of NIMH; Trout Summer

    Linda Crew: MS Long Time Passing

    William Durbin: MS The Broken Blade

    Paul Galdone: IL Cat Goes Fiddle-i-Fee; Chicken Licken; What s in the Fox s Sack? An Old English Tale

    Karen Hesse: MS Lavender, Lester's Dog, Poppy's Chair, Sable, A Time of Angels

    Johanna Hurwitz: MS The Down and Up Fall

    Barbara Joosse: MS The Colors of White; Lewis and Papa: Adventure on the Santa Fe Trail; The Morning Chair; No Top to the Sky; Nugget and Darling; Snow Day!; Treasure of Tangaroa; Writing from My Underwater Garden

    Patricia Lauber: MS How We Learned the Earth Is Round

    Alice Low: MS Stories to Tell a Six-Year-Old; Witches' Holiday

    Chris Lynch: MS Babes in the Woods; Johnny Chesthair; Ladies' Choice; Scratch and the Sniffs

    James Marshall: MS Fox on the Job; Rats on the Range and Other Stories; The Stupids Die

    Emily Arnold McCully: MS Starring Mirette and Bellini IL The Bobbin Girl; The Divide; The Pirate Queen MS & IL Popcorn at the Palace

    Eloise McGraw: MS "Letter from the 30's for New Classen Life; Tangled Webb; A View from the Deck for The Writer

    Claudia Mills: MS Losers, Inc.

    Phyllis Reynolds Naylor: MS Ducks Disappearing; I Can t Take You Anywhere; Outrageously Alice; Saving Shiloh; Shiloh Season

    Joan Lowery Nixon: MS Bait for a Burglar: Casebuster #12; Backstage with a Ghost: Casebuster #3; Beware the Pirate Ghost; Catch a Crooked Crown: Casebuster #8; Caught in the Act: Orphan Train #2; Check into Danger: Casebuster #4; Circle of Love: Orphan Train Adventures #7; A Desperate Promise; A Family Apart: Orphan Train #1; Fear Stalks Grizzly Hill: Casebuster #9; The House Has Eyes: Casebuster #5; In the Face of Danger: Orphan Train #3; The Internet Escapade: Casebuster #11; Keeping Secrets: Orphan Train Adventures #6; The Legend of Deadman s Mine: Casebuster #2; Murdered My Sweet; A Place to Belong: Orphan Train Quartet #4; Sabotage on the Set: Casebuster #10; Search for the Shadowman; Secret of the Time Capsule: Casebuster #6; The Statue Walks at Night: Casebuster #1

    Jean Okimoto: MS The Eclipse of Moonbeam Dawson

    Katherine Paterson: MS Celia and the Sweet, Sweet Water; Parzival: The Quest of the Grail Knight

    Graham Salisbury: MS Shark Bait

    Jane Resh Thomas: MS Daddy Doesn't Have to be a Giant Anymore; Lights on the River; Princess in a Pigpen; Scaredy Dog; Scaredy Dog's Escapade

    Ruth White: MS Belle Prater's Boy

    Vicki Winslow: MS Follow the Leader

    Jacqueline Woodson: MS The House You Pass on the Way

    Paul Zelinsky: IL Buster's World

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    Special Gifts

    The Ruth Ersted Endowment for the Children s Literature Research Collections. Ruth Ersted was for many years a school library specialist at the Minnesota State Department of Education. Because of her love for her late sister, Ruth Ersted, and Miss Ersted s love of children s literature, Mrs. Doris E. McNamara, a 1928 graduate of the School of Management at the University of Minnesota, has established an endowment fund for the Children s Literature Research Collections. Mrs. McNamara is a member of the University s Heritage Society which honors those who are investing in the University s future through planned gifts.

    The Laura Jane Musser Trust Fund granted $5,000 to process and catalog the children s books from the Laura Jane Musser home in Little Falls, Minnesota, donated to the Children s Literature Research Collections. CLRC has 100,000 children's books in the Kerlan, Hess, and Series Book Collections. The Laura Jane Musser gift books include 488 series books, 80 Oz books and 100 Oz ephemera such as clippings and brochures.

    Laura Jane Musser grew up in Little Falls in a house filled with books. Her father knew L. Frank Baum personally, and the author of the "Oz" books sent copies of his books to the Musser family. As a grown woman, Musser attended the annual International Wizard of Oz conferences, collected series books, and invited the children of Little Falls to come to her home and borrow her books. She made frequent visits to the Kerlan Collection and in 1972 sponsored an Emerald City convention in Minneapolis, which featured Emily Kimbrough as the keynote speaker and "The Marvelous Land of Oz," an operetta directed by Dorothy Benham-with 76 children participating.

    Harcourt Brace & Company donated $5,000 to be used to preserve children s book illustrations and original manuscripts in the Kerlan Collection.

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    Volunteers

    Children s Literature Research Col-lections (CLRC) currently has eight wonderful volunteers working on a variety of projects. Without these people s donation of time and expertise, important projects would go undone until staff time and money became available.

    Ruth Church is working on sorting and filing vertical file information of which most are clippings about authors, illustrators, and public events about children s literature. Carmel Conry's most recent project involved creating a traveling education portfolio about Minnesota author Marion Dane Bauer.

    University graduate and former student office assistant Robin Dusterhoft uses her vacation to volunteer at CLRC. Projects she has spearheaded include alphabetically organizing all uncata-loged books into one storage and creat-ing a detailed listing of the Kerlan Collection s thousands of posters. Toni Girard and Sally Rigler are preserving art by slipsheeting illustrations with acid-free paper.

    Elizabeth Hatle is creating a filing system for all uncataloged audio/visual materials including audio-tapes, videos, records, and films. Deborah Murphy and Bette Ripke are focusing on checklists of important authors and illustrators. Thank you to all these dedicated people!

    Additional volunteers are needed to perform various tasks at the Kerlan Collection. If you would like to actively participate in this ongoing work, please contact the Collection at 612-624-4576.

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    Recent Visitors and Reseachers

    Lisa Michaux, graduate student, examined books for the exhibit "Lives Connected: Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight--Two African American Artist" on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (see page 10).

    Nancy Smiler Levinson gave a talk at the Kerlan about her career as an author.

    Eva-Maria Metcalf, who teaches Scandinavian Children s Literature at the University of Minnesota, brought in students to view books.

    Prior to speaking at the Cowles Auditorium, Walter Dean Myers visited the reading room to inscribe copies of his books in the Collection.

    From St. Thomas, Professor Mary Swanson and fifteen students viewed the Collection.

    A group of Minnesota Library Association members visited the reading room.

    Mrs. Frank (Gloria) Bonham and friend Dorothy Chafin from Arizona visited the Kerlan enroute from Chicago.

    Allen Gronhovd, University of Minnesota staff, looked at a Leonard Everett Fisher book for his report on the historical development of recreational sports.

    Librarian Duffy De France of the Musser Public Library of Little Falls, Minnesota, spent an afternoon at the Collection.

    Rebecca Rapport, College of Education, introduced her class to the Kerlan s original materials.

    Professor Margaret Phinney and her students in the College of Education examined works by several artists, including Chris Van Allsburg and Tomie dePaola.

    University of St. Thomas graduate students and Professor Sally Hunter viewed manuscripts, illustrations, and a slide presentation about Wanda Gág.

    Translator Kimiko Abe and publisher Hidekazu Sato, whose Japanese translation of Wanda Gág s diary, Growing Pains, has been published in Japan, returned to Minneapolis for the opening of the Gág exhibit at the Weisman Museum.

    Tamara Berg, Indiana University -- Bloomington, researched F. F. Victor, H.H. Jackson, E. G. Eastman and others.

    Professor Mike Tolan, College of St. Scholastica, came to view books by Jim Kjelgaard.

    Robert Walls of the Valves and Science/Technology Program at Lafayette College, Indiana, researched the cultural history of the American logger by looking at the literature and iconography of Paul Bunyan.

    Local author John Coy visited the Collection and inscribed his book.

    Graduate student Norma Sciarra researched children s books for girls from 1840 to 1880.

    Joel Chaston, Southwest Missouri State, visited to view L. Frank Baum books.

    Alice Tracy of Maryland examined illustrations by Kurt Wiese.

    Ulrich Koester of the Midwest Food Connection researched folktales related to the growing and eating of food.

    Professor Elena Bashir, University of Michigan, looked at children s books in the Hindi language for preparation of course materials.

    Deborah Murphy of Scholastic and Sidney Iwanter of California spent an afternoon perusing materials.

    Patricia Johnston, a librarian from the University of New Brunswick Canada, learned about the operations and special collections management of CLRC.

    Carl Johnson, a student at the University of Minnesota, viewed children s books for his Third World Literature in English course.

    Graduate student Haddayr Copley-Woods researched the history of Louisa May Alcott s first ten years of publishing.

    Michigan media specialist Mary Ann Paulin examined collage art by several illustrators.

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    Spring Classes

    Compleat Scholar:

    CSch 0476, Sec 1, Collecting Children s Books Thursday, 6:30-8:30 P.M. April 2-16 (3 meetings)

    CSch 0432, Sec. 1. Children s Fiction Writing Workshop Thursday, 1-3 P.M. April 2-May 7 (6 meetings)

    CSch 0451, Sec. 1. Writing for Children Saturday, April 25, 9 A.M.-4 P.M. (1 meeting)

    No late fee through March 26. For more information, or to be placed on the Compleat Scholar mailing list, call 612-624-8880 or FAX 612-624-5891.

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    In Memoriam

    Matt(hew) F. Christopher (1917-1997), author of 120 children s sports books, including the best-selling Lucky Baseball Bat (1954), died on September 20. The Kerlan Collection holds manuscripts for thirteen titles including Tough to Tackle, The Fox Steals Home, Lucky Baseball Bat, and All-Star Fever.

    Marguerite Henry (1902-1997) author of 59 children s books, died in California on November 26. In the Kerlan Collection are manuscripts for twenty-one titles including Justin Morgan Had a Horse, Misty of Chincoteague, King of the Wind, and Sea Star, Orphan of Chincoteague. Ms. Henry received the 1975 Kerlan Award.

    The green reading lamps that enhance the Kerlan Collection reading room are a memorial to Holly Ramsey from her husband, Dan Dailey, and son, Henry.

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    Friends Board

    President: Rebecca Rapport

    Past President: Gerald Barnaby

    Vice-President (President-Elect) & Finance Chair: Bette Peltola

    Financial Secretary: Walter Peik

    Secretary: Elizabeth M. Petersen

    Development Chair: Grace Kurtz

    Membership Chair: Phyllis Deer

    Education/Outreach Chair: Gloria Kortmeyer

    Marketing Chair: Chris Dyrud

    Kerlan Award Chair: Phyllis Mattill

    Summer Event Chair: Diana Swanson

    Preservation Chair:

    Other Board Members:
    Karen M. Bihrle
    Kathie Cerra
    Norma Gaffron
    Maythee Kantar
    Katharine Weiblen
    Gwen Willems

    Ex-officio: Karen Nelson Hoyle
    Carrie E. Tahtamouni

    The Friends of the Kerlan Collection act as advocates for the Collection by encouraging the use of and financially supporting this rare and unique resource.

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    Research Based on CLRC Rescources

    Chaston, Joel. Lois Lowry. New York: Twayne, 1997.

    Hoyle, Karen. "An Overview of the Kerlan Collection Archival Materials About Wanda Gág" and "A Tour of the Recent Wanda Gág Exhibit at the Weisman Art Museum." Cable Channel 6 on February 17, 1998, at 7 P.M. 7:00 P.M., February 17.

    --. "Irvin Kerlan." American Book Collectors and Bibliographers. Dictionary of Literary Biography,187:179-184. Second Series. Detroit: Gale, 1997.

    Jenkins, Christine. "The Baby-Sitters Club and Cultural Diversity: or, Book #X: Jessi and Claudia Get Lost." Published as a chapter in Using Multiethnic Literature in the K-8 Classroom, Violet Harris, ed. Christopher-Gordon, 1997.

    Lacy, Lyn. "The Life and Times of Flavia Gag." A slide presentation at the Brown County Historical Society, New Ulm, Minnesota, on June 21, 1997. Ms. Lacy quoted correspondence by Wanda Gág's youngest sister, Flavia, in her script; featured photos of her that were taken at the CLRC; and mentioned manuscripts, art, and editions of her work that can be found at CLRC.

    Yoshida, Junko. "Mother-Daughter Stories in Japan" Bookbird, 35:2, 6-11.

    --. "The Revision of Gender in American Adolescent Novels: In the Case of Ursula K. Le Guin's The Earthsea Quartet." The Rising Generation, 1778:1, 32-34. Tokyo: Kenkyusha Publishing Co. (written in Japanese)

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    Exhibits

    Past Exhibits

    The Crow River Art Center, Hutchinson, Minnesota, hosted the Children s Theatre Company of Minneapolis on December 14, 1997, for the performance of Tomie dePaola s Strega Nona. Several pieces of Mr. dePaola s art were borrowed from the Kerlan Collection for display at the Hutchinson Public Library.

    Current Exhibits

    "Lives Connected: Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight," a Minneapolis Institute of Arts show that includes the traveling exhibition "The Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman Series of Narrative Paintings by Jacob Lawrence," contains works from several private and public collections in addition to a selection of works from the Francine Seders Gallery in Seattle, Washington. Two books were borrowed from the Kerlan Collection: Harriet and the Promised Land by Jacob Lawrence and The Railroad to Freedom by Hildegarde Hoyt Swift. The exhibit opened on February 22 and runs through May 3. For more information, contact the Minneapolis Institute of Arts at 612-870-3000.

    "Giants of Small Countries," an exhibit of Scandinavian picture book artists Ottilia Adelborg, Tove Jansson, and Ingri and Edgar Parin d Aulaire continues in Japan. Twenty-three d'Aulaire illustrations were borrowed from the Kerlan Collection. The exhibit will be at the Shinsai-bashi Daimaru Exhibition Hall in Osaka through early April. It then moves to the Kijo Museum of Picture Books in Miyazaki (April 19-May 10) and the Kobe Daimaru Exhibition Hall in Hyogo (July 17-24).

    Children s Theatre Exhibits

    Chris Wold Dyrud, local illustrator and Kerlan Friend board member, and Barbara Beshoar from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design faculty, recently visited the Kerlan Collection to choose materials for the Kerlan Friends' display window at the Children's Theatre. Now playing are Boundless Graceand The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes. For more information, contact the Children s Theatre at 612-874-0400.

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    On Display

    The Walter Library s main hallway bulletin board displays, created by student staff Shin-Young Rheem and Jennifer Elliott, direct visitors to the Dahlov Ipcar and IBBY Honour Book displays immediately outside the Ker-lan reading room.

    In the Kerlan hallway, an exhibit by senior student office assistant Jennifer Elliott highlights the books and illustrations of Dahlov Ipcar, 1998 Kerlan Award recipient. Other displays by Jennifer showcase Mary Hoffman's Boundless Grace and the theme "Hibernation."

    Shin-Young Rheem, student secretarial assistant, celebrates diversity by bringing together books and dolls from China, Japan, and Korea.

    The center case, designed by Sara Ross, student office assistant, brings a message of spring using Linnea in Monet's Garden and Linnea's Windowsill by Swedish author Christina Bjork. Across the aisle, in an exhibit jointly installed by student staff Jennifer Elliott and Sara Ross, IBBY Honour List books are featured under glowing yellow stars.

    Through early January, patrons could view the following hallway displays: Books and illustrations by Gustaf Tenggren, installed by student secretary Norman Rupp; a dazzling Cinderella exhibit, complete with a veil, designed by Karen s student Stephanie Gates; and books featuring holidays from around the world, created by student office assistant Sara Ross.

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    New CLRC Classroom Portfolio

    Attention, educators! CLRC's new portfolio featuring award-winning Minnesota author Marion Dane Bauer's Touch the Moon (1987) is ready to borrow. Included is correspondence with Bauer's editor at Clarion Books, James Cross Giblin, and his assessment of and recommendations for her manuscript, along with the first, second, and final drafts of selected chapters. Upper elementary children interested in writing will find these materials useful for making comparative analyses of this realistic fantasy and, in the process, they will become aware of the perseverance that is necessary in order to become a good writer.

    Two copies of Touch the Moon, are included in the portfolio. Other portfolios that are available on loan from CLRC for classroom use feature the works of the following authors and illustrators:

    Tomie dePaola, Author/Illustrator
    Anne Rockwell, Author/Illustrator
    Charlotte Zolotow, Author
    Myra Cohn Livingston, Author
    Karen Ritz, Illustrator
    Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Author
    Marguerite Henry, Author
    Katherine Paterson, Author

    Any educational portfolio may be loaned for a two-week period for a $25 nonrefundable advance payment. They may be reserved in advance by calling the Kerlan Collection and may be picked up in person on Monday or Tuesday and returned on Friday between the hours of 9 A.M. and 4:30 P.M. Also available free of charge for a one-week loan are a tape-slide kit, "This Is the Kerlan Collection I," for primary grades and a videocassette kit, "This Is the Kerlan Collection II," for use with junior and senior high students. Please contact the Kerlan Collection at 612-624-4576 for more information about using these portfolios.

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    Now at the Kerlan

    IBBY Honour List Exhibit

    From Thursday, January 15, to mid-March, a collection of 103 children's books in thirty languages are on display in the Kerlan Collection reading room. These books were submitted for the IBBY Honour List 1996. Whether wildly funny or quietly serious, nonsense or stark drama, these books reflect universal concerns and values for sharing with children everywhere.

    The entries were selected by the National Sections of IBBY, one book in each of three categories: excellence in writing, illustration, and translation. Countries producing children's books in more than one language could submit one book in each language (up to three books). Included for the first time are books written in Arabic, Bashkir, Croatian, Latvian, and Lithuanian. The largest number of titles are in Spanish (17), English (12), and German (9).

    The IBBY Exhibit is co-sponsored by the Institute of International Studies and Programs, the Children s Literature Research Collections, and the Kerlan Friends.

    If you are unable to view the IBBY exhibit at CLRC, the books will also be on display at the 1998 Festival of Nations.

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    URL: http://special.lib.umn.edu/clrc/spring98.htm
    Copyright 1998 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota, University Libraries
    Send comments to clrc@tc.umn.edu.
    Last revision:11/18/98
    The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.