{"id":531,"date":"2007-04-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbicmsblog.reedbusiness.com\/elogic_660000266\/2007\/04\/28\/storied-city\/"},"modified":"2007-04-28T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-28T00:00:00","slug":"storied-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=531","title":{"rendered":"Storied City"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

It’s been a whirlwind week at the bookstore<\/a> — so much so that I haven’t had time until now to sit down and write about last weekend’s trip to New York. For a brief three days I managed to escape the stress associated with the daily grind, but it’s true, it’s true… I could not escape the world of children’s books!<\/p>\n

Allow me to illustrate how my bookstore-free weekend was nevertheless all about the books.<\/p>\n

While traveling on the train I read what? Children’s books.<\/p>\n

Who went with me on this trip? Gareth<\/a>, who writes and illustrates what? Graphic novels appropriate for teens. (Which for purposes of this listing we’ll call “children’s books.”)<\/p>\n

Our wonderful weekend accommodations were provided for us by our friends Cliff and Joyce, whose 19 month-old daughter Juliet loves what? Children’s books. (Especially More, More, More, Said the Baby<\/i><\/a> by Vera B. Williams.)<\/p>\n

We spent much of Friday and part of Saturday with one of my oldest and closest friends, Tim Decker<\/a>, who writes and illustrates what? Children’s books. (His second book, Run Far, Run Fast<\/em><\/a>, is being published this October by Front Street.)<\/p>\n

Basking in a very sunny Central Park, Gareth and I watched Tim, his fiancee Mandy, and our pal Simon pour over the pages of what? My coveted galley of Shaun Tan’s<\/a> wordless graphic novel The Arrival<\/em><\/a>, which Scholastic is publishing in October. I personally believe that Shaun Tan might<\/em> be the single most talented illustrator currently working in the field of what? Children’s books. (I say “might” because there are days when Peter Sis<\/a> takes my breathe away or Ana Juan<\/a> floors me or Igor Oleynikov<\/a> makes me shake my head in amazement, and… It’s a tough thing to take the top prize every day. But most days, I’m telling you, Shan Tan’s the man.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Friday night we went to MoMA<\/a> (“Uh… no, he’s just a friend.”) where my mind was primarily on art but couldn’t help recalling passages from Seen Art?<\/a><\/i> by Jon Scieszka<\/a> and Lane Smith<\/a>, so really my mind was on what? Children’s books.<\/p>\n

Whom did I meet on Saturday? The Fuse, a.k.a. Betsy Bird, a children’s librarian at the New York Public Library’s Donnell Library Center<\/a>, who writes a stellar, updated-so-often-I-can’t-fathom-how-she-does-it blog<\/a> about what? Children’s books.<\/p>\n

While we were visiting Betsy she showed us the real Winnie the Pooh<\/a> and a few magnificent paintings N.C. Wyeth<\/a> did for what? Children’s books.<\/p>\n

On Sunday Gareth and I went to the Museum of Natural History where we spent ages in the Butterfly Conservatory<\/a> pointing like over-excited children at every beautiful thing that fluttered by while I compared our experience to the one had by Velma Gratch in the book Velma Gratch and the Way Cool Butterfly<\/a><\/i> by Alan Madison, wonderfully illustrated by Kevin Hawkes<\/a>. This is one of my favorite picture books on the Random House Fall 2007 list of what? Children’s books.<\/p>\n

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I could go on, but you get the idea. I could also say that I need to get a life, but I have one. And it’s saturated with children’s books!!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a whirlwind week at the bookstore — so much so that I haven’t had time until now to sit down and write about last weekend’s trip to New York. For a brief three days I managed to escape the stress associated with the daily grind, but it’s true, it’s true… I could not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}