Packed Crowd Hears Book
Winners at Bank Street College Awards
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.
The 33rd annual Irma
S. and James H. Black (ISB) Awards for Excellence in Children’s Literature, hosted by Bank Street
College of Education, reached hilarious heights last month
when 2004 ISB winner Mo Willems brought down the house with
his acceptance speech. If he couldn’t make it as a writer,
one guest was overheard to say, he certainly could make it
as a stand-up comic.
Humor and good cheer
were noticeable from the start when Augusta Souza Kappner,
President of Bank Street College, welcomed everyone, thanked
the benefactors, and reminded the audience of the “unique
selection process” for the IBS awards: kids themselves
make the decision. Keynoter Judy Sierra, who has been a puppeteer,
storyteller, children’s librarian, professor of children’s
literature, and an ISB winner, spoke of her own early love
of reading and writing, but noted that she particularly likes
to write for children who, for whatever reason, come to reading
late. With them particularly in mind she wrote Wild About
Books, illustrated by Marc Brown and published by Knopf,
one of this year’s ISB Honor Books (runners up). “Real” books,
Ms. Sierra noted, are “fun scary, adventurous and funny.” “Serendipity
also plays a part – “books seem to find their readers,” a
playful theme of Wild About Books, which tells about
a librarian who drives a bookmobile into a zoo and inspires
the various animals to build a library of their own. Other
Honor Book Awards went to Henry and the Kite Dragon by
Bruce Edward Hall, illustrated by William Low and published
by Philomel Books (Penguin), about Asian and Italian youngsters
learning how to get along, and to The Firekeeper’s
Son, a compelling tale set in 19th century Korea about
signal systems, written by Linda Sue Park, illustrated by Julie
Downing, and published by Clarion Books.
Mo Willems was then
called to receive his award. Deadpanning his way in, the
six-time Emmy Award winner began by saying that a motivating
force for him as a writer was a moment-of-truth experience
he had at 13, when he found himself alone in a kayak, nearing
a dangerous falls. Soon, however, the plausibility factor
yielded to loud laughter, as the hip and wildly funny storyteller
led his suckered audience down a fictional path that paid
homage to librarians. The put-on deliciously illustrated
Ms. Sierra’s criteria for “real” stories. “Pop
culture tells kids they can do anything,” he has said
in interview, which of course they soon realize is a “crock.” By
contrast, his own antic stories turn on “hidden but persuasive” themes
about “failure,” or not getting it right. The titles
alone of some of Willems’s books are worth the price
of admission—Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!,
The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog, Time to Pee. As for his wry take on life, well, he was raised
by Dutch immigrants (father a potter, mother a corporate attorney)
in a house down the street from “a seedy New Orleans
blues bar” where storytelling demanded being “clear,
funny, and succinct” because the audience was usually
drunk.
Knuffle Bunny,
a Cautionary Tale (Hyperion), though intended for the very
young, doesn’t shy away from drama caused by parental
ineptitude. Elegant looking, with colorful cartoon characters
superimposed onto lovely black and white photos shot in the
author’s Park Slope Brooklyn neighborhood, tells what
happens one afternoon when daddy is left in charge of taking
his toddler daughter and the family wash to the laundromat.
Somehow Trixie’s beloved stuffed bunny gets lost, and
when they leave the child tries to let daddy know that something
is wrong. But she can’t talk, all that comes out is
gibberish. When they get home, an unhappy Trixie and a frustrated
daddy are met by mommy who immediately asks Knuffle Bunny.
Needless to say, the problem is happily resolved and Trixie
says her first two words (guess!). Little ones will be fearfully
delighted, grown-ups impressed.#
