New Year’s Countdown Continues

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 . . .

It’s just four days until New Year’s. Today’s New Year’s countdown custom is cleaning. Many cultures believe it’s good luck to clean your home before the new year to sweep out the bad luck and bad spirits from the concluding year.

I’m all for getting rid of bad spirits (and being a Chicago sports fan I know a lot about them) so this year I started cleaning a month ago.  I’m usually too tired after Christmas to do it so I knew if I didn’t start way in advance it would never get done. But maybe this is why the Cubs haven’t won in all of these years–I never finished my cleaning!

So grab a broom and get going! You’ve got three full days left to get rid of that streak of bad luck, Lou, Ozzie, Lovie, and Vinny. Chicago sports fans deserve better luck than this!

Different Strokes for Different Folks

Why do some folks celebrate New Year’s on January 1 and other folks celebrate on other dates? The different timing for New Year’s celebrations can be attributed to the different calendars used in many countries and religions. Some countries and religions follow a lunar calendar that is based on the cycles of the moon. Many faiths follow a lunisolar calendar, in which the months are regulated by the moon and the years are organized by the sun.

Most Western countries follow the Gregorian calendar, a solar calendar.  In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII adjusted the Julian calendar, which was invented in 45 B.C. by Julius Caesar (and is still used by some religions). Here’s how InfoPlease.com explains it:

“In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII ordered the advancement of the calendar by 10 days and introduced a new corrective device to curb further error: century years such as 1700 or 1800 would no longer be counted as leap years, unless they were (like 1600 or 2000) divisible by 400.

If somewhat inelegant, this system is undeniably effective, and is still in official use in the United States. The Gregorian calendar year differs from the solar year by only 26 seconds—accurate enough for most mortals, since this only adds up to one day’s difference every 3,323 years.

Despite the prudence of Pope Gregory’s correction, many Protestant countries, including England, ignored the papal bull. Germany and the Netherlands agreed to adopt the Gregorian calendar in 1698; Russia only accepted it after the revolution of 1918, and Greece waited until 1923 to follow suit. And currently many Orthodox churches still follow the Julian calendar, which now lags 13 days behind the Gregorian.”

The British and its colonies adopted the calendar in 1752, and all of us on the Gregorian calendar will celebrate New Year’s on January 1. Party on!

Countdown to 2009

5, 4 , 3, 2, 1 . . .

No, this isn’t some kind of Keith Olbermann or space shuttle countdown. It’s just five days to New Year’s in countries following the Gregorian calendar! There are things you need to do to prepare and I’ll touch on a few in the days leading up to January 1.

The first thing you need to decide, if you haven’t already, is how you’re going to mark the New Year. In many cultures, New Year’s is a big family celebration. In many places, however, there are large public celebrations. In Scotland, there’s a big outdoor festival called Hogmanay. In New York, there’s the Times Square ball drop. Shante’ and I believe that whatever you do is fine–just prepare to party!

Woo-hoo!

I’m taking a break from baking cookies and cupcakes for the kids in the family (young and old) so I indulged myself in a guilty pleasure and peaked at my Amazon.com ranking. Right now, at this particular hour (because it changes every hour), my book Shante’ Keys and the New Year’s Peas is #13 in non-religious holiday books and #18 in African American stories. I’ve been in the top 100 non-religious holiday books the last couple of weeks, but this is the highest I’ve been. Next hour I might not be anywhere to be seen, but right now this gives me energy to tackle more baking!

Tomorrow I’ll start my countdown to New Year’s!

New Spin on Old Classic

Every year, National Public Radio asks a writer to compose an original story with a Christmas theme. This year, Gregory Maguire (“Wicked”) has reworked the Hans Christian Andersen classic “The Little Match Girl.” Check it out here. He’ll read it on the air on All Things Considered on Christmas Day. In Chicago, that show usually airs 3 pm – 6:30 pm.

A Cool Award

We’ve had ice storms, power outages, modem outages, and blizzards in the last week so I’m just getting around to acknowledging that “The Riant Writer” has received the Butterfly Award for Coolest Blog from friend Jama Rattigan’s alphabet soup! Jama and her blog are pretty cool themselves so it’s a double honor!

In keeping with the guidelines of the award, I am to pass on the honor to up to ten blogs. Here are my picks in no particular order:

–Margot Dill’s Read These Books and Use Them. An editor/teacher/children’s writer, Margot goes beyond simple reviews and gives teachers and parents ideas for using the books with kids.

–Author Cynthea Liu’s Writing for Children & Teens regularly features spotlights of emerging children’s authors.

–The Three Silly Chicks (Carolyn Crimi, Andrea Beatty, and Julia Durango) write–what else–reviews of books that crack them up. They also name honorary Silly Chicks. Check out the children’s authors in their silly headgear!

–Fellow Chicago Southland SCBWIer Jennifer Knoblock (Ink for Lit) is on the road to publication (what is taking these people so long to recognize talent?). Her blog documents her journey, her writing, and even photography.

–Another Southlander, Jim Danielson, writes about his journey and life on Haunts of a Children’s Writer. And don’t think that I’m naming Jim just because we went to high school together (but we did–a long, long, time ago).

–Yet another Southland friend, Kim Winters, writes Kat’s Eye Journal, which reminds all of us that we have no excuse not to write. If Kim can do it, we can! Kim is mother of three girls, two of which are special needs. Kim’s life is frequently interrupted by doctor visits and hospital stays but she perseveres. She is a contributor to Special Gifts: Women Writers on the Heartache, the Happiness, and the Hope of Raising a Special Needs Child.

–Esme Raji Codell is a readologist, librarian, and author who is created the Planet Esme Book Room. Her blog, The Planet Esme Plan, reviews a ton of books.

–Kelly Herold of  Big A, little a is responsible for me starting this new blog so I have to name her. It would be like not putting your mother on your list of the women you admire most. Ya just gotta include her! Kelly presented a program to our SCBWI network that led me in the right direction with my blog. Kelly has some interviews of high powered authors, such as Judy Blume and Mary Pope Osborne. Yikes! I’m surprised she even spoke to me!

Congratulations, all! Please pass on the Butterfly per these rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. Award up to 10 other blogs.
4. Add links to those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message for your awardees on their blogs.

I’m off to wrap presents. Happy Holidays all!

A Tale of a Book, a Studio, and an Adaptation

Well, I had my fingers crossed that someone would finally make a good adaptation of one of Kate DiCamillo’s great books, but the reviews seem to be mixed on The Tale of Despereaux. Manohla Dargis in the NY Times had this to say today:

“The main difference between the source and its adaptation is that while the book exudes charm, the movie leans toward cute, a substitution that largely speaks to the influence of Disney on animation. In the movie Despereaux wears a red cap that makes him look more like a well-dressed bunny than like a mouse. But at least he’s not wearing Mickey’s gold clodhoppers and bottom-line grin.”

Roger Ebert gave it three-stars, loved the animation, but wasn’t crazy about the story. (He also made a boo-boo when he said the book was “based on four Newbery Award-winning novels by Kate DiCamillo, all unread by me. . .” Of course, dear children’s book lovers, we all know the movie is based on just one book. Another review I heard said that the movie alternatively bored and scared her young companion. Yikes.

I will probably see the movie, however,  just to listen if narrator Signourney Weaver says the word, “perfidy.” Because it is perfidy, dear reader, when Hollywood gets the adaptation of another children’s classic wrong. When will DiCamillo learn (as Louis Sachar was smart enough to figure out with “Holes”) that if you want something done write in Hollywood you have to do it yourself.

Special Limited Time Offer!

That title sounds like an ad from a retailer, doesn’t it? It’s just me, offering a last-minute gift idea. If you are looking for a gift for a child age 4-8 and Shante’ Keys and the New Year’s Peas sounds like the ticket, I’m offering signed copies of my book on my web site. I’ll ship them out via Priority Mail for Christmas delivery if they’re purchased by December 20. Go to www.gpdavenport.com if you’re interested.

Saturday at the Newberry

My son had a fencing meet, my husband had to work, and they were fundraising on WBEZ, so early Saturday morning I headed to the Newberry Library for a symposium. I had seen it advertised in the Tribune Books section the preceding Saturday and though it sounded interesting. It was.

“American Identity in Children’s Literature” featured four scholars speaking on the development of children’s books in the Jewish, Native American, African American, and Chicano/Chicana cultures. The morning was full of gasps as audience members were exposed to the worst stereotypes and perpetuations of disgraceful treatments of minority characters. I almost got sick to my stomach at Clemson’s Michelle Martin’s slides of “The Ten Little Niggers” and “Little Black Sambo,” but I was equally appalled at U of I’s Debbie Reese’s exposition of the cultural superiority of Caucasians and the demonizing of Indians in books portraying Natives. (FYI–Debbie uses both terms, and actually prefers “Indian” because of legal considerations, i.e., federal treaties.) San Diego State’s June Cummins-Lewis educated me on Jewish children’s literature and the life of Sydney Taylor, and her colleague Phillip Serrato illuminated stereotypes in Chicano/a lit.

The audience mostly seemed filled with teachers and future teachers. After I asked a question and identified myself as a children’s author, several people revealed themselves to me later as aspiring kid’s writers. Out of all of the group, however, there was just one other current SCBWIer there. I realize many SCBWIers went to the gallery tour of the Artifacts of Childhood exhibit, but this symposium would have been a valuable education–even for those who think themselves as culturally sensitive. How many of us, for example, have a copy of Little House on the Prairie on our shelves? I admit I do have a copy in my Newbery Award collection, even though I have yet to read it. Debbie Reese said we should all take our copies back to the store and ask for our money back due to its portrayal of Indians.

If you missed it, the morning was being recorded for podcast on WBEZ’s website, www.chicagopublicradio.org. I don’t see it on there yet, but check back. It’s worth the listen.

Books Are Good Gifts, or Bookstore Bailout = US!

This is a serious message is from someone who cracks me up, Roy Blount, Jr. After you read his message, you get to see a video that includes Elmo, Jon Stewart, Judy Blume, plus Bill O’Reilly. What a combination!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’ve been talking to booksellers lately who report that times are
hard. And local booksellers aren’t known for vast reserves of
capital, so a serious dip in sales can be devastating.
Booksellers don’t lose enough money, however, to receive
congressional attention. A government bailout isn’t in the cards.

We don’t want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do
neighborhoods. So let’s mount a book-buying splurge. Get your
friends together, go to your local bookstore and have a
book-buying party. Buy the rest of your Christmas presents, but
that’s just for starters. Clear out the mysteries, wrap up the
histories, beam up the science fiction! Round up the westerns, go
crazy for self-help, say yes to the university press books! Get a
load of those coffee-table books, fatten up on slim volumes of
verse, and take a chance on romance!

There will be birthdays in the next twelve months; books keep
well; they’re easy to wrap: buy those books now. Buy replacements
for any books looking raggedy on your shelves. Stockpile
children’s books as gifts for friends who look like they may
eventually give birth. Hold off on the flat-screen TV and the GPS
(they’ll be cheaper after Christmas) and buy many, many books.
Then tell the grateful booksellers, who by this time will be
hanging onto your legs begging you to stay and live with their
cat in the stockroom: “Got to move on, folks. Got some books to
write now. You see…we’re the Authors Guild.”

Enjoy the holidays.

Roy Blount Jr.
President
Authors Guild

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This video is from the Association of American Publisher’s campaign, Books Are Good Gifts.