NANCY WOOD – JUNE 20,1936 – MARCH 12, 2013   Although she lived, loved and died in New Mexico, she was born in Trenton, New Jersey.  In a letter to me in 1994, she said: “I grew up in Trenton, mostly, but also spent a fair amount of time in Atlantic City with my Irish bootlegger grandfather, who taught me how to fish, clam, swear, play poker, drink whiskey, and bet on horses — before

It only happens every three years that both the Lee Bennett Hopkins/Penn State Poetry Award and the Lee Bennett Hopkins/International Reading Association (IRA) Promising New Poet Award are given.  This year the Penn State Award goes to Kate Coombs for WATER SINGS BLUE: OCEAN POEMS, illustrated by Meilo So (Chronicle Books): “For the water sings blue and the sky does too, and the sea lets you fly like a gull.” The IRA Award goes to

Charles and I returned from a seven-night cruise aboard OASIS OF THE SEAS — one of those lifetime events.  Photos appear on my fb page. Of course, one comes back to reality to several million emails, mail, et. al. — all of which will probably take up the rest of the month. At the end of this month the Lee Bennett Hopkins/Penn State University Poetry Award will be announced. It is hard to believe the

We met in 1973 at at ALA convention soon after he won a 1972 Caldecott Honor Book For ANANSI THE SPIDER: A TALE FROM THE ASHANTI (Holt). Already a prominent artist, Gerald was also a filmaker.  His film version of ANANSI, was hailed by Wilson Library Bulletin as “the two most popular children’s films produced in 1970”. Famous.  Young.  Dashing.  And — looking for free lance work. I was working at Scholastic at the time

A new year.  An exciting newfound major project has begun.  Older ideas are being looked over.  Frustration continues within the ‘industry’.  No one seems to know where it is going — or where it went.  Yet, life moves forward, we find new ways.  We have before.  We will again. I am overwhelmed with the reactions to MARY’S SONG (Eerdmans), the words and Stephen Alcorn’s artwork touched so many — and continues to do so. Anticipation