Posts filed under ‘Shameless Self-Promotion’
Inspirational Role Models
It seems fitting, it being Inspirational Role Models Month in the US, that I should meet this week with a professor from Smith College to discuss her work on a book about Cornelia Hahn Oberlander. “Like you,” she said in her initial email contact, “I was asked by Cornelia to write a book, and like you, I find her a tough nut to crack.” Cornelia was a tough nut to crack, but her passion for taking care of the environment through the work she does continues to inspire me.
Writing Love Every Leaf: the life of landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander has also influenced the way I look at many things as I go about my days – the groundcovers that grew on harsh terrains in Newfoundland last month for example, and trees that are well or poorly placed in relation to buildings and other features in a built landscape. Even the berm/hill/mound that provides a buffer between a playground in my neighbourhood and the houses beside it caught my attention recently.
I was in that playground with my seven year old granddaughter. She played on the equipment for a while, then abandoned it to climb to the top of the mound. I couldn’t help thinking of the mound in Jim Everett Park in Vancouver, designed by Cornelia where there was once just an unused triangle of soggy land. It’s the mound pictured on the cover of Love Every Leaf with Cornelia standing proudly on top of it. How well she understands children (although in her late 80s, she’s a long way from childhood herself) to know that a hill to climb is an important feature in a landscape for children. They love the element of surprise that hills provide opportuinvites for.
I suspect that whoever designed the park in my neighbourhood didn’t know that, because of course when my granddaughter climbed the hill there, she was delighted to discover the excellent view it provided of the “private” backyards on the other side!
I must write Cornelia and tell her how much I enjoyed meeting her next biographer, and thank her for inspiring me with her passion for her profession. If I were lots younger than I am, I’m sure I’d be inspired to join her in the exciting field of landscape architecture.
Add comment November 20, 2009
A Title “of Exceptional Calibre”
When my gardening plans got rained out this afternoon, I opened up my copy of “Best Books for Kids & Teens” which had just arrived in my mailbox. As I always do, I turned to the index in a hopeful (and egocentric) search for my name. (“Best Books…” is the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s annual publication of a catalogue intended to help teachers, librarians, and parents choose the best from the hundreds of books for young people that are published in Canada each year.) I had two new books last year – A Pocket Can Have A Treasure In It and Love Every Leaf: The Life of Landscape Architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander.
Happy day: two page numbers by my name in the “Best Books…” index. Even happier day when …
… I flip through the pages and find a star beside Love Every Leaf (signifying a “title of exceptional calibre”)!
So, if you don’t yet have a copy for the student or garden lover, artist or environmentalist in your life, go out and buy one! Now that it’s stopped raining, I’ll be heading out to my garden!
2 comments June 12, 2009
Another Treasure for My Pocket
Last night, at the CANSCAIP Mentor’s Dinner honouring my husband, Peter Carver, I learned from Rick Wilks of Annick Press that A Pocket Can Have A Treasure In It has been short-listed for the Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Award.
Let’s hope that the young readers at Market Lane Junior School in Toronto make their selection for the prize wisely! 
5 comments April 23, 2009
A Pocket… Goes to Italy
A Pocket Can Have A Treasure In It will be on display in a special exhibition of recent books for toddlers and babies, during the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) Congress in Rome in August.
A Pocket Can Have A Treasure In It has also been shortlisted for the 2009 CLA Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award, recognizing an illustrator of a noteworthy Canadian picture book. Thank you, illustrator Deirdre Betteridge!
Add comment April 9, 2009
Children’s Book Week 2008 – A Few Highlights
Between November 17 and November 21 I met with roughly 900 kids and the many adults (teachers, librarians, and parents) who accompanied them to a total of 17 readings. Here are just a few moments from that week that I carry with me still, now that I’m home again.
1. When the bell rang to end my session with a group of Grade Eight students in Port Coquitlam, several approached me with their hands out. “Can we please just see how it ends?” I’d been reading from a short story in 101 Ways to Dance. (I’d waited till near the end of the session to introduce this book so I’d have a feel for the group and the teachers, and I could tell this was a book they’d welcome hearing about.) Eager to read how the game in “Chicken” would end, the students huddled together around my copy of the book so they could finish reading the story for themselves. As faster readers drifted away, others stepped in to take their places. Eventually one dark-haired teenage girl remained. The image of her bent over my book in that school library as she lost (or perhaps found) herself in something I’d written will most certainly help sustain me as I undertake revisions to my current ya novel in progress.
2. To a group of Grade Three kids, I was reading, in Seven Clues, the scene in which Matt’s elderly neighbour is introduced. “… His jowly cheeks pulled his mouth down in a permanent frown.” At this point, I glanced up and spotted a boy near the back of the room, his face contorted in a jowly frown, as he internalized the description he was hearing.
3. During a reading of A Pocket Can Have A Treasure In It with Grade One students in Chilliwack, a lively discussion took place about all the things a tree can have in it. (Right after I read, “Can a tree have a cow in it? No. A tree can have a bird in it and a tree can have a swing in it.”) Those kids returned to their classrooms keen to get to work on writing their own books or making a big mural of all the clever things they thought of that a tree can have in it. (Or was that the group that got excited about all the things a muffin can have in it? It’s hard sometimes to keep all the groups straight!)
It’s a real treat to meet with readers as enthusiastic (and well mannered) as those I met during my BC (Vancouver & Lower Mainland) Book Week tour. Thanks Canadian Children’s Book Centre for sending me there!
Add comment November 25, 2008
A “Desert Island” Author
photo by Kirsti Wakelin
That’s how I was introduced last week before speaking to the Children’s Literature Roundtable in Vancouver. “The great thing about Kathy is that she is the ultimate desert island writer,” said Shannon Ozirny, a dynamic young grad student, soon to be fantastic librarian. “Now, I know you’re all wondering, ‘What the heck is a desert island writer?’ Well, let’s say that you’re stuck on a desert island with a baby. If you had to pick just one author’s books that would satiate that baby through all the years until it was big and strong enough to swim for help, well, you gotta pick Kathy Stinson.”
Shannon, with black hair and striking black-framed glasses, went on to very cleverly tie a number of my titles to a desert island experience: “That baby wonders why mommy and daddy look different under their coconut shells? You’ve got The Bare Naked Book. Baby grows into a toddler and refuses to (more…)
1 comment November 18, 2008
TPL’s First and Best!
Hurray! Toronto Public Library has chosen A Pocket Can Have A Treasure In It for their 2008 “First and Best” list. That’s a list of the best Canadian children’s books for building reading readiness in children birth to five. To see the 2007 list, click here.
2 comments November 4, 2008
Come See Me at “Word on the Street”
Yes, I’m back from summer holidays, have now moved house, and on Sunday I’ll be reading at Word on the Street in Toronto. Come find me there and you might even meet some of the inspiration for some of my books.
Add comment September 25, 2008
A Treasure for My Pocket
Two big surprises at the Literacy Conference in Burlington last weekend.
1. The onsite bookseller, Different Drummer, had on hand a big stack of Love Every Leaf: The Life of Cornelia Hahn Oberlander – and it wasn’t scheduled for release till several days later! (It looks gorgeous, and after I spoke about it briefly during my keynote address, they sold out quickly.)
2. The night before the conference, I learned that Janet Lee Stinson and Arnie Stewart (see I’ve Got Mail posting) were planning to attend. Not only did I get to meet these two remarkable people, Arnie helped make my keynote address a truly memorable event for everyone there. (more…)
6 comments April 11, 2008
A Pocket Can Have A Treasure In It
It’s now available! My first brand new picture book in sixteen years!
Dave Jenkinson at CM (Canadian Materials) – a friend since I did my first Book Week tour in his province (Manitoba) in 1983 and who was sent a review copy – said, “Loved the imagination of it & the wonderful twist at the end. Deirdre did a great job with the illus. too… This is definitely a book that will be waiting for my future grandchild in the box of books I’m building.” What a nice start as a new book begins making its way out into the world!
Next weekend my granddaughter will get A Pocket Can Have A Treasure In It for her birthday. I can’t wait till she discovers that she gets thanked – on the copyright page of the book – for helping to inspire it.
Add comment March 16, 2008
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