Mention of Annie Jump Cannon, Astronomer on The Planetary Society blog

Great to see a mention of the Annie Jump Cannon on the Planetary society blog. How exciting is that?

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2012/review-story-books.html

This is so huge. I am a massive Carl Sagan fan. Check out my web comic entry about it:

http://popsmoothie.com/2012/07/09/cosmos-by-seth/

Review: Annie Jump Cannon in the School Library Journal

The review for Annie Jump Cannon Astronomer just came out from School Library Journal!

From the review:"This inspiring picture-book biography of a trailblazer in the field presents insight into the challenges of women interested in science during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. ... The realistic illustrations capture the time period and complement the text. They’re scientifically accurate, including a physics equation on the professor’s chalkboard. Some of the pictures have helpful labels to inform readers that the building is Harvard Observatory, the man is Edward Pickering, or to make a scientific explanation understandable."

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/printissue/currentissue/892676-427/preschool_to_grade_4.html.csp#nonfiction


The reviewer even noticed the equation on the blackboard! It was by a famous French female mathematician.

Here is more about the art in a previous blog post http://christinawald.blogspot.com/2011/10/book-trailer-annie-jump-cannon.html

Also, cool news: Carole heard from some relatives of Annie's who enjoyed our book!

Books By the Banks Pictures, 2011

Reception the Night Before with Jared Lee, Jerry Dowling, Me and Jeffery Ebbeler

Carole Gerber and Me with AJC

Scotti Cohn and Me... This is for the Wordsworth Blog

All of us!

I wish I had gotten more photos. It was a great day.

Book Trailer: Annie Jump Cannon, Astronomer

The book trailer is now up on You Tube!

I am very excited about this book. Both the author Carole Gerber and I did a lot of research.

When I was first contacted by the publisher about the book, I was embarrassed that I had never heard of Annie Jump Cannon. As a kid, my favorite show was Cosmos and I wanted to be an astronomer when I grew up. I not only read a lot of Carl Sagan, but was a huge fane of science fiction as well. How had I never heard of her?

Somehow I ended up in illustration and industrial design, but maybe if I had known about her, I would have still pursued a career in science. 

The era of science that she contributed to was an amazing time and it seems like she is lost in the shuffle of more popular scientists like Lowell, Hubble, Einstein, Tesla etc.

When you look at her accomplishments, it is amazing to think that women did not even have the right to vote for most of her life.
 
Illustrating the book was a challenge since varied pictures are not often paired with her information. It was like a scavenger hunt; figuring out what lab equipment to illustrate and how the classrooms would look or what they would wear, what her childhood house looked like... In addition, I did not want to simply replicate the few images of her that are available. I wanted to make them new and my own take of the scenes.

For Example, there is a famous scene showing Annie and her class with a bunch a lab equipment (http://www.wellesley.edu/Astronomy/Annie/Images/lab.gif) I had a really hard time figuring out what they were doing in the picture to make a dramatic scene from it. I asked several people who had actually taken (and taught) college physics to pinpoint what it was a picture of.

Finally, my cousin's husband who teaches engineering at Cooper Union in NYC put me in touch with a professor who said that his assessment was that they were not performing any experiment, it was a posed picture where the photographer just piled a bunch of equipment around them. So, we decided to go with the picture above where she is doing a spectroscope experiment.

The building at Wellesley was particularly hard to find since it burned down many years ago.


I even tried to reproduce the Harvard Observatory wallpaper. I could not find color reference, so had to wing it on that.

Fortunately, I got in contact with a person at Harvard who had made a documentary about Annie. He was able to give me a lot of information-including her eye and hair color. This may seem odd, but the only color images of her were when she was elderly and grey.

Anyway, the book is now out, and I hope people like the effort we put into it. It was a joy painting the life of Annie Jump Cannon!

By the way, a note on the trailer: Several sources said that Annie loved to play the piano. It seemed like Bach would be a perfect fit for a scientist. When I was young, I tried to learn this two part invention #13 myself, to varying degrees of success, mostly unsuccessfully.

Back Cover

Sketch from the layout...

Claire's Night and Day: 2011

Christina and Carole at the Toledo Lucas Children's Library taken by Mary Kay Carson

The photo above are Carole Gerber and I at the Toledo Children's Library by the framed Little Red Bat painting hanging there! We had the unveiling last year.

The Claire's Day festivities were once again a wonderful experience this year. I met a lot of great authors, illustrators, and participants at the various events this year and last year. (Thanks to Mary Kay Carson who drove up with me-having someone to talk to on road trips keeps me awake!)

On Friday, I had a wonderful school visit at Fairfield Elementary School. I hope the kids enjoyed it as much as I did. I expanded my slide show and did some drawing for them on a big pad of paper. Sharpies are unforgiving so I hope they liked the art anyway... Sometimes your brain says" What does a panda look like anyway?!" even when you have opainted and drawn many of them.
 
Here are the pieces unveiled at Claire's Night this year. Sorry it is not a better image of all of them.
 

This year's new illustrations being added to the collection.
Art by fom left to right: Wendy Popko, Ralph Masiello, Karen and Darrin Brege (speaking), Leslie Helakoski, and Claire Ewart

The biggest part of the Claire's Day itself of course are the CARE awards. From the site:

"A highlight of the day is the C.A.R.E. (Claire’s Awards for Reading Excellence) Awards which are given to children nominated by their principals and teachers as being the most improved readers at their grade level.  The C.A.R.E. Awards program has grown from recognizing 27 children for their efforts the first year, to giving out over 300 awards this past year"

It is a great program and I am glad to be a part of the festivities. I wish I had photos from the day of the event, but I am a poor archivist and did not take any. Maybe I can find some since there were photographers there. Here is an article about the event:

http://www.toledoblade.com/Books/2011/05/19/Region-to-celebrate-10th-annual-Claire-s-Day.html

Carole and I also did a presentation on our book coming out in September: Annie Jump Cannon, Astronomer.

There was also a tribute to Wil Clay, an amazing illustrator/author who passed away from cancer in January. I really enjoyed being introduced to his work last year at my first Claire's day and was sad to hear of his passing. I had bought a couple of his books with hopes that I could get him to sign them this year. His paintings in the children's library are incredible!

It was a treat to meet his daughter who came up with her husband in rememberance to celebrate her father's life and his contribution to Claire's Day. Check out some of his work on his site: http://wilclay.com/fine_arts_paintings.htm

New Review for Little Red Bat!

The Children's and Teens' Book Connection Blog
http://childrensandteensbookconnection.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/little-red-bat-by-carole%c2%a0gerber/

Now available on the Bat Conservation International website!
http://batcatalog.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=392

Claire's Night

Here are Carole Gerber and I at the unveiling of a painting from Little Red Bat that has been added to the collection at the Toldedo Lucas County Children's Library as part of the Claire's Night festivities!.

What an honor!

In the first picture are Julie and Brad Rubini who started Claire's Day in memory of their daughter who loved books and reading almost 10 years ago!

More phots soon! It was a great event!

Photos from Ohioana

Here is a picture of Carole and I at the Ohioana Book Festival a couple weeks ago posing with First Lady of Ohio Francis Strickland.

Ohioana Book Festival

I will be in Columbus Saturday with Carole Gerber at the Ohioana Book Festival. Hope to see you there!

We will be signing books with a lot of other talented authors and illustrators! Yes, I will be giving away magnets AND colorsheets!

Ask a Writer! Interview: Carole Gerber

Carole Gerber wrote Little Red Bat! It is a wonderful bit of luck that she lives in Columbus, Ohio! It is the first time I live close to an author of any of the books I have illustrated so it is a treat that we will be able to do some appearances together starting with a kick off signing at Blue Marble Children's Bookstore in Ft. Thomas, Kentucky on Saturday the 17th of April from 2-4 PM.

Carole was kind enough to do an interview about Little Red Bat and writing. As an illustrator, the experience is quite different as I described on Scotti Cohn's web series several weeks ago. Carole has written many great books so check them out!


CW: Tell me a little bit about your background and how you started writing.

CG: I taught high school English for one year and then middle school English for another. Both were urban schools and I did not have the temperament to deal with all the problems. I applied to grad school at OSU early in my second year of teaching - was accepted to the School of Journalism and was selected for a fully-paid assistantship that required me to write two articles a week about OSU honor students. After earning my master's I held a variety of writing jobs - inhouse magazine editor, copywriter at an ad agency and hospital then went freelance when my daughter was born. Writing for children grew out of a couple of freelance assignments for a local publisher.

CW: How long does it take you to research and write a picture book?

CG: Depends on the book. It can take a couple of weeks to a couple of months. LITTLE RED BAT took more time because it required a lot of research - first on bats in general and then narrowing it down to red bats, which I think are so adorable and unique. I have other PBs for younger children (i.e., BLIZZARD) that required little or no research but - because they are told in verse - take more to put the words together.

CW: Are there usually a lot of changes from the original manuscript?

CG: Usually the basic story stays the same - whether in verse or prose - but the editor always wants changes and/or additions. These are easier to make with prose books - since most of mine are in verse, making changes requires a lot more thought. Also - before an editor sees it, I have revised it many, many, MANY times. Because of my background in journalism, I am quick to take valid suggestions and readily make revisions - and do both quickly. That flexibility is appreciated by editors who do NOT want to deal with people who won't take direction.

CW: With most of my books I have illustrated, I have not had contact with the author. Do you ever get any input into the art or sketches when working on a picture book?

CG: Yes - the illustrator's sketches (even yours!) were sent to me and I did have input through the editor/intermediary. Some changes are always made and others are not. One of my previous illustrators lives here in Columbus, so we were more of a team in putting the words and images together. I have been delighted with the illustrators editors have chosen to make my words come to life - a writer always hopes the illustrator's vision is similar - often it is even BETTER! That is a joy.

CW: What was your inspiration for writing about red bats?

CG: The publisher of several of my previous books put out a book about bumblebee bats a couple of years ago in a Q & A format. I thought the Q & A approach was uninspired and also thought it unlikely that children would ever actually SEE a bumblebee bat. I decided to common research bats and find a pretty one that had unique characteristics - and I also wanted to tie it to migration, hibernation and adaptation - the three way animals get through the winter. Little red bats fit my requirements AND did I mention they are adorable? Also important - because I always think about the pictures that go with my words - they are solitary. This means the illustrator could concentrate on what ONE bat looks like in the beautiful outdoors instead of trying to draw dozens of bats in a dark cave.

Naturally, I could not submit to my previous publisher since they already had a bat book. I felt the manuscript would be a good fit with Sylvan Dell and editor Donna German thought so, too.

CW: People seem to have a strong reaction to bats. What has the general reaction been when you have done visits and readings so far? Do the talks seem to change the attitude of those may fear them?

CG: I have my first school visit the first week in May, so we'll see. Bats are so incredibly important to our ecosystem. If they didn't eat all those mosquitoes, we'd all get a lot more bites each summer. :) Seriously, nature is like a complex puzzle the way all the different plants, animals, and insects fit together in a habitat, Learning about all the fascinating critters in God's creation puts my own little life in context. I, too, am just a little piece of that puzzle - and I am humbly grateful to be able to research and write about what I learn.

CW: Did writing the book change your attitude about bats?

CG: I never gave much thought to bats until I researched them. I didn't have a bad attitude - I was just ignorant. I still don't know much compared to the highly educated bat experts out there, but I know enough to be impressed with what little red bats can do. Hey, how many humans can roll up like furry pine cones?

CW: What are you working on now? What will it be out?

CG: My next book is also about nature and it will be out in 2012 from Holt. The title is SEEDS, BEES, BUTTERFLIES, AND MORE: NATURE POEMS FOR TWO VOICES. It's pretty hilarious - among the poems is one where seeds talk to one another about the ways they travel (yes! nature has a plan for even the smallest among us). The manuscript was literally "plucked from the slushpile" by the executive editor because - in her words: "It's funny, fun to read AND teaches a lot of science facts."


I am always working on new manuscripts - most of which never get "born." Sob! I won't tell you about all the ones still out there searching for a birthplace, the ones laying forgotten on an editor's desk, or all the "pre-born" ones flitting about in my strange writerly brain. Seriously, I am superstitious about talking about my writing until the deal is done and the contract is signed. It's tough to get published!

Thanks so much Carole! It is so interesting to hear from the author's point of view! I totally understand the "superstitious" feeling. Hope to see many bore books in the future!

Check out Carole's Website!

Also, the books that she has written that are available in the "books" section of her website!

Visit us at other joint appearances including Ohioana Book Festival May 8th in Columbus and Claire's Day May 15th in Toledo!

Article in Olentangy Valley News/Columbus Local News

Nice interview of Carole Gerber in the Columbus paper about Little Red Bat!