Bartography Express, June 2022
Hey there,
Like you, I imagine, I've been taking comfort and inspiration where I can get them lately, including from the above piece of public art that I photographed last week outside a newly renovated branch library near my home.

Another source of comfort and inspiration: knowing that, amid all the things out there competing for our attention, the need for and value of diversity in children’s literature has gotten sustained focus for more than eight years now. There has been progress.

When we put our attention where it matters most, when we put our focus where it's desperately needed, and when we remain determined despite feeling at times we might buckle under the strain, together we can do wonders.
An absolute highlight of the past month was my quartet of school visits to primary and elementary campuses in my hometown of Sulphur Springs, Texas. What you see above is not only the scene of my 54th and final in-person author visit of the 2021-22 school year — it's also the stage where I had the lead role of "English Boy" in a play when I was in second grade.

No offense to my seven-year-old self, but I think I was better this time around.

Another highlight: the publication in Publishers Weekly of my essay "Stand by Our Teachers and Librarians." That piece was inspired by the climate of fear that, earlier this spring, resulted in requests in a Texas school district that I not share with students my picture book Moving Forward: From Space-Age Rides to Civil Rights Sit-ins with Airman Alton Yates, a story of courage, sacrifice, teamwork, progress, and public service.

In the essay, I ask, "[I]f teachers, librarians, and the people who work with them — including administrators and public officials — don’t get a sense of ... support from the broader population, what exactly is going to reinforce their resolve to do the democracy-minded thing when they’re under pressure from the aggressive and all-too-visible reactionary fringe?"

I hope you and folks you know will find my suggested solution helpful.
And it was a thrill for Jennifer Ziegler and me to create, at the San Antonio Book Festival, our first-ever in-person edition of "This One's Dedicated to..."

(Many thanks to librarian — and Bartography Express subscriber — Pamela Arevalo-Thompson for lots of help in making it happen!)

You can hear the live audience loud and clear in the first few seconds of this latest episode, for which our guest was Young People's Poet Laureate Naomi Shihab Nye.

"I am so touched to be part of this series," she told us, "because I, too, have always been fascinated by dedications in books. You want to be a little bit of a detective: Who is that person? If they just put initials, what does it mean? Why are they being a little secretive?"

Talking with Naomi onstage was just as big a joy as it was to read her new middle grade novel, The Turtle of Michigan, a sequel to her beloved 2014 book, The Turtle of Oman.

Of the person she dedicated the book to, Naomi said, “I did not know when I wrote this book that the book would be dedicated to [him], but I have been fascinated by him myself since I was very young.”

Good news for those of you who want to be fascinated, too — I’m giving away four copies of The Turtle of Michigan! If you're a Bartography Express subscriber with a U.S. mailing address and you want to be one of the four winners of the book, you can enter via my website or let me know by replying to this email before the end of June. 
I always appreciate it when someone recommends a book of mine for a helpful purpose or includes one in a list of suggested reading, and the same is certainly true with the latest three examples — though I wish none of them had been necessary.

Poet and author K.A. Holt wrote, "For those of us struggling to talk to our kids about #Uvalde ... All of a Sudden and Forever offers a gentle and honest exploration of tragedy—and also of hope."

A Kids Book A Day has included All of a Sudden and Forever: Help and Healing After the Oklahoma City Bombing in its list of suggested titles about grief and loss.

And here's what Storytime Solidarity said about a recent list of theirs that also included this book:

When something tragic happens, children are affected.

When it is something big — and it is all over the news — children are affected.

As trusted grown-ups in their lives — and the lives of their family members — we may be asked for help, and especially asked for book recommendations.

When a Storytime Solidarity member put out the call for recommendations, when a tragedy affected their community, these were the books recommended.

If you see on these lists a book that your public library does not have, will you please consider asking the library to add a copy to its collection? Many library websites have a page ("Suggest a Purchase," "Recommend a Title," "Request for Consideration," etc.) where patrons can easily do so.

The young readers who need these books will benefit, the libraries themselves value this sort of engagement from their patrons, and I can assure you that the creators of these books will appreciate it as well.

We are all in this together.
And that's it for June, and for spring. Next time you hear from me, it'll officially be summer — and thanks to some hardworking educator friends Jennifer and I ran into in San Antonio, I've included the perfect photo below to commemorate the change in seasons. (Don Tate ran into them, too!)

Until then, take care, love your neighbors, and keep moving forward,

Chris