SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: FOR SPACIOUS SKIES
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.nancychurnin.com/
CITY: Dallas
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 334
Phone: 2145770016
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Bronx, NY; married Michael Granberry (a journalist), February 4, 1990; children: David, Josh, Sam, Ted.
EDUCATION:Harvard University, B.S. (English and American literature and language), 1978; Columbia University, M.S. (journalism), 1981; additional study with Ann McCaffrey in Ireland and at Pardes Institute in Jerusalem.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Journalist and author. Paramount Pictures, Los Angeles, CA, assistant to the producer, 1981-82; San Francisco magazine, San Francisco, CA, writer, 1983-84; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, San Diego, CA, assistant editor, 1986-87; Los Angeles Times (San Diego edition), San Diego, theater critic, 1986-92; Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX, features writer, 1999-2014, theater critic, 2014—.
MEMBER:Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
AWARDS:Best Books for Kids list, New York Public Library, 2016, 2X2 Reading List, Texas Library Association, 2017, Monarch Award Master List, Illinois School Library Media Association and Charter Oak Children’s Book Awards nomination, both 2018, all for The William Hoy Story; South Asia Book Award, Children’s & Teen Choice Book Award finalist, Children’s Book Council, and Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, National Council for the Social Studies/Children’s Book Council, all 2018, all for Manjhi Moves a Mountain; numerous other honors from state reading associations.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
SUBMITTED IN SGML FORMAT
A respected theater critic, Nancy Churnin is the author of a number of picture-book biographies for young audiences, including The William Hoy Story: How a Deaf Baseball Player Changed the Game, Charlie Takes His Shot: How Charlie Sifford Broke the Color Barrier in Golf, and Irving Berlin: The Immigrant Boy Who Made America Sing. In an interview with blogger Deborah Kalb, Churnin remarked, “I am thankful for the opportunity to be a conduit between these heroes and heroines who inspire me and the children that I hope will be inspired to believe in themselves and do good for others after reading these stories.”
The William Hoy Story was described as a “rousing underdog story” by a reviewer in Publishers Weekly. Born in Ohio in 1862, Hoy lost his hearing as a child, the result of a bout with meningitis. Nicknamed Dummy (a common term for the deaf and mute during that period), he developed a love of baseball and worked tirelessly at his craft, eventually playing for several major league teams from 1888 to 1902. Unable to hear calls made by the umpires, Hoy developed a set of hand signals that are still used today. “Churnin tells Hoy’s story in sprightly, descriptive language that reaches to the heart of his courage and ingenuity,” a writer observed in Kirkus Reviews.
Charlie Takes His Shot offers “a poignant and inspiring tale of a groundbreaking sports figure whose name and story should be well-known,” in the opinion of a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Here, Churnin tells the story of Charlie Sifford, the first African American to join the Professional Golf Association (PGA) tour. Born in North Carolina in 1922, Sifford worked as a caddie to gain access to private courses reserved for whites, returning late at night to perfect his game. A six-time winner of the National Negro Open, Sifford took encouragement from Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball, and successfully challenged the PGA’s racist policies with the help of attorney Stanley Mosk. “Churnin provides a thoughtful overview of discrimination and how it impacted the world of sports through the 1960s,” Kelly Topita observed in School Library Journal.
Churnin turns from sports to music in Irving Berlin, which chronicles the early life of the iconic songwriter. Fleeing Tsarist Russia at the age of five, Berlin settled in New York City with his family in 1893. Influenced by his father, a cantor in a synagogue, as well as the vibrant ethnic communities on the Lower East Side, Berlin published his first original song in 1907 and later penned such perennial favorites as “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “White Christmas,” and “God Bless America.” According to School Library Journal reviewer Clara Hendricks, “Berlin’s life is retold with rich and descriptive language,” and a critic in Kirkus Reviews deemed Irving Berlin “a book to share that celebrates an immigrant and his abiding love for his adopted country.”
In Manjhi Moves a Mountain, Churnin presents an incredible true story of perseverance. Using only a hammer and a chisel, Dashrath Manjhi spent twenty-two years carving a path through the seemingly impenetrable Gehlour Hills in Bihar, India, which separated his impoverished village from a more prosperous region. His actions granted his neighbors easier access to schools and medical facilities. “Churnin’s prose has an elegance appropriate for her inspiring tale,” a contributor stated in Kirkus Reviews.
Churnin believes it is important to celebrate the accomplishments of lesser-known figures from history. “We tend to tell the same stories of a handful of famous people,” she noted in a Kitaabworld interview. “I want to tell the … stories of the many, many others who have found creative ways to advance our journey. I want kids to know that even those who think of ourselves as ordinary, can do extraordinary things, just as these people have done.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, February 1, 2016, Carolyn Phelan, review of The William Hoy Story: How a Deaf Baseball Player Changed the Game, p. 36; December 15, 2017, Carolyn Phelan, review of Charlie Takes His Shot: How Charlie Sifford Broke the Color Barrier in Golf, p. 94.
Children’s Bookwatch, July, 2017, review of Manjhi Moves a Mountain.
Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2016, review of The William Hoy Story; August 1, 2017, review of Manjhi Moves a Mountain; November 1, 2017, review of Charlie Takes a Shot; March 15, 2018, review of Irving Berlin: The Immigrant Boy Who Made America Sing.
Publishers Weekly, December 14, 2015, review of The William Hoy Story, p. 82; November 20, 2017, review of Charlie Takes His Shot, p. 92; May 7, 2018, review of Irving Berlin, p. 68.
School Library Journal, February, 2016, Paige Mellinger, review of The William Hoy Story, p. 111; January, 2018, Kelly Topita, review of Charlie Takes His Shot, p. 97; April, 2018, Clara Hendricks, review of Irving Berlin, p. 141.
ONLINE
Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb blog, http://deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.com/ (May 25, 2018), Deborah Kalb, “Q&A with Nancy Churnin.”
Ellen Leventhal blog, http://www.ellenleventhal.com/#blog/ (March 2, 2018), Ellen Leventhal, interview with Churnin.
Harvard Online, January-February, 2018, Sanya Sagar, “Stories for Change” (profile of Churnin).
KidLit411 blog, http://www.kidlit411.com/ (March 4, 2016), “Author Spotlight: Nancy Churnin” (interview).
KitaabWorld blog, https://kitaabworld.com/blogs/in-focus/ (July 19, 2017), “Nancy Churnin on Writing Stories and Moving Mountains.”
Nancy Churnin website, http://www.nancychurnin.com (August 18, 2018).
No bio
Speaker Profile - Nancy Churnin
Avatar
Writer
Region: Texas: North
Age Levels: 5-10
Will Travel: < 500 miles
Skype Visit: Yes
SCBWI Profile: Member Profile
Speaker Email: nancychurnin@mac.com
Publications
Bio:
Nancy Churnin is the author of six non-fiction picture book biographies. Her debut, The William Hoy Story: How a Deaf Baseball Player Changed the Game, was published March 1, 2016 and is on the 2016 New York Public Library's Best Books for Kids list, the Texas Library Association's 2017 2X2 and Topaz lists, Bank Street Books 2017 Best Books for Kids list; Illinois' 2018 Monarch Awards Master List and Connecticut's 2018 Charter Oak Book Awards list. Manjhi Moves a Mountain came out Sept. 1, 2017 and is a 2018 South Asia Book Award winner, a 2018 finalist for the Children's Choice Book Awards, a Junior Library Guild 2017 fall selection, a Eureka Honor Book, an Ezra Jack Keats Award Finalist, Children's & Teen Choice Book Awards Finalist, an ILA-CBC Children's Choices List and an NCSS-CBC Notable Social Studies Selection 2018. Charlie Makes His Shot, How Charlie Sifford Broke the Color Barrier in Golf is a 2018 Silver Eureka Award winner and was a featured book at the Ruby Bridges Reading Festival at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN May 19 and the Juneteenth festival in Fort Worth June 16; Irving Berlin is a 2019 Sydney Taylor Notable and Social Studies Notable Trade Book for Young People. The Queen and the First Christmas Tree, Queen Charlotte's Gift to England made the 2018 Mighty Girl list. Martin & Anne, published March 5, 2019, is on the Children's Book Council Hot Off The Press list. Nancy runs Nancy Churnin Children's Books on Facebook, tweets @nchurnin and nancychurnin.com. A former theater critic, she lives in North Texas and is represented by Karen Grencik of Red Fox Literary.
Presentation Description:
Nancy Churnin is the author of five children's books and will focus on her debut, The William Hoy Story, How a Deaf Baseball Player Changed the Game, and include her second, Manjhi Moves a Mountain, when it comes out Sept. 1, 2017. The William Hoy Story is on the 2016 New York Public Library Best Books for Kids, the 2017 Texas Library Association's 2X2 and Topaz lists and Illinois' 2018 Monarch Awards Master List. In the presentation, Nancy will tell the story of William Hoy, who was told he couldn't play his favorite game, baseball, because he was deaf and taught umpires signs so he could play the game he loved -- signs that we still use today. Nancy will read the story, using a Power Point, so children can see the illustrations on a big screen and teach the children simple signs. Through learning about William Hoy, kids will learn about perseverance, about the deaf community and the history of baseball and deaf culture in America. There is a Teachers Guide with activities and a project for the kids to write letters on William's behalf so he can get into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, where he would be the first deaf player honored there.
Nancy Churnin
Author
Nancy Churnin is the award-winning author of multiple picture book biographies. The former theater critic for the Dallas Morning News and Los Angeles Times San Diego Edition, she’s now a full-time writer and peace negotiator between her dog and cats. She lives in North Texas.
Nancy covers theater and children's entertainment for The Dallas Morning News. A former theater critic and columnist for the San Diego Edition of the Los Angeles Times, she won two San Diego-area press awards in back-to-back years for Best Arts Feature and has filed theater stories from Moscow and New York. She is a member of the SCBWI, Writer's Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild dating back to her work on the television show Happy Days.
ALUMNI
Stories for Change
by SANYA SAGAR
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2018
Nancy Churnin’s biographies for children span time and space.
WHEN Nancy Churnin ’78 was a child, she had a notebook that went everywhere with her; in it, she scribbled poems, stories, and drawings. That love for writing continued into a career in journalism, most recently as theater critic for The Dallas Morning News.
Nancy Churnin
Photograph courtesy of Nancy Churnin
Through covering a play about William Hoy—a deaf Major League baseball player in the 1890s—she met Steve Sandy, a member of the deaf community, whose dream was to see Hoy inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. “The more I learned about Hoy, the more I felt Steve’s dream was a worthy one,” she says. “I grew determined to make it come true by writing a story that would inspire kids to write letters on Hoy’s behalf to the Hall.”
At first, Churnin thought it wouldn’t be all that hard, as a professional journalist, to write a children’s book. “But I realized children’s books are an entirely different art form,” she says. To “learn the craft,” she got involved in several writers’ groups, including the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and 12 x 12. The first gave her a chance to share her writing with other children’s-book writers and get feedback; 12 x 12 challenged her to write 12 manuscripts in 12 months.
In June 2013, she submitted her Hoy draft to 12 x 12’s Agent of the Month, who wrote back to her the very same day. But writing nonfiction for four- to eight-year-olds isn’t easy. “These books have to be less than a thousand words. I have to make sure the story reflects the essence of the individual and also resonates with the children who read them.” After several revisions, the book appeared in 2016; both the New York Public Library and School Library Journal included it on their lists of Best Kids Books that year.
All Churnin’s children’s books describe people who brought change, for themselves and others. After The William Hoy Story came Manjhi Moves A Mountain—about an Indian man who carved a path through a mountain, using only a hammer and a chisel, to connect his village to a neighboring one with more resources. Her newest book, Charlie Takes His Shot: How Charlie Sifford Broke the Color Barrier in Golf, appears in January. “Too often,” she says, “textbooks don’t allow room for personal stories that can bring a period of history to memorable life and give a child a feeling of what it felt like to live through those times.” To help teachers make that happen, Churnin provides free downloadable teachers’ guides with all her books, and visits classrooms in person, or via Skype.
It is important to her that each book be associated with a project embodying the spirit of the story.The William Hoy page on her website encourages children to write to the Hall of Fame; the “Move Your Own Mountain” page for Manjhi urges them to share their own stories of change. For Charlie Takes His Shot, Churnin suggests children help someone “take their shot.” Of her next book, Irving Berlin, The Immigrant Boy Who Made America Sing, she says, “I dedicated that book to America with thanks for welcoming immigrants from everywhere, including my own grandparents.” Churnin regularly receives letters from children telling her about their connections to the stories. One of them said, “We will remember you from the baseball field to the tip of a mountain.”
Nancy Churnin is the author of THE WILLIAM HOY STORY, HOW A DEAF BASEBALL PLAYER CHANGED THE GAME, on the 2016 New York Public Library Best Books for Kids list, the 2017 Texas Library Association's 2X2 and Topaz lists, Maine's 2017-2018 Kennebec Valley Book Awards list, the 2018 Illinois School Library Media Association's Monarch Award Master List, Connecticut's 2018 Charter Oak Children's Book Awards list and the 2018-2019 Louisiana Young Readers' Choice Awards list. MANJHI MOVES A MOUNTAIN is the 2018 winner of the South Asia Book Award, a finalist for the 2018 Children and Teen's Choice Book Awards, a 2017 Junior Library Guild selection, a 2018 Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, on the 2018 ILA-CBC Children's Choices list, a Silver Eureka Award-winner and a 2019 Little Free Libraries/Children's Book Council Action Book Club Selection. CHARLIE TAKES HIS SHOT: HOW CHARLIE SIFFORD BROKE THE COLOR BARRIER IN GOLF, winner of the Silver Eureka Honor Award, was featured at the Ruby Bridges Reading Festival at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis and International Literacy Day in Austin. IRVING BERLIN, THE IMMIGRANT BOY WHO MADE AMERICA SING, a 2019 Sydney Taylor Book Award Notable Book, a 2019 Social Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People and multiple lists, including the Great Books for Kids 2018 list and the Best Jewish Children's Books of 2018 list. THE QUEEN AND THE FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE is on the 2018 A Mighty Girl list. On March 5, 2019: MARTIN & ANNE. In 2020: BEAUTIFUL SHADES OF BROWN, HOW LAURA WHEELER WARING PAINTED HER WORLD and FOR SPACIOUS SKIES. A native New Yorker and former theater critic for The Dallas Morning News, Nancy is a graduate of Harvard University, with a master's from Columbia University School of Journalism. She lives in North Texas with her husband, a dog named Dog and two cantankerous cats.
Nancy Churnin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigationJump to search
Nancy Churnin is an American author and journalist.[1] Churnin is a former theater critic for The Dallas Morning News and has published six children's books as of 2019.[2]
Contents
1 Early life
2 Journalistic career
3 Children's books
4 Personal life
5 References
6 External links
Early life
Churnin was born and raised in New York City. She received a bachelor's degree from Harvard University and an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University.[1]
Journalistic career
Churnin worked as a theater critic for the San Diego edition of the Los Angeles Times from 1986 to 1992. In 2000, she joined the staff of The Dallas Morning News, writing about such topics as health, lifestyles, children's entertainment, and parenting. In January 2014, Churnin became the primary theater critic for The Dallas Morning News, a position she left in January 2019.[3]
Children's books
Churnin's first picture book, The William Hoy Story: How a Deaf Baseball Player Changed the Game was published in 2016.[4] It won a Storytelling World Resource Award Honor in 2017 as well as several other awards, and it has been included on several reading lists.[5] Manjhi Moves a Mountain, another children's picture book by Churnin, was published in 2017.[6] Three children's books by Churnin were released in 2018, Charlie Takes His Shot: How Charlie Sifford Broke the Color Barrier in Golf, Irving Berlin, the Immigrant Boy Who Made America Sing, and The Queen and the First Christmas Tree, Queen Charlotte's Gift to England. [7] Churnin's sixth book, Martin & Anne, the Kindred Spirits of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank, was released on March 5, 2019.[8]
Personal life
Churnin met her husband, Michael Granberry, while they were both writing for the San Diego edition of the Los Angeles Times.[1] They have four sons.[9]
INTERVIEW OF TALENTED AUTHOR, NANCY CHURNIN
February 18, 2020 kirsticall Interviews - Authors & Illustrators 4 comments
Nancy Churnin’s book, THE WILLIAM HOY STORY, is one of my very favorite picture book biographies of all time. So when she joined my 20/20 Vision Picture Book group I was thrilled! Welcome to Writers’ Rumpus, Nancy!
Kirsti Call: Your book, BEAUTIFUL SHADES OF BROWN: THE ART OF LAURA WHEELER WARING is a powerful story of following your dreams and breaking racial boundaries. What inspired you to write the book?
Nancy Churnin: One of my missions is to shine a light on people that have made a positive difference in the world, people that kids might not know about otherwise. I’d been wondering why I wasn’t seeing more biographies of painters of color or women painters. And then, as it so often happens with me, I was struck by an image I found — a regal portrait of Marian Anderson in a long red gown, thoughtful, full of feeling, looking as if she was just about to sing. Who painted this, I wondered. When I saw the name, Laura Wheeler Waring, I wondered why hadn’t I heard of this magnificent artist before? I looked up everything I could find about her and found very limited information! I reached out to the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which have her paintings in their collection. They were incredibly helpful and put me in touch with her heir, Madeline Murphy Rabb, who was also supportive, helping me to chase down answers I could find nowhere else. As I gathered information, I was struck by how she was not only an extraordinary artist, but how she had used an exploration of the brown palette in a revolutionary way to both artistic and political effect. Her grandparents and parents had fought for civil rights. Laura wasn’t comfortable with the spotlight or speaking in public. But she found her own way to make a powerful difference in the fight for equality. She used her paintbrush in a wordless case against segregation and discrimination. She fought for racial equality by creating portraits of brilliant and accomplished African Americans of her time. More subtly, but also profoundly, the colorist skills she developed and used, showing the rainbow of variations in the color brown, not only illustrated the beautiful variety in that color that contains so many others, but reminded us that people of color are not a monolithic group. In fact, the larger point that comes home is that none of us belong to a monolithic group. We are each individuals and at the same time intertwined with tints of common colors, like traits, overlapping and harmonizing in unexpected ways. We are all diverse and unique, yet connected with much more in common than what is different, and that is what makes the world beautiful.
Nancy at the National Portrait Gallery with a painting of poet Alice Dunbar-Nelson by Laura Wheeler Waring
KC: How did you choose which details to include?
NC: That is always the most challenging part of writing picture books for me! In earlier versions, I included more about her parents and grandparents. But ultimately, with the guidance of trusted critique partners and my editor, Marissa Moss of Creston Books, I realized I had to keep the spotlight on Laura and trust her to shine the light on her own story. Like a painter who must imply rather than paint every leaf on a tree, I kept my focus on her journey as the child who saw the beauty in her family members and community and wanted them to see that beauty, too, to the woman who helped a new generation and generations to come see the beauty in themselves and their larger community. I would like to add here that Felicia Marshall, our illustrator who, to me, has channeled the spirit of Laura Wheeler Waring, was very moved and influenced by the photo of the little girl that looked up in awe at the portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama in the National Portrait Gallery — which is where you will find many of Laura Wheeler Waring’s paintings as well. Look closely at Felicia’s final spread and you’ll see an homage to that image with the unspoken message of what representation can mean to kids and, indeed, to us all.
KC: What did you learn from your research for this book?
NC: I learned that there are many ways to fight for what’s right and each way deserves honor and respect. Laura Wheeler Waring painted her beliefs. And she made a difference. The Harmon Collection of paintings of African Americans, which featured many of her works, began its tour in 1944 and changed hearts and minds in advance of the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling for the integration of public schools in 1954. The correlation was so strong that the exhibit stopped touring after the ruling with the idea that the exhibit’s mission had been achieved. Of course, looking back, we realize the enormity of how much more needed to be done — there are so many injustices with which we’re still grappling. I hope remembering Laura Wheeler Waring will inspire kids not only because of her genius as an artist, but as a reminder that there are many ways to fight for what’s right and that the paintbrush, like the pen, can be mightier than the sword. I hope she will inspire kids to find their own ways to fight for what’s right.
KC: What else are you working on?
NC: I am very excited about my next book, FOR SPACIOUS SKIES: KATHARINE LEE BATES AND THE INSPIRATION FOR “AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL.” Most kids know the song “America the Beautiful,” but few know that it was written by a woman. They also don’t know that that woman lived through the Civil War as a little girl, that she became a suffragette and lived to cast a vote, that she went to college and became a professor, chairman of the English department at Wellesley, author and editor at a time when women were discouraged from getting an education and wrote this song as a prayer that it would help bind the wounds of a warring nation, reminding all Americans that we are one family from sea to shining sea. The book comes out April 1 from Albert Whitman. The year marks the 100th anniversary of when Katharine and American women cast their first votes, with breathtaking illustrations by Olga Baumert that will make you marvel at those purple mountain majesties.
KC: What is your advice for aspiring authors?
NC: Don’t give up. Learn from criticism; don’t let it beat you down. Just as your main character is the hero of his or her own journey, you are the hero or heroine of your own writing journey. As in any quest, there will be times when prospects for success seem bleak, when the challenges seem overwhelming, when you feel abandoned and alone (even though you are never truly alone and support is there if you reach out for it). But the only ones who fail are the ones that give up. My first book took 13 years. Some books have taken a matter of months, but others continue to take years. Each one takes as long as it takes. Keep the faith and you will get where you need to be when you need to get there. You never know what you are learning from your journey — including the difficulties — and how that may deepen your art and make it better and, ultimately, more powerful and lasting.
KC: Thank you Nancy! I loved learning more about your writing journey! All of Nancy’s books come with a project. The project for BEAUTIFUL SHADES OF BROWN is Paint Your World. She would love art teachers and families to send her art by kids of people in their family and community so we can all celebrate how beautiful they are. Here’s a link to the page for this project:
https://www.nancychurnin.com/paintyourworld
Nancy Churnin is the award-winning author of eight picture book biographies including BEAUTIFUL SHADES OF BROWN: THE ART OF LAURA WHEELER WARING; IRVING BERLIN, THE IMMIGRANT BOY WHO MADE AMERICA SING, a Sydney Taylor Book Award Notable and National Council for the Social Studies Notable; MANJHI MOVES A MOUNTAIN, winner of the South Asia Book Award and the Anne Izard Storytellers Choice Award and a Junior Library Guild selection; and THE WILLIAM HOY STORY: HOW A DEAF BASEBALL PLAYER CHANGED THE GAME, on multiple state reading lists. A former theater critic for The Dallas Morning News and the Los Angeles Times, Nancy is a full-time children’s book writer living in North Texas with her husband, Dallas Morning News arts writer Michael Granberry, a dog named Dog and two cantankerous cats.
THE KINDRED SPIRITS OF NANCY CHURNIN BY GARY ANDERSON
POSTED BY CBETHM ON MARCH 3, 2019 IN SURPRISE SUNDAY | 6 COMMENTS
Since Nancy Churnin’s publication debut, The William Hoy Story in 2016, she has consistently produced high-quality, award-winning picture book biographies. Manjhi Moves a Mountain; Charlie Takes His Shot; Irving Berlin, the Immigrant Boy Who Made America Sing; and The Queen and The First Christmas Tree comprise a remarkable body of work produced in a relatively short time. Nancy also frequently visits schools where her enthusiastic persona and love of young readers inspire students (and teachers) to move beyond her books to take action that makes a difference in the world.
Nancy Churnin’s newest book is Martin & Anne: The Kindred Spirits of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank (Creston Books), a captivating dual biography illuminating parallel aspects of two of the Twentieth Century’s most compelling voices. I’m honored that Nancy agreed to participate in an email interview to tell Nerdy Book Club members about her work.
When talking to authors of books for young readers, I always wonder what you all were like as children? So, what can you tell us about what you were like as a young reader? What were the books of your childhood? Is any of that still with you as an author of children’s books?
I dedicated my first book, The William Hoy Story, to my parents for bringing me up in a world of books and love. My parents grew up during the time of the Great Depression and when they got married they had very little money. The first thing they bought as a couple was the book, Tomorrow Will Be Better by Betty Smith. Over the years, they added many books to their collection. We had one room that I learned years later had been designed as a dining room. That became our library with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and comfortable chairs to sit and read everything you could imagine: children’s books, poetry, classics, history, fiction, non-fiction. Of course, that was not enough for me. I had to have shelves in my bedroom too, and soon the books were overflowing there. The first book I remember my mother reading to me was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. My mother wanted to take off on Sundays, so we made a deal that she would read me an extra chapter on Saturdays. I also loved walking to our local library on Kingsbridge Road in the Bronx. I’ll never forget the day the librarian said she had a book she knew I would love. She told me the title and I was confused because the title made no sense! But I trusted her and I’m glad I did, because that book was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I had to read everything by C.S. Lewis after that. In fact, from that point on, once I fell in love with an author’s work, I had to read everything that author wrote. I was omnivorous in what I liked, and I read Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy, Emily Dickinson, Alfred Lord Tennyson, William Butler Yeats, plays by Arthur Miller, Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, Neil Simon, anything and everything I found on the shelves at home and my local library. My father passed away a few years ago. My mother still keeps Tomorrow Will Be Better by her bedside.
Your career as a writer has had many chapters. What brought you to writing for young people?
In 2003, I was intrigued by a play that Garland High School in Texas was staging called The Signal Season of Dummy Hoy, about the 19th-century deaf baseball player, William Hoy, who had taught umpires sign language, including signals we still use today, so he could play the game he loved. I interviewed the co-playwright, Allen Meyer and wrote a story for The Dallas Morning News. I received a thank-you email from Steve Sandy in Ohio. Puzzled, I thanked him and asked him why someone in Ohio was interested in a play in a high school in Garland. Steve told me he is Deaf, a friend of the Hoy family, and dedicated to spreading the word about this great deaf hero. Steve and I became friends over email and the more I learned about Hoy, the more I became determined to help Steve’s dream of making Hoy well known come true. I offered to write a children’s book if Steve would help me with the research. Steve shared photos, letters, family photos, newspaper articles from the 19th century and gave me an education in what it meant to be deaf in that century and today. While I had always dreamed of writing children’s books, what I slowly learned is that I needed to learn a lot more about the craft to write a successful one. I signed up for every online class, challenge and critique opportunity I could and revised, revised and revised. Finally, through joining 12X12, which gave me an opportunity to submit to an agent, I sent a new version of The William Hoy Story to Karen Grencik of Red Fox Literary who became my agent in 2013. In 2014, she sold The William Hoy Story to Wendy McClure of Albert Whitman & Company. It had been a long journey, but a joyful one, made sweeter by the way Steve, the Hoy family, members of the Deaf community, and Deaf and hearing children took the book to their hearts. I had an aha! moment where I thought there but be a lot of people like Hoy who had not yet gotten a spotlight they deserve. I decided I wanted to write about people that the kids don’t know about yet — that I didn’t know very much about yet — that would inspire them and inspire me, people who persevered against the odds to achieve their dreams and made the world a better place. That’s how I began writing picture book biographies. It has been extremely gratifying watching the kids’ eyes light up as they welcome these great spirits into their hearts.
Martin & Anne is a dual biography of two iconic figures. How were the parallels in the lives of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank revealed to you?
What interests me even more than what someone does with his or her life is what is in his or her heart, what that person aims to do. What caught my breath and filled me with wonder is how both Dr. King and Anne Frank responded to the hatred and cruelty they faced from the time they were born. It would have been understandable if they answered hate with hate. Instead, incredibly, they maintained faith and love in humanity. Both believed in justice and kindness and the essential goodness of the human spirit. Until I wrote this book, I’d dedicated myself to telling stories about people kids would not otherwise know. But sometimes I find myself directed where I’m supposed to go, with my heart telling me what I’m supposed to do. The idea for this book started in 2017, when I was looking up people who would turn 90 in 2019. I was surprised at first to see Dr. King and Anne Frank both born in 1929. But then, the more I thought about them, the more I realized how similar their spirits were. The differences of gender, faith, race, language, and country seemed superficial compared to the words they left to inspire us. Then I thought about how polarized our world had become, with people putting themselves and others in boxes, walling themselves off to anyone who seemed different, feeling fear and anger for those who seemed unfamiliar. And it came to me how important it was to point out the connection between these two people to kids. It was important to see, in the words of The Little Prince, that the “essential is invisible to the eyes” and how alike Dr. King and Anne Frank were in what is truly essential. I hope Martin & Anne will encourage kids and those of all ages to consider how underneath differences of gender, faith, race, language and country, how alike we may be, how we may all have kindred spirits whose hearts beat with the same beliefs in our common humanity.
What about Martin & Anne do you hope will appeal to readers?
I hope that Martin & Anne will allow them to see these two iconic people in a fresh way. By starting with each of them as babies and showing their parallel journeys, I hope the book will help readers see them as people not unlike themselves which then, opens the door to the possibility of the reader making similar decisions about how to respond to and live in the world. I hope that by focusing on what they have in common, it will give readers of different races, faiths, genders, who speak different languages or come from different countries, different ways into the story, that they will see that the story of Dr. King and Anne Frank is not a story for one particular group, but for everyone.
Near the end of Martin & Anne you write, “Martin and Anne were born in different places, but they both dreamed that one day all babies would be seen as beautiful. As all babies are.” What do you think Martin and Anne would think about our progress on this dream of theirs?
It is easy to be discouraged about our progress when we measure it against where we want to be. And yet I am reminded by what Dr. King said: “Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I am not suggesting we should be patient with injustice. We should not. It is incumbent on all of us to do what we can every day to do, what we call in Hebrew, tikkun olam, to repair the world. In the words of Anne Frank: “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” We still have a long way to go on the road to where we should be, but the fact that a book like this is finding a warm welcome — a book that lauds and connects a person of color with someone who is Jewish — shows we are in a much better place than we were in their lifetimes, when being a person of color or being Jewish put people at risk. I hope with all my heart that kids and all adults will extend this thinking beyond color and religion to see how wrong it is to persecute people for any accident of birth, from sexual orientation to gender identification to their country of origin.
The biographies of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne necessarily include some terrible events. How did you think about presenting the violent aspects of these stories in ways that are okay for kids?
That was a challenging question to address. I wanted to acknowledge the gravity of the hate and danger they faced, but not overwhelm kids with fears too big to process. I kept the wording simple, but clear. At the start, I talked about the rejections they faced through a child’s perspective. When Martin’s friend stops playing with him after they start going to segregated schools, Martin thinks: “That made no sense!” When Jewish people are not allowed to go school with non-Jewish children, I write about Anne, “Suddenly, her friends didn’t want to play with her anymore.” Later, as their lives are cut short, I am, I hope, clear, but I don’t elaborate with details that will put terrifying images in children’s minds: “The Nazis stormed Anne’s hiding place.” There were arrests. The pages of the diary are strewn on the floor. Later, she dies, along with her older sister. And then we move quickly to the survival of her father and the immortality of the words she writes in her diary. Similarly, the line about Dr. King being killed is immediately followed by “…no one could kill the way Martin inspired others.” I learned from J.K. Rowling and others you don’t serve kids by pretending that death and terrible things don’t exist. But I also learned that you need to share this information in a way that won’t overwhelm children but help them better navigate their world. I hope I have achieved that.
Sometimes authors and illustrators work closely together in the development of a project; sometimes they work relatively separately. What can you tell us about working on Martin & Anne with illustrator Yevgenia Nayberg? What do her pictures evoke for you?
Editors are responsible for choosing the illustrator. I have been lucky to work with two amazing editors, Wendy McClure at Albert Whitman and Marissa Moss at Creston Books, which is distributed by Lerner Books. Marissa acquired and edited Martin & Anne and chose Yevgenia Nayberg to illustrate. Marissa made a brilliant choice. You have asked about the challenge of presenting violent aspects of the stories in ways that are okay for kids. It is challenging for the writer, but perhaps even more so for the illustrator. Yevgenia’s style has a magical surrealism to it, with hints of Marc Chagall, that captures emotions while leaving much to the imagination. I wondered how she was going to handle the spread where the Nazis storm the attic where Anne hid. Her approach stunned me with its perfection. Instead of giving us terrified faces that might haunt young readers, she created a double spread of storm clouds in somber browns, with scattered diary pages and a house askew in a corner. She said everything she needed to say with her art. She did not soften the horror, but she took away the specificity that might have made it overwhelm.
I was thrilled when you agreed to work with me on a panel last fall for the National Council of Teachers of English convention in Houston. You and the other distinguished panelists discussed “Building Persistence with Picture Book Biographies.” Each of your books focuses on an individual who accomplishes amazing things after overcoming obstacles. What can you tell educators and parents about helping young people develop persistence?
Nancy Churnin (right) interacts with teachers at the National Council of Teachers of English convention in Houston, Texas in November, 2018.
I was honored that you invited me to be on that panel with you and the other writers that I admire so much! I believe with my whole heart that every new life is a gift that comes with a dream, unique to that person, that the world needs to get us to where we need to go. The question I always ask the kids is if a particular character is the biggest and strongest. Together, we shake our heads no. Then I ask where that person was strong. We press our fists to our chests and together we say in his or her heart. And I ask, “Where can we all be strong?” And together we say, in our hearts. What I tell the kids and what I truly believe is that we can all be strong in our hearts. We need to listen to the dreams that are deep inside. We need to be strong and withstand outer voices that may laugh or tell us we can’t do this or that because it has never been done and we are too this or too that or not enough this or not enough that to succeed. We need to remember if we hold fast to our dreams and persevere we will get where we need to go. It may not happen in a day or a week or a month or a year or ten years. But as long as we don’t give up, we don’t fail. I remind them of the journeys of William Hoy, of Manjhi, Charlie Sifford, Irving Berlin, Martin & Anne and even Queen Charlotte, who was mocked in the English court for devoting herself to charitable causes rather than dressing up and going to fancy balls. I hope these stories will give them courage as they persevere. I am reminded of the final walk that Harry Potter takes in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I think how it encourages and strengthens Harry to know that he has the ghostly apparitions of people who believe in him and love him by his side on his final walk to his greatest and most difficult quest. I like to think that books can do that for kids — be comforting companions that give them the strength to persevere by filling them with nourishing examples of courage. I believe that books and the characters that live inside their pages can send the message that they believe in them and love them and that their dreams, too, can come true. I believe that because all my life that’s what books have done for me.
What else do you want to do as a writer?
I left my full-time job at The Dallas Morning News in January and will be able to work full-time as a children’s book writer going forward. I have many more picture book biographies I want to write, but I would also like to plunge into middle grade and, perhaps, young adult books. I have ideas in mind and plots I’ve hammered out that I look forward to writing. I’m always encouraging kids to believe in themselves and to take chances. This is my year to see how well I can practice what I preach by believing in my ability to tackle and take chances with different kinds of stories that require different storytelling styles. I also look forward to doing more presentations and sharing books with children in person. There’s nothing like sharing books with kids to remind you why you do what you do and why it matters.
Several of your books have real-world projects that are inspired by the life story of the book’s subject. Will Martin & Anne have an initiative like that, and how can we can find out more about it?
All of my books come with free Teacher Guides and projects and I am very excited about the project for Martin & Anne. It’s called Kindred Spirits. I’m asking kids and schools to reach out to kids and schools in different neighborhoods, cities, states, maybe even countries. I want them to explore their differences and celebrate all they have in common on the inside. I hope they will share what they learn about each other and, I hope, their new, growing friendships, on my Kindred Spirits page on http://www.nancychurnin.com/kindredspirits/
Martin and Anne would have both turned ninety in 2019. Are there other reasons why their stories are important for this moment in history?
It is stunning and sad to me that we don’t get to see Dr. King and Anne Frank alive at 90. Just consider for a moment how much more each could have contributed to the world, how their wisdom, insight and love for humanity could have made us all, collectively, better people. Sadly, we still wrestle with racism, religious intolerance, xenophobia and other forms of hatred. Their story is a reminder of so many lives cut short by intolerance and fear. As we mourn the fact that we don’t have them living with us today, celebrating their 90th birthdays, we should be paying respect to all the people over generations whose lives were cut short by violence. As the reality of what hate has cost us sinks in, I hope that will motivate us to stop hating, start loving and protecting the vulnerable among us.
Martin & Anne: The Kindred Spirits of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank is available on March 5, 2019. Click here for a free curriculum guide to Martin & Anne. Visit Nancy Churnin online at nancychurnin.com, on Twitter at @nchurnin, and on Facebook at “Nancy Churnin Children’s Books.”
Gary Anderson is a literacy educator, professional development mentor, and writer. He is co-author (with Tony Romano) of Expository Composition: Discovering Your Voice (EMC School). Follow Gary on his blog at What’s Not Wrong? and on Twitter at @AndersonGL. This is Gary’s fifth Nerdy Book Club post.
Picture Book Buzz
Non-Fiction
History
Interview
The Picture Book Buzz - Interview with Nancy Churnin
September 10, 2018
by
Maria Marshall
Today, I get the privilege to bring you an interview with a remarkable woman - Nancy Churnin. She writes beautiful nonfiction picture book biographies on little known individuals or those with little known stories.
In addition, Nancy has an amazing feature on her website – associated with each book (in addition to teacher guides) – where she encourages kids, parents, and teachers to make a difference. These calls to action ranges from sending letters to get Hoy in the Hall of Fame or by helping out their community, a new kid on a team, an immigrant, or someone over the holidays. Be sure to visit her website and read the testimonials from kids and classrooms.
Nancy, thank-you so much for stopping by to talk about your newest book and writing.
ME: Tell us a little about yourself. (Where/when do you write? How long have you been writing? What is your favorite type of book to write?)
NANCY: I have been writing as long as I can remember. As a child, I had a small book where I would write poems, stories and ideas for stories. I grew up to become a journalist – a professional writer – and specifically a theater critic for The Dallas Morning News, which allows me to see and reflect on other people’s stories for a living.
I wrote my first children’s book, The William Hoy Story: How a Deaf Baseball Player Changed The Game, because I became friends with Steve Sandy, a deaf man who is a friend of the Hoy family. Steve was sad that hearing and deaf children didn’t know the true story of this man who introduced hand signals to baseball, so he could play the game he loved. That took me on a long, joyful journey to learn how to write a picture book biography and left me with a passion for telling more stories of people that the kids wouldn’t otherwise know – people who inspired me and might inspire the children. I fit in my writing time wherever I can, before and after work and on the weekends.
I know many of us are very glad you met Steve. What is something no one (or few) knows about you?
I love to sing! Musical theater is my favorite, but I love a wide range of music. I also love to play Scrabble. Puns crack me up, the more awful the better.
Uh oh, you're one of those "punny" people. I fell in love with cover of The Queen and the First Christmas Tree when it was first revealed. What was your inspiration for this book? How did you discover her story?
I was always curious about how the Christmas tree tradition got started. While most people associate it with Queen Victoria, after doing research I learned it was her grandmother, Queen Charlotte who introduced the first Christmas tree to Windsor Castle in 1800. I had never known much about Queen Charlotte even though she was the queen married to King George III, the king during the American Revolution. The more I learned about her, the more I fell in love with her.
Most kids think of princesses as people who dress up and going to balls. She was not into that and I think it’s important for kids to know that being royal is about more than wearing a crown. She came to England as a shy, frightened 17-year-old. She loved kids and gardens and animals. In some ways, you can think of this German princess as the classic immigrant. She took a custom from her country – the yew branch– and found a new expression for it in her new country, England – as a full tree. And she introduced that tree not for any personal glory, but to delight 100 children at a party. I discovered her story by researching on the Internet in the beginning. I followed up with Dr. Carolyn Harris, a royal historian, who deepened my understanding of Queen Charlotte and her times, directed me toward further reading and checked my story for accuracy.
Thank you for digging into this story and providing insight into Queen Charlotte. Would you say there is a common thread that runs through your five diverse picture book biographies?
Each picture book biography is a story about someone with a dream, who faced seemingly overwhelming obstacles, persisted and used the very thing that made the person different as his or her gift — the quality that helped the person make a positive difference in the world.
Because William Hoy was Deaf, he knew sign language, which he used to help him play the game he loved — and made it a better game for everyone.
Manjhi dreamed he could move a mountain. He wasn’t the biggest or the strongest, but he persisted and because he didn’t give up he did it, making life better for people in his village and showing them they can do anything if they stick to it.
Charlie was told he couldn’t play on the PGA Tour because of the color of his skin, but he didn’t give up and finally in 1961 the PGA Tour changed its rules. Charlie opened the door for others.
Irving Berlin was a penniless refugee who didn’t speak a word of English when he arrived in America, but he wanted to find a way to thank the country that gave him a home. And he did. He wrote “God Bless America” and gave all the money the song earned to the Boy and Girl Scouts of America to help the kids of America the way America helped him when he was a kid.
Queen Charlotte is not your usual queen. She didn’t like dressing up for fancy balls or wearing jewels. She loved gardening and children. The royal court of England made fun of her when she arrived from Germany, not speaking a word of English. But she found her own way to make a difference. Not only did she introduce the Christmas tree to a party of 100 kids in 1800, starting the Christmas tree tradition, she supported orphanages and maternity hospitals and she and her husband, King George III, became the first British royals to make charitable giving an official part of royal duties. Plus, she was against slavery and refused to take sugar in her tea because sugar was harvested by slaves on plantations and she didn’t want to do anything that would encourage the slave trade.
You've discovered some amazing people who demonstrated a great deal of persistence. Did your experience with The Queen and the First Christmas Tree, either the writing, research, or publishing, differ from your other books? If so, how?
One of the challenges of researching Queen Charlotte was difficulty in finding books about her for reference. Consulting with Dr. Carolyn Harris, a royal historian, made an enormous difference. Dr. Harris could not only answer questions about Queen Charlotte, but also about what plants she might have grown and tended and what she would have used to decorate her tree. She was also a terrific help in making sure I was on the right track in making sure my story stayed true to the spirit and personality of this remarkable historical figure.
It's amazing how the right expert can make a world of difference. Who was your favorite author, illustrator, and/or favorite book as a child?
I have so many! The first book that my mother read to me that I fell in love with was The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum. Later I became passionate about The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and every book about Narnia by C.S. Lewis, plus every Louisa May Alcott book I could find. I also loved reading everything by Charles Dickens and spent a lot of time with poets like Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, William Butler Yeats and Alfred Tennyson. I have never, and will never, outgrow picture books by Maurice Sendak and have a soft spot for Wanda Gag’s Millions of Cats and Esphyr Slobodkina’s Caps for Sale.
Did you have any input into the illustrations for any of your books? Either at the beginning or in a later review stage?
My editors have been terrific about sharing the illustrations from the sketching process on. My main contribution is to make sure they are factually accurate. With The William Hoy Story, I was able to point out that 19th century ballplayers didn’t use baseball gloves; they weren’t introduced until the late 1800s, early 1900s. So kids won’t see baseball gloves in that book.
Nice reminder to always keep your research. One never knows when those seemingly little facts will become important. Is there something you want your readers to know about The Queen and the First Christmas Tree?
I have a free Teachers Guide and project with all my books that I hope everyone will check out on my website (www.nancychurnin.com). The project for The Queen and the First Christmas Tree is "A Kind Holiday." I hope that kids will share stories of kind things they do for others at whatever holiday they celebrate and that together we can make kindness spread.
I hope so too! I enjoyed looking through the other projects kids have shared. They are amazing and touching. What has been the most frustrating aspect or period of time as a children’s writer for you? Any advice for unpublished authors?
It’s always hard when the idea you have in your head and heart doesn’t immediately translate into words on the page. But you’ve got to remember that everyone has sloppy first drafts and revision is your friend.
If you’re not published yet, don’t give up! Know that you have an amazing support system in the Kidlit community. Join a group and don’t be shy about asking for help. Don’t take critiques or rejection personally. A rejection is not a rejection of you, it is simply a statement that something you’re working on is not right for a particular publisher or agent at this point in the manuscript’s journey or at this point in the agent’s or publisher’s plans.
There is no failure as long as you don’t give up. Just as you write about a main character that faces challenges, you as a writer face challenges. Just as your main character must figure out ways to surmount those challenges, you as a writer must find ways to surmount those challenges. Reach out for help, keep working hard and you will succeed.
Thank you Nancy, great advice for all of us, wherever we are along this magical journey. Any projects you are working on now that you can share a tidbit with us?
I am very excited about my next book, Martin & Anne. It’s the true story of two inspirational figures, born in the same year, who never knew each other. They both faced enormous hate with love and left us with words that inspired us today. They are Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank. The book is illustrated by the incredible Yevgenia Nayberg, a Silver Medalist for the 2018 Sydney Taylor Book Award, and comes out in spring of 2019 from Creston Books.
This is one I will be anxiously awaiting! Thanks for the heads up. Is there anything about writing, illustrating, or publishing you know now that you wished you had known when you started? Or something you’re glad you didn’t know about in advance?
I am so glad I didn’t know how challenging it was going to be to figure out how to tell my first story, The William Hoy Story, and find my voice. I worked on this book for years before I realized how much I didn’t know and reached out for help. If I had known how hard it would be, I might have been discouraged from starting.
On the other hand, if I had known how amazingly wonderful and helpful the Kidlit community was, maybe I would have reached out for help earlier and the journey wouldn’t have taken so long. I am so grateful to SCBWI, to Julie Hedlund’s 12X12 (which is where I found my lovely agent, Karen Grencik of Red Fox Literary), classes by Susanna Hill, Mira Reisberg and Kristen Fulton, challenges by Tara Lazar and Paula Yoo, Miranda Paul’s Rate Your Story and all the wonderful friends I have made in my critique groups. I advise everyone to find your tribe as soon as possible!
Great advice. So one final question. What is your favorite animal? Why?
My dog named Dog and my cats named Snowball, Toby, and White Sox. I can’t possibly pick one animal over the other or there will be no living in my house! The good news is they all get on together in their own very funny ways. Who knows, maybe one day my menagerie will be a picture book.
Sounds like quite the troupe! Thank you, Nancy for stopping by and sharing with us. It was truly wonderful to chat with you.
Be sure to stop back by on Friday for my Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF post on The Queen and the First Christmas Tree: Queen Charlottes's Gift to England (publication 10/1/2018), for an advance peek at this stunning book.
To find out more about Nancy Churnin, or get in touch with her:
Website: http://www.nancychurnin.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NancyChurninBooks/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nchurnin
By the way, here are some of Nancy's Upcoming Events:
- Sep 21, 2018 6 PM Addison, TX. On the pro panel of the North Texas SCBWI conference, Crowne Plaza Hotel: Keep on Truckin'
*- Oct. 2, 2018 7:00 PM Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Park, in Dallas Launching The Queen and the First Christmas Tree, collecting books and gifts for Reading Is Fundamental kids.*
- Nov. 4, 2018 - 2:00 PM Dallas, TX. Join Mark Kreditor and Nancy Churnin for a special Irving Berlin event, with music, singing and little known facts about Berlin's life as we celebrate Irving Berlin, The Immigrant Boy Who Made America Sing. It's part of the Dallas Jewish BookFest at the Dallas Jewish Community Center.
- Nov. 10, 2018 - 9:00 AM Baton Rouge, LA. Presenting Manjhi Moves a Mountain as a featured author at the Louisiana Book Festival, with a signing to follow the presentation.
- Nov. 16, 2018 Houston, TX. Receiving South Asia Book Award for Manjhi Moves a Mountain at National Council of Teachers of English convention in Houston and participating in two picture book panels.
Tags:
Churnin, Nancy FOR SPACIOUS SKIES Whitman (Children's Informational) $16.99 4, 1 ISBN: 978-0-8075-2530-2
The story behind one of America's iconic songs.
Katharine Lee Bates grew up in Falmouth, Massachusetts, during the Civil War, so she knew about living in a divided country and experienced the unfairness of being a girl: "The boys she knew grew up to be fishermen or studied to become doctors or lawyers or businessmen. Girls learned to mend and cook." But she went to Wellesley College, helped to start a settlement house for immigrants, spoke out for world peace and women's suffrage, and became a college professor. On a train trip across the country in 1893, she marveled at Niagara Falls, the World's Fair in Chicago, and the endless fields of wheat in Kansas, but she also was aware of the plights of workers in mines, fields, and factories during the economic depression. When she saw grand vistas from the summit of Pikes Peak, she was inspired to write the first lines of a poem expressing her vision of a united nation, a land shared by all. Nowadays, most people singing "America the Beautiful" (melody by composer Samuel A. Ward) have no idea of the political and social context behind the poem Bates wrote. Churnin tells that story in a spare and lively text beautifully complemented by double-page spreads highlighting Baumert's gorgeous panoramic illustrations. Almost all characters are white. The text of a revised version of the poem concludes the volume.
A handsome volume befitting its subject. (author's note, timeline, sources, acknowledgments) (Picture book/biography. 4-8)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
"Churnin, Nancy: FOR SPACIOUS SKIES." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2020. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A612619119/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=0986ac52. Accessed 22 Feb. 2020.
Churnin, Nancy BEAUTIFUL SHADES OF BROWN Creston (Children's Informational) $18.99 2, 4 ISBN: 978-1-939547-65-1
Laura Wheeler Waring saw "brown [as] a rainbow" and painted it that way.
Growing up in turn-of-the-20th-century Connecticut in a middle-class African American household, Laura works for "hours mixing and blending" paints in order to replicate the shades she sees in her family members. Determined to pursue a career in art, she studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and then in Paris, honing her craft. Attending a concert given by a young Marian Anderson, Laura vows to paint the singer someday. A 1944 commission for "portraits of important African Americans" finds her painting the likenesses of Alice Dunbar Nelson, James Weldon Johnson, W.E.B. Du Bois--and Marian Anderson. Churnin ably conjures the painter's process, thrillingly describing Laura's painstaking combination of shades to create just the right browns for each subject. She is less adept at helping readers understand the barriers Laura must have faced, saying only that "there weren't portraits of African Americans in museums" during Laura's childhood and that her art education was undertaken among mostly white peers; one sentence in her author's note acknowledges the limited opportunities available to African Americans of Laura's time. While the evocation of Laura's joy in her art is admirable, skimming over the everyday injustices she must have faced paints only half her picture. Marshall's illustrations are appropriately painterly, capturing the play of light on her characters' brown faces.
An important story only partially realized. (timeline, further reading) (Picture book/biography. 5-8)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
"Churnin, Nancy: BEAUTIFUL SHADES OF BROWN." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2019. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A606964544/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=100c6a0a. Accessed 22 Feb. 2020.
Churnin, Nancy MARTIN & ANNE Creston (Children's Informational) $17.99 3, 5 ISBN: 978-1-939547-53-8
The lives and legacies of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Anne Frank are drawn in parallel in this visually appealing picture book.
Born in the same year on different continents, Martin and Anne both faced discrimination from the time they were school aged. Peers who were former friends fell in line with laws and policies made by privileged groups of which they were not a part. "Whites only" signs and "No Jews allowed" signs; a speech competition and a diary; beginning college at 15 and learning about Ghandi, and writing about dreams for a better world--these experiences are illustrated in matching form on opposite sides of each spread. Martin grows up to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and his assassination at age 35 cannot silence his message; Anne's life comes to an end at 15, but her legacy lives on when her diary is published and becomes a bestseller. While the ending is trite ("Love is stronger than hate. / Kindness can heal the world"), the journey through their lives and the effect of coupling their lasting impact are powerful. The art emphasizes the message of parallel experiences and changing worlds. With natural tones of green and brown and stylized faces and forms, the images don't fall back on King's iconic look, creating instead a fresh tapestry of landscapes and humanity.
A surprisingly successful and enlightening combination strengthened by striking artwork. (Picture book/biography. 5-9)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
"Churnin, Nancy: MARTIN & ANNE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Feb. 2019. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A573768809/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=551961d5. Accessed 22 Feb. 2020.
Churnin, Nancy THE QUEEN AND THE FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE Whitman (Children's Fiction) $16.99 10, 1 ISBN: 978-0-8075-6636-7
A German-born princess uses her memories of home to create an English Christmas tradition.
Born into royalty in Mecklenburg, Germany, in 1744, Princess Charlotte prefers being outdoors to going to balls. She loves trees, and at Christmas, she always brings a yew branch indoors to decorate. A marriage proposal from King George III of England means leaving her home at the age of 17. Lonely and not speaking a word of English, she relies on the precious things she brought along, including a yew branch. "With this, she could make magic in her new home." In 1800, having borne 15 children of her own, she holds a Christmas party for 100 children to ring in the new century, decking the halls with a large tree from the palace grounds. Simple prose and light watercolors keep this retelling of historical events within the understanding of children who like a good princess story. The book's creators don't shy away from including some children of color among white ones--this was, after all, during the time of slavery--but the text leaves some doubt about how, exactly, they fit into the group of "children at court." An afterword provides context to the queen's life and times, including the information that she was an abolitionist.
A nice introduction to the origins of a cherished tradition for many. (Picture book. 5-8)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
"Churnin, Nancy: THE QUEEN AND THE FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2018. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A552175032/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=5bd3dd1e. Accessed 22 Feb. 2020.
CHURNIN, Nancy. Beautiful Shades of Brown: The Art of Laura Wheeler Waring, illus. by Felicia Marshall. 32p. Creston. Feb. 2020. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9781939547651.
Gr 1-4--Laura Wheeler Waring (1887-1948) combined colors to create the exact shades of brown that depicted the skin tones of the loved ones she painted. Artistic representation during the time period Waring came of age was far from inclusive. Portraits of African Americans and artwork created by black artists were not welcomed into museums. Waring pursued her passion and was eventually commissioned to paint important African American people for a traveling exhibit that displayed her art in the Smithsonian and other museums. This biography succeeds by keeping its focus on Waring's artistic journey. When discussing her portrait of singer Marian Anderson, Churnin forms an emotional link between these two women and spotlights the potential for their work to break barriers. The straightforward narrative allows young readers to connect with Waring as a person, recognize her dedication to her craft, and appreciate her accomplishments. The recurring theme of brown as a complex and beautiful color is an effective metaphor for the celebration of African American people and culture central to Waring's work. Marshall's painted illustrations are an artistic tribute rendered in the style of Waring's paintings. VERDICT A meticulously crafted account of a trailblazing artist. Recommended for general purchase, particularly for libraries looking to include more biographies of black women-artists.--Elizabeth Lovsirt, Deerfield Public Library, IL
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
Lovsirt, Elizabeth. "CHURNIN, Nancy. Beautiful Shades of Brown: The Art of Laura Wheeler Waring." School Library Journal, vol. 66, no. 2, Feb. 2020, p. 82+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A613048859/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=5a79cf3c. Accessed 22 Feb. 2020.
CHURNIN, Nancy. For Spacious Skies: Katharine Lee Bates and the Inspiration for "America the Beautiful." illus. by Olga Baumert. 32p. Albert Whitman. Apr. 2020. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9780807525302.
Gr 1-4--Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929) was a scholar and an author in a time when most women were not encouraged to pursue careers outside their homes. After Bates's father died at a young age, her mother raised Bates and her siblings alone. Bates graduated from Newton High School in Massachusetts and then enrolled in Wellesley College where she earned a Bachelor of Arts. She was part of the second graduating class (1880) and was honored as the class president and the class poet. From 1880 to 1925, she was an English professor at Wellesley and later became the chair of the English department. Bates was a prolific writer--she was the author of novels and textbooks, as well as poetry. Her most famous poem, "America the Beautiful," was inspired by her travels across the United States. The poem was set to music by Samuel A. Ward in 1910. The song was a strong contender for the National Anthem. Baumert's eye-catching artwork is reminiscent of the folkish aesthetic of early American paintings, which appropriately matches the narrative's historical setting. This history of "America the Beautiful" would be a very interesting story to compare to the making of the "Star-Spangled Banner." VERDICT This picture book biography about a strong, smart woman and her contribution to American culture is a strong choice for elementary libraries.--Debbie Tanner, SD Spady Montessori Elementary, FL
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
Tanner, Debbie. "CHURNIN, Nancy. For Spacious Skies: Katharine Lee Bates and the Inspiration for 'America the Beautiful.'." School Library Journal, vol. 66, no. 2, Feb. 2020, p. 83. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A613048860/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=40bc74cd. Accessed 22 Feb. 2020.