picture books

Fun story about Picture Books on Aish.com

beccakinla bedtime stories, emuna braverman, parenting, picture books Leave a comment

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My teacher and neighbor Emuna Braverman wrote a piece for Aish.com this week about picture books and how they teach us about the parent-child relationship. http://www.aish.com/f/mom/Instructive_Childrens_Books.html

Picture books are amazing not only for kids, but for their parents. We experience them on a daily basis at bedtimes and sometimes they leave a lasting impression. I’ll never forget when Rebbitzen Shira Smiles used Goodnight Moon to illustrate a point in a shiur I once attended many years ago.

If you haven’t seen them already, here are a few more articles on the same theme, this time by yours truly on  MetroImma.com:


Where The Mild Things Are
Most of us remember the childhood classic, Where the Wild Things Are. In it, the mischievous Max trashes his house and terrorizes the family pet until his mother sends him to his room. Once there, the boy fantasizes about a voyage to the land of the Wild Things. In this marvelous isle, he can be as rowdy and ferocious as he wants. 
More . . .
Our Very Hungry Caterpillars
About 2 hours before a recent Shabbos, my 3 year old daughter and I
watered the container garden in the back of our apartment building.
Alternating waves of heat and rain here in 
More . . .
Your Mother is Coming!
At this time of year, we all need some strategies with which to
fight our ultimate enemy. But where is a busy wife with little kids
supposed to turn for weapons to fight this war? More
. . .
Sometimes even Mommies
have bad days
If you have ever read the book Alexander and the Terrible,
Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day, you may remember the page.
Alexander finally adjourns to bed at the end of his terrible,
horrible, no-good, very bad day. He sounds resigned, yet also
comforted. Why? Because his mother has just informed him that “some
days are just like that.” 
More . . .

Will your next bedtime story be on an e-reader? Two interesting blog posts about children and ereaders

beccakinla blogs, children, children's books, ebooks, ereaders, eric kimmel, motherlode, picture books, publishing Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Children Reading

(picture from Clipart ETC)

About a year ago, my sister sent me a link to a blog post by Eric Kimmel about whether we’ll be seeing e-picture books.

Mr. Kimmel was responding to an article in the NY Times which describes the development of color monitors on ereaders. The article’s author strongly believes that the spread of these devices will attract child readers.

Mr. Kimmel brings up many salient points, both pro and con ereaders for children. On the pro side: producing an ebook is much cheaper than producing a full-color picture book with glossy paper; children might be attracted to the format. On the negative side: whose device are they reading on? Is a small child able to handle an ereader independently? Is the gimmick of the format going to wear off? Is it going to become another excuse for publishers not to acquire and produce picture books (which is already a big problem)?

I recalled that post today when I read another article, this time on the Motherlode blog of the NY Times. http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/why-books-are-better-than-e-books-for-children/
The author, KJ Dell’antonia, recently read a Time Magazine article about children’s literacy and ereaders. The Time article suggests that children interact differently with ebooks than with print literature–and so do the adults facilitating the reading experience. These habits negatively impact their ability to learn to read.

In the Jewish community, there’s an additional issue: a lot of relaxed family time takes place on Shabbat and Yom Tov. That’s when Ima and Abba have time to curl up with Junior and Juniorette and read. For many of us, that means no electronic devices. Sure, we’ll read an ebook, but not on Shabbos.

Maybe e-picture books do have a future–actually, I’m betting they do. But they’ll need to address at least some of these failings in order make them take over the picture book market entirely.

This is officially a rant.

beccakinla children's books, finding agent, frustration, new author, picture books, submissions, writing process Leave a comment

Please forgive me for the following. I cannot help myself.

In the middle of this lovely Jewish holiday of Sukkot, I find myself very cranky instead of all smiley-faces. I just received a rejection letter (the second for this particular writing project), but that’s not the thing that upsets me the most. What upsets me the most is that there are so few options left for me on this project.
I am an author. I am a first-rate doodler, but I am not an illustrator. And because of that, many publishers and agents don’t even want to hear from me. Many, if not most, have closed their doors to unsolicited picture book manuscripts that are submitted without illustrations attached.
There are some wonderful author-illustrators out there. But even many famous ones write books not illustrated by themselves (Mo Willems, Rosemary Wells, and Kevin Henkes, for example), and there are also examples of books that would have been better if the publisher had given the writing and illustrating jobs to separate people (I refuse to name names, as this would be hurtful). Outstanding words rarely come from outstanding graphic artists. Many wonderful authors would never be heard from if they had to prove their drawing chops just to get a book deal.
Maybe an editor or agent can explain this trend to me, but right now I’m busy having a pity party. Try me some other time.

Bear With Me

beccakinla adoption, bear with me, local, max cornell, new author, new sibling, picture books Leave a comment
When you actually make it to regular pediatrician visits for all your kids–and you’ve got a few kids–you spend a lot of time with the aforementioned pediatrician. So you shmooze. Over the last couple years, part of our shmooze has been on the topic of his son-in-law’s picture book.

It came out not too long ago, and I have to recommend it, not only is it by a friend of a friend (so to speak), it’s by a local author and actually very worthy of a recommendation. Max Kornell’s Bear with Me is quite a charming book and got lots of giggles out of my kids.

A little boy’s parents bring home someone new to live with them. Someone who takes up a lot of his parents’ attention. Someone who tampers with his belongings and makes him lose sleep at night. Sound familiar? However, this little boy didn’t get a new baby…he got a new bear.

While some of the reviews I’ve read recommend this book for children with new siblings, I think it would be even better for kids with an ADOPTED sibling on the way. Here’s why: the little boy and the new bear are able to enjoy each other’s company rather quickly. It can take a while before newborns are entertaining and engaging. This would probably be good to discuss before a new baby comes home, otherwise your elder children might be disgusted by the family’s new addition.

Other than that little picky point, I highly recommend this funny little book for kids, ages 3-7.

Shall we play a funeral dirge?

beccakinla children, hashalom shel michael, Hebrew, Israel, picture books, tiras cham Leave a comment

Yes, it’s time to break out a little Chopin funeral march.

Tiras Cham (Hebrew)

Two of our favorite Hebrew picture books have been officially loved to death: the classic Tiras Cham and HaShalom shel Michael. Their tattered pages are currently being mourned by the members of the Klempner household.

This event has sent me on a new adventure: finding new copies. I’ve been successful at finding Tiras Cham. That book is so popular in Israel that Steimatsky there sells Tiras Cham-themed pajamas (possible Chanukah gifts for my little ones?) and you can easily purchase books through their website. However, HaShalom shel Michael is nowhere to be found on the internet. It’s like it never existed. I’ve tried transliterating in a variety of ways and even translating despite my relatively poor Hebrew skills (Should that be Michael’s Hello or Michael’s Greeting?). Zilch!

I’m a little traumatized. Perhaps I’ll patch up the sad, dilapidated pages that have fallen out of the binding and onto the floor. It’s such a beautiful story, all about greeting everyone with a “panim yafot,” as Shammai suggests in Pirkei Avot. I highly recommend the book to everyone…if you can just find a copy!

My time isn’t a total loss. The plus side is that I discovered a neat-o blog about Hebrew language education with some nifty things in it (like an art project/lesson plan to go with another Israel classic, HaBayit Shel Yael):
http://inoursmallgarden.wordpress.com/childrens-books/
Then that blog led me to another:
http://www.dafdaf.co.il/
And another!
http://www.internationalchildbook.com/hebrewlanguage/1318031?page_483032555=2
And yet another!
http://justhebrew.com/