Book 25: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
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| Katherine & I :) |
Once again, I found myself at my new home-away-from-home,
Anderson's Bookshop. I had been anticipating this author event for weeks. I had the very great honor of meeting the 2013 Newbery winner, Katherine Applegate! You may recognize Katherine's work and/or name from the popular series
Anamorphs, which she created with her husband. Katherine's book,
The One and Only Ivan, is the true story of Ivan, the shopping mall gorilla. Ivan was taken from his family as a baby and shipped to the state of Washington. After living with a human family for many years, he was moved into the B & I mall near Tacoma, Washington and kept on display for money. With the growth of animal knowledge progressing over time, visitors soon felt that what was happening to Ivan was abuse, and he was finally moved to Zoo Atlanta (where he died last August). This is an extremely touching story, and no one could have done it better than Katherine. Learn more about Ivan by
clicking here.
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| Katherine's note to me! |
How the Newbery Medal Came to Be:
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Newbery Honor Seal. If you see
a book with this seal on it,
GET IT RIGHT AWAY!
A book with this seal means that it's
one of the BEST books in existence. |
The Newbery Medal is awarded annually by the American Library Association for the most distinguished American children's book published the previous year. On June 22, 1921, Frederic G. Melcher proposed the award to the American Library Association meeting of the Children's Librarians' Section and suggested that it be named for the eighteenth-century English bookseller John Newbery. The idea was enthusiastically accepted by the children's librarians, and Melcher's official proposal was approved by the ALA Executive Board in 1922. In Melcher's formal agreement with the board, the purpose of the Newbery Medal was stated as follows: "To encourage original creative work in the field of books for children. To emphasize to the public that contributions to the literature for children deserve similar recognition to poetry, plays, or novels. To give those librarians, who make it their life work to serve children's reading interests, an opportunity to encourage good writing in this field."
The Newbery Award thus became the first children's book award in the world. Its terms, as well as its long history, continue to make it the best known and most discussed children's book award in this country.
From the beginning of the awarding of the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, committees could, and usually did, cite other books as worthy of attention. Such books were referred to as Newbery or Caldecott "runners-up." In 1971 the term "runners-up" was changed to "honor books." The new terminology was made retroactive so that all former runners-up are now referred to as Newbery or Caldecott Honor Books. [www.ala.org]
To learn more about the Newbery Medal and view recent winners,
click here.
Description: Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all. Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he’s seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line. Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home—and his own art—through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it’s up to Ivan to make it a change for the better. Katherine Applegate blends humor and poignancy to create Ivan’s unforgettable first-person narration in a story of friendship, art, and hope. [GoodReads]
Meet the Author: Applegate was born in Michigan in 1956. Since then she has lived in Texas, Florida, California, Minnesota, Illinois, North Carolina, and after living in Pelago, Italy for a year, she has moved back to Southern California. She has an eleven year old son named Jake Mates, although she says the Animorph leader is not named after him. In 2003 she and her husband, Michael Grant, her co-author on many projects including Animorphs, adopted their daughter, Julia, in China.[citation needed] Following the end of Animorphs, Applegate took three years off. She is back at work and has written a picture book called "The Buffalo Storm," a middle reader novel called "Home of the Brave," and an early chapters series "Roscoe Riley Rules" with Harper Collins. Her book "Home of the Brave" has won the SCBWI Golden Kite Award, the Bank Street 2008 Josette Frank Award, and is a Judy Lopez Memorial Award honor book. [GoodReads]
To visit Katherine, follow these links:
Book 27: Eve & Adam by Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant
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Both Katherine and Michael
signed my book! |
On the same day, there was a YA panel at Anderson's. On the panel was Katherine's husband, Michael Grant. He is the author of the
Gone series, which I have not read. He is an extremely likeable person with a great sense of humor. I absolutely LOVED this novel he did with Katherine. I mentioned how both Michael and Katherine worked on the
Animorphs series. Katherine told us that one day she decided that she wanted to stay married, so she quit writing with her husband, haha! After some years of doing their own projects, Michael and Katherine have come together again to create
Eve & Adam. I am SO EXCITED to announce that they are currently working on a sequel
together (which means that the married life must be going well ;) ).
Eve & Adam is a story that entertains the idea of creating humans and exploring the opportunities of genetics. I found this book to be extremely entertaining. It's a love story, family love, romantic love, love of justice and all that is good in the world.
Description: In the beginning, there was an apple— And then there was a car crash, a horrible injury, and a hospital. But before Evening Spiker’s head clears a strange boy named Solo is rushing her to her mother’s research facility. There, under the best care available, Eve is left alone to heal. Just when Eve thinks she will die—not from her injuries, but from boredom—her mother gives her a special project: Create the perfect boy. Using an amazingly detailed simulation, Eve starts building a boy from the ground up. Eve is creating Adam. And he will be just perfect... won’t he? [GoodReads]
Meet the Author: I was born in a manger and grew up in a log cabin where I read law books by firelight. . . Oh, wait, that wasn't me, that was someones else. I had a hard childhood. Hard for my parents. Not that bad for me. I was an Army brat, moved around a lot. Then I didn't settle down. I just kept moving. Why? What inner turmoil drove me? Mmmm, I gotta say none. I just have a short attention span. Easily bored. I'm living in Tiburon, CA right now. How much longer? Don't know. I've written 150 books. That's right, I said 150. In your face, Stephen King. Granted, mine are shorter than his. And less popular. And less likely to be made into a major motion picture. And I guess i don't play in a band with Dave Barry, either, do I? Sorry: Salieri complex acting up. Most of those books -- and by "most" I mean 149 out of 150 -- I wrote with my wife, the lovely, the talented, the eternally hot, Katherine (K.A.) Applegate. We've been together for 29 years. Which is a long time. Looooong time. Sweet lord what a long . . . No babe, I'm not implying anything. Damn internets: you never know who's reading things. Anyway, GONE. My goal in writing GONE? To creep you out. To make you stay up all night reading, then roll into school tired the next day so that you totally blow the big test and end up dropping out of school. GONE. Imagine a world where every adult vanishes in an instant. Coming soon, a whole other series: BZRK. [GoodReads]
