Why Can't a Woman?

On Saturday March 1st at 1:00PM, I'll be at the Eric Carle Museum, moderating a panel discussion inspired by our earlier conversation about why women don't win the Caldecott Medal as often as they might. The panelists for "Read Roger Live" will include illustrator Jane Dyer, children's-books sexpert Robie Harris, Viking publisher Regina Hayes, and critic Leonard Marcus. I know the discussion will be lively, and the museum is beautiful, so come on over.

When Jane got a train

In one of the group homes I lived in after college (not like it sounds, but too haphazard to be a commune) one of my housemates had placed in the bathroom an oversized children's paperback book called What Is a Girl? What Is a Boy?, affixing to it a note that said something like "this is for all you losers who can't tell the difference." The book was a photoessay showing boys and girls engaged in all kinds of anti-gendered behavior, and the last two spreads showed a naked boy and girl, then a naked man and woman, explaining that genitalia was the only meaningful difference between the sexes. By Stephanie Waxman, it was published in 1976 by Peace Press in California . (It was republished in 1989 by T.Y. Crowell. Had Us become Them?)

K. T. Horning's post "Retro Reads: Before Heather" makes me remember those days. I'd love to have the Horn Book take a good look at this era of leftist small press publishing for children--any takers?

What are the odds?

The New York Times Ten Best Illustrated Books have been announced; as commenter Ruth notes on a previous post, the gender score is eight to two. Elsewhere in the Times's special section on children's books I review Jaclyn Moriarty's The Spell Book of Listen Taylor (Levine/Scholastic).

I note with only fortuitous smugness that the last time I judged this list, in 2005, we selected five male and five female illustrators. But I didn't know this until now, as Henrike Wilson (winning for Brave Charlotte) and Alexis Deacon (for Jitterbug Jam) didn't come to the party.

The other g-word

I'm just writing up a notice for Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children about Their Art (Philomel), which isn't really for kids but is an extremely handsome exhibition-in-pages of some great illustrators, including for each a gorgeously reproduced self-portrait as well as photos of their workspaces and preliminary studies and sketches. With sales benefiting the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, it's a great gift idea for the children's librarian in your life. Who may, in fact, be you.

But I couldn't help noticing that only five of the twenty-three artists included are women. Having no idea if this representation is proportional, I compared it to the last 23 years of Caldecott winners. Only four women there. What do we think is or is not going on?

Hear Us Roar

The inaugural Horn Book Podcast is up for your listening pleasure. Lolly is setting it up with iTunes so you'll be able to subscribe; for now, go to the podcast page on our site to hear my interview with Jon Scieszka.

I interviewed Jon for our special September issue, Boys and Girls. That too is now just out and you can see the table of contents here and web extras here. I think this is one of the best issues we've done.

Children's literature's defining phrase,

I've decided, is "disguised as a boy." This phrase is necessarily used twice in our May book review section (and don't worry, Mitali, yes, one is yours and, yes, we like it) but the fact that it's such an established trope (a word I never speak aloud because I can never remember how many syllables it has) in children's books must Say Something. But What?