Between the By-Road and the Main Road: June 2018

Saturday, June 9, 2018

Book Resources

I am in the process of designing four units of study with a group of public school teachers who work in the Bronx. One question I am asked (and was asked) is: How do you find so many great books? I decided to put together a response that they and you can access of resources and book companies I often use.

Websites for Reviews of Children's Books

Favorite Independent Book Publishers of Children's Literature

Annick Press: Annick Press publishing children’s book for ages 6 months to young adult. They are “committed to publishing Canadian authors. You can find submission guidelines on their site. I have bought The Streets are Free and When I Was Eight. Both titles I would recommend.
Arte Público Press and Piñata Books - Two picture books from Piñata Books I recently bought, Agua, Agüita / Water, Little Water and Adelita and the Veggie Cousins / Adelita y las primas verduritas. I have bought lots of books from Piñata over the years.
Barefoot Books: This publishing house was begun by two moms. They are very conscious of sustainability. I just bought The Barefoot Book of Children and La Frontera: Mi viaje con papá / My Journey with Papa ( a must read!).
Bharat Babies A new publisher for me. They publish books about India (culture/religion).
Boyds Mills Press Every time I go to their site I find a book I want. Just saw, Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop.
Chronicle Books The masthead to their site reads, "see things differently." I think that summarizes well the books they produce. They do help me to see the world differently. Brendan Wenzel's Hello Hello is stunning.
Cinco Puntos Press Last purchase was All Around Us. I’m still puzzling over it—a good thing. I have purchased from them for a good amount of time.
Enchanted Lion Books I like everything about this book publisher. I love their books. Their site is under construction. This is A Poem that Heals Fish was great. I think they publish some of the finest children’s books. Visually amazing books.
Fifth House They are a bilingual publishing house often producing books in English/Cree. Dragonfly Kites is my latest purchase.
Fitzhenry & Whiteside: I have been buying their books for at least a decade. Cathryn Sill's About Birds remains a favorite.
Groundwood Books/House of Anansi. This is one of my very favorite publishers of children's books. The quality of illustration, story, and diversity is stellar. I recently bought A FAMILY IS A FAMILY IS A FAMILY, THE TRIUMPHANT TALE OF THE HOUSE SPARROW, ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GARDEN, THEY SAY BLUE, and THE FUNERAL. I'd recommend all of these highly. Their books make me think.
Just World Books I came across them when I purchased Gaza Writes Back, which I would recommend. Highly political press.
Kids Can Press - I enjoy the books they publish and use a lot of titles in the curriculum I design. Last purchase was WILD BUILDINGS AND BRIDGES.
Lee & Low Books: My go-to publishers. I have been buying their books for years. The quality, range and diversity are exceptional.
Magination Press (APA): Appreciate the healthy picture books they produce without getting too preachy. Latest purchase, When You Look Out the Window: How Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin Built a Community.
Orca Book Publishers If I remember right it was my search for Julie Flett books that first led me to Orca Book Publishers. They have quirky titles that fill in collection well. City Kids is a favorite.
Pajama Press - They published recently one of my favorite books, My Beautiful Birds. They are new to me.
Shen Books Now an imprint for Lee & Low. Their Cinderella stories are outstanding.
Tara Books Their books are not ordinary. I like to browse these books as they are artful. For example, the fold out book - A VILLAGE IS A BUSY PLACE! is a great example of form and content mixing.
Tilbury House I am never disappointed with purchases of their published books. They are always stunning, artful, compelling works. Rogério Coelho's Boat of Dreams is one example. Wow.
Tradewind Books I love Julie Flett's books (authored and illustrated) and purchase all her books. Last purchase, A Day with Yayah. This has become one of my favorite publishing houses. They have an eye for choosing authentic and compelling books.
Tundra Books: Last thing I bought there was From the Heart of Africa.
Wings Press These are books I read as an adult reader. Last purchase, Borderlines: Drawing Border Lives / Fronteras: Dibujando las vidas fronterizas. Inspiring.

Here are a 30 blog posts where I recommend books.

Friday, June 8, 2018

28 Interesting Books About Maps and Cartography

from Clarke, Victoria, Ed. (2015). Map: Exploring the World. London: Phaidon Press.

Cartography as Art Texts

Berry Jill K. (2016). Making Art From Maps: Inspiration, Techniques, and an International Gallery of Artists. Rockport Publishers.
Berry Jill K.& Linden McNelly. (2014). Map Art Lab: 52 Exciting Art Explorations in Mapmaking, Imagination, and Travel. Quarry Books.
Clarke, Victoria, Ed. (2015). Map: Exploring the World. London: Phaidon Press.
Garfield, Simon. (2013). On the Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks. Avery.
Goodwin, Valerie S. (2013). Art Quilt Maps: Capture a Sense of Place with Fiber Collage-A Visual Guide. C&T Publishing.
Harmon, Katharine. (2016). You Are Here: NYC Mapping the Soul of the City. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press.
Harmon, Katharine. (2010). The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press.
Harmon, Katharine. (2003). You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press.
Harzinski, Kris. (2010). From Here to There: A Curious Collection from the Hand Drawn Map Association. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press.
Hornsby. Stephen J. (2017). Picturing America: The Golden Age of Pictorial Maps. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press;.
Jacobs, Frank. (2009). Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities. Viking Studio.

Geography/History/Political Science

Baynton-Williams, Ashley. (2015). The Curious Map Book. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Harley, J. P. (2002). The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography. Edited by Paul Laxton. Baltimore, MA: Johns Hopkins Press.
Marshall, Tim. (2015). Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World. New York: Scribner.
Varga, Vincent. (2007). Cartographia: Mapping Civilizations. New York: Little, Brown and Company

Informational Texts

Brotton, Jerry. (2014). A History of the World in 12 Maps. New York: Penguin Books.
Brotton, Jerry. (2014). Great Maps. Washington DC: DK.
Field, Kenneth. (2018). Cartography. Redlands, CA: Esri Press.
Reinhartz, Dennis. (2012). The Art of the Map: An Illustrated History of Map Elements and Embellishments. Sterling.
Riffenburgh, Beau. (2015). Mapping the World: The Story of Cartography. London: Andre Deutsch.

Literary & Film Maps

DeGraff, Andrew. (2017). Cinemaps: An Atlas of 35 Great Movies. Essays by Andrew Jones. Philadelphia, PA: Quirk Books.
DeGraff, Andrew. (2015). Plotted: A Literary Atlas. San Francisco, CA: Pulp.

Literature for Adults

Chatwin, Bruce. (2012). The Songlines. New York: Penguin Classics.

Picture Books/Informational Books for Young People (Grade 4-8)

Hibbert, Claire. (2017). Around the World in 80 Maps. Firefly Books.
Mizielinska, Aleksandra & Daniel Mizielinski. (2013). Maps. Big Picture Press.
Morrison, Taylor. (2004). The Coast Mappers. Boston, MA: HMH Books for Young Readers.
Nuñez, José Jesús Reyes. (2017). Children Map the World: Commemorating the International Map Year. Redlands, CA: Esri Press.
Ross, Val. (2009). The Road to There: Mapmakers and Their Stories. New York: Pemguin.

Thursday, June 7, 2018

#PoetryBreak: Cartography for Beginners by Emily Hasler

Storm Warning (M.A. Reilly)

Cartography for Beginners
for CL

by Emily Hasler

First of all, you will need to choose the correct blue
to indicate water. This should not be too watery.
You must remember: people do not like wet feet.
If there is no water to indicate, no matter,
you must still elect a blue. Let me recommend
eggshell, at a push, azure. Choose a symbol
for church/temple/mosque/synagogue. Choose
a symbol for pub. Dedicate your life
to the twin and warring gods of Precision
and Wild Abandon. People do not like
to be lost. Buy Mandelbrot's 1967 paper
on the coastline paradox, put it on the highest shelf –
but get a stepladder. Take a little licence with rivers,
especially their curves and estuaries. Add
an oxbow lake if at all possible. If the area you
are mapping has no seas/lakes/rivers/streams,
I have to question why you are bothering. You
won't get to use that lovely blue you spent so long
deciding upon. Do the Norfolk fens instead. Better
yet, East Anglia in its future state, quite utterly
submerged like a sodden Constable. Come on,
get your coat, I'll show you. You won't need your shoes.

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

#PoetryBreak: Map by Wisława Szymborska

Citra-Solv and original photograph (Digital Print, M.A. Reilly, 2016)

I woke today from a dream about maps.

MAP
Wisława Szymborska

Flat as the table
it’s placed on.
Nothing moves beneath it
and it seeks no outlet.
Above—my human breath
creates no stirring air
and leaves its total surface
undisturbed.

Its plains, valleys are always green,
uplands, mountains are yellow and brown,
while seas, oceans remain a kindly blue
beside the tattered shores.

Everything here is small, near, accessible.
I can press volcanoes with my ﬁngertip,
stroke the poles without thick mittens,
I can with a single glance
encompass every desert
with the river lying just beside it.

A few trees stand for ancient forests,
you couldn’t lose your way among them.

In the east and west,
above and below the equator—
quiet like pins dropping,
and in every black pinprick
people keep on living.
Mass graves and sudden ruins
are out of the picture.

Nations’ borders are barely visible
as if they wavered—to be or not.

I like maps, because they lie.
Because they give no access to the vicious truth.
Because great-heartedly, good-naturedly
they spread before me a world
not of this world.

Translated, from the Polish, by Clare Cavanagh
NewYorker April, 14th, 2014

Monday, June 4, 2018

#PoetryBreak: Across Kansas by William Stafford

Geometry (M.A. Reilly)

Across Kansas

- William Stafford

My family slept those level miles
but like a bell rung deep till dawn
I drove down an aisle of sound,
nothing real but in the bell,
past the town where I was born.

Once you cross a land like that
you own your face more: what the light
struck told a self; every rock
denied all the rest of the world.

We stopped at Sharon Springs and ate--

My state still dark, my dream too long to tell.

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