Posted: 27 Sep 2009 11:57 PM PDT

Picture-book biographies pack a lot of facts into a large, illustration-filled format, offering an enticing package for kids.

Here's a look at some great new picture-book biographies:

In "Finding Susie" (ages 4 to 8, $16.99), former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor delivers a slice of autobiography that will interest any child who's ever wanted a pet.

Drawn from O'Connor's own childhood, the story centers on young Sandra's unsuccessful efforts to tame several wild animals — including a bobcat. Then one day, she's offered a stray dog named Susie, and Sandra knows she's finally found the perfect pet.

Author Jonah Winter has just published two very different picture-book biographies. In "The Fabulous Feud of Gilbert & Sullivan" (ages 5 to 8, $16.99), Winter tells how a quarrel between two friends resulted in some of the world's most popular musicals. The brightly colored, stylized illustrations by Caldecott Medalist Richard Egielski add further energy to Winter's tale.

Winter's other picture-book biography borrows the style of its subject writer Gertrude Stein — to tell her story. Titled "Gertrude Is Gertrude Is Gertrude Is Gertrude" (ages 7 to 10, $16.99), the book will intrigue children as they work to understand just why the author keeps repeating phrases and why some words are printed in large type while others are in small type.

In "Wanda Gag: The Girl Who Loved to Draw" (ages 7 to 10, $16.99), author-illustrator Deborah Kogan Ray tells the story of a woman who is credited with creating the first modern picture book. With a text drawn partly from Gag's own words and illustrations reminiscent of her artwork,

Ray's book captures Gag's long, difficult journey to becoming an artist, showing how hard work, plus a bit of luck, can help people achieve their dreams.

Author Shana Corey and illustrator Edwin Fotheringham team up to create a splashy look at an adventurous woman named Annette Kellerman in "Mermaid Queen" (ages 7 to 10, $17.99). Now largely forgotten, Kellerman was a celebrity in the early 20th century, best known as the creator of water ballet and as a fashion revolutionary who championed more modern bathing suits for women.

In "The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau" (ages 5 to 8, $16.99), author-illustrator Dan Yaccarino helps young readers experience the marvelous watery world that so captured the imagination of the famous explorer.

Yaccarino's brief text is straightforward, while his eye-catching illustrations, painted in gouache and then airbrushed, are steeped in the colors and forms of the sea.

Author Kathryn Lasky paints a riveting portrait of artist Georgia O'Keeffe, compressing many different events in her life into a single day, in "Georgia Rises" (ages 6 to 10, $16.95). Lasky's lyrically written text allows readers to understand O'Keeffe's creative genius. Meanwhile, the outstanding illustrations by Ora Eitan vividly reference O'Keeffe's art while retaining Eitan's own style.

Linara Washington - Variety

Posted: 28 Sep 2009 01:52 AM PDT

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St. Wenceslaus - Catholic Online

Posted: 27 Sep 2009 11:57 PM PDT

Feastday: September 28
Patron of Bohemia
929

Patron saint of Bohemia, parts of Czech Republic, and duke of Bohemia frorn 924-929. Also called Wenceslas, he was born near Prague and raised by his grandmother, St. Ludmilla, until her murder by his mother, the pagan Drahomira. Wenceslaus's mother assumed the regency over Bohemia about 920 after her husband's death, but her rule was so arbitrary and cruel in Wenceslaus' name that he was compelled on behalf of his subjects to overthrow her and assume power for himself in 924 or 925. A devout Christian, he proved a gifted ruler and a genuine friend of the Church. German missionaries were encouraged, churches were built, and Wenceslaus perhaps took a personal vow of poverty Unfortunately, domestic events proved fatal, for in 929 the German king Heinrich I the Fowler (r. 919-936) invaded Bohemia and forced Wenceslaus to make an act of submission. This defeat, combined with his pro-Christian policies, led a group of non-Christian nobles to conspire against him. On September 28, 919, a group of knights under the leadership of Wenceslaus' brother Boreslav assassinated the saint on the doorstep of a church. Virtually from the moment of his death, Wenceslaus was considered a martyr and venerated as a saint. Miracles were reported at his tomb, and his remains were translated to the church of St. Vitus in Prague which became a major pilgrimage site. The feast has been celebrated at least since 985 in Bohemia, and he is best known from the Christmas carol "Good King Wenceslaus."

SILENCE IS GOLDEN - Register-Guard

Posted: 28 Sep 2009 12:26 AM PDT

At work one day in August, Debra Davis got a text message from her husband, Lon Davis.

"It said, 'You'll never guess who is moving into our building — Michael Jackson,' " Debra says. But she knew he wasn't talking about their condominium complex in Eugene's Oakway Road area.

"I knew instantly what he meant," she says. "He was talking about Forest Lawn. We're going to be in Forest Lawn, and Michael Jackson's in the same section."

The Davises chose their final resting place in 1981 — still in their early 20s — when they were still just best friends with no inkling that they would marry three years later.

"We were just out of college, but we had this feeling that we had met before, like we'd been together in a past life or something," Debra says. "We decided then that we would be buried together, no matter what. That's when we bought our space in the Great Mausoleum" in Glendale, Calif.

They even have their epitaph ready. No names on the crypt, just a line from Edgar Allan Poe's poem, "Annabel Lee": "… we loved with a love that was more than love … "

Every time they return to the Los Angeles area, "We go there and sit on a bench, contemplate the statue (of lovers kissing) and talk about the past and the future," she says. "It's a very satisfying thing to do, because we know we'll always be there together."

For his part, Lon knew the first time they met, as students at Palomar College in Southern California, that Debra LaCoe would be his partner for a lifetime. Their union marks its 25th year on Oct. 3, built on a mutual passion for movies (mostly silent), conversations (so incessant that their old cat, Girlie, used to leave the room), and writing (including a newly published book, "King of the Movies: Francis X. Bushman," about one of the greatest stars of the silent film era).

Even before they met, they had an unknown connection.

"In 1978, I went into a camera shop, looking for a Super 8 projector because I wanted to do some filming," Lon recalls. "I talked to a man who worked there, and he was very helpful in helping me choose the right camera."

After he met Debra, Lon happened to mention where he'd bought his movie camera.

"I asked who had waited on him," Debra says. "Was he really tall? Crewcut? Exceptionally nice? Lon said, 'Yes,' and I said, 'That's my dad.' "

Even her mother knew before they did that they were destined to marry, Debra says. "Lon and I thought of ourselves as working buddies — she was the one who told me it was obvious we should end up together."

Lon's fascination with film began in early childhood. His uncle, who had been an actor, lived at the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital in Woodland Hills, Calif., a facility supported by movie industry folk to care for their old-age counterparts, "and when I visited him, I would go from room to room — I got to know people from every avenue of film," he says.

The precocious youngster soaked up so much Hollywood lore that by his teens, he was lecturing on silent films at high schools and even a university near his home in Phoenix, Ariz. "I would take a note to school saying I had to leave to give a lecture, and then I'd take a bus and go do it," Lon says.

Learning that Beverly Bayne, Bushman's second wife of four, lived in nearby Scottsdale, he looked her up, "and we became fast friends," he says. What he learned from her — "She hated (Bushman) with all her heart," despite their allure as the "screen's first love team" — was the first step toward his eventual collaboration on the just-released biography with Debra, who also grew up in a family fascinated by old movies.

The second was the relationship the couple developed with Iva Bushman, "who loved and honored her husband as much as Beverly hated him," Lon says. "When we first approached her, she was very suspicious, but Debra made a complete pot roast dinner, with rhubarb pie for dessert, and four bottles of champagne, and that helped break the ice. We took it all to her house, and she said her oven had never been used — it had never even been assembled — so we had to do that before we could cook the food. After that, she liked us; we were young, and we were interested (in her life)."

Buoyed by the two women's stories and memorabilia, and bolstered by extensive research at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the pair started writing in 1981.

"We brought out our notes and did the outline together," Debra says. "We wrote every sentence together. Working as closely as we did made us realize how much there was between us. One day, Lon said, 'I'm going to persuade you to marry me.' "

From then on, until Debra became assistant manager of the Willamette Oaks retirement center, "For 20 years we were never apart, except for six hours in 1993, when she went to a conference," Lon says. "We just love spending our time together," she agrees. "Being apart is the hardest thing in our lives."

Lon, a freelance book editor, also joins Debra at Willamette Oaks, hosting an old-movie night once a month. He turned a series of one-page biographies he wrote for residents of the retirement center into his first book, "Silent Lives: 100 Biographies of the Silent Film Era," published in 2008. A second, "Stooges Among Us," about the famed comedy trio, also appeared last year.

Completely in tune in their work and pastimes, the couple even love to play tennis — very badly — together.

"We call it 'extreme tennis' because we just get out there and whack it every which way," Debra laughs. "Once we were playing, and a man came up holding a trash can lid (as a shield) and said, 'You two are the worst tennis players I've ever seen. I'm an instructor — I'll give you free lessons.' But we said, 'No, thanks, we're fine with this.' "

They were likewise philosophical when, after finishing the Bushman manuscript in 1983, they couldn't find a market for it. "Back then, there just wasn't much interest in the silent film era," Lon says. "We were turned down by 33 publishers — three said they liked it and would publish it if it were fiction, but that they couldn't sell it as biography — so we bound up two copies and put it away for about 25 years."

Last year, realizing that public interest in old movies, including silent films, has been rekindled, thanks in part to some cable television networks that specialize in the genre, "We talked about it and decided to brush it off and take another look at it," Lon says. "By then, Iva Bushman had died, so we could actually be a little more honest, but it was sad too, because she died without seeing it published. But she had done a foreword for the book, and that's very special."

They reworked the book and gave it another try. This time around, it was picked up quickly by BearManor Media, an independent publishing house in Georgia that also had published the Davises' previous work.

"It just goes to show you," Lon says. "Never give up."

Biographies

Monday, September 28, 2009

“Beautiful biographies for young readers to enjoy - Everett Herald” plus 3 more

“Beautiful biographies for young readers to enjoy - Everett Herald” plus 3 more

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