September 2024 Issue #42
September 1, 2024
Happy September!
Welcome to issue #42 of The Simpsonian Muse. I am your scribe, Martha Seif Simpson, Author and Children's Librarian. As the header says, this monthly newsletter will feature:
- News – Mine as well as other interesting tidbits
- Views – A few photos from my world travels
- Stuff to Amuse – A mish-mash of activities, crafts, recipes, videos or whatever I am excited about sharing.
If you missed the previous newsletters, you can click the button on the left sidebar on my website to catch up or click here. *NOTE: If you are a subscriber to my newsletter and some of the photos don't show up, please go to my website to read it. The server is sometimes finicky.
Thanks for joining me on this adventure. I hope you will find something to inform and entertain you.
~ NEWS ~
You may be wondering, "What happened to August?"
July and August were very busy months for me. Not only did John and I do some traveling, but we also got our house of 37 years ready to sell and moved into a smaller apartment. Life-changing business, indeed! Now that life has calmed down somewhat, I have time to do some writing.
I'll start with the Association of Jewish Libraries annual conference, which was held on June 23-26 in San Diego, CA. The days and evenings were packed with excellent sessions and celebrations.
Of course, the highlight of the conference was attending the awards banquet and meeting the Sydney Taylor Book Award winners and honorees. Here is a photo of the 2024 STBA committee and many of the award winning and honor authors and illustrators. ST indicates a Sydney Taylor Book Award committee member. From back row to front:
Elissa Brent Weissman, Joshua S. Levy, Laurel Snyder, Noa Nimrodi, Lynn Scurfield, Susan Lynn Meyer
Richard Ho, Neal Shusterman, Tziporah Cohen
Martha Simpson (ST), Annette Goldsmith (ST), Arielle Vishny (ST), Elana K. Arnold, Aden Polydoros
Natalie Bension (ST), Melanie Koss (ST), Eytan Kessler (ST), Aviva Rosenberg (ST Chair)
Here are a few other authors who attended. Back row - Joshua S. Levy, Chris Baron, Noa Nimrodi, Martha Simpson.
Front row - Arthur A. Levine, Stacy Nockowitz, Mari Lowe
Arthur said I could send one of my manuscripts to him at Levine Querido. Wish me luck!
But wait, there's more!
I had a table at the Shoreline Jewish Festival in Guilford, CT on Sunday July 14 again this year. I sold and signed some of my books and gave away over 200 books for kids and teens! I was so busy that I didn't have a chance to take a photo, but I made a lot of people very happy. The fest was the day before we moved, so it was a great way to downsize my book collection since I wouldn't have room for them all in our new apartment. It was sad saying goodbye to my books, but at least I know they went to people who will appreciate them.
BOOK SHARE
At the AJL conference, I moderated a panel discussion called Uniting Together: Using Universal Jewish Themes, Values and Mitzvot Across the Calendar. Here I am with panel members Lauren H. Kerstein, Liza Wiemer, Michal Babay, Charlotte Offsay, Ellen Leventhal, and Lisa Gerin.
These brilliant women presented a wonderful program which highlighted their books and many others. Check them out!
I also attended an interesting session called We Contain Multitudes: Intersectionality in Jewish Books, featuring authors, illustrators, and AJL members Chris Baron, Emily Barth Isler, Emily Bowen Cohen, Richard Ho, Eytan Kessler, Arthur A. Levine, Talya Sokoll and Emi Watanabe Cohen. They compiled a list of books by and about people with multiple identities, which you can see by clicking on the above link.
CALENDAR TRIVIA
This year, I'm featuring the birth dates of authors and illustrators who create(d) books for kids and teens. Here are some people and a sample of their books. Since I missed the August Muse, I've included selected birthdays for two months.
- August 6 – Barbara Cooney (Miss Rumphius)
- August 9 – Seymour Simon (Our Solar System)
- August 9 – Pamela L. Travers (Mary Poppins series)
- August 11 – Joanna Cole (The Magic School Bus series)
- August 11 – Don Freeman (Corduroy)
- August 12 – Walter Dean Myers (Monster)
- August 18 – Paula Danziger (Amber Brown series)
- August 18 – Brian Pinkney (The Faithful Friend)
- August 20 – Jeff Brown (Flat Stanley)
- August 21 – Arthur Yorinks (Hey, Al)
- August 25 – Lane Smith (Grandpa Green)
- August 27 – Suzy Cline (Horrible Harry)
- August 28 – Allen Say (Grandfather's Journey)
- August 28 – Tasha Tudor (Corgiville Fair)
- August 29 – Karen Hesse (Letters from Rifka)
- August 30 – Virginia Lee Burton (Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel)
- August 31 – Kenneth Oppel (Silverwing series)
- September 1 – Gail Gibbons (Behold…The Unicorns!)
- September 2 – Demi (The Empty Pot)
- September 4 – Joan Aiken (The Wolves of Willoughby Chase)
- September 4 – Syd Hoff (Danny and the Dinosaur series)
- September 5 – Tomie dePaola (Strega Nona)
- September 5 – Paul Fleischman (Joyful Noise)
- September 7 – Alexandra Day (Carl series)
- September 7 – Eric Hill (Spot series)
- September 8 – Jack Prelutsky (A Pizza the Size of the Sun)
- September 8 – Jon Scieszka (Math Curse)
- September 13 – Roald Dahl (James and the Giant Peach)
- September 13 – Else Holmelund Minarik (Little Bear series)
- September 14 - William H. Armstrong (Sounder)
- September 17 – Gail Carson Levine (Ella Enchanted)
- September 17 – Paul Goble (The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses)
- September 25 – Jim Murphy (The Great Fire)
- September 25 – James Ransome (Before She Was Harriet)
- September 17 – Martin Hansford (Where's Waldo? Series)
- September 27 – Bernard Waber (Lyle the Crocodile series)
Do you know...
Which five illustrators won a Caldecott Medal? Which seven were Caldecott Honor recipients?
Which three authors won a Newbery Medal? Which four were Newbery Honor recipients?
Which author/illustrator received both a Newbery Honor and Caldecott Honor for different books?
Who was the first U.S. Children's Poet Laureate?
Which author and illustrator team made The Stinky Cheese Man?
Who wrote a series of easy readers that were illustrated by Maurice Sendak?
Which author/illustrator won one Coretta Scott King Award and three Honors?
Which author won five Coretta Scott King awards and another five Honors?
Who won the first Printz Award and was the first winner of the Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement?
~ VIEWS ~
My photo journal returns to Prague this month. I took enough photos to write five more months' worth, but I will try to limit myself because there is so much more to share from the Gate One tour we took in November 2023.
First, I want to include a couple of photos from the beautiful Imperial Hotel where we stayed. Our room price included an incredible breakfast buffet in this gorgeous dining room, where the floor, columns, fireplace, and ceiling were covered in intricate ceramic tiles. Wouldn't you love to dine here?
We took two tours of Prague Castle, located across the Charles Bridge in Lesser Town. The first tour met at the statue in Křižovnické Square
located at the entrance to the Charles Bridge.
This bridge, which crosses the Vltava River, is not open to vehicular traffic, so we strolled along and looked at Prague from the bridge. This photo shows the New Town (which is on the same side of the river as Old Town) to the right and Lesser Town (where the castle is located) to the left, joined by a bridge that cars can drive over.
The Charles Bridge has several sandstone statues, as do most of the buildings in Old Town. Many were black with soot, some were in the process of being cleaned, and a few near the entrance to Lesser Town had already been restored. Cleaning a statue is a time-consuming and meticulous job that can take months. By the time the last statue on the bridge has been cleaned, the ones on the other side need to be cleaned again.
We finished crossing the bridge and
passed through the arches into Lesser Town. It rained off and on while we were there, as you can see in the following photos.
We caught a city bus and rode up a steep hill to the castle entrance.
This is the outer gate to the castle grounds.
Then you walk a short way to the second guarded entrance. Notice St. Vitus Cathedral poking up from inside the castle walls.
Once you pass through here
you will get to a courtyard, where you will find the Chapel of the Holy Rood, along with several other buildings.
When you enter the next courtyard, you come to a large area with many buildings.
One is the Cathedral of St. Vitus, which looks much cleaner on the lower half than its blackened steeples would lead you to believe.
To one side of the cathedral is the Square of St. George, where St. George's Basilica is located.
Further along is Rosenberg Palace. The red flag indicates that King Charles IV is in residence.
We didn't go inside and meet the king, but we did have a short tour inside the Old Royal Palace, were we saw the Crown Jewels
and a portrait of Emperor Joseph II. (Remember him from the July Muse?) Here he is with his symbol, the 2-headed eagle.
I took this photo of Lesser Town looking down from the castle grounds as we were leaving. You can see the green dome and spire of the Church of St. Nicholas in the distance.
After the tour, we took the bus back to the start of Lesser Town and stopped to have dinner. Then we walked back over the Charles Bridge (you can see the arch leading to the bridge in this evening photo) and returned to our hotel.
What else did we see in Prague? Find out in the next Simpsonian Muse!
~ STUFF TO AMUSE ~
If you want to know more about the history of the Charles Bridge and its statues, here is a rather long but very informative blog post written by David Angel.
This is the official website of the Prague Castle, where you can learn more about the buildings, art exhibits, and other and cultural events offered there.
The site also has a virtual tour of the Prague Castle, including the courtyards and inside views of several buildings. Here is the direct link.
To learn more about Lesser Town (Malá Strana), Just a Pack has this site.
And here is the website for the Imperial Hotel.
That'll do it for this month.
Until next time, remember to enthuse your muse!
~ Martha