"You can't really teach reading as a science. Love gets mixed up in it." - Theodor Geisel
I love this quote. It certainly resonates with me. I am fortunate to have parents who really valued books and reading. My mom would read to my brother and me every single night when I was little. I would get to take turns with my brother (who is seven years older) on which book she would read. I vividly remember looking at the pages of One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish and Green Eggs and Ham when I was about three.
I was beginning to recognized the words! And I was connecting the words with meanings! I was reading just like my mom!! My parents and my brother were so supportive of me and gave me so much positive reinforcement to keep going. But it was that empowering feeling of being able to read all by myself that was the biggest thrill. Because of Dr. Seuss, my life-long love of reading had begun. And I've kept that feeling with me ever since.
That is why it is meaningful to me to have received an award in his name.
The Geisel Award recognizes "author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished book for beginning readers published in English in the United States during the preceding year."
This past weekend I attended the American Librarians Association (ALA) conference in Chicago. There I had the opportunity to meet the Theodor Seuss Geisel awards committee members as well as the other honorees. Other honor books were Fish and Wave, by Sergio Ruzzier; Owl and Penguin by Viram Madan, and A Seed Grows, by Antoinette Portis. The winner of the 2023 Geisel is I Did It! By Michael Emberley.
Sergio and I are both with HarperCollins and we met with the committee at a luncheon on Sunday. The other honorees were with Holiday House, and they met with the committee the day before.
At the awards ceremony presented by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) the next day, we received our awards.
Michael Emberly, author of I Did It! gave a lovely speech about his process in creating his wonderful book. He said even though the book seems very simple on the surface, he sketched so many drawings and rewrote the story many times during the creative process. He created a backstory for each of his characters and gave them names even though none of this appears in the text. Michael said he actually worked on this story for a very long time—years! It was wonderful to hear his story, and I'm so happy for him that he never gave up and was able to create something that will touch thousands of kid's lives.
Since I was at the conference for only 24 hours, I missed seeing so many people who were there! And I am so bad at remembering to take photos. But I was happy I was able to see my editors, Christy Ottaviano of Little Brown, and Simon Boughton of W.W. Norton. I also met some new book people which was awesome.
My highlight of the day was running into my friend, Marla Frazee!! I'm kicking myself that we didn't get a photo together. Marla was a huge influence in my life. She was my mentor and my instructor at Art Center WAAAAY back in the day. She herself was just starting her amazing career. Her class on children's book illustration was the only one I was able to take at Art Center, and I took it right before I graduated and made my way to NYC to start my career. I remember asking her to give me an honest assessment: Did she think I would ever make it? I was terrified of the risk I was taking: Moving to NY with nothing lined up. I don't even think I had a place to live at that point!
I'll never forget what she said: "Yes. You'll be able to make a living as a children's book illustrator." It was the perfect answer. I didn't expect her to say, "Of COURSE! It's going to be AMAZING!" In this industry -- you never know. Talent is essential, but there is also luck involved. Everything is unpredictable. At that point in my life, all I wanted to do was illustrate children's books. If I had to work part-time doing something else, I would do it. But I wanted to be a full time book creator.
Marla and I had that conversation in 1996. This past Sunday was the first time I had seen Marla since I graduated. When I think of that conversation, it brings tears to my eyes. It was such a joy to be able to tell her that!
And because I was a dolt and didn't get a photo (we must have talked for over 30 minutes), I will leave you with photos of her beautiful newest books that were on display in the Simon and Schuster booth!