Dr. Seuss was born Theodor Seuss Geisel on March 2, 1904. 

Even the story behind how he came to be called “Dr. Seuss” is funny, although not quite the stuff of a children’s book: In college at Dartmouth in the early 1920’s, he wrote for the school’s humor magazine and eventually became editor-in-chief.  When he was discovered drinking gin in his room with friends – in violation of Prohihbition – the school’s administration made him resign from all his extracurricular activities.  He obeyed in name only: Geisel resigned and “Seuss” took up the job. 

Geisel occasionally used other pen names during his long career.  Some showed his love of word play, like Theo LeSieg: Theo was short for Theodor, his first name, and LeSieg was Geisel backwards. 

Did you know Dr. Seuss was a Californian?  He lived most of his life near San Diego, California.  The library at the University of California, San Diego is named the Geisel Library, for him and his wife.  Some people think it looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book!

The Geisel Library at U.C. San Diego

 All told, Geisel wrote more than 60 books.  My personal favorite is, and always has been, Green Eggs and Ham. I loved this book even as a child, before I fully realized its moral of open-mindedness and being willing to try new things.

Do you have a favorite Dr. Seuss book, or a memory of a Dr. Seuss book or character from your childhood – or from reading to children?  Tell us about it!

No, it’s not one of those in-your-dreams headlines like “chocolate is good for you!”  According to a “A ‘Novel’ Intervention: A Pilot Study of Children’s Literature and Healthy Lifestyle,” a new study in the respected journal Pediatrics, reading – particularly reading about healthy behaviors – can actually be a tool in helping obese kids lose weight.

At the Duke University Healthy Lifestyles Program, a nationally known comprehensive clinical and behavioral lifestyle-modification program for overweight and obese children, 81 obese girls were divided randomly into three groups.  One group was given an “intervention” book in which an overweight girl “discovers improved health and self-efficacy” while a second group was given a “control” book without a health lesson.  The third group didn’t get a book.

The results were startling: “Girls who read either book had a significantly greater reduction in BMI percentile … than girls who were followed in the program but who were not assigned a book,” while “There was a significantly greater reduction in BMI percentile among those in the intervention-book group … versus those in the control-book group.”  The researchers concluded: “Age-appropriate fiction, particularly if it addresses health-oriented behaviors, shows potential for augmenting weight loss in girls who participate in a weight-management program.  Future research is needed to determine if the novel is effective for healthy lifestyle promotion among all overweight and obese adolescents.” say the authors of the report

In a wonderful article in The Huffington Post, children’s book author Julianna Baggott tells the sad tale of Brown Bear.  The hero of the beloved book by Bill Martin, Jr. is no longer out seeing the other animals – he’s been banned by the Texas Board of Education.

Seems that a very different Bill Martin – no Jr. and no children’s books to his name – wrote a very different kind of book, called Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation.  The Texas Board of Education understandably felt, as Baggott notes, that there might be “compelling reason not to include Bill Martin’s Ethical Marxism on the curriculum list for elementary school children in Texas.”  And then, just to be sure, they banned all of what they thought were Bill Martin’s other books.  Like – you got it – Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?  Read Baggott’s article for her take on this boneheaded mess; it’s very funny and original, as might be expected from the author of such excellent books as The Prince of Fenway Park and The Ever Breath. 

But there is a serious side to all this.  Brown Bear, Brown Bear isn’t by a Marxist author and isn’t a work of political philosophy.  However, plenty of children’s books do promote political or philosophical viewpoints.  Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax is pro-environmentalist.  Heather Has Two Mommies is, well, obvious.  And some people don’t want their kids exposed to such books.  According to Wikipedia, the picture book And Tango Makes Three, the true story of a male penguin couple raising a chick, was the most challenged book of 2006, 2007, and 2008, and the most banned book of 2009. 

Nor do all objections come from right-wingers.  Some Native American scholars are asking that teachers not use Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books because of their depiction of Native Americans.  My own high school librarian, eons ago, refused to have a copy of Gone With the Wind on her shelves because she felt it demeaned African Americans.  Sometimes politics has nothing to do with it: sex and religion are big button-pushers, too, as reactions to the Harry Potter books, Phillip Pullman’s The Golden Compass and John Green’s Looking for Alaska have shown.  One way or another, dozens of books for children and young adults get challenged and even banned on a regular basis. 

So: where do you stand?  Is it ever OK to ban a book?  Does it matter how old the kids are, or what the “objectionable” content is?  Who gets to decide?  What do you think?

The Barnes & Noble Bookstore at Jack London Square has closed.

You may not realize it, but Barnes & Noble was for years much more than a huge emporium where you could find thousands of books as well as calendars, games, and whatnot.  Now I love independent bookstores, but this chain store was unusual in the way it quietly and steadily gave back, year after year, to Oakland’s schools and local nonprofit organizations.

Everyone knows that brick and mortar bookstores are fighting for their lives in this era of cut-price internet purveyors.  But when a store like Barnes & Noble closes, we lose something the internet can never give us.  You can’t shake a favorite author’s hand on the internet or have her inscribe a book to you.  Little kids can’t hold books online or choose a book to bring to a grownup to read to them.  (Did you know that just handling books and watching adults read books helps toddlers get ready to learn to read?)  There’s something magical about being physically surrounded by beautiful new books that’s different: just ask any kid who’s ever been let loose in a bookstore.

Bookstores are places where things happen, where kids learn, where memories are formed.  Oakland needs as many bookstores as possible – big and little, all over town.  The passing of Barnes & Noble is a sad thing for our children, our families, and all of us.

Do you remember being read to as a child?  If you do, is it a happy memory? What books do you remember being read to you?  Quick: What was your favorite book when you were little?

Some books glow in our memories but don’t stand up to the test of time, or of our growing up; some do.  Have you re-read your childhood favorites?  If you have, do you still love them?  Have you shared them with the children in your life?  Did they love them as you did?

Tell us.  We’d like to know!

The buzz this week in the world of children’s books is the American Library Association’s announcement of its 2010 awards for excellence in children’s and young adult literature.

Even if you don’t follow such things – and many avid readers don’t – you may have seen a gold sticker on books like Island of the Blue Dolphins, Shiloh, or The Giver, for the Newbery Medal; or Jumanji, The Snowy Day or Where the Wild Things Are, for the Caldecott Medal.  The ALA issues these awards to one winner and several honor books each year.  (Sometimes the honor books go on to be more famous than the winners; for instance, in 1953, the Newbery winner was The Secret of the Andes, which – if you’re like most people today – you probably haven’t read; but I’ll lay pretty good odds that you know one of the honor books for that year, a little story about some barnyard animals called Charlotte’s Web.)

So, what are these awards?  The Newbery Medal, which recognizes the “most distinguished contribution to American literature for children,” was awarded this year to When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.  The Caldecott Medal, which honors “the most distinguished American picture book for children,” went to The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney.  You can see the list of all this year’s Newbery books here, and all the Caldecott books here.

There are more awards: the Printz Award, for excellence in young adult literature, awarded to Going Bovine, by Libba Bray; the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for beginning reader books, to Benny and Penny in the Big No-No!, by Geoffrey Hayes; the Coretta Scott King Awards, to an African-American author and illustrator, awarded to Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal, by Vauna Micheaux Nelson, and to My People, illustrated by Charles R. Smith Jr. (text by Langston Hughes); the Pura Belpre Awards, to a Latino or Latina author and illustrator, awarded to Return to Sender, by Julia Alvarez, and to Book Fiesta!, illustrated by Rafael Lopez (text by Pat Mora); the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults, awarded to Jim Murphy.  A new award, the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award, was awarded to Deborah Heiligman’s Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith.

Does this mean these are the best books of the year?  That’s a subject of hearty debate.  Librarians, booksellers and teachers all over the country talk for months before the awards are announced about the year’s books.  Some have “mock Caldecott” or “mock Newbery” panels, which may – or may not – agree with the ALA.  In recent years, articles have criticized the ALA for choosing books that, in the critics’ view, no kids would want to read (a criticism not likely to be aimed at the very popular When You Reach Me); defenders wrote just as fiercely that the books were great literature.

Bottom line: there are people who take children’s literature very, very seriously.  And that’s a very, very good thing.  Children’s literature nourishes of children’s minds; it should be taken seriously just as children’s nutrition is taken seriously, and children should no more be given a steady diet of junk books than they should of junk food.  Oh, not that there’s anything wrong with some fun, non-nutritive stuff sometimes … but for a healthy, thriving mind, you need excellent books.  So go take a look at those book lists, and maybe check out some past Caldecott and Newbery books, crack open a few titles, and see what you think.

And then share them with the kids in your life.

Want to help the East Bay Children’s Book Project but live too far away or don’t have time during the week? You can organize a book drive.

First, choose a time and place.  You could collect books at a school, a religious or social organization, your office, a local store or coffee shop.

Next, design flyers and signs (this is a great project for kids).  Be sure to include what the books are for, what kind of books you want (new or new and gently used children’s books), where people should bring books and how long the drive will last.  If you’re stumped on this, ask us for help; we can also provide brochures.

Post signs and distribute flyers. Provide boxes or collection bins and place them in nice, prominent locations.

Collect the books (on a regular basis so the bins don’t overflow). Count them and sort them by the following categories: board books (books with cardboard pages), picture books, chapter books. If you have a lot of books, you can also sort out non-fiction books. Please recycle anything that is ripped or dirty.  Books that are not for kids or teens should be donated to your local library or charity thrift store.

Deliver the books to 2008 Park Blvd. Please box the books standing up and let us know the total number of books and the number of hours you donated.

Call us at 510-433-0412 or email us at eastbaycbp@gmail.com if you have any questions.

You heard it right. Disneyland is generously offering a voucher for free admission to Disneyland to anyone who signs up and volunteers 8 hours for a participating non-profit – like the East Bay Children’s Book Project. This has been unbelievably popular so it would be wise for you to sign up as soon as possible. Volunteer activities include picking up, sorting, counting books and distributing books. You could also do a book drive at a local school or organization. We’d also like some help with website maintenance and data management. And we would love to have someone do a video for us. To sign up, just follow this link

Happy new year!  The East Bay Children’s Book Project humbly offers a few New Year’s resolutions that we hope will make your lives, and those of the East Bay’s children, happier and more book-filled in 2010:

• Come see us! The East Bay Children’s Book Project will re-open on January 5, 2010. We’re at 2008 Park Boulevard in Oakland and we’re open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3 to 6.  You can get free books every time we are open, so come early and often!
• Tell a friend, bring a friend!  Our whole purpose is to get as many books as possible into the hands of children in need.  Help us spread the word!
• Help us help you!  Do you know someone whose children have outgrown their books?  A teacher who is retiring and doesn’t know what to do with his classroom library?  Someone who might want to do a book drive?  We accept new and gently used books for children of all ages (for more details: http://www.eastbaychildrensbookproject.org/donate-books/) Or drop a couple of bucks in our jar, or tell a rich relative about us …
• Join our team!  We’ve always got things going on; just email eastbaycbp@gmail.com if you’re interested in joining our terrific all-volunteer team.

And two more, not really related to the Book Project, but near and dear to our heart:

• Go to your local branch library and take something out.  Don’t have a card?  Get one.  Don’t know what to borrow?  Talk to the librarian.  Our libraries are under-utilized treasures, and if we don’t use them, they won’t get funded, and then we won’t have them.  And we will surely miss them if we lose them!
• If you can afford it, buy something at an Oakland bookstore.  Brick-and-mortar stores are having a hard time, but without bookstores our city would surely be a poorer place.  That’s true both metaphorically and literally – money you spend locally stays in the local economy, unlike money you spend online.  Oakland has many terrific stores selling new, used and specialty books: go browse and take something home.  Books are treasures in your home.

We’re looking forward to seeing you soon –

Your friends at the East Bay Children’s Book Project

The East Bay Children’s Book Project helps build literacy by putting books into the hands of children who have little or no access to them. Working through individuals and organizations who help children in need, we have given out over 300,000 free books since opening its doors in May 2005.

Help us continue our mission

We believe wholeheartedly in the power of reading, writing and education and we’re lucky enough to have a support network of dedicated volunteers to help us complete our mission of bringing books to the children who need them most.

Our work is a labor of love and we’re personally rewarded by knowing that we have helped others. But since we’ve moved to our new location our expenses have gone up exponentially and we need the financial support.

Please consider making a tax deductible donation to help our efforts. You, your family and friends can make a secure on-line donation or send a check to EBCBP, 2008 Park Blvd, Oakland, CA 94606.