Professional Development | Youth Matters
Exhibits Cast Their Spell There was many a tome to lure youth services librarians
august/september 2009
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Rumpelstiltskin redux
The clever and convincingly realized story incorporates all sorts of detail about the era, from its machinery to working with sheep. Bunce said that her Midwestern surroundings prompted her awareness that readers still perform the agricultural tasks and textile arts that she represents. “These are things I know girls are doing today,” she said. “I wanted to know what that felt like. And also . . . it’s cool.” A preserved mill not far from her home enabled her to gain experience with historical wool-making processes. “They let me shear their sheep,” she said, explaining that period shears are a lot like iron hedge shears. Bunce’s own expertise in sewing and embroidery—“I’ve had a needle in my hands for 30 years”—also supported her development of this project, as did her long-time passion for language and literature. JENNIFER BUREK PIERCE is assistant professor of library and information science at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Contact her at youthmatters@ala.org.
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A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce, which won the first-ever William C. Morris Young Adult Debut Award from ALA’s Young Adult Library Services Association, proved popular with attendees. This historical reimagination of Rumpelstiltskin sets the story in a woolen mill in the late 1800s. “The dawn of the Industrial Revolution worked well for the sort of magic I had in mind,” Bunce explained. “I wanted to know that world.”
Photo: Jennifer Burek Pierce
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ning, when I spied Princess Hyacinth (The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated)(Schwartz and Wade, September). Written by the noted Florence Parry Heide and illustrated by the celebrated Lane Smith, this charming picture book features a princess with a problem who nonetheless maintains her independence and befriends a boy with a kite who plays on the palace grounds. Princess Hyacinth is the first time Heide and Smith have worked together, although they’ve kept up an epistolary relationship for 17 years. “Some things are worth waiting for,” Smith said. “It’s really the culmination of [Heide’s] best work in one story,” Smith said of their book, which he aptly characterized as blending “sweetness, romance, and surrealism.” Smith, who has been watching Westerns lately, created wide yet quirkily calm vistas for Heide’s heroine. Heide was enraptured by the resulting images paired with the elegant and fanciful book design by Smith’s wife, Molly Leach. “They worked together, and I was off in the distance saying, ‘Oh, good!’” the 90-year-old author said. “It’s a thrill for me. I was dancing.” Both author and illustrator beIllustrator Lane Smith and author Florence Parry Heide lieve both girls and boys bask in the enthusiastic reception to Princess Hyacinth, will enjoy the story. their first-ever collaboration. princess and pastel balloons were among the first things I found in the exhibit hall at the 2009 American Library Association Annual Conference. They became my guiding influence as I wandered the aisles, prompting me to seek out fairy tales and fantasy, stories of wonder, and items to enchant a young reader or viewer. This was perhaps a lighthearted approach to looking at library resources at a time when so much is amiss, but merriment offers respite from a demanding world and there is a long tradition of combining instruction with delight. Let us begin this story at the begin-
by Jennifer Burek Pierce
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