‘Overwhelming’ response to Birch Lane’s support for picture books

Birch Lane Elementary School teacher librarian Lynne Sundstrom reads "Why Children Make Terrible Pets" to Lisa Yates' first-grade class Tuesday. Sue Cockrell/Enterprise photo

Lisa Kopelke has been writing and illustrating children’s picture books for more than a decade now and does it, she says, “purely for the love of it — not for the money.”

In fact, there’s not all that much of the latter, so the California native, who now lives in Utah, works a second job as well.

But it’s worth it, she says, to create what she does.

So when Kopelke came across an article in the New York Times last fall that seemed to declare the demise of picture books, it was a little disheartening to say the least.

The article, “Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children,” reported that publishers have scaled back on the number of picture books they’ve released in recent years and bookstores have dedicated less and less shelf space to them. One factor the article noted was a trend by parents to have children move from picture books to chapter books at a much earlier age.

“I wasn’t really surprised,” Kopelke said of the article. “I personally have been struggling about whether or not I can or should continue and I know many of my peers are doing the same.”

Still, she said, “My daughter grew up on picture books and I grew up on picture books. It was just really depressing to read that.

“All we are hearing these days is doom and gloom news about the state of our industry,” she noted.

But then, amid that gloom, something quite unexpected happened — something that changed not just Kopelke’s perspective, but that of picture book authors and illustrators all over the world.

And it was all thanks to Birch Lane Elementary School right here in Davis.

Birch Lane’s teacher librarian Lynne Sundstrom, library technician Katy Larson and their students decided not to take what they saw as an attack on picture books lying down.

They declared February “Love a Picture Book Month” and as a community read a total of 4,590 picture books. They invited children’s author Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen to visit the school earlier this month to teach them about the making of picture books, and they also wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Times, expressing their dismay over the article.

It was, to put it simply, a letter like no other — something the Times editors pointed out in an introduction:

“We recently received, in a tube sent by postal mail, something new in our experience: a 15-foot scroll to the editor. We’ve received all kinds of mail in the past: books, manuscripts, CDs, even a hostile brick to the editor. Perhaps editors in ancient times received scrolls all the time — but not us.”

Accompanying the scroll was a cover letter written by Sundstrom that said, “We believe that picture books are essential to the development of lifelong readers and learners. … Contrary to the article’s message, picture books are not languishing on the shelves at Birch Lane, but are actually read, loved and read again.”

That 15-foot-long scroll was signed by 388 teachers, staff, students and family members, and the New York Times put the whole thing — albeit in a much smaller version — in their letters to the editor section last Thursday. Up on its website, the Times put the scroll in much larger living color.

In a Facebook post, the Times said: “This may be our favorite letter to the editor ever.”

And it was pure music to the ears of picture book authors and illustrators everywhere.

“It was completely inspiring to me,” Kopelke said of the letter. “Just to hear kids speak up was thrilling. I’m determined to keep doing what I’m doing now. My peers are excited, too.”

So much so that within hours of the letter’s publication on Thursday, Sundstrom was hearing from people all over the world. Kathryn White, an author in England, called to say she’d be sending signed copies of her books to Birch Lane to thank students. And that was before the London Guardian published the scroll on its website on Friday.

Within days, in fact, the scroll was popping up on news sites and in blogs, being tweeted and retweeted, and was all over Facebook.

Sundstrom was hearing from publishers, authors and illustrators, nearly all planning to send the school books by way of thank you.

One of those people was illustrator Matt Faulkner, who teaches illustration at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

“I picked up the phone and he said, ‘This is Matt Faulkner. I’m an illustrator,” Sundstrom said with a laugh. “I said, ‘I know who you are!’ ”

He was calling to thank her, just like so many others.

She received emails from numerous authors like Deborah Hopkinson, Janet Ann Collins and Tad Hills, who called Sundstrom and her students “heroes.”

Together, Faulkner and Kopelke created a Facebook page, Thank You Birch Lane Elementary, and spread the word among their colleagues in the industry, encouraging them to send signed copies of their books to the students and teachers as a way to thank them.

On Monday, the library already had received a large box of books from Beach Lane Books, a division of Simon and Schuster, thanks to vice president and publisher Allyn Johnston, who had contacted Sundstrom earlier to rave about the letter.

“They are absolutely beautiful and wonderful,” Sundstrom said of the books, adding that she’ll be incorporating them into lessons as early as next week.

Sundstrom herself said it’s all been a bit overwhelming, but also “very, very exciting.”

Mostly, though, she’s glad to help the authors and illustrators whose work is such an integral part of what she does at Birch Lane.

“I’m just thrilled that it’s helping people who make my job easier,” she said.
And they, in turn, are thrilled as well.

“Sometimes all it takes is someone to stand up, and in this case the readers, to re-spark hope in us artists,” Kopelke said.

Added Faulkner: “What librarians (like Sundstrom) do on a daily basis … is beyond heroic.”

Birch Lane’s teachers, staff, students and families have compiled a list of their top 100 picture books. View the list at http://www.djusd.k12.ca.us/birchlane/birchtop100.pdf

— Reach Anne Ternus-Bellamy at aternus@davisenterprise.net or (530) 747-8051.

Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=35422

Posted by Anne Ternus-Bellamy on Apr 19 2011.
Last Login: Mon 21 May 2012 01:17:01 PM PDT
Filed under Local News, Schools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry