Adventures at Wilder Farm

We’re back again after taking a brief blog break since the end of last year. We just received our first box of STRANGE CREATURES from the publisher and were psyched to see a nice review of  STRANGE CREATURES in the Wall Street Journal this weekend. [WSJ Review]

And last week we heard that STRANGE CREATURES was picked as a featured elementary biography selection of the Junior Library Guild!

Here are a few things we picked out of the reviews so far:

“There’s much in Walter Rothschild’s story for a tyke to like, particularly the timid boy’s end run around his father’s ambitions, and Judge makes the most of the battle of wills in her humor-tinged watercolors. Wild animals pop up all over the swanky estate while portraits of ancestors glare down from their frames in disapproval of the family ado. A final note comments on Rothschild’s contribution to the burgeoning field of zoology and on the way collection practices and wildlife study have changed over the past century and a half. Primary-grade children who are encouraged (assigned?) to read a biography will find Rothschild to be one of the most engaging guys they’ve never heard of.” BCCB

“In richly colored paintings Ms. Judge shows readers …  nautiluses and octopuses, lizards and kiwis, okapis from the Congo, capybaras from Colombia, and marabou storks.” WSJ

“Energetic, expressive paintings, many with unusual perspectives, fill the pages. Not surprisingly, the odd creatures that fascinated Walter are among the most engaging characters, like the giant lizard that peers out from Walter’s mother’s lily bed. Human characters are more sketchily drawn, which emphasizes Walter’s preoccupation with the natural world…“ Kirkus Reviews

“Judge’s picture-book biography of the shy genius may encourage readers to follow their own creative ideas…” School Library Journal

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In anticipation of my new book, STRANGE CREATURES, which will be released in Feb 2011, I decided to focus a few of my upcoming blog entries on the process and challenges of writing and illustrating a non-fiction historical biography.

STRANGE CREATURES is about Walter Rothschild and the museum that he created, and the bugs, butterflies and animals that he collected, starting from when he was just 7 years old! It seems logical to begin where the process begins – with the researching and gathering of information about my subject.

Primary Sources:
Very little has been written about Walter Rothschild. The challenge to bringing this character to life was to not only record the invaluable contributions to science that he made, but to honestly capture his eccentric charm and incredible will.

As an author I love the challenge of digging up interesting sources and uncovering the facts about my subject. To learn about Walter Rothschild I was able to travel to the museum that Walter created – now called The Natural History Museum at Tring — which is about an hour northwest of London. It was a fantastic adventure to travel to England. I viewed the public collection at the museum and then was fortunate enough to get an appointment with the Museum Manager and with the Director of Education. They generously opened up the world of Walter Rothschild to me.

I stepped into the museum archives, searched through old documents, photo albums, and the extensive collection that Walter left behind. I walked along the grounds of his family home, and thought about what it must have been like to be the son of a Lord, heir to a banking empire, but more interested in bugs, butterflies and the natural world.

(The two pictures above are of the Natural History Museum at Tring and the present day grounds around the former Rothschild Estate at Tring, which is now a school.)

Walter’s life was a contradiction of privilege and wealth alongside an overbearing amount of expectation that was placed on his young shoulders. And though few are alive who remembered Walter, I was even fortunate enough to speak to people who remembered family stories about him. These direct sources were invaluable in creating a story of the life of this complicated character. And since I’m also the illustrator, everything I learned and saw also went into the pictures in the book.

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Dave and I just got back from NY. What a fantastic trip! We went to hear the Battle of the Bands at the NY Public Library. My editor, Namrata, is the lead singer for the Effin’ G’s. What a blast!! It was a loud, raucous Friday night event in the belly of the library. All three bands (Effin G’s, Mr. McGregor, Tiger Beat) were terrific and did a fantastic job, but you’ll excuse me if I thought Nami was extraordinary. There are a few other recaps of the evening at the Fuse8 blog and here. I’m so lucky to have an editor with so many talents.

The next day, Dave and I did one of my favorite things – went to the Natural History Museum to draw dinosaur skeletons.

I’m working on my new book – How Big Were Dinosaurs? with Roaring Brook Press. The museum was pretty crowded, which is always a mixed blessing as it makes drawing more difficult, but I love seeing all the excited kids and adults exploring the wonders of the museum. So I embraced the crowds, and I did find some quiet corners to draw T-rex towering over all of our heads, tiny Protoceratops that were the size of border collies, the even smaller Psittacosaurus, and all my other favorites dinosaurs. This book is an exciting challenge because I want to break the myth that all dinosaurs were the size of skyscrapers and show how big they really were. There is no better way to learn than to draw the skeletons. A lifetime of daydreaming in front of dinosaurs skeletons has led to this latest project.

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We love the fall! We’ve got the winter wood pile stacked. The maples, birches, blueberry bushes and ferns in the yard have all turned color. And before we know it,  Columbus Day Weekend arrives and we’re again opening up our house and studio as part of the 15th Annual Monadnock Open Studio Art Tour. The Tour is on Oct 9th and 10th, from 10am to 5pm. During the last Art Tour there were 50 open studios with 58 artists participating. And it looks like the weather will be perfect this weekend!

Lita will have some of the original artwork from all her books and lots of studies and sketches (many for sale) along with various watercolor paintings she’s done over the last few years during our travels. And she’ll be signing books too! It’s quite a nice tour — below are a few pictures of Lita at work in her studio, and a beautiful barn in Hancock.

Please drop in and visit in case you find yourself in our neck of the woods (we’re in Peterborough, NH — number 20 on the tour map — and the tour is also in Hancock, Dublin, Jaffrey, Harrisville, and a few other towns around Mt. Monadnock). Maps are available here. Monadnock Art / Friends of the Dublin Art Colony presents the Art Tour each October during the peak of the colorful foliage season in southwestern New Hampshire. The Tour is self-directed, and it’s free!

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(Written by Dave) I’ve been a judge with the annual Cybils awards, which honor various categories of children’s books, since 2008.  And I’m doing it again this year! The Cybils themselves started in 2006. Lita’s One Thousand Tracings was a finalist in non-fiction picture books in 2007.

Anybody can nominate a book (starting on October 1st), and all the books that are eligible, and deemed to be in the proper category, go to the first round judges. (Actually quite a few publishers fail to send us books so I usually get them through library loan.) Last year I was a 2nd round judge for Middle Grade/YA Nonfiction — we got to pick the one winning book from the group of finalists picked by the round 1 judges. Two years ago, I was  a panelist (round 1 judge) for non-fiction picture books, and this year I’m a round 1 judge for the Middle Grade/YA Non-fiction category. I’m thinking a lot of books will be nominated this year — seems like the numbers go up every year — so I’ll be doing a lot of reading. Last year there were some great books in this category — but amazingly, the Sibert Award winner was not even a finalist. Of course the Cybils finalists are picked before the Sibert is announced, and the criteria are different (here is the Sibert criteria).

Anyway, I grabbed this list of all the round 1 and 2 judges for Middle Grade/YA Nonfiction from our panel organizer, Susan Thomsen at Chicken Spaghetti. It includes panelists’ Twitter feeds, marked with an @ — follow them and keep up with book news and conversation.

Panelists (Round I Judges):

Karen Ball, Mrs. B’s Favorites

Sarah Mulhern Gross, The Reading Zone @thereadingzone

David Judge, Adventures at Wilder Farm

Jessica Leader, Jessica Leader @JessicaLeader

Susan Thomsen, Chicken Spaghetti @C_Spaghetti

Judges (Round II):

Edi Campbell, Crazy Quilts @crazyquilts

René Colato Laínez, René Colato Laínez, La Bloga @renecolato

David Gutowski, Largehearted Boy @largeheartedboy

Colleen Mondor, Chasing Ray, Bookslut @chasingray

Sandhya Nankani, Literary Safari, Sepia Mutiny @litsafari

The panelists in many other categories have also been announced. See the Cybils blog for details.

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The Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library will feature the work of Lita Judge at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. — here’s part of the press release from the New Hampshire State Library:

For Immediate Release
Contact: Mary Russell , 603-271-2866
September 20, 2010

Alongside representatives from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the New Hampshire Center for the Book will promote the Granite State at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, Sept. 25, 2010.

In the festival’s Pavilion of the States, the New Hampshire Center for the Book will feature the book Born to be Giants: How Baby Dinosaurs Grew to Rule the World, written and illustrated by Lita Judge. The New Hampshire table will also provide information about visiting the Granite State and about our literary heritage. Lita Judge lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Her books have been chosen as Junior Library Guild selections, ALA Notable Books, Smithsonian Notable Books for Children, and have been nominated for various state book awards. Her book, Pennies for Elephants, won the New Hampshire Outstanding Work of Children’s Literature Award in 2009. You can learn more about Lita Judge at her website, http://www.litajudge.com.

More info is at the New Hampshire State Library website.

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