The Morgan Book Project and Scholastic Writing Awards!

I'm playing catch-up here - 

Following last year's Book Project Awards that was cancelled due to the pandemic, The Morgan Library and Museum found a way to make it happen this year. The award ceremony was virtual, and judges had an opportunity to speak with the kids about their projects. I loved hearing their thoughts on the book project program experience, what inspired their projects, and how they made decisions about design layout and story. Themes included public safety Covid guidelines as a reflection of the times, and stories of cooperation and kindness toward others, an appeal to everyone to work together. Their dedication to their work was an inspiration to all of us. And a special thank you to the schools and teachers for helping to pull this off! All of the projects submitted were wonderful and full of heart. Congratulations to every participant for their extraordinary accomplishment. View the winning projects HERE click on the cover to expand the book. 

As a bonus to the kids for their tremendous effort during such a challenging time, all finalists have their books on display in the gallery through August 15th. 

The Scholastic Writing Awards were a great success. Another wonderful program I feel privileged to be a part of. The students surmounted the tragic uncertainty of living through a pandemic by channeling their creativity through the art of writing, and produced a record of our time. There were of course works influenced by personal experience of the pandemic represented in the submissions. But all of the work, all of the themes they embraced, proved that expressing ourselves creatively is important and should be nurtured through programs like this. Whatever the genre, these young writers showed they had something to say. Read the winning works HERE by genre. Regional awards list. Congratulations to all the participants and to the winners. Thank you for sharing your art, and thank you to the partnering organizations that helped to create a space where their work can flourish. Keep writing with Writopia Lab.

Look for more information about the programs and how young people can participate through the links.

The Morgan Book Project

Over the years that I have participated as a judge for the Morgan Book Project, I've watched it develop and grow. The Morgan Library & Museum fully supports this educational program for children by looking for new ways to reach more kids. They've expanded the age range, included special needs and English language learners, and increased the number of participating schools. The students have the opportunity to visit the museum and experience the collection firsthand, fostering a connection to museums in general, and encouraging a lifelong interest in the arts.  Using original illuminated manuscripts from the collection as inspiration for their illustrations, the kids make the paint, write, and put the books together. They learn to appreciate books as an art form. The books are aligned with core curriculum studies: English Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, and Visual Arts. Topics range from biographies of noted individuals, history, world culture, poetry, and nature, to sometimes heart wrenching personal stories. The winning entries are viewed as representing the students' schools, and the kids are celebrated with an awards ceremony at the museum. The books are displayed on the Morgan Library's website, and 12 books will be on display in an exhibition at the museum, Inspiring and Illuminating the Classroom. The Morgan Library & Museum truly goes all out for this program. The exhibition will be on view from May 14 through June 16th.

Morgan Book Project

This year the Morgan Book Project has expanded! Students from grades 3-12 participate, there are more schools, more books to judge and more judges.

As always, the books are quite wonderful. Subjects align with common core curriculum.

The books are judged on art, writing and technical skill.

Some of the subject matter can be quite moving such as in this example where the student was writing about coming to this country as a new immigrant.

This year the final 12 books plus the Director's Choice award will be on exhibit for one month (previously 2 weeks). The special awards will be announced at the award ceremony on May 11 and will be posted online.

Congratulations to ALL the participants. Your extraordinary work made it enormously difficult to decide on only 12.

Thank you to everyone at the Museum for making this possible and especially to Jennifer for hosting us and keeping us on track.

To see the books on exhibit, visit The Morgan Library and Museum.

You can view previous posts about this program by searching my blog.

UPDATE: Link to the Special Awards on view at the library in May

Morgan Book Project

I'm so happy to be a part of the Morgan Book Project as a judge. It's a wonderful program developed by the Morgan Library and Museum that integrates core curriculum in the areas of art, science, history and literature in schools. This year they changed the format slightly and began with 3rd G+.  See my previous posts about this program, but in a nutshell, the kids use the Morgan's collection of illuminated manuscripts as their inspiration. They learn to make their own paint, and are given professional, archival materials to produce their books on a variety of subjects from creative writing to social studies. Click http://www.themorgan.org/education/morgan-book-project/special-awards/2016 to view the winning submissions. The special awards books were on view at the museum.

Alice: 150 Years of Wonderland

Join me as I read selections from Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland to kids, Sunday Storytime in Mr. Morgan's Library at the Morgan Library and Museum this summer during their exhibit Alice: 150 Years of Wonderland on view June 26 through October 11, 2015. 

Dates: 
June 28, 2015 at 3pm
August 16, 2015 at 3pm
August 23, 2015 at 3pm

Morgan Book Project

This has been a busy month! I was fortunate again to join several judges for the Morgan Book Project, hosted by The Morgan Library and Museum. I'm touched and amazed by the wonderful illuminated manuscript inspired books created by the kids in the program. Congratulations are in order to Marie Trope Podell, Manager of Gallery Programs. Her program is thriving thanks to a generous grant from the Brooke Astor Fund for NYC Education. This program uses art to support other disciplines, or in other words, it fits in beautifully with core curriculum standards.

In the program, the children have the opportunity to view original illuminated manuscripts in the Morgan's collection. They learn an appreciation of books, art, design and history. Then they learn to make paint from scratch, crushing materials such as saffron for yellow, cochineal bugs for red (what kid wouldn't want to do that?) and other material. They combine the finely ground materials with a binder to create the final pigment that will be used. They are given archival paper and real gold leaf for embellishments. The kids write and design their illuminated manuscript inspired books. The subjects range from poetry and fiction, global culture, family history and social studies. It was difficult to choose only a small number of those books we felt stood out the most as all of them were wonderfully creative and beautifully executed. For further information, read an article highlighting the program in the New York Times from last year.

Special awards: click to see the books 2013   2012 and 2011

The ceremony. The school in CA that participated was skyped in so winners there could take part. One of the kids flew in and accepted his schoolmates' awards.

Winning books were displayed for all to see. And a selection from these will be on exhibit in cases April 8-20.

 Some of the winners with their books. Congratulations to all of the winners.

Read more HERE. Do stop in to see the books in person. I know you will be impressed. Other exhibits worth a look: an exhibit on woodblock printing and The Little Prince manuscript by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. If you have never visited, the Morgan is truly a gem.

Morgan Library Annual Book Project

I can't believe it's already been a year since I participated in The Morgan Library Book Project award judging. Last year I read stories about the surprise of the birth of hamsters from a 3rd grader to a fantasy story by a 7th grader. This year my group was 3rd and 4th grade. There was everything from a description of a field trip to Haiku poetry. The artwork is amazing and the stories are quite impressive.

The kids learn to make their own illustrated manuscript book using real materials provided by the Morgan Library Museum. After learning about the process and visiting the real thing at the museum they are ready to create their own book with the assistance of their teachers. The kids make their paint from scratch, crushing saffron for yellow, or cochineal beetles for red (ooh, how cool is that!) and other materials in a mortar and pestle and add the binder. They even get to use gold leaf! It's such a wonderful experience for them, and I feel privileged to participate and see all of their creations.  Click HERE to see last year's award winners. And I will update this blog with this year's winners around the first week of April when the Morgan Library posts the results. The awards have been expanded and more work from the award winners will be exhibited in the museum this year, so I will have the info here. It will be well worth a trip to see the books in person as the photos don't do them justice.

UPDATE:
Here are photos from the award ceremony this year. Some of the books are on display through April 18. click HERE

Beatrix Potter Exhibit at the Morgan Library & Museum

What a beautiful place to hold a reading of Beatrix Potter stories, in Mr. Morgan's library surrounded by books. I read Mrs. Tittlemouse (a couple fans already knew the story well but still enjoyed hearing it again). Also Squirrel Nutkins - you gotta have a naughty animal too. The kids were great. Thank you to Marie Trope- Podell of the Morgan Library for a wonderful afternoon, and Laura Goetz of CBIG for taking the pictures for my memory book.

 Don't miss the exhibit, Beatrix Potter The Picture Letters, it's wonderful!

Beatrix Potter

Gather around the fire with me in Mr. Morgan's Library for a reading of Beatrix Potter stories! I'll be there Sunday, November 25 for the 2:30pm session and again on Sunday, December 23 at 11:30am. For details about the exhibit click here  at the Morgan Library & Museum.

Sunday Storytime

in Mr. Morgan’s Library

Join us and some of your favorite Beatrix Potter storybook

friends—Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck, and

Tom Kitten— for Sunday Storytime in Mr. Morgan’s

Library. This one hour drop-in program offers families a

refresher on the beloved tales before viewing Beatrix Potter:

The Picture Letters. Presented in collaboration with The

Beatirx Potter Society and the Children’s Book Illustrators

Group. Appropriate for ages 2 and up.

The Special Award Winners of The Morgan Book Project

The Special Award winning books from The Morgan Book Project are now posted on their web site! Click on the individual names to see selected pages from the kid's books. The Turtle Shell of Torture by 3rd grader Kate Reynolds is a great fantasy story and My Necklace Memories by 4th grader Kelly Chang about a necklace handed down in the family was touching. There was poetry, the surprising birth of hamsters, a dad turned into a knight to save the day, an account of a hunt with a Native American father and son and stories of friendship lost and found. All the stories were great and imaginative, and the illustrations showed a wonderful sense of layout, design, use of color and storytelling. A selection of books were also on view for a special 1 day exhibit. Congratulations to all the participants!

http://www.themorgan.org/education/StudentBookAward.asp

Judging Day for the Morgan Book Project

Wow! This past Friday I had the privilege of being a judge for the Morgan Library Museum’s program for children, the Morgan Book Project. Nine judges reviewed a selection of amazing books created by children from 3^rd to 8^th grades.

Teachers learned the process first and the kids were treated to a gallery tour and an opportunity to see the Morgan’s collection of illuminated manuscripts for inspiration. Back in the classroom, the teachers helped the kids to fabricate the accordion books. The kids wrote their own stories and then illustrated them using paint they created from scratch! Yep, they took raw materials like saffron (for yellow), and cochineal insects (reddish pigment), ground the material up using a mortar and pestle, added a binder and voila! Paint. They were even given 22k gold leaf to use on archival paper. This is serious business! The stories ranged from the anecdotal to full out fantasy. A day with a stomach bug, the birth of hamsters, Dad as a medieval knight, Native American influenced stories, and a magic turtle were some of the themes. They were funny and moving, and the artwork was awesome. As judges we were given guidelines but it was so hard to choose. Well done guys, beautiful work!

Here’s more info on the program:

The Project: In this free program, every year teachers from New York City public schools participate in a four-day Summer Institute for Teachers, developed by the Morgan in collaboration with the New York City Department of Education, and focused on the integration of book arts into the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subject, as well as The New York City Department of Education Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts. Through the following fall and winter, these teachers lead their students in the writing, illustration, and binding of manuscript books. They submitted their students' four best projects to a jury. At the end of March, the winning books are featured in a one-day installation at the Morgan, while the students whose books were selected receive an award in the presence of their families, school teachers, and principals in the Gilder Lehrman Hall.

For additional information on the The Morgan Book Project, please visit www.themorgan.org/education/BookProject.asp

The Morgan Library Museum: The Morgan Book Project

I’m so thrilled to have been invited to participate as a juror this year in the Morgan Library & Museum’s annual Morgan Book Project for children. The jury meets tomorrow so check back for further info.