With all the foreign editions of Red is Best already published, the announcement of more to come from the Sales & Rights Manager at Annick Press last week came as quite a surprise. Also, it’s now 30 years since the book’s first publication!
But this year will see the addition of two new French versions, one through Editions de L’Ecole/ Pastel in France and another (as a board book) through Editions Scholastic in North America.
However you choose to say it, it seems that red really is best!
Sometimes I lament the time it takes to keep up with emails, as many people do these days. But I received a few recently that made me very glad for this way of connecting with people I might otherwise not hear from at all.
Like this one:
Hi Kathy!!
I just bought and read your “Highway of Heroes” book. Amazing….. You did a great job with it. I loved the pictures. My brother (Cpl Michael Starker) was killed in Afghanistan May 6, 2008 and I travelled the Highway of Heroes with my family. It was a very moving and unforgettable experience and to see it in a book now makes it timeless. Thank you for writing this book. I appreciated it.
Carolyn Straub
When I wrote Carolyn asking permission to quote her message in a blog post, she said:
Yes – you may certainly use my message and my full name. I am okay with that. I really support your book and back you with it. My girls (age 9 and 11) were not able to come with me to Trenton and only heard my story. When I was able to sit down with them and share your book and show them that it was like that for me they were able to get a glimpse into what I saw that day. We all cried when we read the book together – my girls really miss their uncle alot, as do we all.
Thanks for keeping in touch.
And then there was this one:
Hello Ms. Stinson,
Your book about being adopted has been highly recommended to me by a psychologist that I have my adopted son seeing. Being from Korea he is dealing with the issues of not ‘looking’ like us and feeling different from the rest of his family. The problem is that I have been unable to find this book anywhere, it has been out of stock at Amazon for awhile now and I cannot find it anywhere on the internet or in bookstores. Do you sell it directly or have any suggestions as to where I might purchase a copy?
Thank you so much,Pam
I was able to direct Pam to the link on the publisher’s website where she was able to order it. I hope by now that she and her son are happily reading their book.
And last but not least, from a friend and fellow writer:
Dear Kathy,
Just back from Germany and I kept forgetting to e-mail you about this conversation I overheard in a staff room in Wurzburg. The artists I was working with were talking – in German – about this book they’d been working with in grades one and two. I got a bit here and there but my Deutsch is pretty spare. Anyway then suddenly I understood what they were talking about: the colour red. And how this book was just perfect for teaching with and … I interrupted to say: Red is Best? Are you talking about a picture book called Red is Best?
Yes! They said. Our favourite. We love it. You should have seen their faces when I said knew the author, like, personally. Well, I went up two flights of stairs in their minds.
Just thought you’d want to know of how you little one was faring out their in the foreign speaking world.
xx
Want a peek at the covers of the Red is Best translations! They’re pretty neat!
Do you fret that you’ll never get dug out from under the onslaught of all those emails? Or has a message landed in your inbox lately that made you glad for email’s existence?
Joanna Perkin first wrote me in 2003 to tell me she’d enjoyed reading the first two Marie-Claire books. I wrote her back, she wrote me back, and so on. We kept up a correspondence – about books we’d read and about writing stories, because like me Joanna is both a reader and a writer – and this summer we met in person.
Pulling into the driveway of her home in rural New Brunswick, I wondered, would we have anything to say to each other in person? Would Joanna be disappointed when one of her “all-time favourite authors” (she grew up reading Red is Best) turned out to be a just another middle-aged fuddy-duddy?
Figuring books would help compensate for any personal shortcomings Joanna might perceive in me, I took along a few books: a copy of the 25th anniversary edition of Red is Best, the Marie-Claire treasury edition, and, because Joanna is now sixteen, my collection of short stories, 101 Ways to Dance.
And we talked – about her summer job caring for a special needs teenager, about her writing, about books we’ve read, about other authors she’s written to and had letters from. (She keeps them all together in a box.) Among them are letters from Budge Wilson, Kathy Kacer, Anne Laurel Carter, Lynne Kositsky, and Priscilla Galloway. She owns and has read all 48 Our Canadian Girl books and hundreds of other books besides. Her parents and my husband are also avid readers, so conversation around the dinner table was lively and fun.
After dinner we all went for a walk down into the lovely Tantramar Marshes to give our dog a chance to stretch her legs after a long day in the car. I expect that a correspondence with Joanna will continue and that we will meet again. Next time I’ll remember that readers – of all ages – always have lots to talk about. And so do writers. Happy reading, Joanna! And happy writing!
Last week I said I’d say more on the subject of scrapbooks. I started keeping one in 1982 after my first book, Red is Best, was published. I put my rejection letters in it, the letter Annick sent saying they’d like to meet with me, the earliest Robin Baird Lewis sketches I saw that convinced Annick and me that she was the right illustrator for the book, and the notes I made for my acceptance of the IODE Award (on the same day the first edition of Big or Little? was released).
I didn’t keep the scrapbook up for very long, but those items now reside with the Osborne Collection at the Lillian Smith branch of the Toronto Public Library.
The Osborne Collection is a treasure trove of early children’s books. It contains numerous drafts of more recent children’s books, too. I was delighted to hear this spring that when the speakers at the conference I attended were treated to a tour of the collection, the good folks at the Osborne made a point of showcasing their Red is Best materials. (And I heard that one of my great writing heroes, David Almond, was quite impressed. David Almond is also this year’s winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award.)
The neat thing is: anyone can visit the Osborne Collection. Drop in from Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. or Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. They rotate their displays regularly, so if there’s something specific you’re hoping to see, it might be wise to make an appointment beforehand.
Did you know that today is “Wear red” day? And no, I didn’t make that up! Even though as author of Red is Best, maybe I should have. 
Red’s not your colour, you say? You have nothing red in your closet? Why not – just for today – borrow something from your sister, your brother, your spouse or your best friend? I tend to wear black and beige a lot, especially in winter, but on those days I do pull on a red sweater, or a red fleece, I must say winter doesn’t seem quite so cold!
Not that feeling cold is a concern for me today. As recent post(s) indicate, I’m in Liberia, working with writers and teachers as part of the Reading Liberia team. In the meantime, my brilliant support team at Organized Assistant has kept track of and uploaded this posting for me.
Actually, although I write my own postings, Organized Assistant always uploads them for me. (They are so much more technically savvy than I am.)
Happy Wear Red Day!
If a signed copy of a select few of my books would please someone on your shopping list, I may be able to help you out. I have a limited supply on hand of A Pocket Can Have A Treasure In It and of the anniversary editions of Red is Best and Big or Little?
There’s still time for me to deliver your choices in time for Christmas, but not for too much longer, so don’t delay.
Why not place your order now?
Nancy Evans is a teacher-librarian in London, Ontario. She sent me a thank you note recently that made my day and she’s given me permission to post it here, along with the accompanying photos.
I wanted to sincerely thank you for sharing time with us. Our students are all in a buzz this week as I follow-up with them. You truly connected with our children on many levels and the common thread that keeps coming through is that you cared, you listened, you truly answered their questions and you inspired the creative juices in the young minds of today and the creative thinkers of tomorrow.
One of the reasons this note meant so much to me is because my author visits with kids are just that – visits. I don’t sing or dance or do magic tricks. I have no high-tech visual aids. It’s just me and my books and a group of kids in a classroom or library. That’s the way it’s been for over 25 years now. With invitations to visit schools less plentiful than they used to be, I began wondering recently if I should be jazzing up my presentations. One writer-friend suggested I do up a power-point presentation. Nancy’s letter made me think maybe it’s just fine to keep doing what I do to inspire kids (or re-inspire them) to read more good stories and write some of their own, too.
The letter continues, referring to my signing her copy of Red Is Best from its first print run, artwork some of the students have been doing based on an unpublished story I read them, and eventually coming to:
Find attached a few photos of your visit with us for you to enjoy & re-live our morning together.
Thank you, Nancy Evans, for helping the teachers at Blessed Kateri prepare so well for my visit there. Thanks also to the B. K. students for giving me a morning I’m happy to remember. Read on!
Picture this. I’m having breakfast (last week), listening, as usual, to CBC Radio. Andy Barrie is interviewing a bookseller and children’s author because it’s Canadian Children’s Book Week. After a few minutes, after several American titles have been mentioned, I grumble to my husband, “You’d think one of them could name a Canadian title.” (I tend to grumble a fair bit some mornings.)
Then Andy Barrie asks his guests (Eleanor Lafave and Sylvia McNicoll) to “name the book that will always be a classic that you would always recommend to a small child.” And Eleanor says, “Red Is Best“. I do my best to ignore the fact Andy Barrie doesn’t know the book and manage to feel a little less grumbly.
Listen to the whole interview yourself. Eleanor and Sylvia mention some other worthwhile books you may or may not know.
