Looking for a good set of books for children this summer, look no further than the joint efforts of Deborah Duvall and Murv Jacob. Many time winners of the Oklahoma Center for the Book Award in children’s literature, they have some great storytelling books. I just put a blog entry about them up at http://blog.newsok.com/okiereads/
The Sam Noble Museum of Natural History has on view One Hundred Summers: A Kiowa Calendar Record, during their Free Library Day when you present your library card. Storytimes will be held throught out the day, Saturday, June 27 from 10:00-5:00.
Visit your local public library and get a card today!
The book and exhibit are based on the art of renowned Kiowa artist Silver Horn. The calendar record illustrates 100 years of Kiowa history through pictorial vignettes marking two seasons each year; one for summer and one for winter.
The book also has a very Oklahoma and Sam Noble Museum of Natural History connection. One of the authors, Ellen Censky is the former director of the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History and currently serves as vice president of the Milwaukee Public Museum. Daniel C. Swan is the associate curator of ethnology at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History and an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. Gus Palmer Jr. is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma.
Read the book, get a library card, go to the Museum. 
Hot off the press, the Oklahoma Almanac has arrived.
Words from our very own Connie Armstrong, Almanac editor and board member of the Oklahoma Center for the Book. “This 2009-2010 edition’s theme is State of the Arts. A special section focuses on a variety of art forms and mediums located throughout the state. Oklahoma has a rich artistic tradition, one which continues today. We wanted to showcase the arts and artists in our state and encourage citizens and visitors to attend a local theatre production, arts festival, gallery showing, poetry reading, or museum.”
The volume also contains information on such topics as agriculture, astronomy, climatology, commerce, demographics, education, elections, geology, museums, tourism, wildlife, and federal, state, county, and municipal government. The history section provides insight into the prehistoric and the nomadic groups who traversed the area. Moreover it explores the earliest Native American and European settlements to the creation of both Indian and Oklahoma territories and eventually statehood.
Do I have a bargain for you. The first person who tells me the two main characters in Will Thomas’ books and can tell me where in Oklahoma Will lives will get two of his books. To Kingdom Come and The Limehouse Text.
There may be a hint to these answers here.
Hope some of you librarians hop on this opportunity to add to your collections with one of Oklahoma’s best.
Tickets are on sale now!
Kitty Pittman over at Okie Reads has the details.
Don’t forget - tomorrow, May 2nd, is Free Comic Book Day!!! Lots of libraries are participating so take yourself and the kids and get some great comics!
Put down that book and get outside! You can enjoy lots of good food, good music and good art this week at the Festival of the Arts.
April 21-25, Downtown Oklahoma City
11 a.m. - 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday
11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Sunday
Admission is free. There’s lots to do and see. Plus it’s right next to the downtown library so you can stop in and get some books!
Kitty over at Okie Reads reports that some great Oklahoma authors have been affected by the Amazon deranking scandal.
If you’re not familiar with the news, you can read about it here.
To see the list, complete with annotations, visit the Oklahoma Center for the Book.
Poetry : Two Tables Over—Nathan Brown—Village Books Press, Cheyenne, OK
Design & Illustration:
Design Winner—Placing Memory: A Photographic Exploration of Japanese Internment—Photography by Todd Stewart, Design by Eric H. Anderson and Karen Hayes-Thumann—University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK
Illustration Winner—What Dogs Want for Christmas—Illustrations by Kandy Radzinski—Sleeping Bear Press, Chelsea, MI
Non-fiction: Full-Court Quest: The Girls from Fort Shaw Indian School, Basketball Champions of the World—Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith—University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK
Children/Young Adult: Spy—Anna Myers—Walker & Company, New York, NY
Fiction: Sweeping up Glass—Carolyn D. Wall—Poisoned Pen Press, Scottsdale, AZ
Finally, congratulations to Robert J. Conley, this year’s Arrell Gibson Lifetime Acheivement Award winner.
Marcia Preston’s new book, The Wind Comes Sweeping, is now available! From her website:
“Marik Youngblood left her father’s Oklahoma ranch—and the child she gave up for adoption—intent on becoming an artist instead of a rancher. Her father’s death brings her back to a failing cattle operation, a pile of debt and a haunting need to find the child she left behind. Leasing the land for wind towers solves one problem but creates another—the hostility of her neighbors, Burt and Lena Gurdman.
Lena Gurdman may be poor and uneducated, with a husband who’s quick to blame her for anything that goes wrong, but she knows she and Marik have more in common than the property line between them. When the bones of an infant are uncovered on Killdeer Ridge Ranch, both Marik and Lena are left with questions about secrets they thought were buried long ago.
Against the stark beauty of the Oklahoma landscape, two women share a secret as fragile as an infant’s bones—and a desire for the truth as strong as the wind that comes sweeping down the plains.”
Visit the website for a video trailer and a preview!
