Happy_85th,_Ashley_Bryan!_(“Walk_Together_Children

“Ashley Bryan was born in New York City and now lives on a small
island (Islesford, Little Cranberry Isle, population 100) off the
coast of Maine, where he writes and illustrates books most of the
year. A former (art) teacher at Dartmouth College, he has compiled,
written and illustrated numerous books, many of them African
folktales, such as Ashley Bryan's African Tales, Uh Huh and The Story
of Lightning and Thunder, and collections of spirituals such as All
Night, All Day: A Child's First Book of African American Spirituals.
Beat the Story-Drum, Pum-Pum, won the 1980 Coretta Scott King Award
for Illustration, and Lion and the Ostrich Chicks was a Coretta Scott
King Honor Book.”

I first encountered him through the 1986 book “Lion and the Ostrich
Chicks.” In the story “The Foolish Boy” (as someone else described it)
one of the first foolish things he does is, when the parents were
planting bean seeds, he was walking behind them, picking them back up
and putting them in his calabash. A neighbor saw him and laughed and
only then did the parents notice.

“But they didn't get excited.
They didn't get upset.
They didn't howl or holler
And they didn't throw a fit.”

Instead, they taught him how to plant the seeds, laughing, “Don’t all
children say and do foolish things?”

And, like any child, he keeps making foolish mistakes, which is how
the neighbors come to label him “Foolish Boy,” but the refrain is the
same every time, as is the parental patience and guidance, so he never
repeats a mistake. And then…he encounters Anansi!

http://www.cbcbooks.org/cbcmagazine/meet/ashleybryan.html
Article: “Discovering Ethnicity through Children's Books” by Bryan
Excerpt:
I ask the children at my school programs, "How many of you use the
Public Library?" All hands go up. I ask, "How many of you use the
School Library?" All hands go up. I then ask, "How many of you are
building your own home library?" Fewer hands go up.

I then ask that they promise to keep a jar on hand into which goes the
extra coins—for books. When enough coins are saved a book is added to
their own home library. I suggest that sometimes they remember to
choose a book about their people.

(end)

He’s illustrated books by Langston Hughes, John Langstaff, Walter Dean
Myers, and Nikki Giovanni.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/blog/660000266/post/1530013953.html
(“Visiting Ashley Bryan” – this includes BEAUTIFUL pictures from
inside his house!)

http://www.answers.com/topic/ashley-f-bryan
(long biography & bibliography)

http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/bryanbib.htm
(complete bibliography?)

http://bccb.lis.uiuc.edu/0299true.html
(short article & selected titles)

http://www.rif.org/readingplanet/bookzone/content/bryan.mspx
(interview, with photo & book covers)

http://www.bookpage.com/0701bp/meet_ashley_bryan.html
(shorter interview)

http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/bryanbib.htm
(2005 article & interview)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/features/bryan.htm
(long 1998 article, “Wagging the Tale Right Off the Page”)
"Does anybody know any Negro spirituals?" he asks the audience at a
storytelling Friday, and no one raises a hand. "Negro, black, African
American, slavery," he persists, and still no hands. "Now," he says,
"how many of you know 'When the Saints Go Marching In' or 'He's Got
the Whole World in His Hands'? he asks in song, and hands spring up.
Then taking out a flutelike recorder, he plays the lullaby "All Night,
All Day," from his illustrated book "All Night, All Day: A Child's
First Book of African American Spirituals."

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1546/is_n6_v12/ai_20084311
(long 1997 American Visions article)


http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/bryan
(Nine videos! Most are under 3 minutes.)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6144688183919291342&q=ashley+b...n&ei=JC
(video interview – over 18 minutes)

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=ashley%20bryan&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
(photos, covers)


Lenona.