MAGIC mirror
Recognizing Denise Sciandra
Curiosity of the Cats
Picture Books Are Hot!
2018 Research Fellowships
Hoáng Chi Tru
,
o
,
ng, the TigerFish
Honoring All Life Members:
It's Time for Tea!
By George! Author Alex Gino
Will Visit Fresno
The Arne Nixon Center is a unit within the Special
Collections division of the Henry Madden Library
Renée
Watson
T H E
Newsletter of the Arne Nixon Center
#31
Arne Nixon Center for the
Study of Children’s Literature
The Arne Nixon Center is one of the West Coast’s largest and most significant research
centers for the study of children’s literature. With an emphasis on diversity, the Center’s
collection includes more than 60,000 books, original artwork, letters, photographs,
newspaper clippings, ceramics and other ephemera, including:
■■ The largest LGBTQ collection of books for young people in the United States.
■■ A World Languages collection of books in over 50 languages.
■■ Over 2,100 Spanish-language children’s books.
■■ Over 2,100 editions by, about and inspired by the works of Lewis Carroll.
■■ The Helen Monette Amestory collection of 6,000 books on cats.
Recognizing Denise Sciandra
Founding President of the Arne Nixon Center Advocates
The Arne Nixon Center and board of the Arne Nixon Center Advocates (ANCA) are
pleased to recognize the past efforts and accomplishments of Denise Sciandra in her
role as founding president of the advocacy group. Sciandra served as ANCA president
from the group’s inception in 2001 to 2013. Among her many achievements in office,
Sciandra was instrumental in creating the award-winning Leo Politi Garden, located
just outside the Madden Library. She brought the London-based Beatrix Potter Society
to Fresno for its annual conference. She secured the papers of famous authors and
illustrators and raised funds to realize many worthwhile projects. We thank Sciandra for
all of her capable efforts and fulfilled successes.
www.arnenixoncenter.org
ArneNixonCenter
The Magic Mirror is published by
the Arne Nixon Center for the Study
of Children’s Literature
Curator
Jennifer Crow
Email: jcrow@csufresno.edu
Library Services Specialist
Jami Sanford Helwig
ANCA Board of Directors
President
Arturo Mendoza
Vice President
Randy Morris
Treasurer
Jessica Galvan
Recording Secretary
Jennifer Crow
Correspondence Secretary
Shivon Hess
Directors
Kristin Baer, Nicole Settle,
James Tyner, Ellis Vance
ANC Advisory Committee
Alma Flor Ada, Steven Mooser
ANC Governing Committee
Del Hornbuckle, Michael Cart,
Leonard Marcus
Copy Editor
Donald Munro
Editor
Jennifer Crow
Graphic Designers
David Celaya, Randy Zamorski
Photos by
David Celeya, Jami Sanford Helwig,
Vong Thao
Arne Nixon Center for the
Study of Children’s Literature
Henry Madden Library
California State University, Fresno
5200 N. Barton Ave. M/S ML34
Fresno, CA 93740-8014
559.278.8116
“ It is the function of
some people to be a lamp
and some to be a mirror.
I have been very pleased
to function as a mirror of
others’ work. ” Arne Nixon
Cover photo: Muriel Feldshuh’s “Picture Books Are Hot!” Quilt
1
Meet Renée Watson, the Center’s new Artist
in Residence for 2018. Watson is a highly
acclaimed writer, educator, performer and
social justice activist, whose works include the
young adult novel Piecing Me Together and her
latest middle-grade novel, Betty Before X. She
will spend a week in Fresno from
March 19-23.
To welcome Watson to Fresno
State, a catered reception will
be 2-3:30 p.m. Monday, March
19 in the University Dining Hall.
Watson will present a talk about
her work, and her books will be
available for sale and signing.
During her stay, Watson will be an
integral part of English, education,
and women’s studies classes at Fresno State,
working with students and faculty to promote
the relevancy of children’s literature and provide
a more personal level of learning engagement.
She also will connect with the wider community,
visiting local high schools and presenting at the
Fresno County Public Library.
Watson is the author of a number of celebrated
books for young people. Her picture books
include Harlem’s Little Blackbird: The Story
of Florence Mills, which received an NAACP
Image Award nomination in children’s
literature, and A Place Where Hurricanes
Happen, based on poetry
workshops she offered to the
children of New Orleans after the
devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
Watson’s two books for teens are
This Side of Home and Piecing
Me Together, both of which were
nominated for the Best Fiction for
Young Adults by the American
Library Association and received
multiple starred reviews. Piecing
Me Together was a Kirkus Best
Book of 2017. Writing with Ilyasah Shabazz,
Watson’s new middle-grade novel, Betty
Before X, recounts four challenging childhood
years in the life of Dr. Betty Shabazz, then future
wife of Malcolm X. Published in January, it has
earned starred reviews from both Kirkus and
Publisher’s Weekly.
Watson has worked as a writer in residence for
more than 20 years teaching creative writing
and theater in public schools and community
centers throughout the nation. Her articles
on teaching and arts education have been
published in Rethinking Schools and Oregon
English Journal. She is on the Council of
Writers for the National Writing Project and is
a team member of We Need Diverse Books.
She currently teaches courses on writing for
children for the Solstice MFA program at Pine
Manor College in Massachusetts.
As a fellowship recipient, Watson will receive
a $10,000 stipend plus expenses. The Arne
Nixon Center Artist-in-Residence Fellowship
was made possible by the generosity of an
anonymous donor. The award committee
consists of Fresno State professors from the
English department; the Department of Literacy,
Early, Bilingual, & Special Education (LEBSE);
the Chicano and Latin American studies
department; and the women’s studies program;
along with Jennifer Crow, the Center’s curator.
Campus parking for the event is recommended
in Lot P27. Traveling north on Cedar Avenue,
turn right, past Shaw Avenue, onto Scott
Avenue. For free parking, please enter the
parking code 218835 into the parking permit
dispenser located just off Rowell Avenue.
For more information, including disability
accommodations or physical access, please
call 559.278.8116 or send email to Jami
Helwig at jhelwig@csufresno.edu.
Renée Watson
2018 Arne Nixon Center Artist in Residence Fellow
2
The curious case of Louis Wain came to the attention of the Center via a
phone call from an off-campus researcher inquiring about Wain’s books.
The call revealed that the Center owns two very rare copies of antiquarian
books by the illustrator and author in its Helen Monnette Amestoy
Collection of Books About Cats.
Louis Wain was a prolific English illustrator who began commercially
drawing cats at the end of the 19th century and continued into the early
20th century. A cat enthusiast and authority, Wain’s name became as
recognizable as his anthropomorphized drawings of large-eyed cats.
The cats were often depicted in humorous situations and could be found
playing pranks, driving dog-drawn carriages or golfing on the links.
Books, articles, pop-up dioramas and picture postcards bore his artwork.
His illustrations became highly sought after both in England and America,
where he was offered his own comic strip by famed newspaper publisher
William Randolph Hearst.
Wain was always considered a bit of an odd fellow, from his eccentric
views on science to his talk of visiting spirits. He became even more
disturbed after the death of his closest sister, Caroline, in 1917. Due to his
lack of business sense, shy character, prolific nature and failure to retain
any reproduction rights for his artwork, demand for Wain’s illustrations
gradually declined. He was eventually hospitalized for his strange and
sometimes violent behavior and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Though hospitalized, Wain continued his favorite pastime of drawing
cats. Some of the cats he drew began to take on bizarre characteristics.
Often the ornate and colorful designs, barely recognizable as cats,
displayed a beautiful but psychedelic nature, leading some to assume a
direct correlation to his disease. Some believe the cat designs resembled
wallpaper patterns that Wain might have viewed while growing up in his
father’s drapery business. While it has been widely debated whether these
drawings reflect the progression of Wain’s mental illness or if he was
simply creating new design techniques, these strange cat drawings remain
an intriguing curiosity.
There has been a resurgence of Wain’s popularity since the late 1960’s
that has not been deterred with time. His work is often found these days
memorialized in the living skin of his admirers. Tattoos of his patterned
cats, as well as his more conventional cats, adorn the backs, arms, legs
and other body parts of fans of Wain’s cat illustrations.
With nearly 70,000 books in house, the Center may hold many
unrecognized treasures. Sometimes it takes an outside inquiry for these
treasures to come to light. And so it was that the Center uncovered the
curious case of Louis Wain and discovered it held the only U. S. copy
(out of a total of nine cataloged books) of The Louis Wain Nursery Book
and the only other cataloged copy in the world of To Nursery Land with
Louis Wain.
Curiosity of the Cats
Beetles, Chris. (1986). Cats! An exhibition of the works of Louis Wain
(1860-1939). York City, UK: Chris Beetles, Lmt.
Dale, Rodney. (1991). Louis Wain: The man who drew cats. London, UK:
Chris Beetles, Lmt.
I would like to become an underwriter at the __________________________ level
or I would like to purchase individual tickets at $65 each ($40 is tax deductible.)
Name _____________________________________________________________________
Address ____________________________________________________________________
City, State, Zip _______________________________________________________________
Telephone ________________________ Email _____________________________________
$1,000 Sponsor (includes 8 tickets)
$500 Patron (includes 6 tickets)
$250 Contributor (includes 4 tickets)
Please make checks payable to
Fresno State Foundation
and mail to this address:
Arne Nixon Center, Madden Library, Fresno State
5200 N. Barton Avenue, M/S ML 34
Fresno, CA 93740-8014
Come and enjoy a tranquil afternoon in a beautiful hidden garden in northwest Fresno!
The location is a secret, but will be revealed when you accept our invitation.
The Arne Nixon Center Advocates invite you to their 14th Secret Garden Party on Sunday, April 8,
2018 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Celebrate the joy of children’s poetry in a lovely garden setting as we
honor National Poetry Month in April and the new Young People’s Poet Laureate, Margarita Engle.
This year’s party supports the creation of a community mural designed by the award-winning
illustrator, Rafael López. Come paint with us! Together, we will add beauty to a Fresno neighborhood.
For more information about the Secret Garden Party, including disability accommodations or
physical access call 559.278.8116 or contact Jami Sanford at jsanford@csufresno.edu
Be an Underwriter for the Party!
You will receive free tickets and your gift will be acknowledged at both the party and in
the Arne Nixon Center Magic Mirror newsletter.
Secret
Garden Party!
A Child’s Verse in the Garden!
SUNDAY
APRIL 8
2018
SAVE THE
DATE!
✁
Picture Books Are Hot!
The Arne Nixon Center Research
Fellowship Selection Committee is
thrilled to announce the recipients
of its second-ever round of research
fellowship stipends for 2018.
This year fellowships were awarded
to Lettycia Terrones, a librarian
and doctoral student in the School
of Information Sciences at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign; and Dr. Isabel Millán,
assistant professor in the Department
of American Ethnic Studies at Kansas
State University.
Terrones’ work will utilize the Center’s
collection to explore the depiction
of domestic materials in picture
books and their representation of
Latina/Chicana women’s culture of
resistance and resilience.
Dr. Millán will examine how
marginalized communities in the
U.S., Mexico and Canada compare
when seeking culturally competent
education materials.
A third fellowship was awarded
to JaNay Brown-Wood, an
accomplished author and doctoral
student at the University of California
at Davis. Brown-Wood’s research
may reveal additional insights about
the need for diverse characters in
picture books. She will perform
studies to determine how young
children choose picture books
and how those choices may affect
the development of verbal skills.
Funding for Brown-Wood’s research
will be provided by the Arne Nixon
Center Advocates.
The recipients have one year to
complete their research in the
Center. Each will deliver findings and
information about their studies to
interested Fresno State faculty and
staff at lunchtime presentations.
The research awards, created
with funds from an anonymous
donor, encourage innovative and
robust inquiry into varied aspects
of children’s literature. Creating a
positive outcome for all involved,
the stipends support scholars from
outside the Fresno/Clovis area and
bring greater recognition to the
Center through the dissemination of
the researchers’ work.
4
November was Picture Book Month. To
celebrate, the Center was honored to display
“Picture Books Are Hot!,” a special quilt
created by Muriel Feldshuh using the work of
33 picture book illustrators.
Feldshuh, a native New York Brooklynite
and retired classroom and library teacher, is
a long-time literacy advocate and creator of
picture book quilts. Feldshuh sends blank
fabric squares to award-winning illustrators
who paint, draw and sew the blocks. They
return them to Feldshuh, who then pieces
them together to create fabulous original
quilts. Feldshuh’s body of work includes
a total of eight quilts featuring squares by
such artists as Peter Sis, Kevin Henkes,
Jan Brett and many more. The quilts have
been displayed extensively in galleries and
libraries throughout the nation.
The Center hosted a pop-up reception for
the quilt on Nov. 29. Guests viewed the quilt
along with a related display of the illustrators’
picture books while cake and punch were
served. Bookmarks, brochures about the
quilt, and activity guides created by Feldshuh
were available for attendees to take home.
A second display table showed some of
the many picture books that feature quilts
and their various functions throughout our
history and culture.
Many thanks to Muriel Feldshuh for lending
the Center her delightful picture book quilt!
2018 Research Fellowships
Each year Life Members are
honored with a tea party hosted by
our Arne Nixon Center Advocates
Board members. The special
invitation event, for Life Members
only, will take place Feb. 7 in the
library of the Smittcamp Alumni
House at Fresno State. The theme
for this year’s tea is “Together
We Blossom.”
A delicate array of finger foods and
teas will be served. A short topic-related
talk will be presented. Past
subjects for the talk have included
illustrator Kate Greenaway, authors
Beatrix Potter and Leo Politi; and a
tribute to author Margarita Engle.
Life Members are those who
have given gifts of $1,000 within
the period of a year. If you are
interested in adding your name to
the list of 70 ANCA Life Members
and attending the tea, please give
us a call at 559.278.8116 or see
our ANCA membership form.
The Center was excited in October to partner, in our
first collaboration, with Dr. Jenny Banh and Dr. Davorn
Sisavath in Fresno State’s Asian American Studies
program. Together, we brought author and Fresno
State alum Hoàng Chi Tru’o’ng for a return visit to her
hometown of Fresno to talk about her newly published
book TigerFish: A Memoir of a South Vietnamese
Colonel’s Daughter.
Tru’o’ng told an audience of more than 120 guests about
growing up in Vietnam during the height of the Vietnam
War. She talked about her family’s escape from Saigon
and their experiences and challenges as refugees in their
new home in the United States. The family was one of
the first wave of refugees to come to the U.S. from South
Vietnam. They quickly settled in Fresno.
Tru’o’ng answered many questions from the audience.
Her impetus for writing her memoir was to share her
previously unspoken story with her children and to bring
greater awareness to the plight of refugees. In a surprise
moment during her talk, Tru’o’ng was reintroduced to
a member of the church organization that originally
sponsored her family.
The indefatigable Tru’o’ng
has now published a new
picture book, No Ordinary
Sue: The Tale of a Heroic
Pumpkin. The book
chronicles the voyage of a
winter pumpkin named Sue
who becomes washed away
in the historic California
flood of 1997. As she floats
along the floodwaters,
Sue helps as many others as she can, thus gaining
confidence and eventually finding her dream life. The
book also will be published in a bilingual version in
both Vietnamese and English, Cô Bí Xu Hùng.
Tru’o’ng, who has written articles for the Huffington Post,
describes herself as a “learned optimist” and encourages
others to seek their passions and pass on kindnesses to
those who are in need.
The Arne Nixon Center gratefully
acknowledges our new and renewing
Arne Nixon Center Advocates. Their
gifts were received August 2017
through January 19, 2018.
New Members
Cynthia and Patrick Ginn
Diana Rey (Gift membership
from Alberta Steitz)
Renewing Members and
Secret Garden Party Sponsors
Aliki Brandenberg
Martha Connor
Sharon Darnell
Sue Haffner
Susan and Doug Hansen
Pat Hillman*
Ruth Kallenberg*
Shirley Kovacs
Lydia Kuhn*
Ann Lamb
Patricia Libby
Susan Loucks
Sharon Mullennix
Marcie Morrison
Claire Noland
Bonnie Pinto
Kathie Reid-Bevington
Marilyn Renna
Mary Ann Gamegan-Richardson and
Eugene Richardson
Kristene and John Scholefield*
Lisa Schoof*
Lisa and James Scroggin
Helen Sirett
Barbara Stafford
Alberta Steitz
Saundra and Dennis Stubblefield*
Lois Tarkanian*
Karen Thomas
Barbara Troisi*
Cindy Wathen-Kennedy
Chris and Howard Watkins
Tekla White
Anne Wick
Betty and Wayne Winter
Louise Wirt
In Memory of Helen Teichman
Jennifer Crow
* Life Member
Hoáng Chi Tru
,
o
,
ng, the TigerFish
Honoring All Life Members: It’s Time for Tea!
Award-winning author Alex Gino will
visit Fresno April 9 and 10. Please join
us in a big welcome! The Arne Nixon
Center, Cross Cultural and Gender Center
at Fresno State and the community
organization Trans-E-Motion have
partnered to bring Gino to speak at Fresno
State’s Diversity Week kickoff on Monday,
April 9. A catered talk will begin at 1 p.m.
in the University Dining Hall.
A second catered reception
and talk, co-hosted by Trans-
E-Motion, will take place later
that evening at 6:30 p.m. in
the University Dining Hall.
The talk will start at 7 p.m. All
are welcome! Books will be
available for sale and signing.
Gino is the author of the
Stonewall Award-winning middle-grade
novel George. The book tells the story of
a young girl who is denied the opportunity
to play the character of Charlotte in her
school play Charlotte’s Web because she
is seen as a boy named George. Her best
friend, Kelly, is the only one who knows
her secret and together they devise a plan
to once and for all let her be who she
really is.
Campus parking for either event is
recommended in Lot P27. Traveling north
on Cedar Avenue, turn right, past
Shaw Avenue, onto Scott Avenue.
For free parking, please enter the
parking code 218824 into the
parking permit dispenser located
just off Rowell Avenue.
Gino’s visit on April 10 will
include a presentation and ice
cream extravaganza for students
in a local elementary school
classroom. Gino will also talk to a Fresno
State LGBT + Literature class, which will
be studying George in the spring semester.
For more information, including disability
accommodations or physical access,
please call 559.278.8116 or send email to
Jami Helwig at jhelwig@csufresno.edu.
By George! Author Alex Gino Will Visit Fresno
Arne Nixon Center
for the Study of Children’s Literature
Henry Madden Library
California State University, Fresno
5200 N. Barton Ave. M/S ML34
Fresno, CA 93740-8014
ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
