Author Fiesta

Leo Politi Book Lists and Resources

Following up on the earlier post to guess the November artist/illustrator.  Rachel guessed that it will be Leo Politi and we discussed him some in the comments section there.  This year, November 21, would have been his 100th birthday. Jennifer just mentioned she has Song of the Swallows and was wondering if that is the author. Yes, it is! And that is just the tip of the iceburg.

Jennifer also mentioned that book is all she has. Most of his books are unfortunately out of print but very much worth finding used or from interlibrary loan if they aren't available to you locally. I find his work enchanting - very rich with cultural traditions and heritage of different ethnic groups in America. They are a great look at our melting pot history starting with the founding of the missions in California. It's still a bit early to officially start this November study but not so when one considers it may take some time to locate more books. Do take the time and effort to seek out a few of his books - you will not be disappointed!

Here is a listing of the books that Leo Politi wrote and illustrated.

Here is a listing of books that Leo Politi illustrated but were written by other authors.

Biographical resources
Leo Politi: Artist of the Angels - Ann Stalcup (children's biography)
Leo Politi: Capturing the Heart of Los Angeles - Rob Wagner (to be published No. 2008)

Samples of his art work and illlustrations.

Animal Tracks

The Jim Arnosky Author Fiesta is still going strong around the Ten Kids and a Dog home.

Joann says:

One of the kids favorite books by Jim Arnosky has been Wild Tracks! This contains beautiful Arnosky animal illustrations along with life size illustrations of mostly North American animal tracks,tracks that can be found out and about right here in our neck of the woods.

After enjoying perusing this book for a few weeks, the time came to start some projects.

Here is a sampling of the great activities they have been doing that focus on animal tracks.

Check out the entire post here.

What's Happening?

I know, I know...it's a week into October and you haven't heard anything new on the Author Fiesta blog.  Sorry about that. Cay asked me to post today so everyone would know what is going on.

So...because Jim Arnosky has such a huge volume of works and fits so well into the fall study time we are continuing with that study into this month.  With school starting, illnesses, hurricanes, etc. in our personal lives we hadn't been able to get into the Arnosky study as deeply as we had hoped.  So thanks for bearing with us.

One thing that is also happening is we are preparing quite in advance for the November study and you may want a jump start on that. I am so excited - as this is one of my favorites. The November author is a classic author illustrator who was quite prolific for the time period, but not necessarily by today's standards. Many of this author's books are unfortunately out of print so we want you to have plenty of time to request them from libraries or find them used. So I guess that means I'm opening up the guessing for November's Author Fiesta author. And a hint: there is definitely a reason for picking this author to highlight this year. After the author is guessed, I'll post.