Celebrating I'M NEW HERE

The September 19 launch party and film preview for I'm New Here was wonderful. Master-minded and MC-ed by the ever brilliant and resourceful Kirsten Cappy of Curious City, the event drew some 70 people, including this crew from the filming at Hall School:

 

Hall School Community Coordinator Tina Mikkelson (l), with student video stars, teacher Anne Nordstrom, 

me,  filmmaker Fred Ben, and Kirsten Cappy (background)

I read the book and we shared Fred's video of students talking about being new and being welcoming: 

and his interview of me talking about creating the book:

Read a post about the making of the video.

People wrote messages about what it feels like to be new and how to welcome...

 

And shared welcome signs in our photo booth.

My Charlesbridge editor, Julie Bliven 

Our official paparazzi, Pious Ali, who in a former life was a fashion photographer in Ghana

Thanks to my hardworking intern, University of Southern Maine art student Caitlyn Hubbard, who greeted everyone at the door.

Launch party!

Serendipity

An artist friend, Jo Israelson, has been working for months on an art installation called, "Welcoming the Stranger: Building Understanding Through Community-Based Art," here in Portland, Maine. The exhibit highlights the treatment of immigrants in Portland during the 1920’s with their treatment today. Several events included in the two-month-long calendar of "Welcoming the Stranger" feature my just-released book about immigrant children, I'm New Here.

Tonight was Jo's opening at the Jewish Museum in Portland. At her suggestion I brought a few copies of the book to sell. While paging through the book, one attendee noticed a detail in the second illustration: The  poster on the wall had today's date: Thursday, September 3. 

I don't recall if when I made the illustration more than a year ago, I checked to see what day September 3 would fall on in 2015. I certainly had no idea at the time that the date I chose would end up being the first public event after the book's release! 

I'm New Here RELEASED

My latest book, I'm New Here, launches into the world today! Though it's brand new, some exciting things are happening with it already:

• A starred review in Kirkus! - "heartfelt and poetically rendered" (see 5/24/15 post)

• In June,  children's book advocate extraordinaire, Kirsten Cappy of Curious City and I presented a workshop, "New Immigrants, New Approaches: Serving Your Community's Deep Diversity with Programming and Acquisition," at the American Library Association conference in San Francisco - and just received the report that we got stellar evaluations! We introduced I'm New Here as we talked about the stages of adjustment for immigrant children and our project about children's literature featuring new arrivals, I'm Your Neighbor Books.

Our entire presentation is available as a pdf here.

•  In late July, marvelous videographer Fred Ben (above, with me), Kirsten Cappy (below, R), and I met with 25 fabulous children - including Fatho (below, center) - and their wonderfully supportive teachers (thanks for making it happen, Tina Massa Mikkelson!) at Hall School in Portland, Maine.

I shared the book and we talked about being new, being different, and being welcoming. Each child drew pictures and made posters of their thoughts and feelings. The next day, we got to interview the child individually as they talked about their work. So delightful; I fell in love with every single face.

The footage from two days of filming will be shaped into a short book trailer and a longer teaching tool, to spark discussions about immigration and welcoming at schools across the country and around the world, available for the September launch.

• On Saturday, September 19, I'm New Here will be launched at an all-ages event at Portland Public Library, Portland, Maine, 2:00-4:00 p.m., during National Welcoming Week.

• On October 22, I'll be presenting this workshop at the "Language, Culture & Identity" conference of the Multilingual & Multicultural Center of Portland Public Schools, Maine:

Immigrant Children in Picture Books

A review of recent, recommended titles featuring refugee and immigrant children, focusing on the countries of origin of those currently settling in Maine. We'll explore how these books can be used to support students - and their mainstream classmates - as they move through stages of adjustment.

• On November 7, I'll be presenting I'm New Here and many other titles in a workshop for K-12 teachers entitled, "'That’s My Story!' Young Refugees and Immigrants in Children's Books," at the Northern New England TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) conference at UNH in Durham, NH.

Stars in My Eyes

Last week I received the great news that my upcoming picture book, I'm New Here, received a starred review in Kirkus!

"O’Brien’s watercolor-and-digital illustrations masterfully use perspective, white space, and the contrast between the children 'back home' and in their new settings to highlight the transition from outsider to friend. ...
Whether readers are new themselves or meeting those who are new, there are lessons to be learned here about perseverance, bravery, and inclusion, and O’Brien’s lessons are heartfelt and poetically rendered."

My editor, Julie Bliven, commented in an email that, "I feel as though the reviewer was sitting at our table two years ago at Simmons and listening in on you, me, and Whitney [art director]. They really understood what you were trying to achieve."

It's thrilling to have a beloved project recognized in this public way. And it's rare - and deeply affirming - to be gotten, to have the book described exactly as we envisioned it.

This mention increases the likelihood that the people who are looking for books about immigrant children will find it, and best of all, that it will get into the hands of children who will find themselves reflected in my book.

Thanks, Kirkus!

Finding the Audience for a New Book

I've just begun the Udemy Course for Freelancers taught by author and entrepreneur Seth Godin. Subscribing to his blog, I've found that at least a quarter of his daily posts are so useful, challenging or thought-provoking that I wanted to share them and/or save them for further reflection. 

In his course, a series of 87 short videos with writing exercises, Godin guides students through a process designed "to create a non-generic, unique and remarkable individual who has the leverage and the freedom to make a ruckus." There's also a comment board where students can post their responses and engage in discussion. 

I decided to take the course to focus on the project of finding the audience for my forthcoming title, I'm New Here, a concept picture book about three immigrant children, coming out in August from Charlesbridge.

The first part of the course, "Why Freelance?," includes a series of questions which Godin encourages respondents to answer publicly, in blogs or on Facebook. Here goes...

Who Are You?
1. What do you want to do?

Big picture: To create appealing, engaging children's books that touch people of all ages, connecting them to each other across race, culture and other differences, and to bring these books to a wide audience. 

Current project: To find the audience for this book: To get a copy of I'm New Here into every public school in the U.S.

2. Who do you want to change, and how do you want to change them? 

To increase awareness of and empathy for the challenges of being a new arrival among the teachers and classmates of refugee and immigrant children, and to inspire them with ways to support new students through the adjustment process.