Last week, the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts welcomed Our Voice: Celebrating the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards, a traveling exhibition organized by the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature (NCCIL) and the American Library Association's Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table. The exhibition is the first to commemorate the Coretta Scott King Award (CSK) since its inception in 1974. 

Established to "affirm new talent and to offer visibility and excellent in writing and illustration," the Coretta Scott King (CSK) Award has become one of the most prestigious annual recognitions bestowed by the ALA, on par with the ALA's annual Caldecott award.

Of the 108 books that have been graced by a CSK, one hundred of them are represented in Our Voice, including the work of artist George Ford, who received the first award for his acrylic illustrations in Ray Charles (1973) , written by Sharon Bell Mathis, who also took home that year's inaugural author's prize. "Although the award was a recognition of artistic excellence, I was most proud of the fact that it was a reward specifically intended as a source of inspiration and encouragement to African American children," Ford said recently about the experience.

Several artists have won the award multiple times: Jerry Pinkney, for example, is a ten-time CSK award recipient, while Ashley Bryan and Bryan Collier have each won nine CSKs for their work. Additional artists represented in the retrospective are a veritable who's-who of children's picture book illustration: Brian Pinkney, James E. Ransome, Leo and Diane Dillon, Javaka Steptoe, Kadir Nelson and many others.

Recognizing the transformative power of pictures and text, the CSK award highlights how powerful imagery enriches a narrative while also serving to uplift and encourage young readers that all voices have a place at the table. The art that accompanies these stories is a beacon in what is often a dark and scary world. Sometimes the creators of these works are persecuted, but that doesn't stop them; award recipient Peter Magubane's book Black Child (1983) was banned in his home country of South Africa, for example. But, as he put it, "the only way to show the world was through pictures."

Our Voice: Celebrating the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards
is on view through January 27, 2019 at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.

After a busy fair in Amsterdam, there was just time to repack my stock and change my socks before heading off to Paris for the autumn edition of Bibliomania. This is a large event held in the Espace Champerret. Conveniently located just on the peripherique, we checked our bags into our apartment and went to set up. 

This is a long fair. Starting on a Tuesday morning, and with traders coming into the fair to buy during set up, the fair continues until Sunday evening. Fortunately, we had decided to share a stand, so we could each take a little time off to enjoy Paris. 

The fair is also large. Spread across two large halls, there are over 100 dealers, many with sizeable stands. The range of stock was particularly varied. Some tables were flowing with magazines and newspapers. Others had art prints, posters, and photobooks. Others again had traditional "book stands" with old, rare, and scarce texts. Almost everyone had a selection of erotica. I felt that we were missing out with our innocent Anglo-Saxon stock. What was almost universal, was the dominance of the French text. Not surprising, given that this is a French fair I guess.

Whilst we were at the fair, we were approached by a team creating a video about the booksellers at the fair, and asked to appear. Naturally, we said oui and once 'miked up' we talked about English bookselling in Europe (well how we do it anyway). Of course, their main interest was Brexit, and they seemed quite disappointed that I didn't know what is going to happen. 

Once of the great things about a French fair is the laid-back approach to selling, and the importance of lunch! Each day, at around 1pm, several tables were pushed out of the way (along with any customers who happened to be standing there) and a spread was laid out by some of the exhibitors. This was proper "fine dining" with tablecloths and napkins, bread, cheese, grapes, dessert, a variety of wines, soup, casserole, etc. For the next hour or so, the booths looked after themselves, whilst the exhibitors relaxed in between the stands. The occasional customer continued to forage for books without interrupting the proceedings. 

In the evenings, there were further drinks and entertainments. One of the parties I was involved in was at the Catawiki stand, which held a drinks reception for sellers. Catawiki also held a special auction of French items belonging to exhibitors, and held a raffle, where three lucky winners could obtain a Jules Verne Hetzel first edition. Very nice! This certainly generated a good crowd, and kept Kurt and Frederic busy for the evening. 

Drawing the raffle was the magnificent Erika, who is the ever-calm fair manager. She managed to keep control of over 100 exhibitors, deal with the cars in and out, and keep everyone happy for six days--no mean feat. On top of that, she kept her sense of humour through it all. 

All in all, Bibliomania is definitely on the recommended list. Friendly, enjoyable, and very different from most of the other fairs we do. We made several new friends and customers, and look forward to coming back here again.