A popular pavilion feature at the National Book Festival, especially among young readers and their families, is “Discover Great Places Through Reading” -- a free map of the United States that can be presented at each table for an appropriate state sticker or stamp. On the back, the map includes “52 Great Reads About Great Places,” a reading list of books for young people compiled with a recommendation from each state.
Every state selects a book and author to represent itself for the festival, and this year the WV Library Commission's Center for the Book has chosen
GOLDEN DELICIOUS: A CINDERELLA APPLE STORY by Bridgeport, WV author Anna Egan Smucker. More than 120,000 people attended the festival last year.
Here is a link to this year's poster: 2009 Festival Poster - 2009 National Book Festival (Library of Congress)
There are several "apple" books on the market. I was pleased that Kirkus Reviews called my book, GOLDEN DELICIOUS: A CINDERELLA APPLE STORY, a "standout."
Kirkus Reviews 2008 September #1
This lightly fictionalized story of the golden delicious apple truly reads like a fairy tale. In 1905 Missouri, the famous Stark Bro's Nursery is the place farmers send their apples, hopeful that the brothers will want to sell the apples to their customers. But Paul and Lloyd are picky, likening each taste of a new apple to trying a glass slipper on one lady’s foot after another to try to find Cinderella. Meanwhile, in West Virginia, Anderson Mullins discovers a one-of-a-kind apple tree on his property that produces the most delicious golden apples. They win fair ribbons, yield year after year and stay sweet even through winter storage. In 1914 he sends three to the Starks and it becomes their Cinderella apple. Paul journeys to West Virginia to buy the apple tree, bringing back twigs to graft onto the trees back home. And from that one tree, every golden delicious apple is descended. The colors of Kemly's charming watercolor-and-ink illustrations neatly evoke the time period and the agricultural theme. A standout amidst the proliferation of apple books found in elementary classrooms. (author's note) (Picture book. 6-10) Copyright Kirkus 2008 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.
Yesterday I found out that an Australian newspaper wrote an article "Young Reader Inspired by Famous Namesake" about my Australian cousin Anna Egan (who I wrote about in this post) and me. Here's a little bit of the article:
Anna's mum, Yoshi Egan, of Cleveland, said they were so excited to discover a children's author in West Virginia had the same name that they immediately began searching for her books in Australia.
The book Golden Delicious by Anna Egan Smucker had to be especially ordered from the US and Yoshi said Anna saved for the book herself.
"We then encouraged her to write to the author," Yoshi said.
"My husband told her not to expect a reply but she did get a reply and it came with a book signed by the author."
Click here for the whole story: Young Reader Inspired by Famous Namesake
A wonderful pairing of my Golden Delicious book with a children's Golden Delicious tree care kit is now available from Stark Brothers nursery. How exciting! Here's an excerpt from an article published in the Charleston Gazette on Jan. 24, 2009:
West Virginia author Anna Egan Smucker’s newest book is featured in the Stark Bros. nursery catalog as part of a grow-your-own fruit tree kit for children.
The nursery's kit includes a copy of the book, a Golden Delicious Dwarf Apple tree ready for planting, a "My Apple Tree" planting guide for kids, a children's tree care kit and a patch. It sells for $41.97. To get a kit, visit starkbros.com/KidsClub/.
For the full article, go to the Gazette's website.
Apple books are popular for teachers to use in teaching students about science - especially during apple picking season. There is a wealth of across-the-curriculum teaching ideas & resources for teachers with activities for all grade levels at the www.usapple.org educators’ site and at www.nyapplecountry.com/edplansa.htm
Scholastic's Kid Lit Kit blog author Jeremy Brunaccioni posted a really nice review of Golden Delicious: A Cinderella Apple Story in his Picture Book Thursday "Harvest Time" edition. He also reviewed the book Corn by Gail Gibbons and The Best Gift of All which was written by Jonathan Emmett and illustrated by Vanessa Cabban.
The blog is about how teachers can teach with books. The review is about how teachers can use Golden Delicious in their classrooms and is as follows:
Golden Delicious: A Cinderella Apple Story
If you’ve ever read Michael Pollan’s The Botany of Desire and thought the apple information would be useful in the classroom but too advanced for your students, then this is the book you’ve been waiting for. It traces the discovery and distribution of the Golden Delicious. The author’s note is extensive and intriguing enough to make me want to plant some apple trees in my yard.
Activity
Purchase a selection of apples to have a taste testing and graph the results. Invite a neighboring class or two and compare their graph results. Bon appetit!
Thanks Kid Lit Kit!
me and the Mullins family
GOLDEN DELICIOUS: A CINDERELLA APPLE STORY made its official Grand Debut at the West Virginia Book Festival in our state capital of Charleston. I was delighted with the response. After my slide presentation, both the WV Book Company and Borders sold out of their copies!
A great and unexpected pleasure was meeting several descendants of Bewel Mullins, the brother of Anderson Mullins, the Clay County farmer who discovered the Golden Delicious apple. What a terrific family! The above photo shows Helen Elaine Whited Dawson, Helen Suzanne Mullins Plybon, Nancy Margaret Mullins Schaffner, me, and David Lonnie Mullins. They're justifiably proud to have their "family" story in a book.
As always, the West Virginia Book Festival, held the second weekend in October, was a great energizer for me. It's fantastic to be in the company of so many fellow-booklovers. A huge THANK YOU!! to all those people, especially the librarians, the WV Book Festival committee, and all of the volunteers who work so hard to put this annual event together.
It's also a wonderful opportunity to hear other authors read from their work. I was especially impressed with Ann Pancake who read from her powerful book STRANGE AS THIS WEATHER HAS BEEN. This novel brings home in a visceral way the devastation of mountaintop removal mining on our land and people.
Recently I had the pleasure of doing a presentation on my new book, GOLDEN DELICIOUS: A CINDERELLA APPLE STORY at the Mary H. Weir Public Library in Weirton, WV. It was great to be back in my hometown where I also spent a day at St. Joseph the Worker Elementary School sharing my books with the students and doing a poetry workshop with the 8th Graders. The teachers went all out, wearing apple motif pins and vests, and the walls of the hallway were filled with delightful artwork done by students in response to my various books. There was even a delicious apple cake in the teacher's lounge. What a memorable school visit. Thank you St. Joe's!
The photo shows Linda Kucan, a professor in the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education, and my best friend ever since 7th Grade. (In my book NO STAR NIGHTS Linda is the "best friend on the slag hill.) In the middle, is her niece Jordan Porter who along with her brother, Tyler, helped out tremendously with book sales, and that's me on the right.
This is about Golden Delicious: A Cinderella Apple Story, my newest book. This detail sheet was released by the publisher in fall of 2008.
Golden Delicious
A Cinderella Apple Story
Written by Anna Egan Smucker
Illustrated by Kathleen Kemly
Paul and Lloyd Stark, owners of the Stark Bro’s Nursery in Missouri, were looking for the perfect apple. It would be sweet and juicy. It would bring them fame and fortune, and would be crowned Queen of the Apple World! Box after box arrived from farmers who were sure they had grown the perfect apple, but none of the apples was quite right.
Meanwhile, many miles away in the hills of West Virginia, Anderson Mullins was inspecting his new farm. It had been a hot summer and everything was dry as dust. He certainly didn’t
expect to find a glossy, green-leaved tree loaded with shining yellow apples.
When the Stark brothers received Mullins’s yellow apples in the spring of 1914, they were astonished—the apples tasted so crisp and delicious! Was this the apple they had been looking for? Paul Stark set out on a thousand-mile journey to see this marvelous tree for himself.
Based on real events, this story of how the Golden Delicious apple came to be is perfect for discussions on nature and growing fruits and vegetables. Kathleen Kemly’s detailed, cheerful art creates the perfect setting for Anna Egan Smucker’s charming text. The author lives in West Virginia. The illustrator lives in Washington State.
Golden Delicious
A Cinderella Apple Story
ISBN 13: 978-0-8075-2987-4
$16.99 • Age Levels: 6-8 • Grades: 1-3
Pub. Date: September 2008
Pages: 32 • Size: 8 x 10
Illustrations: Full color
Hardcover Binding
Thanks Booklist! This review for my Golden Delicious book appeared in July of 2008:
This lively, true tale is set in the American heartland more than 100 years ago. The Stark brothers dream of cultivating the perfect new apple in their Missouri nursery, and farmers send them floods of varieties to try, but even fruits that look like royalty do not taste good. Then a poor farmer in the hills of West Virginia finds a new tree with Golden Delicious apples in his field, and he sends the fruit to the Starks.
At first the brothers are dismissive of the yellow apples until they taste them and find what they’ve been searching for.They rush by train and on horseback, find the tree, and graft twigs onto their own apple trees. Since then, Golden Delicious apples have become known as the queen of the apple world and billions have been harvested. A note fills in the botany, including how grafting works, and the folksy, colored-pencil illustrations, shaded with lots of earthy golds and greens, show the ordinary people who find glowing surprise.
-Booklist
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