Summer Professional Development Part One

I am in Boston right now, getting ready to attend SLJ Diversity Bootcamp. Yesterday, I attended their Basecamp. But, I came up on Sunday. I took the long way to Boston and stopped first at one of my favorite children's lit places in the world. Any guesses where?

Yes! The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art! I first visited the museum in 2004 with #2 son on our way to his college orientation. The museum was celebrating 35 years of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I have an old photo (an actual photo, not a digital one) of a cookie that had a hole in it. I bought it along with an absolutely memorable curried chicken salad in the cafe. When I idly wondered why the hole, the cashier said, "The very hungry caterpillar?" Ah, yes!

Well, sad to say, the cafe is no more. It's an eating space with vending machines, but everything else about the museum is intact and still wonderful!

The exhibits were of 60 years of Paddington Bear and the art of the Dillons. 

I will confess that I'm not really a fan of Paddington, but the exhibit was interesting as I was unaware that there were multiple illustrators over the years. There was also a section devoted to the movie, which I found curious until #4 son told me later that the movie was excellent. I'm teaching a new elective called Book to Film to eighth graders this year, so I tucked that tidbit away for later.

I was also struck by this:

I know that I read differently when I read a screen. I hadn't considered writing would be affected. 

The Carle curators also create some whimsy, as they did when I was here for the Beverly Cleary exhibit. 

I didn't take too many pictures of the Dillon exhibit as I was too busy getting lost in the art.

I almost skipped the library as I had been in every other time and it hadn't appeared to change. I'm so glad I went in. There was an exhibit of inclusive picture book art on the walls above the shelves. I grabbed the information leaflets and stopped to ask the librarian about the exhibit. It turns out that the librarian was also the creator/ curator of the exhibit! Score! We had a lovely chat. 

Of course, I stopped at the gift shop and showed great restraint. I can't recommend this museum enough.

But wait! "What has this to do with PD?", you might ask. I need to leave for my boot camp and will return with a part two talking about yesterday's Basecamp. But I would argue visiting the museum counts as PD!

ETA: I plan on returning during NJ Teacher Convention weekend to see this.