Jen Bryant, 55, of Glenmoore has written more than 30 books for young readers, from nonfiction to verse novels. Her most recent work, The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus, illustrated with vivid multimedia art by Melissa Sweet, won the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal and received the Caldecott Honor Book award this year.

The annual Sibert Prize, presented late last month at the American Library Association conference in San Francisco, goes to the most outstanding U.S. children's information book in English of the past year. It is managed by the Association for Library Service to Children. As we learn below, Bryant found out much earlier when the awards ceremony took place in June.

What was it like winning the Sibert Medal?

We're having a Super Bowl party in our basement in Glenmoore. I was cutting hoagies when I got a call from Chicago. [home of the American Library Association]. I almost didn't pick up because I didn't know the number. I ran upstairs because our guests were arriving and started dancing around my office.

Why Roger? Why a picture book about words?

The thesaurus is so common for everyone, but no one has poked around in it [Peter Mark Roget’s] life and written about him for children. He was fascinating. Actually, I came across the topic by chance. My husband's family lives in the Pittsburgh area and I decided to attend the visit. I thought I had thrown in a book from the library to read, but I had brought the thesaurus with me. … It was not arranged alphabetically but according to its own categories. This really introduced me to the person behind the book and sparked the rest of my research. There was a lot of trauma [Roget’s] Family, a lot of transience. He started making these lists as something he could rely on, like driving stakes into a tent to keep it from blowing away.

What interested you in picture book biographies?

[Children’s book author Eileen Spinelli] pointed out the connection between the poems I wrote for magazines and the art of picture book manuscripts. Jerry [Spinelli] was also extremely helpful. Drawing on poetry, I also began writing novels in verse, combining individual poems to tell a whole narrative, as in The Trial. [about the 1935 Lindbergh baby kidnapping].

How do you get used to the mindset of your young audience?

I think that the emotional memory of what it was like to read as a child is a kind of timeless practice that all children's book authors do, even though children today have smartphones and other devices and their lives are more organized than ours. The emotional foundations of being a child are the same. It's important to remember this. So if you're writing for children, don't write anything down for them.

I go to the local YMCA. There are conversations here and there at the mall and the grocery store. I have four younger nephews. I also do a lot of school visits. Between my lectures I find out what they are reading and what they are doing. When I had a verse novel, especially when [daughter Leigh] I was in upper elementary, middle, and high school and asked, “What do you notice?” What do you like about it? What is unclear?”

Describe your collaboration process with illustrator Melissa Sweet.

[My publishers] chose Melissa Sweet for it [2008 book A River of Words] about William Carlos Williams. This book happened to win a Caldecott Award. …I don't advise her or tell her what to do during the illustration process. She has my finished manuscript in front of her and makes the artistic decisions for each page. The exception was the time we were working on it [Horace] Pippin Book: We went to the Brandywine River Museum. . . . She goes back to her studio in Maine and does her art separately.

We asked Jen Bryant

Favorite moments from “The Right Word”: The two-page London street scene where a chimney sweep says, “Do you need to clean, sweep, mop your chimney?” Bryant comments, “Roget really understands people and knows that they speak differently depending on their background .”

What picture books did she read as a child? Books by Dr. Seuss (Green Eggs and Ham) and PD Eastman (Put Me in the Zoo or Go, Dog, Go!) and Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are.

Who are some of your favorite children’s authors right now?

Kate DiCamillo, Jerry and Eileen Spinelli and Cynthia Rylant.

The post Jen Bryant of Glenmoore, award-winning kids’s author appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Scrolling through Instagram on a recent Tuesday, Kevin Diedrich said one image caused him to pause. His award-winning bar, Pacific Cocktail Haven, appeared just as it used to on-screen. It had been a year since an early morning fire triggered by electrical issues forced the celebrated watering hole to temporarily close.

“Last week was our one-year anniversary on Feb. 22,” Diedrich told SFGATE in early March. “It showed up in my Instagram feed … and it was tough. There was so much blood, sweat and tears that went into that place.”

Last February, Diedrich was stirred awake around 3 am by the firm buzz of an incoming call. On the other line, a loyal PCH customer frantically cried, “Kev! Kevin! Your bar is on fire. You’ve got to get down here.” It’s a call Diedrich will never forget as he described the difficult moment to SFGATE after the fire was extinguished. Diedrich then grabbed his belongings and sped to his bar, just a few blocks away from his home , and was confronted with every business owner’s worst nightmare.

Thick, black smoke billowed from the structure as fire crews actively worked to get the blaze under control. By 4 am, the fire was out but it was far too late for the Lower Nob Hill bar that endured severe structural damage. The fire also destroyed all the existing bar equipment, including funky glassware gifted to the bar by customers and Diedrich’s personal collection of rare liquor bottles amassed at conventions or on his travels abroad over the past 10 years.

Owner Kevin Diedrich poses with his signature Thrilla in Manila cocktail at the new location of the Pacific Cocktail Haven in San Francisco on Mar. 11, 2022. The bar is reopening in a new location after being closed for more than a year following a destructive fire in February 2021.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

“The equipment wasn’t really a concern because that can always be replaced,” Diedrich said. “We had a nice collection of mugs that people would bring from their travels and we would put them up on the beam. Those are things we can’t replace. I think the liquor was the hardest thing for me because they don’t make a lot of these bottles any more. But, at the end of the day, it’s just alcohol and no one was hurt.”

Five years of business had vanished in a moment, but Diedrich, an eternal optimist, wouldn’t let the fire crush his fighting spirit. Nearly a year after the incident, Diedrich, along with business partners Andy Chun and Jan Wiginton, looks forward to reopening the bar March 16 — just three doors down from its original home.

PCH will shift from the bar’s former moody atmosphere at its previous location and welcome guests into a new bright and warm space at 550 Sutter St. Dozens of lights suspended from the ceiling will illuminate exposed brick and a sundry of tropical plants positioned throughout the space. It’s a look Diedrich describes as “subtly tropical” but “not over the top.”

The new interior location for Pacific Cocktail Haven in San Francisco on Mar. 11, 2022. The bar is reopening in a new location after being closed for more than a year following a destructive fire in February 2021.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

The larger PCH will also offer more wiggle room to comfortably host about 100 customers at max capacity where it can avoid the bottleneck issue often experienced at the former building. But among the greatest features PCH will gain, especially at the two-year pandemic mark, is a gated courtyard positioned by the storefront that Diedrich said is a “game-changer.”

“The biggest thing that attracted us to the building was having this gated courtyard in front of the sidewalk,” he said. “That’s something to be very excited about.”

Securing a new home for PCH was a combination of perseverance, good luck and a connection with the landlord at the new site. The latter came during the pandemic, when PCH was allowed to use the courtyard to seat customers for outdoor service, in addition to the four parklets PCH already owned.

A live plant wall along the exterior seating at the new location for Pacific Cocktail Haven in San Francisco on Mar. 11, 2022. The bar is reopening in a new location after being closed for more than a year following a destructive fire in February 2021.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

After the fire, Diedrich lost 100% of his equipment and inventory, which resulted in about $430,000 of total losses. He said his insurance only covered $230,000. It was yet another blow for Diedrich, but with the help of a friend, PCH was able to raise an additional $53,000 of donations on GoFundMe that helped pay for staff wages. The stress of it all had Diedrich and his team weighing their options, even entertaining the ugly idea of ​​calling it quits. But he was resolute. Remaining closed wasn’t an option.

“I’m just the type of person who just doesn’t back down on a fight,” Diedrich said. “PCH was my first bar — my baby. So, I said, ‘Let’s buckle down and see what we can do.’”

Determined to stay within Lower Nob Hill, Diedrich and the team reached out to the landlord at 550 Sutter St. to ask about setting up a bar and eventually struck a deal that will bring PCH, which was dubbed the “Best American Cocktail Bar” in the 2020 Spirited Awards, back.

A photograph of the old location of Pacific Cocktail Haven was on the wall of the new location in San Francisco on Mar. 11, 2022. The bar is reopening in a new location after being closed for more than a year following a destructive fire in February 2021

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

“We had looked at other spaces around the city, but they just didn’t speak to me personally,” Diedrich said. “So, it just happened to work out and we were very fortunate to stay on the block. Our main goal was to stay in this neighborhood.”

PCH’s return comes two years after San Francisco announced shelter-in-place orders on March 16, 2020, and in the aftermath of pandemic closures that shuttered dozens of San Francisco bars and restaurants within the last year alone.

When PCH opened in 2016, it was surrounded by neighboring businesses such as Hopwater, Summer Place, Hogwash and Liholiho Yacht Club. Each has experienced temporary or permanent closures.

Drinks line the shelves behind the bar behind the new location for Pacific Cocktail Haven in San Francisco on Mar. 11, 2022. The bar is reopening in a new location after being closed for more than a year following a destructive fire in February 2021.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

While there is some concern on Diedrich’s part regarding the empty storefronts nearby, he also said he believes the timing is right. If his other bar, Kona’s Street Market in SoMa, is any indicator, people are coming back.

“Business has been picking up the last week, so that’s definitely a good sign,” he said about Kona’s Street Market. “People are out and about and getting comfortable.”

Diedrich admits that, in many ways, reopening PCH feels like he’s debuting a different bar. That sentiment comes in part from the new space, but also due to a fresh set of bartenders and staff. During the pandemic, many of his veteran bartenders either shifted to different roles within hospitality or left the industry altogether. It resulted in 95% new talent at PCH, with the exception of bar manager Francis Stansky, who’s stayed on board since day one.

Owner Kevin Diedrich pours one of his signature Thrilla in Manila cocktails at Pacific Cocktail Haven in San Francisco on Mar. 11, 2022. The bar is reopening in a new location after being closed for more than a year following a destructive fire in February 2021.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Stansky and Diedrich are leading the charge with intense training that focuses on teaching the staff how to fashion the bar’s famous drinks, among other aspects of running the business efficiently. For now, PCH plans to maintain its existing Rolodex of cocktails inspired by bold Asian flavors, so guests new and old can taste standbys like the miso old-fashioned, Thrilla in Manila and Kung Fu Pandan, among other classic bar staples. Eventually, PCH plans to add more creative libations down the road.

It’s been a roller coaster of a year for Diedrich who kept the momentum going with PCH pop-ups and road tours to Fresno and Las Vegas to keep the brand alive. With Wednesday’s reopening, Diedrich said he and his staff are ready for PCH 2.0.

The exterior sign for the new location for Pacific Cocktail Haven in San Francisco on Mar. 11, 2022. The bar is reopening in a new location after being closed for more than a year following a destructive fire in February 2021.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

“We opened PCH in 2016 with not a whole lot of money … so there’s definitely like a lot of memories of how hard we fought to get the bar open,” he said. “[But] I’ve never been a negative person, so we’re trying to find the positive, not dwell on things, and push forward. I’m surrounded by a lot of awesome people that keep you going… and we’ve built something awesome and special.”

Pacific Cocktail Haven opens March 16 and is now at 550 Sutter St. For now, the bar will operate from Wednesday to Saturday from 5 pm to 12 am

The interior of the new location for Pacific Cocktail Haven in San Francisco on Mar. 11, 2022. The bar is reopening in a new location after being closed for more than a year following a destructive fire in February 2021.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

The post Award-winning San Francisco bar PCH reopens after fireplace appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.