Ah. I’ve been lax on my announcements here. Did I mention to you that this past Saturday I’d be hosting a Children’s Literary Salon at NYPL that was all about the Caldecott Award winning artist duo The Petershams? I did not. I have been lax. Thus, in the spirit of humble self-promotion I present my next bookstore appearance. It’s at the legendary Bank Street Bookstore this Saturday and you’d be doing me a solid if you attended. I need all the help I can get, after all. Here are the details!
Bank Street Bookstore – Saturday, September 14, 2013 – 2:30 p.m.
Enjoy a rollicking good time with author Betsy Bird at a special storyhour reading of her picture book “Giant Dance Party”. Betsy will put on her boogie-down blue boots and lead kids in a mini dance.
Betsy Bird knows all there is to know about kids and books. She is the New York Public Library’s youth collections specialist, she writes a blog hosted by School Library Journal, and has served on the Newbery Medal committee.
Brandon Dorman, an award-winning artist whose work can be found in “The Wizard”, and on the covers of “Fablehaven” and “Goosebumps”, brings the giants and their dance moves to life with his colorful illustrations.
They asked me to do some promotional videos for my book.
I came up with these instead. Life is too short not to have your legs eaten by legwarmers. I’m inclined to name them The Electric Blue Boogaloo.
Part One:
Part Two:
Part Three:
Part Four:
I have fun.
Okay, folks. This is where we start the self-promotion machine. I’m looking at it right now and it’s rusty and corroded and clearly falling apart at the seams. Nonetheless, I shall grab my proverbial gas can, fill the tank, pull the cord, let ‘er rip, and see where she takes me.
So first and foremost, check this puppy out: www.betsybirdbooks.com
It’s me very own website! Still in a transition phase admittedly (I’m putting the final touches on some promotional videos that’ll appear later this week) but a lot of fun. Note the lovely tabs that aid in ease of movement. Note the links to my Reviews, which happen to include this fan-freakin’-tastic one from Bookie Woogie. Seriously, it’s kind of depressing that my best review had to come out right now. Everything after this point will be downhill (though you are more than welcome to attempt to prove me wrong on this point).
Note too the fact that www.betsybird.com was already taken by a Memphis painter. Alas that I have such a potentially common name.
Lest you think I have mad website building skills, full credit for my site goes out to my sister Kate. Kate slaved relentlessly on this, which is why it’s as lovely as it is. Thank you, sis!
It’s funny to think that I’d be so new to this brave new world of marketing myself, but honestly things change so quickly these days that it can be hard to catch up. For example, I’ve made a Pinterest page for my book (it’s rather fun, I have to admit), and I’ve created a Lesson Plan for the book. Currently I’m working on making the Lesson Plan a little more aligned with the Core Curriculum (it’s fortunate that I can speak the lingo).
So what does that leave?
Um….
Party party parties!
Yes, I’m going to start doing appearances. Very very silly appearances. Appearances that are well worth viewing, if I do say so myself (oh, storytime skills don’t fail me now).
My very first appearance will be this Saturday (oh me, oh my) at the Children’s Center at 42nd Street in the main branch of NYPL at 11:30 a.m. There will be a reading. There will be dancing. There will be books for sale. There will be boots that looked like I took the pelts of chinchillas and died them in electric blue Kool-Aid. Oh, it shall be a good time!
And to be fair to Brooklyn, the very next day on this Sunday I will be appearing at Powerhouse Arena at 11:30 a.m. So if you miss one appearance you can attend another. And if it seems as though you’ve missed both? I’ll be making stops in Chicago, Grand Rapids, and Kalamazoo (as well as more in Brooklyn) this months. See my Events for more details.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Oh me, oh my, where does the time go? Here we are, it’s Monday yet again, and I’m running about like a chicken with my head cut off. This Friday I head off to Barcelona for a full week (weep for me), then back I come to promote my picture book (Giant Dance Party, or haven’t I mentioned it before?), but not before I’ve finished the promotional videos and my very first website. *pant pant pant*
With that in mind, let’s get through these mighty quick. Not that they don’t all deserve time and attention. And tender loving care. Mwah! Big kisses all around! And yes, I did consider doing an April Fool’s post today but thought better of it. If you’d like to see some of the greatest April Fool’s posts of the children’s literary world, however, please be so good as to head over to Collecting Children’s Books and read the ones that Peter Sieruta came up with. There was 2012′s post (“Selznick syndrome” is just shy of brilliant), 2011′s Charlie Sheen Lands Children’s Book Deal (still feels real), 2009′s Graveyard Book to Be Stripped of Newbery, and his 2008 Ramona piece de resistance. This is the first year he won’t have one up. Miss you, Peter.
- So I had a crazy idea for a Children’s Literary Salon panel at NYPL. Heck, I didn’t even know if anyone would show up, but I invited four different children’s librarians from four very different alternative children’s libraries. Don’t know what an alternative children’s library is? Then read this SLJ write-up NYPL Panelists Explore Alternatives to Traditional Librarianship. The happy ending is that lots of people attended and the conversation was scintillating. And timely. A nice combination.
- Did your stomach lurch a little when you found out that Amazon bought Goodreads? Well, how much should you care? Dan Blank has some answers. In Short: Don’t you worry ’bout nothing (he says it nicer than that).
- A contact recently mentioned that they would like to give a little attention to the children’s book art auction at Book Expo, a yearly event that actually isn’t particularly well known. Said they (take note!):
The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression is an organization that fights book censorship. We mostly work with booksellers, however, in Our Kids Right To Read Project, we advocate for kids when people try to ban books in libraries or classrooms. Our position is that parents have the right to decide what their own children read but they do not have the right to decide for others. Proceeds from the auction will go to our programming. Our website is www.abffe.org and for the auction we have set up a separate page where people can buy tickets and artists can donate art. It is: http://abffesilentauction.wordpress.com/.
- More me stuff. Over at Tor.com I answer the great ponderable facing the world of children’s literature today: Why are dinosaurs so darn popular? The answer may surprise you. Okay . . . that’s a lie. You know why. But at the very least I’m able to draw some conclusions you may not have necessarily come up with before. It all comes down to Freud, baby.
- I’ve a friend who passes along Common Core oddities she picks up on in the news. This week it was a tough call. Which was better? The article that said, “Alabama cannot retain its education sovereignty under Common Core” or Glenn Beck’s even nuttier-than-usual screed against CCS saying that they’ll result in 1984-type changes to the educational system? Honestly, do we even have to choose?
On the flipside, how cool is this? The Eric Carle Museum has a simply lovely exhibit up right now called Latino Folk Tales: Cuentos Populares-Art by Latino Artists. As if you needed an excuse to visit. But just in case you did . . .
I haven’t gotten much from Cynopsis Kids lately for the old blog, but there was this little tidbit I almost missed the other day: “Montreal-based Sardine Productions will develop a children’s television show based on The Mammoth Academy, a book series by British author and illustrator Neal Layton, with TVOKids, a division of Ontario’s public educational media organization TVO.”
Meanwhile, from PW Children’s Bookshelf, this little nugget of very cool news: “Anne Hoppe at Clarion Books has acquired North American rights to a nonfiction picture book by Katherine Applegate about Ivan the gorilla, the subject of her Newbery Medal-winning The One and Only Ivan. Elena Mechlin at Pippin Properties represented Applegate. In a separate deal, Mechlin sold North American rights to two middle-grade novels by Applegate, to Jean Feiwel and Liz Szabla at Feiwel and Friends.” Well that’s 12 kinds of brilliant. And how clever of Hoppe to get Applegate for Clarion. She’ll do well there. Nonfiction always does.
I don’t know about you but I was thrilled to see The New York Times write a piece on Rachel Renee Russell. When we talk about bestselling children’s books it seems odd to me that no one ever points out that the top series in children’s literature (rather than YA) right now that is written by a woman is also written by an African-American woman. Now I just want to know who the famous author was that discouraged her from writing when she was in college!
Tra la! It’s May! The lusty month of May! The time that . . . . what?
It’s March?
Seriously? Forget it then. I’m going back in my hidey-hole. Call me when it’s May. But before I go, here’s a swath of delicious Fusenews. Good for what ails ye.
First off, a gem. I got the following email from buddy and Top 100 Polls guru Eric Carpenter: “So this weekend while working on a project on Weston Woods for one of my school library media courses (yes, I’m getting a library degree!!!) I came across Gene Deitch’s blog/website. http://genedeitchcredits.com. Not sure if you’d seen this but if not take a look, just understand it might be a long, long look.”
Eric couldn’t have been more right. Gene’s a fascinating fellow and he’s quick to recount his Weston Woods days working with Maurice Sendak, with Morton Schindel, with Jules Feiffer, or with E.B. White! And that’s not even counting all the good stuff you’ll find if you go here. Eric, buddy, I owe you yet again.
- So I told myself that I wouldn’t read any reviews of my own book Giant Dance Party (due out 4/23). I figured that was a pretty safe promise to keep. I mean, I review books myself. Why invite trouble by reading other folks? And that noble intention lasted me all of *checks watch* 45 seconds before I caved. Not much is out yet, but I can say with certainty that 8-year-old Jacob at City Book Review liked the book. He is a man of fine and discriminating taste. Well played, young Jacob.
- In other Me Stuff, this past Saturday I hosted a Children’s Literary Salon in the main branch of NYPL. The topic was Diversity and the State of the Children’s Book and featured panelists Zetta Elliott, Connie Hsu, and Sofia Quintero. It was also, to put it precisely, a hit. We’ll have the audio up soon, I hope, but in the meantime Lucine Kasbarian has reported over at We Love Children’s Books. Thanks, Lucine!
- One of the many advantages of joining The Niblings (four numerical children’s literary blogs joined in bringing you only the best in children’s literary news and entertainment) is that I now have a way of actually keeping up with my fellow bloggers. Trust me when I say that I’m ashamed of how rarely I read the best folks out there. But now, thanks to the handy dandy Facebok page, I got to see the 100 Scope Notes Newbery Medal Infographic. I dare say I’m a better person for it too.
- To be frank, I probably would have also have missed the recent 2013 Ezra Jack Keats Award winners too! Back in the day these awards were given in New York Public Library. Now they’ve moved to south where the de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection at The University of Southern Mississippi makes the announcements. And the winners?
The 2013 Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award Winner Is:
Julie Fogliano for And Then It’s Spring
And Then It’s Spring is illustrated by Erin E. Stead.
The 2013 Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award Winner Is:
Hyewon Yum for Mom, It’s My First Day of Kindergarten!
VERY excellent choices.
- And the Acme Powder Company strikes again. This may be your favorite link of the day, I’ll wager. Recently Robin Rosenthal of Pen & Oink took a trip to what may well be the world’s most adorable shared studio of children’s book illustrators. Good looking too, if we’re going to be honest about it. Hear them in their own words and get a glimpse into what an artist’s studio space ACTUALLY looks like. Hint: Lots o’ creepy Victorian photographs. Once you’ve finished with that you can then head on over to Sergio Ruzzier’s new and updated website.
- Aw, what the heck. You know I don’t usually like to do anything with YA stuff, but a friend of mine asked me to mention this and I don’t see the harm. There’s a rather sweet little Delirium Fandom offer going on right now. Prove you’ve pre-ordered Lauren Oliver’s Requiem and you can get a nifty little signed bookplate. Aww.
- Did you know that there was a conference out there dedicated SOLELY to children’s nonfiction? Learn something new every day, eh? Here’s the deets:
It’s a time of re-invention, re-education, and revolution in children’s publishing. There are important developments that teachers, students, writers, and illustrators want to know about. A faculty of publishers, authors, illustrators, digital designers, and educators will inform and inspire at the 21st Century Children’s Nonfiction Conference at the State University of New York at New Paltz on June 14-16.
Topics will range from “Nonfiction and the Common Core Standards” to “Creating E-books and Apps.” The weekend will offer intensives, workshops, one-to one consultations and critiques, an illustrators’ showcase, book fair, meals, and a reception at SUNY’s beautiful Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art. Full details are at www.childrensNFconference.com.
Daily Image:
And last but not least, utterly ridiculous bookshelf wallpaper!
Thanks to BB-Blog for the link.
“Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers to kill again.”
That would be an old line from a TV column in the Marin Independent Journal by one Rick Polito describing the film The Wizard of Oz. My brother-in-law Steve brought it up this past Thanksgiving and I’ve been savoring it ever since. What better way to kick off this lovely Friday morning then, eh? The birds are singing. The fish are grumbling. Let’s get to it then!
- Let’s get the me stuff out of the way first. Lemme see, lemme see. First off, over at the blog For the Future: What Today’s Youth Services Librarians Want the Next Generation to Know I answer some questions about the state of librarianship today, what to know, what to do, etc. Then SLJ did a very nice write-up of a recent panel I moderated with the Women’s National Book Association. It was a talk with industry professionals that examined how one goes about making a YA bestseller. The article is good, but you will have to forgive my mugging in the accompanying photograph. As god is my witness, I thought the angle the photographer took meant that I wasn’t going to be in the frame. So I hedged my bets and posed, but in such a way where I look like I’m hosting a reality show and these are my ill-fated contestants. Forgive me, Hannah. I meant not to block you like that.
- Speaking of advice to folks about the fine state of librarianship, if you have not read Kelly Jensen’s corrective You’re Going to Piss People Off do so. Something to chew on for you newbies out there. Heck, something to chew on for us oldbies as well. Cause we do, man. We do.
- Oh, man. Three words for you: Ed Emberly fabric. Go wild, tootsies. You know you wanna.
- The gift giving season approacheth. The pocketbook expandeth. And the gift giving ideas dryeth up like a tiny puddleth. That’s why it’s important to have resources on hand. Resources like MotherReader’s recent 150 Ways to Give a Book. Gift giving advice. It’s the gift that keeps on . . . er . . .
I’m feeling old. I have lived long enough to see books for kids appear and disappear only to potentially reemerge years later with the force of a petition behind them. Hand me my cane, I am done, but not before I let you know about this rather fascinating attempt to garner online support. Any of you remember the Wright & Wong series from a couple years ago? Well before the current flush of books with kids with Asperger’s it was the rare pre-London Eye Mystery mystery series starring a kid with AS. Now with so many folks clamoring for books of this sort to appear, an online petition has been created and the authors are putting out the word that they need support for it to come back. To be honest, I’ve never seen this sort of thing before. Let’s watch and see what happens.
- Should you happen to read the interview with Daniel Handler in The New York Times you will no doubt curse as I did at those horrid little words, “INTERVIEW HAS BEEN CONDENSED AND EDITED” found at the end. Pfui.
- I read with great interest the opinion piece What Should Children Read? which discusses the Common Core and reactions to it. I should like to sit on it and process it for a while, though. Seems to me one of the more interesting discussions on the topic. I am torn. A tip of the hat to PW Children’s Bookshelf for aiding in this confusion.
- Several months ago the great and legendary editor Patti Lee Gauch spoke in my library with a talk entitled The Picture Books as an Act of Mischief. Now that very talk has been typed up and put online over at Horn Book. Huzzah, sayeth I. And also hooray.
You could be forgiven for wondering if artist and cartoonist Saul Steinberg ever made a children’s book. To the best of my knowledge he did not, but many was the child like myself that grew up seeing his New Yorker covers hither and thither. The discovery of this Saul Steinberg mask series pleases me to no end. Some examples:
Thanks to Lisa Brown (see you this Saturday, yes?) for the link.
You folks have been awfully good about my recent shoddy blogging, so I tip my hat in your general direction. Jules of 7-Imp and I are putting the final touches on our book for Candlewick editing-wise and, as you might imagine, it eats up large swaths of time like an irate and hungry badger. There is no situation in which a badger cannot be used as an example. True fact.
In other news, there’s an author/illustrator out there that I happen to like very much. His name is Aaron Zenz and over the years he has startled me time and again with the relative brilliance of his creativity. If he wasn’t making multiple inspired pieces for the Re-Seussification Project then his kids were contributing to the stellar Boogie Woogie blog. Well, Aaron and Co. are some of my favorite folks so when I saw the Friends of Zenz page asking to help ‘em out in the midst of some pretty upsetting surgery, you can bet I jumped on board. If you’ve a minute, you can too. They’re swell folks.
So I got to meet J.K. Rowling the other day. Yup. The woman who basically set me on the path of children’s librarianship in the first place via her books and I up and met her. You see the good Dan Blank had tickets and one of those tickets happened to have my name on it. So I got to see her speak with Ann Patchett about this adult novel of hers The Casual Vacancy (a title I’m certain she stole from the notes of Lemony Snicket) and then I stood in a long line and got my copy signed. The conversation between us is as follows:
J.K. Rowling: Thanks for coming.
Betsy Bird: Guh.
Many thanks to Dan for the opportunity. He’s blogged about the experience here and just so you writer folks know, he’s doing another session of his author platform course starting Oct 31, with a free webinar. The course features Jane Friedman, Richard Nash, Colleen Lindsay, Kathleen Schmidt, Joanna Penn and Jeff Goins as guest speakers. Info on the session is here and the webinar is here.
“COMIC LEGEND: There was a Winnie the Pooh comic strip where the characters acted a lot more aggressively than most Winnie the Pooh fans are used to.
STATUS: True”
Thus we find the strangest and maybe most engaging link of the day. Apparently there was a Winnie-the-Pooh syndicated comic strip out there for a while that contained the Disneyfied Pooh and friends. And apparently it was written by some seriously odd souls. How else to explain some of these downright weird inclusions? Comic Book Legends Revealed explains more (you’ll have to scroll down a little but they’re worth finding). This one’s my favorite:
Wowzah.
And speaking of bears . . . how do you get kids interested in the political process? Have ‘em vote for bears, of course! The West Linn Public Library had an inspired idea. They’re holding a bear election through election day on November 6 and, as they explained it to me:
“inviting kids (and adults) to vote for their favorite bear from children’s literature: Pooh, Paddington, Mama Berenstain, or Corduroy. We have also gotten staff involved by asking them to volunteer to be bear campaign managers. The response from staff and patrons has been tremendous! Our campaign managers have embraced their roles beyond my wildest dreams by designing posters, stickers, bookmarks, and games to support their bear.We are having so much fun that I thought I would share with other libraries. I have even created a campaign video for my candidate, Mama Bear—here is that link: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=vb.153513568034372&type=2“ Love it! I suppose I’m a staunch Pooh supporter thanks to my job, but it’s tough. Paddington comes in at a close second in my heart.
Okay, let’s do the Me Stuff all in one fell swoop today. First off, I made a reading list for NYC’s New Victory Theater to accompany their upcoming shows. Check it out here. I never properly thanked Miss Kathleen at Mental Floss for including me in the 24 Library-Centric Sites We Love round-up, to say nothing of the compliments regarding my video with Travis Jonker. Thanks to Maureen Petry for the links! I’m speaking at a Joan Aiken event tonight so enjoy this piece written by Lizza Aiken, Joan’s daughter, entitled Voices: The magical mysteries of children’s literature. I was interviewed at the blog The Children’s Book Review as part of their ongoing librarian series. And the Children’s Media Association blog gave me what could well be the most flattering spotlight I’ve received in my long internet life. Whew!
There was a Bibliography-Off between Judy Blume and one of my favorite comics Patton Oswalt not long ago. As Jezebel described it, “The only thing that could really be better than this (for a Sunday, anyway) is if Calvin and Hobbes were real and they spoke at a TED Talk about the vividness of a small child’s imagination.” I just wish S.E. Hinton had heeded Patton’s call to give him a hand. She’s on Twitter all the time, y’know. Thanks to Marjorie Ingall for the link!
Maybe you can’t see Phil Nel speaking in my library tomorrow about Crockett Johnson. If not, here’s the next best thing.
All right. Enough with the books. Let’s look at some up-to-date movie news directly from Cynopsis Kids. First up:
“Nickelodeon begins production this month on its new original comedy/caper TV movie, Swindle, which will star a bevy of the network’s stars including Jennette McCurdy (iCarly), Noah Crawford (How to Rock, You Gotta See This), Noah Munck (iCarly), Ariana Grande (Victorious), Chris O’Neal (How to Rock, You Gotta See This) and Ciara Bravo (Big Time Rush). Based on the popular kids book of the same name by Gordon Korman, the movie will be shot in Vancouver Canada. The movie is set to begin airing in 2014 on Nickelodeon’s 40+ international channels across Europe, Latin America, Asia and Australia. The story begins when an evil collector cons Griffin (Crawford) out of a million dollar baseball card that could have saved his best friend’s (O’Neal) home, he teams a ragtag group of his classmates (Grande, McCurdy, Munck and Bravo) to take down the swindler. Directed by Jonathan Judge (Big Time Rush, Fred 3), Swindle is written by Bill Motz (Brandy & Mr. Whiskers) & Bob Roth (Lion King 2), Eric Freiser (Road to Ruin) and Adam Rifkin (Small Soliders, Mousehunt). Marjorie Cohn (Big Time Movie, Rags), Lauren Levine (Bridge to Terabithia, Best Player), Loris Lunsford, Karen Glass and Paul Barry serve as executive producers. Scott McAboy’s Pacific Bay Entertainment is producing.”
Second up:
“Toronto-based Radical Sheep Productions (Stella and Sam, Yub Yubs, The Big Comfy Couch) acquires the rights to the graphic novel series Fangbone! Third-Grade Barbarian, by author/illustrator Michael Rex (Goodnight Goon, The Runaway Mummy). Under the deal Radical Sheep will develop a K6-11 aimed animated series based on Fangbone! The story revolves around Fangbone, a nine-year-old barbarian warrior from Skullbania who winds up in third grade at Eastwood Elementary in order to save his native land from the evildoer Venomous Drool. With the help of his new pal Bill, a lovable, average, goofy kid, Fangbone outwits his enemies while discovering the modern world.”
Sometimes the title sells it alone: Children’s Author Illustrator Elisha Cooper Gives Lecture on “Inappropriate” Children’s Books.
New Blog Alert: The election’s coming up and everyone’s getting ready. With that in mind, did you know that there’s a blog out there solely dedicated to talking about political children’s books? Kid Lit About Politics it’s called. One for the radar.
New Blog Alert II: For that matter did you know there was a mother-son blog out there (adult mother and son!) called crossreferencing: a hereditary blog? Yep. There you can find Sarah and Mark Flowers as they, “discuss YA Literature and Librarianship from our dual perspectives.” It’s pretty cool.
New Blog Alert III: Tis the season. This third new blog is actual that of The Junior Library Guild called Shelf Life. It’s currently doing a wonderful job of discussing current issues and hot books. Of particular note is the post Save [Books of Wonder] and Save Your Soul. Couldn’t have put it better myself.
Have you ever watched the movie Matilda and thought to yourself, Whatever happened to child actress Mara Wilson? Thank god for the internet, eh? Thanks to Brita for the link.
On a serious note there is a lovely memory of Peter Sieruta up at the blog Archives and Special Collections. It happens to include what may be the first picture of Peter to ever make it to the world wide web. God, I miss that guy.
The Onion’s A.V. Club has been a bit lazy in their looks at children’s and YA literature but this recent post on 2012 graphic novels is well worth reading. Many thanks to Eric Carpenter for the link!
Daily Image:
Just knowing that Gabi Swiatkowska has a blog where she displays art like the pieces below is enough to make my life complete.
Thanks to Jane Curley for the link.
Wonka Opera. Hard to say. Harder still to see since the darn thing keeps closing. NPR recently had a great story on the opera Golden Ticket, and the various trials it underwent in a bid to be seen by the masses. The world premier is now going on at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. One of my best friends is the great up and coming contralto Meredith Arwady. I’ll need to find a way to finagle her into that show. Thanks to Marci for the link!
A couple weeks ago we started getting some strange requests in the Children’s Center. Young men in their 20s and 30s were coming in asking for Michael Morpugo’s War Horse. We only have a single circulating copy in the system, while the reference copy sits securely in our stacks. After much blood, sweat, and tears that reference copy was located… only to disappear again a bit later. But why did all these people want to see it? Turns out, Steven Spielberg’s to blame. As The Independent reports, Europe’s finest join up for ‘War Horse’. A casting call went out in NYC as well, hence the hoards of folks looking for the book. It’s out of print, but fear not librarians of the world. By September it looks as if it will be reissued once more. Or so sayeth Baker & Taylor.
- When it comes to children’s literary illustration, no gallery does it like the R. Michelson Galleries. Of course, this being the art world and all, Richard Michelson also exhibits other kinds of art. At the moment he’s gearing up for an exhibit of Leonard Nimoy’s photography. Rich sent me two links about the show (here and here) and then asked me, “Can you recognize the 7 children’s book writers/illustrators that participated in this photoshoot?” Hoo boy. I got one out of seven. Should have gotten two too. You’ll do better in this game if you have an inkling of what authors and illustrators reside in the Northampton, MA area of the world. I wonder how many of you out there will beat my score.
- Big N.D. Wilson news out this week. According to Variety: “Mpower Pictures (‘The Stoning of Soraya M.’) and Beloved Pictures are teaming to co-produce C.S. Lewis’ fantasy novel ‘The Great Divorce.’ Veteran producer and Mpower CEO Steve McEveety will lead the production team. Childrens’ book author N.D. Wilson (‘Leepike Ridge,’ ‘100 Cupboards’) is attached to write…” And SPEAKING of 100 Cupboards: “Three-year-old Beloved Pictures is developing ‘100 Cupboards,’ having acquired feature rights to the N.D. Wilson young-adult fantasy trilogy.” Well played, Nate. Well played indeed. Thanks to Heather for the link.
- You know, blogs are always doing these cute little book giveaway things which is fine. But reporting on them? Dull
Oh, so very much has gone on this week! Where to begin? What to do? Well, for starters, NYPL released a handy dandy list to accompany their current exhibit The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter. I helped make said list, which is officially called 100 Great Children’s Books, 100 Years. So, two things. #1: We didn’t say “best” or “most popular”. We just said great. These are great books. Hard to argue with that. And #2: It’s just the stuff published in the last 100 years. So before you get your knickers in a twist, there is a reason The Secret Garden, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland are nowhere in sight. NYPL even lets you buy the books in little packages by age level or the whole kerschmozzle at one time. Groovy.
WOW, to the Gary Soto thing. I was just in grad school, so that whole thing was right over my head. It was definitely pre-kidlitospere; I can imagine that in that court of opinion he might not have come out entirely better, but the discussion, I hope, would’ve been kinder and more well-rounded. I hope he goes back to writing; seriously, I think we’re all big enough to deal with the idea of urban flight now.
We’re sorry they won, Mr. Soto. Will make finding a copy of A Simple Plan my mission this fall.
Sorry we can’t make it to Montclair to see you read your book today, Betsy. (We have a prior appointment at Smorgasburg.) They’re going to love you at Watchung Booksellers!
[...] books. (Of course, it’s not a surprise it’s a terrific list. Librarian Betsy Bird helped create it.) There are a handful of books on the list that I have never heard of, and [...]
Well, I appreciate your considering it just the same. And it was a lovely little event. They were just the nicest folks.
Hi Betsy- I’m glad you enjoyed my program ideas. Let there be reading! Let there be dance! Let there be sketching and reading and dance! – Helen