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• Hi-ho, folks. Well, there’s a nice little second part to that interview I did with Kidlit TV last week.  Basically, if you’ve ever wanted me to predict the Newbery and Caldecott on air or offer up my assessment of the worst written children’s book of 2014, you are in luck.  I think there may even be some additional free copies of WILD THINGS: ACTS OF MISCHIEF IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE in the offering as well.

• In other news, I wouldn’t call this next link workplace safe.  Not because it’s gross or inappropriate in any way.  More because it’s going to make you laugh out loud, probably in a rude snorting-like fashion.  The kind of sound a hippo might admire.  When I worked the children’s reference desk there were certain websites I was not allowed to read because they’d make me give great gulping guffaws and scare the little children.  And a close close examination of Goodnight Moon?  Yep.  That would be dangerous.  Ditto the author’s previous post on Knuffle Bunny.

• Hey, New Yorkers! Those of you who happen to find yourself with time to spare this Sunday and need somewhere to be.  You like author Gregory Maguire?  You like Tuck Everlasting?  You like the idea of actually seeing Natalie Babbitt for yourself live and in person?  Well Symphony Space is having a heck of a cool event with all these elements put together, and I cannot help but think you’ll have a good time if you attend.  Just sayin’.

• I come home from work the other day and my husband says, “So. You heard about that J.J. Abrams / Mo Willems thing, right?” Come again?  What the which now?  Yes indeed, there was a story going around the news about a case of mistaken identity between Mo Willems and Mo Williams.  It’s a funny piece, but I do wish they let us know if Abrams ever actually got in touch with Mo.

• Full credit to Zetta Elliott.  She has created a list of all the 2014 African American Black-authored middle grade and young adult novels were published in the US in 2014.  She found 40.  An incredibly low number, but the list should prove useful to those of you preparing for some African-American book displays in your libraries and bookstores.

New Blog Alert: With two small children in the house (slash taking up valuable cranial real estate) I haven’t indulged in my blog readings like I used to.  I miss things.  So a picture book blog like Magpie That can exist for lord only knows how long before I see it.  And talk about content!  Or a beautiful layout!  If the plethora of illustrators providing magpies along the side are any indication, this site’s been up for a while. A lovely thing to stumble upon then.

Oo!  Thing!  So recently PW was kind enough to write up my last Children’s Literary Salon on the topic of science fiction for kids (as in, why the heck don’t we have any?). Now I know that some of you are planning on coming to NYC for the SCBWI Conference at the beginning of February.  I’m sure you have a lot on your plate, but if you just happen to be free on Saturday, February 7th at 2:00 p.m., take a stroll over to the main branch of NYPL for my (free!) Children’s Literary Salon on “Collaborating Couples“. The description:

Living together is one thing.  Working together?  Another entirely.  Just in time for Valentine’s Day, join married couples Andrea & Brian Pinkney (MARTIN & MAHALIA) and Sean Qualls & Selina Alko (THE CASE FOR LOVING), and Betsy & Ted Lewin (HOW TO BABYSIT A LEOPARD) as they discuss the pitfalls and pleasures of creating collaboratively.

For a full roster of my upcoming Salons (more are in the works) go here.

My list of family favorites is skewed toward books or series my wife and I have been able to share and enjoy with our two daughters (ages 9 and 6). We have many other favorites, but unlike the characters in my own books, I’m a notorious rule follower. So here are just five that have had the biggest impact so far.

#7 Knuffle Bunny, A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems (2004)
129 points

These perfect pictures of New York City complement the family tale of Daddy who is wrong, wrong, wrong, and Trixie, who is totally right, but can’t yet say words to tell him. Heartwarming and hilarious. – Diantha McBride

And this is the book that sealed that obsession evermore. Mo-tastic. - Pam Coughlan

There have been others, and they are just as good, but this one still makes all of us smile (and my youngest is six now). Sometimes, the first one is still the best. - Melissa Fox

This may be a shocking inclusion on the Top 10 list to some, but for others they might remember that last time I conducted this poll Knuffle Bunny came in at a reasonable #10.  Now it moves up three spots, which may owe as much to its continued popularity as to the success of its subsequent sequels.  I do wonder if even Mr. Mo knew that Trixie would gain a trilogy out of the tale of one lost bunny.

The plot from my old review reads, “Trixie and her pop are off to the local neighborhood Laundromat one bright and sunny day. They get there, load the clothes, and take off for home when little Trixie comes to an awful realization. Knuffle Bunny, her beloved favorite toy, is missing. Unfortunately for her, she has not yet learned to talk. After some valiant tries (my favorite being the single tearful ’snurp’) she feels she has no alternative but to burst into a full-blown tantrum. This doesn’t make her father any happier and since he hasn’t realized what the problem is, he takes her home as she kicks and screams. Once home, however, her mother quickly asks, ‘Where’s Knuffle Bunny’? Back runs the whole family to the Laundromat where, at long last, the beloved bunny is recovered and Trixie says her first real words.”

Its origin story is rooted in a happy accident.  Alessandra Balzer (of Balzer & Bray, an imprint of Harper Collins) was in an office with Mo and his art director as he vaguely told a story about his daughter.  Alessandra insisted that he turn the story into a book, so he went home to try.  He’d done a comic about his family for a DC comics anthology but, as he says in Leonard Marcus’s book Show Me a Story: Why Picture Books Matter, “the characters weren’t popping and I couldn’t get it to work.  Then one of my drawings accidentally fell on top of one of the photographs on my light box, and I suddenly had the idea to combine the two.”  That distinctive look is part of what sets KB apart from the pack.  He result is that Willems believes that by combining drawings with photos “They’re purer than more realistic drawings of the character would have been, because their design focuses on their emotional side.”

Mo spoke at a SCBWI conference in the Pacific Northwest about five or six years ago.  At the time he discussed the fact that Knuffle Bunny was the first Caldecott Honor winner to contain photography in any way, shape, or form.  He’s been asked since then why he made such a “bold” choice.  The fact of the matter, though, is that he partly saw it as a time saver.  Of course, once he got into it he didn’t realize the amount of soul-sucking hours it would take to resize the characters so that they’d be proportional within their photographic environment.  As it happens, the result is that he managed to create one of the only (perhaps THE only?) Caldecott Honor winners to incorporate photography into its images.

Said Horn Book, “There’s plenty here for kids to embrace. There are playful illustrations and a simple, satisfy

It begins!  The thing with the books and the thing with the thing.  Which, if you wish me to be slightly more coherent, roughly translates to, “It begins!  The Battle of the Kids’ Books wherein great authors go through great books to decide which ones they like the best!”  This little video is kicking everything off.  Starting tomorrow (Monday) you’ll get to see Judge Francisco X. Stork decide between As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth vs. The Cardturner. I think my vote may go with The Cardturner on this one, though it would be a pity to lose Perkins this early in the game.

Just a quick note . . . I couldn’t really find much of any any embeddable videos this week.  My apologies.

Kickstarter’s great.  Any project anywhere can put a video on there and get some attention.  And what’s really been interesting lately have been the books folks have been selling on there.  It’s a whole new business model!  For example, here in New York there’s an avant garde production of Pinocchio due to open (more on that soon).  There is also, however, a book to go with the production.  If you love great illustration, kooky videos, and the weirdness that is the actual Pinocchio, this is a hoot:

And here’s another Kickstarter vid.  Though I would have preferred that it not single out librarians as censors of Huck Finn (dudes, seriously?) I did enjoy this video for a new edition of Twain’s classic that has been lacking only one thing until now: robots.

Tellingly, the fund which meant to raise $6,000 has now raised $30,030.  People like their robots, it seems.  Thanks to mom for the link.

Doesn’t the dad in this still look like Phil from Modern Family?

Phil wouldn’t be a bad model for the dad in Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical, it occurs to me.  In any case, that was a video of Mo Willems talking about making the book of KB in the first place, as well as bringing it to the stage.  Of course, it occurred to me that it was a bit of a pity that the Kennedy Center didn’t wait until all three books were published so that they could do one epic Knuffle Bunny show.  The Lilly books by Kevin Henkes did that and I always considered them a grand success.  Anywho, thanks to Mr. Mo for the link.

And for our final off-topic video it’s art.  And paint.  And a crazy cool art/paint creation.