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Ladies and gentlemen . . . the moment I’ve been waiting for.

Wait! Wait!  Background information first!

So for years I worked as a children’s librarian and I’d get girl after girl after girl coming up to my desk asking for funny books.  I credit some of this to Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  The boys and the girls loved that series and wanted more of the same.  Sometimes they wanted it in a notebook novel format, like Kinney’s book.  Sometimes they just wanted something hilarious, and they seriously didn’t care who wrote it.  So I’d grab books for them and then it slowly began to dawn on me.  Huh.  For all that I could find some pretty fantastic and hilarious books out there for kids, where were the funny story collections written by women?  Turns out, there weren’t any.

Until now.

I would like you to join me in applauding the following authors and author/illustrators . . . .

• Cece Bell
• Sophie Blackall
• Libba Bray
• Lisa Brown
• Adrianne Chalepah
• Alison DeCamp
• Carmen Agra Deedy
• Kelly DiPucchio
• Lisa Graff
• Shannon Hale
• Charise Mericle Harper
• Jenni Holm
• Akilah Hughes
• Amy Ignatow
• Christine Mari Inzer
• Lenore Look
• Meghan McCarthy
• Mitali Perkins
• Leila Sales
• Raina Telgemeier
• Deborah Underwood
• Ursula Vernon
• Rita Williams-Garcia
• Delaney Yeager
• and Mackenzie Yeager

Each one of these women has contributed to my new book Funny Girl: Funniest. Stories. EVER.

Behold!  The cover by the aforementioned Charise Mericle Harper:

And here’s the full jacket in its entirety:

A portion of the proceeds of this book go to Write Girl, a Los Angeles-based creative writing and mentoring organization that matches girls with women writers who mentor them in creative writing.

When’s it out?  May 9th, 2017!  Feel free to pre-order it.

Oh! And while I’m thinking of it, there’s this other really fun thing that just started that I have to let you know about.  As I may have mentioned before, my husband’s first book The Secrets of Story just came out recently and I could be prouder.  He’s already put up a couple great videos alongside it (the latest is here and is about those little moments of humanity that make you like a character).  But fun upon fun upon fun, he’s created a podcast with YA author and 90-Second Newbery Film Festival creator James Kennedy and it may well be my favorite thing of all time.  I love it when James and Matt get together because they agree on NOTHING!  And now they’ve a podcast together where they can extol the beauty of that nothing together.  It’s huge fun for me, and it ends with a little feature where they mention a story idea they had that they decided wouldn’t work and give it away (as it were) to the masses for use.  So if you like the process of writing or you just like banter, I’ve your new favorite podcast.  The Secrets of Storytelling podcast is available through iTunes.  Subscribe today!

World Space Week has been celebrated for the last 17 years, with events taking place all over the world, making it one of the biggest public events in the world. Highlighting the research conducted and achievements reached, milestones are celebrated in this week. The focus isn’t solely on finding the ‘Final Frontier’ but also on how the research conducted can be used to help humans living on Earth.

The post Space travel to improve health on earth appeared first on OUPblog.

The Airport Book
By Lisa Brown
A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook, an imprint of Macmillan
$16.99
ISBN: 978-1-62672-091-6
Ages 4-7
On shelves May 10th.

Look, I don’t wanna brag but I’m what you might call a going-to-the-airport picture book connoisseur. I’ve seen them all. From out-of-date fare like Byron Barton’s Airport to the uniquely clever Flight 1-2-3 by Maria Van Lieshout to the odd but helpful Everything Goes: In the Air by Brian Biggs. Heck, I’ve even examined at length books about the vehicles that drive on the airport tarmac (see: Brian Floca’s Five Trucks). If it helps to give kids a better sense of what flying is like, I’ve seen it, baby. And I will tell you right here and now that not a single one of these books is quite as good at explaining every step of the journey as well as Lisa Brown’s brand new The Airport Book. I’d even go so far as to say that it’s more than just an instructional how-to. Packed with tiny details that make each rereading worthwhile, a plot that sweeps you along, and downright great information, this one here’s a keeper to its core.

“When you go to the airport, you can take a car, a van, a bus, or even a train. Sometimes we take a taxicab.” A family of four prepares for a big trip. Bags are packed with the haste that anyone with small children will recognize. Speed is of the essence. As they arrive at the airport we meet other people and families taking the same flight. There’s airport security to get through (the book mentions the many lines you sometimes have to stand in to get where you’re going), the awesome size of the airport itself, the gate, and then the plane. As we watch the younger sister in the family is having various mild freakouts over her missing (or is it?) stuffed monkey. The monkey in question is always in our view, packed in a suitcase, discovered by a dog during the flight, and finally reuniting with its owner on the luggage carousel. The family meets up with the grandparents and at last the vacation can begin. That is, until they all have to go home again.

The problem with most airport-related picture books is something I like to call the Fly Away Home conundrum. Originally penned by Eve Bunting, Fly Away Home is one of those rare picture books out there that deal with homelessness in a realistic way. The story features a father and son living out of an airport. Since it touches on such an important, and too little covered, topic, the book continues to appear on required reading lists, in spite of the fact that the very premise is now woefully out-of-date. There are few areas of everyday American life that have changed quite so dramatically over such a short amount of time as the average airport experience. That’s why so many things about The Airport Book rang true for me. When Brown covers the facts surrounding departures and goodbyes to family and friends, she doesn’t set the scene inside the building but rather on the sidewalk outside of ticketing, as people are dropped off. Later you see people at their gate plugging in their cell phones willy-nilly (something I’ve never seen in a picture book before). It lends the book a kind of air of authenticity.

The story’s good and the art’s great but what I liked about the book was the language. Brown never tells you precisely what is going to happen, but she does mention the likelihoods. “Sometimes the plane is bouncy, but most of the time it is smooth.” “Sometimes the sidewalks and staircases move by themselves.” “Sometimes there are small beeping cars driving through . . .” As you read, you realize that in a way the narration of the book is being created for us from the perspective of the big brother. He’ll occasionally insert little notes that are probably of more use to him than us. Example: “You have to hold your little sister’s hands tight, or she could get lost.” Mind you, some of the sections have the ring of poetry to them, while staying squarely within a believable child’s voice. I was particularly fond the of the section that says, “Outside there are clouds and clouds and clouds.”

With all the calls for more diverse picture books to be published, it would be noticeable if Ms. Brown’s book didn’t have a variety of families, races, ages, genders, etc. What’s notable to me is that she isn’t just checking boxes here. Her diversity far surpasses those books where they’ll throw in the occasional non-white character in a group shot. Instead, the main family has a dark-skinned father and light-skinned, blond mother. Travels through the airport show adults in wheelchairs, twins, women in headscarves, Sikhs, pregnant ladies, and more. In other words, what you’d actually see in an airport these days.

And then the little details come up. Brown throws into the book a surprising array of tiny look-and-discover elements, suggesting that perhaps this book would be just as much fun in its way as a Where’s Waldo? game for older siblings as it is their younger brethren. Ask them if they can find The Wright Brothers, Hatchet (don’t think too hard about what happens to the plane in that book), the mom’s copy of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, or the person looking for Amelia Earhart (who may not be as difficult to find as you think). There’s also a cast of characters that command your attention like the businesswoman who’s always on her cell phone and the short artist with the mysteriously shaped package.

There’s nothing to say that in five years airports will be just as different to us today as pre-9/11 airports are now. Yet even if our airports start requiring us to hula hoop and dance the Hurly Burly, Brown’s book is still going to end up being the go-to text desperate parents turn to when they need a book that explains to their children what an average airplane flight looks like. It pretty much gets everything right, exceeding expectations. Generally speaking, books that tell kids about what something is like (be it a trip to the dentist or a new babysitter) are pedantic, didactic, dull as dishwater fare. Brown’s book, in contrast, has flare. Has pep. Has a beat and you can dance to it. Like I said, this may be the best dang going-to-the-airport book I can name (though you should certainly check out the others I’m mentioned at the beginning of this review). A treat, it really is. A treat.

On shelves May 10th.

Source: Galley sent from publisher for review.

Like This? Then Try:

• Flight 1-2-3 by Maria Van Lieshout
• Everything Goes: In the Air by Brian Biggs
• Five Trucks by Brian Floca

Interviews: Miss Marple’s Musings

I invited Lisa onto Miss Marple’s Musings because I fell in love with her art for her latest collaboration—MUMMY CAT, written by Marcus Ewert! As a feline-fanatic, I this memorable story within a story set in Ancient Egypt is one … Continue reading →

I ‘met’ Joy a couple of years ago through her FB page Got Story and love her contributions to the kid lit community. She has been curating a fabulous exhibition in Southern California and it is open for another ten … Continue reading →

by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Lisa Brown

published 2014 by McSweeney’s/McMullens

Do you know Because of Winn-Dixie? (Have I told you about the time I told Kate DiCamillo I wrote because of Winn-Dixie and obviously meant because of Because of Winn-Dixie but she cackled and my heart soared?)

Anyway. There’s a thing called a Littmus Lozenge. It’s a candy that makes you taste your sorrow and your sad and your sweet, all at once. Maybe it’s the thought of a lozenge sounding like something medicinal, or maybe it’s cause this pharmacy gave me both comfort and the heebie-jeebies, but reading this book felt a little like tasting a Littmus Lozenge.Something unsettling hovers around this place, but it beckons me, too. And I’m not alone in that: those two myth-collectors/busters are at once intrigued and terrified.

It’s weird and charming and confusing and a head-scratcher all at once.

I think that’s exactly what makes it a successful story for kids. Everything doesn’t have to make sense. Offbeat is okay.

Because let’s face it: kid are weird and charming and confusing. They teeter in that fuzzy place between wonder and reality. This is a book that honors this and celebrates that. Is it suspicious, a lady going in and coming out in the same outfit? No. Not necessarily. But see: you are an adult. You are past your prime of delighting in the bizarre and making sense or screwballs out of it. When you read this, rest in it. Let it catapult you from being a grownup. It’s good for you. And then share it with a kid. They’ll get it.Physically, I love the compact trim size because it feels like a manual, like a notebook, like some peculiar pamphlet to some oddball prescription in the pharmacy. It’s like a secret. A hush.Then! The cover unfolds to show the depths of the Swinster Pharmacy. When you flip it over, there’s a map of the town. Don’t ask me why I didn’t show you that. Just trust me. (If you dare.)

P.S. – Another numbered book I loved recently is How to Bicycle to the Moon to Plant Sunflowers, by Mordecai Gerstein. A total must read if you love quirk and lists like me.

The publisher provided a review copy of 29 Myths on the Swinster Pharmacy, but thoughts and love are my own.

Are you culturally challenged? Do you feel out of it at parties?   Click here! 


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All right, all right, all righty, all right then.  Where to begin . . . I know.  With a tribute that deserves notice first and foremost.  I had heard that Laura Amy Schlitz was writing an obituary for her friend, fellow writer Eva Ibbotson.  I expected it to be brilliant.  It has, in fact, exceeded my expectations.  So much so that it gives me the rather morbid hope that I die before Laura just so that she can write an obit for me as well.  Nobody does it better.

• Hooray!  It’s time of the year again!  The Best Book lists of 2010 are beginning to arrive.  Just the other day New York Public Library decided on their 2010 list of 100 Books for Reading and Sharing (I’m not offering any hints, but it’s good).  They’ll be printing that soon.  And now Publishers’ Weekly has release their own Best Children’s Books 2010.  I don’t agree with all their choices, but it’s certainly got some great books on there.  Be sure to check it out.

• Speaking of Bests, my co-author Peter Sieruta at Collecting Children’s Books just printed the list of the 2010 ABC New Voices list of “outstanding debut books by authors for middle-grade and young-adult readers.”  I must say, I’m more than a little disappointed in the results.  No Adam Gidwitz.  No Kate Milford.  No Margi Preus.  No N.H. Senzai.  We must have been reading very different authors this year, those independent booksellers and I.  I would like to read The Clockwork Three, though.  I’ve been hearing good things.

• Wow!  So somehow I was unaware that Lisa Brown (she of the recent picture book Vampire Boy’s Good Night) had created a large archive of three panel cartoon reviews of various works of classic literature.  Or, if not classic literature, at least well known literature.   Some of you, I know, will be fond of the Little House one.  Thanks to Educating Alice for the link.

• Got word the other day from illustrator Annie Beth Ericsson that due to the fact that NYC’s Mayor is declaring a brand new Illustration Week soon, she is going to interview a whole slew of new up-and-coming illustrators “many of them children’s book-related” on her blog Walking in Public.   Sounds good to me.  Please note, oh ye librarians that work with small children, that a couple of the illustrators have images that aren’t necessarily workplace friendly.  Good stuff that should be checked out, though!

• The screening of the children’s literary documentary Library of the Early Mind went swimmingly here at NYPL last week.  But don’t take my word for it.

• You know that
  7 Comments on Fusenews: “swinish Milneish parts”, last added: 11/11/2010
  Display Comments
  Debbie Reese said, on 11/9/2010 5:07:00 AM
  

  Hi Betsy,

  That was my first visit to Kalamazoo, and I liked it so much, that I’ll pose the question (to you) that I often get… Why did you leave there? (For me, its “why did you leave NM for Illinois? and the answer is grad school.) The library is gorgeous. And the rolling hills, fall colors… And the hospitality, too! All in all, a terrific visit.

  Regarding my reference to the list… Did I note that it wasn’t your personal list? I don’t, in fact, recall just what I said, but will make absolutely sure to do it in the future when I reference the list in a lecture. I was talking about the prevalence of stereotypical images and referenced the list and my analysis of the list. Words matter, as I take great care to point out, and I certainly don’t want to add confusion to the work you do, and did, with that list. I’ll make a clarification on my post about the seminar.

  An aside… yesterday I pulled up Amazon’s list of “Bestsellers in Children’s Native American Books” and posted that list to my blog. I haven’t done much with it yet, but it occurs to me that it’d be interesting to see how much cross-over there is from that list to the list generated from your poll.

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 11/9/2010 8:21:00 AM
  

  Thanks, Debbie! Ah, Kalamazoo. You know, as a kid I always thought I’d end up in Kalamazoo again. Somehow that hasn’t quite turned out that way, but I’m a big-time fan of the town. So glad they treated you well! They’re swell folks, those Kalamazooians.

  And many thanks for understanding why I’d want to clarify that my list was a poll rather than something I conjured from my own noggin. I do agree with you on a fair number of the titles and find your commentary a necessary part of the list itself. And thanks for letting me know about the new post to your blog! I too would be interested in seeing how much crossover there is.

  Now what’s your take on that graphic novel collection Native and that new MG novel The Mourning Wars? I’ve been dying to know!

  Debbie Reese said, on 11/9/2010 9:38:00 AM
  

  The graphic novel… I wish the people who put it together (designers?) had made clear what tribe each story is from. The info is in the back with the bios, but I’d have liked to see it with each story.

  MOURNING WARS? I don’t know it… I’ll look for it. Publishers do not send me books. I only get them when someone asks me “have you seen” — and then I track things down, usually buying them or borrowing from the library. I read some blogger’s comments, about how publishers send them books, and I wonder how they get on those publisher’s distribution lists.

  I admire how much you are able to do. I have stacks of things around me that I’ve not yet blogged about. Like LAST SUMMER OF THE DEATH WARRIORS, which I like. And, I’ve got Pratchett’s NATION here with dozens of tags sticking out…. things that ‘broke the magic’ for me (to use Cynthia Leitich Smith’s phrase from her talk at Kalamazoo). And I just got I AM NUCHU… But, I’m teaching, and put a lot of time into that.

  Richard said, on 11/9/2010 9:44:00 AM
  

  Sometimes I think authors should leave well enough alone rather than ruin a good thing. I’m referring to the debate in the Observer on whether JK Rowling should continue with another Harry Potter book. In the context of this post Betsy alluded to the prequels of the Star Wars saga.

  Well…this just got my juices flowing…

  Coincidently, the other day on cable TV I saw the movie Phantom Menace (prequel #1) for only the second time in my life. The first time was in a theater when it was released back in 1999.

  I thought it was bad then. But sitting through the movie a second time really drove home how bad it really was.

  I was interested to see how others felt, so I went out on the Internet and poked around. On You Tube there was a review of the film that was one of the funniest and most clever things I’ve ever seen. Actually, it was more a “seven part dissertation” on how not to make a movie (or craft a story).

  Due to some coarse language, as well as a few short segments that are a bit off-color, the 7-part video may not pass “Video Sunday” muster. But otherwise, it was spot on! It’s a compendium of everything concerning “story as it relates movies”. Of course the observations are equally applicable to “story as it relates to books”.

  In this season of Newbery debates, putting aside all the individual nitpicky criteria, for me a book boils down to one thing…
  Does it tell a good story.

  For a primer on how not to craft a story:
  1- Watch the original Star Wars movie.
  2- Watch The Phantom Menace.
  3- Find the You Tube “Phantom Menace Review Part 1″, and view all seven parts.

  One of the opening lines of the vide #1 review is:
  “The unfortunate reality of the Star Wars prequels is that they will be around…forever.
  They will never go away.
  They can never be undone.”

  :paula said, on 11/9/2010 2:48:00 PM
  

  Jeez, I was using Anakin Skywalker as an example of how NOT to evolve a villain (I was reviewing Barry Lyga’s Archvillain), and I could not even bring myself to link to anything from those Star Wars prequels. SO BAD. My kids adore them though, which really calls their judgment into question, in my opinion.

  Elizabeth Bluemle said, on 11/11/2010 4:41:00 PM
  

  Betsy, publishers had to submit their books to be considered for the New Voices program, which accounts for the omission of those wonderful books you mention.

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 11/11/2010 7:32:00 PM
  

  Gah! Then I shall run about NYC kicking the publishers in the shins. Thoroughly.

  Add a Comment

You could be forgiven for thinking you could get through the day without seeing a Dickensian interpretation of Thriller.  Some folks are Harry Potter fans.  Others love Oz.  It is the Dickens fan that is the most interesting to me sometimes, though.  My friend Marci informed me that when Michael Jackson died there were a host of different versions of Thriller.  This one is definitely amongst the silliest.  Thanks to marchek for the link.

So Happy Halloween, everybody!  Yesterday I attended a Halloween party as The Lonely Doll (my husband was Mr. Bear).  I’ll try to wrangle up pictures if I ever get a chance.  Now I’ve been steadily collecting pertinent links to this particular day all year, and now at last I can finally show them off.

For example, we have Calef Brown.  What I need you to do here is to promise to watch at least one minute.  One minute.  And after that one minute you can turn it off, if you like.  But I don’t think you will.

My sole regret here is that he never uses Kalamazoo as a rhyme.  Hometown silly name pride!  By the way, some of these (perhaps all) are from Mr. Brown’s Hallowilloween.  There’s your tie-in.

Today is meant to be a scary day, so here are a couple costumes that are certain to strike fear in an adult hearts.  Though I do kind of have to agree about their statements regarding the last costume.  I’m a sucker for flapperwear.  Thanks to Sarah for the link.

It must be useful to be married to an accordionist.  There are all sorts of applications readily at hand.

Feel a little silly dressing up this year but don’t want to look like a complete wet blanket when going out with your kids door to door?  Why not compromise by wearing this t-shirt?  It’s the Ghost Host’s spiel from The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland.

Thanks to BoingBoing for the link.

In New York City, of course, it’s a little difficult to go trick or treating.  There are, of course, other options.  For example, if you’ve older kids, you can take them to the local 1 Comments on Happy Halloween! Video Sunday Goes Goth., last added: 10/31/2010