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Aw yeah.  I’m breaking out the big guns today.  Cute kids trying to raise library funds.  The catchy song and good cause don’t hurt much either.  Seems a little town called Shutesbury has been having a difficult time raising funds for a new library.  Their old one is, as you can see “wicked small”.  So they’ve set up a lovely fundraising site but they still need help.  It’s a good cause.  If you’re feeling generous you might try to get a headstart on your yearly “giving”.  Thanks to Rich Michelson for the link!

If you feel you haven’t gotten your quota on cute kids, this lot have accents.  British accents.  Can’t get much cuter than that.  It’s a promo for the app for the Barefoot World Atlas.  A rather lovely idea and a nice way to incorporate nonfiction into an app’s layout, don’t you think?

You know, I think we’re finally getting to the point where book trailers have distinctive flavors.  For example, if you had not told me that this next trailer was produced by Chronicle, I think I would have guessed anyway.  Something about their trailers just stand out.  They are, simply put, better than the rest.  See for yourself:

By the way, I’m particularly thrilled to see this book since we haven’t had a really good sign-related picture book since the days of Tana Hoban.

As you may know, Mr. Sharp and Mr. Schu along with their #nerdbery corps are dedicated to systematically reading through all the Newbery winners from the 1920s to today.  Mr. Sharp offers his thoughts on the best and the worst.  Of the 20s I confess to only having read The Trumpeter of Krakow (the actual Newbery Medal for this resides in my library, FYI) and The Dark Frigate.  See how Mr. Sharp ranked them:

This next one’s fun.  Years ago I was enamored of a picture book called The Terrible Plop by Ursula Dubosarsky, illustrated by Andrew Joyner.  That title’s a bit of a misnomer, by the way.  No potty humor here.  In any case, I was pleased to learn that the book had been adapted into a play for the preschool set.  Now it’s coming to the New Victory Theater (just down the street from my library, as it happens) to play from April 26th to May 13th.  Andrew Joyner told me that, “Then it does a week in Pittsburgh and a week in New Jersey.  It’s a fun and energetic show – quite different from the book, almost like a clowning performance (although I think they give a straight reading of The Terrible Plop before the performance starts).  I saw it a couple of years ago with the family and we all had a great time.  It was put together by a local theatre company in Adelaide, South Australia, called Windmill Theatre.”  Interested at all?  After all, it does involve bunny puppets. Here’s the info and here’s the trailer:

Finally, f

Yep.  A good old-fashioned bit of library/musical theater parody.  Joyce Valenza got some students to explain curation things Broadway style.  They do a good job.  I was trying to think up other Fiddler-inspired MLIS songs but it’s tough.  20 points if you can come up with another.

I like to say that writing a really good picture book can be far more difficult than writing a YA novel at times.  But seriously, why choose?

It really doesn’t matter what movie I watch sometimes.  Whatever it might be, there’s always a children’s literature connection lurking in the shadows.  Last night the resident husband and I watched Nobody’s Fool (1994) starring Paul Newman.  At one point Newman’s grandson is seen reading the Tintin adventure The Blue Lotus, which is timely.  After all, we’ve got a Tintin movie on the horizon so librarians everywhere?  Stock your shelves!!!  Little Brown has put out some great kid-friendly versions of his stories (now with less racism!) that you’ll probably want to get your hands on before the film comes out (though their smaller print size is unfortunate).  Here, British author/illustrator John Fardell (The 7 Professors of the Far North) discusses Hergé’s style, why we like it so much, and how it has influenced his own art.

For this next book trailer . . . paging, Vivian Alcott.  Alcott, party of one?

When lessons are taught on quality cheap book trailers, I hope this is used as an example.  Thanks to Playing By the Book for the link.

Entertainment Weekly, of all places, had a really top notch interview with The Pigeon Man the other day.  Along the way they showed off his Don’t Let the Pigeon Run this App app.  Durn.  I may actually have to shell something out and get this one.