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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.

• A special congrats to Mara Rockliff for winning the 2013 Golden Kite Award for her truly awesome Me and Momma and Big John for Picture Book Text.   Why I do so rightly believe I made that one of my 100 Magnificent Books of 2012, did I not?  Yup.  Surely did.

• 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 21^st 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.

Well, first things first!  The Ezra Jack Keats New Writer and New Illustrator Awards were handed out two days ago, and at long last I can finally tell you the winners.  These awards are given out to new authors and illustrators of children’s books with no more than three books to their names that “portray the universal qualities of childhood, a strong and supportive family, and the multicultural nature of our world”.  This year, Laurel Croza wins the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award for I Know Here:

And Tao Nyeu wins the New Illustrator Award for Bunny Days:

Congrats to both winners !

• How very interesting.  TIME for Kids has come up with a Summer Book Review.  Which is to say, they’re recommending books that will be new and in print this summer, from other publishers.  One wonders how they came up with this particular list.  Thanks to Mr. Schu for the link.

• The art of the clever blog post title is difficult to teach.  My method tends to be to come up with something vaguely interesting, or to simply quote somebody famous but obscure in the hopes of making approximately four other people in the world happy.  This is not an effective strategy.  Playing by the Book did it better when it came up with the recent This post has taken me 6 months to write … Seriously.  How on earth is a person supposed to resist that?  Warning: Contains Danes.

• NPR has looked at Wendy McClure’s Little House inspired title The Wilder Life.  This is not to be confused with the short lived Gene Wilder television show Something Wilder.  And that, ladies and gentlemen, is your non-essential trivia of the day.

• I admit to being disappointed when I heard that Woody Harrelson had cornered the role of Haymitch in the upcoming Hunger Games movie, but only because I had my heart set on John C. Reilly.  Honestly, it’s not bad casting (he can actually act, so that whole drunk/charming/reliable/unreliable thing will go over like gangbusters).  It’s the casting of Stanly Tucci as Caesar Flickerman that has me baffled.  Honestly I just figured they’d get Regis Philbin, dye his hair blue, and be done with it.  Tucci will give the whole project a strange horror.  Seems the only big part in the film left to cast would be President Snow.  My vote?  Tommy Lee Jones.  An insane choice, but I can’t think of anyone more frightening you could put in that role.  And when was he last allowed to play a baddie anyway?  I think he needs to make Batman Forever up to us.  Not that they could afford him, I suppose.

• Aw.  I wish I could say I was surprised when I heard that Wonderland, the Alice musical update, was
  8 Comments on Fusenews: Your source for any and all Gene Wilder trivia, last added: 5/13/2011
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  Zoe said, on 5/11/2011 10:22:00 PM
  

  Ah! Will have to see if I can track down Laurel Croza’s book – that’s new to me. As to plant pots my favourite this week has been this (nothing to do with books, but such a clever use of cacti!) – http://etsy.me/jimdyd.

  And can’t you help me out with a lovely Danish picture book suggestion? I’m still searching….

  tanita said, on 5/12/2011 2:27:00 AM
  

  Hahahahahah! Poor Eragon. Donated mine to the library.

  I do think Woody Harrelson as mercurial, unreliable drunk will go over well — but I hear ya on Tommy Lee Jones – he is Scariest Man Ever when he plays the villain. I vote yes! And I’m glad to hear that the author of Anna Hibiscus is soldiering forward. I do get tired of other people trying to determine what an author knows, based on such flimsy assumptions. Those books really are cool.

  Jennifer Schultz said, on 5/12/2011 6:18:00 AM
  

  That Time magazine summer reads section is great-a mix of good lighthearted reads and some reads that are a bit more serious.

  Jennifer Schultz said, on 5/12/2011 6:21:00 AM
  

  Just read the reviews from the Time for Kids reporters. I’m impressed!

  Maureen E said, on 5/12/2011 8:58:00 AM
  

  I’m so glad I read to the end of this post. The Eragon line cracked me up.

  Brooke Shirts said, on 5/13/2011 9:46:00 AM
  

  Yeah, Tommy Lee Jones would be great as Pres. Snow — but my heart is set on having him portray the uber-scary Mayor Prentiss in the imaginary film version of The Knife of Never Letting Go!

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 5/13/2011 10:00:00 AM
  

  I’ll flip you for him.

  Children's Librarian said, on 5/13/2011 12:44:00 PM
  

  LOL Betsy on the “Eragon” quip! I’m not sure that book would even be good enough as a planter, but it would be a use for it at least. I, sadly, don’t feel like I can part with my copy because it was a gift from the dear friend that introduced me to my husband. And while the book was awful, her friendship and her match-making skills are bar none. She wouldn’t be insulted if she knew I gave it away, though!

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As far as I’m concerned, every good blog post should begin with fiction starring Gregory Peck.  What we have here is one of the luscious finds boasted by Greg Hatcher over at the site Comic Book Resources.  I’m a big fan of Hatcher because when he does round ups like this one he always takes care to mention a lot of collectible children’s literature.  In this post alone you’ll see what the going price is for a good old hardcover Oz or Narnia title, as well as his discovery of Millions of Cats.  I remember that when I conducted by Top 100 Picture Books Poll that Millions of Cats was the surprise Top Ten winner.  Folks continually forget to give it its due.

• Collecting Children’s Books has the usual plethora of wonderfulness up and running for your consideration.  First Peter discovers and prints out the complete shortlists of Newbery contenders between the years of 1973-75 (something I wish they still did) and then in a different post considers the state of recent children’s books and whether any of them have been made into Broadway musicals.  None that I can think of, since A Year With Frog and Toad isn’t exactly contemporary.  Coraline did sort of make it to Broadway a year or so ago (or was that considered off-Broadway?), but that’s the only one I can think of.

• Hey hey!  While we were all sleeping the candidates nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award were announced.  You can see the full list of candidates from countries all over the country here.  If I had the time and ability I would familiarize myself with all those names that are unknown to me.  On the American side of things, however, here are the USA representatives: Ashley Bryan, Eric Carle, Julius Lester, Grace Lin, Walter Dean Myers, Anne Pellowski, Jerry Pinkney, Reading is Fundamental, and Allen Say.  Good luck, guys (and well played Grace for being the youngest).  Here’s hoping some of you make it to the final consideration.  After all, the Lindgren is the largest monetary award a children’s writer or illustrator can win.

• It was a good week for finalists of all sorts, actually.  The National Book Award finalists were released last week and included Paolo Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker, Kathryn Erskine’s Mockingbird, Laura McNeal’s Dark Water, Walter Dean Myers’ Lockdown, and Rita Williams-Garcia’s One Crazy Summer.  How interesting it is to me that non-fiction didn’t make even a sin
  7 Comments on Fusenews: Encyclopedia Peck, last added: 10/19/2010
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  Zoe @ Playing by the book said, on 10/17/2010 11:15:00 PM
  

  Thanks so much for linking to my UK kidlit tour! Yes, the musical Matilda looks wonderful. The songs have been written by Tim Minchin, a very funny and usually quite acerbic comic so I can’t wait to hear how they’ve turned out.

  Brooke Shirts said, on 10/18/2010 9:20:00 AM
  

  Ah, but there IS a rather comprehensive list of children’s book awards — the Database of Award Winning Children’s Literature (www.dawcl.com) which is kept stunningly up to date by librarian Lisa Bartle. According to the site, “DAWCL has over 8,300 records from 91 awards across six English-speaking countries (United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, and Ireland). ” Although I will admit that neither the Jo Osborne Award or the Zena Sutherland Award appears in the database, this is still one ding-dang useful resource. (Who knew that the Society of School Librarians International gave out an award?)

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 10/18/2010 4:53:00 PM
  

  Brooke, this link may have seriously improved my quality of life. Thank you! I had absolutely no idea. To the internets!

  Sergio Ruzzier said, on 10/18/2010 6:40:00 PM
  

  Here is another taxidermy-related image for your blog! Sophie Blackall’s window case, part of the Drawn in Brooklyn show: http://sophieblackall.blogspot.com/2010/09/drawn-in-brooklyn.html

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 10/18/2010 7:11:00 PM
  

  Brilliant! The mark of the first stuffed penguin. Love the hat. Thanks, Sergio!

  Amy Sears said, on 10/19/2010 3:37:00 PM
  

  Off Broadway seems to be the home of Children’s Books into musicals today “Freckleface Strawberry-The Musical” is playing at the New World Stages of course my favorite musical based on a children’s book has got to be The Secret Garden which actually was on Broadway back in the early 90’s.

  rams said, on 10/19/2010 6:50:00 PM
  

  I’ll grant the requirement was “recent,” but if someone else brings up “The Secret Garden,” how can I resist? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7_a5nqWC_c

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