How to use this Page

It only comes but once a year. But when it comes, boy howdy is it cool!

The press release below reveals everything you need to know, but I just wanted to add that the new website with its searchable capabilities is awesome.  Plus, I just saw this adorable El Deafo video and had to share:

Awwwww.

Now make your own!

Contact: James Kennedy
Phone: 773-351-7452
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.90secondnewbery.com
Online PDF for social sharing: http://bit.ly/2dONfEe

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

90-SECOND NEWBERY FILM FESTIVAL OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS

Festival for kid-made films enters its sixth year

CHICAGO, IL—The 90-Second Newbery Film Festival—an annual celebration of kids’ creativity in which young filmmakers create short movies telling the entire stories of Newbery Medal and Newbery Honor books in roughly 90 seconds—is now open for submissions for its sixth year. The deadline for entries is January 7, 2017 (special deadlines for San Antonio, TX (12/2/2016) and Asheville, NC (2/8/2017)).

The film festival was founded by children’s author James Kennedy (The Order of Odd-Fish) and screens every year to packed houses at libraries and theaters in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Boston, Portland, Minneapolis, San Antonio, and other cities.

Ever since 1922, the American Library Association’s Newbery Medal has been recognized as the most prestigious award in children’s literature. Standout honorees include Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, Louis Sachar’s Holes, and Katherine Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia. But according to Kennedy, “it turns out that any book, no matter how worthy and somber, becomes hilarious when it’s compressed to only 90 seconds.”

The goal, says Kennedy, is not for kids to create mere book trailers or video book reports. The challenge is to compress the entire plot of the book in under two minutes, often with a transformative twist. Past entries include Beverly Cleary’s Ramona and Her Father done in the style of a James Bond movie and E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web reimagined as a horror movie. Kids use many other styles as well, including claymation, puppet shows, musicals, silent films, and Minecraft. Filmmakers may adapt any Medal– or Honor–winning book. Participants should be under 21, but help from enthusiastic adults is allowed.

For the past six years, the best 90-Second Newbery movies have been shownat special-event screenings at venues such as the New York Public Library, San Francisco Public Library, Minneapolis Public Library, and elsewhere. These screenings are co-hosted by Kennedy and other children’s authors. This year, James will be joined at many screenings by Keir Graff, whose latest middle-grade novel, The Matchstick Castle, publishes on January 10. Graff, the Executive Editor of Booklist, is a frequent 90-Second Newbery co-host and collaborator.

The Chicago screening will be April 1, 2017 at 3pm at the Vittum Theater (1012 N. Noble).

More details may be found at www.90secondnewbery.com. The website features many of the videos received throughout the last five years, as well as further resources for teachers and filmmakers. To receive more information, or to schedule an interview with James Kennedy, call James Kennedy at 773-351-7452 or email him at [email protected].

SIXTH ANNUAL 90-SECOND NEWBERY SCREENING DATES

Updates to this schedule will be posted at http://90secondnewbery.com/events

January 21, 2017 – SAN ANTONIO, TX
Hosted by James Kennedy and Nikki Loftin (Wish Girl). At the Charlene McCombs Empire Theatre (224 E. Houston St., San Antonio, TX). 3 pm.

February 11, 2017 – TACOMA, WA
Hosted by James Kennedy, Doug Mackey, and Keir Graff. At the Tacoma Public Library (1102 Tacoma Ave S). 3-5 pm.

February 12, 2017 – PORTLAND, OR
Hosted by James Kennedy, Keir Graff, and Dale Basye (Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go series). At the Hollywood Theatre (4122 NE Sandy Blvd.). Sponsored by Portland Community Media. 4:30 pm.

February 17, 2017 – OAKLAND, CA
Hosted by James Kennedy, Keir Graff, and Marcus Ewert (Mummy Cat). At Rockridge Branch of the Oakland Public Library (5366 College Ave, Oakland, CA). 7 pm.

February 18, 2017 – SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Hosted by James Kennedy, Keir Graff, and Marcus Ewert (Mummy Cat). At the San Francisco Public Library main branch (100 Larkin Street) in the Koret Auditorium. 4-6 pm.

February 25, 2017 – MINNEAPOLIS, MN
Hosted by James Kennedy, Keir Graff, and Kelly Barnhill (The Witch’s Boy). At the Minneapolis Central Library (300 Nicollet Mall) in Pohlad Hall. 3-5 pm.

March 11, 2017 – NEW YORK, NY
Hosted by James Kennedy, Keir Graff, and a co-host TBA. At the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (5th Ave at 42nd St., New York, NY) in the Bartos Forum. 3-5 pm.

March 12, 2017 – BROOKLYN, NY
Hosted by James Kennedy, Keir Graff, and a co-host TBA. At Central Library (10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY) in the Dweck Auditorium. 2-4 pm.

March 19, 2017 – ROCHESTER, NY
Hosted by James Kennedy and Charles Benoit (Snow Job). At the Dryden Theatre at the Eastman Museum (900 East Ave, Rochester, NY). 2-4 pm.

April 1, 2017 – CHICAGO, IL
Hosted by James Kennedy and Keir Graff. At the Vittum Theater (1012 N Noble St.). 3-5 pm.

April 22, 2017 – ASHEVILLE, NC
Hosted by James Kennedy and Alan Gratz (The League of Seven series). At the Pack Memorial Library (67 Haywood St., Asheville, NC). 1-3 pm.

April 30, 2017 – BOSTON AREA
Hosted by James Kennedy and M.T. Anderson (Feed, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing) and Jack Gantos (Dead End in Norvelt, Joey Pigza Loses Control). At the Brookline Public Library (361 Washington Street, Brookline, MA). 2-4 pm.

Good morning, my fine and frisky young denizens of this sphere upon which we make our homes.  I’m particularly chipper today as I’ve just returned from a lovely trip to Boston where I attended the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards and managed NOT to lose my glasses in the process.  More on that tomorrow, but today I’ve a whole heaping helpful of fun videos for your perusal.

First up, I’m happy to announce that last weekend I conducted a Literary Salon with James Kennedy and Eti Berland on the subject of 90-Second Newbery.  The fun doesn’t really get started until the five minute mark, but that’s the wonders of live streaming for you.  A million thanks to James for figuring out how to get the new YouTube streaming feature to work on his computer at all.  Phew!

Now we’ve a very cool video up next.  Do you like John Steptoe?  Do you like Sesame Street?  Then behold this very early Sesame Street when Gordon-with-hair read Stevie to the viewers.  This is something I’d love for current day Sesame Street to pick up again.  Wouldn’t it be great if Chris (you can see that I’m hip to the current cast) read Last Stop on Market Street to Telly?  It could happen.

In other news, we’ve an election coming up.  Or didn’t you know?  Well I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Aaron Reynolds for a new little show I’m participating in called LadyBird & Friends.  If you want to bypass the whole Betsy talking element to the proceedings, skip to the 18:20 mark where Aaron reads aloud President Squid.  It will be the funniest damn thing you see all day.  The man is a natural performer.

And speaking of natural performers, how did I miss this promotional video for Robo-Sauce when it first came out?  My bad.

Now welcome to New Zealand, where librarians have more fun.  Don’t believe me?  This synchronized . . . I’m sorry.  This synchronised shelving proves it.  Thanks to Jean Reagan for the link.

And for our final off-topic video today . . . AUGHHH!!!!!

Does the clownfish remind anyone else of the Goldfish from Mars Evacuees? Anyone? Anyone?  No?

Just me then.

• First and foremost, this:

That would be Kadir Nelson’s tribute to the Schomburg Library in NYC. A couple things to note about it.  First, in an amazing bit of research you can see that he includes both the old Schomburg Library (now overrun with ivy) and the new Schomburg together at the bottom.  Second, the inclusion of Langston Hughes front and center is particularly clever since Langston is practically the first thing a person sees when they enter the building.  Or rather, Langston’s words which are embedded in the very floor.  I do miss the Schomburg. This brought all that back.

• In all the talks we’ve heard from people about A FINE DESSERT and A BIRTHDAY CAKE FOR GEORGE WASHINGTON, I sometimes feel like we haven’t heard enough from the teachers about how they teach topics like slavery.  That’s why posts like Monica Edinger’s In the Classroom: Teaching About Slavery are so important.  If you read no other link today, read this one.

• This one’s for the librarians.  Want to know all the different rates publishers charge libraries for ebooks?  A handy dandy chart explains all.

• Travis Jonker knew not what he hath wrought when he posted about The Most Annoying Board Book Ever.  I know precisely what book he’s talking about (as does anyone else who has encountered it).  I never get rid of books, as my household will attest, but THAT book I gave away with a flourish when I moved.  I wasn’t going to use precious box space cluttering it up with that monstrosity.  One of the buttons that’s supposed to sound like snoring actually sounds like Darth Vader.  And believe you me, you do NOT want the unsettling feeling that Vader is lurking around your house.

• Me Stuff:  WGN Radio in Chicago and I chatted about How to Keep Your Children Interested in Reading, as I talked up Brightly’s recent list of 50 Best Books for 7- and 8-year-olds.  Such fun stuff.  I’m now their official WGN librarian, apparently.  The gig is mine!

Speaking of radio, have you guys all heard James Kennedy (of 90-Second Newbery and The Order of Odd Fish fame) on Matthew Winner’s Let’s Get Busy podcast?  If you listen to no other interview on that show (and I include my own when I say that) listen to this one.  The two guys basically hit it out of the park right at the start when James mentions the plethora of The Call stories as they relate to ALA Award committees.  The dog church bit . . . seriously, you just have to listen.  And not just because an Oakland newspaper said of James that, “Between his wardrobe choices and excited mannerisms, he had the familiar air of Professor Gilderoy Lockhart in the Harry Potter film adaptations, only he was not a braggart.”  I always think of him as more a Xenophilius Lovegood type, but maybe that’s just the Rhys Ifans talking.

• Man. I gotta apologize. Somebody somewhere alerted me to the Booktoss piece Say It With Me: Intersectionality and I’ve forgotten who they are.  Mea culpa.  In any case, this is a great piece of writing.  From Beyonce at the Superbowl to Ben Hatke’s Little Robot.  Not an easy connection, but Laura Jimenez manages it.  Kudos.

• I think I failed to post this before, but Mike Lewis did a killer rundown of the CTTCB’s Social Media Institute in his piece Exiting the Echo Chamber.  I am, however, a little jealous at the title.  Wish I’d thought of it myself.

• Why, yes.  I would like to attend a Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry exhibition at the Brooklyn Public Library.  However did you know?  But quick question: When did Wendell Minor illustrate the series?  It makes me happy but I want to see that work.

• Things I’m Surprised More Publishers Don’t Do With Their Backlist: This. I guess it helps if you have a big recognizable name, but still. Now can we PLEASE discuss doing this with William’s Doll?  You want money?  I have money. (Fun Fact: I don’t have money – I just want to see it brought into the 21st century)

Pooh and friends pre-2008

Though it contains an image of the original Winnie-the-Pooh toys that has to be more than eight years old (Donnell Library!), the Huffington Post article Christopher Robin Was Real, And Other Facts About Winnie-The-Pooh’s Author has some nice items in it.  Particularly point #2.  H.G. Wells?  Really?

• Here’s another one for the librarians.  Booksellers too, as it happens.  According to a recent Nielsen Report, Social Omnivores And Book Placement Majorly Influence Children’s Book Buyership.  No surprises there.  What is surprising is that when it comes to selecting books, “The shelf has more influence than the promotional table, window display, bargain bin, etc. combined by a very wide margin.”.  Yep.  Your displays may look all kinds of pretty, but nothing beats good old fashioned shelving when it comes to checkouts/sales.  Who knew?  Thanks to Carl Schwanke for the link.

• Word I Don’t Use Enough: Ostrobogulous. Disagree on peril of defining it (though this may help). Thanks to Phil Nel for the link.

• This Kirkus editorial called Sandra Boynton Slaps Us Around (a great title that) fits in nicely with my post Girls: Beyond Eyelashes and Bows, don’t you think?

• “Where are the children’s books that celebrate working-class values and voices?” is not a question being asked by many folks here in America.  It is, however, being asked in The Guardian by Elen Caldecott.  And it is a question I would very much like us to start answering over here as well.

• Ashley Bryan, the patron saint of children’s literature (as I mentally refer to him) is popping up all over New York City.  Lucky lucky New York City.

• Daily Image:

Alison Morris, currently working as the Senior Director of Collection Development & Merchandising at First Book, is the cleverest crafty person I know.  Years ago she showed me how to make F&Gs into birdhouses.  Now she’s making classic children’s characters into marble magnets.

Want to make your own?  Instructions can be found here.  Cheers, Alison!

Are you aware of the Cozy Classics board book series? How about the felted board book versions of the original Star Wars movies? The other night I had dinner with Cozy Classics creator Holman Wang and we talked about his process. Turns out, the felted characters are needle felted entirely. A lawyer by trade, Holman learned how to felt through YouTube videos. Now what goes around comes around as you watch this oddly soothing time lapse YouTube video of his process. It’s an old video (as the dates at the end attest) but that doesn’t make it any less neat.

And as for the aforementioned Star Wars books, here’s Holman himself talking about his various techniques:

Also at that dinner, someone in attendance mentioned that Larry Wilmore on The Nightly Show had covered A Birthday Cake for George Washington. Come again? Yes, you truly know that a book has left our little orbit when it ends up a discussion topic on a Comedy Central evening show. I wouldn’t exactly call this one workplace appropriate, but I would call it funny. Nice too that while he talks about the book he does not speculate about the creators.

Book trailer time. N.D. Wilson has always created the best book trailers. Remember the one he did for Ashtown Burials? Or Boys of Blur?  Well, the latest premiered on Entertainment Weekly very recently:

Thanks to Aaron Zenz for the link.

So I ask James Kennedy the other day to name his favorite 90-Second Newbery Film Festival co-hosts.  And he rattles off a bunch of names but one that he was particularly impressed by?  Nikki Loftin, author of Nightingale’s Nest.  Don’t believe me?  Then check out this killer opening Nikki and James did together.  That woman has pipes!

Of course, I already had insider knowledge to Nikki’s singing prowess.  Two years ago she created a video for Jules Danielson and myself and . . . well, if you just can’t get through your day without seeing a children’s author belting out classic Rogers & Hammerstein on a roof, then are YOU in luck!

And finally, for our off-topic-but-not-really video, I bring you information from beyond the grave.  We all know Michael Jackson, and many of us know Bob Fosse.  Now see how eerie it is when you put one on top of another.  If The Little Prince movie did nothing else, it gave us this:

Hallo, folks!

So today is the last day of National Library Week.  In celebration, enjoy this delightful video from Common Craft for your average non-library literate layman.  If you are a librarian, show this video to those members of your family who heard you had to get a Master’s degree and asked you, “What? So they teach you how to put your hair in a bun and go ‘Shh’ all day?”

More info here.

There is a saying in my family: A music video isn’t viral until soldiers perform a version of it.  Admittedly it’s a relatively new saying.  The same might also be said for librarian parody videos, though.  When they’re doing a song you haven’t heard of, you best be looking that puppy up.  Case in point . . .

The moment he’s reading Beloved sort of stands out.  Otherwise, perfectly fine.  The ending is pitch perfect.  Thanks to Melanie for the link.

One more.  This time with a Taylor Swift-centric vibe.  Author Patricia Hubbell ought to be well pleased:

In other news I was so pleased to see James Kennedy and his 90-Second Newbery shenanigans appear on this recent episode of Kidlit TV.  You should watch it if, for no other reason, the fact that you get to see Ame Dyckman briefly prance.  And prance she does!!

Next up, the Mazza Museum!  I love that place, but the smiling blonde is way way way perky.

Speaking of perky, Scholastic ups the ante with a professional announcer talking up their summer reading challenge.  Not a bad idea.  Offer kids the chance to be in a world record and watch your participation numbers skyrocket.

About a week ago the 90-Second Newbery premiered at New York Public Library (PW did a nice write-up of it here) and the afternoon was a stellar success.  My Lit Salon went over so I didn’t have a chance to see much of it, but fortunately James Kennedy, who created the darn thing, did me a favor and curated some of the best little videos of the year.

First off, what may well be my favorite video.  Claymation has always done the 90-Second Newbery proud.  Now they’re all the prouder with a Claymation version of Steve Sheinkin’s Bomb: The Race To Build–And Steal–The World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Jennings Mergenthal of Tacoma, WA.

Extra points for the Tom Lehrer at the end.

Then it’s Ramona And Her Father done as a musical by the kids at Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development.  I felt very proud that as an adult I could identify all but two of the tunes they were singing.

How about that father doing The Snake?  Kid’s got moves!  Plus this had the advantage of making me want to read that book again.

But why watch just one?  In today’s economy a story about a dad losing his job has special significance.  This Ramona And Her Father is done as a James Bond movie by a different set of kids at Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development.

What’s particularly interesting to me is that both Ramonas used very similar stock images of suburban houses between their shots.  I also love that in this one they decided to pay attention to the details and put the driver on the British side of the car.

I love too clever teenagers.  So this ominous foreshadowing ridden version of Bridge To Terabithia by Rochester Community Television in Rochester, NY appeals to the 15-year-old in me.

And finally . . . MORE stop animation!  This time it’s the Atwater’s Mr. Popper’s Penguins courtesy of Girl Scout Troop 2539 from Urbana, IL.

I told you I had a weakness for that stuff.

For our off-topic video, this has nothing to do with 90-Second Newbery and everything to do with House of Cards.  It’s the Sesame Street parody.  Seemed fitting in an odd way.  We’re all about the homages today.

• Here in New York we’re getting very excited.  The 90-Second Film Festival is coming!!  And soon too!  Here’s a PW interview with James Kennedy about the festival and for those of you in the NYC area you can see it at NYPL on Saturday, March 7^th at 3:00 p.m. In fact, now that I think about it, you could begin your day at NYPL at 2:00 p.m. at my Children’s Literary Salon Blurred Lines?: Accuracy and Illustration in Nonfiction.  We’ll be hosting Mara Rockliff (author), Brian Floca (author/illustrator), Nicole Raymond (editor), and Sophie Blackall (illustrator/author) as they discuss the responsibility of an illustrator when working on a piece of historical nonfiction for kids and whether or not words garner closer scrutiny than pictures.  Should be a fabulous day.

• We all know on some level that when a book is adapted into a movie the likelihood of the strong female characters staying strong is negligible.  There are always exceptions to the rule, but by and large it’s depressing not to be more shocked by the recent Cracked piece 6 Insulting Movie Adaptations of Strong Female Characters.  I was very pleased to see the inclusion of Violet from A Series of Unfortunate Events too.  Folks tend to forget about her.

• At the beginning of February I had the infinite pleasure of hosting a Children’s Literary Salon at NYPL on Collaborating Couples.  I invited in Ted & Betsy Lewin, Andrea and Brian Pinkney, and Sean Qualls and Selina Alko.  You can read the PW round-up of the talk here, but before we hit the stage I had to ask Sean about this incident that occurred involving his book with Selina, The Case for Loving and W. Kamau Bell’s treatment at Berkeley’s Elmwood Café.  We didn’t touch on it during our talk since it wasn’t pertinent to this particular discussion, but if you haven’t read the article I suggest you give it a look.

• If I’m going to be honest about it, this perfectly encapsulates what I’ve always personally felt about the Elephant and Piggie books.  This is because growing up I was the child that wanted everyone and everything in the universe to pair up.  Sesame Street fed this desire to a certain degree but the only time Mr. Rogers got close was during the opera episodes.  And don’t even get me STARTED on Reading Rainbow (no sexual tension = no interest for 4-year-old Betsy).  Hence my perverse desire to see Gerald and Piggie become a couple.  I know, I know.  Clearly I need help.

• Moomins!  Ballet!  Moomins in ballet!  Sorry, do you need more than that?  Thanks to Marci for the link.

• It’s fun to read this look at the Mary Poppins Hidden Relationships Fan Theory, but I’ve a bone to pick with it.  Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t the book of Mary Poppins make it very clear that yes indeed Mary Poppins WAS Bert’s nanny back in the day?  Or am I just making stuff up?  I thought this was cannon.  That other stuff about Bert’s relationships is particularly peculiar as well.

Perhaps you feel, as I do, that you’ve read every possible Harry Potter related list out there devised by the human brain.  Still and all, while I had seen a bunch of these, there are still some lovely surprises in the BuzzFeed list 21 Times “Harry Potter” Was the Cleverest Book Series Ever.

Speaking of Harry Potter and BuzzFeed, new term alert: Racebent.  Didn’t know it, but this piece has actually convinced me that it is entirely possible that Hermione Granger isn’t the white-skinned schoolgirl she’s often considered to be.  Recall if you will that it was only ever made explicit that Dean Thomas had dark skin when the Harry Potter books were brought over to America (a fact that is not usually mentioned in these stories).

• Oh, what the heck.  May as well get as Harry Potterish as possible today.  Look!  Cover animations!

• For years I’ve yearned to go to TLA (the meeting of the Texas Library Association).  State library meetings are always fun, but Texas takes their own to another level.  So far I haven’t had an excuse, but I was reminded of this desire recently when I read the rather delightful piece on how an abandoned Texan Walmart got turned into the ultimate public library.  McAllen?  You’re good people.

• Let It Be Known: That every author and illustrator out there that makes school visits on a regular basis should take a very close look at Nathan Hale’s School Visit Instructions and replicate PRECISELY what he has done on their own websites.  Obviously you cannot all draw so in terms of visuals he has you beat.  However, this information is perfect and you could certainly write it down in some form yourself.  Let it also be known that his upcoming book about Harriet Tubman, The Underground Abductor, is AMAZING.  Here’s the cover:

• David Wiesner created an app?  Yep, pretty much.  It’s called Spot and it is now on my To Buy list.

• Oh!  I don’t know if any of you folks actually know about this.  Were you aware that there is a major children’s book award out there for math-related titles?  Yep, there is.  It’s called the Mathical Award and it’s a project that has come out of a collaboration between The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) and the Children’s Book Council (CBC).  Those of you producing such books should look into it.  Could be very very useful to you.

• Daily Image:

I’ve been meaning to get back to work on updating my post of the Complete Listing of All Children’s Literature Statues in the United States for a while here.  There are definitely some sections that need work.  However, one image I will not be adding is this statue of what might be the world’s creepiest Cat in the Hat.  Not because I don’t like him (oh, I do, I do) but because it’s on school rather than public property.  That doesn’t mean I can’t share him with you anyway, though.

Many thanks to Paula Wiley for bringing him to my attention.  Wowzah.

2014 marked a distinct increase in attention spent on children’s books with diverse characters. However, this is not to say that all books with diverse characters got the same amount of attention.  Take, for example, Saving Baby Doe by Danette Vigilante.  It was one of the only middle grade books in 2014 to sport a Latino boy protagonist (go on . . . name me two others in 2014).  It had great writing as well, so why has almost no one talked about it?  NYPL put it on their 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing list and recently our local station NY1 interviewed Staten Island resident Ms. Vigilante about the book in our Stapleton branch.  Watch carefully and you may see me in my cameo role as “New York Public Library” itself.

You better watch out, you better not cry. You better not pout, I’m telling you why. 90-SECOND NEWBERY FILM FESTIVAL IS COMING TO TOWN!!!  You can see the full listing of where the festival is headed here.  In the meantime, here’s one of the new videos.  Is it bad that it actually scared me?  It’s a bunch of kids doing The Graveyard Book (The Dance Macabray as kickline = inspired) but I had the same reaction to it that I had to Shaun of the Dead.  I honestly found parts of it (the sleer) scary.  I is wimp!!

Maybe I’ve been reading The Lorax to my kiddo too much but you know what this is, don’t you?

It’s a Thneed! Thanks to Aunt Judy for the video.

Have you seen the latest trailer for a new version of The Little Prince?  For the first 30 seconds or so of this you’re going to be confused, possibly angry.  Stick with it.  Please.

Beats Bob Fosse as The Snake, anyway.  Then again, points docked for not having any Gene Wilder. (Fun Fact: Most movies are docked points for this very reason)

No no no no no. Not allowed.  I call foul.  Illustrators have enough talent as it is.  They are NOT allowed to also be excellent authors and even if they happen to be precisely that they are NOT allowed to have pitch perfect voices that can read selections from their books with all the vocal skills of the highest paid celebrity.  Back you go, Chris Riddell.  Ply your magic dulcet tones elsewhere.

A Reading with Chris Riddell: The Wyrmeweald Trilogy – Returner’s Wealth from Beth Sabey on Vimeo.

At this point there are too many fantastic 2015 picture books out there to tell you about.  Thank goodness some of them make book trailers, then.  For example, have you heard about Kathi Appelt’s fabulous When Otis Courted Mama, illustrated by Jill McElmurry?  If not then remedy is at hand:

Now another trailer.  As blurbs go, “This book smells great” may be my pick of the week.

And for the off-topic video of the day, it’s a Swing vs. Hip Hop dance off from Montreal.  As my friend Marci put it, “the first swing round is sort of meh but it gets better.”

Thanks to Marci for the link.

Here we are in the glory of spring.  With all the beauty just ah-popping outdoors, what better time to sequester ourselves inside to watch mad videos about children’s literature related affairs?

So first and foremost, you may have seen me make mention of the fact that I had a podcasting-related Children’s Literary Salon last weekend.  My Lit Salons are monthly gatherings of children’s literature enthusiasts who come to the main branch of NYPL to watch me finagle different topics out of incredibly interesting people.  People often ask me to record these, but at this time there is no place online for such talks to live.  Happily, that problem was solved recently when Katie Davis (Brain Burps About Books) , John Sellers (PW KidsCast), and Matthew Winner (Let’s Get Busy) came over and Matthew recorded the whole dang thing.  This is, insofar as I know, the very FIRST time a moderated event has covered this particular topic (children’s literature podcasts).  With that in mind, enjoy!

“John Newbery ate every single book he ever read”.  That was going to be my subtitle for today’s blog post.  I may still have to use it at some point because it’s one of the highlights of this James Kennedy / Libba Bray interaction at the recent 90-Second Newbery show here in NYC.  For years, I’ve been sitting on my laurels with my Randolph Caldecott music video.  Now I’ve been royally trumped and it’s all thanks to the song “What Would John Newbery Do?”  I can’t top this.

And now, with the approach of the Children’s Book Week Awards, time to break out the big guns.  And these, ladies and gents, are some SERIOUSLY big guns!

Turns out the CBC collected a whole CHUNK of these videos and they’re just out there!  Like this one starring two of my favorite author/illustrators, Amy Ignatow and Brian Biggs.  You must be SURE to stick around for the ghost of David Wiesner.  And it backs up my theory that every person in my generation has one rap song memorized.  Mine’s “Shoop”.

Nice use of “Rock Lobster” too.

We’re about three days away from El día del niño, otherwise known as the day of the child.  Unfamiliar with Dia?  Not anymore.  Here’s a quickie recap for those of you who are curious:

Día means “day” in Spanish. In 1996, author Pat Mora learned about the Mexican tradition of celebrating April 30th as El día del niño, the day of the child. Pat thought, “We have Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Yes! We need kids’ day too, but I want to connect all children with bookjoy, the pleasure of reading.”  Pat was enthusiastically assisted to start this community-based, family literacy initiative by REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking. El día de los niños, El día de los libros/Children’s Day, Book Day, also known as Día, is a daily commitment to link all children to books, languages and cultures, day by day, día por día. Many resources and an annual registry are available at the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). Every year, across the country, libraries, schools, and community organizations, etc. plan culminating book fiestas creating April Children’s Day, Book Day celebrations that unite communities.
Join us!

Interested in participating? It’s not too late.  Best of all, here’s a video from previous years of what folks have done in their libraries.  Viva Dia!

We’ve sort of an embarrassment of riches this year in terms of trans boy picture books (see the 7-Imp recap of this very thing here).  Now one of those books, Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress, has a book trailer that hits on the tone about right.  Let’s put it up on the big board!

Thanks to Fred Horler for the link.

This next one is a fictional tie-in to a nonfiction subject.  Which is to say, a CCSS dream.  I’m not usually on board with rhyming picture books, but this one actually gets away with it!

And for the off-topic video of the day, we all love Neil deGrasse Tyson.  This is the video of him slowed down ever so slightly.  He loves it.  Shows it at his talks sometimes.

And for fun, you can watch the original here:

Zounds!

No reason in particular I wrote that word.  I just like to say “Zounds!” from time to time. Onward!

• I initially misread this post as “Summer Reading Takes a Hit From Online Scanning and Skimming Researchers Say” (which shows you where my mind is these days).  It’s not “Summer” but Serious Reading Takes a Hit From Online Scanning and Skimming Researchers Say.  I am not dead to the irony of linking to such a piece within a post where the entire purpose is to skim and scan.  That said, I’m just grateful that summer reading isn’t taking that hit.  Now THAT would be a catastrophe.  Thanks to Wayne Roylance for the link.

• This is somewhat related. The New York Times put out an article talking about the necessity of literature for the very young.  Called Books, and Compassion, From Birth it won’t say much that you don’t already know, but hopefully it’ll get some readers aware of what needs to be done.  It also ties in quite beautifully with author Jason Boog’s delightful July release Born Reading: Bringing Up Bookworms in a Digital Age — From Picture Books to eBooks and Everything in Between.  In the interest of transparency, I wrote the introduction for that book, but the content is all Boog.  Consider it the most necessary bit of parental instruction you’ll find.  Hand to folks at baby showers.  Please.

• I’m about a week behind in all my news, so you probably saw this long ago.  But just in case you didn’t I was amused by this mash-up of Syd Hoff/Richard Scarry and some very adult novels.  Here’s the link and here’s one of the images in question:

Awesome.

• It wouldn’t be the first time Mac Barnett and Daniel Handler have appeared on the same panel.  Heck, it probably wouldn’t even necessarily be the best time but there’s nothing like an imminent birth to make a person want to attend the 2014 ALSC National Institute. Aside from the great guests, folks get to go to a place called Children’s Fairyland.  I went to see whether or not I’d added the attractions there to my Complete Listing of All Public Children’s Literature Statues in the United States and found that I had not yet.  I think on maternity leave I go back to updating that post.  It’s 75% done.  Just need to keep adding on suggestions (and I see that the Albany Public Library turned it into a Pinterest board, which is rather fascinating in and of itself).

• I was fascinated by the recent ShelfTalker post To Host or Not to Host?  The gist of it is that local authors will often ask a bookstore to host an event for their book.  No big surprise there, except what do you do when they’ve published through Amazon?  The back and forth in the comments is worth your time and money.

• Good old Rocco Staino wrote up the recent celebratory 90-Second Newbery hosted at NYPL.  The gist of the article is quite clever too.  I had noticed vaguely, but without putting it together, that this year’s film festival featured a lot of forgotten Newbery book winners.  I mean, does anyone at all remember The Old Tobacco Shop: A True Account of What Befell A Little Boy in Search of Adventure?  And I blush to say it, but I had no idea that Anne Carroll Moore won a Newbery Honor back in the day.  Wowzah.  How is THAT fact not better known?

Some weeks can go by without a single solitary interesting video in sight.  Other weeks, you drown in brilliance.  This week inclines far more towards the latter than the former.

I could not lead off today with anything other than the latest bit of Bookie Woogie brilliance.  You keened to their 90-second rendition of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.  You hooted to their Black Cauldron encapsulation.  And you had to rewire your jaw after it smashed to the floor after seeing their Frog and Toad Together video.  Now behold the wonder that is . . . Charlotte’s Web!!!

Charlotte’s Web / Spider-Man Mashup (Bookie Woogie) from Z-Dad on Vimeo.

Naturally this was created for James Kennedy’s 90-Second Newbery Film Festival.  Those of you in the Chicago area will want to reserve your (free) seats for the February 1st screening here.  If nothing else I urge you to check out the posters that Aaron Zenz created in conjunction with this.

Aw, shoot.  I know for a fact I never put THIS 90-Second Newbery video up either (you see what happens when you try to post just one?).  This is my favorite, bar none, version of The Giver. If I were a producer on a comedy show I would hire this kid NOW NOW NOW.

From this awesomeness we now turn to the ultimate delight.  Self-deprecation.  Marc Tyler Nobleman had a brilliant notion.  He was watching Jimmy Kimmel Live! and saw the bit where celebrities read insulting tweets about themselves.  It gave him an idea – what if children’s authors did the same with bad Amazon reviews?  Though my temptation is to post all three videos here, I’m going to be a good pooky and only post one.  If you would like to see the other two (which are just as good and feature just loads of famous folks) go to Marc’s blog right here.  Here’s part one:

In book trailer news, or rather live-action book trailer news, Lorie Ann Grover’s YA novel Firstborn is coming out and the trailer looks pretty darn strong.  To the point, well shot, the works.  Love the brevity of it.  Well played, folks.

If you like your trailers a little more nonfiction picture booky, try on for size this one for Patricia Hruby Powell’s Josephine about you-know-who:

• It’s been a good week and it’s only Thursday!  I’ve cooed and oohed and aahed over NYPL’s 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing 2013 list before.  Nothing new to say  . . . or is there?  I don’t suppose you happened to see NPR’s interactive booklist consisting of their Best Books of 2013 (in a rare moment of bliss, I like all their children’s book choices though some diversity wouldn’t have been out of place).  Well, NYPL took one look at that list and thought, “Heck. We can do that.”  And so they did!  Meet the Interactive Books List of NYPL.  It’s gorgeous.  It’s user friendly.  It’s the only place you can find animated Melissa Sweet.  Overall, I rather love it.  Hope you do too.

• In other best book news, Colby Sharp and Donalyn Miller teamed up at BuzzFeed and produced a list of 20 of the Best Children’s Books 2013.  And AGAIN I like all the choices.  Do you know how rare this is?  Extra points for including Donner Dinner Party.  Love that thing.  Love anyone who includes it on a list.

• Having trouble keeping track of all the Best Of lists out there?  Mr. Schu’s your man.  Thanks to him, we now have a nicely compiled 2013 Best Books Lists posting.  It’s very attractive.  Of course, if you want the most complete listing out there, there’s no better place to go than Chicken Spaghetti.  The information is AMAZING over there.

• A lot has been said lately about how big Best lists of children’s books this year have neglected to include any Latino characters (NPR and The New York Times most notably).  Perfect timing then for the 2014 Reading Challenge suggested by Latin@s in Kid Lit.  Take a look at the guidelines and join, but seriously?  One book a month?  I think you can handle that.  They even have some suggestions to start you off (yay, Nino!).

• And, of course, if you read only one Best list, read the 100 Scope Notes highly hilarious Year in Miscellanea.  Plus he mentions my superfluous little cupcake.  Quoth he it’s, “the Axl Rose Hair Metal hair of picture book cover cupcakes.”  You’re just going to have to read his piece to understand what that means.

• SLJ posted The Fault in Our Stars movie poster yesterday.  And you know what?  I love that tagline.

Our good buddy James Kennedy alerted me to the fact that after his magnificent 90-Second Newbery show left New York City for other library systems in other states he received additional, incredibly funny and insane submissions that are worth seeing.  What we have here is a Tacoma-based Frog and Toad Together take on the story “The List”.  As James describes it it’s “done in the style of a French ye-ye music video or Wes Anderson movie.”

If you’d like to see the story that was based on you can see five stories from this book animated in five different ways.  I’m particularly fond of the one with the seeds.  There’s also a wholly fascinating take on The Story of Mankind that sort of has to be seen to be believed.

All right.  We’re gonna present this day by cheering you up, breaking your heart, and then piecing it back together a bit at a time.  That’s the kind of Sunday I’m dealing with here.  Now I don’t know if you read the recent SLJ article Kid Lit Authors, Illustrators Visit Sandy Hook Elementary School but you should.  And as it happens our roving reporter in the field Rocco Staino took some videos of the aforementioned authors and illustrators.  This one is of Bob Shea.  The very normality of it destroys me.  Utterly.

Now let’s do something nice.  In lieu of Kid President (which, correct me if I’m wrong, a whole great big swath of us have already seen) here’s “Obvious to you. Amazing to others,” coming at you via The Styling Librarian.

I’m not going to read too much into the fact that I live in Harlem and yet, until I heard from a Ms. Nicole Roohi this week, I had totally missed this whole “Harlem Shake” craze, as it were.  Fun Fact: Not from Harlem.  In any case, turns out there are a BUNCH of videos of this thing filmed in libraries across our fair nation.  You can find some here and here and here and here and here.  The one I will feature today, however, is from Goldenview Middle School in Anchorage, Alaska.

As Ms. Roohi told me, “The video production class filmed it, and the security guards starred in it (well, along with my assistant and myself).  The principal, teachers, students and even a bus driver joined in.”  Thanks for the link, Nicole!

In keeping with the peppy music today, if I lived in a world where every person had their own theme song that followed them around throughout the day, the tune that is featured in this trailer for Jesse Klausmeier & Suzy Lee’s Open This Little Book would be mine.  Granted, it would bug people, but I’d only turn it on when I was marching down the street.  Marching, I say.

Thanks to Mr. Schu for the link!

And finally, since we seem to be all trendy trendy today, let’s just end with something Downton Abbey-ish.  The fact no one else has done this yet is amazing to me.

Though I would take issue with that Lady Crawley line near the end.  Doesn’t he mean she loves ‘em?

Missed posting this last week.  Those Peacekeepers really look spot on, don’t they?  We’ll see how it goes but this trailer gives us a sense that The Hunger Games may be worth watching.  Would have liked to see a little Haymitch, of course.

So!  We never filmed the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival at NYPL, but fortunately Chicago had a couple cameras in the wings.  James Kennedy has posted a great little piece about all the madness that occurred, including this fabulous song by Abraham Levitan about twenty of the Newbery books featured at this festival:

The other day About.com asked me to recommend some children’s books to them.  Particularly (and this is an adorable kinda old-fashioned request) books to read after Harry Potter.  So I whipped out a list of great 2011 fantasies for kids.  Particularly, The Dragon’s Tooth by N.D. Wilson, The Floating Islands by Rachael Neumeier, Kat Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis, Small Persons With Wings by Ellen Booream, and The Ogre of Oglefort by Eva Ibbotson:

And finally, for our off-topic video of the day, Metafilter called this a “children’s book for adults”.  If you’ve been complaining that I don’t give you enough Polish filmmaking, consider your prayers answered.

Thanks to Kathi Appelt for the link!

• I hope you all took the time to notice the magnificent One Shot World Tour: City Living conducted by any number of our best bloggers in the biz.  I had every intention of participating and then lost my head.  Fortunately there are folks out there far more reliable than myself for this kind of thing.  From historical London to alternate London, from trees in Brooklyn to blackouts there, this thing was awesome.  Chasing Ray has the round-up.  Enjoy.

• Well sir, the National Book Award was announced two days ago.  Once again a children’s book rather than a teen novel won.  Interestingly, that book was not Gary Schmidt’s fabulous Okay for Now but the rather awesome in its own right Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai(a title that to my mind win’s The 2011 When You Reach Me Award for Most Difficult Title to Remember).  Of course, Leila Roy called what would happen when someone won.  Doggone it.

• Ah, Nancy Drew.  Folks just can’t stop talking about you, can they?  If they’re not speculating about what might be playing on your iPod then they’re sending you back in time to the Salem Witch Trials.  Buck up, kid.  It could be worse.  You could be Cherry Ames.

• Re: Racism and colonialism in Pippi Longstocking, what she said.

• Fun Fact: The American Folklore Society has an award.  It’s called The Aesop Prize and it’s awarded by the Children’s Folklore Section of the society.  This year the award went to Trickster: Native American Tales – A Graphic Collection, which I agree was extraordinary.  So naturally I was curious about what the previous winners had been.  Amusingly in 2010 the award went to Joha Makes a Wish by Eric A. Kimmel.  In 2009 it went to Dance, Nana, Dance (Baila, Nana, Baila) by Joe Hayes, and in 2008 it was Ain’t Nothing But a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry by Scott Reynolds Nelson.  You can see the full list, and the many honorable mentions, here if you’re curious.  For that matter, if you’ve a children’s work of folklore published in 2011 or 2012 and you want it to be considered for this prize, check out the Prize Review Criteria.
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If you’ve read my blog in the last year you may have heard me mention a little something called the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival.  Said aloud it sounds like The 92nd Newbery Film Festival (which is not too far off since 2012 will be the 90th Newbery Award).  However the entire premise was this: Kids from around the world (yes world) filmed 90-second or so versions of various Newbery Award and Honor books.  They sent these books to YA author James Kennedy (of The Order of Odd-Fish) and he collected, curated, organized, tightened, and generally got them into working order.  Now James received more than 100 entries, so those were culled down to a select few that he is showing in three theatrical showings.  Here in New York our film festival this past Saturday was the first and played in the main branch of the library system.  Subsequent showings will be held in Chicago and Portland, Oregon.

For this performance, James had a difficult job ahead of him.  Essentially he had to take the best aspects of what you get at your average school play and avoid the pitfalls such performances normally contain.  He also had to wrangle some special guests and actors because a festival of just films might be fine, but it wouldn’t be kickin’.

So it was that co-master of ceremonies Jon Scieszka, Newbery Award winner Rebecca Stead, author Ayun Halliday, her hugely talented children India and Milo, and the kids of Writopia Labs all gathered together to put on what I can only call a helluva show.

My job in all of this was simple: Bring water to performers. Keep the calm.  Don’t panic.  Don’t let the auditorium fill to above capacity.

Well, three out of four ain’t bad, right?  Turns out that while I excelled in the calm/no panic/water area, I had a hard time coming down on the auditorium rule.  How could I help it?  James’s show was clearly a hit.  Here’s what it looked like before the latecomers started sneaking in:

I would have been displeased if I hadn’t been so thrilled.

The show started off with a bang.  Scieszka and Kennedy brought to mind the old vaudeville acts of old.  In their pseudo-tuxes the two managed on the spot to create two characters out of thin air.  Jon, the gleeful worldly New Yorker with a gleam in his eye.  James, the hardworking up-and-comer form Chicago with a chip on his shoulder in the face of Jon’s smugness.

The show began with James’s version of A Wrinkle in Time, that magnificent video that went viral (90,400 views of it on Vimeo alone).  After it ended James reminded everyone that this is going to be an annual film festival.  “So if you’re inclined, start thinking about what 90-second Newbery films you might want to do for next year’s film festival. You’ll be thinking, ‘I can do that, but a million times better.’ DO! You don’t have to have a dance party at the end.”

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