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Now this is really neat.  There’s a series called BOOKD through THINKR (apparently E’s are considered gauche these days) that will take a topic and really go into it with a panel of experts.  In this particular case the question is whether or not you should re-read Charlotte’s Web.  Author Bruce Coville and teacher/blogger/author Monica Edinger (amongst others) give their two cents.  Really nicely edited and shot, don’t you think?

In other news, I had no idea that the Royal Shakespeare Company had created a staged adaptation of The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban.  Hoban died just last year in 2012.  I feel a bit miffed that he didn’t get to see this.  Maybe he got a sneaky peak in some way.  At any rate, it look fantastic (love the ending on the second video).  I just wonder how they pulled off The Caws of Art.  I’ve two videos here for the same production.  Love them both for very different reasons.

Thanks to Stefan for the links!

Sometimes I like to step into an alternate universe where I grew up in the USSR and watched television like this version of The Hobbit.  Instead I grew up on the old Rankin & Bass version.  Which was better?  Um . . .

Thanks to Educating Alice for the link!

And kudos to The New York Times for this lovely Christoph Neimann illustrated video of an interview Sendak conducted with NPR.

When I die, let’s do that.  That would be fun.  Make a note of it.

And finally, for the off-topic part, gold gold goldy gold.  I don’t even know if you could label it “Off-Topic” since it involves a child reading.  Or rather, a three-year-old child “reading”.  I know it’s three minutes but I seriously sat down and watched the whole thing because it’s a fascinating case study in what words kids pick up on when they hear stories.  The “but then” particularly amuses.

Many thanks to Stephany Aulenback for sharing that.

I’ve been asked in the past why it is that I don’t write up the online librarian previews by folks like those at Scholastic.  The reason is simple.  I figure that if you have access to the online previews you don’t need a recap from someone like me.  You can see them for yourself!  That said, some of you may have missed the Fall 2011 Scholastic preview that came out last month.  I didn’t think to blog it before, so go wild!  It’s up and ready for your attention, such as it is.

Book trailer time!  My respect for this one hinges on the fact that the kids in the video are as good as they are.  They’ve cultivated a kind of dead-eyed calm that I admire.

Speaking of trailers for books, here we have Liz Scanlon and Kathi Appelt discussing Scanlon’s newest title Noodle & Lou.  In it a worm and a blue jay are buds.  Any time I see a book where folks who eat or are eaten by one another are friends I think of that moment in Charise Mericle Harper’s Fashion Kitty where the main character explains how hard it is to be friends with something you want to eat.  She then shows a boy with a pet chocolate cake saying, “I love you.  But I really want to eat you.” Love that book.

Anywho, enjoy!

Thanks to Kathi Appelt for the link.

A new Harry Potter trailer was released this week.  I have resigned myself to not seeing it until it comes out on DVD.  Le sigh.

Thanks to Early Word for the link.

And finally for the off-topic video, I know that Stephen Colbert briefly linked to this video once.  It’s just so doggone Russian and so doggone cheery (two phrases I don’t tend to pair together) that I can’t help but make it my song of the day. La la la la la!