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With Comic Con NYC later this week, publisher previews on the rise, and various work-related meetings, talks, and speeches I’m just the teeniest tiniest bit busy this week.  But no matter!  It is you, dear readers, that give me what for and how to.  For you I would forgo all the sleep in the world.  And as luck would have it, my 5-month-old baby is currently taking me up on that offer.

Onward!

• Sometimes when I am feeling pensive I attempt to figure out which authors and illustrators currently alive today will, in the distant future, be so doggone famous for their works that people make pilgrimages to the homes they once lived in.  I suspect that the entire Amherst/Northampton area will become just one great big tour site with people snapping shots of the homes of Norton Juster, Mo Willems, Jane Yolen, and so on and such.  Thoughts of this sort come to mind when reading posts like Phil Nel’s recent piece A Very Special House in which he visits the former home of Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson.  It is entirely enjoyable, particularly the part where the current owners reenact a photo taken on the porch with Ruth and Crockett 65 years later.

• So they announced the Kirkus Prize Finalists last week.  Those would be the folks in the running for a whopping $50,000 in prize money.  The books in the young reader category are split between two picture books, two middle grade titles, and two YA.  You can see all the books that were up for contention here and the final books that made the cut here.  Heck, you can even vote on the book you’d like to see win and potentially win an iPad for yourself.  I don’t think they needed the iPad as a lure, though.  I suspect many folks will be voting left and right just the for the fun of it.  Thanks to Monica Edinger for the links.

• In other news, we have word of a blog made good.  Which is to say, a blog that figured out how to make a living off of its good name.  When people ask for YA blog recommendations I am not always the best person to ask.  I don’t monitor them the way I monitor children’s book blogs.  Pretty much, I just rely on folks like bookshelves of doom and The Book Smugglers to tell me what’s up.  Now The Book Smugglers are becoming publishers in their own right!  eBook publishers no less.  Nice work if you can get it.

• Louise Rennison wrote a rather amusing little piece about how her British slang doesn’t translate all that well across the pond, as it were.  Fair enough, but don’t go be telling me we Yanks don’t know humor.  That’s why I was pleased to see that at the end of the article it says, “Louise Rennison will be discussing humour on both sides of the pond, and other interesting things, with her fellow countryman Jim Smith (author of Barry Loser and winner of the Roald Dahl Funny prize 2013) and American author Jon Scieszka (author of many hilarious books including Stinky Cheeseman and most lately Frank Einstein) – in a panel event chaired by Guardian children’s books editor Emily Drabble, run with IBBY at Waterstones Piccadilly, London, on 7 October 2014.”  Why that’s today! Give ‘em hell, Jon!  Show ‘em we know our funny from our droll.  Then find out why their Roald Dahl Funny Prize is taking a hiatus.  It’s not like they lack for humor themselves, after all.

*sigh* That Jarrett Krosoczka. He gets to have all the fun. One minute he’s hosting the Symphony Space Roald Dahl celebration and the next he’s hosting the upcoming Celebration of E.B. White.  I mean, just look at that line-up.  Jane Curtin.  David Hyde Pierce.  Liev Schreiber (didn’t see that one coming).  Oh, I will be there, don’t you doubt it.  You should come as well.  We’ll have a good time, even if we’re not hosting it ourselves.

• This may be my favorite conspiracy piece of 2014 (which is actually saying something).  Travis Jonker lays out 6 Theories on the End of Sam and Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen.  Needless to say, I’m firmly in the “dog as Jesus” camp.

• And speaking of conspiracy theories, were you aware of the multiple theories that abound and consist of folks trying to locate the precise geographical coordinates of Sesame Street?  There’s a big Sesame Street exhibit at our Library of the Performing Arts right now (by hook or by crook I am visiting it this Sunday) and that proved the impetus for this piece.  Lots of fun.

• Hey, how neat is this?

On Saturday November 8, 2014, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art (NMAA) in Washington, DC will host the 22nd annual Children’s Africana Book Awards (CABA).  CABA was created by Africa Access and the Outreach Council of the African Studies Association* to honor authors and illustrators who have produced exceptional books on Africa for young people.

And who’s that I see on the list of nominees?  None other than Monica Edinger for Africa Is My Home!  Two Candlewick books are listed, actually.  Well played there, oh ye my fellow publisher.

• Daily Image:

I admit it. I’ve a weakness for paper jewelry.  Today’s example is no exception:

Wood pulp. A marvelous invention. Thanks to Jessica Pigza for the image.

Don’t you hate it when you’ve saved oodles of links for a Fusenews only to find your computer apparently ate them without informing you?  Fun times.  So if I promised some of you that I’d post something and then I didn’t, remind me of the fact.  Clearly me brain is running on fumes.

• Stop.  Before you go any farther I will show you something that will make you laugh.  It is this post by my sister on making a particularly unique gingerbread creation.  If nothing else the photos at the end will make you snort in a distinctly unladylike manner.

• Bookish wanted great children’s book recommendations from NYPL so Booklish now HAS great children’s book recommendations from NYPL.  Ha HA!

• Please remind me the next time I wish to garner outrage to simply tap Philip Pullman.  The man has sway.  Big time sway.

• This is fun:

The SCBWI is proud to announce the winner and honor recipients of the 2013 Jane Yolen Mid-List Author Award.  Congratulations to winner Eve Feldman, author of such works asBilly and Milly Short and Silly (Putnam) and Dog Crazy (Tambourine).  Eve has been a children’s book author and SCBWI member for over twenty years.  To learn more about Eve visit www.evebfeldman.com.

Two Honor Grants were also awarded to authors Verla Kay and Deborah Lynn Jacobs.  Verla Kay is the author of Civil War Drummer Boy (Putnam) and Hornbooks and Inkwells(Putnam) among others.  Learn more at www.verlakay.com.  Deborah Lynn Jacobs is the author of the young adult novels Choices (Roaring Brook Press) and Powers (Square Fish).  Learn more at www.deborahlynnjacobs.com.

• Gift giving to a young ‘un when you yourself are without young ‘uns?  Well, this post A Message to Those Without Children is dead on.  She doesn’t mention alternatives but I can: What about books instead?  Board books!  Give it a whirl, prospective gift givers.

• The most amusing part of this Harry Potter Swimsuit Line to my mind isn’t the content so much as it is the models they got to wear the outfits.  Most of them don’t seem to have any clue what they’re wearing.  However, #2 in the Snape dress model appears to have been cast solely for the part and #3 has the decency to look slightly embarrassed to be there at all.  Thanks to Liz Burns for the link.

• Speaking of HP, we all knew that the covers of the Harry Potter books were being re-illustrated here in the States.  But how many of us knew that the Brits were planning on releasing full-color illustrated books with art by Jim Kay?  Does the name Jim Kay ring a bell for you, by the way?  You might be thinking of the art he did for A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.  That was a far cry from that cutesy Harry picture included in the article.  Suddenly I can’t wait to see what the man can do with Dementors.  Thanks to Ben Collinsworth for the link.

• The site Latinas for Latino Lit has released their list of Remarkable Latino Children’s Literature of 2013.  It really is an excellent list.  And at least two of the titles mentioned appeared on NYPL’s recent 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing list too.

• Daily Image:

There are certain words and phrases that are instantly hilarious.  Kalamazoo is one of them.  Platypus is another.  All the more reason to combine the two.  That’s my logic.  When I heard that Jarrett Krosoczka (he of the Lunch Lady GN series as well as a stunner of a TED talk, amongst other accomplishments), had a buddy cop middle grade coming out called Platypus Police Squad: The Frog Who Croaked, I had to have it.  And as luck would have it, it’s great.  Why no one has ever thought to do a buddy copy chapter book (if you can name me one other you earn yourself a cookie) I do not know.  Clearly it’s meant to be.

Folks at Walden Media got wind that I liked the book (review forthcoming) and asked if I’d like to premier some of the art.  The book’s not slated for shelves until May 7th so here’s a bit of a peek into some of the pieces I’m particularly fond of and why.

So first off, the book is set in Kalamazoo City, which is not to be confused with Kalamazoo, Michigan (my beloved hometown).  Here’s a bit of a glimpse into some of the lower income parts of the city.  From what I can tell, Kalamazoo City sports a pretty large population.  One of our heroes in the book lives here.

I refer to the book as in the “buddy cop” style, but as you can see, Krosoczka isn’t averse to dropping a bit of noir in as well.

Then there’s the standard getting-dressed-down-by-the-chief scene.  Of which this book had in abundance.  I like this shot.

Should I read too much into the fact that the librarian in this book is a bird?  A bird with a thing for young handsome platypuses, no less.  She clearly has good taste.  I’m going to lay claim to her in any case.

It’s like me mudda always used to say: Never trust a koala.  Particularly a koala sporting elastic on his upper arms..

This just a small smattering, but it gives you a taste for the book in its entirety.  Thanks to Walden Media for letting me show you the goods.  It’s a grand little book.  No fooling.

Who says you need to be Ed Emerley to make fingerprints dance?  A canny bit of book promotion, this title is out this year but I certainly hadn’t heard of it until now (Laurence King Publishers, anyone?).  Now I’ll need to see it for myself.  It’s Let’s Make Some Great Fingerprint Art by Marion Deuchars.  Thanks to Julian Hector for the link!

Altogether now . . . awwwwwwwwww.

Okay, book trailer time.  Full discloser, Mr. Eliot Schrefer is in my writing group and I read this book, Endangered, in manuscript form.  The man can write.  I mean, really write.  I don’t see much YA in a given year, but I saw this and it was glorious.  But, in the words of the immortal LeVar Burton, you don’t have to take my word for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p75AP5ABuE8&feature=embed

Or, if you’d just rather watch Eliot get covered in apes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nILY_hhsKvE&feature=embed

Then there’s Mr. Jarrett Krosoczka. Or, as I like to think of him, the hardest working man in show business.  Now I only assume this, but surely he teaches other authors how to use social networking and technology to connect with fans, yes?  I only wonder since he’s sort of really good at it.  Example A: a recap of a webcast his did with kids recently.  Theme song and all:

Example B: The comics that were made during the workshop.  I rest my case.

Finally, my off-topic video that isn’t very off-topic.  If I’m going to be honest, I almost opened the post today with this bad lip-reading of Twilight.  What can I say?  It made me laugh very very hard (on the second segment anyway).  Forgive me if there’s a political ad before it.

First, I know it's Thursday and I will post a storytelling thingie before midnight.  I promise - but...

Over on A Fuse #8 Production, Betsy Bird is popping up with all kinds of awesome links.  Check out Jarrett Krosoczka's double-dog dare to guys...(Hi, Jarrett!  Remember when you came to the Parkland Community Library back around the time of Baghead and Annie Was Warned?  That YS librarian?  That was I!) 

Nerds are the new In Crowd!

Howdy-do, folks.  Today I am off to the Yonkers Library to participate in a Charles Dickens panel with some experts in the field.  Why me?  I don’t precisely know but I’m honored to be asked.  Plus the train ride will allow me to read my new Lemony Snicket book (this would be the children’s literature equivalent of bold as you please name dropping).

Onward!

First up, some nepotism, uncut.  The resident husband has a tendency to be brilliant (not that I’m biased or anything).  Recent evidence of this can be found on editor Cheryl Klein’s podcast Narrative Breakdown – Creative Writing, Screenwriting,Young Adult Lit, TV shows and More.  With partner-in-crime James Monohan, the two of them have a habit of talking about writing in all its many forms.  Mr. Bird appears on the episode called “Scene Construction 1 > Character Expectations and Tactics” on 9/8/12 which was described as, “what may be our most ambitious episode yet.”  In related news, Mr. Bird has restarted his blog Cockeyed Caravan in all its wild advisory glory.  I just like this picture he came up with when talking about the roles individuals play in teams:

• Wow.  This post outlining how creating a book trailer meets Common Core Standards is fantastic.  Many thanks indeed to Joyce Valenza for the link!

• And now your daily Jarrett Krosoczka links.  As per usual.  Jarrett’s been a busy man recently, making him a pleasure to link to.  If he isn’t daring our nation’s boys to read books starring girls then he’s creating the ultimate author mix and match or sneaking some well-known librarian into his Lunch Lady series.  I hold out hope that I was the inspiration for the photographer.  I can totally make my neck do that thing in the first panel.

• Travis calls it a little harmless spitballing about the Newbery.  Using the recent Goodreads thread on Newbery potential winners he speculates on the up-and-comers (reminding me in the process that my fall prediction list should come out soon).  It ties in nicely to Monica Edinger’s recent Educating Alice post Thoughts on Newbery: The Problem with Popularity Contests too.

• In case you weren’t aware of it, the Onion A.V. Club has decided that young adult literature is interesting enough to highlight on occasion (articles equating it with chick lit and meritless copyright suits notwithstanding).  In the series YA Why? they split their time evenly between new hot titles and older fare.  Stay for the new stuff but eschew the looks back in time.  Odds are whatever title you see there, the Fine Lines column by Lizzie Skurnick did it better.

• “…the critic is someone who, when his knowledge, operated on by his taste in the presence of some new example of the genre he’s interested in…hungers to make sense of that new thing, to analyze it, interpret it, make it mean something.”  Flatterer.  As an aspiring book critic of children’s fare, I was much taken with the Darryl Campbell Millions article Is This Book Bad, Or Is It Just Me? The Anatomy of Book Reviews which seeks to not only summarize in brief the spats and spits in the adult literary criticism world (a fine and fancy recap if ever there was one) then goes so far as to define the four classical elements of literary appraisal (“Reaction. Summary. Aesthetic and historical appraisal”).  This one is your required reading of the day.  Many thanks to Marjorie Ingall (who will be part of the literary criticism panel at this year’s KidLitCon) for the link.

At approximately 9:22 EST on Friday, July 27th I sent the following Tweet to the interwebs:

These are the kinds of serious thoughts that course through my brain on a given morning.  I might hear a One Direction song (yes, I’m a 34-year-old mother, what of it?) and think “That song could be a lot better if it just had some children’s authors involved.”

So I tweeted.  And to my infinite joy the tweets blossomed and bloomed to the point where we now have a serious task before us, people.  Namely, name this boy band.

The members would include Tom Angleberger (the shy one), Mac Barnett (the dreamy one – evidence here), Michael Buckley (the big brother), Tony DiTerlizzi (the one who understands you), Jarrett Krosoczka (the street smart one), and Dan Santat (the goofy one <— Jarrett’s suggestion).

Names that have been bandied about include (but are not limited to): D-Zine, Vizual Literacy, Reluctant Readerz, 32Pagez (my personal favorite), The Endpaperz, The Krosoczka Effect, the Origami Lunch Ladies and their Sidekick Dan, The Spine Tinglers, Cloth Overboardz, The Flappet Jacks (but only if it’s a jam band).  Surely there are more named to be had here.  Let’s have a redo of the time I asked you for good roller derby names.  Boy band names . . . GO!

After all, where were you the last time you heard the pop hits:

• U Don’t Need a Newbery (To Know I Luv U) – Suggested by T.S. Ferguson

• Rad Bladz

• Advance Praise

• Blurb Me – All three suggested by Alison Fargis

• OH NO! I did it again - Suggested by Mike Boldt

• Edit Me Badd – Suggested by Cece Bell
  

These would all be from the album “Wordz+Picturez” (as suggested by Jarrett).

And yes, I’ll talk about the opening ceremonies at the Olympics yesterday soon.  I just need to process it is all.  So many Mary Poppins . . . . so many . . . .

It was kind of a kooky idea, I admit it.  I’ve seen plenty of sites where artists will reinterpret someone like Maurice Sendak in their own styles.  What I wanted was something a little different.  I wanted to see what would happen if great children’s book illustrators illustrated one another.  If a Lobel illustrated a Bemelmans.  If a Carle illustrated a Silverstein.  Trouble is, famous folk have a way of not bothering to illustrate one another (to say nothing of the fact that a bunch of them are dead as doornails).  The solution?  To offer a silly fun challenge.  And so the Re-Seussification Project was offered: To re-illustrate any Dr. Seuss book in the style of another illustrator.

Now there was some question at first about revealing the identities of the people making the mash-ups.  Some folks thought this fun contest was unfortunate because I wasn’t celebrating the great talents of up-and-coming artists.  So as a compromise, I’ll present the art first and then the names of the artists at the bottom of the page.  Makes it a little more streamlined anyway.

And now . . . the moment you’ve all been waiting for . . . in the order of the faux artists, here’s the lot!

So, we’re all friends here, right?  Right off the bat I’m going to make a confession.  In offering this contest all I really wanted was for someone somewhere to do an Eric Carle.  It was a lot to ask since we’re talking about an artist dealing in the medium of cut paper.  It looked like it wasn’t going to happen.  Then, last night, the final submission was sent in and it was . . .

1. GREEN EGGS AND HAM IN AN ERIC CARLE STYLE

A brilliant way to start us off!

Next up, I’ve fond memories of this book.  As a child of Kalamazoo I was slightly obsessed with any and every mention of my hometown, no matter where it might be.  Dr. Seuss was one of the few authors to understand the true glory of my hometown’s name and for that I shall forever be grateful.  It lifts my heart a little then to see him memorialized in the form of . . .

2. HORTON HATCHES THE EGG IN A LAURENT DE BRUNHOFF STYLE

I particularly like how worried Babar appears.  One thing’s for certain.  That elephant bird is gonna be one snappy dresser.

This next image didn’t go the easy route, no sir.  Some illustrators have styles that are easier to imitate than others.  For this next one I was incredibly impressed by the sheer details at work.  From the border to the font to the colors to the fact that this looks like an honest-to-gosh watercolor.  Hold onto your hats folks, for you are now in the presence of . . .

3. GREEN EGGS AND HAM IN A TOMIE DEPAOLA STYLE

The best part is that his name is signed with dePaola’s customary little heart.  THAT is the attention to detail I crave.

That author/illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka.  He’s a good egg.  It’s not everyone who founds their own youth scholarship, y’know.   For the second time Jarrett will be hosting the 2nd annual auction for the Joseph and Shirley Krosoczka Memorial Youth Scholarships. The auction is already live as of this past Monday morning and it’s benefiting a great cause.  You see, Jarrett named it after the grandparents that raised him and with it the Worcester Art Museum provides tuition to underprivileged children who are in unique familial situations.  As for the auction itself there are all sort of great things up for grabs, including original art (I sure hope someone buys the Lunch Lady art and gives it to an actual lunch lady) and lunch with Jarrett in his studio.  Yet to my mind nothing but nuthin’ beats the idea of having Jarrett design your school’s mascot.  I suggest that even if your school doesn’t have a mascot you make one up just so that Jarrett can illustrate it.  You could be the Fightin’ Banana Slugs (after all, we know he has experience in that area) or the Seething Dust Bunnies.  The possibilities are endless.  And as of right now the bidding is a mere $51.  Y’all better snap that up or I’ll do so myself and just find a school interested.

• All hail our new fearless leader!  Y’all might have heard that our beloved SLJ editor Brian Kenney upped and left us for the library world (doggone worthy that).  So, in essence, I was floating about without a commander-in-chief.  Who knows what kind of mischief I could have gotten myself into!  Thank goodness Rebecca T. Miller is on hand to whip me into shape.  Things to know about this new editor: “With a background in journalism that began at the Utne Reader . . .”  Sorry, sorry, I’d say more but I’m sort of hung up on how fabulous that sentence looks.  Wow.  The Utne Reader.  Love it.  Welcome, Rebecca.

• The holidays are almost upon us and I know exactly what you’re wondering.  You’re wracking your brain trying to figure out what to get the children’s literary enthusiast who already has everything (even the newly annotated Phantom Tollbooth).  I have the solution.  Why not give them me?  Or rather, why not give them 25 seconds worth of me.  Some of you might recall the documentary Library of the Early Mind: A grown-up look at children’s literature that played in select libraries and library conferences around the country.  I bet a bunch of you missed it and wished you could see it.  Well happy days are here again because the producer of the film is selling both a
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• “Jarrett Krosoczka is one of 25 hottest children’s authors in the nation.” So said Henderson City Mayor Andy Hafen when presenting Mr. Krosoczka with the key to the city.  I’ll just say that again.  The mayor of a city mentioned Jarrett being part of my old The Hot Men of Children’s Literature series when presenting him with that city’s key.  Geez o’ petes.  Looks like I’m going to have to restart that series one of these days (though I KNOW I did more than just twenty-five!).  Credit to The Las Vegas Review Journal for the image.

• In my children’s room we have two copies of Florence Parry Heide’s The Shrinking of Treehorn.  It is regularly requested throughout the system, though sometimes difficult to find thanks to its small size (it will occasionally meander over to our Little Books Shelf when it’s in a wandering mood).  Thus it was with sadness that I learned that Ms. Heide passed away recently at the age of 92.  We should all reread Treehorn (or any of her other works, for that matter) in her honor.

• Wow.  I am in awe.  Here we have a really amazing and worthwhile piece over at Teach Mentor Texts charting a teacher’s changing attitude towards Jon Klassen’s I Want My Hat Back.  From initial disgust to grudging appreciation to possible enjoyment.  It’s a testament to keeping an open mind after a first reading, and the amount of self-awareness at work here is amazing.  Folks sometimes tell me that my reviews of picture books are far too long, but I think this post makes it infinitely clear how there is to be said about the power of that format.

• Remember that picture book manifesto that aired recently?  Well at Fomagrams there’s a piece from David Elzey called of picture books and amnesiacs that gives that document a thorough once over.  Everything from the statement on “robust criticism” to the relative honesty or dishonesty of “tidy endings” is examined thoroughly.  Today I appear to be linking to posts from folks unafraid to use their brains.  A nice trend.

• Is 90% of everything crap?  Jonathan Hunt says so, sparking a variety of different comments from his regular readers.  Heavy Medal is always good for thoughts of this sort.  In fact, I recently decided that the site has given me a chance to examine my own personal Newbery book prejudices.  Prejudices, I would add, that most committee members share, but prejudices just the same.  More on that when I tally up the final predictions at the end of the year, of course.

• Speaking of the Newbery, is it a good or bad idea to find out as much as you can about a book before rendering a final decision about its worth?  I ask this because Jules recently had 6 Comments on Fusenews: “A sort of child’s Jane Eyre.”, last added: 11/2/2011