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I was saddened to learn of the death of children’s author Georgess McHargue on Monday, July 18th.  It seems that this was a death our community missed and I am sorry for it.  Ms. McHargue penned many a fine children’s novel, but my favorite would have to be Stoneflight, a tale of New York City’s statuary come to life.  According to her obituary, “After working at Golden Press, Georgess became an editor at Doubleday. In her long career as an author, she published 35 books, many are for young adults, some focused on archaeology, mythology and history. She was nominated for a National Book Award for The Beasts of Never, and wrote many reviews over the years for the NY Times Book Review.”  Jane Yolen was a friend of hers and alerted me to her passing.  Thank you, Jane, for letting us know.  She was a brilliant writer.

• Diane Roback, now I doff my hat to you.  The recent PW article on Colorful Characters is a boon to the industry.  I dare say it’s brilliant.  One does wonder how Walter Mayes, who is not old, feels about being included amongst the dead and elderly.  I hope he enjoys it!  Being known as a “colorful character” will keep folks talking about you (and writing about you) for decades to come.

• That’s cool. Zetta Elliott had a chance to interview and profile Jacqueline Woodson in Ms. Magazine’s blog recently.  Good title too: Writing Children’s Books While Black and Feminist.  The part where she’s asked to name “five other black LGBTQ authors of children’s literature” is telling.  I don’t know that I could either.

• Living as we do in an essentially disposable society, Dan Blank’s piece on Preserving Your Legacy: Backing Up Your Digital Media makes for necessary reading.  As someone who has lost countless photos and files through my own negligence, this piece rings true to me.  Particularly the part where Dan says he makes sure that “Once a day, I backup my photo library onto an external hard drive.”  Anthony Horowitz once told me the same thing.  How’s THAT for name dropping, eh eh?

• Jobs!  Jobs in the publishing industry!  Jobs I say!

• And much along the same lines, were you aware that there’s a group out there made up entirely of youngsters who are entering the publishing industry?  At 33 I reserve the right to call twenty-somethings “youngsters”.  I am also allowed to shake my cane at them and use phrases like “whippersnappers” and “hooligans”.  But I digress.  The Children’s Book Council has an Early Career Committee
  11 Comments on Fusenews: Who reviews the reviewers?, last added: 8/2/2011
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  Peter D. Sieruta said, on 8/1/2011 9:06:00 PM
  

  Quick correction: Georgess McHargue got her NBA nomination for THE IMPOSSIBLE PEOPLE, not THE BEASTS OF NEVER.

  Colleen said, on 8/2/2011 1:12:00 AM
  

  Wow. Now that I know I was being manipulated by a “band of hippie hammer-lovers” or imperialist loving trains I don’t think I’ll look back on my son’s early childhood the same again. Although honestly, he just loved the trains and talking construction vehicles. Is that sooooo bad???

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 8/2/2011 4:47:00 AM
  

  Good catch, Peter! And bad show, oh obituary writer.

  Colleen, I think you’re in the clear. Unless you son starts colonizing other kids’ sandboxes “for their own good”. Then at least you know who to blame.

  Walter Mayes said, on 8/2/2011 7:34:00 AM
  

  I am absolutely thrilled to be a Colorful Character and honored to be among such greats!

  Genevieve said, on 8/2/2011 8:07:00 AM
  

  Love the Children’s Book Council Harry Potter link! I am totally going to name a local trivia team That’s So Ravenclaw, if the originators wouldn’t mind.
  (And as I’m headed to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios this weekend, I’ll look for a chance to use the phrase.)

  Sharon said, on 8/2/2011 9:34:00 AM
  

  Love the minimalist posters, especially the ones for The Princess and the Pea and The Wizard of Oz (though it was missing ‘home’). Thanks for the link.

  Adam Rex said, on 8/2/2011 11:32:00 AM
  

  Is that Spinelli cover supposed to be about a boy and his older triplet brothers? Or did the illustrator have only the one model and not enough imagination to change somebody’s hair color?

  Carl in Charlotte said, on 8/2/2011 1:16:00 PM
  

  Thanks so much for mentioning my post. I’m thrilled! And that cover is obviously a young Henry Winkler, dreaming of being the Fonz.

  Doret said, on 8/2/2011 1:46:00 PM
  

  Elliott posted the full and unedited interview with Woodson in two parts on her blog. Its a must read if you like the profile in Ms. Magazine

  Carin Siegfried said, on 8/2/2011 6:02:00 PM
  

  Speaking of youngsters to publishing, the AAP has been sponsoring the Young to Publishing Group for 10 years now! I really enjoyed it when I was a newly minted editorial assistant in New York in the early 2000s and hopefully it’s still helpful for other newbies. Check it out at: http://youngtopublishing.com/

  Jen said, on 8/2/2011 7:27:00 PM
  

  You might appreciate today’s drawing lesson on how to draw bunnies: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2011/aug/02/how-to-draw-bunnies-simone-lia
  (and note that Simone Lia, as well as Oliver Jeffers in his post (Same series) on how to draw penguins…. both compare various appendages to sausages). Ah, the UK. Not sure our american illustrators would use the same analogy.

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Amusing. I wrote an article for SLJ about the Bologna Book Fair and why librarians should attend in droves.  I was unprepared for some of the formatting choices on the piece, though.  The title Betsy Goes to Bologna caught me off guard, though it’s certainly true.  But it was the art created for the piece showing a pregnant and hugely stylish librarian jet setting about the town that really caught my fancy.  First off, I’ll have to find out from artist Ali Douglass where I can go about getting some of the shoes my avatar is sporting in these pics.  Second, anyone who saw me in Bologna will be amused by the difference in relative ankle circumference.  Mine were, needless to say, more akin to sturdy oaks than the svelte saplings portrayed here.

• You have to wonder how bad a book can be when its celebrity author can’t make a sale.  In this case, Sarah Ferguson can’t sell a picture book about a little heroic pear tree on 9/11 to U.S. publishers.  To which we say, thanks guys.  I think I owe you one.  And if you’d like to abstain from printing any other celebrity picture books, please!  Don’t feel you have to ask permission.

• The other day I was kvetching my usual kvetch about how it is that anytime a children’s middle grade novel appears in the news, it’s instantly dubbed “YA”.  Seems that I’m not the first person to notice this oddity, though.  Monica Edinger pointed out to me that over at the fabulous Misrule blog, Judith Ridge wrote the piece Whither the Children’s Books?.  In it she discusses, amongst other things, the fact that she once saw a reviewer refer to a book as “young-young adult”.  It’s enough to make your teeth itch.

• I think it was Travis Jonker who pointed out the strange thing about this article.  Not that thousands of people were able to locate adequate Where’s Waldo outfits.  It’s the fact that there was already a world record for Most Waldos.  Of course, over in Britain he’s known as Wally (if anyone can give me an adequate reason for the American name change I’d love to hear it).  My favorite line from the piece?  “The Street Performance World Championships managed has organised similar events and last year broke the world record for the most people on space hoppers.”  Space hoppers?  Still, it looked mighty impressive:

Thanks to Travis Jonker for the link.

• ALA is over and done with once again.  So what did we learn?  New author Jonathan Auxier has some answers to that question in his Five Things I Learned at ALA.  My favorite without a doubt: 4) Don’t Tell Lauren Myracle Anything.

• All g
  10 Comments on Fusenews: Terms we can live without = Young-young Adult, last added: 7/8/2011
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  Zoe said, on 7/5/2011 11:14:00 PM
  

  Your round ups are always full of juicy loveliness! Had been looking for a pic of all the Wallys/Waldos, so thank you for that in particular

  Jonathan Auxier said, on 7/6/2011 6:01:00 AM
  

  “Mine were, needless to say, more akin to sturdy oaks than the svelte saplings portrayed here.” It’s lines like that that make me excited to read your upcoming books!

  It’s funny that you call out “young adult” as a term; I was just thinking the other day that when I was growing up, “young adult” meant people in their twenties, and the only time it was used on teenagers was when trying to flatter them by saying they seemed older … maybe wonder if sometimes the genre as a whole does the same?

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 7/6/2011 6:18:00 AM
  

  Maybe so. Certainly the term “Teen” (recognizable to patrons of all kinds) is more straightforward. Less ambiguous. Though I couldn’t blame the kid that rejects the term “Tween”. How great a term can it be if it has the word “Twee” right smack dab in the middle there?

  Brenda Ferber said, on 7/6/2011 8:30:00 AM
  

  Wow. The Hunger Games movie seems to be doing everything right so far. Impressive.

  James Kennedy said, on 7/6/2011 10:22:00 AM
  

  Re the term “tweens” — this apparently universally reviled, unattractive term seems to have been invented by none other than the magisterial J.R.R. Tolkien! I am re-reading “The Fellowship of the Ring” and I came upon this, smack on the first page of the first chapter:

  “At that time Frodo was still in his *tweens*, as the hobbits called the irresponsible twenties between childhood and coming of age at thirty-three.”

  No joke. Look it up yourself. Strange!

  And I want to live in the world of that picture of you in Bologna, Betsy!

  Eric Carpenter said, on 7/6/2011 4:13:00 PM
  

  Great news on the music side of hunger games. I was talking with a camera crew member this past weekend and he was kind enough to show me a couple videos of the filming he captured with his phone including a video of the filming of the initial cornucopia scene with all the tributes running to the big pile of supplies. He also told me they blew the cornucopia up last week. Very cool.

  marchek said, on 7/6/2011 6:53:00 PM
  

  Did I ever tell you about the time James and I were walking in fron the the Metropolitan Museum of Art on a Saturday when we saw a young man dressed as Waldo walking through the crowd, complete with red balloon? We joked about how that guy might just like to dress up like that and see how many tourist photos he can manage to slip into.

  rams said, on 7/7/2011 2:28:00 PM
  

  Aha. Asked our English friends, and a space hopper is ” one of those bouncy balls with handles that you bounce on. ”

  Don’t mention it.

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 7/7/2011 7:00:00 PM
  

  Thank you!! And . . . wha??

  Sondy said, on 7/8/2011 1:41:00 PM
  

  When I heard about the Baby Lit books, I started a thread on Twitter #babylit, because surely lines in a board book are less than 140 characters!

  I just HATE it when parents try to “introduce” kids to the classics before they are at an appropriate age to enjoy the classics — as if there’s something magic about the story that knowing it means a person is more educated. Classics for toddlers is taking it to the extreme utter edge of ridiculousness! (I don’t even like abridged classics, but this is crazy!)

  It’s fun to make up lines for it, though:

  Mr. Darcy was mean to Lizzie. But Mr. Darcy has a nice house.

  Tybalt and Mercutio fight on the playground. Romeo tries to stop the fight. Oops! Mercutio is dead. Now Romeo kills Tybalt. Romeo is in trouble.

  Romeo is sad. He thinks Juliet is dead, but she is only pretending. Uh-oh! Romeo, don’t drink that poison! Oops! Too late!

  Can you say “inappropriate,” boys and girls?

  And the WSJ thought YA was getting too dark!

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NOTE TO SELF: SEEMS WE HAVE A LOT TO WORRY ABOUT THIS CHRISTMAS AND HOLIDAY SHOPPING


As soon as she had found the perfect present for her niece and dropped it in her shopping cart, Lovey Lane had a nagging worry.

"It just hit me -- this is made in China," the Dundalk resident said, checking the Disney princess costume box and scrutinizing the beads adorning a tiara as a possible hazard. "I thought I'd better put it back."

But the Pirates of the Caribbean ship for her nephew stayed put in the cart, as Lane reasoned that the plastic toy was not likely tainted by lead.

"Of course, we don't know what paint they're using," said Lane, shopping yesterday morning at Toys "R" Us in the Golden Ring area of Baltimore County.

After months of recalls that have seen millions of toys pulled from store shelves -- including classics such as Thomas the Tank Engine, Dora the Explorer and Big Bird -- anxiety was palpable in the toy aisles on the day after Thanksgiving. Warnings of lead paint and choking hazards, and even chemical coatings that could be transformed into a "date rape" drug if ingested, have gotten shoppers' attention.

Full Story Here:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-te.bz.toys24nov24,0,3673506.story

Toy safety tips
• Children under age 3: Avoid toys with small parts, which pose a choking hazard.

• Children under 6: Avoid building sets with small magnets. If they are swallowed, serious injuries or death can occur.

• Children under 8: Avoid toys that have sharp edges and points.

• Riding toys, skateboards and in-line skates can cause fatal falls. Helmets and safety gear should be worn and sized to fit.

• Projectile toys such as air rockets, darts and slingshots, intended for older children, can result in serious eye injuries.

• Chargers and adapters should be supervised by adults to prevent burn hazards.

• Read toy labels for age and safety recommendations.

[Source: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission]

Shopping for children's toys has become complicated. Perhaps it's time for consumers to seriously consider buying products and goods made locally.

I read Library Journal pretty regularly. I enjoy it, the writing is often great and John Berry and I see eye to eye on a lot of things. There have been a few lousy headlines about library topics that we’ve seen in the popular media, where the library was on what I would consdier the “right” side of an issue and the headline made them look like they were not. I read the whole article on salaries called What’s an MLIS Worth (for the record, I have an MLib.) and I have to say I could not get over the fact that women in librarianship, in all parts of librarianship earn less than men.

This fact is buried about four pages into the article in a section entitles “Gender Inequity Remains” and states “While women have seen positive improvements in salaries, finally topping $40,000, their salaries continue to lag approximately 6.5% behind salaries for men.” LJ then goes on to explain that they think this is because more men work in academic and vendor-type jobs where salaries are generaly higher. It also states that women have higher starting salaries generally and do better in special libraries where their salaries are 17.6% higher than men, but this section was one of the smaller ones in terms of total population; there were only 14 men’s salaries examined (and 86 women’s). Men in public libraries, on average, earn more than women, except in Canada. Men in academic libraries, on average, earn more than women. I’m sure there are many good reasons why this “effect” exists, but I’m a little curious whether there are really just a few totally plausible explanations for this, or if librarianship despite its intelligent, introspective, feminized nature is just as bad as everyplace else with its remaining gender inequity?

While I’ll miss Jay Datema’s editorial insights over at Library Journal, I’m thrilled as hell to see that he’s going to be working with the whizkids over at NYPL now.

The local library is hiring for a three hour per week job because they got some money and decided to expand the library hours. This is great news. Unfortunately, they need to hire a person to help out during some of those hours and it’s hard to find someone who wants to make a commitment for a job that pays less than $25 a week. The library — which I have been working for helping them with their website and their OPAC — asked if I would train to be an on-call librarian there and that’s what I’ve been doing.

The funny joke about all my weird techie/bloggy/travelling stuff is that I started down this path because I wanted to live in the country and I didn’t want to be a teacher, work in the post office or be a police officer. I mean I like books, love to read and love to help people, but first and foremost I wanted to be a small-town librarian. This is the first “job” I’ve had where I actually did that. All my other jobs have been at larger libraries, school libraries or the weird circuit rider library job that I mostly do now. So I got to train on things I’ve never really learned before like how to use the circulation system and the barcode reader, how to operate the lift, how to transfer a call, how to keep teenagers happy but civil, how to call people and leave a message that their books on hold are are in without saying what the book is, you know the drill.

And, it should come as no surprise that this work was hard, and interesting, and engrossing and kept me so busy I didn’t check my email for three hours which is unusual for me during a work day. Michael Stephens and Michael Casey discussed the need for many of us with specialized jobs to switch off with other people, walk a mile in their shoes, or work a shift at their desk, to get an idea of what their real challenges were. Its good advice.

One of the librarians and I had a good laugh over thinking about the idea of IM reference for the YA librarian who has to monitor the teen computer area and is rarely near her own desk. There may be ways of making it work, sure, but in the abstract it was a totally ridiculous idea given how she works. It’s good for techie people like me to know that before we start offering our oh-so-helpful advice. Anyhow, I had a good but tiring day. Apropos of Banned Books Week I also like their title “Going to the Field” which reminds me of this part of one of my favorite poems by Wendell Berry.

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

My article for Library Journal’s NetConnect called Saving Digital History about archiving digital content is available online. LJ has done something weird and terrible with their web layout so that it’s now somewhat broken in Firefox for Mac so my apologies for sending you to the so-called “print” version. I also got to talk to Jay Datema and Peter Brantley as part of the NetConnect podcast series. It’s a hefty 50MB download, but I thought it was a pretty good conversation that Jay did a great job annotating.

This interview with Kurt Vonnegut appeared in Library Journal almost 34 years ago, it was nice of LJ to put it on their website.

Vonnegut expressed no surprise, however, at the censorship problems some of his books have run into with public schools in parts of Michigan and Ohio. “It’s the same thing every time. They ban something of mine, the ACLU jumps in, loses the case in the lower court, and wins the appeal. After all,” he stresses optimistically, “they can’t win. What they’re doing is unconstitutional.”

This interview with Kurt Vonnegut appeared in Library Journal almost 34 years ago, it was nice of LJ to put it on their website.

Vonnegut expressed no surprise, however, at the censorship problems some of his books have run into with public schools in parts of Michigan and Ohio. “It’s the same thing every time. They ban something of mine, the ACLU jumps in, loses the case in the lower court, and wins the appeal. After all,” he stresses optimistically, “they can’t win. What they’re doing is unconstitutional.”