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Folks, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a library in possession of a summer reading program must produce a t-shirt of some kind.  And generally speaking, it is usually a walking eyesore.  Though I owe New York Public Library more than I can ever repay, I must confess that each and every summer I would receive my designated summer reading t-shirt.  It would be size XXXXXL (it’s much easier to give all staff employees a t-shirt if you just make it one-size-fits-all), usually white, and sporting a design that generally looked better on paper than on a living human body.

When I moved to Evanston, IL, I expected more of the same. What I got was this:

There were multiple sizes.  It was black (I still retain a New Yorker’s love for that slimming, you-can’t-see-dirt-on-me color).  The design was in red.  It was, to be frank, the most beautiful summer reading t-shirt I’d ever seen.

Which got me to thinking.  I just sort of took it for granted that, like a kind of penance to the library gods above, all summer reading shirts were supposed to be unattractive.  But maybe I was wrong from the start.

So here’s my challenge to you: Send me a picture of your summer reading shirt if it is more attractive than this one.  Then I’ll compile the results and create a Summer Reading T-Shirt Fashion Show.  Not only will this be a way you can give props to the design team of your local library, but it could give some libraries ideas for their own attractive summer reading t-shirt designs in the future.

All t-shirt designs may be sent to fusenumber8 at gmail dot com.  Looking forward to them!

• Top of the morning to you, froggies!  I had one heckuva weekend, I tell you.  Actually it was just one heckuva Saturday.  First there was the opening of the new Bank Street Bookstore location here in NYC.  I was one of the local authors in attendance and, as you can see from this photograph taken that morning, I was in good company.

At one point I found myself at a signing table between Deborah Heiligman and Rebecca Stead with Susan Kuklin, Chris Raschka, and Peter Lerangis on either side.  I picked up the name tag that Jerry Pinkney had left behind so that I could at least claim a Caldecott by association.  Of course that meant I left my own nametag behind and a certain someone did find it later in the day . . .

Then that afternoon, after wolfing down an Upper West Side avocado sandwich that had aspirations for greatness (aspirations that remained unfulfilled) I was at NYPL’s central library for the panel Blurred Lines?: Accuracy and Illustration in Nonfiction.  This title of silliness I acknowledge mine.  In any case, the line-up was Sophie Blackall, Brian Floca, Mara Rockliff, and her Candlewick editor Nicole Raymond.  It was brilliant. There will perhaps be a write-up at some point that I’ll link to.  I just wanted to tip my hat to the folks involved.  We were slated to go from 2-3 and we pretty much went from 2-4.  We could have gone longer.

• I’ve often said that small publishers fill the gaps left by their larger brethren.  Folktales and fairy tales are often best served in this way.  Graphic novels are beginning to go the same route.  One type of book that the smaller publishers should really look into, though, is poetry.  We really don’t see a lot of it published in a given year, and I’d love to see more.  The new Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award may help the cause.  It was recently announced and the award is looking for folks who are SCBWI members and that published their books between 2013-2015.  It makes us just one step closer to an ALA poetry award.  One step.

• How did I miss this when it was published?  It’s a New Yorker piece entitled Eloise: An Update.  It had me at “The absolute first thing I do in the morning is make coffee in the bathroom and check to see what’s on pay-per-view / Then I have to go to the health club to see if they’ve gotten any new kettlebells and then stop at the business center to Google a few foreign swear words.”  Thanks to Sharyn November for the link.

• Y’all know I worship at the alter of Frances Hardinge and believe her to be one of the greatest living British novelists working today, right?  Well, this just in from the interwebs!  Specifically, from agent Barry Goldblatt’s Facebook page:

BSFA and Carnegie Medal longlister Frances Hardinge’s debut adult novel THE KNOWLEDGE, about a London cab driver with a special license to travel between multiple alternative Londons, who, after rescuing a long-missing fellow driver, finds herself caught up in a widening conspiracy to control the pathways between worlds, to Navah Wolfe at Saga Press, in a two-book deal, for publication in Summer 2017, by Barry Goldblatt at Barry Goldblatt Literary on behalf of Nancy Miles at Miles Stott Literary Agency (NA).

Mind you, this means I’ll have to read an adult novel now.  I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

• Speaking of England, I’m tired of them being cooler than us.  For example, did you know that they have a Federation of Children’s Book Groups?  A federation!  Why don’t we have a federation?  I’ll tell you why.  Because we haven’t earned it yet.  Grrr.

• Ooo!  A new Spanish language children’s bookstore has just opened up in Los Angeles.  And here we can’t get a single bookstore other than Barnes & Noble to open up in the Bronx in English, let alone another language.  This is so cool.  Methinks publishers looking to expand into the Latino market would do well to court the people working at this shop, if only to find new translatable material.

• Fancy fancy dancy dancy Leo Lionni shirts are now being sold by UNIQLO.  Some samples:

Smarties.

• Roxanne Feldman is one of those women that has been in the business of getting books into the hands of young ‘uns for years and years and years.  Online you may recognize her by her username “fairrosa”.  Well, now she has a blog of her very own and it’s worth visiting.  Called the Fairrosa Cyber Library, it’s the place to go.  However – Be Warned.  This is not a site to merely dabble in.  If you go you must be prepared to sit down and read and read.  Her recent posts about diversity make for exciting blogging.

• Phil Nel has compiled the greatest Dr. Seuss blog post of all time.  I said it.  I stand by it.  Doubt me if you dare.

• Me Stuff: Because apparently the whole opening of this blog post didn’t count.  Now Dan Blank is one of those guys you just hope and pray you’ll meet at some point in your life.  He’s the kind of fellow who is infinitely intensely knowledgeable about how one’s career can progress over time and he’s followed my own practically since the birth of my blogging career.  If I appeared in Forbes, it was because of Dan.  Recently he interviewed me at length and the post is up.  It’s called Betsy Bird: From “Invisible” Introvert to Author, Critic, Blogger and Librarian.  I feel like that kid in Boyhood with Dan.  Really I do.

• It was Adam Gidwitz who alerted me to a theatrical production going on in town right now that holds my interest in its hot little hand.  He says the company is fantastic and that the show is entirely worth it.  Though, with a name like BAMBIF*CKER/KAFFEHAUS: A caffeinated ride through sex, death, deer, and Zionism how could it not be?

• Fact: The Cotsen Children’s Library of Princeton has been interviewing great authors and illustrators since at least 2010.

• Fact: Access to these interviews has always been available, but not through iTunes.

• Fact: Now it is.  And it’s amazing.  Atinuke.  Gary Schmidt.  Rebecca Stead.  Philip Pullman.  It’s free, it’s out there, so fill up your iPod like I am right now and go crazy!  Thanks to Dana Sheridan for the info!

The other day I linked to a piece on the term “racebent” and how it applies to characters like Hermione in Harry Potter.  It’s not really a new idea, though, is it?  Folks have always reinterpreted fictional characters in light of their own cultures.  This year the publisher Tara Books is releasing The Patua Pinocchio.  Now I’ve been a bit Pinocchio obsessed ever since my 3-year-old daughter took Kate McMullen’s version to heart (it was the first chapter book she had the patience to sit through).  With that in mind I am VERY interested in this version of the little wooden boy.  Very.

• Ever been a children’s nonfiction conference?  Want to?  The 21st Century Children’s Nonfiction Conference has moved to NYC this year and it’s going to be a lot of fun.  I’ll be speaking alongside my colleague / partner-in-crime Amie Wright, but there are a host of other speakers and it’s a delightful roster.  If ever this has ever been your passion, now’s thWe time to go.

• Diverse books for kids don’t sell?  To this, Elizabeth Bluemle, a bookseller, points out something so glaringly obvious that I’m surprised nobody else has mentioned it before.  I’m sure that someone has, but rarely so succinctly. Good title too:  An Overlooked Fallacy About Sales of Diverse Books.

• And speaking of diverse books, here’s something that was published last year but that I, in the throes of the whole giving birth thing, missed.  The We Need Diverse Books website regularly posted some of the loveliest book recommendations I’ve ever seen.  We’ve all seen lists that say things like “Like This? Then Try This!” but rarely do they ever explain why the person would like that book (I’m guilty of this in my own reviews’ readalikes and shall endeavor to be better in the future).  On their site, the WNDB folks not only offered diverse readalikes to popular titles, but gave excellent reasons as to why a fan of David Wiesner’s Tuesday might like Bill Thomson’s Chalk.  The pairing of Lucy Christopher’s Stolen with Sharon Draper’s Panic is particularly inspired.  The covers even match.

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I am ever alert to any appropriation of my workplace that might be taking place. Recently I learned that in the Rockettes’ upcoming holiday show there will be this set in one of the numbers.  Apparently Patience and Fortitude (the library lions) will be voiced by (the recorded voices of) Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.  I kid you not.

Years ago when I worked in the old Donnell Library I looked out the window of the Central Children’s Room to see three camels standing there chewing their cud or whatever it is that camels chew.  They were with their trainer, taking a walk before their big number in the Rockettes’ show.  The crazy thing was watching the people on the street.  The New Yorkers were walking past like the it was the most natural thing in the world.  This is because New Yorkers are crazy.  When camels strike you as everyday, something has gone wrong with your life.

Over the weekend at the Long Beach Comic Con, Tamara Brooks found some officially licensed DC t-shirts that gave messages that were a bit outmoded, to say the least. Tom Spurgeon quickly labeled them “repulsive,” and everyone else was all like reducing Wonder Woman to a victory level on a sex video game, really? Well, after CBR wrote to DC “DC wrote back and said, we agree:

DC Comics is home to many of the greatest male and female Super Heroes in the world. All our fans are incredibly important to us, and we understand that the messages on certain t-shirts are offensive. We agree. Our company is committed to empowering boys and girls, men and women, through our characters and stories. Accordingly, we are taking a look at our licensing and product design process to ensure that all our consumer products reflect our core values and philosophy.

To be honest, I find the first shirt repulsive. I get that showing Superman is a bro who bang hot chicks is an upgrade for his bulgeless underpants image. But…not the best way to get that across. The second is reminiscent of other t-shirts where the wearer declares she in training to be a trophy wife or whatever. Kinda silly but not the worst thing I’ve seen. But yeah, maybe not the best message for a company that is clearly trying to del with a surge of new customers who are more sensitive to this kind of thing. So yeah, end of kerfuffle, before it ever really got going.

Morning, folks!  I do believe my comments feature is busted at the moment, so please don’t be alarmed if you can’t get anything to go through.  It’s frustrating for me as well.  Feels like an echo chamber in here.  Hm.

• Well, as you may have heard, A Chair, A Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy will not be continuing here on the SLJ blog network.  Liz Burns posted her final post just this past Friday.  But fear not!  This is not the end of Tea Cozy as we know it.  Liz has a new site so update those bookmarks and RSS feeds and get thee over there.  Her post on the We Need Diverse Books Campaign should start you out right.

• Speaking of fellow SLJ blogs, I admit that I don’t often read the excellent Adult Books 4 Teens since the topic isn’t really in my wheelhouse.  Still, recently Mark Flowers had a great post up on The Problem with Stories About Amnesia Solved by Robert Glancy and Jason Bourne.  He gave a nice shout out to my husband’s blog Cockeyed Caravan in the post saying, “Anyone who cares about narrative, movies, or both should be reading Matt Bird’s Cockeyed Caravan blog. He spends most of his time there deconstructing the narrative structure of Hollywood movies and explaining how and why movies do (and don’t) work. But while he only discusses movies (and usually big-budget Hollywood ones at that), his insights are invaluable for anyone interested in the way narrative works in any kind of fiction. I’ve cited his ideas many times over on my personal blog and in conversations with other book lovers.”  Love you, Mark!  Thanks!

• And since I’m just on a bloggers-discussing-bloggers kick, I was so pleased to hear that Sue Bartle, Mary Ann Cappiello, Marc Aronson, Kathleen Odean, and Myra Zarnowski are restarting the excellent Common Corps blog Uncommon Corps.  In an era where so many people are desperate for CCSS info, we’re all desperate for intelligent conversation on the topic.  This blog provides that, as well as amazing curricular tie-ins you might not have otherwise known about.  Read Compare & Contrast for a taste of what I mean.

• Awww.  The Moomin characters are now regular dining companions of lonely Japanese restaurant attendees.  I’d be game for eating with one.  Just don’t seat me with Little My.  I don’t trust that gal.  Thanks to mom for the link.

• Hm. Maybe it’s a good thing I’ll be missing out on this year’s Book Expo.  Granted, it’s exhausting even in the best of times, but I still get a bit of a kick out of it.  Of course, this year there’s been a bit of a brouhaha with BookCon (which I have never even been aware of before).  One of the problems with the internet is the fact that when controversies arise, few are willing to recap the troubles.  Fortunately the Melville House post Wear shades to BookCon, it’ll be blindingly white in there tells you everything you need to know.  And more!

• “When white writers come to me and ask if it’s OK for them to write about people of color, it seems as if they’re asking for my blessing. I can’t give them my blessing because I don’t speak for other people of color. I only speak for myself, and I have personal stakes in specific kinds of narratives.”  Since author Malinda Lo co-founded Diversity in YA she’s been getting a lot of these questions over the years.  Her piece Should white people write about people of color? is your required reading of the day.  Many thanks to Phil Nel for pointing it out to me.

• By the way, in the course of looking at Malinda’s work I discovered the blog Disability in Kidlit which, somehow, I’d never run across before.  Since it’s been around since June 2013 it’s hardly new, but I’m still going to call a New Blog Alert on it, since I’ve only just discovered it myself.  It’s a blog about “Reviews, guest posts, and discussions about the portrayal of disabilities in MG/YA fiction.”  There are a couple books out this year that I’d love their opinion of.

• Oh!  This happened.  So I’ll admit that I’m more of a podcast listener than a radio listener.  And when NYPL’s lovely PR department asked if I’d be interested in talking on the Leonard Lopate show, I confess I didn’t quite know who he was.  Fortunately I learned pretty quickly, and even was lucky enough to meet his replacement Andy Borowitz instead (whom I had heard of since he moderated the National Book Awards the year I got to go).  Our talk is up and it’s called Our Favorite Children’s Stories.  Mostly a lot of talk about classics, but I was able to work in some shout-outs for three more recent books.  The comments section is where the recommendations and memories are really hopping, though.  Good stuff is to be found there.

Take a gander at this article on WWI librarian uniforms and one thing becomes infinitely clear: Librarians during The Great War has it DOWN in terms of clothing, man.  Look at that style. That look!  That form!  Oh, what the heck.  Let’s bring them back!  At the very least I’d love an ALA-issued arm patch.  Thanks to AL Direct for the link.

Actually, this pairs rather well with that last piece.  Sayeth Bookriot, Enough With the “Sexy Library” Thing Already.  Amen.

That they are seriously considering making a film out of A Monster Calls is amazing enough to me as it is.  That it may potentially star Felicity Jones and Liam Neeson?  Having a harder time wrapping my head around that one.  Thanks to PW Children’s Bookshelf for the link!

In case you missed it the Américas Award for Children’s & Young Adult Literature was announced recently.  The winners?  Parrots Over Puerto Rico illustrated by Susan Roth and co-authored by Susan Roth and Cindy Trumbore won the award proper while Diego Rivera: An Artist for the People by Susan Goldman Rubin and Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote illustrated and written by Duncan Tonatiuh took home the honors.  Lots of great Honorable Mentions too, so check it out.

Whoo boy.  The term “mansplaining” just seems loaded to the gills.  That said, this piece from Inside Higher Ed tackles the definition itself with a look at the film version of The Wizard of Oz.  I always liked the Scarecrow best too, and assumed that when Dorothy grew up she’d end up with Hunk.  Feel free to pick apart the various ramifications behind that bit of childhood matchmaking, if you will.

I don’t usually quote from the Cynopsis Kids newsletters, and technically neither of these have much to do with children’s books, but there were two recent pieces that concerned children’s entertainment that I thought you might like to know about as much as I did.

Get ready for Hulu‘s first original kids series. Debuting this Friday is Doozers, the Fraggle Rock spinoff produced by the Jim Henson Co. that packs a full 52 episodes and will be available advertiser-free on both Hulu and Hulu Plus. The preschool series revolved around an animated gaggle of kids called The Pod Squad– Spike, Molly Bolt, Flex and Daisy Wheel–who learn to design and build different objects. Other Hulu Kids content includes Fraggle Rock, Pokemon and SpongeBob.

In a move more in line with kids’ bedtimes, beginning Tuesday, April 29, new eps of Syfy‘s original series Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge will air at 9p vs. their current 10p Tuesday slot. The competition series features 10 aspiring creature creators competing to out-imagine one another in challenges where they will build everything from mechanical characters to whimsical beasts. The stakes are high. Winner walks with $100,000 and a contract working at the world-renowned Creature Shop.

• Daily Image:

I think my brother-in-law Steve sent me this one.  Don’t know where it’s from but I sort of adore it. Wouldn’t mind one of my own.

• Good old brackets.  They’re the greatest gift basketball ever gave to children’s literature.  I’m certain you’ve all been following the Battle of the Kids’ Books over at our sister blog here at SLJ.  That upcoming schedule sure looks like a doozy.  3/12 Doll Bones vs Eleanor & Park judged by Lauren Oliver?  Lauren, baby, my condolences.  3/13 Far Far Away vs Flora & Ulysses judged by Sara Mlynowski?  You can bet I’ll be there that day to watch THAT bit of logic.  But if it’s even more brackets you seek, NYPL is doing some Literary March Madness doozies of their own on Instagram.  Around March 9-12 they’ll be posting the childrens/YA brackets.  Hat tip to Morgan Holzer for coming up with the idea for #LiteraryMarchMadness in the first place.  So what’s it going to be?  Shel Silverstein vs. Dr. Seuss?  Beverly Cleary vs. Judy Blume?  The choices are entirely yours.  Good luck with all that.

• In case you missed it, SCBWI Announces 2014 Golden Kite and Sid Fleischman Award Winners and Honorees.  I’m particularly fond of the Sid Fleischman awards since they’re the only awards in America (that I’m aware of) that reward humor.  The Brits and their Dahl awards are a bit more extensive, but for now I’ll take what I can get.  Congrats to all the winners!

• This is not the first time I’ve come across a particularly interesting blog post from the site Teach From the Heart.  I don’t know that many straight up teacher blogs, but what I’ve seen coming out of this site is consistently thought provoking.  Particularly the recent piece Dear Google, You Should Have Talked to Me First which tackles the sticky, thorny subject of Accelerated Reading.  As of this writing, 253 comments and climbing, folks.

Many of you know my true and abiding love of that old Hardy Boys knock-off series The Three Investigators.  Far superior to their contemporaries in every way, The Three Investigators combined good old-fashioned boys detective action adventure heroics with the sensibility of Scooby Doo and the bizarre presence in many of their titles of Alfred Hitchcock (Jim Averbeck take note!).  Sondra Eklund pierces the veil surrounding the trio’s first adventure The Secret of Terror Castle (how can you resist a title like that?) and the results are fabulous.  I mean, the bad guy in the series was named Skinny Norris.  Tell me that’s not the best character name you’ve heard in a while.  Sounds like an escapee from Goodfellas.

• Ever wondered how to pronounce my name?  Um . . . no.  No you haven’t.  As names go mine is probably one of the easiest to figure out.  Still, that didn’t stop me from putting in an explanation about said name when TeachingBooks.net offered me the chance to appear on their site.  Hear my pronunciation n’ such here, if you’ve a desire to do so.

• Petition time!  Folks, there’s a children’s literary collection out there that needs you help.  Apparently UC Berkeley has slated their Tolman Children’s Library for closure.  Fortunately some concerned souls found out about this and decided to prevent the event  If you’ve a minute to spare, they would like to get 300 signatures at this time, but they’ve only hit the 200 mark.  So head on over to the petition for Save the Children’s and Young Adult Literature Library in Tolman Hall and see what you can’t do to give them a bit of a boost.  Children’s collections everywhere are facing similar cuts.  It’s nice to feel like you might be able to prevent at least one of these somewhere, somehow.

• I’ve been quoting the “He seemed to be a permanent bridesmaid” line Vicky Smith came up with in regards to Brian Floca’s win of a Caldecott quite a lot lately.  This was one of the many bon mots on display at the relatively recent Children’s Book Boston gathering, as reported by PW.  Great little piece for those of you wondering how the big ALA Awards get chosen.

• Me and Business Insider.  We’re like peas in a pod.  I don’t know how financial mags keep hooking me into their productions considering the sheer lack of funds in my own personal life.  First the Forbes article and now this.  Recently BI (I assume someone somewhere presumably calls it BI, right?) asked NYPL if someone like my pretty self could recommend some books that adults should revisit in their waning days.  Or, as they put it, Kids Books Adults Should Read Again As an Adult.  They took the bulk of my suggestions and even integrated some of my comments and news items along the way.  They didn’t mention everything I liked, but I was very impressed that they kept my mentions of Suzuki Beane and Who Needs Donuts.  Well played, guys!

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Know a children’s literary enthusiast in need of some hipster insider children’s lit clothing?  Look no further than this little offering from BustedTees:

Granted it’s clearly making a more specific reference to the movie adaptation of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (a movie that I need to rewatch one of these days, if only to confirm that it was as creepy as I recall) but we won’t hold that against it.

Thanks to Alison Morris for the link!

Okay!  So I’m a little out of practice when it comes to these news items and looking at some of the stuff I’ve accumulated in the last month, a good swath of it is out of date.  Here’s what I have that’s current then.

Not long ago the good people at the Women’s National Book Association called me up and wondered if I’d be willing to participate in a kind of panel discussion with some female children’s author/illustrators . . . from Kazakhstan.  Twist!  Naturally I said yes indeed.  I mean, how often do you come across that kind of an offer?  Publishing Perspectives wrote up the meeting here.  No pictures of me except a nice glimpse of my left arm.  Publishers Weekly also wrote it up here but my favorite recounting is from what must be a translated site at How to Be Published which refers to me as a “New York Public Library girl materials dilettante”.  If I were a tattoo kind of gal, I would make that my standard.

• Two news items regarding good leftist cartoonists/children’s authors of the past.  The first is this fine cartoon tribute to Syd Hoff in Tablet by Sarah Lazarovic.  Thanks to Marjorie Ingall for that link.  The second regards one Mr. Crockett Johnson.  As you might recall he will be featured in a dual biography with Ruth Krauss by the multi-talented Phil Nel this coming fall.  The magnificent title is Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children’s Literature.  And then there’s the drop dead gorgeous book jacket by Chris Ware.  Phil pointed out that not only is Ware drawing in the style of Crockett, he’s also doing a Sendak here, a Mary Blair there, etc.  It’s also one of the sexier Ruth Krauss images I’ve seen.  Cannot wait to get my grubby mitts on that one.

• Not a New Blog Alert BUT . . . it might as well be for all that I’ve paid attention to it.  When I write a review on this site I puff myself a little and feel smart because I’m capable of linking to other reviews.  Big whoop.  When the good folks at The Classroom Bookshelf review a book they don’t just review it.  They interview the author via video, provide countless useful links, and generally make the book as useful and accessible to teachers as humanly possible.  It just puts me to shame.  They’re off for the summer (teachers, y’know) but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a bit of jaw-dropping in by seeing what they accomplished so far.  Dear Lord, I stand amazed.

• Some more me stuff.  First a
  3 Comments on Fusenews: Just your average everyday “New York Public Library girl materials dilettante”, last added: 7/5/2012
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  Philip Nel said, on 7/4/2012 10:37:00 PM
  

  Gosh, Betsy, thanks for the shout-out! I’ll ask the press to send a copy directly to your “grubby mitts.” And I couldn’t be more pleased with Chris Ware’s cover. The only down-side is that, for all subsequent books of mine, I’ll think, “Well, it’s not a bad cover. But this designer is no Chris Ware….”

  ChrisinNY said, on 7/5/2012 6:09:00 AM
  

  I happen to know an aspiring librarian who I thought might find your article useful! Hope she reads it (even if it came from mom….)

  Jennifer Schultz said, on 7/5/2012 6:50:00 AM
  

  Good article (I will say that in our county library system, we’ve had to close some positions when staff retired or left–we’ve been able to reopen one youth service position, but our assistant librarian position has been closed ever since the previous AL retired three or four years ago). If you’re able to relocate for a job, your job outlook may be decent. If you’re looking for a position in your immediate area and are not able to relocate, you have a much tougher situation. It’s rough out there–recent graduates have my sympathies.

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The newly-launched Comic Strip Tees showcases a comic by a different cartoonist every day, and allows you to purchase a t-shirt with that comic’s artwork printed on it. Each shirt is limited edition and only sold for 7 days.

Features cartoonists such as Mike Allred, Roger Langridge, Tom Hart, Evan Dorkin, Shannon Wheeler, and today’s strip/shirt is by yours truly.

Lately Lily is the creative collaboration between illustrator Micah Player and apparel designer Erin Nichols. Using the interesting set up featuring Lily, a fictional traveling daughter of a photographer and writer for “the world’s greatest magazine,” the site provides young girls a chance to view the world through her eyes. You get to see where she is currently, check out her traveling notebook, help her pack her suitcase, and be able to buy tee shirts featuring Lily’s striking visage. Bold colors, broad strokes, colorful design make this a fantastic site to visit for young ones. Or, for people like me, who happen to love great illustration. 

All right, all right, all righty, all right then.  Where to begin . . . I know.  With a tribute that deserves notice first and foremost.  I had heard that Laura Amy Schlitz was writing an obituary for her friend, fellow writer Eva Ibbotson.  I expected it to be brilliant.  It has, in fact, exceeded my expectations.  So much so that it gives me the rather morbid hope that I die before Laura just so that she can write an obit for me as well.  Nobody does it better.

• Hooray!  It’s time of the year again!  The Best Book lists of 2010 are beginning to arrive.  Just the other day New York Public Library decided on their 2010 list of 100 Books for Reading and Sharing (I’m not offering any hints, but it’s good).  They’ll be printing that soon.  And now Publishers’ Weekly has release their own Best Children’s Books 2010.  I don’t agree with all their choices, but it’s certainly got some great books on there.  Be sure to check it out.

• Speaking of Bests, my co-author Peter Sieruta at Collecting Children’s Books just printed the list of the 2010 ABC New Voices list of “outstanding debut books by authors for middle-grade and young-adult readers.”  I must say, I’m more than a little disappointed in the results.  No Adam Gidwitz.  No Kate Milford.  No Margi Preus.  No N.H. Senzai.  We must have been reading very different authors this year, those independent booksellers and I.  I would like to read The Clockwork Three, though.  I’ve been hearing good things.

• Wow!  So somehow I was unaware that Lisa Brown (she of the recent picture book Vampire Boy’s Good Night) had created a large archive of three panel cartoon reviews of various works of classic literature.  Or, if not classic literature, at least well known literature.   Some of you, I know, will be fond of the Little House one.  Thanks to Educating Alice for the link.

• Got word the other day from illustrator Annie Beth Ericsson that due to the fact that NYC’s Mayor is declaring a brand new Illustration Week soon, she is going to interview a whole slew of new up-and-coming illustrators “many of them children’s book-related” on her blog Walking in Public.   Sounds good to me.  Please note, oh ye librarians that work with small children, that a couple of the illustrators have images that aren’t necessarily workplace friendly.  Good stuff that should be checked out, though!

• The screening of the children’s literary documentary Library of the Early Mind went swimmingly here at NYPL last week.  But don’t take my word for it.

• You know that
  7 Comments on Fusenews: “swinish Milneish parts”, last added: 11/11/2010
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  Debbie Reese said, on 11/9/2010 5:07:00 AM
  

  Hi Betsy,

  That was my first visit to Kalamazoo, and I liked it so much, that I’ll pose the question (to you) that I often get… Why did you leave there? (For me, its “why did you leave NM for Illinois? and the answer is grad school.) The library is gorgeous. And the rolling hills, fall colors… And the hospitality, too! All in all, a terrific visit.

  Regarding my reference to the list… Did I note that it wasn’t your personal list? I don’t, in fact, recall just what I said, but will make absolutely sure to do it in the future when I reference the list in a lecture. I was talking about the prevalence of stereotypical images and referenced the list and my analysis of the list. Words matter, as I take great care to point out, and I certainly don’t want to add confusion to the work you do, and did, with that list. I’ll make a clarification on my post about the seminar.

  An aside… yesterday I pulled up Amazon’s list of “Bestsellers in Children’s Native American Books” and posted that list to my blog. I haven’t done much with it yet, but it occurs to me that it’d be interesting to see how much cross-over there is from that list to the list generated from your poll.

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 11/9/2010 8:21:00 AM
  

  Thanks, Debbie! Ah, Kalamazoo. You know, as a kid I always thought I’d end up in Kalamazoo again. Somehow that hasn’t quite turned out that way, but I’m a big-time fan of the town. So glad they treated you well! They’re swell folks, those Kalamazooians.

  And many thanks for understanding why I’d want to clarify that my list was a poll rather than something I conjured from my own noggin. I do agree with you on a fair number of the titles and find your commentary a necessary part of the list itself. And thanks for letting me know about the new post to your blog! I too would be interested in seeing how much crossover there is.

  Now what’s your take on that graphic novel collection Native and that new MG novel The Mourning Wars? I’ve been dying to know!

  Debbie Reese said, on 11/9/2010 9:38:00 AM
  

  The graphic novel… I wish the people who put it together (designers?) had made clear what tribe each story is from. The info is in the back with the bios, but I’d have liked to see it with each story.

  MOURNING WARS? I don’t know it… I’ll look for it. Publishers do not send me books. I only get them when someone asks me “have you seen” — and then I track things down, usually buying them or borrowing from the library. I read some blogger’s comments, about how publishers send them books, and I wonder how they get on those publisher’s distribution lists.

  I admire how much you are able to do. I have stacks of things around me that I’ve not yet blogged about. Like LAST SUMMER OF THE DEATH WARRIORS, which I like. And, I’ve got Pratchett’s NATION here with dozens of tags sticking out…. things that ‘broke the magic’ for me (to use Cynthia Leitich Smith’s phrase from her talk at Kalamazoo). And I just got I AM NUCHU… But, I’m teaching, and put a lot of time into that.

  Richard said, on 11/9/2010 9:44:00 AM
  

  Sometimes I think authors should leave well enough alone rather than ruin a good thing. I’m referring to the debate in the Observer on whether JK Rowling should continue with another Harry Potter book. In the context of this post Betsy alluded to the prequels of the Star Wars saga.

  Well…this just got my juices flowing…

  Coincidently, the other day on cable TV I saw the movie Phantom Menace (prequel #1) for only the second time in my life. The first time was in a theater when it was released back in 1999.

  I thought it was bad then. But sitting through the movie a second time really drove home how bad it really was.

  I was interested to see how others felt, so I went out on the Internet and poked around. On You Tube there was a review of the film that was one of the funniest and most clever things I’ve ever seen. Actually, it was more a “seven part dissertation” on how not to make a movie (or craft a story).

  Due to some coarse language, as well as a few short segments that are a bit off-color, the 7-part video may not pass “Video Sunday” muster. But otherwise, it was spot on! It’s a compendium of everything concerning “story as it relates movies”. Of course the observations are equally applicable to “story as it relates to books”.

  In this season of Newbery debates, putting aside all the individual nitpicky criteria, for me a book boils down to one thing…
  Does it tell a good story.

  For a primer on how not to craft a story:
  1- Watch the original Star Wars movie.
  2- Watch The Phantom Menace.
  3- Find the You Tube “Phantom Menace Review Part 1″, and view all seven parts.

  One of the opening lines of the vide #1 review is:
  “The unfortunate reality of the Star Wars prequels is that they will be around…forever.
  They will never go away.
  They can never be undone.”

  :paula said, on 11/9/2010 2:48:00 PM
  

  Jeez, I was using Anakin Skywalker as an example of how NOT to evolve a villain (I was reviewing Barry Lyga’s Archvillain), and I could not even bring myself to link to anything from those Star Wars prequels. SO BAD. My kids adore them though, which really calls their judgment into question, in my opinion.

  Elizabeth Bluemle said, on 11/11/2010 4:41:00 PM
  

  Betsy, publishers had to submit their books to be considered for the New Voices program, which accounts for the omission of those wonderful books you mention.

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 11/11/2010 7:32:00 PM
  

  Gah! Then I shall run about NYC kicking the publishers in the shins. Thoroughly.

  Add a Comment

Permit me a self-indulgent plug: Me and my friends from the Jupiter Project are having an art show here in Vancouver this week and we hope you can join us! Everything is lovingly screen-printed onto T-shirts, and priced very affordably. And if you miss the show, that’s OK because our Tees will be available at this new shop for a good long time!

For more info, iPad/iPhone wallpapers, and to see the designs and photos, click here. We look forward to seeing you!

http://www.luuk.com.au/

I can’t link directly to the inside pages, but check out “Luuk’s” awesome minimal refined drawings for garments and galleries.

(via Kitsune Noir)

Peppermint Mammoth (by Andy Gonsalves)

Here's my lastest effort for Threadless. I hope it goes down well!

London Based illustrator, Rose Blake, is one of my favorite illustrators at the moment. This print, entitled Annus Mirabalis, playfully illustrates the first stanza of the poem “Annus Mirabalis” (Latin for “Wonderful Year”) by Philip Larkin. Rose successfully sandwiches two ambiguous love making figures between the Chatterly ban and the Beatles’ first LP, creating a striking and awkwardly funny image. Her use of color is delightful with the poppy orange as a nice contrast to the dark plum and light blue tones.

Rose’s work is imaginative, funny, and quite charming. In addition to creating prints, she also creates comics (my favorite is Driving With David) and t-shirts.  To see more of her work, check out her website and be sure to pick up a few goodies at her shop.

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Hipsters have taken irony from us. They’ve co-opted it and mutated it into a sad little shell of what it once was. Just as they’ve done with The Golden Girls. Irony to the hipster is nothing more than creating a clash of symbols. Which is really just sarcasm, not irony. One only need examine these snippets of conversation I overheard at a recent Dirty Projectors concert:

“Check it out, I’m wearing a trucker hat. No, I don’t truck. Too many carbon emissions. I ride a bike. It’s ironic.”

“How about this knarly beard? Am I lumberjack? No. Clear-cutting is appalling to me. I work in IT, but I do own a Bonnie Prince Billy CD. Ironic, huh?”

“My T-shirt? Why yes that’s a BP logo. Why? Because I despise them. Irony at its best.”

It’s the T-shirts that get me the most. It’s rare to find a T-shirt that’s ironic by itself. This one succeeds. These do not. Yet if you search “ironic t-shirts” on Google, you’ll think that every t-shirt with a pun or a flippant quote is ironic. Alas, situations provide irony. Catchphrases do not.

Now, I’ll give hipsters some credit. They’re not necessarily buying the corporate produced T-shirts that are clearly aimed at them. They’re scouring garage sales and thrift shops and boxes in their parents’ attics looking for something unique. But there’s nothing ironic in a skinny, pasty hipster girl wearing a T-shirt that says 1993 First Team Bucks County Nose Tackle. It might get a few thumbs up at a Jonathan Lethem reading, but that’s the opposite of irony, because that was the intended effect. She wanted to impress like-minded people. The T-shirt would only be ironic if it produced the opposite of the desired effect, in some synchronistic way.

For instance, imagine the girl wore that T-shirt to a town hall meeting where the debate of the night involved tearing down an art gallery  to put in a football stadium. She may be trying to voice her indignation in the form of an absurd, illogical T-shirt. But what if the town board saw the shirt and said, “Well, we were going to turn down the stadium proposal, but obviously the town is full of football fans, most notably the skinny, pixie-haired girl, who once challenged the status-quo by succeeding in an arena traditionally ruled by obese black men. Football stadium approved!” Now that’s ironic.

The picture above shows a mugshot of a man wearing a “World’s Greatest Dad ” T-shirt. Skirts the edge of irony, but it ain’t quite it. Turns out the man was arrested for soliciting a 14-year-old online, certainly not the actions of the planet’s finest father. Ironic? I’m still not convinced. It’s disturbingly contrary, like a terrorist donning a peace sign, but it isn’t ironic. For his sake, part of me wants to imagine he is a dedicated hipster, and he wore this shirt, and committed this crime, so that I would blog about him and say he is the greatest ironic prankster of his generation. But I won’t do that. Because I believe in the integrity of irony. And I believe this guy is really just a pervert.

It's finally up for the vote. I'm pleased with this design, and it's definetly the best I've done for a good while. Hopefully the voting public will agree!

:) good day everybody. -some friends say my black and white can sell - so i tried a couple of design..:) Artwork sketch on computer form paper - mechanical pencil 0.7 - scan at 200dpi - enhance in photoshop - custom brush.
mystudio69

Grain Edition #01 - Limited Edition Grain Edit T-Shirt designed by Invisible Creature

We are excited to announce the Limited Edition Galaxy Blue Grain Edit T-Shirt is now available. The shirt was designed by Seattle’s own Invisible Creature. We love the design and hope you do too! The 5 color t-shirt features a gaggle of cool creatures sitting down for story time (my favorite is the little guy with the red and blue eyes). Each shirt is lovingly screen-printed by the guys and gals over at Blue Collar Press right here in the good ole USA.

You can order the Limited Edition Galaxy Blue Grain Edit Shirt here.

For More Details:

———
DETAILS:

5 color illustration screen-printed onto an American Apparel 2001 organic galaxy blue t-shirt.

-100% Organic Cottom
-available only at the grain edit etsy shop
-custom tags
-Made in the USA y’all

———
AVAILABLE SIZES:

Small / Medium / Large /

+++YOUR SIZE SHOULD BE SPECIFIED IN THE “Notes to seller” SECTION DURING CHECKOUT. +++

Extra Large coming soon (  please email me if you would like XL - use the contact button on right side of the ETSY shop, under grain edit info.)

———
AMERICAN APPAREL MENS SHIRT SIZING:

SMALL: chest 34-36″ waist 30-32″
MEDIUM: chest 38-40″ waist 32-33″
LARGE: chest 42-44″ waist 33-34″
XL: chest 46-48″ waist 36-38″
XXL: chest 48-50″ waist 40-42″

You can order the Limited Edition Galaxy Blue Grain Edit Shirt at our Etsy shop.

Thanks to everyone that pre-ordered a shirt. We mailed all the pre-orders out at the beg. of January. If your shirt is failed to arrive, please contact us through the contact button in the right column of our Etsy shop.

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©2009 Grain Edit - catch us on Facebook and

It's been a while since I last submitted a design to Threadless. I've had designs sat unfinished on my desktop for months on end so I've made it my mission to get this back log sorted and submitted. Here is the first.

Another one of those creatures I've been doing semi-occasionally with Matt and Phil...
My Salamander is not really twisted at all... I wanted to treat this one very graphically to see what would happen... possibly with a view to developing some T-Shirt designs.


Phil's already done his push-me-pull-you styled take on it, but Matt is very busy on some other projects right now - no pressure buddy, it'll keep!

The Geeks of Tomorrow.




The Real Me.



These are my design's for the Threadless design challenge on geeks. Hopefully they'll do ok! I really want at least one more design printed by threadless by the end of the tax year!

Want to look Zarjaz at BICS? I'm hoping to produce some T-shirts featuring the new logo I designed for the 2000AD fanzine.


There is a choice of colours and for £11.50 + P&P you can grab yourself a bargain T-shirt!
Please e-mail me, or leave a comment if you are interested... deadline for pre-orders is Friday 28th August.


S (35/37")   M (38/40")   L (41/43")   
XL (44/46")   XXL (47/49")   3XL (50/52")
Nice quality Fruit of the Loom 205gsm T-shirts with a two-colour screen print.