A veritable plethora of dancing librarians greet you this weekend. Now I’ll be the first to say that if you’re going to have librarians or library patrons dancing in a video then the video has to be pretty darn impressive in some way. Life’s too short otherwise. But thing is, these folks are pretty extraordinary. Take, for example, this one from the Texas A&M University libraries as a kind of orientation to their services. Sure, the song’s been overdone but at least they gave it a bit of class:
Thanks to mom for the link.
Then there’s Nashville. I just had the pleasure of speaking alongside my co-author Julie Danielson (of Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast fame) at the Southern Festival of the Book. While there I had time enough to catch one quick sneaky peek at their library. It’s a lucky thing I didn’t see any of their librarians or I was have fangirled out on them after watching this video. I’m a sucker for a talented hand puppet artist:
Then, in other news, old timey footage. The deeply amusing Lemony Snicket video. The YOU CHOOSE THE MYSTERY campaign has begun. Beguiled? Entranced? Confounded? You will be:
Start following the mystery here. It’s like that old Choose Your Own Adventure series except, y’know. Less disembowling.
While I am indeed the mother of a 3-year-old I’ll confess that when it comes to contemporary children’s television programming I’m more liable to pull out the classic Electric Company / Sesame Street / School House Rock DVDs than turn on something from the 21st century. Still, I’ve succumbed to the lures of Daniel Tiger (extemporized upon here) but I’ve only dipped a toe in current Sesame Street schtoof. Maybe that’s why I was so shocked when I saw today’s video. Cookie has always spoofed contemporary film (Chariots of Fur, anyone?) but rarely so in-depth. Wowza.
While not strictly children’s book related, regarding the book as object is certainly of any interest to those parents, teachers, and librarians dealing with kids who put their books through the paces physically. Plus Chronicle does the best videos so I’d be amiss in not posting this:
Neil Numberman (with whom I am in competition for Best Alliterative Picture Book Author Name… and he’s winning) takes on the arduous process of creating a picture book cover and turns it into time lapse art. Behold:
How to Make a Children’s Book Cover (in 1:16) from Neil Numberman on Vimeo.
Hat tip to Greenwillow Books for the link.
And while Banned Books Week may have gone, as long as banning continues so too will the need for remarkably sane (and fun) little videos like this one from Dav Pilkey calling for just a little common sense:
And finally, for today’s off-topic video, Michael Arndt turned my attention to this little beauty. It’s The Missing Scarf, a multiple award winning short film that feels, at first anyway, like a picture book. Stick with it. As it continues you start to really get into the feel (and George Takei should, insofar as I can tell, narrate everything in this world from here on in). I should warn some of you that in spite of its fluffy feel, the ending would prove a bit bleak for the younger kids so be wary and warned and enjoy!
The Missing Scarf from Eoin Duffy on Vimeo.
E.L. James became the first author to