The laptop of my infinite sadness continues to remain broken which wrecks a certain special kind of havoc with my gray cells. To distract myself, I plunge headlong into the silliest news of the week. Let’s see if there’s anything here to console a battered Bird brain (something tells me that didn’t come out sounding quite right…).
- The best news of the day is that Matthew Kirby was the recent winner of the Edgar Award for Best Mystery in the juvenile category for his fabuloso book Icefall. My sole regret is that it did not also win an Agatha Award for “traditional mystery” in the style of Agatha Christie. Seems to me it was a shoo-in. I mean, can you think of any other children’s book last year that had such clear elements of And Then There Were None? Nope. In any case, Rocco interviews the two winners (the YA category went to Dandi Daley Mackall) here and here.
- It’s so nice when you find a series on Facebook and then discover it has a website or blog equivalent in the “real world” (howsoever you choose to define that term). The Underground New York Public Library name may sound like it’s a reference to our one and only underground library (the Andrew Heiskell branch, in case you were curious) but it’s actually a street photography site showing what New Yorkers read on the subways. Various Hunger Games titles have made appearances as has Black Heart by Holly Black and some other YA/kid titles. Just a quick word of warning, though. It’s oddly engaging. You may find yourself flipping through the pages for hours.
- A reprint of Roger Sutton’s 2010 Ezra Jack Keats Lecture from April 2011 has made its way online. What Hath Harry Wrought? puts the Harry Potter phenomenon in perspective now that we’ve some distance. And though I shudder to think that Love You Forever should get any credit for anything ever (growl grumble snarl raspberry) what Roger has to say here is worthy of discussion.
- And in my totally-not-surprised-about-this department… From Cynopsis Kids:
“Fox Animation acquires the feature film rights to the kid’s book The Hero’s Guide to Saving your Kingdom, per THR. A fairy tale mashup by first-time author by Christopher Healy and featuring illustrations by Todd Harris, revolves around the four princes from Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty. Chernin Entertainment (Rise of Planet of the Apes) is set to produce the movie. Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins Children’s Books release The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom (432 pages) today.”
If y’all haven’t read The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your King
I’m sorry. I’m just stuck on the fact that you can’t use the logo here to promote the thing the logo is designed to promote. It’s… odd. And that you can’t use the ALA medals on blogs either is news to me. And I gotta say, I can’t think of a good reason for that. I wonder if you show a picture of a book that has the medal on it if that’s an issue?
Oh, for goodness sakes. Seriously? ALA has a promotional campaign and toolkits galore just about every month, but nothing for the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott that we can use? Not even a logo that libraries can put on their page to, I don’t know, promote the Caldecott collection?
That’s the long and short of it. Of course if I am wrong and anyone from ALA would like to correct me publicly I would WELCOME such a correction. I assume that covers sporting the novels is a-okay though, again, it’s pretty unclear.
Thanks for linking to my sweater, Betsy! Librarians, I’m planning a post Friday in my “Librarians Help!” series about how as a college math teacher I had to follow the curriculum, but as a librarian, I can encourage people to see the FUN (and beautiful) side of math. Truly, it’s the best job in the world.
Are you stuck on the shape next to Madeline? I am.
Love Marjorie Ingall’s article on How Not To Read, and am completely in love with that clock.
I do believe that’s the mosquito from Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears, Jean. I thought the horse was a character as well but when I blow it up I see it ain’t. Ah!
That clock looks like what would have happened to Cogsworth if Belle had not come back.
I have just a little experience with artist contracts – really just a little – and I wonder if Brian did that logo not as a work for hire job but as something he retains the rights to? Which… would be a dumb way for ALA to negotiate that, but sometimes negotiations just is what they is.