How to use this Page

If you like Mo Willems or his books (Leonardo, the Terrible Monster; Edwina, The Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct; Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!; Knuffle Bunny), then you might want to check out the fantastic video interview with him, for his new book Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity.

The interview made me like him all the more. He said some things I really relate to. When asked where his unique humor comes from, he said: “A lifetime of suffering. One of the things, actually, is the insight … that childhood is not always a happy place. And that there are real failures and real failings and you can find humor in that. … Particularly when I was a child, all the characters where these joyous bunnies and, you know, incredibly excitable mice and I wasn’t happy so I felt guilty that I wasn’t as happy as a rodent.”

I love it when authors and illustrators are honest and have some deep things to say, or things that take some courage to say. Things that feel real, and that I can identify with. I don’t yet know how to turn my own pain into humor, but I love that Willems can and does. It’s inspiring.

Willems also tells readers how to pronounce “Knuffle.” It’s “kuh-nuffle.” But he says that if you buy his book you can pronounce it any way you like.

So go watch the interview; I bet you’ll enjoy it! Thanks to Farida at Saints and Spinners for this great link.

Leonardo, the Terrible Monster and Edwina: The Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct by Mo Willems are some of my top favorite picture books. If you’re curious, you can read my reviews of Leonardo the Terrible Monster and Edwina: The Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct.

There are some good children’s book discussion and review podcasts out there. (For those of you who don’t know, a podcast is either an audio or video recording that you can listen to or watch online, or download to your computer or MP3 player for viewing or listening to later. You do not need an iPod to listen to them; you can use the media player that comes with your computer, your own chosen media player, or any MP3 player.)

Some podcasts have a higher quality than others, both in audio quality and in content.

Here are a few podcasts that you might enjoy:

Horn Book Podcasts
Horn Book has monthly podcasts featuring interviews with children’s and teen fiction writers, children’s illustrators, and editors, as well as discussion on reviewing and publishing. The podcasts are intelligent and entertaining. I wish they had an archive, where you could see all past podcasts, but perhaps that will come.

Swimming in Literary Soup
These podcasts highlight picture books and children’s books by topic, and may introduce you to a new book you’d like to read. The audio quality is good and the content is interesting, if you love children’s books. This is one of my favorite children’s book podcast so far, but they haven’t updated their podcasts since May 11, 2007. Hopefully that will change, but meanwhile there are some interesting books to check out through their podcasts.

Fuse #8
Elizabeth at Fuse #8 podcasts about children’s book reviews, book news, and more. Elizabeth has a great voice, is funny, and knows a lot about children’s books. Her podcasts have just started, and it looks like they’ll be several times a month. You can read about her podcasts here or sign up for the rss feed here.

Children’s Book Radio
These podcasts include author interviews with children’s authors and illustrators. Older podcasts include reviews. The beginning of each podcast has a lot of advertising that you have to sit through, that I wish wasn’t there; it takes away from my listening enjoyment. Still, the content can be interesting, the podcasts come out regularly (click on “episodes” on the right panel to view and listen or download) and the audio quality is pretty good. Includes interviews with Jane Yolen, Wendy Orr, Marla Frazee, and more.

Just One More Book
Just One More Book might be the pioneer of kidlit podcasts; they’ve been around for a quite a while. Just One More Book has regular podcasts about “the children’s books we love and why we love ‘em, recorded in our favorite coffee shop.” You can tell they truly love children’s books, and that’s inspiring. They have book reviews, author interviews, and discussions about what works, what doesn’t, and why in particular children’s books. I find the cafe noise a bit distracting, and sometimes it feels like I’m listening in on a conversation instead of a polished show, but they review and discuss fantastic books, and their content is good. You may find books that you didn’t know about otherwise.

Book Bites For Kids
Book Bites for Kids from WritingforChildren.com has frequent interviews with children’s authors on what they write, why they write, how they got started, and more. Each show is 30 minutes. It looks like they started this August.

Sesame Street Podcasts
Okay, this one isn’t entirely book related, but I had to include it (I’m a Sesame Street fan). This week’s Sesame Street video podcast, What’s the Word On The Street, is about newspapers and reading them. It’s entertaining and funny, has skits about newspapers from favorite characters (such as Grover), includes Matt Lauer speaking about his “favorite thing to do with newspapers” and is polished and well put together. It has everything I love about Sesame Street. It also, I think, promotes an interest in reading, even if the focus is on newspapers.

What podcasts do you like to listen to? Do you know of any other children’s or teen book podcasts?

Teens at Pima County Public Library have created eight 2-minute “That’s My Take” video book trailers of some of their favorite teen fiction books. The trailers aren’t slick, and some of them seem more like summaries of the book than a trailer, but they’re quite well put together. They move nicely from scene to scene, have great voice overs and props, and some fantastic video editing. I’m impressed.

The books covered include both classics and current fiction:
* Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
* Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan
* Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
* My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
* The Giver by Lois Lowry
* The Indwelling by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
* Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
* Vampire Kisses by Ellen Schreiber

All eight of this year’s That’s My Take book trailers are available for viewing on YouTube.

I think these book trailers are a wonderful idea–a way to inspire other teens or teen-fiction readers to check out a book that they might not otherwise have done, through a highly accessible and fun way–YouTube videos. Check them out!

Way to go, Pima County Public Library, the teens who participated, and Pan Left Productions! Nice work.