On Saturday, August 7th at 2:00 p.m. I will be moderating a talk with Stephen Roxburgh of namelos and Jennifer Perry, the Assistant Vice President & Editorial Director of the Book Publishing Group at Sesame Workshop, about ebooks, digital literature, and the current children’s literary industry. As preparation, this article from Publishers Weekly called The Digital Revolution in Children’s Publishing could not be better timed. I was particularly taken with this quote from Kristen McLean (executive director of the Association of Booksellers for Children) regarding interactive content: “Early reports indicate that this content is not replacing traditional books. It’s replacing games . . . Parents would rather see their kids engaged in book content than in game content.” For my part, I hope that in the future more authors will be directly involved in the interactive aspects of some of these books. Or that we get more designers that study exactly what works and doesn’t work with our kids from a storytelling standpoint. Whatever the case, I’m inclined to suggest to attendees of my panel discussion that they read this article before attending. It’s sure to answer a lot of questions, and raise even more.
- Whoopsiedoodle (yes, I just wrote that word and yes, I regret nothing). Looks like I missed talking about ShelfTalker’s latest Stars Thus Far posting. You’ll remember that Elizabeth Bluemle takes it upon herself to accomplish the Herculean task of collecting all the starred children’s book reviews for a given year on a regular basis. In this latest one I see that I missed that Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce achieved the very rare SIX STAR level! Even When You Reach Me never accomplished that. Well done, Mr. Boyce! Pity you’re ineligible for a Newbery, eh? Now if I can only convince Harcourt to send me a copy of Ubiquitous . . .
- I was enjoying the Jacket Knack post The Unexpected Ordinary anyway. Then I saw the picture of the new paperback jacket for How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier. Oh man. I am suddenly in love with some unknown Art Director. Of course, it immediately brings to mind Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairies, but that is not a bad thing. That book particular book is due for a YA revival anyway. Or maybe we’ll just wait for the current crop of Rainbow Fairy enthusiasts to hit their teen years. Give it 5 years or so.
- Oo! Speaking of both ShelfTalker AND book jackets, check out this post they made of The Season of Windblown Hair – Or, the Zeitgeist of Book Covers. Personally, I prefer really weird cover trends. This one’s my favorite
8 Comments on Fusenews: Chubby little cubby all stuffed with RAGE!!!!, last added: 7/27/2010Display Comments Add a Comment
Ok, Betsy you’ve stumped me! What DO the jackets for BOBBY THE BRAVE and THE KNEEBONE BOY have in common? A boy and a girl on the cover? The presence of a cat? Trees in the background?
The palette, the overall feeling, the expressions, the typography are all quite different. And the things I mentioned as being in common are all…well, common place.
What am I missing??? (Maybe it’s caffeine…it’s not even 9:00 am yet…)
Love the comic (and post title). And the casting for the HUGO CABRET movie sounds phenomenal! Christopher Lee? Ben Kingsley? Jude Law? I am so there. (Gosh, I hope the movie doesn’t turn out to suck!)
The cats in both books (Bobby and Kneebone) both have extra toes on their paws. Now, about my 20 points… Could I get them as two fives and the rest as singles?
A brother, a sister, and a possibly dangerous cat.
And the winner is DAN! Which is not entirely fair since he drew cover #2, but we’ll give it to him anyway. Your points are in the mail, Mr. Santat.
Hey . . . I was gonna say, “the cat.”
I will say that the Pooh/Hulk was, er, um, interesting?
If you win the lottery, you too could be a Moominaire!
Can you even see the toes on the cat in Dan’s book? Can I mention how disturbed I am by all the garden gnomes lately? (Ok…maybe there are just 3 covers I can think of, but that is still 3 too many!)