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We were absolutely delighted when Jon Scieszka invited us to film a video for the Children’s Choice Book Awards in his home. After filming in his study Jon was gracious enough to read one of his most popular books — The True Story of the Three Little Pigs — a retelling of the classic fairytale from the wolf’s point of view. Was the wolf really as bad as the pigs said he was? Could the three little pigs have been three little meanies? You decide.

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ABOUT THE TRUE STORY OF THE THREE LITTLE PIGS

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs
Written by Jon Scieszka, illustrations by Lane Smith
Published by Viking Books for Young Readers

A. Wolf is still sticking to his story: he was framed As for that huffing and puffing stuff? A big lie. A. Wolf was just trying to borrow a cup of sugar to make his poor old granny a birthday cake. Who should you believe, the pigs or the wolf? You read. You decide. With over two million copies sold, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs remains as funny and irreverent as the inventive minds of Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. Viking is celebrated it’s 25th anniversary in 2014 with a handsome gift edition, featuring a stunning new jacket with lots of silver. And there’s a surprise inside as well.

ABOUT JON SCIESZKA

Jon Scieszka was born in Flint, Michigan, the second of six boys born to Shirley and Louis Scieszka. Jon attended Culver Military Academy for high school. After high school Jon studied science and English at Albion College in Michigan. Upon graduating he in 1976 he moved to Detroit, then to Brooklyn, NY to write. He earned his MFA in Fiction from Columbia University in New York in 1980.

Jon taught at The Day Schooling New York City. He started as a 1st grade Assistant Teacher, taught 2nd grade, 3rd and 4th grade Math, 5th grade History, and 6th, 7th and 8th grade.

While teaching Jon realized children were the best audience for the stories he dreamed up. After taking a year off from teaching to write he sent stories to publishers. However this didn’t dissuade him from writing more — and painting apartments.

Jon met Lane Smith, an artist who was painting illustrations for magazine articles, and working on his first children’s book. Jon shared his story, A. Wolf with Lane. Lane drew illustrations for the book, then they shopped it around. Unfortunately, the story was rejected by every publisher to which it was sent. After many more rejections Regina Hayes, an editor at Viking Books, took a chance on the story. In 1989 the book was published as The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!. Since the then more than three million copies of the book have been sold.

It’s been more than 20 years since Jon and Lane started working together. As a team they have worked together on eight picture books and eight Time Warps. Lane’s wife Molly Leach has designed all of their picture books.

Jon’s books have won awards including the Caldecott, and sold over 11 million copies domestically and internationally.

Jon still lives in Brooklyn with his wife Jeri. They have two children: a daughter Casey, and son Jake.

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Read Out Loud
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So many good videos to choose from today!  First and foremost, I begin with a very special message from Jon Scieszka.  It seems you still have two days to vote in the Children’s Book Choice Awards and . . . well . . . Jon would really like your kids to do so.  Seriously.

I own that suit!

I also enjoyed this video from Storycorps.  In it, a woman reflects on the bookmobile that changed her life:

In other news, it’s been a good book trailer season. When I went to Zootopia the other day (and how cool was its Emmett Otter reference?) I got a couple before the show. In this first video I spent the bulk of it trying to figure out if it was an adaptation of the Mac Barnett / Jory John Terrible Two series. It is based on a book, but we just aren’t that lucky:

On the plus side, the new BFG trailer looks pretty darn good:

And there’s a new trailer for A Monster Calls that I really enjoyed.

Finally, for the off-topic video, I actually think you could make a case for this being on-topic.  I mean, have you ever seen a truer to life version of Are You My Mother?

It comes with its own Snort!

It's one thing to read about censorship in a news article; it's another to become aware of the threat at a nearby library or school. For Banned Books Week this year, we reviewed hundreds of documented appeals to remove materials from a local public library, school library, or course curriculum. Below are 30 books that [...]

My five kids are grown now (four boys and one girl), and most of them have children of their own. ... The list got longer and longer and soon it was tough to choose, but these five came out on top.

Author Jon Scieszka and illustrator Brian Biggs star in a video promoting audiobooks. The video embedded above features Scieszka wearing a mad scientist outfit and Biggs donning a robot mask.

The creative duo collaborated together on the Frank Einstein books. ABRAMS just released the newest installment of this middle-grade series, Frank Einstein and the Electro-Finger. (via Shelf-Awareness.com)

Morning, folks. We’re beginning this Sunday morn with stuff that’s good for the soul.  How often have you said to yourself, “I’d love to own some original art from illustrator Matthew Cordell but I’m too busy spending all my cash on children’s literacy foundations”?  Well, fear not!  Now you can do both.  In celebration of their book Special Delivery, Messrs. Cordell and Philip Stead are going to hold a raffle for five pieces of awesome art.  You win by donating money to good causes.  The details are here and the video here:

Next up, the American Hogwarts.  I mean, it is if by “Hogwarts” you’re referring to a well-established university setting with a clear cut amazing children’s collection, staff, program schedule, and more.  Princeton finally decided to create a little trailer for the Cotsen Children’s Library, and I have to say I’m stunned. First off, there’s my girl Dana Sheridan killing it with the storytimes.  Then there’s the just wide range of services they provide.  And the furniture, dear GOD the furniture!!  I’m fascinated by the Cotsen Critix program too since bookclubs for 9-12 year-olds are my weakness.  Wish I lived closer to it!  Here’s more background information and here’s the trailer:

Someday I shall teach a course on the art of the book trailer. In it I will show all the different myriad styles and techniques one can utilize when coming up with your very own.  And always assuming that I remember, I shall include this simple, lovely trailer for The Mystery Hat by Rune Brandt Bennicke and Jakob Hjort Jensen .  Sometimes it’s all in the soundtrack, folks.

There go Scieszka and Biggs.  I’ve suspected for years that they were in the pocket of Big Audiobook but never had the proof . . . until now!!

Seriously, though, I’m-a wanting that crazy white wig.

So this year we are seeing not one but TWO different early chapter book series about Latino girls. This is a good thing since the running tally before 2015 was . . . um . . . yeah, it was zero.  Zero series in total.  The first is the Emma Is On the Air series by Ida Siegal and illustrated by Karla Pena.  The second is the Sofia Martinez series by Jacqueline Jules, illustrated by Kim Smith.  But only one of these (as of this post) has a book trailer:

It’s not a children’s book.  It’s not even a YA novel.  It’s (*gasp* *shudder*) an adult book . . . but its book trailer is adorable.  I can resist it, not at all.

Thanks to Alison Morris for the link.

I had not yet taken the time to see the trailer for the Lena Dunham/Hilary Knight documentary. Nothing too surprising to see here, but it’s certainly a very clear cut case of a famous person attempting to shine their light on someone they admire who might not be a household name (though Eloise certainly is).

Thanks to educating alice for the link.

And I’m not feeling too creative on the off-topic video of the day.  And when the going gets tough, the tough links to cat/dog videos.  So goes the world.  So goes the world.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. Viking Children’s Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, first published this book back in October 1989.

Author Jon Scieszka and illustrator Lane Smith’s parody picture book was inspired by a classic fable. In honor of this occasion, we’ve put together a list of three ideas on how fans can celebrate.

(more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

With Comic Con NYC later this week, publisher previews on the rise, and various work-related meetings, talks, and speeches I’m just the teeniest tiniest bit busy this week.  But no matter!  It is you, dear readers, that give me what for and how to.  For you I would forgo all the sleep in the world.  And as luck would have it, my 5-month-old baby is currently taking me up on that offer.

Onward!

• Sometimes when I am feeling pensive I attempt to figure out which authors and illustrators currently alive today will, in the distant future, be so doggone famous for their works that people make pilgrimages to the homes they once lived in.  I suspect that the entire Amherst/Northampton area will become just one great big tour site with people snapping shots of the homes of Norton Juster, Mo Willems, Jane Yolen, and so on and such.  Thoughts of this sort come to mind when reading posts like Phil Nel’s recent piece A Very Special House in which he visits the former home of Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson.  It is entirely enjoyable, particularly the part where the current owners reenact a photo taken on the porch with Ruth and Crockett 65 years later.

• So they announced the Kirkus Prize Finalists last week.  Those would be the folks in the running for a whopping $50,000 in prize money.  The books in the young reader category are split between two picture books, two middle grade titles, and two YA.  You can see all the books that were up for contention here and the final books that made the cut here.  Heck, you can even vote on the book you’d like to see win and potentially win an iPad for yourself.  I don’t think they needed the iPad as a lure, though.  I suspect many folks will be voting left and right just the for the fun of it.  Thanks to Monica Edinger for the links.

• In other news, we have word of a blog made good.  Which is to say, a blog that figured out how to make a living off of its good name.  When people ask for YA blog recommendations I am not always the best person to ask.  I don’t monitor them the way I monitor children’s book blogs.  Pretty much, I just rely on folks like bookshelves of doom and The Book Smugglers to tell me what’s up.  Now The Book Smugglers are becoming publishers in their own right!  eBook publishers no less.  Nice work if you can get it.

• Louise Rennison wrote a rather amusing little piece about how her British slang doesn’t translate all that well across the pond, as it were.  Fair enough, but don’t go be telling me we Yanks don’t know humor.  That’s why I was pleased to see that at the end of the article it says, “Louise Rennison will be discussing humour on both sides of the pond, and other interesting things, with her fellow countryman Jim Smith (author of Barry Loser and winner of the Roald Dahl Funny prize 2013) and American author Jon Scieszka (author of many hilarious books including Stinky Cheeseman and most lately Frank Einstein) – in a panel event chaired by Guardian children’s books editor Emily Drabble, run with IBBY at Waterstones Piccadilly, London, on 7 October 2014.”  Why that’s today! Give ‘em hell, Jon!  Show ‘em we know our funny from our droll.  Then find out why their Roald Dahl Funny Prize is taking a hiatus.  It’s not like they lack for humor themselves, after all.

*sigh* That Jarrett Krosoczka. He gets to have all the fun. One minute he’s hosting the Symphony Space Roald Dahl celebration and the next he’s hosting the upcoming Celebration of E.B. White.  I mean, just look at that line-up.  Jane Curtin.  David Hyde Pierce.  Liev Schreiber (didn’t see that one coming).  Oh, I will be there, don’t you doubt it.  You should come as well.  We’ll have a good time, even if we’re not hosting it ourselves.

• This may be my favorite conspiracy piece of 2014 (which is actually saying something).  Travis Jonker lays out 6 Theories on the End of Sam and Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen.  Needless to say, I’m firmly in the “dog as Jesus” camp.

• And speaking of conspiracy theories, were you aware of the multiple theories that abound and consist of folks trying to locate the precise geographical coordinates of Sesame Street?  There’s a big Sesame Street exhibit at our Library of the Performing Arts right now (by hook or by crook I am visiting it this Sunday) and that proved the impetus for this piece.  Lots of fun.

• Hey, how neat is this?

On Saturday November 8, 2014, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art (NMAA) in Washington, DC will host the 22nd annual Children’s Africana Book Awards (CABA).  CABA was created by Africa Access and the Outreach Council of the African Studies Association* to honor authors and illustrators who have produced exceptional books on Africa for young people.

And who’s that I see on the list of nominees?  None other than Monica Edinger for Africa Is My Home!  Two Candlewick books are listed, actually.  Well played there, oh ye my fellow publisher.

• Daily Image:

I admit it. I’ve a weakness for paper jewelry.  Today’s example is no exception:

Wood pulp. A marvelous invention. Thanks to Jessica Pigza for the image.

Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor By Jon Scieszka and Brian Biggs is the first in series of highly illustrated books, ideal for the 8-12 crowd, which encourage readers to explore how things work and get experimenting themselves.

Given our recent foray into tinkering, Frank Einstein is my new favourite scientist.

The brain child of Jon Scieszka, Frank loves to tinker, using old household appliances to create robots which one day come to life. There’s lots of real science, a good dose of silly science-fiction, adventure, and a whole lot of fun.

Although Jon Scieszka has sold over 11 million books, he’s not as well know over here in the UK as he is in his native US. But later this week he arrives on our shores ready to take Brits by storm I took his impending invasion as an opportunity to interview him; I hope you’ll enjoy what he had to say and be tempted to seek out Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor, which I highly recommend.

Zoe: Hi Jon, I’m honoured and delighted to have the opportunity to put some questions to you in advance of your UK tour. In the US you’re something of a superstar but perhaps it is fair to say that over here in the UK you’re not quite so well known. So to get us started, what are the three most important things we should know about you?

Jon Scieszka:

Zoe: Ha! I like what you’ve done there Jon
I think I should also add:

Given your family background, Jon, did you ever consider becoming a professional wrestler? …I’m thinking here of your brothers, and how this along with going to an all boys’ school may have influenced your outlook on life…

Jon Scieszka: After growing up with 5 brothers, teaching elementary school for ten years, and raising a son and daughter, I pretty much am a professional wrestler. Also a pro golfer, chef, babysitter, racecar driver, garage cleaner, and dog poop picker-upper.

Jon’s work place

Zoe: You’re coming over to the UK in October to spread the word about the first book in a new series, Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor, a brilliant collision of fact, science and fun all about a kid who just loves to figure things out for himself, run experiments and make machines. What were the key points on your journey to seeing Frank Einstein released into kids’ hands around the world?

Jon Scieszka: I always loved science, studied in college to be a doctor, and ended up teaching science in elementary school. Having been a teacher, my writing is always about intriguing my readers to ask why. So I thought up FRANK EINSTEIN, kid inventor genius as a great way to introduce kids to all of Science, conveniently broken down into 6 illustrated books.

With an evil genius.

And an evil sidekick chimpanzee named Mr. Chimp.

Zoe: You strike me as a bit of a renaissance man: You love science and maths, but you also crazy for fairy tales, myths and legends. Where did this come from?

Jon Scieszka: I had a wonderfully supportive mom and dad, and a great education where I was always encouraged to study everything and anything that interested me. So I took both literature classes and comparative anatomy classes. I read comic books and Tristram Shandy. And I think it was my myth and religion studies that lead me to fairy tales and legends. Well, that and Bugs Bunny cartoons and Mad magazine and Rocky and Bullwinkle’s Fractured Fairy Tales

Zoe: Humour is incredibly important to you and your writing. Do you think there is such as thing as an American sense of humour which is different to a UK sense of humour (especially when it comes to kids)?

Jon Scieszka: There is something different about the US and UK senses of humor. But I’m not sure what that difference is. I am a huge fan of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, Hitchhiker’s Guide, Little Britain, Terry Pratchett, Eddie Izzard, Python, my older brother Roald Dahl, Wallace and Gromit, Steve Coogan, Simon Pegg, and some of Philip Ardagh’s work.

With kids I think the humor difference is often just a matter of vocabulary.

In the US, the fox’s line of dialogue in The Stinky Cheese Man story, “What is that funky smell?” gets huge laughs. Everywhere. I think because it sounds to the American ear, very much like another, very inappropriate f-word. But that line just doesn’t get the same laughs in the UK.

Frank Einstein

Zoe: I was racking my brains for a joke about noodles as I know you love them a lot and I came across this one – I’m not sure if it will make you smile or groan! – but would you share a favourite joke of yours?

Jon Scieszka: A recent favourite told to me by a second grader: What is brown and smells and sits in the woods? Winnie the Poo.

Zoe: [Groaning] …Something else which you’re passionate about is getting boys reading. In the UK boys typically do less well in reading tests and enjoy reading less than their female classmates – a situation which mirrors that in the US to some extent. You decided to try and do something about this by setting up Guys Read – please can you tell us a little about it?

Jon Scieszka: Boys not reading is a worldwide problem. In the US, boys have tested lower in reading in every age group for every one of the last 30 years that kids have been tested. But there has been no federal effort to address this.

I started Guys Read ten years ago first to just get people to realize that boys are having trouble, and second to try some practical solutions to get boys engaged in reading – like allowing them to read texts they enjoy, expanding the definition of reading to include humor, science fiction, graphic storytelling, non-fiction; and providing male role models for reading.

The website guysread.com collects texts that boys like to read, and suggests them to other guys.

Zoe: Are there any UK Field Offices? If someone wanted to start one, what would your advice be?

Jon Scieszka: We do have one very fine field office at the International School of Aberdeen. But there should absolutely be more UK branches. Go to the Start Your Own section of the website (http://www.guysread.com/program/) and get cracking, UK! It’s all there.

Zoe: As part of Guys Read you’ve edited and contributed to a series of themed short story books all targeted specifically at boys – their titles all make it clear that these are books for boys. I personally hate seeing books labelled as “for girls” as such titles seem to me to only pigeonhole what girls and young women can be and might like. Why is it ok to have books categorically labelled as “for boys” (or even “guys”)?

Jon Scieszka: The Guys Read Library of Great Reading is curated to give boys a reason to want to be readers. My experiences as a parent, a teacher, and a book writer have all shown me that the most effective way to inspire boys to be readers is to give them something they are interested in reading; and that in the most broad strokes, many boys are interested in types of reading that are different from what interests girls. These genre-themed short story collections aren’t meant to limit or exclude anyone. They are simply offered as a wide range of stories (written by great male and female authors) that boys can peruse … and hopefully find an author that inspires them to want to read more.

Jon’s office

Zoe: Recently there was a lot of debate and even anger here in the UK about the gendered marketing of books, a debate sparked by the author Jonathan Emmett, who argues that the UK “picture book industry reflects girls’ tastes more than it does boys’ and that this bias is exacerbating the gender gap between boys’ and girls’ reading abilities.”

To what extent do you think the same could be said for the US market?

Jon Scieszka: I think Jonathan Emmett made a very thoughtful, considered, statistical, and careful presentation about the realities of children’s publishing. The statistics and challenges he mentions for the UK are very much the same in the US. Here elementary school teachers, librarians, children’s booksellers, and children’s book prize committee members are mostly women. It is not unreasonable to wonder if this gender inequality might influence what is produced and bought and awarded in children’s books.

And I think the anger this question provokes is more about gender inequality in the wider world at large than just about kids’ books.

Zoe: Ok, so that was a pretty hefty couple of questions I guess, so now a couple of easier ones to wind down with! What’s the last book you read?

Jon Scieszka: I just finished Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen’s Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks, and Edward Creasy’s Fifteen Decisive Battles of the Western World.

Zoe: Who would your dream dinner party guests be and why?

Jon Scieszka: I would invite Auguste Escoffier to cook, Baron Rothschild and Madame Clicquot for beverages, Ursula Nordstrom and Maurice Sendak for kids book thoughts, Napoleon for a dash of military history, comedian Hannibal Buress for long funny stories, and Bugs Bunny for surreal relief.

Zoe: Would you serve noodles or stinky cheese at the party or something else entirely?

Jon Scieszka: That will be up to Monsieur Escoffier.

Zoe: And if your dinner guests begged you to read an excerpt from one of the things you’re working on right now, what would you read them?

Jon Scieszka: I think I would distract them with a dramatic reading of one of my favourite books: Go, Dog.Go! I never read unfinished pieces of stories I am working on to anyone.

Zoe: Many thanks, Jon. Here’s wishing you an exciting and welcoming time this side of the pond.

You can see Jon at the following public events:

Jon Scieszka’s website: http://www.jsworldwide.com/
Jon Scieszka on Twitter: @Jon_Scieszka

The American Booksellers Association has recruited Newbery Medal-winning author Neil Gaiman and his rockstar wife Amanda Palmer (both pictured, via) to serve as spokespeople for this year’s Indies First campaign.

Gaiman and Palmer penned an open letter calling for fellow writers to participate. Those who answer the call will be serving as volunteer sellers at their favorite independent bookstores on Saturday, November 29th (aka “Small Business Saturday“).

National Book Award winner Sherman Alexie conceived of the idea and helped to launch this initiative last year. More than 1,100 authors participated in the 2013 event including Kelly Barson, Cheryl Strayed, and Jon Scieszka.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Here we are in the glory of spring.  With all the beauty just ah-popping outdoors, what better time to sequester ourselves inside to watch mad videos about children’s literature related affairs?

So first and foremost, you may have seen me make mention of the fact that I had a podcasting-related Children’s Literary Salon last weekend.  My Lit Salons are monthly gatherings of children’s literature enthusiasts who come to the main branch of NYPL to watch me finagle different topics out of incredibly interesting people.  People often ask me to record these, but at this time there is no place online for such talks to live.  Happily, that problem was solved recently when Katie Davis (Brain Burps About Books) , John Sellers (PW KidsCast), and Matthew Winner (Let’s Get Busy) came over and Matthew recorded the whole dang thing.  This is, insofar as I know, the very FIRST time a moderated event has covered this particular topic (children’s literature podcasts).  With that in mind, enjoy!

“John Newbery ate every single book he ever read”.  That was going to be my subtitle for today’s blog post.  I may still have to use it at some point because it’s one of the highlights of this James Kennedy / Libba Bray interaction at the recent 90-Second Newbery show here in NYC.  For years, I’ve been sitting on my laurels with my Randolph Caldecott music video.  Now I’ve been royally trumped and it’s all thanks to the song “What Would John Newbery Do?”  I can’t top this.

And now, with the approach of the Children’s Book Week Awards, time to break out the big guns.  And these, ladies and gents, are some SERIOUSLY big guns!

Turns out the CBC collected a whole CHUNK of these videos and they’re just out there!  Like this one starring two of my favorite author/illustrators, Amy Ignatow and Brian Biggs.  You must be SURE to stick around for the ghost of David Wiesner.  And it backs up my theory that every person in my generation has one rap song memorized.  Mine’s “Shoop”.

Nice use of “Rock Lobster” too.

We’re about three days away from El día del niño, otherwise known as the day of the child.  Unfamiliar with Dia?  Not anymore.  Here’s a quickie recap for those of you who are curious:

Día means “day” in Spanish. In 1996, author Pat Mora learned about the Mexican tradition of celebrating April 30th as El día del niño, the day of the child. Pat thought, “We have Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Yes! We need kids’ day too, but I want to connect all children with bookjoy, the pleasure of reading.”  Pat was enthusiastically assisted to start this community-based, family literacy initiative by REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking. El día de los niños, El día de los libros/Children’s Day, Book Day, also known as Día, is a daily commitment to link all children to books, languages and cultures, day by day, día por día. Many resources and an annual registry are available at the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). Every year, across the country, libraries, schools, and community organizations, etc. plan culminating book fiestas creating April Children’s Day, Book Day celebrations that unite communities.
Join us!

Interested in participating? It’s not too late.  Best of all, here’s a video from previous years of what folks have done in their libraries.  Viva Dia!

We’ve sort of an embarrassment of riches this year in terms of trans boy picture books (see the 7-Imp recap of this very thing here).  Now one of those books, Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress, has a book trailer that hits on the tone about right.  Let’s put it up on the big board!

Thanks to Fred Horler for the link.

This next one is a fictional tie-in to a nonfiction subject.  Which is to say, a CCSS dream.  I’m not usually on board with rhyming picture books, but this one actually gets away with it!

And for the off-topic video of the day, we all love Neil deGrasse Tyson.  This is the video of him slowed down ever so slightly.  He loves it.  Shows it at his talks sometimes.

And for fun, you can watch the original here:

I have a sister.  Did you know that?  Tis true.  She’s not a librarian and her interest in children’s literature pretty much begins and ends with me, which is probably why she hasn’t come up before.  One thing she is?  Crafty.  Crafty as all get out.  And the kicker is that she’s just started this new blog called The How To, How Hard, and How Much to Your Creative Products.  Here’s how she describes it:

What if there was a blog out there that took Pinterest ideas and showed people how to do it, how much time it took, how much money was spent, and had a level of expertise (1-5). Maybe even sell the final product. Is this something people would read? Has it already been done? How could I rope guys into doing it (other than if it involved mustaches and bacon)? I’ve never blogged before but I feel like it might be helpful, especially since the holiday season is quickly approaching. People could even send me recommendations and I could do those as well.

And make it she has.  Amongst other things she has a wide range of Halloween ideas including spider cookies, 5 minute ideas, and my personal favorite, the cleaver cupcakes.  In fact, if you could just repin those cupcakes onto your Pinterest boards she’d be mighty grateful (there’s a contest she’s entering them into).  But of special interest to the blog (aside from outright nepotism) was her recent posting on literary jewelry where she turned a book of mine into a bracelet.  Nicely done, l’il sis.

• I attended the Society of Illustrators event the other day (did you know the place is free on Tuesdays?!) and the New York Times Best Illustrated results are on the cusp of an announcement soon.  Both lists are chosen by artists as well as librarian types, and so one could consider them the form with which artists are allowed to voice their opinions about the best of the year (just as the National Book Awards are how authors talk about writing).  Still, there are those that have disliked the Caldecott from the outset because it is decided not by artists but librarians.  Robin Smith recently dug up a 1999 interview with Barry Moser voicing just such a concern.  A hot little discussion then emerged in the Horn Book comments.  Go!  See!

• Brian Biggs + Jon Scieszka + 6 way auction = interesting.

• I think a fair number of us have seen Business Insider’s Most Famous Book Set in Every State map by this point, but I’d just like to mention that what pleases me the most about it is the fact that they included children’s books as well as adult.  Six children’s and one YA novel by my count.

• Let’s Talk About Dav Pilkey, Captain Underpants, and Misogyny.  So says author Lynn Messina.  Interesting title, no?

• And since we’re on an interesting title kick, let’s throw out another one.  True or False? Multicultural Books Don’t Sell.  We’ve all heard that argument before.  Now an actual honest-to-god bookseller tackles the question.  You may normally know Elizabeth Bluemle from the ShelfTalker blog at PW, but here she’s guest talking at Lee & Low.  Cleverly, she specifies whether or not we are talking about how they don’t sell to kids or how they don’t sell to adults.  Without giving anything away, let me just say that her experiences mirror my own in the library.

In other press release news, I am shocked and appalled that I wasn’t aware of this until now.  I mean, I knew that Kate Beaton, the genius behind Hark, A Vagrant, was working on children’s books.  What I did not know was how close to fruition my dream of shelving her in my children’s sections truly was.  The Wired blog Underwire, of all places, was the one with the scoop when they interviewed Ms. Beaton.  She discusses the book, which contains her most famous creation (the fat pony) and a princess.  Says she about princesses in general, “. . . for little girls historically [princesses] are the only people like them who had any power at all. It’s not just oh, princes and dresses. It’s also, here’s a person with agency. Is she just someone who wants a pretty dress and prince? Or is she a warrior living in a battle kingdom? I think it just depends on how you depict what a princess is.”  I think we know the direction Ms. Beaton will go in.  And I waaaant it.  Thanks to Seth Fishman for the link.

• As slogans go, this might be one of my favorites: “Kill time. Make history”.  How do you mean?  Well, NYPL is looking for a few good bored folks. Say they, “The New York Public Library is training computers how to recognize building shapes and other information from old city maps. Help us clean up the data so that it can be used in research, teaching and civic hacking.”  Sometimes I just love my workplace.

• Me stuff time.  Or rather, stuff I’m doing around and about the world that you might like to attend.  You see, on November 6th I’ll be interviewing legendary graphic novelist Paul Pope at 4pm at the Mulberry Street library branch here in NYC.  If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Pope’s name, all you really need to know is that he’s a three time Eisner Award winning artist who wrote the recent GN Battling Boy and whose work is currently on display at the Society of Illustrators on their second floor (which just means I get to tell you again that you can get in for free on Tuesdays).  This event will also be free.  If you’ve ever wondered what the “Mick Jagger of graphic novels” would look like, you’ll find out soon enough.

• Also going on in NYC, they have transferred Allegra Kent’s Ballerina Swan to the stage for kids.  Makes perfect sense when you put it that way.

• This is utterly delightful.  Recently Picture Book Month’s Education Consultant Marcie Colleen contacted me with this awesome PDF entitled Picture Book Month Teacher’s Guide: Why Picture Books Belong in Our Classrooms.  It was so useful, in fact, that I tapped her for an upcoming Children’s Literary Salon about the Core Curriculum.  More about that later, though . . .

• My reaction to finding out that Henry Selick was going to direct Adam Gidwitz’s A Tale Dark and Grimm was simple.  The best possible person is doing the best possible thing and is making everyone happy in the process.  My sole concern?  Selick’s going live action on this.  What was the last live action film he directed?  Monkeybone, you say?  Ruh-roh.  Thanks to PW Children’s Bookshelf for the link.

The exciting news this week was that I got to host a couple panels regarding Banned Books (it being the week of ‘em and all).  The first was at the Brooklyn Book Festival with David Levithan, Francesca Lia Block, and Lauren Myracle.  I then cannibalized my own questions and used them in this, a Google+ Hangout alongside Lauren Oliver, Lev Grossman, and Lexa Hillyer.  My sole objection: You cannot see my awesome shoes.

And yes.  The Google offices do have free food, copious couches, and massage rooms hither and thither.

Speaking of the Brooklyn Book Festival, I was pleased as punch to see Catherine Jinks speaking there, live and in person.  She mentioned this video which, through utter and total coincidence, I’d seen on my own a couple days before.  Alfred. Is. Perfect.  Look at his fingernails!

And speaking of awesome book trailers . . .

And yeah.  Your book trailer might be awesome.  But did yours ever have a snappy theme song?  I’m just so pleased that our own Gregory K. (he of Gotta Book and The Happy Accident) is debuting his middle grade this year.  Spoiler Alert: It’s good.

And…. okay.  So, maybe I’m a pushover.  Obviously this isn’t my usual video.  But I just sorta liked the feel of this little paper studio and the kiddos who help out.  The narrator I can live without (would that Mimi had narrated the whole thing herself) but I like the kids and I like the product.  So sue.

And for the off-topic video of the day . . . was there any question what I’d go with?  This video works better when you know beforehand that the father is trying to distract his daughter from the “scary” fireworks outside.

I also like the fact that he clearly did her hair that night.

Cathy Potter is a school librarian at Falmouth Elementary School in Falmouth, Maine. She serves on the Chickadee Award committee, the 2014 Sibert Medal committee, and she co-authors The Nonfiction Detectives blog. TCBR is so happy to shine the spotlight on Cathy Potter!

There are some days when you are so utterly floored by delight that all you can do is throw up your hands and say to the universe, “I’m out!”  That was yesterday.  I’m out, folks.  I hit the top.  It’s all downhill from here.  And I’m so young!  It’s sad when you peak at 34.

The source of this joy/woe is Allie Bruce at the Bank Street School for Children’s library.  As you may know, if you attended my Children’s Literary Salon on Alternative Children’s Librarians, Allie is Bank Street’s children’s librarian and a more talented young ‘un you could not hope to find.  She asked me if I could come in one day to speak to some of her sixth graders about book jackets.  And since that is a topic I could talk about all day and night, I readily agreed.

Oh.  And while I was there, Lemony Snicket/Daniel Handler and Jon Klassen would stop by to do their very first dual presentation of their new book The Dark.

But wait.  There’s more.

Neil Gaiman would also be stopping by.  And Mr. Handler’s wife Lisa Brown.  And Jon Scieszka might come along.  As well as Kerlan Collection guru Lisa Von Drasek (newly appointed as a National Book Award committee judge).

So . . . there was that.

That morning I headed on over with my handy dandy FlashDrive, forgetting to bring my camera.  Luckily everything in my purse is a camera these days.  My phone is a camera.  My iPod is a camera.  My lipstick, extra shoes, and hairbrush may all well have cameras in them, for all I know.

My presentation seemed to go all right.  Allie was nice about it anyway, and though I was mildly unnerved when Lisa Von Drasek appeared, taking a picture with an iPad (it is hard to stay calm in the face of a large flat surface aimed at your head) I didn’t panic once.  For the record, the kids assured me that none of them liked the old cover of Okay for Now and did prefer the new paperback jacket.  They also agreed with me that the British cover of Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos is heads and tails more interesting than the American one.  Duh.

When I was done I got to flit about.  In my flitting I saw that the Bank Street library’s children’s librarian’s office contains an ancient Jon Scieszka mask of yore.  The kind of mask that reminds you of Eraserhead more than anything else.  The mask is Lisa Von Drasek’s by right, and she had a fascinating story about when it was made and its original purpose.  Apparently when it first came out it was handed to a roomful of librarians.  Jon knew nothing about it and he walked in to see his own visage staring back at him from hundreds of faces.  “It was like Being John Malkovich“, he said.  Allie assured me that the kids who see it are fascinated.  Sometimes they commune with it on a near spiritual level.

Jon Klassen and Daniel Handler were slated to start signing a bunch of copies of their book but until they did we figured we’d hang out in The Quiet Room (which proved to be a bit of a misnomer).  I don’t own a clutch.  Not really.  So in lieu of one I tend to carry around a book.  Thus it was that the galley of Merrie Haskell’s Handbook for Dragon Slayers got lugged, poor thing, hither and thither, as I stuffed an interesting assortment of business cards, flyers, and Starbucks napkins into its pages.  Apparently I was worried that I’d have nothing to do and would need some entertainment.  Oh, the wrongness of little me.

Jon, Daniel, the remarkable Lisa Brown, her thoroughly enjoyable offspring (who had written one helluva graphic novel illustrated by his mom), Victoria Stapleton in shoes I should have caught on film, and a whole host of other folks flooded in.  Before long it was lunch.  Picture, if you will, what it is like to eat lunch across from Scieszka and Handler with Lisa Brown at your side and Lisa Von Drasek heading the table. I am not particularly good at socializing when overwhelmed.  I tend to get giggly.  And loud.  And I make strange little jokes that feed off of references that make sense only in my own head.  So while I was not particularly interesting at this gathering, the rest of the folks were superb.  In the future I’m taking my little audio recorder with me to capture this kind of situation on tape for the benefit of future generations.  See if I don’t.

So then Neil Gaiman comes in.  That was nice.  He’s a bit beardy right now.  Much with the stubble, which has a pleasant graying sheen to it.  Shocker: He wore black.  I’m not shy around famous folks, but Gaiman is a tricky one.  He’s a very kind famous person.  If you introduce yourself to him he’ll look you dead square in the eye, shake your hand, and seem interested in whatever babble proceeds to emanate from your mouth.  But famous people on his level are a bit difficult to converse with casually, and because they are at a distinct disadvantage to you (you know who they are, but they meet hundreds of people every day and can’t remember you as well) you can’t rely on them remembering any past conversations you might have had.  So I just skipped the whole meet Gaiman part of the day and chatted with Jon Klassen instead.  And Jon is a true doll.  The kind of guy you’d try to weasel yourself into sitting next to at a dinner party.  I’m trying to pin down exactly what his personality reminds me of, but it’s hard.  In any case, I lamented with him that he’d used such great material on his Boston Horn Book Globe Award speech now that he had to write a Caldecott one (he’s almost done with it, Roger, don’t worry!).

Then it was time for the presentation!  We proceeded to the Bank Street auditorium, which was apparently built on the side of a mountain.  It’s one of those auditoriums where you get the distinct feeling that if you tripped and fell down the stairs they’d have to pluck your various limbs out of the four corners of the room post-landing.  We sat up top, the kiddos sitting beneath us, closer to the stage.  And what lively kiddos they were too!  I suspect they were fresh off of lunch and had had their fill of pudding pops or whatever it is kids eat today (Note to Self: Check and see if pudding pops still exist . . . ditto Hydrox cookies).  They were bouncy.  Very bouncy.  Tres bouncy.  Handler played some background music for them which, interestingly, did not seem to affect them one way or another.  And so the fun began.

Now Daniel and Jon had never presented together.  Their PowerPoint presentation had not even been finished as of the night before.  And here they were, with Gaiman, ready to wow a room on a brand new book for the very first time.

Ladies and gentlemen, let us discuss the nature of comedic chemistry.  Think of all the great pairings of the past.  Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner.  Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin.  Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.  Now think of the great comedic children’s book pairings out there.  Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith.  Mac Barnett and Adam Rex.  Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld (they get extra points for playing ping pong while they present).  But on this day we witnessed something new.  Something unique.  We witnessed, ladies and gentlemen, the greatest comic picture book pairing the world has ever seen.  I mean this honestly.

For you see, Mr. Handler had noticed something about Mr. Klassen.  He is a world class straight man.  A good straight man is exceedingly difficult to find.  You need someone who enjoys the spotlight but hasn’t the kind of ego that demands that they grab it away from their partner.  They need to be willing to be made a fool of, but the wit and cunning to turn it all around on their partner by the end.  In short, you need a Jon Klassen.

The entire schtick hinged on the idea that Mr. Handler (who proclaimed repeatedly that he was not Lemony Snicket to the pained cries of the delighted audience members) had zero respect for Mr. Klassen’s work on their book together.  In the course of their talk he disparaged Mr. Klassen’s clothes and talent.  Klassen, for his part, played along beautifully.  They alternated seemingly random slides of varying importance.  It was fairly clear that the slides were a combination of Handler’s old standbys (he’s in an old photograph phase right now that’s doing very well by him) with Klassen’s (in which he shows various important pieces of art from his youth, including a shot of Frog & Toad, and repeats how frightened he was of them when he was a child).

When Mr. Snicket starts to read the book with Mr. Klassen illustrating alongside him, the tension escalates.  Handler denies Mr. Klassen the shiny red apple he’d really like to eat.  He blindfolds him and makes him draw sans eyes.  He brings on Gaiman and claims he’s now going to read the book in his best Neil Gaiman imitation (Klassen makes fun of the “imitation” continually).  And then, when everything is reaching a crescendo . . . Klassen turns everything on its head and Handler runs off screaming.  I won’t give away why.  Bank Street recorded the whole thing and I’ll post it here when I can.

The kids, for the record, ate this thing up like it was a (perhaps nonexistent) pudding pop.  They laughed.  They screamed.  Mostly they screamed.  I’m not entirely certain if Handler and Klassen (and Gaiman for that matter) were ready for the level of identification the kids made with poor Mr. Klassen.  Handler told his blindfolded illustrator that both of them would blindfold themselves and then read and draw without their eyes.  This was, of course, a lie and the kids could not help but scream to Mr. Klassen that Mr. Handler was welching on his half of the deal.  There was an interesting level of desperation to their cries.  Handler’s an old hand in dealing with child panic and outrage, but Klassen dealt with it beautifully as well.  It was very satisfying to watch.  You should have heard les enfants terrible when Handler started eating Jon’s apple.

When the video is up and running I will let you know.  It’ll make your day.  Meantime, a big thank you to the folks at Little, Brown for bringing these heavyweights together and to Bank Street for hosting them.  And thanks, of course, to Allie Jane Bruce for inviting me and allowing me to report on what, without a doubt, was the highlight of the year.  Methinks I’ll go off and relive it a couple times just for kicks.

Jenny Brown living the dream with Allie Bruce close by.

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has collected birthday wishes for the legendary author, Judy Blume.

The Giver author Lois Lowry, former National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature Jon Scieszka and Internet Girls series writer Lauren Myracle all contributed messages.

Scieszka and Myracle shared photos of themselves posing with Blume. Read all the messages on the NCAC blog.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

What books do you remember most fondly from childhood?

Over at the nostalgia section of Reddit, readers have been sharing the books that make them feel most nostalgic.

To help our readers rediscover these childhood classics, we’ve linked to free samples of the 15 Most Nostalgic Books below–ranked in order by the books’ popularity among Reddit readers.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

#35 The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith (1989)
51 points

I remember when this book was the hit of the third grade. Everyone passed it around and read it and we all were cracking up. Fractured fairy tales in the hands of the skilled Jon Scieszka makes for fun reading! – Sarah

Rocky and Bullwinkle would have been proud.  The fractured fairy tale is never so fractured as when it springs newborn from the mouth of the ultimate unreliable narrator.  Consider it the book that brought us our Scieszka and our Lane.  Though you might think that their Stinky Cheese Man would make it higher on the list, this is certainly not the case.

The synopsis from my old review: “As A. Wolf puts it, the whole thing was just a big misunderstanding. One of those events that get blown way out of proportion. See, it’s like this… the wolf was just looking to borrow a cup of sugar for his poor bed-ridden granny. He wanted to make a cake for her, but finding himself lacking the necessary ingredients he went to his nearest neighbor to borrow some. Now here’s where it all went higgledy-piggledy. The pig (living in a straw home) didn’t answer the door and the wolf had a bad cold. By pure bad luck he accidentally sneezed the home down and, in effect, killed the pig. Thinking it a bad idea to waste pork, the wolf ate the pig and decided to try another neighbor. And so it went until he got to the brick house and was shortly, thereafter, arrested. And all for the want of a cup of sugar.”

According to 100 Best Books for Children, Jon and Lane sort of did the thing you’re told not to do when creating a picture book.  Under normal circumstances you’re supposed to come in with your portfolio (if you’re an artist) or you text (if you’re an author) and the publisher pairs you up with somebody.  In this particular case, Smith and Scieszka met in a zoo (please hold all appropriate comments until I finish) and when Lane went in to show his portfolio to editor Regina Hayes he showed her Smith’s manuscript as well.  Batta bing, batta boom, instant fame, glory, and rocket ships to the moon.  As Scieszka himself said of the book in a Puffin interview, “Our first book, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs sold thirty bazillion copies in eight languages.”  Sounds ’bout right.

Fun Fact: The Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature gets the title of this book wrong.  No, really!  It does.  Check out page 875.  Granted it’s just the small goof of calling this The Story of the Three Little Pigs rather than The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, but I think the inclusion of the “True” in the title is necessary.  Nay!  Imperative.  They almost make up for the gaff by finishing his bio by saying, “critics have called Scieszka’s work ‘postmodern’  Children call it funny.”  Good save, Norton me pal.  We’ll let you off the hook this time.

• Strangely enough you can read the full text here, if you’ve half a mind to.  Sans pictures, though.

• Thinking about it, I saw Scieszka talk about this book briefly in a recent B&N video.  In it he says: “I get a lot of mail from Kindergartners.  Actually a lot of it addressed to A. Wolf saying, ‘Dear Mr. Wolf.  You were bad.  You should be in jail.’  Which I t
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#91 The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith (1992)
21 points

I found this when I was in high school (I have much younger siblings, which was probably how I was getting access to picture books in those days) and laughed so much I took it in to share with my friends at school. There we were, a bunch of high schoolers backstage at musical rehearsals, reading a picture book aloud to each other and snorfling a lot. My favorite Scieszka. – Amy M. Weir

Never met a kid who didn’t love this book. – Becky Fyolek

And the man of cheese stank takes a hit!  A big hit, it seems.  Down from #36 on the previous poll he sinks down down down to #91.  How to account for this?  One might wonder if the Stinky Cheese Man now has so many imitators that he’s near forgotten today.  A generation of writers is cropping up who grew up on Scieszka and Lane’s classic.  Klassen and Barnett.  Rex and Brown.  Little Stinky Cheese Man is still here, but will he continue to fall in the future?  That’s the question.

I think my encapsulation of The Stinky Cheese Man is best said by people other than myself.  Read this Jon Scieszka article from the Horn Book about design for starters.

And here’s a plot synopsis from Amazon: “If geese had graves, Mother Goose would be rolling in hers. The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales retells–and wreaks havoc on–the allegories we all thought we knew by heart. In these irreverent variations on well-known themes, the ugly duckling grows up to be an ugly duck, and the princess who kisses the frog wins only a mouthful of amphibian slime. The Stinky Cheese Man deconstructs not only the tradition of the fairy tale but also the entire notion of a book. Our naughty narrator, Jack, makes a mockery of the title page, the table of contents, and even the endpaper by shuffling, scoffing, and generally paying no mind to structure. Characters slide in and out of tales; Cinderella rebuffs Rumpelstiltskin, and the Giant at the top of the beanstalk snacks on the Little Red Hen. There are no lessons to be learned or morals to take to heart–just good, sarcastic fun that smart-alecks of all ages will love.”

What’s funny to me is that back in the day Publishers Weekly was NOT  charmed, “Grade-school irreverence abounds in this compendium of (extremely brief) fractured fairy tales, which might well be subtitled ‘All Things Gross and Giddy.’ . . . The collaborators’ hijinks are evident in every aspect of the book, from endpapers to copyright notice. However, the zaniness and deadpan delivery that have distinguished their previous work may strike some as overdone here. This book’s tone is often frenzied; its rather specialized humor, delivered with the rapid-fire pacing of a string of one-liners, at times seems almost mean-spirited.”

Didn’t really matter since it got a Caldecott anyway.

Booklist was a little more positive with its, “Every part of the book bears the loving, goofy stamp of its creators, and while their humor won’t appeal to everyone, their endeavors will still attract a hefty following of readers–from 9 to 99.”

Kirkus liked it a bit more still: “Parodic humor here runs riot…irrepressibly zany fun!” (parodic?)

And School Library Journal followed all this up with, “Clearly, it is necessary to be familiar with the original folktales to understand

I am grateful to Robin Adelson, Executive Director,  Children’s Book Council and Every Child A Reader, for inviting me to a wonderful evening in Celebration of Children’s Book Week. It was a night to remember!  Once my videos are finished downloading, I will share some clips from the awards presentation but in the meantime, guess who?

Amy and Betsy Bird (Blogger Fuse8 who is lovely)

Amy and Author Jon Scieszka (HE makes me laugh so much!)

Amy and Rachel Rene'e Russell (Author of Dork Diaries)

SLJ's Rocco Staino and Amy

The Toronto Librarians are on strike. There is no need to panic… Ahhhhhhhh! Failing to reach a labour agreement over the weekend 2,400 librarians went on strike. All 98 library branches across Toronto are close as of Monday. The library is asking borrowers to hold on to all checked out books and materials. No overdue [...]

If you’ve read my blog in the last year you may have heard me mention a little something called the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival.  Said aloud it sounds like The 92nd Newbery Film Festival (which is not too far off since 2012 will be the 90th Newbery Award).  However the entire premise was this: Kids from around the world (yes world) filmed 90-second or so versions of various Newbery Award and Honor books.  They sent these books to YA author James Kennedy (of The Order of Odd-Fish) and he collected, curated, organized, tightened, and generally got them into working order.  Now James received more than 100 entries, so those were culled down to a select few that he is showing in three theatrical showings.  Here in New York our film festival this past Saturday was the first and played in the main branch of the library system.  Subsequent showings will be held in Chicago and Portland, Oregon.

For this performance, James had a difficult job ahead of him.  Essentially he had to take the best aspects of what you get at your average school play and avoid the pitfalls such performances normally contain.  He also had to wrangle some special guests and actors because a festival of just films might be fine, but it wouldn’t be kickin’.

So it was that co-master of ceremonies Jon Scieszka, Newbery Award winner Rebecca Stead, author Ayun Halliday, her hugely talented children India and Milo, and the kids of Writopia Labs all gathered together to put on what I can only call a helluva show.

My job in all of this was simple: Bring water to performers. Keep the calm.  Don’t panic.  Don’t let the auditorium fill to above capacity.

Well, three out of four ain’t bad, right?  Turns out that while I excelled in the calm/no panic/water area, I had a hard time coming down on the auditorium rule.  How could I help it?  James’s show was clearly a hit.  Here’s what it looked like before the latecomers started sneaking in:

I would have been displeased if I hadn’t been so thrilled.

The show started off with a bang.  Scieszka and Kennedy brought to mind the old vaudeville acts of old.  In their pseudo-tuxes the two managed on the spot to create two characters out of thin air.  Jon, the gleeful worldly New Yorker with a gleam in his eye.  James, the hardworking up-and-comer form Chicago with a chip on his shoulder in the face of Jon’s smugness.

The show began with James’s version of A Wrinkle in Time, that magnificent video that went viral (90,400 views of it on Vimeo alone).  After it ended James reminded everyone that this is going to be an annual film festival.  “So if you’re inclined, start thinking about what 90-second Newbery films you might want to do for next year’s film festival. You’ll be thinking, ‘I can do that, but a million times better.’ DO! You don’t have to have a dance party at the end.”

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