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• Mmm. Vanity straight up. So I never quite know how to post “me stuff” news when it’s particularly nice. On the one hand I could post the link with the typical “I’m not worthy” statement attached, but that always sounds as if I doth protest too much.  Or, I could go the other route, and just celebrate the link with a whole lotta hooplah and devil take the consequences. I think, in the end, I’d prefer to just preface the link with a long, drawn out, ultimately boring explanation of why these links are problematic in the vague hope that your eyes glazed over and you skipped to the next bullet point.  That accomplished, here is a very nice thing I was featured in recently at Bustle.  I think Anne Carroll Moore probably should have taken my slot, but insofar as I can tell, she is not around to object.

• There comes a time in every girl’s life when she realizes that all the funny stuff on the internet was written by a single person.  That person’s name, it turns out, is Mallory Ortberg.  And if you doubt my words, read her recent Toast piece The Willy Wonka Sequel That Charlie’s Mother Deserves.  It’s applicable to the book as well, though in that case it would be “The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Sequel That Charlie’s Mother and Father Deserve”.

• It was Jarrett Krosoczka who alerted me to the fact that Jeanne Birdsall has a blog.  Jeanne, you sly devil!  Why didn’t you tell us?

• Are discussions of children’s book illustrations given adequate attention when people interview authors about the books that influenced them when they were young?  Mark Dery at The Ecstasist doesn’t think so.  In a recent interview with Jonathan Lethem, the two discuss, amongst other things, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a psychedelic children’s book by popular shrink, Dr. Eric Berne (who wrote Games People Play) called The Happy Valley, The Goops, Rabbit Hill, and the odd thickness (and hidden erotic meanings) behind Ferdinand the Bull’s neck.

• I don’t usually advertise journal’s calls for contributions, but this seemed special.  Bookbird (a journal close to my heart for obvious reasons) is calling for contributions for a special issue exploring Indigenous Children’s Literature from around the world.   So if you’ve a yen . . .

Recently I hosted a Children’s Literary Salon on Jewish children’s literature, its past, present, and future.  It was a really great talk and has inspired, I am happy to note, a blog post from one of the panelists.  Marjorie Ingall of Tablet Magazine recently wrote the piece Enough With the Holocaust Books for Children!: Yes, we need to teach kids about our history. But our history constitutes a lot more than one tragic event.  It quotes me anonymously at one point as well.  See if you can find me!  Hint: I’m the one who’s not Jewish.

• And to switch gears, the cutest children’s librarian craft idea of all time.  A teeny tiny traffic jam.  Alternate Title: Dana Sheridan is a friggin’ genius.

• Not too long ago I helped usher into completeness a brand new children’s book award.  Behold, one that’s all about the math!!  Yes, like you I was an English major who thought she feared the realm of numbers.  Now I see the true problem: there were no good math books for me as a kid (and subsisting entirely on a diet of The Phantom Tollbooth doesn’t really work, folks). Now worry not, interested parties!  The Mathical Award is here and the selections, not to put too fine a point on it, are delightful.

• Out: Dark Matter.  Five Minutes Ago: Gray Matter.  In: White Matter.  At least when it comes to how children learn to read.  The New Yorker explains.  Extra points to author Maria Konnikova for the Horton Hatches the Egg reference buried in the text.

• Full credit to Aaron Zenz for turning me onto the site Sketch Dailies.  Cited as a place “that gives a pop culture topic each week day for artists to interpret” there are plenty of children’s literature references to be found.  Draco Malfoy. The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Hedwig (more owl than Angry Inch).  Warning: You will get sucked in, possibly for a very very long time.  Three of the Very Hungry Caterpillar winners recently were here, here, and here.

• Oop!  The end of the voting on the Children’s Choice Book Awards is nigh. Your last chance to “voice your choice” is looming. Voting for @CBCBook’s Children’s Choice Book Awards closes at ccbookawards.com on May 3rd.  And, if I might be so bold, you may notice something a little . . . um . . . interesting about this year’s hosts of the CBC Gala.  *whistles*

Ah.  Sweet screen capture.  Only you could give me the chance to get just the right angle on this video of M.T. Anderson singing (YES, singing!) his Delaware song.  And truth be told, the man does a lovely acapella rendition of the ode.  The only thing that could make it even more complete would be to hear Hank Green set it to music.  Of course, Hank is more of a tenor and could not do justice to Anderson’s lilting baritone.

*blog posting is briefly put on hiatus as I rewatch Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone From Your Pants for the umpteenth time*

Ahem.  Very well.  In lieu of a Hank adaptation, let’s just watch Anderson sing this again.  Only instead of being at SCBWI in LA, it’s an even more recent video taken by Kathi Appelt at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Throws himself into it a bit more, does he not?  I think he’s loosening up as he goes.  By October I will insist upon the addition of props.  Or at least a monk or two for back-up.  Thanks to Kathi for the link!

My problem with this next video is not the content.  I welcome the sexy librarian stereotype.  Heck, I’m a fan.  No, what shames me about this next clip is that I had no idea there was a Britcom out there called The Old Guys.  What kind of a Britcom fanatic am I if I do not keep up with the times?  There’s more out there than just The Good Neighbors (slash The Good Life) after all.  Here then is a clip in a library.

Thanks to AL Direct for the link.

Someone once asked me whether or not there is a single repository for all the videos out there of children’s authors and children’s illustrators talking about their life and art.  There isn’t as far as I can tell, but that doesn’t mean we can’t just start collecting now.  Here then is illustrator Oliver Jeffers giving a talk about his own art.  I can understand the Ungerer and the Sendak influence, but I have to admit that The Giving Tree baffles me.  Such a divisive book.

3 Comments on Video Sunday: “And barbarian lords with feathered hair . . . from Delaware!”, last added: 8/15/2010