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• Things that I love: Blogging. My baby girl.  Seattle.  Two of those three things will be coming together on September 16th and 17th.  That’s when the 5th (five already?) annual Kidlitcon will occur!  It’s looking like a remarkable line-up as well with special keynote speaker YA author Scott Westerfeld and great presentations, as per usual.  Baby girl is keeping me from attending, which is awful.  I think I’ll have missed three out of five by this point.  That just means you’ll have to go in my stead.  For conference information, Kidlitosphere Central has the details.

• Speaking of conferences I could not attend (whip out your world’s smallest violins playing a sad sad song for me), ALA came and went.  Between reading Twitter updates of awesome people having post-Caldecott/Newbery Banquet parties until 5 a.m. and knowing that there’s a whole world of ARCs out there that I have not seen, I took comfort in SLJ’s very cool shots of the outfits at the aforementioned banquet.  Jim Averbeck, I await your red carpet analysis.  Oh, and allow me to extend my hearty thanks to Tomie dePaola for mentioning me as well as a host of other fine librarians in his Wilder acceptance speech.  Made me feel quite the top cat it did.

• Artist Adam Rex discusses the “Hogwarts for Illustrators” and gives us a sneak peek at a cover of his due out this coming February.

• There’s more Ungerer in the offering.  Tomi Ungerer got covered by the Times the other day with an interesting Q&A.   In it, at one point he happens to say, “Look, it’s a fact that the children’s books that withstand the grinding of time all come from authors who did both [writing and illustrating].”  J.L. Bell takes that idea and jogs on over to my Top 100 Picture Books Poll where, rightly, he points out the #2 on was old Margaret Wise Brown.  He then finds other books that have stood the test of time with authors who do not illustrate.  Well played, Bell man.

• Also at The New York Times, editor Pamela Paul shows off the new crop of celebrity picture books.  Normally I eschew such fare, but one book in the batch is of particular interest to me.  Julianne Moore has penned the third Freckleface Strawberry book called Freckleface Strawberry: Best Friends Forever.  I’m rather partial to it, perhaps because of this librarian character that artist LeUyen Pham included in the story:

• J.K. Rowling: Classy dame.

• Oh, man.  This i
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Oh man.  I need to get my third Newbery/Caldecott predictions up and pronto.  Now that the Heavy Medal blog has entered the arena again you just know that the debating is about to begin.  Already I can see that I’ll have to fight tooth and nail for my beloved One Crazy Summer and that Nina and Jonathan will have to convince me on why a person would want to read a children’s book on playing bridge (no one has given me an adequate explanation of its charms quite yet).  Most importantly, can A Conspiracy of Kings stand on its own without a person having read the other books?  Which is to say, am I gonna have to read it? Ooo!  I love these debates!  So much to talk about already.  Now I need to finish Only One Year . . .

• Great news came to me yesterday all thanks to Cynopsis Kids.  Check it out, Kevin Lewis fans:

“Disney Publishing Worldwide names Kevin Lewis as Executive Editor, Disney Hyperion Books, an imprint of Disney Book Group.  In his new position Lewis is responsible for acquiring and editing picture books, as well as middle grade and young adult novels for Disney-Hyperion.  Most recently, Lewis was Editorial Director, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, and prior to that as an Associate Editor with Blue Sky Press, an imprint of Scholastic.”

This makes me happy.  Some of us have been waiting on tenterhooks to hear where Kevin would settle down next.  This is the guy who has, in the past, edited folks like Tony DiTerlizzi and Kadir Nelson.  We have little doubt he’ll work his magic at Hyperion now.  Couldn’t be happier.

• Sick and tired of not getting enough Monica Edinger?  Well if Educating Alice doesn’t satisfy you then you might be pleased to learn that our Dalton School blogger has a good looking HuffPo blog up and running as well these days.  A smart idea too.  It’s always wise to expand your audience.

• RoadsideAmerica.com (“Your Online Guide to Offbeat Tourist Attractions”) stopped by the old children’s room to have a gander at our famous residents.  It’s a rather smart little write-up with some facts in there that I myself was not entirely clear on.  They get extra points as well for the snarky end to the write-up.  Couldn’t agree with them more.  Thanks to The Infomancer for the link.

• You can criticize a person’s personal beliefs, clothes, worldly possessions, and general attitude all you want but better keep your hands off their The Giving Tree.  Yes, the triumvirate of mediocrity made the news yet again with the New York Times article Children’s Books You (Might) Hate and Silverstein’s weirdo tale is
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  Leila said, on 9/15/2010 4:52:00 AM
  

  Ah ha! So Carter did write one! I wondered.

  Yesterday, I was trying to remember where the trend of sitting prez/first lady/vp/second lady children’s book started: there was Millie’s Book, by Barbara Bush, and that Socks book from the Clinton years, and then there was the Lynne Cheney book. Dunno about the Reagan years, though.

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 9/15/2010 6:28:00 AM
  

  Exactly. The thing is, I can’t help but think that there was a Carter children’s book published while he was in office too. What on earth was the name of it, though? Maybe I’m just thinking of a book that was about him while he served, but … huh. And amazing that the Reagans never succumbed. Or Laura Bush for that matter. I mean, she’s a librarian. You’d think the siren lure of the printed page would get to her.

  Jennifer Schultz said, on 9/15/2010 6:31:00 AM
  

  Am I totally out of the loop, or did the POTUS’s children’s book appear out of nowhere? I pay close attention to the fall, and I realize that I probably do miss a few….but I think I would have noticed this. The first I heard about it was yesterday when an email from RH appeared in my inbox. It’s not even in Baker and Taylor (tried yesterday and tried again today).

  David Macinnis Gill said, on 9/15/2010 6:42:00 AM
  

  While I’m not saying it should win the Newbery (but it*could*), A Conspiracy of Kings stands on its own without the other books. I gave it to teen readers who hadn’t read the other books, and they lurved it. Lurved it. Lurved. It.

  JMyersbook said, on 9/15/2010 8:07:00 AM
  

  “The Cardturner” is a wonderful read even if you think ‘bridge’ is only something that gets you across the river. I mean, come on, we’re talkin’ Louis Sachar here. I fought against reading “Holes” for the loooooongest time, back in the day, because I thought it would be a one-note juvie-detention-center book — and just look at all the fabulous stuff IT contained. Like “Holes,” “The Cardturner” has an intriguing paralell storyline from the (not-so-distant) past, and it deals with issues ranging from greed to love to loyalty. It blew me away AND it made me laugh out loud, turn for turn. Great stuff!

  Susan said, on 9/15/2010 8:55:00 AM
  

  Laura Bush did do a children’s book while her husband was in office…co-authored with her daughter Jenna, it was a picture book called “Read All About It”, illustrated by Denise Brunkus.

  Haven’t read it myself, so can’t comment…..the only reason I remember it is because they did a book signing at the LOC Festival that year, and the security was insane (I was very happy to have wheeled transport for the ton of books that I DID bring, ’cause the security detour was a looooong way)

  marjorie said, on 9/15/2010 10:04:00 AM
  

  I would just like to say that the second cloud formation picture is so totally Sookie on True Blood. Take that, Vampire King of Mississippi! That is all.

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 9/15/2010 1:15:00 PM
  

  Oh, Susan, you’re right. I’m an idiot. Totally forgot about that book. For that matter one of the Bush daughters did a teen novel too.

  Leila said, on 9/15/2010 1:31:00 PM
  

  It was Jenna, I think.

  Sondy said, on 9/15/2010 2:10:00 PM
  

  Betsy, you haven’t read the Megan Whalen Turner books? Oh, say it isn’t so! Come on, The Thief was a Newbery Honor winner!

  As much as I soooo want Megan Whalen Turner to win, I wasn’t as crazy about the latest as I was about The Queen of Attolia. As much as I’d like to say the book can stand alone, I really really don’t want people to read things that give away what happens in the earlier books. The amazing beauty of the first three books is in their plot twists. Of course, on the other hand I love rereading them over and over and over to see all the cleverly placed clues that I completely missed — so maybe you could get that kind of enjoyment on the first reading — the appreciation of a genius at the craft of plotting.

  As for The Cardturner, I did love it. But I grew up in a family of Rook players, and Rook is very like Bridge. I’m also a math nut, and I think it appealed to the math and games loving side of my personality. Adding the uncle-nephew interaction and the boy-girl interaction made it an absolutely delightful book — but I don’t really expect it to win with the committee.

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I’ve been clutching this video to my chest for months, just waiting, waiting, waiting for September to come around.  Children’s literature related?  Not unless funky puppets count (that puppet makes me laugh every time).  Just consider this something to get your groove on today.  September is here (yipes!) and if your weather is anything like New York’s right now then you are dwelling in sweet 62 degree heaven.

Close your eyes.  Now think of the best book trailer produced between January 1, 2006 to July 1, 2010.  Can you think of it?  Fantastic.  Now go and read Joyce Valenza’s post about the New Book Video Trailer Awards that are coming up.  Not only can you nominate your favorites but you can also vote for the winners in each category.

Teen trailers will not be considered, so this next series of videos wouldn’t quite make the cut.  To be honest, I’m not certain how I missed this on the first go-around.  I suppose because they’re YA to a certain extent but since (A) Adam Rex usually works in the world of children’s literature and (B) They star Mac Barnett who is CLEARLY picture book and chapter book related, these count.

What’s important here is that you recognize the mad acting skills at work.  Ye gods.  Here’s where the cool kids are at.  The cool kids with oddly slicked back hair.

Can you believe that as of this posting some of these have only gotten 526 views?  What the heckedy heck?

Speaking of book trailers with shocking low views on YouTube, 368 right now for what may well be the most movie-like movie trailer I’ve ever seen.  And that is saying something.  Production value city going on here.  Wow.

Thanks to @molly_oneill for the link.

And now, a little catchy boon to English teachers everywhere.  Elementary school teachers too, I’d wager.