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By:
Betsy Bird,
on 6/5/2016
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Happy Monday to you! You want the goods? I’ve got the goods. Or, at the very least, a smattering of interesting ephemera. Let’s do this thing.
First and foremost, you may have noticed the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards were announced. The BGHB Awards are some of the strangest in the biz since they encompass the nonexistent publishing year that extends from May to June. How are we to use such an award? No cash benefit is included. And traditionally it has been seen as either a litmus test for future book awards or as a way of rectifying past sins / confirming past awards. This year it’s a bit of a mix of both. Both 2015 and 2016 titles appear on the list. You can see the full smattering in full here or watch a video of the announcement here. And, for what it’s worth, I served on the committee this year, so if you’ve a beef to beef, lay it on me.
Since this news item appeared on Huffington Post I’m not sure if it is in any way true. If not, it’s still a lovely thought. According to HP, the cover artist of Sweet Valley High takes commissions. Just let that one sink in a little. I’m not interested, though. Call me when the cover artist of Baby-Sitters Club starts doing the same.
It’s odd that I haven’t linked to this before, but a search of my archives yields nothing. Very well. Whether or not you were aware of it, The Toast has The Giving Tree in their Children’s Stories Made Horrific series. Shooting fish in a barrel, you say? Not by half. It’s not a new piece. Came out three years ago, as far as I can tell. And yet . . . it’s perfect. The latest in the series, by the way, was a Frog and Toad tale. Sublime.
This Week in Broadway: Tuck Everlasting is out. Wimpy Kid is in.
In other news vaguely related to theater, Lin Manuel-Miranda is slated to star in a 2018 Mary Poppins musical sequel. And no, not on stage. On the silver screen. This, naturally, led to the child_lit listserv postulating over how this could be possible since P.L. Travers had a pretty strong posthumous grip on the rest of the Mary Poppins rights.
So I worked for New York Public Library for eleven years. Eleven years can be a lot of time. During my tenure I observed the very great highs and very low lows of the system. I like to think I knew it pretty well. Now here’s a secret about NYPL: They’re bloody awful at telling you about all the cool stuff they have going on. Always have been. For example, I’m tooling about the NYPL site the other day when I see this picture.
I stare at it. I squint at it. And finally I cannot help but come to a single solitary conclusion . . . that’s my old boss! There. On the left. Isn’t that Frank Collerius, branch manager of the Jefferson Market Branch in Greenwich Village? Yup. The Librarian Is In Podcast seeks to simply talk “about books, culture, and what to read next.” Frank co-hosts with RA librarian Gwen Glazer and they’re top notch. I haven’t made my way through all of them yet. I’m particularly interested in the BookOps episode since that’s where I used to work. And look! I had no idea that Shola at the Schomburg was on Sesame Street.
Howdy, libraries. How’s that STEM programming coming along? Care for some inspiration? Then take a gander at the blog STEM in Libraries where “a team of librarians with a passion for creating fun and engaging STEM programs for library patrons of all ages,” have so far created fifty-seven different STEM program ideas.
A helpful reader passed this on to me, so I pass it on to you: “The latest New Yorker magazine, dated June 6 and 13, may be of interest to you, if you haven’t yet seen it. It’s the Fiction issue, and in it are some essays by 5 authors, each subtitled “Childhood Reading”…with memories of the books, articles, package labels, events from their childhoods that shaped their idea of what reading is and can be. Having read a couple of these so far, I thought of you, and decided to mention them to you, in case you don’t regularly look at the New Yorker, and might not see them.” Thanks to Fran Landt for the link.
In other NYPL news, I miss desperately being a part of the 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing committee. Fortunately, the folks on the committee recently confessed to the books they’re finding particularly good. So many I haven’t see yet. To the library!
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You know who won the Best Bookmark Left in a Library Book Award the other day? That’s right. This guy. Check it out:
Sure beats finding bacon. I was forbidden to own these guys as a kid, so I’ve placed this little fellow in a prominent place on my desk. Who wants to bet money that some executive somewhere is trying to figure out how to bring these back? Let’s see . . . the last time they were made they were illustrated by Art Spiegelman. So if Pulitzer Prize winners are the only people who can draw them, my vote for the 21st artist goes to . . . ah . . . wait a minute. Maus is the only graphic novel to ever win a Pulitzer?!?
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Betsy Bird,
on 1/2/2016
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Fun stuff. Looks a lot like Harry Potter to a certain extent (mood, lighting, music, etc.). It’s the trailer for Roald Dahl’s The BFG.
Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the link!
A bit of an older video here. In my travels recently I discovered that the entirety of the Oliver Jeffers short film version of his book Lost and Found is apparently online. Bonus! I never got to see it. For your viewing pleasure then (and it’s 24 minutes long, FYI):
Shoot. Christmas is over but only now have I learned about this new collection of Walt Kelly’s Fairy Tales. Well, there’s always next year, I guess.
Cool. I’d heard that there was a children’s theater adaptation of Grace Lin’s Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, but didn’t know it had a little trailer too. Eh, voila.
And for the off-topic video, we’re not entirely off-topic. After all, Mary Poppins was a children’s book originally. Ipso facto a flash mob for Dick Van Dyke’s 90th birthday is . . . well it works for me.
By:
Betsy Bird,
on 12/29/2015
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Good morning, campers! Are we ironing out the last of the holiday season from our socks? Are we eyeing our decorations with a jaded eye? Well, wonderful news! 2016 is on the horizon and I bring you news of the peppy variety. Packed deep in snow, no less, since I appear to be living in ice storm land at the moment.
- Two awards to celebrate today. First up, you may be aware that over in Britain they did away with their beloved Roald Dahl Funny Book Prize. Apparently there will be a new Dahl prize in the near future and they didn’t want to confuse it with this other one. Fortunately, there’s a new funny lit prize and it’s called The Laugh Out Loud Award or, for short, The Lollies. Michael Rosen is, as ever, involved. Attention! Britain? The representative from Illinois would like to request that America be allowed Lollies of our own. We could change the name slightly to The ROFLs, but that sounds slightly perverse when you say it out loud. In any case, funny awards here, please.
- The other award is the recent unveiling of the latest winners of the 2015 Arab American Book Award (sponsored by the Arab American National Museum) given in the Children/Young Adult category. The winner, I’m happy to say, is The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye (Greenwillow Press). Honorable Mention was awarded to The Olive Tree by Elsa Marston and illustrated by Claire Ewart (Wisdom Tales Press). Well done, one and all!
- Insufficiently happy by today’s news thus far? Okay. Try this. They’ve turned some of the Bad Kitty books into a play and you Bay Area lucky ducks get to see it. Playwright Min Kahng, who also did a musical adaptation of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon amongst other things, is interviewed here. As for Bad Kitty herself, I like her looks:
- Brightly also came up with 2015’s Biggest Moments in Children’s and YA Literature. A good list, though I would rewrite the title slightly to say instead that it’s more accurately “2015’s Biggest Controversy-Free Moments in Children’s and YA Literature”. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
A Rita Williams-Garcia book has people talking, but it may not be the book you first think of. How many of you read her new picture book Bottle Cap Boys Dancing on Royal Street? Well a recent article about the actual boys who dance the streets of New Orleans says that Rita’s book has gotten people to talking. The subheading “Depicting happy children” sounds familiar in light of the conversations surrounding A Fine Dessert as well, though the context is different.
I saw the new Star Wars movie, loved it, and was listening to a recent episode of the podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour when they mentioned the worst Star Wars merchandising in existence. There are many items that could fit the bill (look up the Slave Leia perfume or the C3PO tape dispenser, if you doubt me) but the unqualified winner was so terrible sounding that I honestly didn’t believe that it existed. This has nothing to do with children’s literature in any way, shape, or form. I just wanted to give you a couple new nightmares tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, the Jar Jar Binks lollipop. Sharp-eyed spotters may be able to see why it may be considered far and away the worst marketing of all time.
I was trying to remember the last theater review I wrote for this site. At first I thought it might be the review I did way way back in the day for the staged adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline where the main character was played by a heavyset middle aged woman (it worked quite well, thank you very much). Then I remembered that I did write up the Matilda musical when Penguin was kind enough to offer tickets to local librarians. Still, that was over a year ago and my theater going has shriveled in the wake of my increasing brood. What would it take to get me back in the swing of things? Good friends from my past, apparently.
The Snow Queen, which I have discussed here briefly before, came to NYC as part of the 2014 Musical Theatre Festival (spellcheck is questioning why I chose to spell it “theatre”, by the way). Having originated in the San Jose Repertory Theater the composer of the show is one Haddon Kime, a friend of mine from long back. Indeed his wife Katie presided over my wedding and long ago he created the music for my very brief foray into podcasting. He’s always been ridiculously talented but I confess that I’d never seen a show of his. Until now.
For those of you unfamiliar with the plot of this Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, here’s the long and short of it. Two kids, Gerta and Kai, are best buddies. Then one day two shards of a magic mirror enter Kai’s eye and heart, rendering him a cold-hearted bastard (which is to say, a teenager). Along comes The Snow Queen who takes Kai away to her magic palace up North. Rather than just mourn her friend, Gerta sets out to rescue him, encountering rivers, witches, crows, royalty, thieves, and more. When she finds Kai he doesn’t exactly want to leave, so engaged is he in a puzzle The Snow Queen set up for him. Fortunately love wins out, and the two kiddos go back home.
As the novel stands it is unlike most Andersen tales in that it has a metaphor so clear cut you’d swear it had been ghostwritten by Freud himself. The shards of glass in Kai’s heart and eye are so clearly a stand-in for the changes adolescence that it’s scary. Indeed, when Anne Ursu wrote the Snow Queen inspired novel Breadcrumbs, she made explicit what is only implied in the Andersen tale. With that in mind, I was very curious how a staged production of the show would deal with some of these themes.
Right from the start the show casts Kai and Gerda as adults playing children. This is a clever way of dealing with adolescence in a theatrical setting. Years ago the remarkable staged adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials saga cast two adults as Lyra and Will, allowing them to learn and grow throughout the show. And since Kai spends a fair amount of time in this show begging a grown woman in a white garter belt to kiss him, this was a wise choice.
I suppose you could say they decided to give the show a Steampunk feel. There were a fair number of corsets and goggles, but it wasn’t overwhelming. When I saw a Steampunk version of The Pirates of Penzance a couple years ago the effect was overdone. Here it was subtle, more evident in the clothing than anything else. Each character was outfitted in a simple but effective manner, none so effective as The Snow Queen herself. Played to the hilt by the commanding Jane Pfitsch, she’s a photo negative of The Phantom of the Opera, bedecked all in white, luring a boy through a window (as opposed to the Phantom bedecked all in black, luring a girl through a mirror). Admittedly her very cool costume resembled that of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” outfit from the MTV Music Video Awards, but there’s no crime in that. Her blond bob stood in stark contrast to the elaborate headwear of Elsa in the Disney Snow Queen adaptation Frozen. But it was her singing voice and violin playing that gave her true power. A very strong soprano, you can actually see her right now in the current revival of Cabaret as Rosie. As for the violin playing, this show followed the current trend of having the performers play instruments on the stage, but her violin contained not a jot of fly-by-night fakery. This girl could play! I was impressed.
Other strong performances included Eryn Murman as Gerda, Reggie D. White as a Troll, a Hyacinth, a Prince, and a Reindeer respectively, and Jason Hite as an oddly sexy River, Crow, and Italian (for no particular reason) Daisy. But the strongest actress, aside from The Snow Queen herself, was clearly Lauren Cipoletti. There is much to be said for performers that have fun with their roles. Cipoletti, by all appearances, seemed to be having a blast. First she was a rosebush, and though all she does is preen in a manner best befitting The Rose of The Little Prince, you are entranced. Later she came on as an adorable nerdgirl princess, pulling off the cheery “Never Give Up” song that might have wilted in a lesser performer’s mouth. Best, however, was last since her most memorable role was the psychotic Little Robber Girl. Singing “I Want That”, a ballad worthy of Veruca Salt herself, Cipoletti let her freak flag fly. She was punk one minute and a cabaret singer the next. She was Amanda Palmer and Courtney Love and a whole host of other wild women. You didn’t trust her not to slit your throat while cooing sweet nothings in your ears all the while. I’ve always loved the Little Robber Girl. Now I adore her.
The music? Superb. Catchy. Hummable. I have actually been humming the song “Flying” ever since I saw it online, actually. See, here’s a taste.
New York News
Neat, right? The show is jam-packed with music, making it almost more operetta than musical. Haddon mixes up the styles, creating punk rock anthems and Southern bluegrass and Irish ballads depending on what fits best. Should the show ever get picked up it could, of course, be cut down. Some songs were lovely but easy to do away with. In fact the song “Gone” was probably the loveliest of the batch, but superfluous in terms of plot.
As I exited the theater during intermission I saw a small girl wearing a Frozen t-shirt. Since it was a 9 p.m. performance she was the only one of her kind to do so, but I like to think that there were other kids in the audience in a similar state of mind. Kids entranced by Frozen who have an interest in the original source material. My husband has always said that Frozen feels more like a prequel to The Snow Queen than anything else. A cool thought (no pun intended). However you look at it,
The show ended its run July 20th and one can only hope and pray that it gets picked up here in the city in some manner. For another opinion check out the New York Times review A Fairy-Tale That Rocks in which reviewer Anita Gates calls parts of the show “evocatively effective”. Also check out the TheaterMania review which calls Haddon’s score, “an endlessly listenable pastiche with elements of bluegrass, punk rock, and symphonic metal.”
Interested in reading the original story? For the best round-up of Snow Queen works, go to the SurLaLune Fairy Tales site containing Modern Interpretations of The Snow Queen. There you will find a list that is jaw-dropping in its content. It really is a remarkable collection.
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on 12/29/2013
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Shout-out to my buddy Haddon Kime. The man wrote the music and lyrics for a new musical version of The Snow Queen now playing at the San Jose Repertory Theatre with dreams of Broadway. Years ago he created the opening music and words for my now long dead podcast. It’s great seeing his star on the rise. This past Christmas we discussed various children’s versions of the Hans Christian Andersen tale, including this year’s by Bagram Ibatoulline (which he hadn’t seen) and Breadcrumbs (which he thinks is brilliant). This is a tiny look at the production but I do love that in this Steampunky SQ the little robber girl gets to sing a punk rock song. Awesome. She has always been my favorite character anyway.
Small children standing on chairs. If book trailers need anything more than this, I don’t want to hear about it. Here we have fantastic MG author N.D. Wilson’s daughter reading his self-published (and, if I hear correctly, soon to be professionally published) picture book Hello, Ninja.
Of course I can’t link to a video by N.D. Wilson without thinking of that AMAZING one he created years ago for the first Ashtown Burials book. I was reminded of that video when I saw this recent one for Cragbridge Hall: The Inventor’s Secret by Chad Morris. Many of us only DREAM of having a trailer of this caliber for our own titles:
With the advent of Saving Mr. Banks, some of you may be curious about the real P.L. Travers. Fortunately it looks as if the documentary P.L. Travers: The Real Mary Poppins is available through YouTube. Here’s the first part:
And for today’s off-topic video, special thanks to Gregory K for this one. It looks like the world’s most ambitious flashmob. It’s not. The amount of attention paid to facial hair should have given that much away.
Loved the live chicken.
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Betsy Bird,
on 10/28/2013
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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.
- Our first shout-out! And from Tomie dePaola, no less. On The Official Tomie dePaola Blog you will find a lovely mention of the upcoming Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children’s Literature as penned by myself, Jules Danielson, and Peter Sieruta. Woot!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Remember that nice Marcie Colleen I mentioned earlier with her Picture Book Month Teacher’s Guide? Well, turns out she’s engaged to Jonathan Lopes, the Senior Production Manager at Little, Brown. And amongst the man’s many talents is the fact that he occasionally sculpts with LEGOs. Recently Hachette “held their Gallery Project, showcasing the talents of their employees.” Here’s what Jonathan made.
He’s 6-feet-tall and all LEGO, baby. Many thanks to Marcie Colleen for the link!
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Betsy Bird,
on 3/12/2013
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Morning, folks. Bird here. Seems this book I’ve written with fellow bloggers Peter Sieruta of Collecting Children’s Books and Jules Danielson of Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast is in the last stages of completion. Fun With Copyedits is the name of the game this week, which means that my blogging may suffer a tad here and there. Mea culpa. I give you a bright and shiny blog posts to make it up to you. Eat it in good health.
- First off, April’s only here and that can only mean one thing. There’s a call for new spine poetry. Do you have what it takes to stack books in a coherent and literary manner? Well, do you? Punk?
I love Cracked online but honestly sometimes their headlines tip a little too far into the realm of the hyperbole. Consider the following: 5 literary classics that put x-rated movies to shame. It’s actually not inaccurate to say that of numbers one through three, but by the time you get to number five (Where’s Waldo) it’s stretching it a tad. Then again, the naked clown on the pogo stick isn’t exactly normal . . .
- In case you missed it, Marjorie Ingall alerted me to the children’s literature reference name dropped by Bob Balaban on a recent episode of Girls. Sorry I missed this one. I’ve been too busy catching up on episodes of Once Upon a Time which is admittedly corny, but weirdly similar to LOST before the show went haywire. Hence the fix.
- And what will YOU be doing on April 2nd of this year? Celebrating International Children’s Book Day, I certainly hope. Seriously, are you going to let this Ashley Bryan poster go to waste? For shame!
- Speaking of worldwide travels, care to attend an Irish children’s literary conference? Would I kid? Observe:
“We are delighted to announce that the CBI 2013 Conference Rebels and Rulebreakers is now open for booking! We’re really looking forward to a weekend with some of the most exciting names in writing, illustration, publishing and criticism in the fabulous surroundings of Lighthouse cinema on May 18th and 19th. Click here for the booking form or call CBI on 01 8727475 to secure your place. Remember the conference is open to everyone with an interest in children’s books so tell your friends! We’ve started counting down to the conference weekend with blog features on Sarah Ardizzone, Sarah Crossan and Colmán Ó Raghallaigh.”
- Though she was by no means the first children’s librarian in the country, NYPL’s own Anne Carroll Moore was a force to be reckoned with, back in the day. Now there’s a picture book bio of her coming out called Miss Moore Thought Otherwise by Jan Pinborough. A Women’s History Month series celebrates the book and Ms. Pinborough discusses why she wrote it in the first place. Thanks to Lisa Taylor for the link.
As my recent review of the Matilda musical will attest, I’m a sucker for stage adaptations of children’s books. So how completely and utterly delightful does this version of Owl Moon look to you? Picture book adaptations are always difficult, whether it’s to the stage or the screen. Dance is honestly the only way to go sometimes. Consider this post your required reading of the day.
Hey! In all the flutter and kerfuffle surrounding the ALA Youth Media Awards it’s mighty easy to forget about the 2013 Notable Children’s Books list that was announced at the end of February. Nice to see my beloved Zombie Makers getting some love.
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Oh good. Something new to desire. I was running low. It seems that a certain Charlotte Olympia has taken it upon herself to create a fairytale line of shoes.
If you happen to purchase that $985 froggy pump for me, I honestly won’t be embarrassed by the largess of your generosity. Scout’s honor. You know where to reach me. Many many thanks to Marjorie Ingall for the link.
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Now this is really neat. There’s a series called BOOKD through THINKR (apparently E’s are considered gauche these days) that will take a topic and really go into it with a panel of experts. In this particular case the question is whether or not you should re-read Charlotte’s Web. Author Bruce Coville and teacher/blogger/author Monica Edinger (amongst others) give their two cents. Really nicely edited and shot, don’t you think?
In other news, I had no idea that the Royal Shakespeare Company had created a staged adaptation of The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban. Hoban died just last year in 2012. I feel a bit miffed that he didn’t get to see this. Maybe he got a sneaky peak in some way. At any rate, it look fantastic (love the ending on the second video). I just wonder how they pulled off The Caws of Art. I’ve two videos here for the same production. Love them both for very different reasons.
Thanks to Stefan for the links!
Sometimes I like to step into an alternate universe where I grew up in the USSR and watched television like this version of The Hobbit. Instead I grew up on the old Rankin & Bass version. Which was better? Um . . .
Thanks to Educating Alice for the link!
And kudos to The New York Times for this lovely Christoph Neimann illustrated video of an interview Sendak conducted with NPR.
When I die, let’s do that. That would be fun. Make a note of it.
And finally, for the off-topic part, gold gold goldy gold. I don’t even know if you could label it “Off-Topic” since it involves a child reading. Or rather, a three-year-old child “reading”. I know it’s three minutes but I seriously sat down and watched the whole thing because it’s a fascinating case study in what words kids pick up on when they hear stories. The “but then” particularly amuses.
Many thanks to Stephany Aulenback for sharing that.
By:
Betsy Bird,
on 3/24/2012
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A Fuse #8 Production
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Aw yeah. I’m breaking out the big guns today. Cute kids trying to raise library funds. The catchy song and good cause don’t hurt much either. Seems a little town called Shutesbury has been having a difficult time raising funds for a new library. Their old one is, as you can see “wicked small”. So they’ve set up a lovely fundraising site but they still need help. It’s a good cause. If you’re feeling generous you might try to get a headstart on your yearly “giving”. Thanks to Rich Michelson for the link!
If you feel you haven’t gotten your quota on cute kids, this lot have accents. British accents. Can’t get much cuter than that. It’s a promo for the app for the Barefoot World Atlas. A rather lovely idea and a nice way to incorporate nonfiction into an app’s layout, don’t you think?
You know, I think we’re finally getting to the point where book trailers have distinctive flavors. For example, if you had not told me that this next trailer was produced by Chronicle, I think I would have guessed anyway. Something about their trailers just stand out. They are, simply put, better than the rest. See for yourself:
By the way, I’m particularly thrilled to see this book since we haven’t had a really good sign-related picture book since the days of Tana Hoban.
As you may know, Mr. Sharp and Mr. Schu along with their #nerdbery corps are dedicated to systematically reading through all the Newbery winners from the 1920s to today. Mr. Sharp offers his thoughts on the best and the worst. Of the 20s I confess to only having read The Trumpeter of Krakow (the actual Newbery Medal for this resides in my library, FYI) and The Dark Frigate. See how Mr. Sharp ranked them:
This next one’s fun. Years ago I was enamored of a picture book called The Terrible Plop by Ursula Dubosarsky, illustrated by Andrew Joyner. That title’s a bit of a misnomer, by the way. No potty humor here. In any case, I was pleased to learn that the book had been adapted into a play for the preschool set. Now it’s coming to the New Victory Theater (just down the street from my library, as it happens) to play from April 26th to May 13th. Andrew Joyner told me that, “Then it does a week in Pittsburgh and a week in New Jersey. It’s a fun and energetic show – quite different from the book, almost like a clowning performance (although I think they give a straight reading of The Terrible Plop before the performance starts). I saw it a couple of years ago with the family and we all had a great time. It was put together by a local theatre company in Adelaide, South Australia, called Windmill Theatre.” Interested at all? After all, it does involve bunny puppets. Here’s the info and here’s the trailer:
Finally, f
By:
Betsy Bird,
on 2/1/2012
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And then it’s February. How the heckedy heck did that happen? Looks like 2012 is already establishing itself as the Blink and You’ll Miss It year. Well, let’s get to it then.
First and foremost was the announcement of Battle of the Books 2012. Or, as I like to think of it, the place where Amelia Lost gets its bloody due (if there’s any justice in this world). We’re now in the earliest of the early days of the battle, but stuff’s on the horizon. I can smell it.
- In other news there was an SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) meeting here in New York this past weekend. I didn’t attend because, apparently, if it’s way too convenient I’m absent. After checking out the recap on this blog, however, I clearly need to change my priorities. Though I had to miss the cocktail party on Friday I did attend Kidlit Drink Night which was PACKED, dudes. Packed to the gills!
- In her post Ms. Turner mentions the Mythopoeic Society. By complete coincidence I stumbled over yet another link involving that society in question. Neil Gaiman reprints an old speech he gave to the society in 2004 on C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, and Chesterton. A great look at how good fantasy can influence kids. Also a good look at how bad television programs lead kids to books. I believe it.
- Well The Today Show may have passed up the chance to talk to the Newbery and Caldecott winners but leave it to NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me to speak to Jack Gantos for their Not My Job game. Someone must have tipped them off to the fact that the man is the world’s greatest interview. Love the Judy Blume reference. And though I thought I knew his Hole in My Life story, clearly I missed some details. Thanks to Susan Miles for the link.
- Of course Jack and Chris Raschka were interviewed by SLJ about their respective wins. That’s good news about a Dead End in Norvelt companion novel. Ditto the idea of Raschka working on a Robie H. Harris title.
First and foremost, you may have noticed the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards were announced. The BGHB Awards are some of the strangest in the biz since they encompass the nonexistent publishing year that extends from May to June. How are we to use such an award? No cash benefit is included. And traditionally it has been seen as either a litmus test for future book awards or as a way of rectifying past sins / confirming past awards. This year it’s a bit of a mix of both. Both 2015 and 2016 titles appear on the list. You can see the full smattering in full here or watch a video of the announcement here. And, for what it’s worth, I served on the committee this year, so if you’ve a beef to beef, lay it on me.
We’ve been wondering about the Mary Poppins rights. I haven’t looked at any of the online discussion…just heard a lot of outraged ranting from my son!
What are those bookmarks ? I want to find some info on them as you really piqued my curiosity saying Art Spiegelman illustrated them !! Whoa !!
I had just talked my book club into reading The Lie Tree, so no beef on that pick.
Now if an aritst could put me on a Bailey School Kids cover, I’d be in. Or maybe a Choose Your Own Adventure…
Darn tootin’.
Ach. Twas a bonny, heartily disgusting fad of the mid 1980s. During the height of the Cabbage Patch Kids a series of cards was released called the Garbage Pail Kids. This is one of the tame ones. The bulk were gross in a variety of different ways. There was even a truly unfortunate movie. I was the right age at the right time. And yes, Mr. Spiegelman made them in the early days. The more you know, kids!
Oo! The possibilities are endless.
Children of the 1970s had Wacky Packages, also illustrated by Spiegelman. I know grown ups who will not part with them. Someone’s missing that book mark!