Happy Monday to you, everyone. I’ve plenty of tasty treats to bestow on the good little boys and girls this morning. First off, the only thing that I can figure when I look at the baby versions of various Harry Potter characters by Artful Babies is that whomever the creator is they must spend a lot of time skulking about maternity wards. How else do you manage to capture that brand new ugly/cute look of newborns? Of all the characters, the Snape amuses me the most. Anyone who has ever seen a pissed off baby will recognize the look on his face. And for those of you reading this with your morning coffee, I will spare you the baby Lord Voldemort. Needless to say, be prepared to spittake. I liked my friend Marci’s suggestion that someone take the Voldemort baby and put him under a bench in a train station somewhere, though.
- I love Leila Roy of bookshelves of doom, but I think I love her best when she’s taking down a bad book. Whether it’s Flowers in the Attic or her recent smackdown of John Grisham’s Theodore Boone sequel, nobody snarks like she does.
- A hitherto unknown Arthur Rackham drawing has been discovered in an obscure book? Hot diggety dog! That is awfully cool to me.
- New Blog Alert: Well, as I live and breathe. I hereby declare myself unobservant. Since March of this year there has been a group blog of middle grade authors called Smack Dab in the Middle. Group blogs are a perfect way for authors to blog without having to distract themselves from their real jobs. In this particular case it’s a great line-up of folks and I’ve taken a great deal of pleasure checking out some of their upcoming books.
- I know you all read your Morning Notes from 100 Scope Notes without fail. Be that as it may be, how can I not link to a man who knows when to use the phrase, “This cover needs more maracas“?
Seems a bit unfair. I complained some time ago about the fact that Kadir Nelson somehow managed to be able to write AND illustrate his books with aplomb. Hey, Kadir! Save some talent for the rest of us! Now I feel the same way knowing that not only did illustrator Leo Lionni make some of the greatest picture books of the 20th century, he could sculpt as well.
9 Comments on Fusenews: More cowbell/maracas, last added: 7/28/2011
I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one who draws in church. Perhpas there is artistic hope for me yet!
Thank you for the link to obscure children’s books. I am a big fan of the musical Cats and I really enjoy TS Eliot’s work but I never knew they were at all connected! Can’t wait to order that book from Amazon!
But…but…Harry didn’t get the scar until he was a toddler! (Then again, Tonks probably wasn’t born w/ purple hair…)
If you didn’t know Lionni’s sculptures, I wonder if you are aware of his wonderful book “Parallel Botany”: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40423298@N08/5391823304/in/set-72157625788774441/
We really do need a graphic novel award, and pronto. Lunch Lady has swept the 3rd/4th grade category in the Children’s Choice Book Awards for the last few years. We see kids every day who check out nothing but comics. I almost think an award would give the form a little more credibility with teachers and librarians (and parents), which would be nice – I don’t know how many times I’ve had to explain to a parent that it isn’t a “waste” for Johnny to read Tsubasa or Rapunzel’s Revenge or whatever. Maybe we can commission some graphic artist to create an appealing, pleading short comic that we can send to the powers-that-be to try to goad them into creating the Art Spiegelman Award, or the Hayao Miyazaki Medal, or the Hugo (named after young Mr. Cabret), or something like that. Matt Pheland or Brian Selznick, do either of you dudes have any time to spare on such a project? =)
Absolutely – wouldn’t it be great to have an ALA award for graphic novels!?!? Smile was one of the top circulating books in our elementary school library (yes, teen was a bit of an odd category), and we were thrilled to find out it won the Eisner Award. Hooray! Odd about Tiny Titans – seems very TV cartoon inspired/derivative. All of the other nominees seemed to have much better substance: Walker Bean, Amelia Rules, Amelia Earhart.
What did you think about The Return of the Dapper Men? Have you seen it? Beautiful, but wondering about the audience.
At first glance I was hoping for a new pic of the Lily Bird. Glad I took a second glance.
Yeah. Though she might rival him in terms of follicles.
For months I’ve been procrastinating on a post about obscure books by adult authors … I was foolishly trying to read each book before I wrote the darn thing. Have to say that a part of me is relieved that Brainpickings let me off the hook!