Let’s face facts. When doing a trendwatch piece, it’s almost impossible to top Travis Jonker’s 2014 bit of brilliance 2014: The Year of the Whale. Prior to that piece I had done The Year of the Chloe, The Year of the Jackalope, and The Year of the Raven. And now, in 2015, I’m calling it early. And rather than limit it to a single creepy crawly, I am opening my heart to those eternal enemies, the spiders and the flies. They seem unexpectedly prevalent and it’s only February! How can I be so sure that they’re the insects and arachnids to watch in 2015? Consider the evidence:
The Year of the Fly
I, Fly: The Buzz About Flies and How Awesome They Are by Bridget Heos. Illustrated by Jennifer Plecas
It’s little wonder that nonfiction flystuffs should abound. Last year Elise Gravel’s The Fly was the one to watch. This year, Heos and Plecas give us a bit of sympathy for those members of the family Muscidae.
Fly! by Karl Newsom Edwards
Stand aside, Fly Guy. There’s a new crop of characters in town and they are sometimes awfully cute. Truth be told you won’t find a more adorable little cutie than this fellow. Told in very simple text, it’s one of those books about finding out where your talents lie, yet it manages the moral without moralizing (no small feat). Plus how do you resist that face? Awwwww.
Astrid the Fly by Maria Jonsson
Astrid’s a Swedish import, and you wouldn’t really know it from the text. She too is rather adorable, though you cannot help but shudder in horror when you see how many brothers and sisters she has. Extra points for making her such a fan of Danish salami.
The Fly by Petr Horacek
You heard it here first folks – This is the best readaloud picture book of 2015. I kid you not, it’s brilliant. Reminding me not a little of Jim Aylesworth’s classic Old Black Fly, Horacek uses his trademark thick flaps to give a not AT ALL cute fly (it’s all in the eyes, man) a distinct point of view. Anyone performing a storytime is going to get a huge kick out of the final THWAP as you close the book on the flying pest.
Super Fly: The World’s Smallest Superhero! by Todd H. Doodler
A show of hands. Who here does NOT hear that classic 1972 Curtis Mayfield song whenever you read this title? Because if not, I envy you. Doodler abandons bears and their undergarments for the Kirkus starred early chapter book. I like that it clarifies the true enemy of the fly: the cockroach. And I think if it came down to the two of them, give me a housefly any day of the week.
The Year of the Spider
Just Itzy by Lana Krumwiede. Illustrated by Greg Pizzoli.
That’s one thing the flies never had going for them: catchy nursery rhymes (notable exception: “Shoo Fly, Don’t Bother Me”). Last year the old Itsy Bitsy Spider song inspired Dosh Archer’s Urgency Emergency: Itsy Bitsy Spider. This year it, alongside 2-3 other spider related nursery rhymes (there’s an abundance of them), has inspired Just Itzy. Itzy is sick to death of his nickname (he could do without the “Bitzy”). He then proceeds to change his fate and his name. Pizzoli is in his element.
Seaver the Weaver by Paul Czajak. Illustrated by The Brothers Hilts
Ever heard of the publisher Mighty Media Kids? Well, if this book is any indication they might be one to watch. The Brothers Hilts did that lovely little book The Insomniacs a couple years ago and then were never heard from again. This book, about a spider that thinks outside the web, makes good use of their skills. Particularly the parts where Seaver must attend to this “guest”.
I’m Trying to Love Spiders by Bethany Barton
I collect funny women and Bethany Barton has recently shot up to the top of my list. Known best at this point for her Monster books (This Monster Needs a Haircut & This Monster Cannot Wait), this latest title pairs nicely with the Petr Horacek fly title since there are a LOT of smushed up spiders between the pages.
Now lest you think such trends are restricted solely to the realm of the picture book, you are sadly mistaken. At least in the case of spiders, the middle grade fiction titles are active and aware:
The Spider Ring by Andrew Harwell
There’s a bit of wish fulfillment at work in this one. I mean, what bullied kid could receive a ring that helps them control spiders and NOT sick ‘em on the classmate that makes their life a misery? Creepy and crawly all at once.
Ferals by Jacob Grey
I mentioned this one in a recent Harper Collins preview. The villain of this piece is named The Spinning Man. If you suffer from arachnophobia, I’d steer clear of this one for a time.
Any others you’ve seen? They have to be pubbed in 2015. I’d say we’re off to a good start thus far too.
I don’t do all that many trendwatch posts on this site, if only because it’s impossible to keep track of them all. One minute you’re seeing tons of picture books involving whales. Another minute you’re noticing more than one book about encouraging your pet to become atheist (see this and this). If you do notice such things you are inclined to put your discovery into some sort of context. What do atheist children’s books say about the state of the world today? How do we equate whales with ourselves? That sort of thing.
One particularly odd little trend of middle grade fiction this year (which is to say, books for children between the ages of 9-12) involves our fine feathered friends. I’m not talking about nonfiction like Feathers: Not Just for Flying or Have You Heard the Nesting Bird. Nor am I referring to picture books like Flight School or I Hatched. Nope. Middle grade. And I’m a bit baffled by what I find.
First off, it was early in the year when I noticed two books with those coincidental similarities you sometimes find in our field. Every year there will be some titles that resemble one another by complete coincidence. At the beginning of this year they were Nightingale’s Nest by Nikki Loftin and Bird by Crystal Chan. The similarities weren’t overly obvious but they were there. They both slot into that “A stranger comes to town” plotline. Here’s a plot summary for Loftin’s book:
It doesn’t seem right that a twelve-year-old boy would carry around a guilt as deep and profound as Little John’s. But when you feel personally responsible for the death of your little sister, it’s hard to let go of those feelings. It doesn’t help matters any that John has to spend the summer helping his dad clear brush for the richest man in town, a guy so extravagant, the local residents just call him The Emperor. It’s on one of these jobs that John comes to meet and get to know The Emperor’s next door neighbor, Gayle. About the age of his own sister when she died, Gayle’s a foster kid who prefers sitting in trees in her own self-made nest to any other activity. But as the two become close friends, John notices odd things about the girl. When she sings it’s like nothing you’ve ever heard before, and she even appears to possibly have the ability to heal people with her voice. It doesn’t take long before The Emperor becomes aware of the treasure in his midst. He wants Gayle’s one of a kind voice, and he’ll do anything to have it. The question is, what does John think is more important: His family’s livelihood or the full-throated song of one little girl?
And here’s the publisher plot summary for Chan’s:
Jewel never knew her brother Bird, but all her life she has lived in his shadow. Her parents blame Grandpa for the tragedy of their family’s past; they say that Grandpa attracted a malevolent spirit—a duppy—into their home. Grandpa hasn’t spoken a word since. Now Jewel is twelve, and she lives in a house full of secrets and impenetrable silence. Jewel is sure that no one will ever love her like they loved Bird, until the night that she meets a mysterious boy in a tree. Grandpa is convinced that the boy is a duppy, but Jewel knows that he is something more. And that maybe—just maybe—the time has come to break through the stagnant silence of the past.
Both stories involve a dead sibling and a family’s ability (or inability) to cope after the fact. Bird wasn’t quite as reliant as magical realism as far as I could tell, but there was a distinct mystery about it. And, of course, the idea of children as birds, for good or for ill.
Later in the year more bird books started cropping up. When Beyond the Laughing Sky by Michelle Cuevas appeared it has some striking similarities to Nightingale’s Nest as well. The plot summary reads:
Ten-year-old Nashville doesn’t feel like he belongs with his family, in his town, or even in this world. He was hatched from an egg his father found on the sidewalk and has grown into something not quite boy and not quite bird. Despite the support of his loving parents and his adoring sister, Junebug, Nashville wishes more than anything that he could join his fellow birds up in the sky. After all, what’s the point of being part bird if you can’t even touch the clouds?
Far more of a magical realism title, the book takes the idea of a bird-child to the next level. This one has actually hatched from an egg and has a beak.
And none of this even counts books like Nest by Esther Ehrlich which involves birdwatching in some capacity. It’s a very different kind of title, but it fits with this overall theme.
I suppose that in the end birds are perfect little metaphor receptacles. Whatever the case, they yield some pretty darn interesting books.
“I just finished a poem where St. Francis and St. Clare double-date with Thoreau and Evita and it just makes me very happy.” My mother was the winner of the 2011 Prairie Schooner Book Prize because she is as good as it gets. No brag. Just fact. Prairie Schooner recently interviewed her as well and I recommend looking at it, partly because this my mother we’re talking about and she makes me very proud and partly because it raises the old interview bar, so to speak. Clearly I need to put more work into my own.
- Once in a great while my husband’s occupation and my own will intersect. He is a screenwriter and will alert me to interesting news items on the cinematic side of things. This week he pointed me to a ScriptShadow piece. If you are unfamiliar with the site it’s where a fellow going by the name of “Carson Reeves” reads and reviews the scripts that have recently sold in Hollywood and critiques them long before they are turned into films. Each Friday Carson has something he calls Amateur Friday where folks submit their own screenplays for his review. Last Friday someone handed in a script called Fifi, A Monkey’s Tale. Those of you familiar with the story behind Curious George will recognize this as the original title of that manuscript. The script essentially tells the tale of the Reys’ escape from the Nazis in WWII. Only to punch it up a bit the screenwriter (and I kinda love this) rewrote history so that Goebbels himself wants Mr. Rey destroyed. Something you have to see for yourself, I think.
- Do you like awards? Do you like children’s books that come from countries other than America? Well then, folks, have I got great news from you. After her recent trip to Italy to judge the awards, Jules at 7-Imp let me know that the winners have been announced:
The 2012 Bologna Ragazzi Awards have just been announced! Here are links for interested folks:
Fiction winner and mentions: http://www.bolognachildrensbookfair.com/en/boragazziaward/images_award/fiction;
Nonfiction winner and mentions:http://www.bolognachildrensbookfair.com/en/boragazziaward/images_award/non_fiction;
New Horizons winner and mentions:http://www.bolognachildrensbookfair.com/en/boragazziaward/images_award/new_horizons;
Opera Prima winner and mentions (Opera Prima is for new artists):http://www.bolognachildrensbookfair.com/en/boragazziaward/images_award/opera_prima.
- I long for the day Save NYC Libraries can be shut down, but until that happy day occurs it’s a hugely useful and well-organized site for fighting mayoral cuts. Recently the mayor rolled out his old budget again and yep. You guessed it. We’re
Okey-doke. So today we begin with an addendum. I believe that it was not long ago that with the announcement of the new Printz Award blog Someday My Printz Will Come I mentioned its existence without acknowledging that there may have been another and previously existing Printz Award blog out there. Well slap my sides and call me sally, my fellow co-author on an upcoming Candlewick book Peter Sieruta (who’s post delves deep into that moment when as an adult reader you discover that you are older than the parents in a children’s book) points out that there was already a Printz blog out there of venerable character and infinite wit called Printz Picks. I can only claim ignorance, not being particularly familiar with the world of YA . . . but I think we all know that’s a bit of a cop out on my part. Mea culpa, Peter. I shall now read every entry on that blog to make suitable amends.
- I do know enough about YA to concede that this news is big news, though. Also, how amazing is it that her editor told her to rewrite it from scratch? Now THAT is editing, my friends! Well played, Kathy Dawson. Well played, indeed.
- Trend Alert: Well, it had to happen eventually. I’ve been rendered obsolete. Back in the day when I started visiting publisher previews and blogging about them I admit that I felt pretty clever about the whole thing. No one else was blogging them, after all. Here we had a brand new untapped resource for interesting blog fodder. And from 2006 until today I was still one of the very few bloggers to do this. It took roughly five years before a publisher thought to themselves, “Hey . . . Betsy’s not the only blogger in town, is she?” No she is not. So it is that Simon & Schuster has taken what I am regarding as the logical next step. They’ve engaged the group Buzzing Bloggers (seen here: http://twitter.com/#!/buzzingbloggers) to round up a group of NYC parental, toy, and gift bloggers for their very own preview, sans librarians. I was invited to both the blogger preview (complete with childcare services) and the librarian preview (not so much) this season. I am unable to go to either of them, sadly. That’s okay, though. I suspect that this is one preview that will be getting plenty o’ coverage. Don’t be surprised if other publishers begin to follow suit.
- Speaking of which, I attended a Penguin preview the other day that I need to write up. Until then, some of you may be interested to know that there will be a new edition of that old Tam Lin takeoff Fire & Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones on the horizon. As editor Sharyn November tweets, “Yes — Spring 2012, along w/ A TALE OF TIME CITY and DOGSBODY, all w/ stellar introductions. These will be the definitive editions.” You heard it here.
Oh, man – you called it. A few spider related titles to add:
Little Spider’s Spectacular Adventures by John Miller
The Spider by Elise Gravel
Stitch Head: The Spider’s Lair by Guy Bass
The Not So Itty Bitty Spiders by Amy Marie Stadelmann
Nice additions! The Gravel I knew but the others are new.
Holy cow. Nice!