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Here’s a little moment in time. Right after I read The Little Fur Family to Huck (for the first time!) the other day, he wanted to read it himself. This is one of my favorite picture books to read with very young kids, and I can’t imagine how it slipped past Huck until now—I found this copy of the book at the bottom of a box of toys earlier in the week. Of course the very best edition is the tiny one with the faux-fur cover. It’s around here somewhere, but I don’t recall seeing it in ages. It’s probably under a bed.

Anyway, when I grabbed my boy for the read-aloud, he was reluctant to listen, as he very often is right at the beginning. And then, as nearly always happens, before I finish the first page, he’s hooked. It went double this time around. He fell hard for the little fur child in the wild, wild wood, like so many before him.

I caught a good chunk of his reading on video. There’s background noise from his big sisters and brother, but you can hear him pretty well. I love watching the leaps kids make at this age—the substitutions where they think they see where the word is going and plug in one they know, like his “fun children” for “fur child” and “mom” for “mother.”

I don’t know if I caught this stage on video with any of the other kids. I have a pretty young Rilla reading an Ariel speech from The Tempest—you can’t hear much in the recording but it melts me to see the confidence with which she attacks some quite challenging text—but nothing, as far as I can recall, of the others at Huck’s stage. I’m glad I captured this much. Those sneezes!

(Vimeo link)

• “Jarrett Krosoczka is one of 25 hottest children’s authors in the nation.” So said Henderson City Mayor Andy Hafen when presenting Mr. Krosoczka with the key to the city.  I’ll just say that again.  The mayor of a city mentioned Jarrett being part of my old The Hot Men of Children’s Literature series when presenting him with that city’s key.  Geez o’ petes.  Looks like I’m going to have to restart that series one of these days (though I KNOW I did more than just twenty-five!).  Credit to The Las Vegas Review Journal for the image.

• In my children’s room we have two copies of Florence Parry Heide’s The Shrinking of Treehorn.  It is regularly requested throughout the system, though sometimes difficult to find thanks to its small size (it will occasionally meander over to our Little Books Shelf when it’s in a wandering mood).  Thus it was with sadness that I learned that Ms. Heide passed away recently at the age of 92.  We should all reread Treehorn (or any of her other works, for that matter) in her honor.

• Wow.  I am in awe.  Here we have a really amazing and worthwhile piece over at Teach Mentor Texts charting a teacher’s changing attitude towards Jon Klassen’s I Want My Hat Back.  From initial disgust to grudging appreciation to possible enjoyment.  It’s a testament to keeping an open mind after a first reading, and the amount of self-awareness at work here is amazing.  Folks sometimes tell me that my reviews of picture books are far too long, but I think this post makes it infinitely clear how there is to be said about the power of that format.

• Remember that picture book manifesto that aired recently?  Well at Fomagrams there’s a piece from David Elzey called of picture books and amnesiacs that gives that document a thorough once over.  Everything from the statement on “robust criticism” to the relative honesty or dishonesty of “tidy endings” is examined thoroughly.  Today I appear to be linking to posts from folks unafraid to use their brains.  A nice trend.

• Is 90% of everything crap?  Jonathan Hunt says so, sparking a variety of different comments from his regular readers.  Heavy Medal is always good for thoughts of this sort.  In fact, I recently decided that the site has given me a chance to examine my own personal Newbery book prejudices.  Prejudices, I would add, that most committee members share, but prejudices just the same.  More on that when I tally up the final predictions at the end of the year, of course.

• Speaking of the Newbery, is it a good or bad idea to find out as much as you can about a book before rendering a final decision about its worth?  I ask this because Jules recently had 6 Comments on Fusenews: “A sort of child’s Jane Eyre.”, last added: 11/2/2011