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Actually, that little icon here is a touch misleading, but I took it since it talks about our first news item of the day.  This l’il here ole blog got itself nominated for an Edublog Award, which is mighty nice.  SLJ wrote an article about me and my fellow nominees, Joyce Valenza’s NeverEndingSearch, Karyn Silverman and Sarah Couri’s Some Day My Printz Will Come, and Angela Carstensen’s Adult Books 4 Teens.  I’m in the Best Individual Blog category along with Joyce.  Let’s face it, though.  Joyce actually does discuss education on a regular basis (far more than I do), which is the point of the award as I see it.  Therefore, if you’d stop over and vote for her along with my other nominees (preferably before the 13th), I’d appreciate it.

• Speaking of accomplished folks getting noticed, our own Mary Ann Scheuer of Great Kid Books (I call her “our own” since she speaks at Kidlitosphere Conferences regularly) spoke on Boston’s NPR show Here & Now about book apps for kids.  Woman knows her stuff.

• Marjorie Ingall manages to locate two wall decals of infinite peculiarity.  One is just weird.  The other will undoubtedly be the bane of many a child’s life, possibly haunting them well into their adulthood.  Fun!

• So what, precisely, is up with that The Graveyard Book movie?  Waking Brain Cells has the skinny.

• Let’s chalk this next one up to Books for Adults That Look Like They’re For Kids.  I am speaking, naturally, about Honey Badger Don’t Care by Randall.  Oh, it may look like children’s fare, but if you’re familiar with the YouTube sensation (I only recently learned about it myself, so don’t feel bad if you haven’t seen it) then you’ve got the gist of the book.  Long story short, it has nothing to do with James Odone’s far sweeter picture book Honey Badgers.

• It’s one thing to find out that your childhood idol and author is still alive.  It’s another thing entirely to give that person the respect and honor they never found on his own.  Marc Tyler Nobleman
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November is National Picture Book Month, and I thought I would contribute to the celebration with a list of ten of my favorite picture books. This is by no means a definitive list – I have hundreds of favorites! – but for our family, these books have stood the test of time and continue to delight, even after multiple readings. Many of them also ‘break the rules’ of picture book writing and publishing, and remind us that a unique idea, an original voice or a magical complement of story and art make it possible to venture beyond formulas and create something surprising and enduring:

Bark, George! (Jules Feiffer) – The giddy tale of a puppy who speaks every other animal’s language but his own – with superbly spare text and Feiffer’s brilliant, classic line-drawings.

The Dot (Peter H. Reynolds) – A child who thinks she has no creative talent learns how simple it can be to express oneself creatively and to take pleasure in the ownership of one’s efforts.

Goodnight, Moon (Margaret Wise Brown/Clement Hurd) - A little rabbit preparing for bed says goodnight to everyone and everything in his world. The perfect, classic bedtime story.

Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (Mo Willems) – A brilliant tribute to the often dramatic and unreasonable behavior of preschoolers, with simple but hilarious illustrations and text.

Harold and the Purple Crayon (Crockett Johnson) – Harold takes a memorable journey with a simple purple crayon… First published in 1955, a tribute to the power and wonder of imagination.

I Stink (Jim and Kate McMullan) – A hilarious ode to the humble garbage truck, reminding us that everyone has value and something to contribute.

Miss Rumphius (Barbara Cooney) – Alice Rumphius has three life quests – to see faraway places, to live by the sea in her old age, and to do something to make the world a more beautiful place.

Olivia (Ian Falconer) – The “Eloise” of pigs! Ian Falconer’s hilarious series about an unforgettable (if a tad precocious) porcine heroine.

Owen (Kevin Henkes) – Owen and his beloved blanket are inseparable, until the first day of kindergarten. Can his parents find a solution that suits everyone and helps their son transition?

Tell Me Something Happy Before I Go To Sleep (Joyce Dunbar/Debi Gliori) – A thoughtful bunny calms his younger sister’s nighttime fears by encouraging her to think happy thoughts.

At the end of July I created a post on New Yorker cover artists who also did picture books for children.  Well, I showed just a scant hint of some of the covers I have in my possession, and now seems like a good time to bring some others out for one and all to see.  And who better to start off this regular series than fan favorite Ian Falconer: He of the undeniable Olivia.

Falconer’s a particular favorite of the New Yorker, his covers dating back at least until the late 90s.  I could throw a whole bunch of them up here, but what I find interesting about New Yorker artists is how they can sometimes create small series of covers that go undetected unless you place them all together.  Take Falconer’s Easily Shocked Old Lady (or ESOL).  The Easily Shocked Old Lady is a Falconer staple.  She walks through this world of ours with a true fear of changing mores and habits.  Sometimes we identify with her.  Other times we are encouraged to enjoy her squirming.  And the poor woman appears unable to go anywhere without getting a case of the vapors be it . . .

At the museum

In a department store

Skiing

Or even just taking an elevator

The ESOL is a kind of anti-Olivia.  Like Falconer’s most famous pig heroine, the ESOL prefers to wear red and white with some black (though she may try a bit of pink if she’s feeling adventurous).  Her hair is carefully swept back in a “do”, pearl earrings in place.  Sometimes I worry that her feet hurt wearing those black heels (though clearly she’s in good shape if she’s skiing).

There is one cover where a woman who looks a heckuva lot like the ESOL appears and it is Falconer’s cheeriest image.  I’m fond of it because it allows us a glimpse into her personal life.  Gone are the trappings of the New York lifestyle.  She’s clearly on vacation, a fact I ascribe to her hair which has reestablished its natural curl (she probably hasn’t been to her stylist in a while).  She’s still wearing her customary red, but now it’s with stretchy pants and shoes that won’t pinch her anymore.  With her, just as nerdily American, is her husband, waistband maki

My husband Matt pairs well with me for a number of reasons.  Amongst them is our mutual inclination to collect things we love.  As such, Matt has systematically been holding onto all his issues of The New Yorker ever since he got his subscription in college.  Over the years these issues have piled up piled up piled up.  I was a Serials Manager before I got my library degree and one of the perks of the job was getting lots of lovely magazine holders. For years these holders graced the tops of our bookshelves and even came along with us when we moved into our current apartment a year ago.  Yet with the arrival of our puir wee bairn, we decided to do the unthinkable.

Yes.  We ripped off all their covers.

Well, most anyway.  We have the complete run of New Yorker text on CD-ROM anyway, and anything published after the CD-ROM’s release would be online anyway.  Thus does the internet discourage hoarding.

In the meantime, we now are the proud owners of only three boxes worth of New Yorker covers.  They’re very fun to look at.  I once had the desire to wallpaper my bathroom in such covers, but that dream will have to wait (as much as I love New York apartments and all . . .).  For now, it’s just fun to flip through the covers themselves and, in flipping, I discovered something.  Sure, I knew that the overlap between illustrators of children’s books and illustrators of New Yorkers was frequent.  I just didn’t know how frequent it was.  Here then is a quickie encapsulation of some of the folks I discovered in the course of my cover removal.

Istan Banyai

Zoom and Re-Zoom continue to circulate heavily in my library, all thanks to Banyai.  I had a patron the other day ask if we had anything else that was similar but aside from Barbara Lehman all I could think of was Wiesner’s Flotsam.  Banyai is well known in a different way for New Yorker covers, including this controversial one.  As I recall, a bit of a kerfuffle happened when it was published back in the day.

Harry Bliss

Author and illustrator of many many picture books, it’s little wonder that the Art Editor of The New Yorker, Ms. Francoise Mouly, managed to get the man to do a TOON Book (Luke on the Loose) as well.  And when it comes to his covers, this is the one I always think of first.