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Sharp-eyed spotters in the children’s book realm caught site of an interesting little something in the Kidlitosphere this week: An honest-to-gosh manifesto.  Not a manifesto of a nefarious nature, mind, but one that begins with the conversation starter, “We are tired of hearing the picture book is in trouble, and tired of pretending it is not.”  It goes on from there.

Naturally, I was curious so I asked my buddy and future National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature (my opinion, give or take twenty years) Mac Barnett where this came from and whose idea it was.  Mac responded:

“I’d been thinking about–and talking to colleagues about–the issues in the proclamation for a while. It felt like it was time to do something. Late one night at the beginning of summer, my former professor and I were in the middle a feverish talk about the picture book, and he suggested that I write an art manifesto, and take out an ad in Horn Book. It seemed like a great idea at the time, and still seemed great in the morning. So I wrote down some thoughts about picture books–the way they’re made and discussed–and solicited feedback from artists and writers I knew and whose work I admired. The proclamation gained signatures, and soon we had enough to fill an ad in small magazine (part of what was exciting and gratifying about releasing it on the internet yesterday was seeing the document so quickly grow beyond its 6″ x 9″ trim size). The great Carson Ellis designed, drew, and lettered the manifesto, and finally it was ready.”

The undersigned make up a fascinating cross-section of the current crop of up-and-coming children’s book staples. We shall have to refer to them as The Proclaimed from here on in.  It’s the ones I don’t know that catch my attention the most, though.  Isol?  Not exactly an American household name.

And with that taste still fresh on our tongues, we begin today’s Fusenews.

• You may recall that the other day I pointed out that Simon & Schuster had held a blogger preview (like a librarian preview but more bloggy) here in town, possibly setting off a trend amongst the publishers here in town.  PW picked up that ball and ran with it in their article The Mighty Mom Bloggers.  I would argue that mommy bloggers are hardly a new force, but the piece is interesting.  My comments in it stand in contrast to statements made along the lines of “We’re kind of like the influencers of the influencers.”  More than anything else I tried to point out that there are two kinds of children’s literature bloggers out there.  There are the people who came to blogging via books first and those who came to it via children first.  The most interesting part of it, for me, is to see how publishers are catering to the mommy blogger contingent.   It all makes me wonder  . . . whom would you say is the most powerful parental blogger of children’s literature working today?

• This past Sunday the Bird flock decided to take a trip down to Zuccotti Park to check out this Occ
  3 Comments on Fusenews: “Even books meant to put kids to sleep should give them strange dreams.”, last added: 10/26/2011
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  Shannon said, on 10/25/2011 7:00:00 AM
  

  Our class used the penguin sweater images during a book discussion of Pierre the Penguin! Adorable photos, heartwarming story. The book’s not too shabby, either, and it’s up for a WA state children’s picture book award.

  Mary Ann Cappiello said, on 10/25/2011 10:32:00 AM
  

  I would like to expand the blogger definition beyond the book-child dichotomy. There are many teachers who blog about children’s literature, and in many cases, or at least my own, it is the fusion of the book, a child or group of children, the classroom community and the role of a book within that community that drives the blogging. My colleagues and I blog as teacher educators who are former K-12 classroom teachers. We also happen to be mothers. Beyond the dichotomy, I think we all have so much to learn from one another’s perspectives to shape the reading lives of children (which includes knowing when to leave them alone!).

  of picture books and amnesiacs « fomagrams said, on 10/26/2011 8:17:00 AM
  

  [...] it comes to what’s going on in kidlitland. Yesterday (though I’m just catching it now) she opened with the arrival of a new picture book manifesto organized by Mac Barnett and signed by a collection of contemporary picture book authors and [...]

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Nursery Rhyme Comics
Edited by Chris Duffy
Introduction by Leonard S. Marcus
$18.99
ISBN: 978-1-59643-600-8
Ages 9-12
On shelves October 11, 2011

Nursery rhymes. What’s up with that? (I feel like a stand up comedian when I put it that way). They’re ubiquitous but nonsensical. Culturally relevant but often of unknown origins. Children’s literary scholar Leonard Marcus ponders the amazing shelf life of nursery rhymes himself and comes up with some answers. Why is it that they last as long as they do in the public consciousness? Marcus speculates that “the old-chestnut rhymes that beguile in part by sounding so emphatically clear about themselves while in fact leaving almost everything to our imagination” leave themselves open to interpretation. And who better to do a little interpreting than cartoonists? Including as many variegated styles as could be conceivably collected in a single 128-page book, editor Chris Duffy plucks from the cream of the children’s graphic novel crop (and beyond!) to create a collection so packed with detail and delight that you’ll find yourself flipping to the beginning to read it all over again after you’re done. Mind you, I wouldn’t go handing this to a three-year-old any time soon, but for a certain kind of child, this crazy little concoction is going to just the right bit of weirdness they require.

Fifty artists are handed a nursery rhyme apiece. The goal? Illustrate said poem. Give it a bit of flair. Put in a plot if you have to. So it is that a breed of all new comics, those of the nursery ilk, fill this book. Here at last you can see David Macaulay bring his architectural genius to “London Bridge is Falling Down” or Roz Chast give “There Was a Crooked Man” a positive spin. Leonard Marcus offers an introduction giving credence to this all new coming together of text and image while in the back of the book editor Chris Duffy discusses the rhymes’ history and meaning. And as he says in the end, “We’re just letting history take its course.”

In the interest of public scrutiny, the complete list of artists on this book consists of Nick Abadzis, Andrew Arnold, Kate Beaton, Vera Brosgol, Nick Bruel, Scott Campbell, Lilli Carre, Roz Chast, JP Coovert, Jordan Crane, Rebecca Dart, Eleanor Davis, Vanessa Davis, Theo Ellsworth, Matt Forsythe, Jules Feiffer, Bob Flynn, Alexis Frederick-Frost, Ben Hatke, Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Lucy Knisley, David Macaulay, Mark Martin, Patrick McDonnell, Mike Mignola, Tony Millionaire, Tao Nyeu, George O’Connor, Mo Oh, Eric Orchard, Laura Park, Cyril Pedrosa, Lark Pien, Aaron Renier, Dave Roman, Marc Rosenthal, Stan Sakai, Richard Sala, Mark Siegel, James Sturm, Raina Telgemeier, Craig Thompson, Richard Thompson, Sara Varon, Jen Wang, Drew Weing, Gahan Wilson, Gene Luen Yang, and Stephanie Yue (whew!). And as with any collection, some of the inclusions are going to be stronger than others. Generally speaking if fifty people do something, some of them are going to have a better grasp on the process than others. That said, only a few of these versions didn’t do it for me. At worst the versions were mediocre. At best they went in a new direction with their mat

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