There comes a time when I have so much news for a Fusenews that it paralyzes me and rather than write one up I just let my files accrue more and more schtoof until the vicious circle ends with a massive deletion. Today some of this stuff will strike you as a bit out of date, but the bulk is pretty darn fun.
- Anytime I write a post that involves race in some way I gird my loins and prepare for the worst. The worst did not occur yesterday, however, when I wrote about moments of surprising racism in classic children’s books. Perhaps everyone was distracted by Jonathan Hunt’s post on The Present Tense. Now THAT is a hot and heavy discussion!
- Oh, Cotsen Children’s Library. Is there anything you can’t do? Because, to be perfectly frank, I think even the prospect of interviewing Philip Pullman would render me effectively mute. And then there was that AMAZING piece on the woman who makes Harry Potter miniatures. Seriously, this is your required reading of the day.
- Because I love Kalamazoo in all its myriad forms, this caught my eye. For you Michiganders out there:
In February 2014, 95 youth librarians, youth library workers, and students gathered at Clinton-Macomb Public Library for a truly excellent day of professional development, idea-sharing, networking, and learning, unconference style. In 2015, we’ll gather April 24th at Kalamazoo Public Library. Hosted by Lisa Mulvenna (Clinton-Macomb PL), Anne Clark (Alice and Jack Wirt PL, Bay City), and Andrea Vernola (Kalamazoo PL), the MI KidLib Unconference will feature relevant and engaging sessions decided on by participants at the conference. And as is typical of an Unconference, it’s FREE to attend. Registration begins in January 2015.
Here are the session notes from last year in case you want to see what we learned together. We hope you’ll join us and spread the word to anyone who’s interested in youth services in libraries!
- If you had told me even two years ago that I would be the de facto mathematics librarian, ideal for moderating events like the Science & Mathematics Panel of Jordan Ellenberg, “Science Bob” Pflugfelder, and Benedict Carey at the Penguin Random House Author Event for NYC Educators, I would have been utterly baffled. And yet here we are. Know any teachers in the NYC area? Because the whole kerschmozzle appears to be free.
- Things That I Didn’t Know Existed Until Recently: Apparently the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center created a site called BookDragon that seeks to create a site for multicultural children’s literature. And not just of the Asian Pacific nature either. It’s a true multicultural site and a fun one to scroll through. Check it!
- This came out a while ago so I’m sure you already saw it, but just in case you didn’t, the Marc Tyler Nobleman Kidlit Mashups are nothing short of inspired.
Oh man. Iron Man as a goodnight picture book done in a homemade cut paper style. Not a real book. Should be though. Thanks to Marjorie Ingall for the link.
One of my favorite illustrators, Aaron Zenz, wrote me the following message you would be very wise to read it, oh those amongst ye with an artistic bent. This art gives light and life and meaning to my day:
We play this game on our second blog every three years or so, and I believe you’ve made note of it in the past. So I thought I’d let you know this time around also that we’re letting professional illustrators and artists dip into the 8 year archive at Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty to reimagine Z-Kid art once again:http://www.isaacgracelily.blogspot.com/2014/08/8yearcelebration.html
There have been some great kid lit contributors in the past like Nathan Hale, Charise Harper, Jarrett Krosoczka, Renata Liwska, Adam Rex… And even though the call just went out for this new round, kid lit folks Julie Phillipps and Doug Jones have already hopped on board (both of them have also played all three times!)
Go! Play!
- My sister wrote me the other day to ask for a recommendation of a great children’s book about a jellyfish. I complied then found out why she wanted to know. I love it when she succeeds in her crazy plans on her blog but truth be told she’s awfully hilarious when she fails. It’s a Jellyfish in a bottle [FAIL].
It’s nice to have friends who know boats. Particularly when they start critiquing classic works of children’s literature. My friend Stefan Driesbach-Williams recently posted this familiar illustration:
Then he wrote, “I’m seeing a cutter with a loose-footed staysail and a boomkin.”
But it was the response from his nautical friends that made my day. One Levi Austin White responded with the following:
“Aye! Captain Max has only got his smallest storm stays’l aloft like a prudent mariner, although his main looks really drafty and dangerously powered up.
He seems to have his main trimmed in all the way, but headed dead downwind. That seems like a disastrous combination considering his mains’l tuning. I don’t see any reef points on his main though, so perhaps he’s outta luck.
Any news on his journey? Did he survive the storm? The way the seafoam is scudding across the wave tops, I’d say that he’s on the lee shore of a low lying island, with 50-70 kts windspeed. Looks properly vicious.
Best of luck, Captain Max. May the seas be forever in your favor.”
- First up, my little sister. My daughter recently had her third birthday so my sis came up with a craft involving what she calls Do It Yourself Cupcakes. Each cupcake sported a teeny tiny cover of one of my child’s favorite books. Then we took them to her daycare where she delightedly set about pointing out all the books she knew. I have zero crafting skills but if you do then you might want to try this sometime. It was kind of friggin’ amazing.
- Now in praise of Kevin King. The Kalamazoo Public librarian has long been hailed as one of the best in the country. Fact. Children’s authors and illustrators everywhere know his name. Fact. But when a man attended a summer reading kickoff for Kalamazoo Public Library with a gun, who confronted the fellow and asked him to please leave? Kevin King. So basically, he’s an amazing librarian AND he has the guts to talk to someone packing heat around children. Kevin King, today we salute you. I don’t know that many of us would have the courage to do what you did.
- Look, we all talk about how we don’t have enough of one kind of book or not enough of another. But what do we actually DO about it? Credit to Pat Cummings. She doesn’t take these things lying down. Check out the Hero’s Art Journey Scholarship then. As the website says, “The Children’s Book Academy is proud and excited to offer merit scholarships for writers and illustrators of color, identifying as LBGQTI, or having a disability, who are currently underrepresented in the children’s publishing industry. In addition, we are offering scholarships for low income folks who might not be able to take this course otherwise as well as to SCBWI Regional Advisers and Illustrator Coordinators who do so much unpaid work to help our field.” The first and only scholarship of its kind that I’ve certainly seen.
- Sometimes it’s just nice to find out about a new blog (even if by “new” you mean it’s been around since 2012). With that in mind, I’d like to give a hat tip and New Blog Alert to The Show Me Librarian. I believe it was Travis Jonker who led me to St. Charles City-County Library District librarian Amy Koester’s site. It doesn’t have a gimmick. It’s just an honestly good children’s librarian blog with great posts like this one on Reader’s Advisory and this one on picture book readalouds. Them’s good reading.
- Jules would never alert you to this herself, but don’t miss this interview with the woman behind the Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast blog as conducted by Phil and Erin E. Stead. Even if you know Jules you’ll learn something new. For example, I had no idea she enjoyed Marc Maron’s podcast too.
- Speaking of Jules, who is the most tattooed children’s author/illustrator (since we already know the most tattooed bookseller)? The answer may surprise you.
- I’m sorry. I apparently buried the lede today. Else I would have begun with the startling, shocking, brilliant news that they’re bringing back Danger Mouse. Where my DM peoples at? Can I get a, “Crumbs!”? That’s right.
- I don’t read much YA. Usually I’ll pick out the big YA book of a given year and read it so that I don’t fall completely behind, but that’s as far as I’ll go (right now deciding between We Were Liars and Grasshopper Jungle). But I make exceptions and Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles fall into that gap. Now I hear that Meyer wrote a prequel called Fairest giving her villain some much needed background. That’s cool enough, but the cover? You only WISH you could see more jackets like this:
- Speaking of YA, and since, by law, nothing can happen at this moment on the internet without some mention of The Fault in Our Stars at least once, I was rather charmed by Flavorwire’s round-up of some of the odd TFIOS merchandise out there. Favorite phrase: “for the saddest party ever.”
- It’s important to remember that school library cuts aren’t an American invention. They’re a worldwide problem, a fact drilled home recently by the most recent post on Playing By the Book. If you’re unaware of the blog it’s run by the wonderful Zoe Toft and is, to my mind, Britain’s best children’s literature blog, bar none. Now Zoe’s facing something familiar to too many school librarians and it’s awful. Does anyone know of a British children’s literary magazine along the lines of a School Library Journal or Horn Book? The fact that her blog hasn’t been picked up by such an outlet is a crime.
- “I should think there would be more chance of your child choking to death on a chocolate bar than of becoming seriously ill from a measles immunisation.” As a woman with a child too young at the moment to be vaccinated against diseases like measles, every parent that refuses to get their own children vaccinated is a threat to mine. So I read with great interest what Roald Dahl felt about vaccinating your kids. It ran on BoingBoing back in 2009 but this kind of thing never dies.
- And the award for Best Summer Reading List of All Time goes to . . . Mike Lewis! His Spirit of Summer Reading list for reluctant readers can only be described in a single word: Beautiful. Designed flawlessly with books that I adore, this is the list I’d be handing to each and every parent who walks in my library door, were I still working a reference desk somewhere. Wowzah.
- A whole exhibit on Appalachian children’s literature? See, this is why I need my own private jet. Why has no one ever given me a private jet? Note to Self: Acquire private jet, because it’s exhibits like this one that make me wish I was more mobile. You lucky denizens of Knoxville, TN will be able to attend this exhibit between now and September 14th. Wow. Thanks to Jenny Schwartzberg for the link.
- So pleased to see this interview with Nathan Hale on the Comics Alternative podcast. Love that guy’s books, I do. Great listening.
- New York certainly does have a lot of nice things. Big green statues in the harbors. Buildings in the shape of irons. Parks that one could call “central”. But one thing we do not have, really, is an annual children’s book trivia event for folks of every stripe (librarians, editors, authors, booksellers, teachers, etc.). You know who does? Boston. Doggone Boston. The Children’s Book Boston trivia event happened the other day and The Horn Book reported the results. One could point out that I could stop my caterwauling and throw such an event myself. Hmm… could work. We could do it at Sharlene’s in Brooklyn… it’s a thought…
There are bookshelves that seem kooky or cool and then there are bookshelves that could serve a VERY useful purpose, if you owned them. Boy howdy, do I wish I owned this because useful is what it is. It’s a “Has Been Read” and “Will Be Read” shelf.
Thanks to Aunt Judy for the link.
The other day I was reading an excellent 100 Scope Notes posting on A Quintet of Blogs to Watch. Some I’d seen before (go, The Scop, go!) and some I had not. For example, Travis mentions a highly amusing blog called Klickitat, which is as fun to say as it is to read. But Travis also mentions that, “It also don’t hurt one bit that Judkins is a fellow Michigander.”
It got me to thinking. Ladies and gentlemen, it is high time we established The Michigan Mafia. Yes, I know that Utah has been getting all the attention, what with their sudden influx (or is it “outflux?”) of authors and illustrators like never before. Yet I maintain that Michigan authors, illustrators, bloggers, and librarians are some of the finest in the Kidlitosphere to date. I count myself proud to be one of them. My family’s Michigan roots go back far. Why, here is a picture of my Great-Grandmother and her (future) sister-in-law goofing it up in front of the camera in the year 1901. Both, proud residents of Michigan:
1901 jazz hands. You could not make that up.
I’m hardly alone either. Just check out the surprising smattering of my MI fellows:
Bloggers:
100 Scope Notes: The aforementioned Travis Jonker is an elementary school teacher in Michigan.
Collecting Children’s Books: Peter Sieruta, my co-writer (along with Jules Danielson) on an upcoming book for Candlewick is a cataloger who works for a university in Michigan.
Ed Spicer’s Teen Book Reviews: Not only does Ed end up on ALA committees every other month, but he currently resides in charming Allegan, Michigan. It ain’t Kalamazoo (the best city in the state, not that I’m biased) but it’s close enough to bask in some of K-zoo’s aura.
Jenny Brown: If you read your Shelf Awareness and you see something children’s literary related, that’s probably the work of the lovely Ms. Jenny Brown. Jenny is a fellow Kalamazooian and even attended my oddly named high school (you never forget when you’ve attending something with a name like Loy Norrix).
Illustrators:
David Small – You want Caldecott winners? Yeah, we’ve got Caldecott winners. Mr. Small was the local illustrator who visited my fourth grade class when I was a kid. And for the record, see my great-grandma up at the top of this post? Her brother would apparently walk over to what is now Mr. Small’s house in Mendon to help train ostriches. True story.
Patricia Polacco – Not only is she from Michigan, she we
Well, folks, wish me luck. Today I give my presentation to the good people of Hamline University, and we’ll see whether or not they find my talk too short, too long, or too nerve-wracked (the smart money’s riding on the last). The weather, as it happens, is perfectly perfect here. I am, however, a little unnerved when folks continually make eye-contact. Don’t they know that eye-contact is a dangerous habit that can lead to death, disease, and dysentery? Or is that just in NYC? Moving on . . . .
- The other day I was recommended a middle grade novel I had not heard much about called A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz. The cover did nothing to make my heart pitter-pat any faster (it’s sort of using a faux David Frankland silhouette technique) and the title? Haven’t we done enough fairy tales? But then I saw the blurbs inside. Laura Amy Schlitz? She doesn’t blurb anything. Jack Zipes? One of the best children’s literary academic scholars out there. So I gave it a read, and you should too considering how hard I fell for it. We’ve got ourselves a new amazing debut author, folks. Salon ran a fun article on blurbing as well, that you might enjoy. It’s called Beware of blurbs and makes a lot of sense. Still and all, had I not seen the blurbs (and gotten a personal recommendation from Monica Edinger) I might have missed the book altogether. They do have their uses. Thanks to @neilhimself for the link.
- Says author Philip Womack, “When I started to write children’s books, most people would nod sagely and opine, ‘they’re the hardest audience to write for – very picky, children’. This is a cliché which is almost monstrously wrong. The vast majority of children (and by “children”, I mean anybody in those prepubescent years who has yet to make the leap to Jane Eyre and Great Expectations) have the literary sensibility of a dead snail and will read any old rubbish.” As opposed to adults who are all discerning in their tastes, I suppose. Womack then goes on to equate Stephenie Meyer to J.K. Rowling, which may explain why this article goes by the subtitle how to write a children’s best-seller, and yet the author is, himself, a relative unknown. Ah well. When I say that I just sound like the snarky commentors. Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the link
- You can take the girl out of Kalamazoo but you can’t take the Kalamazoo out of the girl (Kalamazoo, in this case, being a town and not a dreadful disease with a catchy name). Little did I know that author/artist Mark Crilley was a Fine Arts major at Kalamazoo College. That and other interesting facts about the man come up in his recent spotlight piece at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Later he goes on to say, “For whatever reason, I just don’t seem to show up on people’s radars as an illustrator for hire. The happy exception was Little, Brown’s recent re-issue of
9 Comments on Fusenews: Areas of my expertise, last added: 7/17/2010
Re: the post from René Saldaña, Jr. – Guess who has The Story of Colors on the shelf of her school library in little Asheboro, NC? Yes! This story is important. I hope many librarians read and take note. It also ties back to the discussion of Amazon vs. Publishers and the push to save brick and mortar bookstores. If we only shop online, how will authors like René be have the chance to have their books published by small presses specializing in books by authors/illustrators of color?
There has been much discussion here and elsewhere on the lack of diversity in children’s lit as well as in the editorial ranks generally. Whenever I hear people sending out the call for characters of color, and kids who represent all the other demographics (LGBTQ characters, etc) I think about the unwritten bias that exists regarding the ethnicity of the writer. I know many authors, myself included, who are white Europeans who have written stories with main characters who were black boys, or native american girls and who have been told sorry, we can’t publish this because you cannot tell this story. It’s odd and sad, given that we need the stories out there and all authors feel the pull to tell certain stories for many, many reasons, only one of which is the color of someone’s skin. We don’t say a woman can’t write a book with a main character who is a boy, or vice versa but we are entrenched in old rules that keep us running in place.