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Celebrity picture books.  The gift that just keeps on giving.

Now in the past I’ve had my say about CPB ah-plenty.  Heck, there was an entire chapter devoted to them in Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children’s Literature. Today, we’ll switch tactics and tackle a topic that no one ever discusses.

Weeeeeeeeeeird celebrity picture books.

Specifically, the ones based on pop songs.

Here is how I imagine how the process usually goes.

Big publisher with lots of money sits down with the people of big famous celebrity singer.  Big publishers offers to get a top notch illustrator (who really needs the cash) to illustrate it.  Celebrity singer is keen on the idea, a deal is struck, and the book is made.  This happens time and again and usually the results are very normal.

But then . . . once in a very great while . . . the impossible happens.  The artist is allowed to be  . . . artistic.

What do I mean like that?  Okay.  Let’s start with the pop novelty song turned picture book.  And in keeping with the sheer number of foxes in picture books these days (Travis! You need to add the new version of The Dead Bird by Zolotow & Robinson to your list!) I am showing you this:

Remember that little post-Gangnam Style hit on the interwebs?  Currently cresting at 616 million views on YouTube (nope, I’m not kidding) someone at Simon & Schuster decided it could be worth it to give the lyrics book form.  After all, it sounds like a children’s song in a lot of ways (right down to the elephant going “toot”).  And usually when a YouTube sensation gets turned into a picture book you get something like a Golden Book Grumpy Cat or a Tiny Hamster or a talking shell, and that’s fine.

Then there’s this:

I had to wonder how this happened.  Did Ylvis insist on having his own illustrator?  How did they get Norwegian artist Svein Nyhus in the first place?  How could something this . . this . . this cool be based on a YouTube video?  It was Debbie Ohi’s blog post My WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY? obsession, solving a mystery AND the new picture book from Simon & Schuster BFYR that answered all my questions.  Turns out, Art Director Laurent Linn may have had a hand in the works.  Makes sense.  The man has fine taste.

And if you’re saying to yourself, “Fine and all, but clearly this is an aberration” you’d be half right.  Certainly it would take an act of God for another Svein Nyhus picture book to appear on our shores (our Norwegian picture book illustrators available here in the States are a bit, uh, lacking, shall we say).  But odd adaptations of songs into picture book formats don’t stop there.  Consider this:

Yep.  That’s a Sting song.  Now note the name of the illustrator: Sven Völker.  We’re with a German this time around.  Of course, the interiors might have given that away . . .

I’m sorry but I kind of love this.  Obviously the song isn’t really meant to be for kids, but at least they didn’t cutesy it up.  It would have been easy to go the Shel Silverstein route and follow the adventures of a chipper little spot as he traverses the world.  Instead we get . . . actually, I’m not sure what we get.  Something weird, that’s for sure.

These first two books I’ve mentioned work because the publishers decided to get European artists to do the interiors.  So how often do you find a song adaptation that’s a bit on the peculiar side and that’s illustrated by an American?  Hardly ever.  Of course there are some exceptions:

Dylan gets adapted into picture books on a frequent basis.  And he usually gets some perfectly good artists like Paul Rogers or David Walker or Jim Arnosky (that one was a surprise).  One time he got Jon J. Muth and I got really excited.  But the art was pretty standard stuff.  There was a paper airplane motif.  Ho hum.

But Scott Campbell?  He’s different.  This guy has a whole life dedicated to his adult cartoons, which are delightful.  Ever see this book?

If not, I think I’m helping you out with your holiday gift giving already.  That book is a hoot.

In the case of the Dylan book, Campbell appears at first glance to be doing everything straight.  Dogs are running free.  That’s really all there is to it.  But there’s this undercurrent that’s hard to ignore.  See if you feel it too:

It just doesn’t feel like other celebrity song books.  There’s a wildness reigned in here.  The song isn’t one of Dylan’s better ones, so there’s that as well, but at least the pictures are interesting to look at.  The downside is that I haven’t seen Mr. Campbell do any picture books since this and Hug Machine.  Boo-urns, sez I.  More Campbell, please.

I welcome any other suggestions of odd song-adaptation picture books, though I know they’re not easy to come up with.  A goodly chunk of them are dull as dishwater.  Very straightforward.  Artists doing something rote for a nice sized check.  But if you do hear of a case where the artist was allowed to be, y’know, artistic, you just let me know.  This is the kind of stuff I really dig.  And if you can’t think of anything then just sit back and enjoy this fake picture book adaptation of David Bowie’s Major Tom.

• The weather!  She has warmed here in NYC!  The crocuses and daffodils and purple flowers that I can never identify are blooming in my front yard.  The birds are singing and there are buds on the trees.  Tis spring spring spring!  To celebrate, we begin today with a poetic celebration of baseball (a very spring thing) written by none other than my father.  You may have known that my mother was talented in this manner.  So too mon pere.  Enjoy!

• News That Did Not Make a Sufficient Splash in America: How is it that we are not ALL aware that over in Bologna the small Brooklyn publisher Enchanted Lion Books won the prize for Best Children’s Publisher of the Year in the U.S. category?  I do not recall seeing this in my PW Children’s Bookshelf (though perhaps I missed it) nor on my tweets.  Come on, people!  Big time honor here and it couldn’t have gone to a nicer company.  Well done!

• There are few things the British like more than rereleasing new Harry Potter covers.  They just revealed the new Jim Kay cover and while it does resemble some of the European covers I’ve seen, I think it is the very first time I’ve ever seen a hog associated in any way with Hogwarts.

Harry’s hair is actually messy!  And here is a nice interview with the artist in question.

• Did you read The Toast take on The Boxcar Children?  Not as creepy as their usual takes but it’ll do.  It’ll do.  If it’s horror you seek then Ayn Rand’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, also at The Toast, will fill that need.  That place is fair crawling with former English majors, it would seem.  Dobby’s tombstone was particularly choice.

• I admit it.  There were facts in this Mentalfloss article 10 Things You Might Not Know About Anne of Green Gables that I was unaware of.  Poland?  Really?  Knock me over with a feather.

• I say this in all sincerity: The Bay Area Children’s Theatre may be the coolest theater of all time.  Yes, I love the New Victory Theatre in here NYC and my heart will always have a soft spot for Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis, but check out this upcoming season.  It was Rickshaw Girl that drilled it all home for me.  Rickshaw Girl!  That would work brilliantly on the stage.

• Oh. Ah?  Er. *sigh*

• This one’s interesting.  There’s an extension (I think they’re called extensions, though I’m a little hazy on that point) that once installed on your computer allows you to browse Amazon.com and see the availability of the items there in your local library.  The applications, should they get out, could be enormous.  Using an online retailer to search your local library (which could be useful if your library’s search engine is archaic).  Curious how people feel about this one.  It’s called Library Extension.

• We’ve seen books written by children reach various levels of popularity over the years.  Swordbird, Eragon, She Was Nice to Mice, etc.  And we’ve seen celebrity children’s books flood our shelves whether we want them or not.  Now the two have come together with an upcoming release and it’s . . . um . . . well, it’s kind of the ULTIMATE celebrity child author of all time.  This I’ll pass on, though.

• What kinds of children’s books would you like to see?  Where are your pet personal gaps?  Marc Aronson begins the conversation.

• Daily Image:

I don’t usually show tweets that amuse me, but this one had me laughing aloud in public for days.

• There was a time, oh children of mine, when the ALA Media Awards would be announced and the morning after the announcement the winners of the Caldecott and Newbery Awards would be whisked away to New York City to speak on NBC.  Then Snooki came and ruined everything (this is the abbreviated version, but it’s not too far off).  So we’re none too pleased with NBC these days.  Al Roker’s Book Club aside (and it looks like it hasn’t updated since Halloween) there’s not a lot going on at that channel.  But then they go and post the Latinas for Latino Lit: “Remarkable” Children’s Books of 2014 piece (selected by Viviana Hurtado and Monica Olivera) and much is forgiven.  Just one question about the list, though . . . no Viva Frida?

• What is the state of children’s nonfiction in the UK today?  For our answer we turn to my favorite British blog Playing By the Book which reveals revelation after revelation in the piece Do We Care About Children’s Non-Fiction?  Apparently informational books don’t get reviewed all that often in the U.K.  Do the British value nonfiction then?  Definitely fascinating reading.

• “I mean, seriously, can you think of one popular show/movie that actually tries to portray Muslims accurately instead of as a confining stereotype?”  The excellent Summer writes on her blog Miss Fictional’s World of YA the piece I Am Not Oppressed.  In particular she’s not particularly pleased with how Muslim women are depicted on the bulk of our book jackets (to say nothing of the content inside).

• Hm.  So Entertainment Weekly just released a list of 50 Books Every Kid Should Read.  Interesting, yes?  And the choices are fascinating.  They made an effort to do the classics and then work in some contemporary titles.  What they chose is telling.  Little Willow presents the list and leads the discussion as well.

• Um . . .

Okaaaaay. So that’s what Evangeline Lilly wore to her children’s book signing at Barnes & Noble.  Clearly this is the outfit children’s authors should all be wearing now.  Those of you hankering to wear your picnic blanket as a skirt now finally have an excuse to do so.  Thanks to Jules for the link.

• I think roughly 500 people sent me the Richard Scarry’s Busy Town in the 21st Century link, to which I say to each and every last one of you – THANK YOU!!  Good old Tom the Dancing Bug.

• Oh!  How useful!  PW recently published a rather lovely assessment of Children’s and YA Writing M.F.A. Programs around the country.  Apparently they already covered Simmons in a previous post.

• And now, the best news of the week.  My love for the author Frances Hardinge knows no bounds.  Honestly, I do believe that The Lost Conspiracy may be my favorite children’s book published in the last 10 years.  It’s a serious contender in any case.  So you can imagine how distraught I was when it became clear that Harper Collins would no longer be publishing her books in the U.S.  I watched miserably as the U.K. published A Face Like Glass and Cuckoo Song (read the Book Smugglers review of the latter) overseas.  Heck, I actually shelled out money and bought the darn books myself (and you know how I feel about spending money).  Then, yesterday, a miracle.  I was paging through the Spring 2015 Abrams catalog and there she was.  Frances.  And Cuckoo Song, it said, would be published in May with what may well be the creepiest cover . . . um, ever?  Yeah.  Ever.  It’s not even online yet, so just stay tuned because when it is you know I’ll be blogging it.  So excited. (pssst! Abrams! Let me do the cover reveal!)

• If you missed the whole Barbie, Computer Programmer children’s book debacle, now’s your time to catch up.  This was the inciting incident.  This was the follow-up.

• The nice thing about working for NYPL is that they give me an awful lot of leeway when it comes to programming.  I want to do a monthly series of Children’s Literary Salons on a host of different topics?  Go to it!  Any topic I like.  The best ones, however, are often suggested by other people.  For example, when editors Cheryl Klein and Stacy Whitman suggested we have a panel on Native American YA literature where authors Eric Gansworth and Joseph Bruchac could talk about the cross-cultural pleasures and challenges of working with their editors, I was all for it.  Sadly, most of my Lit Salons are not recorded . . . but this one was!  Cheryl, you see, is married to James Monohan and together they run the blog The Narrative Breakdown.  My Salon?  It became one of the episodes and you can listen to it here.  As for those of you interested in attending a Salon (they’re free after all) there’s one this coming Saturday and you can see the full roster of them here.

• This thing.  More libraries should do this thing. Yes.

• A few things.  Jacqueline Woodson wrote a New York Times piece about the incident at the National Book Awards.  There is that.  Now I would also recommend that you read two additional pieces as well.  I Am Racist and I Am Sexist and Probably Some Other -Ists, Too.  The other is just called Racist.

• Speaking of Ms. Woodson, did you see the list of books President Obama purchased at Politics and Prose last Saturday?  If we just pull out the children’s book fare it included:

1. “Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business” by Barbara Park
2. “A Barnyard Collection: Click, Clack, Moo and More” by Doreen Cronin
3. “I Spy Sticker Book and Picture Riddles” by Jean Marzollo
4. “Nuts to You” by Lynn Rae Perkins
5. “Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus” by Barbara Park
6. “Brown Girl Dreaming” by Jacqueline Woodson
7. “Redwall” by Brian Jacques
8. “Mossflower” by Brian Jacques
9. “Mattimeo” by Brian Jacques
10. “Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms” by Katherine Rundell

• Daily Image:

I consider this my early Christmas present.  Years ago when I did the Top 100 Children’s Novels poll, I did a post on All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor that included every book cover I could find of the title.  All but one.  The book jacket I grew up with appeared to be lost to the sands of time.  And now, all thanks to Sadie Salome, it’s been returned to me.  Behold the only work of historical fiction I read independently and for fun as a kid from cover to cover:

Still the best, so far as I’m concerned.  Thanks, Sadie.

• Oh, thank the high heavens.  Good news, folks. The celebrities have arrived to show us how to write books with darker themes. Thank goodness they’re here!  Until now the field of children’s literature was just an unending vista of sunshine and daisies. But thanks to the combined efforts of Evangeline Lilly (“I look around me and I see a lot of young people who are very entitled and who are very confused when life isn’t perfect. I think that often comes from some of the messaging we receive as children from our stories, but that’s really not life and especially not on the playground”) and Bruce Springsteen (“Bruce Springsteen on Outlaw Pete and Not Sheltering Kids From the Realities of Life“) we can finally stop handing our children consistently sweet and innocent . . . hey. Psst.  You there.  Sit down.  You too.  And I don’t even want to talk about you.  All youse guys.  You’re ruining my moment.  Stop being so doggone subversive!  You don’t want to prove the singer and the elf wrong, do you?  They’re famous.  They know what they’re talking about.*

• Kudos to Sarah Seltzer and her Flavorwire piece Please, let’s not extend the literary genre wars to kids books.  Written as a response to Rebecca Mead’s recent New Yorker piece pooh-poohing Percy Jackson (and could you find a more innocuous thing to pooh-pooh if you tried?) it contains the phrase, “Burn, I guess?” which I shall now appropriate and work into at least one conversation today.

• Publishers. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, we need ‘em.  Hence the piece Save the book publisher.  Hard to argue the man’s points.

“Thousands of illustrations, books, comics, graphic novels, animations, products, paintings and more will be on view. In addition, a Children’s Reading Room within the gallery will hold hundreds of children’s books by SVA alumni.”  What’s that, you say?  It’s only the description of the upcoming We Tell Stories exhibition of work by more than 250 alumni of the School of Visual Art’s MFA Illustration as Visual Essay program.  Jules Danielson alerted me to this event and can’t go (seriously, someone just send her to New York City already – she deserves it!) but those of us in NYC can certainly try.

Lolly Robinson speaks truths bloggers may not like to hear. It’s not specifically blogger-related either.  It’s just an issue we all have to deal with these days.  Can you really and truly be critical of a children’s book if you’re buds with that particular author or illustrator?  Lolly weighs in and her thought process winds around until she ends with, “What would happen if EVERY picture book had a YouTube video revealing the details of its creation?”  Spoiler Alert: It would be fantastic.  Meantime, I’ll just say that she’s speaking in the piece as a Horn Book reviewer and not a blogger.  Bloggers, for the most part, are not held to the standards of a Kirkus or a Horn Book.  We have no editors.  We are judge, jury, and executioner (at times) all in one.  As such, you take every blogger with a grain of salt, just as you take every professional review with a similarly sized, if somewhat different, salt grain as well.  And for my part, I review so few books these days that my selection simply consists of those titles I think deserve particular attention or are deserving of criticism.  In fact, I’ve got a rip-roaring critical review on the horizon . . . but I shall say no more.

• The Best Books lists have begun with a mad sprint.  On the one hand you had PW’s Best Books of 2014.  The middle grade fiction category is particularly remarkable.  Then you have the New York Times Best Illustrated list.  Now just as that Lolly article talked about, I’m buds with two of the jurors who were on that committee.  So I can inquire with calm patience and certainty WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU GUYS THINKING WHEN YOU DIDN’T INCLUDE LINDBERGH?!?  *ahem*  That was awkward.  Good show, blokes.  Nice list.  Moving on.

• By the way, Travis Jonker’s analysis of the NY Times Best Illustrated books and how well they do Caldecott-wise upset a lot of my expectations.  I did NOT see those stats coming.  Fascinating!

• In the words of the great Jan Thomas, can you make a scary face? Cause I can.  So can Kate Milford, Jonathan Auxier, and Aaron Starmer for that matter.

• Here’s my dirty little secret.  I have never, not a single day of my life, biFirsnge watched a single show.  Maybe I indulged in a few too many Northern Exposure‘s when I was young, but that’s it.  However, upon hearing that A Series of Unfortunate Events is slated to be an all-new Netflix series, this record I hold may have to change.  This interview with Handler about the show is worth reading, particularly when the subject of casting comes up. Sez he, “As Count Olaf, James Mason. In 1949. You can see why my involvement may or may not be welcome.”  Thanks to Kate for the news.

• The old book smell.  Want to know its chemical composition?  Darn tootin’ you do!  Thanks to Mike Lewis for the link.

Daily Image:

Halloween has come and gone but one thing remains clear.  The folks at FirstBook DC?  They won it.  They won Halloween.

If this picture means nothing to you then go here and read up.

*As you might imagine, Bruce is far less to blame here than Ms. Lilly.  He didn’t seek out the picture book writing life and says nothing detrimental about the state of children’s literature today.  It’s the article writer I probably have more of a beef with.

Happy Tuesday to you, one and all!  Hope your weather isn’t as bitingly cold as ours has been.  Time to warm up with some fresh and festive children’s literature tidbits.  Personally, I’m trying to figure out why I wrote today’s headline a couple days ago.  I’m sure there was a reason for it.  Hmmm.

• The recent NPR piece on Gertrude Stein’s children’s book reminds me that it would be great if someone wrote a fun article for The Horn Book that consisted of a systematic accounting of cases where adult authors wrote children’s books and failed miserably in the attempt (with the occasional success stories, i.e. Sylvia Plath, along the way).  The article could take into account similarities between such books, or trends in more recent examples (today we have Salman Rushdie, Michael Crichton, etc. and back then we had Gertrude Stein, Donald Barthelme, etc.).  So somebody go do that thing.  I’d love to read it.

• Best book lists are popping up hither and thither and yon.  We recently saw the release of the rather massive Kirkus Best Books List for Children as well as this one from Publishers Weekly.  Always interesting to see which non-starred books made the cut.  Now SLJ announces that they’ll reveal their 2013 Best Books on Twitter. The big reveal is Thursday, November 21, 8 pm EST.

• Allie Bruce has two fantastic blog posts up on the Lee & Low site these days discussing conversations she’s had with the kids in her school about race (amongst other issues) and book jackets.  Part one is here and part two is here.  This would be your required reading of the day.  It’s fun and makes for a great conversation.  Plus, I love how these conversations help to make kids into savvier consumers.

• Speaking of book jackets, there is nothing I do not love about the recent ShelfTalker blog post Please, Will Somebody Re-Design These Covers?  Amen, and also thank you.

• Oh!  And while we’re over at ShelfTalker, they’ve updated The Stars Thus Far.  Look at Locomotive!  Doesn’t that do your heart good?  I completely missed that it was the only children’s book this year to get six out of six.  Wow!

• Things You Might Have Missed Because I Sure As Heck Did: James Howe guest blogged over at TeachingBooks.net and his post is just the smartest thing.  From personal history to a sneak peek into his upcoming 2014 title, this is just fantastic stuff.  I tell you, man.  Guest blogging is where it’s at.

• This next one is just so cool.  I’ve been hearing from various folks the ways in which they’ve been having Giant Dance Parties as inspired by my book.  But NONE of them quite compare to this party that took place at the Cotsen Children’s Library at Princeton University.  The accompanying craft is just brilliant!  They even made little roses.  Awwww.  Still not convinced?  Then let this adorable child be the ultimate lure:

Resist if you can.  You can’t!  Thank you Dana Sheridan for the link!

• If you’re anything like me you scanned through this admittedly very cool Most Popular Books of All Time piece and looked to see how the children’s materials panned out.  Very well, it seems!  And the top of the pops?  Mr. Hans Christian Andersen himself.  Now and forever, baby.  Thanks to Aunt Judy for the link.

• My workplace is so weird.  Ask me sometime about the day Bjork came to visit Winnie-the-Pooh.

• Stockholm’s Tio Tretto Library is so cool.  If the kitchen didn’t clinch it then the sewing area would.  Stockholm tweens are clearly the luckiest in the world.

• Derek Jeter has his own publishing imprint now?  Hm.  Okay.  I’ll be fine with this, just so long as at least ONE of these books is set in Kalamazoo, our hometown.  C’mon, Jeter!  Hometown pride!  Thanks to PW Children’s Bookshelf for the link.

• Today I shall begin by ripping out your heart and stomping it into tiny shreds upon the floor.  You may be aware that for years I have worked with the real Winnie-the-Pooh toys at NYPL.  You may also know that the real Christopher Robin had a serious falling out with his father about the books.  Now Ian Chachere has written was is easily the BEST graphic story about Christopher Robin at the end of his days.  Thank you for the link, Kate.

• Well, get out your fire hoses and start running for the hills (I prefer my mixed metaphors shaken, not stirred).  The Newbery/Caldecott prediction season is about to begin 4 realz.  Calling Caldecott is gently starting its engine, checking its rear view mirror, and making sure the gas tank is full.  Heavy Medal, meanwhile, is putting pedal to the medal (so to speak), revving this puppy as loud as it can go, and then tearing down the street leaving only burnt rubber and flames in its wake.  If you have favorites, they will be systematically destroyed (even, God help us, Doll Bones if Nina’s comments are any indication).  Personally I’m just biding my time until Jonathan Hunt attempts to defend Far Far Away as a Newbery contender.

• Speaking of the berry of new, Travis Jonker is churning out the fun posts on Newbery stats.  They remind me of the glory days of Peter Sieruta (he loved these sorts of things).  Want to win a Newbery of your very own?  Then you’d better check out So You Want to Win a Newbery, Part 1 and Part 2.

• What causes the most problems in Greek mythology?  The answer may surprise you (not really).  My mom was right to point out that the last sentence should contain a he/she there.

• Whenever I hear that a celebrity has written a children’s book my reaction isn’t so much outrage as a kind of resigned, “What took them so long?”  In my perverted take on Andy Warhol’s famous quote, in the future everyone will have their own children’s book for 15 minutes.  The latest not-so-surprising travesty is Rush Limbaugh’s are-we-absolutely-certain-this-isn’t-from-The-Onion book Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims.  And we could pull out the usual jokes and all (certainly I’m highly tempted to buy a copy, if only to randomly quote from it on this blog to comedic effect from time to time) but it was Thom Barthelmess who classed the joint up recently by writing of it, “I believe that librarians can shape that discourse by modeling respect for those with whom we disagree. And I believe that every time we suggest to a child that her book choice is inappropriate we weaken the foundation on which she is building a life of reading. This, my friends, is where intellectual rubber meets the freedom road. Let’s be sure we’re holding the map right-side up.”

• How did I miss this?  Last year I did indeed notice the plethora of Chloes.  So why didn’t I see the abundance of 2013 Floras?  Fortunately Elissa Gershowitz at Horn Book was there to pick up my slack.

• Good old Common Core.  It’s so common.  So core-y.  Over at Publishers Weekly their inaugural Common Core column has posted.  It’s called Cut to the Core: Distinguishing Common Core Myth from Reality.  Check it.

• Speaking of Common Core, not too long ago I gave a talk about it at a New Jersey SCBWI Conference.  Now over at 1600 Words a Day, author Amy Armstrong summarizes me with a Snapshot of Betsy Bird’s Session on the Common Core with Nonfiction Recommendations.  If you want to hear what I’ve read and liked nonfictionwise in 2013, this post may prove useful.

• Once you start talking about Common Core it’s hard to stop. I’ll just close up my mentions of it here by pointing out that if you ever wanted some great reading, it’s fun to take a gander at Museums in a Common Core World.

• Um . . . awesome.

If you’re not a regular reader of the very rare middle grade science fiction / fantasy blog Views From the Tesseract, I cannot recommend it highly enough.  Stephanie’s recent post on the book The Fallen Spaceman is fabulous.  Particularly when you discover which Caldecott winner and his son did the illustrations.  Australian readers in particular are urged to comment on it.

• Daily Image:

I don’t suppose this is technically a children’s literature article, but the hidden underground flowering world they discovered not that long ago sure feels like something out a kids book. Just a taste:

Durn.  This is what I get for not doing a Fusenews in a while.  A whole plethora of good stuff!  Let’s see what we can use up in a single day, eh?

For the record, if you haven’t read these Hunger Games comics (in the style of Kate Beaton, no?) then now’s the time.  They’re surprisingly good.

Good old poetry month.  From spine poems to 30 Poets / 30 Days the celebrations are magnificent.  Go ye, seek out and find.

• I won’t normally link to podcasts but this recent Scriptnotes that covers how a screenwriter options a novel he wants to adapt includes a discussion of older children’s books that were considered for screen adaptation.  FYI!

• On the one hand they’re 9 Barbies Based on Books.  On the other hand, if that Edward doesn’t sparkle and glow in the dark then I hope the people who purchased him got their money back.  Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.

• When I worked the reference desk I got a lot of Stumpers.  Folks would ask me to come up with a beloved book from their childhood and I would try to figure it out.  If I couldn’t find it I’d take down all their information and ask PUBYAC on their behalf.  If that didn’t work I’d suggest Loganberry Books, even though they charge money.  Would that I had known about Whatsthatbook.com.  A free site where folks post their stumpers and other folks answer them, it’s pretty cool.  Sometimes I just like hearing the wacky descriptions. Current favorite: “Young girl reading to an older lady, girl almost gets caught in quicksand”.  I hate it when that happens.

• Hello, under-a-rock denizens.  J.K. Rowling’s newest book is going to be released.  Hope you like community politics!!!

• Feel discomfort about Tikki Tikki Tembo?  You’re not alone.

• Do Childish People Write Better Children’s Books? Dude, if you want to walk up to Maurice Sendak and inform him that he is childish, be my guest.  I’m just gonna go hide behind this sturdy concrete pillar over here until the spatter of your remains stops with the spattering.

• Stealing books from publishers is nothing new, but there’s something particularly slimy about doing it during the Bologna Book Fair
  6 Comments on Fusenews: Gleep!, last added: 4/19/2012
  Display Comments
  Susan said, on 4/17/2012 3:28:00 AM
  

  One more site for lost books is abebooks.com…..they have a “booksleuth” section that works pretty much like whatsthatbook…it’s free too!

  Aaron said, on 4/17/2012 10:29:00 PM
  

  A little story about that Santorum book…

  The year: 2002. My good friend (and old college roommate) Sam was doing all the design, layout, and illustrations for Karen Santorum’s book “Everyday Graces.” The book is intended to be similar to The Book of Virtues, but organized around manners. So it’s a collection of stories… a chapter from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe leads into a short commentary about table manners. A chapter from Winnie the Pooh leads into a little discussion about the art of invitation writing. It’s all selections from classic stories like Frog and Toad, Little Women, and The Secret Garden.

  At the time, I am simply a graphic designer, but my friend Sam knows I’d love to write children’s books. So he tells me that since he’s putting the book together, he can slip in one of my stories. I send him a little nonsense story I’d written, and he even works up an illustration for it. So in the end, “Everyday Graces” contains 180 previously published works by folks like Robert Louis Stevenson, LM Montgomery, Lewis Carroll, Beatrix Potter… and a single, solitary original work by Aaron Zenz – snuck in at the last minute by his old college roommate.

  My first published writing.

  Kate Milford said, on 4/18/2012 12:52:00 PM
  

  My mom has a Holly Golightly Barbie. Does it count if the Barbie is obviously based on movie-Holly rather than book-Holly?

  http://i2.listal.com/image/2956694/400full.jpg

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 4/18/2012 2:15:00 PM
  

  Get. Out. Of. Town.

  Kate Milford said, on 4/18/2012 3:11:00 PM
  

  @Aaron–dude, that’s hilarious.

  Janette said, on 4/19/2012 5:34:00 AM
  

  I know I am a little behind in reading your posting but there was the long flight from London to SF and that awful thing called jet lag but I wanted to tell you I have a Curious George Barbie complete with George himself, though he is quite small. My first (and only) Barbie. And I met the real Barbie gal about 38 yrs ago when I worked for Mattel toy co. Didn’t get a Barbie then (or want one) until about 25 years later when I found C. G. Barbie. I might be a little old for dolls, but for George I made an exception.

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Amusing. I wrote an article for SLJ about the Bologna Book Fair and why librarians should attend in droves.  I was unprepared for some of the formatting choices on the piece, though.  The title Betsy Goes to Bologna caught me off guard, though it’s certainly true.  But it was the art created for the piece showing a pregnant and hugely stylish librarian jet setting about the town that really caught my fancy.  First off, I’ll have to find out from artist Ali Douglass where I can go about getting some of the shoes my avatar is sporting in these pics.  Second, anyone who saw me in Bologna will be amused by the difference in relative ankle circumference.  Mine were, needless to say, more akin to sturdy oaks than the svelte saplings portrayed here.

• You have to wonder how bad a book can be when its celebrity author can’t make a sale.  In this case, Sarah Ferguson can’t sell a picture book about a little heroic pear tree on 9/11 to U.S. publishers.  To which we say, thanks guys.  I think I owe you one.  And if you’d like to abstain from printing any other celebrity picture books, please!  Don’t feel you have to ask permission.

• The other day I was kvetching my usual kvetch about how it is that anytime a children’s middle grade novel appears in the news, it’s instantly dubbed “YA”.  Seems that I’m not the first person to notice this oddity, though.  Monica Edinger pointed out to me that over at the fabulous Misrule blog, Judith Ridge wrote the piece Whither the Children’s Books?.  In it she discusses, amongst other things, the fact that she once saw a reviewer refer to a book as “young-young adult”.  It’s enough to make your teeth itch.

• I think it was Travis Jonker who pointed out the strange thing about this article.  Not that thousands of people were able to locate adequate Where’s Waldo outfits.  It’s the fact that there was already a world record for Most Waldos.  Of course, over in Britain he’s known as Wally (if anyone can give me an adequate reason for the American name change I’d love to hear it).  My favorite line from the piece?  “The Street Performance World Championships managed has organised similar events and last year broke the world record for the most people on space hoppers.”  Space hoppers?  Still, it looked mighty impressive:

Thanks to Travis Jonker for the link.

• ALA is over and done with once again.  So what did we learn?  New author Jonathan Auxier has some answers to that question in his Five Things I Learned at ALA.  My favorite without a doubt: 4) Don’t Tell Lauren Myracle Anything.

• All g
  10 Comments on Fusenews: Terms we can live without = Young-young Adult, last added: 7/8/2011
  Display Comments
  Zoe said, on 7/5/2011 11:14:00 PM
  

  Your round ups are always full of juicy loveliness! Had been looking for a pic of all the Wallys/Waldos, so thank you for that in particular

  Jonathan Auxier said, on 7/6/2011 6:01:00 AM
  

  “Mine were, needless to say, more akin to sturdy oaks than the svelte saplings portrayed here.” It’s lines like that that make me excited to read your upcoming books!

  It’s funny that you call out “young adult” as a term; I was just thinking the other day that when I was growing up, “young adult” meant people in their twenties, and the only time it was used on teenagers was when trying to flatter them by saying they seemed older … maybe wonder if sometimes the genre as a whole does the same?

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 7/6/2011 6:18:00 AM
  

  Maybe so. Certainly the term “Teen” (recognizable to patrons of all kinds) is more straightforward. Less ambiguous. Though I couldn’t blame the kid that rejects the term “Tween”. How great a term can it be if it has the word “Twee” right smack dab in the middle there?

  Brenda Ferber said, on 7/6/2011 8:30:00 AM
  

  Wow. The Hunger Games movie seems to be doing everything right so far. Impressive.

  James Kennedy said, on 7/6/2011 10:22:00 AM
  

  Re the term “tweens” — this apparently universally reviled, unattractive term seems to have been invented by none other than the magisterial J.R.R. Tolkien! I am re-reading “The Fellowship of the Ring” and I came upon this, smack on the first page of the first chapter:

  “At that time Frodo was still in his *tweens*, as the hobbits called the irresponsible twenties between childhood and coming of age at thirty-three.”

  No joke. Look it up yourself. Strange!

  And I want to live in the world of that picture of you in Bologna, Betsy!

  Eric Carpenter said, on 7/6/2011 4:13:00 PM
  

  Great news on the music side of hunger games. I was talking with a camera crew member this past weekend and he was kind enough to show me a couple videos of the filming he captured with his phone including a video of the filming of the initial cornucopia scene with all the tributes running to the big pile of supplies. He also told me they blew the cornucopia up last week. Very cool.

  marchek said, on 7/6/2011 6:53:00 PM
  

  Did I ever tell you about the time James and I were walking in fron the the Metropolitan Museum of Art on a Saturday when we saw a young man dressed as Waldo walking through the crowd, complete with red balloon? We joked about how that guy might just like to dress up like that and see how many tourist photos he can manage to slip into.

  rams said, on 7/7/2011 2:28:00 PM
  

  Aha. Asked our English friends, and a space hopper is ” one of those bouncy balls with handles that you bounce on. ”

  Don’t mention it.

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 7/7/2011 7:00:00 PM
  

  Thank you!! And . . . wha??

  Sondy said, on 7/8/2011 1:41:00 PM
  

  When I heard about the Baby Lit books, I started a thread on Twitter #babylit, because surely lines in a board book are less than 140 characters!

  I just HATE it when parents try to “introduce” kids to the classics before they are at an appropriate age to enjoy the classics — as if there’s something magic about the story that knowing it means a person is more educated. Classics for toddlers is taking it to the extreme utter edge of ridiculousness! (I don’t even like abridged classics, but this is crazy!)

  It’s fun to make up lines for it, though:

  Mr. Darcy was mean to Lizzie. But Mr. Darcy has a nice house.

  Tybalt and Mercutio fight on the playground. Romeo tries to stop the fight. Oops! Mercutio is dead. Now Romeo kills Tybalt. Romeo is in trouble.

  Romeo is sad. He thinks Juliet is dead, but she is only pretending. Uh-oh! Romeo, don’t drink that poison! Oops! Too late!

  Can you say “inappropriate,” boys and girls?

  And the WSJ thought YA was getting too dark!

  Add a Comment

From sopping wet New York City here is your philosophical question of the day: If April showers bring May flowers, what the heck do May showers bring?  Ponder that while I hand you a piping hot plate o’ Fusenews.

• My library branch is turning 100 next week (you may have noticed the pretty New Yorker cover that referenced this) but it’s acting pretty spry for a centennial.  For one thing, NYPL is coming out left and right with fancy dancy apps!  Here’s one for the researchers.  Here’s another that’s a game.  Here’s a third that lets you reserve books.  Insanity!

• This week’s Best Post Ever: Travis Jonker is a genius.  A full-blown, certified genius.  He’s come up with a Middle Grade Title Generator that leaps on the current trend of titles that sound like “The (insert word ending in -ion) of (insert slightly off kilter first and last name for girls)”.  He came up with a couple examples like “The Gentrification of Geraldine Frankenbloom” but his commenters really picked up the gist of the idea and ran with it.  Rockinlibrarian’s “The Zombification of Apple McGillicutty” (which I would read in a red hot minute) may be my favorite but a close second was Lisa’s “The Excommunication of Willow Diddledeedee.”  I got nothing so cool.  The best I could come up with was “The Computerization of Sarasota McNerdly.”  I doubt it would sell.

• Adam Rex recently penned a post that works as An Open Letter to Everyone Who Thinks It Must Be Easy, Writing Children’s Books.  It’s in response to Paula Poundstone (whom I also like) and her recent faux pas on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me when she told Brenda Bowen that she thought it would be easy to write a picture book.  Note, if you will, that Poundstone has not actually attempted to do so.  In fact, the only stand-up comedian picture books that immediately come to mind are those by Whoopie Goldberg, Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jeff Foxworthy.  And weren’t those memorable!  Not in a good way, of course.  Particularly the Leno.  *shudder*

• She wrote it back in 2006 but it still applies today (particularly in conjunction with Adam Rex’s post).  Meghan McCarthy asks the age old question What makes us qualified to write for children? I believe Anne Carroll Moore once asked Ursula Nordstrom the same question about editing for children (a cookie for everyone who remembers Nordstrom’s response).  Yet another reason why we need to follow-up on Peter Sieruta’s suggestion to create an Anne Carroll Moore/Ursula Nordstrom crime solver series.  I envision Moore as the Bert to Nordstrom’s Ernie, don’t you?

• Speaking of Peter (my co-writer on a book we’re creating with Jules from Seven Impossible Things), recently Collecting Children’s Books did a great round-up of great authors 9 Comments on Fusenews: Sifting the Nifty, last added: 5/19/2011