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Remember the moment at the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire when he funds Fred and George’s joke shop?  What is it he says to them?  Ah yes. “I could do with a few laughs. We could all do with a few laughs. I’ve got a feeling we’re going to need them more than usual before long.”  I feel like, once again, Rowling put her finger on the pulse of what we need to hear.  Today’s post is in honor of that spirit.

Here’s a little happy news for you to kick it all off.  The World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), coordinator of the World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon) has given first approval to a new Young Adult Science / Fantasy Award.  The problem?  It needs a name!  That’s where you come in.  There’s a name-the-award-survey out there, but the deadline is November 15th.  Now, could we talk about doing something similar for ALA’s YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults?  Perhaps rename it and stat?

In other news, the nominees for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for 2017 were announced.  If you’re unfamiliar with that particular award, it’s the one with the biggest monetary prize attached to it.  The prize can go to any author, illustrator, storyteller or “reading promoter”.  American nominees on this year’s list include:

I’ve very much been enjoying the multiple articles out there about Are You an Echo?, that remarkable picture book biography/poetry collection about Misuzu Kaneko.  First there was this 7-Imp interview with David Jacobson, the writer/translator of the book.  Then there was this great piece over at Playing By the Book that gives additional background information about its illustrator Toshikado Hajiri.  Love it.  Be sure to check out the interior art at 7-Imp here as well.

It occurs to me that I don’t think I’ve ever had a chance to examine Robert McCloskey’s artwork and sketches up close before.  If I were in Boston I could remedy the situation with the upcoming Make Way for Ducklings: The Art of Robert McCloskey, held at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.  Good to know about in any case.

It’s not uncommon for me to be the last to know when a picture book has struck a nerve.  Such was the case with Shmelf the Hanukkah Elf, though if I’d taken even two seconds to think about it I probably could have seen it coming.  Marjorie Ingall slices and dices the book, clarifying precisely why what it does doesn’t work.  There’s also a truly lovely shout out in there for  Dear Santa, Love Rachel Rosenstein which I gave too little attention to when it came out.  Well played, Marjorie.

By the way, I feel I should also mention her stellar post How to Explain the Refugee Crisis to Kids as well.  If you read nothing else today, read this.

Oh.  I won a thing but I don’t think I mentioned it before.  Remember when I said in an earlier post that A Fuse #8 Production was nominated for a 2016 FOLIO: Eddie and Ozzie Award?  Well, it won!  Yep!  Neat!

Conspiracy theories and children’s books: Two great tastes that taste great together.  Nowhere more true than in the recent 100 Scope Notes piece We Found a (Man in the Yellow) Hat? It ties an old picture book to a new one in an original way.  No small task.

Boy, if it weren’t for the Cubs winning the World Series, I’d swear the universe had it out for me.  Now I hear that the Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia lost a significant chunk of its case against the Sendak Estate?  Doggone it.  That’s it.  I’m moving to Australia.

Hey!  Did you know that there’s a Chicago Book Expo?  News to me.  Better still, there’s a neat event going on there called Our Voices Initiative: Encouraging Diversity in Publishing.  Here’s the program description:

The demand for diverse, quality books is great. Independent publishers have responded with an explosion of books by and about diverse people. Join members of the American Library Association Our Voices advisory council, who represent professionals from across the book ecosystem, to discuss the issue of diversity in publishing and the work they are doing to promote and support diverse content. Come and add your voice to the discussion.

Panelists will include Curt Matthews, Founder and Chairman of the Board for the Chicago Review Press and Independent Publisher’s Group; Jeff Deutsch, Director of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores, which includes 57th Street Books; Felicia Shakespeare, best-selling author and library media specialist; and Joy Triche, Founder and Publisher of Tiger Stripe Publishing. Donna Seaman, Editor, Adult Books at Booklist, will moderate the discussion.

You can see more information at this Facebook link too.

The New York Times Best Illustrated list of 2016 children’s books was released earlier this month.  Some good choices.  Some choices that cause me to grind my teeth in a counter-clockwise direction.  In other words, a pretty standard year.

Fun Fact: Were you aware that Lois Lowry’s Anastasia Krupnik books were never meant to be a series?  Do you know what Ms. Lowry thinks about censorship?  Do you know what her next projects are (and that they’re completely out of her genre)?  Good news then.  Over at the Cotsen Children’s Library the podcast The Bibliofiles has an interview with Lowry about all these things.  And more.

Daily Image:

I’m fine.  I’m all fine here now, thank you.  How are you?

Morning, folks.  Let’s see, let’s see.  After yesterday maybe it would be a good idea to do a post on rainbows and unicorns and cute little puppy dogs cavorting in the sun.  I’m a little exhausted after yesterday’s post so let’s just do a quickie Fusenews of wonderfullness instead.

• First up, The Toast knocks it out of the park.  If you read nothing else today (pay no attention that blog post behind the curtain) read A Harry Potter Where Hermione Doesn’t Do Anyone’s Homework for Them.

• Do you read Real Simple?  A familiar name might have snuck her way onto one of the pages.

• Calling Caldecott addresses an issue that has always fascinated me. Why do some illustrators who have amazing illustrating chops never ever get Caldecotts?

• Maybe 100 Scope Notes has the answer. In terms of publication dates, what month births the most Caldecotts? Travis Jonker finds the figures.  Be sure to read the statistics in the comments.  Truly we are living in the Age of Aquarius.

• Maybe it’s just clickbait, but as titles go The Guardian’s article
  Children’s author Cressida Cowell scoops philosophers’ award for fight against stupidity sort of takes the cake in terms of interesting concepts all jumbled together into one place.

In case you missed it, 215 candidates from 59 countries are currently nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2016.  The Yanks are of particular interest.  There are the usual standbys and then there are folks like oral storyteller Anne Pellowski.  Wow!  Well done there.  I’m also going to check out Children’s Literature New England (CLNE) & The Examined Life (EXL), Friends of African Village Libraries (FAVL), and Room to Read. I’m feeling a bit embarrassed that it took this nomination to learn about their work.

• By the way, a show of hands.  How many of you knew about The Arnold Adoff Poetry Awards, which “seek to recognize excellence in multicultural poetry for youth, for readers at the primary level, middle level, and teens”?  Be honest.  It’s new to me too.  But it’s out there and they could do with some proactive publishing houses, large and small, sending in their nominees.  If you fit the bill, tell your publisher today.  You have until December 1st.

• An interesting Pew Survey finding that teens are reading more than adults these days.  They do not ascribe any particular reason for the YA surge.  We know it cannot exist in a void, however, so I’m just going to congratulate the YA librarians out there.  You guys are doing a stellar job.  Keep up the good work.

• “Please Don’t Agree with Me: the Need for Disagreement in Debates About Literature for Young People.”  That talk?  Given by Christopher Myers recently and recapped by Phil Nel.  I’m particularly interested in the part where Chris says that agreement can efface difference, whereas “Disagreement recognizes an actual difference.”  I think we can safely say that no differences were effaced in the last two weeks at this site.

• Daily Image:

And Shannon Hale goes for the fancy fingernail book release win!

Looking for a lovely calendar for 2012? Be sure to check out award winning author/illustrator Grace Lin‘s Red Threads Calendar, the sales of which will go to assist orphans in China.

Grace Lin is the author and illustrator of picture books, early readers and middle grade novels. Her book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon was a huge success and won many awards including the prestigious Newbery Honor.  It was chosen as one of seven books in our Spirit of Paper Tigers Book Set and Grace was one of our nominations for the  2011 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Don’t miss our interview with Grace or her two Gallery features here and here.

By now, I’m sure you already heard that Shaun Tan, amazing creator behind The Arrival, Tales from Outer Suburbia, and so on and such, was this year’s recipient of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.  Why should you care?  Well apart from the fact that it’s always nice to see genius rewarded, there is the small matter surrounding the money that comes with the prize.  Second only to the Nobel in terms of price, I believe, the Lindgren Award is the most money an author or illustrator of children’s books can win.  It amounts to 5 million krona, or $764,600.  Wowzer.

Lest you pooh-pooh the win by saying that Shaun Tan is always a surefire bet, check out this list of the 2011 candidates.  It’s not easy to beat out Quentin Blake, Eric Carle, Neil Gaiman, the International Youth Library, Julius Lester, and many talented others in one fell swoop, but Mr. Tan managed it.

Of course I was present when they announced the win.  See?

Er . . . Okay, admittedly I’m a little obscured here.  Uh, see the balding guy with the glasses and the gray suit, dead center?  I’m right behind him.  Hello!  Of greater note, Kitty Crowther, last year’s winner (Belgium), is front and center.  Thanks to the Astrid Memorial Award for the photo.

You can learn more about the award on its blog, which is fun.  If you’d like to see how the announcement went down, Cristiana from The Tea Box was kind enough to record the moment:

And this would be incomplete without Mr. Tan’s reaction as well:

As far as I’m concerned, every good blog post should begin with fiction starring Gregory Peck.  What we have here is one of the luscious finds boasted by Greg Hatcher over at the site Comic Book Resources.  I’m a big fan of Hatcher because when he does round ups like this one he always takes care to mention a lot of collectible children’s literature.  In this post alone you’ll see what the going price is for a good old hardcover Oz or Narnia title, as well as his discovery of Millions of Cats.  I remember that when I conducted by Top 100 Picture Books Poll that Millions of Cats was the surprise Top Ten winner.  Folks continually forget to give it its due.

• Collecting Children’s Books has the usual plethora of wonderfulness up and running for your consideration.  First Peter discovers and prints out the complete shortlists of Newbery contenders between the years of 1973-75 (something I wish they still did) and then in a different post considers the state of recent children’s books and whether any of them have been made into Broadway musicals.  None that I can think of, since A Year With Frog and Toad isn’t exactly contemporary.  Coraline did sort of make it to Broadway a year or so ago (or was that considered off-Broadway?), but that’s the only one I can think of.

• Hey hey!  While we were all sleeping the candidates nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award were announced.  You can see the full list of candidates from countries all over the country here.  If I had the time and ability I would familiarize myself with all those names that are unknown to me.  On the American side of things, however, here are the USA representatives: Ashley Bryan, Eric Carle, Julius Lester, Grace Lin, Walter Dean Myers, Anne Pellowski, Jerry Pinkney, Reading is Fundamental, and Allen Say.  Good luck, guys (and well played Grace for being the youngest).  Here’s hoping some of you make it to the final consideration.  After all, the Lindgren is the largest monetary award a children’s writer or illustrator can win.

• It was a good week for finalists of all sorts, actually.  The National Book Award finalists were released last week and included Paolo Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker, Kathryn Erskine’s Mockingbird, Laura McNeal’s Dark Water, Walter Dean Myers’ Lockdown, and Rita Williams-Garcia’s One Crazy Summer.  How interesting it is to me that non-fiction didn’t make even a sin
  7 Comments on Fusenews: Encyclopedia Peck, last added: 10/19/2010
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  Zoe @ Playing by the book said, on 10/17/2010 11:15:00 PM
  

  Thanks so much for linking to my UK kidlit tour! Yes, the musical Matilda looks wonderful. The songs have been written by Tim Minchin, a very funny and usually quite acerbic comic so I can’t wait to hear how they’ve turned out.

  Brooke Shirts said, on 10/18/2010 9:20:00 AM
  

  Ah, but there IS a rather comprehensive list of children’s book awards — the Database of Award Winning Children’s Literature (www.dawcl.com) which is kept stunningly up to date by librarian Lisa Bartle. According to the site, “DAWCL has over 8,300 records from 91 awards across six English-speaking countries (United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, and Ireland). ” Although I will admit that neither the Jo Osborne Award or the Zena Sutherland Award appears in the database, this is still one ding-dang useful resource. (Who knew that the Society of School Librarians International gave out an award?)

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 10/18/2010 4:53:00 PM
  

  Brooke, this link may have seriously improved my quality of life. Thank you! I had absolutely no idea. To the internets!

  Sergio Ruzzier said, on 10/18/2010 6:40:00 PM
  

  Here is another taxidermy-related image for your blog! Sophie Blackall’s window case, part of the Drawn in Brooklyn show: http://sophieblackall.blogspot.com/2010/09/drawn-in-brooklyn.html

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 10/18/2010 7:11:00 PM
  

  Brilliant! The mark of the first stuffed penguin. Love the hat. Thanks, Sergio!

  Amy Sears said, on 10/19/2010 3:37:00 PM
  

  Off Broadway seems to be the home of Children’s Books into musicals today “Freckleface Strawberry-The Musical” is playing at the New World Stages of course my favorite musical based on a children’s book has got to be The Secret Garden which actually was on Broadway back in the early 90’s.

  rams said, on 10/19/2010 6:50:00 PM
  

  I’ll grant the requirement was “recent,” but if someone else brings up “The Secret Garden,” how can I resist? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7_a5nqWC_c

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Okay dokey!  So!  First off, for half a second there I thought I couldn’t embed videos.  Fortunately this morning I found myself a little workaround.  I can now embed almost every video, with some exceptions. Huzzah!  Now.  Librarians doing Lady Gaga.  My first thought off the top of my head is that they’re doing a play on Poker Face and not Telephone?  I’d think that with NPR doing it one place and the army doing it another, Telephone would have been the number one choice.  Or, at the very least, Bad Romance.  And why is it that when librarians hold drinks on the cover of SLJ it’s a problem but when this darling woman holds the world’s greatest martini glass she is a-okay?  That is a mystery for the universe.  Many thanks to the multiple people who sent me this link!

Changing gears entirely (and on purpose) is this wonderful video covering the most recent Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.  Now the article about this award describes it as Presentation of World’s Largest Children’s Literature Award.  I read something like that and I imagine a physically large award.  Maybe a bronze tree or something along those lines.  In fact, by “large” they mean “most expensive” because the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award is a monetary award, largest in the world.  It’s 5 million SEK (or 490, 000 EURO).  Howsoever you slice it, it’s big.  David Almond was up this year, but the ultimate winner was Belgian Kitty Crowther.  This lovely little video says more:

Would you like to see her work for yourself?  That could prove difficult.  As far as I can tell, the only time Ms. Crowther has been translated in America was back in 2000 when Hyperion brought over her Jack and Jim.  It is currently out-of-print, alas.

My August Children’s Literary Cafe will be all about ebooks and their creators.  With that in mind, my buddy Don Citarella sent me this crazy international ad of sorts for a “phone book”.  More like a phone book video game than a book book, but there might be a lot of potential applications for other uses.

Two people have mentioned the It’s a Book trailer to me recently, and both have their problems with it.  You are familiar with this title, yes?  It’s the new Lane Smith.  The trailer, like the book itself, is a mite bit problematic, though.  The whole premise of the story is the awesomeness of books and how one distinguishes them from computery stuff.  So, as Person #1 pointed out, can we mention the irony of giving this book not only a book trailer but a Facebook page as well?  Where precisely ar

Saturday was the deadline for nominations for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) 2011. Having barely caught our breath from this year’s announcement of Kitty Crowther as the ALMA winner for 2010, we found ourselves working right up to the mark to get our nominations submitted in time, but in they are and it’s very exciting to be able to share them with you all now, along with our 500-character nomination statements:

Author and illustrator, Allen Say, whom we also nominated last year (and if you haven’t already, do read our interview with Allen and enjoy our Gallery of his work):

Often drawing on his own background, Allen Say captivates his readers through beautifully honed prose and luminous watercolors. He embraces a striving for happiness with a blend of gentle humor and realism, and touches on many aspects of being human, such as race, migration, disability and age. Even young children can empathize with and find echoes in many of his stories. Say opens young hearts and minds both to new cultures and to their own potential; and his portrayal of the human condition provides a forum for children to recognize their own value and to dream.

Author and illustrator, Grace Lin (and don’t miss our interview with Grace, either, or her two Gallery features here and here; and do visit her blog):

Grace Lin is passionate about writing for children. Her child-centred creativity is filled with energy and imbued with core values such as family, friendship, loyalty and love. Her readers respond to the warmth of her stories, whether founded on reality or imagination, and to the charm of her illustrations, which demonstrate a commitment to unobtrusive detail. Often drawing on her Asian American heritage, and with a gift for interweaving old and contemporary elements in her work, Grace is not afraid to step away from tradition to create new, meaningful narrative for today’s children.

And Katha, a “profit-for-all”organisation based in India:

Katha is an Indian non-profit organization working in the areas of literacy and education. Since 1988, it has been successfully promoting the literacy to literature continuum in urban disadvantaged communities across India. Its multi-faceted school and community-based outreach approach, including reading campaigns, the supporting of pavement schools in slum clusters and the translation and publishing of Indian literature, among other initiatives, are playing an essential role in helping create a more literate, less divisive

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(Click on event name for more information)

Get Caught Reading Month~ USA

National Share-a-Story Month~ United Kingdom

Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month~ USA

Asian Heritage Month~ Canada

BOOKtopia Children’s Literature Festival~ ongoing until May 7, West Vancouver, BC, Canada

Buenos Aires Book Fair~ ongoing until May 10, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Once Upon a Time . . . Children’s Book Illustrators, Then and Now~ ongoing until May 27, Oakland, CA, USA

Mitali Perkins’ 2010 Fire Escape Short Fiction and Poetry Contest~ entries accepted until Jun 1, USA and Canada

Into the Wood: Antonio Frasconi’s Art for Children~ ongoing until Jun 13, Ameherst, MA, USA

Skipping Stones Magazine’s Youth Honor Award Program – Multicultural Awareness and Nature Appreciation~ entries accepted until Jun 25

The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature Exhibit: Why Grow Up? Etienne Delessert~ ongoing until Jun 26, Abilene, TX, USA

Monsters and Miracles: A Journey through Jewish Picture Books~ ongoing until  Aug 1, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Everyday Adventures Growing Up: Art from Picture Books~ ongoing until Nov 28, Chicago, IL, USA

BOOKFEST – The Vancouver Island Children’s Book Festival~ May 1, Nanaimo, BC, Canada

“Second to the Right, and Straight on Till Morning:” Navigating the Narrative Realm(s) of Children’s Texts~ May 1, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Old Passions – New Technologies: Children’s and Young Adult Literature
in a Web 2.0 World~ May 1, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Expo 2010~ May 1 – Oct 31, Shanghai, China

SCBWI Presents: Shaping a Picture Book/Shaping Character~ May 6, Paris, France

Asian Festival of Children’s Content~ May 6 – 9, Singapore

Bermuda International Literary Festival~ May 6 – 9, Hamilton
Bermuda

SCBWI Hawaii Illustrators’ Exhibit: The Art of Picture Books~ May 6 – Jun 16, Honolulu, HI, USA

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