I usually begin with a video of myself whenever I’ve a chance, but this week I’m preempting my own face because this video is the coolest thing ever.  By the time I left New York Public Library its Rose Reading Room had already been closed for half a year.  Now you get to see the room in a time lapse video looking cooler than ever.  52,000 books are shelved here in two minutes.  Trust me – you won’t be bored.

This month I hosted one of those fun little interviews I do from time to time on my show Ladybird and Friends. This month the interviewee was Mike Grosso of the new feminist middle grade novel I Am Drums.  He’s great.  The book’s great.  We have fun.  But if you really want to skip to the weird part, be sure to also go to about 28:34.

And just to keep it all in the family, my husband’s book The Secrets of Story is out and available for purchase.  To prep you a bit, Matt’s been creating short interesting videos to highlight some of the ideas in the book.  This one’s about objects.  I’m a fan.  Check it:

You’ve heard of book trailers, surely, but audiobook trailers? This one for Adam Gidwitz’s magnificent The Inquisitor’s Tale will make you a believer. Let’s see more of these in the future!

Meanwhile, over at 100 Scope Notes, Travis Jonker swore that if he ever heard of a children’s book creator on television, he’d watch. Then he heard that Oliver Jeffers was on an Irish talk show called The Late Late Show. So what does he do? He tracks down the Irish video link. That’s dedication, people. That’s chutzpah. And we are the beneficiaries:

N.D. Wilson.  He writes middle grade children’s books.  Good ones too.  Books that get a lot of critical attention.  But apparently that’s not enough for Mr. Wilson. Oh no.  He has to go out and actually write and direct a real as real movie.  It’s called The River Thief and it has a limited national release and is on VOD.  Check out the trailer here if you’re curious:

Fun Fact: The creation of this movie, from concept to end of production, was three weeks. That includes the three days it took to write the script. Here’s a behind the scenes on that, if you’re curious.

Next UP: Not safe for work.  Not really.  But anything that takes the “sexy librarian” stereotype and turns it on its head/tongue is fine by me.

And for the off-topic video, I warn you.  This bad lip-reading will get caught in your head.  This is the earworm to rule all earworms.

I do not know where Monica Edinger found our first video today.  All I know is that she discovered a video that is absolutely the most interesting thing you’ll see all week.  It’s a young Maurice Sendak.  He’d recently won the Caldecott for Where the Wild Things Are.  I’ve never seen anything like this before.  And who knew you could kinda sorta flip Pierre?

Thanks to educating alice for the link.  If you have a Margaret Wise Brown  interview hidden away somewhere I’d be happy to take it off your hands.  Ditto a copy of Pinocchio illustrated by Mussino.  He makes a strong case.

Not long ago I mentioned that Dan Gutman’s book The Kid Who Ran for President was notably talked up on Last Week Tonight (John Oliver’s show).  Now I’ve heard that the book was reportedly the most read review on pw.com last week.  It would be a shame not to show the video in question.  Here it is then, in all its Gutmanesque glory:

This just in! “Carla D. Hayden will be sworn in as the 14^th Librarian of Congress in a historic ceremony in the Thomas Jefferson Building Wednesday, Sept. 14 at noon. The ceremony will be broadcast live on the Library of Congress YouTube channel. The YouTube broadcast will be captioned.”  So it’s not up yet, but if you’ve time this Wednesday you might want to tune in and see it for yourself.  She is, after all, the first Librarian of Congress to have an actual library degree in over 50 years.

Here’s a fun one for the Dahl fans. In this hour-long video, David Walliams presents a celebration of Roald Dahl’s children’s books, from The BFG to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  It also happens to include contributions from Steven Spielberg and Julie Walters.

Thanks to Zoe Toft for the link.

Why did the PBS News Hour feature Christian Robinson recently?  I care not.  All that matters is that he’s great to listen to.

Thanks to Elisa Gall and Aunt Judy for the link.

And for the off-topic video of the day, I’m hat tipping Brian Biggs for passing this along.  I like a video that doesn’t pound you over the head with its message.  This sort of connects well to my recent interview with Mr. Biggs where we discussed gender roles in children’s books.  As they say in this video, have a think in your head.

Thanks to Brian for the video.

Aww. Didja miss these? It’s not like I see as many videos these days, y’know. Not for lack of interest. They just don’t float in front my nose the way they used to. Fortunately there are a couple that I’ve collected in my travels and I’m featuring them here today. They may be a bit old. You may have seen them 100 times before. But what the hey, right? Life is short.

First up, ALSC released the Newbery/Caldecott/Wilder reaction videos.  Grab your popcorn and enjoy:

I just saw this next trailer online (thank you, Monica!) and I cannot convey to you the avarice I hold for anyone who has already seen this.  It’s Matt Phelan’s latest.  And it’s gorgeous:

Another trailer to follow.  True, the violin brings to mind a kind of Ken Burns-y feel. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

A couple months ago young Marley Dias put out the call for middle grade black girl books. I missed the fact that she appeared on Ellen. Problem alleviated!

Thanks to Rita Williams-Garcia for the link.

I do not wish to take away from Travis Jonker his drop dead amazing compilation of peculiar I WANT MY HAT BACK videos he compiled.  So I will just put one here and tell you to go to his site to see the rest.

This does my little 1984 heart good.

It’s summer.  Everyone’s making summer reading videos.  This is my library’s.  My superintendent is sitting on a slide (at Penny Park, clearly).  It gives me great respect for the man.  Plus, check out that logo at the end.  I hate to say it, guys, but I think my library hosts the most attractive summer reading t-shirt this year.

Hm.  That would make a good blog post. . . .

And just to round this all out in a nice way, here’s the book trailer for Evan Turk’s The Storyteller (one of the most beautiful picture books of the year):

Happy 4th of July!

Greg Neri.  Now there’s a guy with range.  If he isn’t writing a picture book bio of Johnny Cash he’s doing a middle grade novel on inner city cowboys or a graphic novel on Chicago’s South Side.  Some authors fall into predictable patterns.  Not Greg.  I honestly never know what the man’s going to come up with next.  So when I heard that his next novel was a middle grade about the real-life friendship between Truman Capote and Harper Lee, it just kinda made crazy sense.

Greg actually visited me here in Evanston a couple months ago with a small group of fellow authors.  Not long after, he touched base and told me that he’d gotten an invitation to speak at the Monroeville courthouse from To Kill a Mockingbird.  When that happened, his friend and filmmaker e.E Charlton-Trujillo (who wrote the amazing Prizefighter En Mi Casa) said the two of them should make a little documentary about his journey there in search of the real places and people behind the book.

Now the video is done and it’s a lot of fun to watch.  And just because you guys are so handsome and clever, I’ll let you have TWO mini-docs for the price of one.  Video #1 is the long version (9.5 minutes).  Video #2 is shorter (5 minutes).

Enjoy!

Interested in chatting with Greg about his books?  Well, if you’re headed to Orlando this week for the Annual Library Conference, he’ll be signing at the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt booth this Saturday at 10am.

Here’s a link where anyone can read more about the book: http://www.gregneri.com/home/#/tru-and-nelle/

Thanks to Greg for the scoop!

Ack!  Too many good videos, too little time!  We’ve an embarrassment of riches today.  The only question really is where to start.  And the only natural answer is with Obama’s nominee for the Librarian of Congress.  Not much of a question there, really.

Next up, there is beginning to be a bit of a tradition of authors and illustrators recording videos of how they got “the call” when they won the Caldecott or Newbery (I almost wrote and/or Newbery, which is an interesting near flub).  Last year we had Dan Santat’s video.  This year, Sophie Blackall’s:

At this rate it may behoove us to just give the medals to people who are good at making videos.  And the Newbery Medal goes to . . . Tyler Oakley!

Now let’s get down to brass tacks.  People, there are awards out there that go beyond the mere borders of this great nation of ours.  And the Hans Christian Andersen Award is the greatest of these (though the Astrid Lindgren Award gives it a run for its money).  Now they’ve made a video for us that goes through the 2016 nominees.  I adore this.   I just want to meet all these people.  Suzy Lee!!!  Now, weirdly, I want her to adopt me.  And Iran! How cool is that?

This next book trailer seemingly has an international flavor to it, but is homegrown Americana through and through.  It may also be the most beautiful trailer of 2016 thus far.

Thanks to educating alice for the link.

Earlier this week, Phil Nel posted a killer post called Seuss on Film.  The piece is “a brief (but far from complete) collection of Seuss on film!”  Turns out, it was somewhat tricky getting Mr. Geisel on the old camera.  Phil’s a trooper, though.  He found newsreel after newsreel and has posted them on YouTube for our collective enjoyment.  You should really read his posting yourself.  In fact, I insist upon it.  And just to whet your whistle, here’s a jaw-dropping 1964 discussion with Seuss in New Zealand where he improvises answers to kids’ questions.

As for our Off-Topic Video of the week, I give this to you because I love you.  Really, truly, deeply love you.

So. Book trailers. I’ve seen my share. They are good. They are bad. Do they sell books? Probably some of them do, and considering how relatively cheap they are to produce it’s no wonder folks are encouraged to make them. But when you face facts, not all of them are winners. Very few, in fact, are worth watching.

Ladies and gentlemen . . . today’s video is worth watching.

Now I could just be saying that because I’m offering the premiere. But consider the evidence. The trailer is for a book by Kristen Kittscher, author of the critically-acclaimed middle grade mystery The Wig in the Window.  Did you read The Wig in the Window, by any chance?  If not, you’re in for a treat.  Good mysteries for kids are enormously tricky to write, but that book was not only smartly conceived, but a hoot to boot.  Now the sequel is on the horizon and things are looking good.  Unless you’re this group of executives, that is.  Then things are looking a bit more complicated:

My favorite line?  “Guys! Cake!”

Further info:

About Kristen: It’s no mystery why her middle grade debut, The Wig in the Window, was an Indie Bestseller, celebrated by School Library Journal (starred review), Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly, and was named to ten Best of Year lists, including “Best Books of the Year” by A Mighty Girl. Kristen is a graduate of Brown University, self-proclaimed “childhood spy,” and former 7th grade English teacher who wrote the book with her former students in mind. Kristen lives in Pasadena.

The Tiara on the Terrace: Inspired by the Tournament of Roses, get ready for parades, pageantry, suspense, and a hefty dose of hilarity as 7th grade spies Sophie Young and Grace Yang trade their high tops for high heels to investigate a deadly crime in this clever Miss Congeniality set in middle school! When the director of the Winter Sun Festival meets an untimely end, it’s up to our favorite savvy, wise-cracking sleuths to solve the case–before they become its next victims. Back by popular demand, this funny, fast-paced follow up to Kittscher’s acclaimed debut will thrill fans of the funny, clever humor and suspense in Pseudonymous Bosch and Gordon Korman’s books.

On shelves, January 5th.

I’m a sucker for a good time travel story.  By my count only a few have ever won the Newbery (is it two or three? You decide).  Fewer still have won the National Book Award in the youth category.  Even so, they live in a special place in my heart.  So to hear that a book has the title The Book That Proves Time Travel Happens . . . well that’s a near impossible title to resist, is it not?  This week on Fuse #8 TV I interview Henry Clark, but only after I tell you the terrible secret lurking in your copy of Go, Dog, Go.

By the way, this episode was very fun to record.  Too fun, in fact.  Under normal circumstances I can remember to thank my sponsor and to place their title card at the end of each episode.  This time I was so wowed by the prospect of coffee cups and what have you that it completely skipped my mind.  So a big hearty THANK YOU to Little, Brown for Mr. Clark’s presence.  Here is the slide I forgot to project:

And here is SLJ’s info:

As you can see, all the Fuse #8 TV episodes are archived here.

A tip of the hat to all parties involved!

What you learn in this life of children’s librarianship is that there is an exception to every rule. For example, normally I do not indulge in video interviews outside of my Fuse #8 TV ones. And normally I do not care diddly over squat for anything directed towards a young adult audience. But Mr. M.T. Anderson has a way of making a girl forget past restrictions. So when I was asked whether or not I would be interested in interviewing the man about his upcoming nonfiction title Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad I said, “Um . . . yes.  Yes indeed.”

Thus, what follows, is a slightly herky jerky (thanks to Google Hangout) but ENTIRELY worth it interview between myself and Tobin.  This is a story I’ve never heard.  I am ashamed to admit that prior to this talk I had only the slightest understanding of what the Siege of Leningrad constituted.  This clears much of the confusion up. And check out this cover!

As for the interview itself, here it is:

Thanks to the good folks at Candlewick Press for setting this up!

Morning, folks.  We’ve a good store of goodies this morning, and I’m pleased as punch to give them to you.  First up, a short film.  A very short film, actually.  I’ve spoken in the past on how Hollywood views children’s writers and the creation of children’s books.  This film seems to believe that children’s books in general are being urged to be “darker”.  Even picture books.  An odd sentiment, but there you go.

Thanks to Stephanie Whelan for the link!

So, First Book is doing something called the Speed Read Challenge.  It’s being done to draw attention to First Book’s Be Inspired campaign, which is attempting to get 1 million books into the hands of kids.  You can see a whole slew of celebrities told to speed read book in ten seconds.  First, recent Newbery winner Kwame Alexander:

Next, Mo Willems:

I wanna do it.

As you may have heard from folks like Travis Jonker, Jimmy Kimmel started a regular feature where he has a bookclub with kids.  So far they’ve covered Goodnight Moon and There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.  Naturally when it came time to embed one, I went with The Giving Tree. To know me is to know why.

Barb Langridge has made it her goal to get the ALA Youth Media Award titles back in the public eye and conversation.  Here she talks with the people of Baltimore about the recent winners.  Good stuff.

And for our off-topic video,  I had two really good choices.  Still, in light of last Sunday’s Oscars, this seemed like the link that made a bit more sense:

Hi all!

Okay. For this month’s Fuse #8 TV I decided to premiere a new series.

*ahem*

Introducing:

Reading (Too Much Into) Picture Books

Ladies and gentlemen, I like a good conspiracy theory.  Nothing makes my heart go pitter pat faster than an opinion about a picture book that takes a right hand turn into Crazyville.  Trouble is, there just aren’t enough out there.  Sure, you can tell me that Horton Hears a Who is anti-abortion and Rainbow Fish is pro-Communist but sometimes it feels like I’ve heard them all.  Time to shake things up a little!

Announcing a series where I make up crazed interpretations of classic picture books.  This month: Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley.  We all know it.  We love it.  Now what’s the kookiest theory you can come up with for it?  I say my own and it’s a doozy.  I’m weirdly proud about it.

After that I interview the very fun, funny, and infinitely patient Chris Grabenstein. Chris has a new middle grade novel out this year called The Island of Dr. Libris.  He entertains my questions and then pulls out this Jim Henson story that will seriously make your eyes water.  I’m not even kidding about that.

Enjoy!

2014 marked a distinct increase in attention spent on children’s books with diverse characters. However, this is not to say that all books with diverse characters got the same amount of attention.  Take, for example, Saving Baby Doe by Danette Vigilante.  It was one of the only middle grade books in 2014 to sport a Latino boy protagonist (go on . . . name me two others in 2014).  It had great writing as well, so why has almost no one talked about it?  NYPL put it on their 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing list and recently our local station NY1 interviewed Staten Island resident Ms. Vigilante about the book in our Stapleton branch.  Watch carefully and you may see me in my cameo role as “New York Public Library” itself.

You better watch out, you better not cry. You better not pout, I’m telling you why. 90-SECOND NEWBERY FILM FESTIVAL IS COMING TO TOWN!!!  You can see the full listing of where the festival is headed here.  In the meantime, here’s one of the new videos.  Is it bad that it actually scared me?  It’s a bunch of kids doing The Graveyard Book (The Dance Macabray as kickline = inspired) but I had the same reaction to it that I had to Shaun of the Dead.  I honestly found parts of it (the sleer) scary.  I is wimp!!

Maybe I’ve been reading The Lorax to my kiddo too much but you know what this is, don’t you?

It’s a Thneed! Thanks to Aunt Judy for the video.

Have you seen the latest trailer for a new version of The Little Prince?  For the first 30 seconds or so of this you’re going to be confused, possibly angry.  Stick with it.  Please.

Beats Bob Fosse as The Snake, anyway.  Then again, points docked for not having any Gene Wilder. (Fun Fact: Most movies are docked points for this very reason)

No no no no no. Not allowed.  I call foul.  Illustrators have enough talent as it is.  They are NOT allowed to also be excellent authors and even if they happen to be precisely that they are NOT allowed to have pitch perfect voices that can read selections from their books with all the vocal skills of the highest paid celebrity.  Back you go, Chris Riddell.  Ply your magic dulcet tones elsewhere.

A Reading with Chris Riddell: The Wyrmeweald Trilogy – Returner’s Wealth from Beth Sabey on Vimeo.

At this point there are too many fantastic 2015 picture books out there to tell you about.  Thank goodness some of them make book trailers, then.  For example, have you heard about Kathi Appelt’s fabulous When Otis Courted Mama, illustrated by Jill McElmurry?  If not then remedy is at hand:

Now another trailer.  As blurbs go, “This book smells great” may be my pick of the week.

And for the off-topic video of the day, it’s a Swing vs. Hip Hop dance off from Montreal.  As my friend Marci put it, “the first swing round is sort of meh but it gets better.”

Thanks to Marci for the link.

Currently I am maxing and relaxing in Stratford, Ontario enjoying a play or two.  Just kidding.  By my calculations what I’m actually doing as you read this is driving hell-for-leather out of Canada back to New York City while seated in a rental car’s back seat next to a 3-year-old and a 13-week-old.  For hours.  And hours.  And hours.

As you digest that pleasant little mental image (fun fact: someone in this car gets carsick regularly and it’s not me) I’m going to do you a solid.  In case you missed it, we’ve been soliciting authors for special behind-the-scenes tidbits and facts about their 2014 books.  These appear one a day on our Wild Things blog (the blog that celebrates Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children’s Literature).  So enjoy what we’ve posted so far and stay tuned because there’s a LOT more where these came from!

First up, a video so good you’d swear we paid to have it made.  It’s N.D. Wilson talking gators, football, burning sugarcane fields, and there’s a live recitation of Beowulf in here to make the ladies swoon (the Beowulf lovin’ ladies . . . which is to say my friend Lori Ess):

Christian Robinson was up next and he brought some thoughtful consideration to the depiction of nontraditional families:

Bethany Hegedus followed and her talk touched on spelling errors and matchmaking:

When authors and illustrators asked what kind of video to do I always pointed them to this video of Steve Light.  His talk involves runaway primates, which is as awesome as it sounds:

And speaking of primates, Katherine Applegate was a true class act, appearing alongside primate keeper Jody Carrigan to discuss Ivan the gorilla’s more mischievous streak:

How great is Jack Gantos?  We asked the man to plug his book and he plugged ours instead!  Class act, that one:

Greg Neri came by to talk about the five things you might not know about Johnny Cash, Letterman style:

Jon Scieszka put on a fez.  Would that everyone did.  A fez just makes everything good:

Lisa Brown’s art may contain the only time in history this particular piece of furniture has appeared in a picture book:

Aaron Starmer told a magnificent story from his own youth that will honestly make your heart bleed a little:

And today we have Lauren Castillo, featuring an editor beloved to many:

Like I say, there are many more to come.  Perhaps your favorite will be up soon!

• As per usual there are some Wild Things links I’d love to share today.  Lemme see here . . . Well we got a real stunner of a review over at Chapter 16.  That’s some good and gorgeous stuff going down there. Phil Nel called us “Punchy, lively, and carefully researched.”   The blog The Boy Reader gave us some serious love.  And today on our blog tour we’re at There’s a Book.  And then there’s the video at the Wild Things blog.  N.D. Wilson sent us a vid of the true behind-the-scenes story of Boys of Blur.  It’s kicking off our video series “Wild Things: Sneaky Peeks” where authors reveal the stories behind their books.

Aw heck.  I’ll save you some time.  Here’s the video.  This guy is amazing:

Don’t forget to keep checking back on the site for a new author a day!

• It’s one thing to notice a trend.  It’s another entirely to pick up on it, catalog the books that represent it, and post accordingly.  I’d noticed in a vague disjointed way that there was a definite uptick in the number of picture books illustrated with photographs this year.  Trust Travis Jonker to systematically go through and find every last livin’ lovin’ one in his The State of Photography Illustration in 2014 post.  In his comment section I’ve added a couple others I’ve seen.  Be sure to do the same!

• Since I don’t have school age kids yet I’m not in the school loop at the moment.  So it was a BIG shock to me to see the child of a friend of mine having her First Day of Kindergarten picture taken this week.  Really?  In early August?  With that in mind, this may seem a bit late but I care not.  The melodic cadences of Jonathan Auxier can be heard here recommending truly fantastic summer children’s book fare.  The man has fine fabulous taste.

• In other summer news I was pleased as punch to read about the Y’s Summer Learning Loss Prevention Program.  You know summer slide?  Well it’s good to see someone doing something about it.  Check out the info.  Check out the stats.  Check out the folks trying to combat it.

• It’s interesting to read the recent PW article Middle Grade and YA: Where to Draw the Line? which takes the issue from a bookseller P.O.V.  Naturally librarians have been struggling with this issue for years.  I even conducted a panel at NYPL a couple years ago called Middle Grade Fiction: Surviving the YA Onslaught in which MG authors Rebecca Stead, N.D. Wilson (he’s everywhere!), Jeanne Birdsall, and Adam Gidwitz discussed the industry’s attempts to brand them as YA (you can hear the full incredibly painful and scratchy audio of the talk here).  It’s a hot topic.

• This.  This this this this this.  By the way, and completely off-topic, how long until someone writes a YA novel called “This”?  The sequel could be named “That”.  You’re welcome, publishing industry.

• Harry Potter fan art is near and dear to my heart but in a pinch I’m happy to consider Harry Potter official cover art as well.  They just released the new British covers (and high bloody time, sayeth the masses).  They’re rather fabulous, with the sole flaw of never aging Harry.  What poor kid wants to look the same age at 10 as he does at 17?  Maybe it’s a wizard thing.  Here’s one of the new jackets to chew on:

That might be my favorite Dumbledore to date.

• There are whole generations of children’s librarians that went through graduate school reading and learning about educator Kay E. Vandergrift.  I was one of them, so I was quite sad to read of her recent passing.  The PW obit for her is excellent, particularly the part that reads, “Vandergrift was one of the first professors to establish a significant Web presence, spearheading the use of the Internet as a teaching tool. Her website, a self-declared ‘means of sharing ideas and information with all those interested in literature for children and young adults,’ was considered an important resource for those working with children and linked to more than 500 other sites.”  If you need to know your online children’s literary history, the story isn’t complete without Kay.  I always hoped she’d get around to including a blog section, but what she had was impressive in its own right.  Go take a gander.

• I don’t consider myself a chump but there are times when even I get so blinded by a seemingly odd fact on the internet that I eschew common sense and believe it to be correct.  Case in point: The Detroit Tigers Dugout Librarian. Oh, how I wanted this to be true.  Born in Kalamazoo, a town equidistant between Detroit and Chicago, my baseball loyalties have always been torn between the Tigers and the Cubs (clearly I love lost causes).  So the idea of the Tigers having their own librarian . . . well, can you blame me for wanting to believe?  I WANNA BEE-LIEVE!

• Amazon came up with a list of 100 children’s books to read.  Amazon, I’ma gonna let you finish but the NYPL had the best 100 children’s book list of all time!  Which . . . I wrote. . . . so . . . . yeah.  No bias here or anything. *whistles to self*

• I’ve a new pet peeve.  Wanna hear it?  Of course you do!  I just get a bit peeved when popular sites create these lists of children’s books and do absolutely no research whatsoever so that every book mentioned is something they themselves read as children.  That’s why it’s notable when you see something like the remarkable Buzzfeed list 25 Contemporary Picture Books to Help Parents, Teachers, and Kids Talk About Diversity.  They don’t lie!  There are September 2014 releases here as well as a couple things that are at least 10 years old.  It’s a nice mix, really, and a great selection of books.  Thanks to Alexandria LaFaye for the link.

• So they’re called iPhone wallpapers?  I never knew that.  Neil Gaiman’s made a score of them based on his children’s books.

• Daily Image:

Maybe it’s just me but after seeing the literary benches cropping up in England I can’t help but think they make a LOT of sense.  More so than painting a statue of a cow or a Peanuts character (can you tell I lived in Minneapolis once?).  Here are two beautiful examples:

Wind the in the Willows

Alice Through the Looking Glass

Thanks to Stephanie Whelan for the link!

Okay . . . soooooooo this.  Look at this, oh ye children’s librarians.  Breathe this.  LIVE this!  Become this.

So naturally I had to find out who she is.  Go to YouTube and she has numerous videos under the moniker OoeyGooeyLady.  Almost all her videos date back two years.  Real name?  Lisa Murphy.  And as you might expect, she has a whole web presence as well.  Certainly those videos, the hand rhymes ones, are invaluable for children’s librarians.  There are other good ones there too.  Here’s a different one of her videos on respecting kids.

Kinda sorta could watch her all day.  Thanks to Alison Morris for the link.

From this blog I complain about so many things you’d think I was some kind of permanent grumpus. For example, you know what really bugs me?  When a TV show or movie can’t be bothered to show a kid reading a real children’s book and instead gets their prop team to make some fake one.  Recently I watched an episode of Louie that did just that (though props to the show for making it clear that a woman who knows her children’s literature is desirable, particularly if she’s played by Parker Posey).  So though I’m loathe to credit commercials, Intel got it right when they decided to hire Bob Staake for a bit rather than just make someone up.  Credit too to Travis Jonker for spotting the Staake.

Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the link.

At first I thought this animated book trailer for Lizi Boyd’s Flashlight was burying the lead.  Yes the book looks good, but listen to that music.  Then look at the credit at the end.  “Original Music by Eric Wright”.

Turns out I was confusing the fellow’s name with Eric Wight.  An easy mistake to make.

A nice video from Louisville on the importance of reading early:

It’s a good piece but I was a little perturbed by the accompanying How Many Children’s Books Have You Read? piece.  Apparently this list was created by a National Education Association survey of teachers.  So  . . . Dom DeLuise?  Really?  And Love You Forever?  *sigh*

Two of my favorite guys.  Just talking.  Dishing the dirt.  Signing the books.  You know how it is.  It’s Tom Angleberger and Jonathan Auxier.

Oh.  And this may be useful in the future.  Just in case we ever want to set up an official yo-yo author tour (hey, you never know).

And for our off-topic video, for no particular reason, here is author Steve Almond tearing to teeny tiny shreds the song “Africa” by Toto.

Thanks to Mom for the link!

No time to dilly-dally, people! We’ve most of our peers and betters living it up in Las Vegas. Let’s soothe our sorrows of not attending ourselves in some lovely videos then, eh whot?

First off, you may have known that there was a recent Boston Children’s Book Trivia Night. But did you know there was video from the event as well? Indeedy.  Just LOOK at that turnout!  That’s Jack Gantos moderating.  The only trouble with this vid is that it doesn’t contain the answer to his trivia question.  Um . . . anyone want to tell it to me?

In other news, Eoin Colfer.  Not that his existence is news exactly.  It’s just worth making your day brighter to watch him talk a little about . . . well, pretty much anything.  In this case, on getting a literary agent.  Granted, he looks a bit like a great big blue floating head, but I care not.

In movie news, The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex is finally finding itself in film form.  Retitled Home, it has made some interesting changes. The title, for one.   J-Lo is now just O. And  Tip is a teenager (one suspects the film executives thought kids would start picking up their own parents’ car keys if they saw a kid in a movie driving).  We shall see.

Awwww.  A Harry Potter rap!  It’s never too late folks (and note the complete and utter lack of snark in the lyrics).

Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.

And for our off-topic video, this one actually mentions Hagrid at one point (continuing our Harry Potter theme).  So we’re awfully close to being on-topic.  It’s one woman, seventeen different British accents, and one rocking pair of fantastically 1985 glasses.

A couple thoughts on that video. First off, it is sung by author Deborah Underwood (whatta pretty pretty voice, eh?) and editor Arthur A. Levine (whatta pretty pretty voice, eh?) at what Vimeo calls an “agency retreat in Brandon, Vermont”. So I had to wonder what precisely an “agency retreat” really is.  Well, there’s a perfectly logical explanation for it right here.  I wouldn’t mind having the chance to go on a retreat but what I really want is to be in a band.  Anyone wanna start one with me?  I can’t play any instruments but I do know all the word to “Shoop” by Salt n’ Pepa.  Does that count for anything?

And now, ladies and gentlemen . . . . why we love LeVar Burton.

Thanks to Jules for the link!

Our Kickstarter video of the day (since we always have at least one per Video Sunday these days) is a good one.  Remember the Slate article that came out earlier this year called “This Is What a Librarian Looks Like”?  Well the fellow behind the piece wants to go to ALA and do something with a huge swath of librarians.  And for a modest sum of $3,000 too.  Granted he’s already doubled his goal, but no reason why he shouldn’t triple it, eh?

Oh my! A hat tip as well as a big thank you to Travis Jonker for locating this video of author/illustrator John Hendrix. As a big time fan of his work, I found this a real treat.

Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the link.

I wasn’t able to make Book Expo this year and, by extension, wasn’t able to attend the BEA Children’s Breakfast.  So this Mem Fox speech at said breakfast is NOT persuading me that I wasn’t missing anything, people.  Doggone it.

And for your off-topic video of the day, ain’t nothing hotter than women who make classical musical funny and incredibly difficult all at the same time.  Love this stuff.

I’ll confess to you that I think I just discovered the secret to Video Sunday.  If I “Favorite” videos I see in Twitter throughout the week I end up having a MUCH stronger series than if I’d just scouted them out on my own.  Phew!  Happy to know there’s a secret there.

Now in the event that someone should ask you “Who is the children’s book equivalent of John Green?” in terms of on-air personality and verve and downright caring, the answer is clear.  YA, you can keep you Green.  Jonathan Auxier is our man, as this video CLEARLY shows.  I like his style.

Best of all, this reminded me a bit of the David Maybury video along similar lines which . . . oh, what the heck.  Enjoy that too!

Reviews!! from David Maybury on Vimeo.

Folks, you may not know it but the newest Irish Children’s Laureate na nÓg is none other Eoin Colfer.  This is good.  He’s one of those folks you should do anything to see if he’s speaking in your general geographic area.  This video gives a hint of that, but it’s a pretty good look at the man himself.

Suddenly I’m thinking . . . what if the National Ambassador of Children’s Book Literature and the Irish Children’s Laureate na nÓg went on tour together?  Someone in the universe with more power than me, get on that.

This is pretty lovely.  It’s a look at Luke Pearson, the creator of those great Hilda graphic novels.  Pearson is sort of what one would imagine a British graphic novelist to be.  Introverted in all the right ways.

Luke Pearson from Nobrow Ltd on Vimeo.

I’d never thought of the Moomin influence on the Hilda books, but now that I see it it’s unavoidable.  Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the link!

Okay, let’s get some librarians into this mix.  Maybe it’s because I’m pregnant (11 days to go!) but this seriously made me tear up a bit.  Partly because I used to work in St. Paul with a fair number of Hmong and Somalia immigrants (I was with a refrigeration company . . . long story).  But this is just the kind of thing libraries should be making all the time, and it’s beautifully created and edited.

Thanks to AL Direct for the link.

More, libraries!  MORE!  My library.  I walked in on them doing a lot of the shots of this video last month.  Plus it features Leonard Marcus talking about his exhibit (up until September for free here in NYC!!) and I know that a lot of you folks haven’t had a chance to hear him speak in person.  This video is specifically about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.  Plus you get shots of the exhibit.  Win-win!

Here we are in the glory of spring.  With all the beauty just ah-popping outdoors, what better time to sequester ourselves inside to watch mad videos about children’s literature related affairs?

So first and foremost, you may have seen me make mention of the fact that I had a podcasting-related Children’s Literary Salon last weekend.  My Lit Salons are monthly gatherings of children’s literature enthusiasts who come to the main branch of NYPL to watch me finagle different topics out of incredibly interesting people.  People often ask me to record these, but at this time there is no place online for such talks to live.  Happily, that problem was solved recently when Katie Davis (Brain Burps About Books) , John Sellers (PW KidsCast), and Matthew Winner (Let’s Get Busy) came over and Matthew recorded the whole dang thing.  This is, insofar as I know, the very FIRST time a moderated event has covered this particular topic (children’s literature podcasts).  With that in mind, enjoy!

“John Newbery ate every single book he ever read”.  That was going to be my subtitle for today’s blog post.  I may still have to use it at some point because it’s one of the highlights of this James Kennedy / Libba Bray interaction at the recent 90-Second Newbery show here in NYC.  For years, I’ve been sitting on my laurels with my Randolph Caldecott music video.  Now I’ve been royally trumped and it’s all thanks to the song “What Would John Newbery Do?”  I can’t top this.

And now, with the approach of the Children’s Book Week Awards, time to break out the big guns.  And these, ladies and gents, are some SERIOUSLY big guns!

Turns out the CBC collected a whole CHUNK of these videos and they’re just out there!  Like this one starring two of my favorite author/illustrators, Amy Ignatow and Brian Biggs.  You must be SURE to stick around for the ghost of David Wiesner.  And it backs up my theory that every person in my generation has one rap song memorized.  Mine’s “Shoop”.

Nice use of “Rock Lobster” too.

We’re about three days away from El día del niño, otherwise known as the day of the child.  Unfamiliar with Dia?  Not anymore.  Here’s a quickie recap for those of you who are curious:

Día means “day” in Spanish. In 1996, author Pat Mora learned about the Mexican tradition of celebrating April 30th as El día del niño, the day of the child. Pat thought, “We have Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Yes! We need kids’ day too, but I want to connect all children with bookjoy, the pleasure of reading.”  Pat was enthusiastically assisted to start this community-based, family literacy initiative by REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking. El día de los niños, El día de los libros/Children’s Day, Book Day, also known as Día, is a daily commitment to link all children to books, languages and cultures, day by day, día por día. Many resources and an annual registry are available at the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). Every year, across the country, libraries, schools, and community organizations, etc. plan culminating book fiestas creating April Children’s Day, Book Day celebrations that unite communities.
Join us!

Interested in participating? It’s not too late.  Best of all, here’s a video from previous years of what folks have done in their libraries.  Viva Dia!

We’ve sort of an embarrassment of riches this year in terms of trans boy picture books (see the 7-Imp recap of this very thing here).  Now one of those books, Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress, has a book trailer that hits on the tone about right.  Let’s put it up on the big board!

Thanks to Fred Horler for the link.

This next one is a fictional tie-in to a nonfiction subject.  Which is to say, a CCSS dream.  I’m not usually on board with rhyming picture books, but this one actually gets away with it!

And for the off-topic video of the day, we all love Neil deGrasse Tyson.  This is the video of him slowed down ever so slightly.  He loves it.  Shows it at his talks sometimes.

And for fun, you can watch the original here:

I forget how many years ago it was, but in the not so distant past (I’m going to go out on a limb and say it was 2009) I had the pleasure of hosting children’s author and storyteller Carman Agra Deedy in my Children’s Center.  Talk about a storyteller!  She will hold you riveted from syllable one onwards.  I had no idea that back in 2005 she did a TED talk.  Had I known, I would have posted it long before now.  Here goes:

Thanks to Aunt Judy for the link.

Clever move, author Sue Fleiss.  One thing I would like to point out about this video before you watch it is that it involved picture book related hand jive.  No easy task.

Catchy.

I’ve decided that the last great children’s literature world to delve into and learn more about has got to be the world of collecting.  I don’t know much of any children’s book collectors and I think they’d be fascinating folks to mingle with.  That in mind, when I heard that Travis Jonker had gotten this Antiques Roadshow clip from John Schumacher it all seemed to click.  I wish I knew what made a children’s book valuable.  I tremble when I think about the titles we handle on a regular basis in my office.

It’s probably no surprise to you to hear that a fair number of folks contact me about including videos of their authors or illustrators on this site.  I don’t always say yes, but I always watch to see if the videos are honestly interesting.  And brother, this brief interview with Fred Bowen is precisely that.  I’ve always been a bit sports allergic myself, so to hear him pinpoint the value of the “culture” as he (rightly) puts it is good for me.

Don’t think I’ll actually embed anything from this site, but it’s worth knowing about in any case.  Storyline Online is is odd little online streaming video program where you can watch various members of the Screen Actors Guild read old children’s books. As of right now the readers include Betty White, Melissa Gilbert, Sean Astin, Elijah Wood, Jason Alexander, Ernest Borgnine, James Earl Jones, Robert Guillaume, Tia & Tamara Mowry, etc.  I have to assume they haven’t done many recently, if only because the books themselves are pretty old.  At any rate, its an interesting smattering.  Thanks to Aunt Judy for the link.

Well.  This is . . . just the more frigging adorable thing.  Check it.

Sort of combines all my favorite things.  Cute kids speaking languages other than English and world-renowned cartoonists we’ve never heard of.  Liniers.  I’ll remember that name now.

In other book trailer news, it’s awful nice when your illustrator not only creates the art for your book but comes up with some catchy song tie-ins as well.  Case in point:

And now some thoughts.
1. There is a Roald Dahl bio by Michael Rosen and it’s not available in the U.S.? This thing cannot be right.
2. The following video is 45 minutes long and rather worth it. This is a vid that was streamed live on Tuesday.
3. Rosen. He doesn’t flub. Not a word, not a syllable. This man is a practiced pro. I would rather like to be him when I grow up.  I wonder if he’s ever done a TED talk . . .
4. If you would like to hear musical performances from shows like Matilda, you can see the Matilda song around 15:30. 19:44 is where you’ll find the backstage peek into the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical.  No live performances there, sadly.

And for our off-topic video of the day, this would be the video that garnered the most alerts to my attention from family and friends this week.  There are people that say it’s the Gangnam Style of 2013.  Don’t know about that, but it is rather children’s literature friendly (so maybe it’s only 85% off-topic).  Thanks in particular to Kate and Marci for the link.

They asked me to do some promotional videos for my book.

I came up with these instead.  Life is too short not to have your legs eaten by legwarmers.  I’m inclined to name them The Electric Blue Boogaloo.

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:

Part Four:

I have fun.

See now, this is what I get for waiting when I see a good video.  I’ve been doing my Video Sundays a little less frequently since I like to do them when the content is primo.  The flipside is that sometimes I get scooped.  Such is the case with today’s video.  It is a delight and I have watched it multiple times, but it’s not as new as it once was.  No matter.  You will enjoy it thoroughly, I think.  Thanks to Jon Scieszka and, by extension, Lisa Brown for the link.

Next up, a triple threat.  He writes books like Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities (which I have read and thoroughly enjoyed).  He blogs at Mike Jung’s Little Bloggy Wog.  But the kicker?  He sings.  And goldurnit . . . he’s good.

Brother Iz step aside.  I may have to rework my children’s book boy band roster around to include him.  Dude has pipes.

Speaking of music, I am of the opinion that a catchy score can make or break a book trailer.  Example A: As the Crow Flies by Sheila Keenan and Kevin Duggan.  Catchy as all get out.

And where would this little trailer for the oh-so Canadian Little Jack Horner LIVE from the Corner be without its catchy tunes?  Only author Helaine Becker and illustrator Mike Boldt know for sure.

In other news, J.K. Rowling was in town.  Care to watch her chatter?  Here’s the uncut interview with Jon Stewart in all it Daily Showy glory.

Finally, our off-topic video comes to us from good man Mike Lewis.  As he says, it’s the reactions that make this one a classic.

Love it!

When a video has reached over two million views, it’s usually safe to assume that everyone has seen it.  However, there’s always the possibility that you have not, so with that in mind what better way to start off today’s Video Sunday then by looking at books with a sense of rhythm?  This is the kind of thing that clearly puts the “labor” in the term “labor of love”.

Now as a great number of you know, Monday morning we’ll see the announcement of the Newberys, the Caldecotts, and all the other awards ALA hands out each year.  Seems appropriate then to post a video of past Newbery winners.  First up, this amazing look at Virginia Hamilton, the woman behind the Newbery winning M.C. Higgins the Great (amongst other things).  I am ashamed to say that before I saw this I had no idea that Jaime Adoff was her son.  Ye gods!  The video also features Jean Craighead George of Julie of the Wolves.  You get a glimpse of her Newbery Medal in its velvet case at one point.

Open Road Media made these to sell the ebooks.  Nice covers too.  Check out the one for Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush.  Print publishers should take notes.

Now to look at some hardcore bookshelves.  Here in America we’ve these wimpy little bookshelves that anyone can reach.  In Berlin?  You need a freakin’ harness to get what you want.

Yep.  Your eyes do no deceive you.  You are looking at The World Premier of the book trailer for Mac Barnett and Adam Rex’s latest, greatest (yes, greatest) picture book collaboration.  For one day and one day only I get to be the first person to show this little vid.  Needless to say, I’m thrilled.  And I have a copy of Chloe and the Lion, the book in question, here in my hot little fist (which requires me to type with only my left hand and my tongue, but it’s cool).  The sole flaw with this book is the fact that when I start plugging away at my 2012 reviews, I don’t like to do the same author too often.  And yet already Mac Barnett is doing this book with Hyperion and the fantastic Extra Yarn with illustrator Jon Klassen and Harper Collins.  Which to review?  These are conundrums I like to face.

The holidays are near upon us and so, to celebrate, Chronicle Books has won the Best Happy Holidays Video of 2011.  Seriously, if you know of another publisher that has done better, I’d like to hear about it, because this is . . . well . . . pretty much this is what you’d expect from Chronicle.

So today was a pretty paltry video week for me.  Whenever that happens I get down on all fours and crawl on over to a selection of various blogs that I can usually count on to deliver the goods.  The best of these, of course, is Mr. Schu’s Watch. Connect. Read. That man knows how to find good videos and this week he featured one that I’d not caught before.  It’s Hervé Tullet, the Prince of Preschool Books, conducting a class visit.  Or, to put it another way, WARNING: CONTAINS ADORABLE FRENCH CHILDREN.

Of course now that I know how well the man speaks English I want to find a way to lure him to NYC to get him to do a program.  *taps fingertips together ala Mr. Burns*

This next video would have been included in one of Mr. James Kennedy’s 90-Second Newbery Film Festivals except that it was turned in a hair too late.  Great stuff anyway.  In it you can see a bunch of kids at 826CHI predicting the Newbery winners for the next ten years.

Orbit and Random has my vote.

And finally, for our off-topic delight, this goes out to all the authors who have ever received a rejection letter of any sort.  Though I don’t know if you’d necessarily want Bernard Black as your spokesperson.

Thanks to Tina Wexler for reminding me about this one.

Yesterday we had a fabulous Children’s Literary Salon at the library with Jules Feiffer, Laurie Keller, Nick Bruel, and Dave Roman.  Afterwards we swapped stories and someone started to tell me that once Maurice Sendak paired with the Pilobolus Dance Theater for a theatrical presentation.  And since this is the 21st -century I was able to assess the veracity of this thanks to a handy dandy site going by the name of “Youtube”.  As you can see, tis true.

I heard about this next video at a work holiday party this week.  Hanging out with reference librarians has its advantages.  For example, I might not have paid attention to this video featuring one of our resident Cullman scholars had it not been for the fact that the man is translating something utterly unique.  It seems that back in the day Anton Chekhov wrote a Jules Verne parody.  Yep.  He wrote a story where he claimed to have found a lost Jules Verne tale, and then he had his brother illustrate it.  Mighty fun and silly and not the kind of thing you might expect from the guy behind The Seagull.

Ed Spicer has a regular series where he interviews various authors and illustrators (with the full list here).  And one of those folks is Atinuke, the woman behind the Anna Hibiscus and The No. 1 Car Spotter books.  I seethe with envy that Ed got to meet her.  That voice . . . oh, that voice.  She also covers why she doesn’t call the location in her books “Nigeria” rather than “Africa”.

Zoe, fear not.  I’m looking forward to your interview with the woman as well.

Just think.  There are 21-year-olds out there who can drink and drive and vote and have lived their entire lives without ever knowing a world in which The Simpsons did not exist.  Just take that in for a moment.  I heard that Neil Gaiman was on an episode and though The Simpsons ain’t what it once wuz, I took a gander.  Yeah, I’m one of those people who feel the show jumped the shark 13 seasons ago.  In this particular episode it’s a pity they still can’t tell the difference between children’s and young adult literature, but I’m kind of loving the take on writing books for kids.  The barely obscured Alloy Entertainment reference is pretty amusing and there’s an R.L. Stine joke.  Bonus.

(How’d The Apothecary get a shout-out amongst those fake books in the screen shot here?)

Finally, for our off-topic video, I may not be running out to buy its app anytime soon, but this brand new and second Marcel the Shell with Shoes On video just sorta, kinda, in a way makes my day.  Yep.  It really does.

Readers looking for literary-centric web videos can turn to LiveWriters.com. The site showcases videos spotlighting on authors and books of every genre.

Browsers can find everything from book trailers to recorded interviews. The site’s most recent videos features Chuck Palahniuk reading from Knock, Knock, Paul Zak discussing the origins of morality and Jeffrey Eugenides talking about his latest title The Marriage Plot.

Here’s more from the site description: “LiveWriters is home to video and audio by and about writers of all types and kinds, as well as news, stories, original writing – in short anything that matters to writers, writing and the future of our shared culture. And we believe in a good healthy dose of fun too. Participate, play, share, enjoy.”

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