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!
Today we look at the work of Jon Klassen, Cartoon Brew's Artist of the Day!
#74 I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen (2011)
26 points
Funny, I’ve never seen my kids laugh so hard when finishing a book. That, and the bear’s unfailingly polite. There has to be points for that. – Melissa Fox
Yeah, it’s awfully soon to tell, but I think this will be a classic. This book had me laughing like nothing has in years. You have to get just the right storytime audience to appreciate the humor and “get” the final joke, but it’s worth it. – Sharon Thackston
Every once in a while I come across a new picture book that I love so much that I carry it around with me and make random people read it. I Want My Hat Back is one of those books.
Oh my word, this book is hilarious. Seriously. And I believe it’s all because of Jon Klassen’s style. I knew Klassen’s name before, not really for the books he’s illustrated but for his one-page graphic story in the collection of funny, creepy, disgusting and odd tales Half-Minute Horrors. It’s a gross-out moment, for sure, but it’s fantastic. I love using it with classes to explain inferences. It’s the coolest thing, watching them figure it out one by one. Now I have added this book. Clearly, Klassen is a sly one. He quietly slips in vital story elements with a wink, knowing only those paying attention will understand. And it works so well. I’m declaring him the King of Inference. He’s fantastic. – Kristi Hazelrigg
Last year I was invited to a little lunch with Jon Klassen. I was very excited since I’d been a big fan of him ever since I saw his work on Cats’ Night Out by Caroline Stutson (it counts dancing cats by twos). Unlike some other animators-turned-illustrators I saw that Klassen avoided the pitfalls of making books that just looked like animated storyboards. Somehow he got the picture book process correct right from the start. Our lunch occurred after this book hit the stratosphere and when asked he confessed that he’d written it with the idea that it would appear as a kind of school play. The characters look right at you and appear to be reciting their lines much as a second grader would in the same situation. Gives the book a whole new feel when you know that, doesn’t it?
The summary from my original review of the book reads, “A bear has lost his hat. To find it he questions a variety of woodland creatures including a fox, a frog, a turtle, a possum, a dear, a snake and a rabbit. The rabbit, for the record, refuses to acknowledge having seen the hat in spite of the fact that he appears to be wearing it. And when the bear realizes the true culprit there will be a price to pay. A deeply amusing price. Painted with Chinese ink and digital art, Klassen’s book falls into that growing category of subversive picture books out there. What makes it stand out, however, is how beautifully put together it all is.”
Another interesting piece of information that came out of the Klassen lunch involved that scene where the bear suddenly realizes that he’s seen his hat and he runs back, past all the other animals, to the rabbit. This is not done in a picture book. You don’t have a character go from right to left against the turning of the pages. Why? I suppose the idea is that it breaks up the flow of th
This morning I got up at 5 a.m. to see (via webcast) the 2012 winners of the biggest awards in children's publishing--the American Library Association (ALA) awards. The film industry has their Golden Globes® and their Oscars®, and we have the Caldecott and Newbery Medals, the Coretta Scott King Award, and the Michael J. Printz Award. Unlike most other book awards, the major children's book awards given by the ALA have no lists of finalists or nominees. It's a surprise every single year (with plenty of speculation beforehand) and I kind of love the secrecy. This year's announcement had both the unexpected and the "ah, of course" books on the lists (including some 2011 Best of the Month titles)--you just never know who is going to win what. Congratulations to this year's winning and honored authors and illustrators:
2012 Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children:
2012 Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature:
2012 Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults:
By: Seira Wilson,
on 1/23/2012
Blog:
Schiel & Denver Book Publishers Blog
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This morning I got up at 5 a.m. to see (via webcast) the 2012 winners of the biggest awards in children's publishing--the American Library Association (ALA) awards. The film industry has their Golden Globes® and their Oscars®, and we have the Caldecott and Newbery Medals, the Coretta Scott King Award, and the Michael J. Printz Award. Unlike most other book awards, the major children's book awards given by the ALA have no lists of finalists or nominees. It's a surprise every single year (with plenty of speculation beforehand) and I kind of love the secrecy. This year's announcement had both the unexpected and the "ah, of course" books on the lists (including some 2011 Best of the Month titles)--you just never know who is going to win what. Congratulations to this year's winning and honored authors and illustrators:
2012 Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children:
2012 Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature:
2012 Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults:
The premise of this easy-to-read picture book is simple. A bear has lost his hat. He wants it back. He proceeds through the forest asking the creatures he meets if they have seen it. Eventually, he locates his hat.
Hmmmm.
War and Peace it ain't. How can such a plot-lite book be so hysterically funny? Trust me, it can. The answer lies in what
isn't said in this minimalistic and clever romp. Keen-eyed viewers will spot the missing hat long before the bear does. His reaction when he finally realizes where he has seen it is priceless, and the ultimate outcome, in which justice is served, perhaps is a tad unsettling, although nothing a connoisseur of nursery tales would bat an eye at.
The simple text (the font in separate colors for each speaker) is understated and droll, as is the art. Klassen's bear protagonist looks steadily ahead, without expression, throughout most of the book. The exception comes at the story's climax, when his eyes open wide as the truth dawns. Kids will delight in finding the hat long before the bear and are sure to giggle when they decipher the punchline at the end. Highly recommended.
Other reviews at:
Jen Robinson's Book Page, books4yourkids, A Fuse #8 ProductionI Want My Hat Back
by Jon Klassen
Candlewick Press, 40 pages
Published: September 2011
Is there anything in the world more happymaking than the artwork of a small child?
Perhaps the artwork of a small child inspired by a favorite book. Remember how much my whole family (seriously, every single one of us from 42 to 2) enjoyed Jon Klassen’s deliciously startling I Want My Hat Back?
Rilla was moved to attempt her own rendering of the bear at the pivotal moment when he recalls where he has seen his lost hat. That may be my favorite page in the book—the visual shock of the red background so perfectly captures the drama of the bear’s epiphany, and hints at the outrage he feels.
Now she’s working on a page from another family favorite: Don and Audrey Wood’s The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear.
Two things:
The I Want My Hat video reminded me of this amazing emoji version of Sam and Dave Dig a Hole that Adam Rex tweeted a couple weeks ago
https://twitter.com/MrAdamRex/status/745027352799784960
Also, thoughts on Snow White for Caldecott? Having only read the uncolored galley (twice), it’s near the top of my list. Amazing storytelling going on in this graphic novel.
I’m on board. He’s never won a Caldecott or a Newbery, though he does have a Scott O’Dell to his name.