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When I first became interested in children’s literature I decided that it would be a good idea to teach myself about all the old greats of the picture book world.  A good idea, but self-teaching is inherently limited.  As such, I’ve missed a lot of folks. For example, until now “Saul Bass” meant nothing to me.  Yet after reading the Ward Jenkins post on the Rizzoli reprint of Henri’s Walk to Paris, that is one book I would love to get my sticky digits on.  Just gorgeous stuff.

I’ve noticed a couple of folks around the country working to make literary loving hip in the mind of the average consumer with varying degrees of success.  One project that has interested me, though, is this Litpunch idea the Twin Cities are engaged in.  Basically you get a card, you attend fun free literary events, and if you get your card punched twelve times you get a $15 gift card to a bookstore.  I do wish the libraries were involved in some manner but it’s a great notion.  Imagine if they did the same thing with children’s literature!  I await that happening someday.

• This is impressive!  Want a fabulous list of in-print books set on every continent of the world?  And would you like such a list to also include activities and recipes and the like?  Then I think it’s time to take a trip to Read Around the World.  It’ll do your old heart good.  Promise.

• Speaking of recipes, you know that fabulous book Press Here by Herve Tullet?  Well, would you fancy trying a mess of Press Here cookies?  Children’s Books for Grown-Ups has got the goods.  It’s part of a regular “Bookish Bites” series.  I’m seriously looking forward to how Natasha will tackle that upcoming Moomin birthday cake.  There but for the grace of parental challenges go I . . .

• Once in a while at Hark, A Vagrant, Ms. Kate Beaton will reinterpret various Edward Gorey covers.  Here’s one she may have missed.  It appeared recently on the 50 Watt blog and features a Gorey spider.  Have you ever seen a Gorey spider?  Did you know that you were missing out?  That your life contained a gigantic Gorey-spider shaped void?

Well now you know.

• Is texting “an ideal sp
  6 Comments on Fusenews: Hotsy Totsy, Ducky, Spiffy, Etc., last added: 9/12/2011
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  Storied Cities said, on 9/10/2011 2:39:00 AM
  

  Surprisingly, I DO know of a Scottish picture book author! Natalie Russell!

  Elizabeth Fama said, on 9/10/2011 6:44:00 AM
  

  That Edward Gorey spider reminds me of the Medieval bestiary drawings, where the artist had never seen the living creature before! “Uh, it has 8 legs. It’s sort of furry up close. Yeah, it’s sort of like a crab, I guess.”

  DanMc said, on 9/10/2011 8:21:00 AM
  

  I can understand not knowing he did a kids’ book (certainly came as a shock to me) but how could you be married to Matt and not know Saul Bass?

  http://notcoming.com/saulbass/index2.php

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 9/10/2011 9:55:00 PM
  

  This is a pretty good case of my blithely blogging something without consulting the resident husband. Good call, Dan. Matt definitely knows who he is.

  Rams said, on 9/11/2011 4:43:00 AM
  

  Now we know why the itsy-bitsy spider was looking for a water spout.

  jules said, on 9/12/2011 10:36:00 PM
  

  Wow. Thanks for filling the gigantic Gorey-spider shaped void in my life. Creepy cover.

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Back in November I speculated as to whether or not a book containing photography, and just photography, could ever win a Caldecott Award.  Today my thoughts turn elsewhere.

Just yesterday I sat in on the Penguin Young Readers Group librarian preview for the May-August 2011 season (round-up to come).  The folks there had to go over a wide variety of books and in the course of the discussion we came upon an adorable picture book by the author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.  Yup.  John Berendt himself.  Normally I don’t truck with adult authors who try to weasel their way into the lucrative children’s market, but that’s usually because all their books sound the same.  Either they’re doing a younger version of what they usually write or they place a slight twist on Alice in Wonderland/The Wizard of Oz.  Nine times out of ten this is the case.  Berendt . . . he’s different.  First off, it’s hard to accuse him of the flaws of his fellows when the title of his book is something as innocuous as My Baby Blue Jays.

(By the way, during the last Simon & Schuster preview I took one look at Liz Scanlon’s Noodle & Lou and proclaimed that, “It is my personal opinion, as it has been for years, that blue jays are a seriously unappreciated species of bird.  Seriously, name me all the famous blue jay picture book characters you can.”  The universe, which has a twisted sense of humor, has now handed me a whole new blue jay product just to watch me squirm under my own words.)

What does any of this have to do with today’s topic of Photography & Fiction?  Well, outside Mr. Berendt’s window sat a nest of blue jays, so he figured he’d photograph them and add in his own, as the catalog calls it, “narrative skill”.  Skill aside, this book is considered nonfiction.  Staring at the book in the catalog got me to thinking.  Nonfiction.  Most photography in children’s books could be classified as nonfiction in a way.  We see a lot of them appear each season.  They do not lack.  But what about picture books that use photography and are fictional?  How common are they?  How often does one run across them?  Children love photos, after all.  So why are they so often relegated to the informative Tana Hoban / baby board book areas of the library?

This question doesn’t come entirely out of the blue.  Recently I met for lunch with an author/illustrator who told me that he was seeking out fictional picture books of this sort.  They are rare. Sometimes it seems as though Nina Crews is the only person who’ll touch the genre with so much as a ten foot p

With Noonoo and Nada and Nell…

No. Wait. Scratch that.  But I have been to a couple of marvelous parties as of late.  Under normal circumstances I don’t mention them all that often, but this week I’ll make an exception.  [Note: If you don’t like party posts, avoid this one at all costs.  Even if it does involve Lemony Snicket on a merry-go-round built for two . . .).

The two parties were very different, but of great interest to all parties involved.  The first I will mention was the party held last week to which all Kidlit Drink Night attendees were invited.  Mr. Robert Forbes (yes, THAT Mr. Forbes) was kind enough to invite us to attend a little soiree at The Forbes Gallery here in New York City.  Why would he want grimy children’s literature people mucking up his space?  Well, Mr. Forbes recently published a book of children’s poetry called Let’s Have a Bite, illustrated by the illustrious Ronald Searle.

Now, I had never been to the Forbes Galleries.  Truth be told, I had no idea that they were (A) open to the public and (B) awesome.  In point of fact, they are both.  And if you happen to be interested in visiting (which I highly recommend) I would suggest that you do so before November 22nd.  You see, until that moment in time the galleries have a magnificent selection of toy soldiers, toy boats, and old Monopoly games on display.  And what a display!  There is an art to their presentation.  A skill to the little hidden rooms in which you will locate them.  To top it all off, there was a retrospective of Searle’s from the last 40-50 odd years.  Should you be nowhere near New York right now, much of that same work is visible in this recent interview he conducted:

And what of the book itself?  Well, a special side room exists in the Galleries of the work Searle did for Mr. Forbes’s newest.  The two collaborated back in 2007 on a similar book called Beastly Feasts.  Both books contain poems with accompanying illustrations.  In what I imagine must be very much the spirit in which Mr. Searle works, Mr. Forbes served us lots of tiny food made out of the very animals featured in the poems.  Grilled octopus, turtle of some sort, as well as a little cheese fondue that was liable to tempt you into thinking that you’d never had anything quite so good ever before (a little mouse appears in each of the paintings in Mr. Forbes’s book).

As for Mr. Forbes himself I was rather expecting him to look like his portrait here:

10 Comments on I’ve Been to a Marvelous Party, last added: 10/13/2010