I am indebted to Jenny Schwartzberg for bringing to my attention the fact that the BBC’s extensive archives are offering up recordings of some of the great British Novelists of the past. These are both television and radio programs and they are intoxicating. You can hear the very voice of Virginia Woolf herself. And on the children’s side of things, there are folks like T.H. White, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Penelope Lively. You could get lost in there. Thank you for bringing it to my attention, Jenny.
- New Blog Alert: And it’s a doozy too. If you missed the fact that the magnificent Philip Nel started a blog called Nine Kinds of Pie recently, then now is the time to know. Mr. Nel is that nice young man who teaches as a Professor of English at Kansas State University and also writes books like The Annotated Cat in the Hat and, my personal favorite, Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children’s Literature (that one was done with co-writer Julia L. Mickenberg, of course). He updates his blog with frightening regularity as well. Of course, it’s the summer. The school year is only just now picking up. Still, anything he cares to write is well worth your time to read. Plus he wins an award for Best New Blog Title in our field.
- All right. Let me see what I can do with this. Ahem. So Beatrix Potter was friends with Anne Carroll Moore. Anne Carroll Moore was a famous children’s librarian who worked at the main branch of NYPL. I am a children’s librarian who works in the main branch of NYPL. I have seen the picture Potter gave to Ms. Moore as a gift. Ipso facto, I’m going to weigh in on the whole Emma Thompson writing a new Peter Rabbit story news item. I feel entirely ripped in half too. On the one hand, I love Emma. I honestly adore her. I think she’s a modern marvel. I want to be her best friend and to just listen to her talk for hours on end. On the other hand, this marks a very bad precedent: The celebrity picture book sequel to a classic work. No. No no, this will not do. We can’t have Justin Bieber writing conclusive storylines to Stuart Little or Courtney Love putting the last touch on an official return to Wonderland. Nope. I love you Emma, but this cannot stand. I’m sure you’re a perfectly fine writer, but you’re making it look too enticing to the others. Thanks to @PWKidsBookshelf for the link.
- I envy not the good people charged by ALSC to regularly determine the official Great Websites for Kids as promoted by the librarians. I’m just grateful they exist and that they’re willing to add some new additions. Had I the power, I’d place these on my library’s children’s website pronto, if not sooner. A magnificent resource.
Thanks for the plug on the blog! Speaking of: am planning a brief post on Seuss’s advertising work later today.
I think Emma Thompson is one of the few celebrity-type people who could actually pull off writing a sequel to a classic book. She’s more of a writer-turned-actor than actor-who-wants-to-dabble-in-writing. She got her start as a comedy writer. I know it’s not the be-all and end-all, but she did win an Oscar for writing the screenplay adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, and she’s also adapted the Nanny McPhee screenplays. Even though she hasn’t published and works of fiction, I think her writing background is strong enough to do the job and do it well. Personally, I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt until she proves otherwise.
Oh, I don’t deny that she may end up doing a stand-up job of it. I just worry that it sets a bad example for other celebrities. They’ll eye Emma’s work, forget the whole she’s-also-a-real-writer element, and try doing the same thing themselves. *shudder*
That Viewmaster Alice looks like The Lonely Doll Goes Anti-Grav.
Emma Thompson already has work that sets her salary in the millions. She was “asked” to do this. Meanwhile, the usual meme for authors is that we do not make money at our profession (heard it again right there in your seminar this month BB). Publishers are telling authors to have low expectations while the jobs go to people who are not in the business and already have jobs. WTH?????? Let’s stop the poverty meme to authors and get some reality, folks.
The voice of Virginia Woolf! I don’t get the feeling she’d have enjoyed making podcasts.
http://www.heimel-dias.de/marchen/
The viewmaster picture reminded me tiny boxes I found at the fleamarket here with slide rolls. Held up to the light, I realized they were fairy tales! They were popular in East Germany. The artwork on the ones featured on the website above is worth a check-out. Just click on the name of the fairy tale (sorry, the site is just in German). Weiter means continue. Have fun!