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by Ruth Krauss and Margot Tomes (Four Winds Press, 1973)

I’m not a real wild-and-crazy kind of person.

Last Saturday I took a Pilates class at 3:30, and the teacher said it’s always such a weird time because most people like to spend their afternoons at the beach or the ballpark. Or perhaps they have to get ready for their evening cocktail hour, and finishing close to 5:00 doesn’t work. But I told her that it’s my favorite time, because then I can be home in pajamas having sort-of-flat champagne before it’s even dark out.

She looked at me funny.

But on some of those pajamas and champagne Saturday nights, I go vintage book shopping online and find things like this.

I love this book.

I love Ruth Krauss.

I love the way her words describe the bizarre and complex world of kids’ heads. And their perfectly simple and sensible world. It’s kind of all wrapped up together for kids anyway, which is strange and endearing and other-worldly.

Each spread has one line, a bright orange to the illustrations’ muted browns. The only other color is the blue on the cover.

And the page turn acts as a sort of puzzle: the last bit from the page before starts the new thought.

Each thing is little. Each thing snuggles up right under the towering mushroom. Each thing is so firmly kid.

The tiny stories ramble on underneath, in those playful monologues that might seem like nonsense. This is where kids are experts.

Grownups, consider this. You might not understand. You might not have any use for a little potato. But, as the girl with the bow in her hair promises, “Little potatoes are especially nice.”

It’s weird. It’s wonderful. And if it fits under a mushroom, it’s fair game.

With Comic Con NYC later this week, publisher previews on the rise, and various work-related meetings, talks, and speeches I’m just the teeniest tiniest bit busy this week.  But no matter!  It is you, dear readers, that give me what for and how to.  For you I would forgo all the sleep in the world.  And as luck would have it, my 5-month-old baby is currently taking me up on that offer.

Onward!

• Sometimes when I am feeling pensive I attempt to figure out which authors and illustrators currently alive today will, in the distant future, be so doggone famous for their works that people make pilgrimages to the homes they once lived in.  I suspect that the entire Amherst/Northampton area will become just one great big tour site with people snapping shots of the homes of Norton Juster, Mo Willems, Jane Yolen, and so on and such.  Thoughts of this sort come to mind when reading posts like Phil Nel’s recent piece A Very Special House in which he visits the former home of Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson.  It is entirely enjoyable, particularly the part where the current owners reenact a photo taken on the porch with Ruth and Crockett 65 years later.

• So they announced the Kirkus Prize Finalists last week.  Those would be the folks in the running for a whopping $50,000 in prize money.  The books in the young reader category are split between two picture books, two middle grade titles, and two YA.  You can see all the books that were up for contention here and the final books that made the cut here.  Heck, you can even vote on the book you’d like to see win and potentially win an iPad for yourself.  I don’t think they needed the iPad as a lure, though.  I suspect many folks will be voting left and right just the for the fun of it.  Thanks to Monica Edinger for the links.

• In other news, we have word of a blog made good.  Which is to say, a blog that figured out how to make a living off of its good name.  When people ask for YA blog recommendations I am not always the best person to ask.  I don’t monitor them the way I monitor children’s book blogs.  Pretty much, I just rely on folks like bookshelves of doom and The Book Smugglers to tell me what’s up.  Now The Book Smugglers are becoming publishers in their own right!  eBook publishers no less.  Nice work if you can get it.

• Louise Rennison wrote a rather amusing little piece about how her British slang doesn’t translate all that well across the pond, as it were.  Fair enough, but don’t go be telling me we Yanks don’t know humor.  That’s why I was pleased to see that at the end of the article it says, “Louise Rennison will be discussing humour on both sides of the pond, and other interesting things, with her fellow countryman Jim Smith (author of Barry Loser and winner of the Roald Dahl Funny prize 2013) and American author Jon Scieszka (author of many hilarious books including Stinky Cheeseman and most lately Frank Einstein) – in a panel event chaired by Guardian children’s books editor Emily Drabble, run with IBBY at Waterstones Piccadilly, London, on 7 October 2014.”  Why that’s today! Give ‘em hell, Jon!  Show ‘em we know our funny from our droll.  Then find out why their Roald Dahl Funny Prize is taking a hiatus.  It’s not like they lack for humor themselves, after all.

*sigh* That Jarrett Krosoczka. He gets to have all the fun. One minute he’s hosting the Symphony Space Roald Dahl celebration and the next he’s hosting the upcoming Celebration of E.B. White.  I mean, just look at that line-up.  Jane Curtin.  David Hyde Pierce.  Liev Schreiber (didn’t see that one coming).  Oh, I will be there, don’t you doubt it.  You should come as well.  We’ll have a good time, even if we’re not hosting it ourselves.

• This may be my favorite conspiracy piece of 2014 (which is actually saying something).  Travis Jonker lays out 6 Theories on the End of Sam and Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen.  Needless to say, I’m firmly in the “dog as Jesus” camp.

• And speaking of conspiracy theories, were you aware of the multiple theories that abound and consist of folks trying to locate the precise geographical coordinates of Sesame Street?  There’s a big Sesame Street exhibit at our Library of the Performing Arts right now (by hook or by crook I am visiting it this Sunday) and that proved the impetus for this piece.  Lots of fun.

• Hey, how neat is this?

On Saturday November 8, 2014, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art (NMAA) in Washington, DC will host the 22nd annual Children’s Africana Book Awards (CABA).  CABA was created by Africa Access and the Outreach Council of the African Studies Association* to honor authors and illustrators who have produced exceptional books on Africa for young people.

And who’s that I see on the list of nominees?  None other than Monica Edinger for Africa Is My Home!  Two Candlewick books are listed, actually.  Well played there, oh ye my fellow publisher.

• Daily Image:

I admit it. I’ve a weakness for paper jewelry.  Today’s example is no exception:

Wood pulp. A marvelous invention. Thanks to Jessica Pigza for the image.

by Ruth Krauss and Maurice Sendak (HarperCollins, 1953)

School’s been back in the swing of things for a couple weeks, and it has been bananas. But I’ve got this beautiful new space and some read-in-me-for-hours lounge chairs and the kids named our bright new sitting area The Birdhouse. This week: shelves and books. The heart and soul.

That’s why I needed to visit a book that is about all of those things: comfort and wonder and imagination and a very special place.

I love this little dancer-dreamer: dee dee dee oh-h-h.

This book is the hope of yellow and the broken-in-ness of blue overalls and the loose lines of childhood. This book started with two masters but belongs to the rest of us. It’s root in the moodle of our head head heads.

And this is what I want for anyone who finds a story in our very special place: 

They and I are making secrets 

and we’re falling over laughing

and we’re running in and out

and we hooie hooie hooie

then we think we are some chickens

then we’re singing in the opera then

we’re going going going going ooie ooie ooie.

I am serious as death when I state that if you see no other Children’s Literary Salon at NYPL, see this one:

The Children’s Literary Salon is pleased to announce our next event this Saturday, October 27th at 2:00 p.m.

Children’s Literary Salon

Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss:
How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI,
and Transformed Children’s Literature
Presented by Philip Nel

An illustrated talk, focusing on Johnson and Krauss in the 1950s, the period in which they reinvent the modern picture book, and the FBI places them under surveillance.  Working with legendary Harper editor Ursula Nordstrom, Johnson publishes Harold and the Purple Crayon (1955), and Krauss begins her decade-long collaboration with Maurice Sendak, creating the groundbreaking A Hole Is to Dig (1952), A Very Special House (1953) and six others.  And FBI builds a file on Johnson, opening his mail, monitoring his bank account, and noting the names of people who visited or phoned.  Drawing from the biography (forthcoming September 2012) that shares its title with this talk, Nel offers a story of art, publishing, politics, and the power of the imagination.

Philip Nel is Professor of English and Director of Kansas State University’s Program in Children’s Literature. His most recent books are Keywords for Children’s Literature (co-edited with Lissa Paul, 2011) Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children’s Literature (co-edited with Julia Mickenberg, 2008), The Annotated Cat: Under the Hats of Seuss and His Cats (2007), Dr. Seuss: American Icon (2004). Forthcoming, fall 2012: a double biography of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss, and The Complete Barnaby, Vol. 1 (co-edited with Eric Reynolds), which collects the first two years of Crockett Johnson’s influential comic strip. He also blogs. And tweets.

This event will be held in the main branch of New York Public Library at the Stephen A. Schwarzman building located at 42nd Street and 5th Avenue.  The talk will take place in the South Court Auditorium.  Copies of Mr. Nel’s book will be for sale at that time.  The Children’s Literary Salon is a free event open to the public.  No reservations necessary.  See the announcement here for more details.

Okay!  So I’m a little out of practice when it comes to these news items and looking at some of the stuff I’ve accumulated in the last month, a good swath of it is out of date.  Here’s what I have that’s current then.

Not long ago the good people at the Women’s National Book Association called me up and wondered if I’d be willing to participate in a kind of panel discussion with some female children’s author/illustrators . . . from Kazakhstan.  Twist!  Naturally I said yes indeed.  I mean, how often do you come across that kind of an offer?  Publishing Perspectives wrote up the meeting here.  No pictures of me except a nice glimpse of my left arm.  Publishers Weekly also wrote it up here but my favorite recounting is from what must be a translated site at How to Be Published which refers to me as a “New York Public Library girl materials dilettante”.  If I were a tattoo kind of gal, I would make that my standard.

• Two news items regarding good leftist cartoonists/children’s authors of the past.  The first is this fine cartoon tribute to Syd Hoff in Tablet by Sarah Lazarovic.  Thanks to Marjorie Ingall for that link.  The second regards one Mr. Crockett Johnson.  As you might recall he will be featured in a dual biography with Ruth Krauss by the multi-talented Phil Nel this coming fall.  The magnificent title is Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children’s Literature.  And then there’s the drop dead gorgeous book jacket by Chris Ware.  Phil pointed out that not only is Ware drawing in the style of Crockett, he’s also doing a Sendak here, a Mary Blair there, etc.  It’s also one of the sexier Ruth Krauss images I’ve seen.  Cannot wait to get my grubby mitts on that one.

• Not a New Blog Alert BUT . . . it might as well be for all that I’ve paid attention to it.  When I write a review on this site I puff myself a little and feel smart because I’m capable of linking to other reviews.  Big whoop.  When the good folks at The Classroom Bookshelf review a book they don’t just review it.  They interview the author via video, provide countless useful links, and generally make the book as useful and accessible to teachers as humanly possible.  It just puts me to shame.  They’re off for the summer (teachers, y’know) but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a bit of jaw-dropping in by seeing what they accomplished so far.  Dear Lord, I stand amazed.

• Some more me stuff.  First a
  3 Comments on Fusenews: Just your average everyday “New York Public Library girl materials dilettante”, last added: 7/5/2012
  Display Comments
  Philip Nel said, on 7/4/2012 10:37:00 PM
  

  Gosh, Betsy, thanks for the shout-out! I’ll ask the press to send a copy directly to your “grubby mitts.” And I couldn’t be more pleased with Chris Ware’s cover. The only down-side is that, for all subsequent books of mine, I’ll think, “Well, it’s not a bad cover. But this designer is no Chris Ware….”

  ChrisinNY said, on 7/5/2012 6:09:00 AM
  

  I happen to know an aspiring librarian who I thought might find your article useful! Hope she reads it (even if it came from mom….)

  Jennifer Schultz said, on 7/5/2012 6:50:00 AM
  

  Good article (I will say that in our county library system, we’ve had to close some positions when staff retired or left–we’ve been able to reopen one youth service position, but our assistant librarian position has been closed ever since the previous AL retired three or four years ago). If you’re able to relocate for a job, your job outlook may be decent. If you’re looking for a position in your immediate area and are not able to relocate, you have a much tougher situation. It’s rough out there–recent graduates have my sympathies.

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#100 The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss, illustrated by Crockett Johnson (1945)
(20 points)

Check your jaw at the door as I inform you that this book did not even crack the Top 100 the last time I conducted a picture book poll.  Consider a great wrong finally righted then.  Seen as everything from a religious lesson to a predecessor of the Do What You Feel generation, the book is essentially picture book haiku.  Not a word out of place.  Authors everywhere will understand then when I ask . . . do you know how HARD it is to do what Krauss did here?

Phil Nel describes the plot this way: “A little boy plants a carrot, everyone keeps saying ‘it won’t come up,’ but every day he keeps ’sprinkling the ground with water.’ This story has been interpreted as being about faith, persistence, or simply ignoring the nay-sayers.  Maurice Sendak calls it a ‘perfect picture book’.”

This was Krauss’s second picture book but her first big hit.  In her 100 Best Books for Children Anita Silvey says that “When it was published, The Carrot Seed contained one of the shortest picture book texts, a mere 101 words.”  I have heard it performed as a very effective song by traveling performers, and certainly as a storytime title it works as well now as it did in 1945.

Philip Nel, a man I cannot help but mention in conjunction with Mr. Johnson due to the fact that his book Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children’s Literature is due out this September, wrote a piece called Children’s Literature + Music = Great Album Covers.  You can see that cover at the bottom of this piece.

• The site Crockett Johnson’s Books: Collaborations contains the best online information about the great man.  On the topic of this particular book it says, “Asked what books he would select for his ‘Western Canon for children,’ Chris Van Allsburg told HomeArts that, in addition to Harold and the Purple Crayon, he’d choose The Carrot Seed. Click here to read why. In his essay ‘Ruth Krauss and Me,’ Maurice Sendak praises ‘that perfect picture book, The Carrot Seed (Harper), the granddaddy of all picture books in America, a small revolution of a book that permanently transformed the face of children’s book publishing. The Carrot Seed, with not a word or a picture out of place, is dramatic, vivid, precise, concise in every detail. It springs fresh from the real world of children’.”  Also available in Spanish and as a song.

Might as well listen to it now if you like.

My first baby was born when I was nine. Don’t let the fact that he was my youngest brother and I only became involved post-delivery fool you into believing that he did not belong, wholly and completely, to me. From the moment I first held him, I never let go.
I snuck him into bed with me every night until he was two and got moved to the boys’ room. And then I snuck in there. I carried him on my hip so much that I think I may be a bit off kilter to this day. Babysitters were unwise trying to take him, friends were silly assuming I wouldn’t wag him everywhere, and adults were misguided in thinking my parents had “saddled” me with the “the baby.” They just knew you don’t tug on Superman’s cape, spit into the wind, tear the mask off ole Lone Ranger, or…take Matthew away from Jodi. Uncle Mafoo (as my kids have called him) is now a successful attorney living in the big city--but he started as my baby and, even now, it’s hard to let go of those ties. One of the first books I ordered for this project was his first read-it-myself book--The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss. It is the simple story of a boy who dreams big and, in the face of long odds and vocal detractors, nurtures his vision into reality. When I think of the boy who read it and the man he has become, I smile.

by Sandol Stoddard Warbugillustrated by Jacqueline ChwastHoughton Mifflin 1965My wife likes to say I have a sticky brain. This is a fairly accurate description of my proclivity to spout lots of useless bits of cultural flotsam that I can recall at a moment's notice. I can, for example, sing jingles from television commercials that haven't aired in over 35 years without the crutch of revisiting