I love it when a blog title makes me sound old. Now that my kids have reached the ripe ages of five and two, I’m finding myself more interested in picture books that pick apart the nature of sibling relationships in interesting ways . I don’t mean fighting. I mean that crazy pushmepullyou of loving […]
Cloud and Wallfish By Anne Nesbet Candlewick Press $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-7636-8803-5 Ages 9-12 On shelves now Historical fiction is boring. Right? That’s the common wisdom on the matter, certainly. Take two characters (interesting), give them a problem (interesting), and set them in the past (BOOOOOORING!). And to be fair, there are a LOT of dull-as-dishwater […]
Happy Fusenews day to you, guv’nor. In today’s episode we tip our hat to a post last week that is probably my most popular of all time. Who knew knitting needles could be such lightning rods? In any case, on with the newz! How old is the picture book biography as we know it […]
Two years ago I wrote a piece called The Scourge of Upside Down Knitting in which I raged unto the heavens against picture books where the artists put little work into bothering to figure out if knitting needles should be held up or down. Well, it’s time for me to apologize to those illustrators. If […]
So I’m no longer in New York City anymore as you might have noticed but that doesn’t meant there aren’t some fantastic events going on there. Free events. Free events at my old stomping grounds, NYPL. It’s all in conjunction with Banned Books Week and the guests are a bit on the famous side. Gene […]
They All Saw a Cat By Brendan Wenzel Chronicle Books $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-4521-5013-0 Ages 4-7 On shelves now It’s funny. Unless you’re a teacher or librarian, a grown adult that does not work or live with children will come into very little contact with picture books. Then, one day, they produce a few kids and […]
Mmmm. It’s that time again. The summer is beginning to cool its jets and with fall on the horizon I need to present the third in my yearly four-part prediction series. What was that fantastic quote Travis Jonker came up with the other day? Ah, yes. “Those who have knowledge, don’t predict. Those who predict, […]
Fast fast, like lightning, fast! It’s a Fusenews round-up of epic quickie proportions! First up, my buddy Warren Truitt used to work with me in the Central Children’s Room of New York Public Library. Then he moved to Alabama. He’s kept busy, since that time with a long-term personal project. This one man machine […]
In just 9 days the Children’s Literary Salon at EPL will be up and running again. And, as ever, you can watch the proceedings live from your very own home computer right here. This month, we’re celebrating the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival in all its shameless glory. Explained thusly: Even better news, the 90-Second Newbery […]
Ooo. Lots of adult books with smatterings of children’s literature littered about the pages today. Don’t even know where to start with this one. Let’s see, eeny meeny miney . . . MO! Libertarians on the Prairie: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, and the Making of the Little House Books by Christine Woodside This […]
Presenting Buffalo Bill: The Man Who Invented the Wild West By Candace Fleming A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Book Press (a division of Macmillan) $19.99 ISBN: 9781596437630 Ages 9-12 On shelves September 20th I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how we present history to our kids. Specifically I was thinking about picture book biographies […]
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. […]
Oh, my stars and garters. You lucky authors out there that have written books with math in them in some way are in for a treat. The Mathical Book Prize is now accepting submissions from all comers, be they picture books, middle grade, or YA. What is this prize of which I speak? In its […]
This blog has spoiled me beyond all hope or recognition. Over the years I’ve used it to find nannies, to get books re-published, and now it has solved a mystery that lay dormant for years. Back in November of 2009 I decided I wanted to track down a book from my childhood. Writing stumpers into […]
Last week I was sick. Sick as a dog sick. Sick in that way where you feel the cool breezes coming through your window and have a fleeting glimpse of how lucky you are to be sick at the end of the summer rather than even a week earlier when your misery could have only […]
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