Celebrity picture books. The gift that just keeps on giving. Now in the past I’ve had my say about CPB ah-plenty. Heck, there was an entire chapter devoted to them in Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children’s Literature. Today, we’ll switch tactics and tackle a topic that no one ever discusses. Weeeeeeeeeeird celebrity picture […]
The weather! She has warmed here in NYC! The crocuses and daffodils and purple flowers that I can never identify are blooming in my front yard. The birds are singing and there are buds on the trees. Tis spring spring spring! To celebrate, we begin today with a poetic celebration of baseball (a very spring […]
There was a time, oh children of mine, when the ALA Media Awards would be announced and the morning after the announcement the winners of the Caldecott and Newbery Awards would be whisked away to New York City to speak on NBC. Then Snooki came and ruined everything (this is the abbreviated version, but it’s […]
Oh, thank the high heavens. Good news, folks. The celebrities have arrived to show us how to write books with darker themes. Thank goodness they’re here! Until now the field of children’s literature was just an unending vista of sunshine and daisies. But thanks to the combined efforts of Evangeline Lilly (“I look around me […]
Happy Tuesday to you, one and all! Hope your weather isn’t as bitingly cold as ours has been. Time to warm up with some fresh and festive children’s literature tidbits. Personally, I’m trying to figure out why I wrote today’s headline a couple days ago. I’m sure there was a reason for it. Hmmm. The […]
Today I shall begin by ripping out your heart and stomping it into tiny shreds upon the floor. You may be aware that for years I have worked with the real Winnie-the-Pooh toys at NYPL. You may also know that the real Christopher Robin had a serious falling out with his father about the books. […]
Durn. This is what I get for not doing a Fusenews in a while. A whole plethora of good stuff! Let’s see what we can use up in a single day, eh? For the record, if you haven’t read these Hunger Games comics (in the style of Kate Beaton, no?) then now’s the time. They’re […]
Amusing. I wrote an article for SLJ about the Bologna Book Fair and why librarians should attend in droves. I was unprepared for some of the formatting choices on the piece, though. The title Betsy Goes to Bologna caught me off guard, though it’s certainly true. But it was the art created for the piece […]
From sopping wet New York City here is your philosophical question of the day: If April showers bring May flowers, what the heck do May showers bring? Ponder that while I hand you a piping hot plate o’ Fusenews. My library branch is turning 100 next week (you may have noticed the pretty New Yorker […]
Call him the Tupac Shakur of children’s books. Or maybe that title should go to Margaret Wise Brown. In any case, it seems that every ten years or so we get a new Shel Silverstein book or collection of poems entirely out of the blue (I’m counting Falling Up, and Runny Babbit when I say […]
Recently a fellow co-worker at NYPL, a Mr. Jonathan Pace, decided to write a piece for NYPL’s Huffington blog called Returning to Busytown: Remembering Richard Scarry. Best of all, the man did his research. He got in touch with Scarry’s son, Mr. Huck Scarry, and has posted all kinds of information and photographs that certainly […]
Our top news story today is the fact that NOW is the time to start nominating books for The Cybils! The Cybils, for the record, are the only book awards handed out to children’s and YA titles as chosen by book bloggers. Books that win The Cybils are meant to represent those titles that have […]
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 […]
Sometimes a book trailer attempts to replicate the world of the movie trailer. Other times, they embrace television advertisements because that, essentially, is what they are. Now this ad for Basher books is far closer to the latter video form than the former, but you can’t mind that. For one thing, it uses a grizzled […]
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