Happy Mother’s Day! It was Monica Edinger who alerted me to the fact that fresh on the heels of the Matilda musical is an upcoming British production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. She has the details and directed me to this truly unfair let’s-not-give-anything-away teaser trailer. This introduction is a bit better. You know [...]
Video Sunday: The Happy Mother’s Day Edition (Warning: Contains no mom-related material)
May 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Fusenews: Warning – May contain fancy dancy footwear
March 13, 2013 By 6 Comments
Morning, folks. Bird here. Seems this book I’ve written with fellow bloggers Peter Sieruta of Collecting Children’s Books and Jules Danielson of Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast is in the last stages of completion. Fun With Copyedits is the name of the game this week, which means that my blogging may suffer a tad here [...]
Review of the Day – Matilda: The Musical
March 7, 2013 By 15 Comments
I do more than books from time to time. On Tuesday night I had a bit of a treat. Something I’d been looking forward to for years and years was finally within my grasp. You see, a couple years ago my opera singer friend Meredith went to a performance of a musical in Stratford-on-Avon and [...]
Fusenews: Harumphing my amens
February 23, 2013 By 2 Comments
Not sure how long I’ll get to keep calling my little news items “Fusenews” since the Fuse network, hitherto not a problem in my sphere, has just decided to call their news program, you guessed it, Fuse News. But really, who am I to complain? It’s a kicky little term. So! The 2012 Cybils Awards [...]
Video Sunday: Steampunk rodentia
January 13, 2013 By 3 Comments
Now this is really neat. There’s a series called BOOKD through THINKR (apparently E’s are considered gauche these days) that will take a topic and really go into it with a panel of experts. In this particular case the question is whether or not you should re-read Charlotte’s Web. Author Bruce Coville and teacher/blogger/author Monica [...]
Fusenews: Confessions of a syllabus addict
January 4, 2013 By 2 Comments
Allrighty then (remember when this phrase was a thing?). Time to whip out a Fusenews in this new format. Let’s crank her up and see what she can do! Let’s start with the me stuff. This happened while I was on vacation: The folks at the New York Times asked me to be a part [...]
Video Sunday: Just Call Me Old Softy
April 22, 2012 By 4 Comments
Okay, so I have to ask. What is up with various members of The Decemberists and children’s literature these days? First lead singer Colin Meloy writes a fantasy novel. Now Jenny Conlee helps compose a score for a stage adaptation of Matt Phelan’s The Storm in the Barn playing at The Oregon Children’s Theater. You’ve [...]
Video Sunday: Warning – Contains adorable children, bunnies, and Australians
March 25, 2012 By 3 Comments
Aw yeah. I’m breaking out the big guns today. Cute kids trying to raise library funds. The catchy song and good cause don’t hurt much either. Seems a little town called Shutesbury has been having a difficult time raising funds for a new library. Their old one is, as you can see “wicked small”. So [...]
Fusenews: The Jack Gantos / Alfred E. Newman Connection
February 2, 2012 By 5 Comments
And then it’s February. How the heckedy heck did that happen? Looks like 2012 is already establishing itself as the Blink and You’ll Miss It year. Well, let’s get to it then. First and foremost was the announcement of Battle of the Books 2012. Or, as I like to think of it, the place where [...]
Fusenews: When “going green” is a bad thing
January 5, 2012 By 4 Comments
The last time I did a Fusenews was more than a week ago. As such my links all seem a bit out of date. Ah well. Let’s have fun with a partially abbreviated Fusenews today then. However, to begin . . . Sometimes it feels like we always lose some of the best ones at [...]
Video Sunday: Dragons and Dragon Teeth
August 14, 2011 By 8 Comments
We begin this week with something extraordinary. A book trailer that looks like a movie trailer (no real surprises there) but that includes so many specific details to its book that you’re half inclined to think that the movie version already exists. Super 8‘s actor Joel Courtney stars in trailer for The Dragon’s Tooth by [...]
Fusenews: Terms we can live without = Young-young Adult
July 6, 2011 By 12 Comments
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 [...]
Fusenews: Your source for any and all Gene Wilder trivia
May 12, 2011 By 8 Comments
Well, first things first! The Ezra Jack Keats New Writer and New Illustrator Awards were handed out two days ago, and at long last I can finally tell you the winners. These awards are given out to new authors and illustrators of children’s books with no more than three books to their names that “portray [...]
Fusenews: Love to eat them mousies. Mousies what I love to eat.
April 26, 2011 By 11 Comments
I feel like the White Rabbit here. No time, no time! We’ll have to do this round-up of Fusenews in a quick quick fashion then. Forgive the brevity! It may be the soul of wit but it is really not my preferred strength. In brief, then! First, I want this book to exist: Dean Trippe, [...]
Video Sunday: Life’s too short to lose an hour (daylight savings or no)
March 13, 2011 By 1 Comment
It begins! The thing with the books and the thing with the thing. Which, if you wish me to be slightly more coherent, roughly translates to, “It begins! The Battle of the Kids’ Books wherein great authors go through great books to decide which ones they like the best!” This little video is kicking everything [...]
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