The Flibbertings of a Gibbet

Movie news is in abundance these days. Let’s take a peek at some of the offerings the world is currently laying at our feetsies.

• From Cynopsis Kids comes an interesting, albeit confusing, bit of news:

BBC One’s modern retelling of Rapunzel , which is set in the world of competitive tennis, will star a cast of noted British actors including, Lee Ingleby, Charity Wakefield, Shaun Williamson and Geraldine James as well as Oliver Chris, Tony Way, Alex Jennings and tennis great Pat Cash. Rapunzel is part of a modern anthology of fairy tales, scheduled to air later this year, to be produced by Hat Trick Productions in Northern Ireland for BBC One. The other fairy tales in the anthology are Billy Goat, Cinderella and The Emperor’s New Clothes.

I’ve been attempting to reconcile Rapunzel with tennis and my brain just isn’t letting me. For the record, has anyone else noticed the sheer number of times Rapunzel has been mentioned in children’s literature this year? Count it up some time. Into the Wild. Into the Woods. Letters From Rapunzel. The Secret History of Tom Trueheart. Sugar Cane. The scary thing is that I could go on. Seriously, that girl is hot stuff in 2007. I suppose it has something to do with her lack of Disneyfication.  Moving on . . .

• Jane Yolen (how’s that for name dropping, eh whot?) let me know that the new Spiderwick trailer is up and running. Those of you with slower computers may have some difficulty accessing this site. Looks to me as if Nickelodeon is giving Walden Media a run for its money.  And, if that The Dark is Rising film turns out to be as terrible as everyone suspects, this should fill in the kidlit movie gap nicely.  Thanks, Jane!

• And then there’s that little noticed Potter book that keeps flying under everyone’s radar. There’s a kind of catharsis in this being the final volume, don’t you think? We can all gear up, have a fabulous party, and relax knowing that the phenomenon is over and done with and . . . . . . wait. . . . what? J.K. Rowling is apparently thinking about an 8th Harry Potter book?  No, it’s not entirely a rumor.  Can you imagine what would happen if this were true?  I love the books just as much as anybody, but I also believe in the importance of ending a series.  Plus, if I ever have to help throw another Harry Potter party of this magnitude in my lifetime it will probably render me mush.

His exact quote, "See! Some people think I’m terrifying!"  Silly old bear.

• And in the realm of blog news, a couple goodies.  Author Kyra Hicks has begun a blog on African-American children’s books entitled Black Threads In Kid’s Lit. There are some great posts up already, but the one that particularly caught my eye was called Only 87 Black Children’s Authors in 2006.  When I was on the Newbery committee last year I was constantly trying to figure out how many black children’s authors were out there.  Now we know.  Go read the piece.

• Also, I haven’t had a good Oz and Ends link in a while. There’s a doozy of one up right now entitled Making Off with The Lightning Thief.  It refers to one Ms. Ann Giles from The Guardian and her insistence that it is all right for her to include Riordan’s book on her list of children’s titles with characters who have Asperger’s Syndrome because, "ADHD is close to AS and I think the way the half god children feel different fits in just as well with Asperger’s.  It’s that outsider feeling, being different, that readers need."  Oh.  God.  Please please read the Oz and Ends piece for thoughts on this matter.

• And finally, from Kids Lit we learn that Richie Partington (of Richie’s Picks fame, for those of you that read Amazon reviews or the child_lit listserv) has created a Censorship wiki.  This strikes me as a very good idea.  If enough people contribute to it, we could get a record of censorship that takes into account those challenges that never get officially recorded on the yearly ALA roster.  Heard that a small school district near you recently challenged The Chocolate War?  Add that info to the wiki.  Spread the word about this then.  I think it deserves to be known.