Bad Movies, Best Books, and Oprah

Matthew Holm had an interesting post on his blog about why it is that children and teen books are only supposed to contain child and teen characters. Montmorency is one exception to this rule, but it’s a very small drop in a very large pond.

Thanks to the gals at 7-Imp, I now know that illustrator Sean Qualls has a new blog.

From Cynopsis Kids, an odd little bit of info: "Mobifusion , a mobile content publisher, is releasing a new line of mobile content based on titles from book publisher Houghton Mifflin . The companies are working US mobile providers to feature a range of mobile products designed for mobile users and are specifically focusing on offering up top kid’s and reference information titles. Offering kid titles via mobile devices is, of course, a natural option given that they are the demo most likely to pick up and adapt to the form … certainly before their parents and most adults."   To repeat, mobile reference information titles.   A press release from Mobifusion itself cleared up what those titles would be: "one of the first titles planned for release will be Fast Food My Way, by star chef, Jacques Pepin. Fast Food My Way and other Houghton Mifflin titles including the American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary and The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy are slated for mobile edition release on wireless operators in the USA, Canada and UK later this year."  And everybody sits back to watch.

J.L. Bell succinctly sums up Anthony Horowitz and my problems with the man’s villains. This is your Must Read feature of the day.

It’s begun! Publishers Weekly fires a shot and declares the Best Books of 2007, and we’re not even midway through November!  Definitely some books I was happy to see, some I was baffled by, and some that should have been included and weren’t (shockingly).  Scroll down to the bottom to see what was missed.  Shouldn’t they acknowledge a separate teen section by now?  Thanks to Kids Lit for the link.

I once had a list of the Worst 13 Films Made From Children’s Books. Looks like the Onion’s AV Club has come up with a similar piece. Some movies are the same. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (Carrey-style) and The Black Cauldron made an appearance on both. They also cover some I forgot, like Stuart Little. And then there are new additions like The Seeker! Woo-hoo! Dunno if I agree with their assessment of Stardust, but then I never read the book.

And finally, a children’s literary pick on Oprah’s recommended online book titles has been removed  after it was revealed to be the work of a white supremacist. I was not familiar with The Education of Little Tree. Looks like NYPL has ten copies or so, and I’m sure we’re not alone.  Loving Sherman Alexie’s quote in the piece, though.  Good stuff.