Fisticuffs and Forgotten Favorites

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you a lightning quick round-up before your very eyes.  Don’t blink!  You might miss it.

• It appears to be Children’s Book Week this week. Who knew?  Oh.  You knew?  And you?  Shucky darn.  Don’t nobody tell me nuthin’.  Well let’s celebrate it for all that we’re worth then.  I’ll do my part by going to work.  Who’s with me?

• Rick Margolis has a piece on great forgotten books or The Ones That Got Away. People from all over the country submitted the titles that they thought people missed between the years of 2001-2006. Mine is no great surprise either.

• Super good podcast news. Alvina Ling and Grace Lin are speaking about Robert’s Snowflakes on the Horn Book podcast site. Can I get a whoop? Can I get a whoop whoop? Can I make references in blog postings that are completely out of date and show my age?  That would be yes.

• I don’t usually link to professional reviews, but I do like that Gene Yang reviewed Shaun Tan’s The Arrival in The New York Times. Plus he and Arthur A. Levine just visited Monica’s class, which was awfully nice of them.

• The New York Times Best Illustrated book list is up and running for 2007. Looks like they forgot that Not a Box was a 2006 release (though just barely and it’s still a favorite of mine). Time to name the gaps. Right off the top of my head I can think of The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County, The Bearskinner, Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary, Little Night, The Apple Pie That Papa Baked, and Nothing But Trouble to name but a few.

• Printing the manuscripts of great authors pre-editing? Enough to give some contemporary authors nightmares, I should think. The Stuart Little line is of particular interest. Thanks to Children’s Illustration

  for the link.

• Hey, ALSC members (can I call us ALSCies?), heads up! The 2008 ballot slate is up for your perusal. I don’t even know… can I mention my top picks for Newbery and Caldecott chairs? Probably not. Grr. Polls don’t open until March 17th, so learn all you can now.

• My memory being what it is, I don’t think I ever properly directed you to The Brown Bookshelf blog. Entirely my bad.  Go there right now.

• Bottom Shelf Books tackles I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean via modernized heroic ideals, the social hierarchy, and good old-fashioned fisticuffs. He also got engaged. Go give hugs and kisses.

• Greg’s on strike. Well, I’ll be damned.