Pithy Natterings
I had a dream that Crazy Fish by Norma Fox Mazer won the Newbery. It won along with a bunch of Newbery Honor books, all of which were for teenagers. Please bear in mind that I have never read Crazy Fish and, to add to the oddity of it all, the book originally came out in 1980 under the title Mrs. Fish, Ape, and Me, the Dump Queen. Thank you, weirdo brain o’ mine.
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Children blogging about books? Sounds crazy, no? For those of you concerned about the young men of our nation, however, Boys Blogging Books may come as a relief. They do the reviews themselves with a little help from their mom on the other parts of the blog. Thanks to The Monkey Speaks for the link.
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The Horn Book Fanfare list of best books of 2007 is up and running. In my experience Horn Book tends to do some real keepers, then throws in an unexpected curveball when you least expect it. Let’s see, let’s see . . . . The Arrival, yes. The Bearskinner (which almost makes up for the baffling lack of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!), yes. Very nicely played with the Chicken Chasing Queen, yes yes. Oop. Here we go. The unexpected book is usually dog-related, and this year that would be May I Pet Your Dog? I missed that one entirely. Ditto Becca at Sea and Who Was First? Thanks to Read Roger for the link.
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Because I apparently do not have enough blogs to read every day, I see that S. Britt has a new one up and running. It’s called Many Haw-Haw’s (loving that banner) and the man takes his blogging seriously. Good man. Thanks to Children’s Illustration for the link.
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Speaking of new blogs, I’m kinda keen on this newish blog Kids’ Comics. It’s an offshoot of RAW, Jr. and TOON Books, which is neat. I’m always looking out for child-related graphic fare (as a review tomorrow or so will show) so this is of interest to me.
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Dutton got all useful on us and has produced something called The Dutton Writers Room. It appears to offer Writing Tips and (most impressive to me) an actual honest-to-goodness list of their editors and what they have done. Uh, could every other publisher out there do this on their site too, please? I don’t know about you, but being able to keep track of who has edited what is imperative to my job. Now that I’m clear on Dutton, I’d kinda like to do the same for others. Just a suggestion, folks. Thanks to Finding Wonderland for the link.
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Alison Morris at ShelfTalker has a response to the movie of Beowulf that makes me feel that the world is an okay place to be again. I’ve been traveling the New York subway system against a backdrop of seemingly permanent Beowulf movie posters for what feels like half a year. I was convinced that the movie already came out in October and bombed, so you can imagine my surprise when I learned that it only came out last week or so. I know that Neil wrote it (initially) and all, but CGI high-heels do little for me.
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All good little children know their Winsor McKay. Or they are at least passingly familiar with Little Nemo, appreciating the art even if the words themselves were a bit odd at times. Now from Spring Lake, Michigan (home of the artist himself) comes the blog Meeting McKay. It’s a cool little site with numerous links and bits of info regarding the man and his works. Right now it’s talking about what kind of memorial to make for the Mr. McKay. Statues are considered (tying nicely into my own statuary-centric post the other day) and how cool would it be to have a gigantic Gertie? I like the idea proposed by a commentator of making a statue of the man himself with his little characters running around his knees. Perhaps someone should sponsor this statue. When I’m rich I’ll do it myself, but until then anyone else can pick up the ball.
- And just for kicks, behold the glory of Japanese manhole covers:
Thanks to Children’s Illustration for the link.
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About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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Holy cats. Gertie appears to share considerable DNA with Dinosaur Bob.
That Dutton page is the most humane, useful, helpful thing I’ve ever seen.
The Dutton’s Writer’s Room is fantastic! I hope more publisher’s catch on. What a great way top help us out, and keep their slush piles under control. I linked it on my blog too. Thanks!
gail
gailmakiwilson.blogspot.com