Fusenews: Sick In Bed Edition

About two days ago I got what I thought was a 24-hour flu bug.  The kind where you throw up at 7:00 in the evening and then try to fall asleep.  Only you can’t and half an hour later you need to throw up again.  So you do (in an increasingly painful way) and you KNOW that if you can just fall asleep you’ll be fine but instead you get these waking fever dreams about your blog and then it’s time to throw up again until eventually it’s 2 in the morning, you’ve yakked 8 times, and sleep is still just a fuzzy dream.

• This is pretty awesome.  Monica Edinger has recorded her students performing some of the monologues from the Newbery Award winning Good Masters, Sweet Ladies.  If you’ve ever wondered what the book sounds like when performed by actual children, look no further.

• What have I been telling you all this time?  Zombies are this year’s vampires.  The proof is in the pudding, as they say.  Thanks to Librarianne for the link.

• Wake the neighbors!  Call out the guard!  Hand me my smelling salts, as I think I’ve got the vapours.  The AP has just broken a HUGE story.  It seems that picture book art (are you sitting down?) is worth money!  Heavens above, what will they discover next? Thanks to Finding Wonderland for the link.

• Speaking of picture book art, wanna see the most adorable thing you ever did see?

Yep. ShelfTalker had the scoop on the Eric Carle Museum’s preferred mode of transport.

• Crooked House recently mentioned a deep and abiding desire for this poster.  I cannot help but agree.

• A lesbian picture book illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman?  Coulda woulda shoulda.

• We all love Kadir Nelson.  We do.  But Pink Me has a point about the Henry’s Freedom Box cover.  Cheep cheep!

• While I work on getting my fever dreams down to a manageable size, feed your own by imagining having a home in which this bookshelf staircase is an everyday reality.

Thanks to Tea Cozy for the link.

• New York Public Radio takes a crack at discussing marketing and children’s books. "From the Goosebumps to the Harry Potter series, some children’s books become enormous best-sellers. Jean Feiwel, Senior Vice President and publisher of Fiewel and Friends and Square Fish Books, Diane Roback, Senior Editor of the children’s section of Publisher’s Weekly, and Micha Hershman, a manager of Borders Group children’s department, discuss what makes a best-selling children’s book." It’s an interesting discussion.  Wimpy Kid is mentioned in the same breath as Harry Potter, so well done there, Mr. Kinney.  I also liked the very valid point that someone somewhere at sometime probably objected to the words "Wimpy Kid" under the false impression that no child would ever go for that kind of a title.  Why on earth did they get the man who purchases for children for Borders, though?  It’s not as if their children’s sections are anything to squawk about.  – Thanks to Chicken Spaghetti for the link.

• I have nothing but awe and respect for a blogger who can get good and mad about a poorly made children’s book.  BookBuds, I love you.

• And finally, you can’t help but love a good cover.  Neil Gaiman was discussing various covers for his upcoming title The Graveyard Book.  Take a gander at some of the David McKean jackets they sorted through.

Filed under: Fusenews