Fusenews: Whelping, Wild Things, and West Kentucky

I am shocked.  Shocked and appalled.  Shocked and appalled and saddened to think that until this moment in time I’ve never seen an article about Maurice Sendak with the title Wild Things, I Think I Love You.  Come on, people!  That should have occurred to all of us at some point.

And for those of you with fairy tale retellings on the brain, allow me to humbly direct your attention to Alison Lurie’s interesting piece The Girl in the Tower found in the latest New York Review of Books.

When personality quizzes go goofy, they go really goofy.  Seriously, what’s left?  "What Kind of Pocket Lint Are You?"  "Which Near Extinct Animal Do You Most Closely Resemble?"  "What’s Your Sign, if You’re a Cat?"  Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.

Author Ian Beck offers up his two cents regarding some of the coolest children’s illustrators of the British persuasion working today.  I was pleased to see that the image accompanying the book was Dexter Bexley and the Big Blue Beastie, which I kind of consider a really great underappreciated book of last year. Thanks to Big A little a for the link.

From Educating Alice I learned about the most extensive Alice in Wonderland wiki of Alice illustrations ere whelped.  I’ve been wanting to use the term "whelped" in a sentence recently.  Now’s as good a time as any.  And I could easily spend hours at this site.  It’s amazing.  This one right here is by Roberta Collier-Morales.  Go give this woman a book contract or something.

Wizards Wireless found this pretty amazing story Western Kentucky inmates record books for childrenKentucky Post.  I found the names of the books being read very interesting.  No More Monsters for Me! by Peggy Parish.  A cartoon story of Jesus.  Books are my concentration and my life but there’s more to this story, I know.

from the

Lord help me, I’m actually reporting on Twilight.  *sigh*  Well word on the street, and the street is notoriously unreliable, originally said that the boy cast as Jacob in the Twilight movie is not exactly Native American.  His name is Taylor Lautner and he’s probably best known for playing Shark Boy in The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl, years ago.  But this recent MTV interview had me amused: "Lautner, who told us that some recent research into his family history revealed that he shares Jacob’s Native American ancestry, arrived in Portland last week…"  Reeeeally?  Amazing timing that.

I suppose I could have talked this up for PLA, but it wouldn’t have mattered one way or another timing-wise.  Author Susan Marie Swanson recent sent me this cool link to illustrator Wanda Gag’s home in New Ulm.  You can tour it June through August or some weekends in October or December.  Sounds pretty neat.