Fusenews: Kith and Kin
-
The 2008 Boston Globe-Horn Book winners have been announced. I have an inordinate fondness for this list, as it often rights the wrongs of other awards (and sometimes gives a hint of future winners). This year is particularly satisfying. The Arrival , Fred Stays With Me, and Sherman Alexie all get their due. I was also intrigued to see that Shooting the Moon, one of my favorite books of the year, is also listed. I am not alone in my love! Whoop! Thanks to Roger for the link.
-
Check this other Arrival-centric tidbit out. Cheryl Rainfeld linked to an amazing portrait Aussie illustrator Nick Stathopoulos did of fellow artist Shaun Tan.
Who knew the critter was albino? This suggests a bit of thought on the artist’s part. Kudos.
-
If proven true, this is one of the more frightening pieces of news that I have read in a very long time. According to BoingBoing, "In the name of ‘defin[ing] clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt’ the Associated Press is now selling ‘quotation licenses’ that allow bloggers, journallers, and people who forward quotations from articles to co-workers to quote their articles." ("Journallers"?) Clearly this relates to news rather than literary reviews, but the difference is slim at best. I should very much like to hear someone discuss the legality of this particular issue. Thanks to Big A little a for the link and for her thoughts and further links on the matter.
-
From Cynopsis Kids:
"Seems that Anna Faris and Andy Samberg (Saturday Night Live) have apparently joined the voice cast for the animated feature film adaptation of the kid book Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs , by wife/husband author/illustrator team Judi and Ron Barrett, according to Faris who told as much to the MTV Movies blog. Sony optioned Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs some time ago, and when I last wrote about it the movie was slated for release March 2009."
-
Peter’s Father’s Day post on Collecting Children’s Books manages to cover everything from written inscriptions from fathers to sons, to children’s books dealing with fathers and the likelihood one has of winning a Newbery if you "ditch the dad" (so to speak).
-
ALSC has expanded its Great Websites for Kids links. Back when I worked in the Jefferson Market Branch in Greenwich Village I attempted to do a "Cool Website a Day" thing with our computers. I would put a little display within the computer cubicles where the kids would sign on, and switch out the signs of cool websites each day from such a list as the one ALSC created. Of course, short of staring over the kids’ shoulders like a malignant harpy, I wasn’t able to ever ascertain whether or not this worked. I suspect that it didn’t. Kids usually know what they want, but that is not to say that librarians don’t need great links to sites like these.
-
In the Kidlitosphere, certain authors and illustrators attain a kind of online status they might not have achieved solely in the print (slash moneymaking) world alone. One such author I thought was Canadian Melanie Watt. I thought that we all loved her but that the cold cruel callous world of bookselling was passing her by. The 2008 Libris Award puts that assumption firmly to rest. Ms. Watt has garnered both the best author and best illustrator of the year awards! Thanks to Kids Lit for the link.
-
I don’t know about you, but if I was a member of Harry and the Potters and I read this recent AP article on Yahoo, I would be seriously pissed.
-
I had wondered for quite some time what Debbie Reese, not-afraid-to-voice-her-opinion professor at UIUC’s American Indian Studies program, thought of Jacob and his kin as represented in those Twilight books. Not being a regular reader, I missed that she posted on the topic both here and here. Thanks to Oz and Ends for the link.
-
The C.S. Lewis estate is attempting to "to ruthlessly snatch away a gift intended for a young boy who loves his Narnia books", according to a recent article. Thanks to Bookninja for the link.
- Daily Image:
Let the record show that I am not pleased that they are doing reshoots on the Where the Wild Thing Are film. That does not mean that I don’t find this particular image fascinating anyway.
Love the claws. Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the link.
Filed under: Fusenews
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.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
SLJ Blog Network
Tegan and Sara: Crush | Review
The Seven Bills That Will Safeguard the Future of School Librarianship
Take Five: Dogs in Middle Grade Novels
Gayle Forman Visits The Yarn!
ADVERTISEMENT
rams says
Shuffle on over to Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden’s blog “Making Light” (this site won’t allow me to enter the link, but Google is your friend.) They’ve had their teeth into the AP’s attempt to limit quotation of their material for a couple of days now, and it’s just getting good.
LAURA LUTZ says
How can you have an article about wizard rock and not mention Harry and the Potters?!?! That said, I like Draco and the Malfoys better – their songs are funnier. And I can’t believe I actually know this much about it.
SamRiddleburger says
As a local news reporter who has had a few stories picked up by the AP, I’ve been surprised by the reaction to the AP news.
You don’t think WRITERS should have any rights to what we WRITE?
The facts are free, the WRITING isn’t.
Fuse #8 says
So if I were to quote a sentence from a review in a critical fashion, would I have to pay for the words I quote? Seems a slippery slippery slope. I’m with BoingBoing on this one.
rams says
Nope, keep reading. Even if you pay, you’re not allowed to be critical of AP. Sheesh.
SamRiddleburger says
By the way I was using “you” collectively.
I don’t think the AP cares about people quoting from reviews in yet another review. That’s fair use backwards and forwards.
The problem is bloggers who cut and paste AP content to “create” their own content.
Translate it to kidlit and you’ll understand. If I start up a Blog about life on a reservation and fill it with quotes lifted from Sherman Alexie books, I’m stealing his content — even if I credit him.
Fuse #8 says
But that’s not the real issue at work here. As me mum just pointed out, the AP isn’t allowing you to be critical, using these quotes. What’s more, if I quote Sherman Alexie higgelty-piggelty to make a point, that still falls under “fair use”. If I can’t be critical of his words and use his quotes to back up my points, then that’s a huge problem. And while the AP is starting with news, it’s a short step to reviews and online criticism. What if someone in the New York Times wrote a review of the new Leonard Marcus book and I took issue with some of their statements? I couldn’t reproduce them on my blog and comment on them? I can understand not liking people stealing quotes (I’ve had my own fair share of plagiarism in my day what with my wordy reviews) but it’s an easy problem to catch. Plus, I put quite a lot of direct quotes into my own blog from various news sources. I credit them, of course, and direct people back to their sites but I will NOT be ponying up moolah for the privilege to do so. I can understand where the AP is coming from, but this is a broad and very silly solution.