Video Sunday: Bird, Beck, and Book Tours
I was sent Nick of Time by Ted Bell to look at. Sure I was. A lot of people were. And while it didn’t interest me particularly I bore it no ill will. Recently its author went on Glenn Beck’s show, which allowed the two of them to do what non-readers of age ranges beyond their own love to do… mainly trash contemporary literature they’re unfamiliar with. The actual need for boys to always rescue girls aside, this is a game played by anyone who stumbles into a field they don’t know very well. You waltz into a bookstore, look at a selection of books, then proceed to make sweeping generalizations about it on national television. Fun! Take an earful.
As per usual, Colleen Mondor’s response is the most thoughtful. She even comes up with lists of books that fill this (according to Beck n’ Bell) gaping need. And Galleycat pointed out that Beck also happens to be a fan of Meyer’s Twilight series, a fact that does not surprise me at all. After all, it’s the boy-rescues-girl model he so dearly loves. Oog.
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Sometimes I will wander randomly through Central Park and stumble on new places unexpectedly. One such ramble revealed this adorable Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre. There’s a cool video of it here that discusses the history of the building and the shows themselves. Thanks to Children’s Illustration for the link.
Poppets on a Book Tour is an oddly lovely little thing. I was just pleased to see the appearance of Krazy Kat and Ignatz. Coraline gets quite the attention too (though there are other books I’d advise people to physically enter first). Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.
Jim Averbeck is a picture book author and a newbie blogger. In his first post he explains by he named his blog Year Without Fear, and then proceeds to jump off a cliff. My stock of videos in which writers leap from high places is surprisingly low, so I’ll link to it here. Enjoy!
And finally, I had a better quality version of this video all saved and ready to go until lost it entirely and had to go scrambling. Here then is a scratchy YouTube video of 74-year-old Carroll Spinney who plays Big Bird. Always has. One of these days he’ll have to pass on the torch, but until then I find it comforting that the same guy has done it since the beginning. Good video too.
Filed under: Videos
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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I just had to respond to this, but wanted to have paragraphs so I wrote a blog response rather than rely upon the comments here. Hope you respond. http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/830000283/post/520028652.html
Do you really believe that I am a ‘non-reader’? Ridiculous on the face of it, but to make my point I suggest you read two reviews posted on Amazon by Diane Chen and Jane Baird of Library Journal. Then we can talk about your response. OK?
Ted Bell
Ah well. I don’t suppose it would make much of a difference if I mentioned that it was Mr. Beck I was referring to, eh? No? In any case, I am curious now that I have you here. Why did you agree that there are so few books of this sort out for boys these days? Were you referring to strictly historical titles? I mean, there was Eoin Colfer’s fabulous “Airman” which came out earlier this year. Do you mean tales of derring-do against foul villains? There was “Leepike Ridge” by N.D. Wilson last year. The interview mentions that you like the “Treasure Island” kind of tales, so what about “Larklight” by Philip Reeve? As I say in my post, I bear your book no ill will. I’m just wondering how a person can say something doesn’t exist without considering the already existing titles out there. Diane’s post on the book itself is very good, but I don’t think the book is what has people upset. It’s the notion that there weren’t others of similar type and scope before. That would be the objection.
Deep beneath (far beyond?) Glenn Beck’s pandering outrage — and nothing attracts an audience more than the granting of a license for righteous anger; witness both Beck’s happy delivery of it, and the indignant responses to him — there is a conversation to be had about how this very female field thinks about masculinity and boys and what boys should enjoy reading. It’s not a field with anything against boys, of course. But it is a field with blind spots. Anyway, the point is, Glenn Beck is not the man to lead the conversation.
Great points you make. We do all have blind spots. I will advocate for this type of book for guys and gals because I am an adventure junkie. I had NEVER watched Glenn Beck before this interview. After so many years of 4 boys, I am enjoying the quiet of my dogs, cats, music, and books. If it weren’t for the internet, I wouldn’t have cable. I spent last night playing with the 6 kittens in our house. My two 16 year olds had 4 friends over to watch UFC and play basketball outside until 11 p.m. We aren’t the same, but then I am 42 and they are 16. I do see much discrimination against boys in school. Remember in education classes when they warned us about “overcalling” on boys? In fact, I read a Babysitting Skills book tonight and it indicated that girls might not like to play pirates. I thought to myself, “Who is this author, a female, to say that? I love pirating.” Two weeks ago I babysat some children and we played pirates on two different playgrounds complete with costumes, props, treasure, key phrases, and lots of yelling. The girls screamed just as loudly as the boys as we battled sea monsters and bailed for our lives. Who dares tell me what I like or don’t like?
Part of the reason why I brought this up at Guys Lit Wire (in the post Betsy links to) is because we have so many male contributors (and readers) over there. I hope that alleviates some of the concern about the overly female response.
And Mr. Bell, it was never about your book but about the interview; I hope you can see that.
By the way, Colleen, I think Guys Lit Wire is an absolutely fabulous concept. Remember the Caldecott/Newbery interview this year when the reporter wouldn’t let them speak, but gushed out her mistakes? Whenever I have an interview in public, I go back and blog about what I SHOULD have said if I’d been in the comfort of my home, emailing back and forth without any pressure. Do I think Mr. Bell has a point about boy books? Yes and No. I think there are some great ones out there, but when I went to the shelves last year to randomly pull titles, more female protagonists jumped out. Now, I can’t trust myself to be random, but must deliberately balance.
Do you think we could tempt Jon Scieszka to weigh in?
KT
I do not know about Ted Bell or his books. But I do know that
on progressive blogs Glenn Beck has a horrible reputation of being a shill, a fake journalist talking head and not taken very seriously as he repeats the conservative neo fascist script. For example, during the wildfires in California, GB said that people who “hate America” are losing their homes. Being interviewed by GB is considered a negative by millions of smart people.
Wow! No wonder I’d never heard his interviews before. I prefer my Keith Oberman and Jon Stewart style of news and avoid ultraconservative neofascists (not saying Glenn Beck is one, just that I avoid them and never watch TV). Perhaps we need Keith and Jon to do an interview with ,or even better, how about if someone from the GuysLitWire do the interview? And why are we waiting for mainstream people to interview for us? We have Jules and Eisha at 7-Imp, Colleen, Roger with Horn Book, all the participants of the Blogathon… There have to be male bloggers who could counter. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I want Rocco Staino’s opinion, Chris Harris’ opinion, Neil Gaiman’s opinion,…I could go on & on. We’d all have fun then.
Good work. Good site8-)