Fusenews: Tis Was

• I get a lot of books.  A lot.  Of books.  And simple mathematics tells me that unfortunately I cannot physically read all these books unless I A) Give up my job and B) Give up my blog (which somehow seems counterproductive).  Of course, there are still books I miss on top of this.  For example, I certainly haven’t laid so much as a golden eyelash upon author Haven Kimmel’s children’s title Kaline Klattermaster’s Tree House.  Such is life.  That said, I was pleased as punch when Jules from 7-Imp let me know that Ms. Kimmel has a blog. Ho-hum, you say?  Well aside from her voice, which is distinct and sharp, she has written a blog post that almost seems custom made for me.  Bob Loblaw’s Law Blog: Are the Quakers Amish? is a great little Q&A on Quakers that is hee-larious.  And I do not use the term "hee-larious" lightly either.  The use of bonnets is particularly choice.  As someone who attended a Quaker college ("Fight, fight, inner light / kill, Quakers, KILL!") I think it’s a particularly awesome post.  A pity she didn’t include the buttons question.  I’ve gotten "Are you allowed to wear buttons?" before.  The correct answer is, "No. It’s duct tape or nothing for me."  The only downside to this site is that I now have another doggone blog to read (consarn it).  Thanks for the heads up, Jules!

• Note to self: Buy more of author/artist Laini Taylor’s gift cards.  Follow-up Note to Self: Check out this interview with Ms. Taylor over at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. 

• When the first film in a projected series, based on a children’s book, crashes and burns into a mangled heap of bad CGI and over-inflated dreams the question of whether or not to continue said series comes up.  Recently we’ve seen movies like the gawdawful The Dark is Rising… oh… my bad.  I meant The Seeker (oop, ack).  We’ve also seen The Golden Compass which I enjoyed but many people found stiff, rote, and unimaginative without a hint of the book’s actual magic.  Now it looks as if The Subtle Knife is in limbo, so to speak.  I hope they make up their minds soon.  Their little star isn’t getting any younger, and the whole point of the series is when she and Will (whoever he may be) get hit with the puberty stick.  Thanks to Educating Alice for the link.

• I first heard about the weirdness of J.M. Barrie years ago in that most reputable of sources The Bathroom Book.  And when that Finding Neverland movie came out I expected a couple more articles like this one from The Telegraph to hit the newsstands.  Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.

• In the event that you missed this, Peter over at Collecting Children’s Books appears to have something in his collection that is connected to every article, person, and piece of kidlitcentric (yeah, I’m shuddering after making up that word too) paraphernalia in the biz.  In conjunction with the recent Anne Carroll Moore piece in the New Yorker he happens to have a candid shot of the woman herself.  Kind of stunning, when you think about it.  I suggest we all come up with a historical figure from the past and find out what other treasures Peter has that are connected to them.  I’ll go first… um… how about Ursula LeGuin?

• Wow.  How out of the loop am I?  I like to believe that I keep on top of things and that no series book passes unawares while I’m on the clock.  It’s all bupkiss though.  I mean, am I the last person to know that Jeanne DuPrau has written a fourth book in the City of Ember series?  Jen Robinson has just reviewed The Diamond of Darkhold and I’m sitting here with my jaw agape.  Good to know.

• I often forget what it is that I have written before.  Did I mention before that the book Children of the Lamp is currently being adapted to the big screen?  Tis.  Thanks to Kids Lit for the link.

• Anastasia Suen has created a Kidlitosphere FAQ for anyone interested in knowing the ins and outs of this tiny sphere of the internet universe.  It covers pretty much everything that I can see.  Worth looking at.

• Did you miss this year’s PEN festival?  Fear not, gentle readers.  Fran Manushkin recently said the following on the child_lit listserv about the next one and it’s a doozy: "Chiming in with Susan Kuklin’s fine post about PEN: The date for the next festival is Monday, April 27 to Sunday, May 3, 2009. Shaun Tan and Helen Oxenbury will attending. They don’t exactly write in other languages (Shaun Tan often uses no words–or a language of his own!) but we are so pleased they’ll be coming."  Pencil it in, lovelies.

• Daily Image:

I bet you could make a blog entirely out of different kinds of bookshelves.  You could show a different form a day, beginning with the Opus Shelving System seen here.  It’s for those of you who have declared all out war against your books’ spines.

Thanks to Alison Morris at ShelfTalker for the link!

Filed under: Fusenews