Fusenews: Twisty Flora, or is it Fauna?

Q: How do you plan out the Artemis Fowl books?

A: I go down to Philip Pullman’s house and go through his trash.

Educating Alice has the skinny on author Eoin Colfer’s "Fairies, Fiends and Flatulence" tour and his recent stop here in The Big Apple.  I’m sorry to have missed it, but I managed to muddle the dates so terribly that attending just wasn’t an option.  Ah well.

• Enough talk about the mouse.  Let’s look at spiders instead.  There’s a truly lovely piece by Melissa Block up at the NPR website right now about Charlotte’s Web complete with pictures and everything.  I was particularly fond of this quote from Mr. White: "“[She] is not prettified in any way. She is merely endowed with more talent than usual. I came out ahead because of not trying to patronize an arachnid.” Thanks to 7-Imp, Children’s Illustration, and Shaken & Stirred for the link.

• Alison at ShelfTalker recently spotted the coolest children’s literary bench in the known universe.  I’d steal the images, but that would be tawdry.  You must go to her site to see her pics.  A great idea for any library or bookstore looking for a little creative benching.

• Adrienne has defined what certain terms used in professional reviews really mean.  She’s dead on with the definition of "nice" too.

• Liz has written new book.  Book is called Pop Goes the Library: Using Pop Culture to Connect With Your Whole Community.  Libraries should buy new book.  New book good.  Author smart. 

• "Dick Bruna, the 80-year-old creator of Miffy, the £150 million rabbit, leads a life of almost zen-like simplicity – or at least he would if it weren’t for the Japanese groupies." So says this piece on the great man in a recent piece in The Telegraph.  Thanks to Bookninja for the link.

• It’s Iron Man vs. Elephant in a fight to the finish.  Can Mo Willems and other actual honest-to-goodness authors beat the new crop of sickly movie tie-in easy readers currently coming out?  Read See Iron Man Run  at Slate.com for the answer.  Thanks to Mo Willems for the link.

• Agents, cast thine eyes aside.  Here’s a little bit of advice on how to divorce yourself from your agent.  Thanks to Cynsations for the link.

• Daily Image:

Me mum passed this one on to me and I’m still having a hard time digesting what I’m seeing.  They are living trees designed to… well, just look for yourself:

I can’t determine if I want one of these or if I feel bad for the trees.  Check out the site www.pooktre.com for more info.  Those magic mirrors have some serious potential.

Filed under: Fusenews