Fusenews: Sunfire on My Bookshelves Makes Me Happy

• I mentioned the other day that of all the interviews I’ve conducted the one I consistently get the most feedback from was when I interviewed Kirsten Miller, author of the Kiki Strike books.  It struck me as a little odd that tween girls were locating me and, through me, Kirsten but I didn’t think much of it.  Then I decided to play around with that new search engine Cuil to see how effective it was (conclusion: needs work) and I typed in my name.  Nothing was coming up until, mysteriously, I hit upon the Wikipedia entry for Kirsten Miller.  Now all is clear.  This marks my first appearance on Wikipedia.  Most interesting.  I think I deserve a celebratory cupcake for that.  *hint hint*

• This just in from PW Children’s Bookshelf :

Ann Kleinman Reit, Scholastic editor and author, died on August 7. Reit worked at Scholastic for 28 years, from 1971 until 1999. She was a pioneer in the field of paperback series, working on such lines as Sunfire Romances, Girls of Canby Hall and The Guardians of Ga’Hoole. After her retirement she continued to work with several of her longtime authors. She also wrote many novels for Scholastic. Ellie Berger, president of Scholastic Trade, said in a memo to staff, "Ann was an important part of our Scholastic family. Ann made significant contributions to the world of children’s books with her fine editing skills that influenced readers everywhere."

Nooooooo!  Not an editor responsible for Sunfire Romance!  Those are the weirdly formative books of my youth!  Sad news.

• Headless chic gets a serious critique over at Collecting Children’s Books.  Book jacket lovers take note.

• Must… have… deck… chairs…  Alison over at ShelfTalker discusses a couple fabulous book-related items you might feel inclined to spend your hard-earned cash upon.  You can keep your coffee mugs (I’m a cocoa woman myself) just gimme this Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie:

• I recently went through all the Nancy Drews (original… none of that newfangled junk) and systematically tried to figure out which editions are missing from my particular branch.  In doing so I developed a real admiration for the titles of those books.  There’s something delicious about them.  Terms like "twisted candles" and "velvet mask" are like chocolate brownies to hungry readers.  You cannot resist them.  So since I was already in this mystery mindset, I was pleased to note that there’s a lovely round up of contemporary mysteries for kids over at BookKids.  Any mention of Enola Holmes has my instant and undying appreciation.  Thanks to Jen Robinson’s Book Page for the link.

• From each little blog I read I get a different bit of information.  So it is that I’m very pleased that 100 Scope Notes will regularly print the children’s titles from the New York Times Bestseller List.  The most recent recap was particularly interesting because there have been a couple change-ups in the standard order.  Suddenly Lane Smith’s Madam President swoops into the top five picture books and I haven’t even heard of this Alphabet book from Simon & Schuster.  Glad to see that Splat the Cat is getting some loving, though.  I keep meaning to review it but other things come up.  Doesn’t look like I need to, though.  It’s doing pretty darn well on its own.  Now has anyone read this Kiss My Math ?

• Twat is the new scrotum. Only in this particular case the publisher (Random House) has removed the offensive word right quick.  I’m sure many of you have heard that the t-word was recently changed to (I love this) twit in Jacqueline Wilson’s new novel for the pint sized, My Sister Jodie.  Author Michael Rosen has, on his part, done a rather fascinating look at the history of the term in his Guardian piece Children are swearing already, so why can’t Jacqueline Wilson?. I’ll never think of Mistletwaite Manor the same way again.  He also mentions that, "Jacqueline is a sophisticated, knowledgeable and subtle writer. If she chooses to use the word ‘twat’, it’s because she has sensed that it is entirely appropriate."  Good point that.  Thanks to Bookninja for the link.

• Daily Image:

J.L. Bell recently drew attention to the site Gasoline Alley Antiques.  One of their items for sale?  Posture advice.

I dunno.  I doubt that invoking the names of The Scarecrow or The Patchwork Girl is going to make the kids want to avoid that kind of behavior.  Seems to me they’d want to emulate their literary heroes, yes? Then again, if you have a kid emulating The Scarecrow, maybe you have bigger problems on your hands than simple posture.  I love the term "Universal Girl" too.  It has pizzazz.  Thanks to Oz and Ends for the link.

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