Fusenews: Diablo Hearts Judy

• ”You have to wonder why no one’s made a big-screen adaptation of Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself. I imagine it’s because these stories belong to young women. Real young women, not singing Disney cheerleaders, hair-flipping pop stars, or cartoonish socialites.”  So says screenwriter Diablo Cody in a piece about her idol, Judy Blume at Diablo Cody: In praise of Judy Blume on Entertainment Weekly‘s site.  Thanks to Confessions of a Bibliovore for the link.

• There have been many responses out there to the Anita Silvey article on whether or not the Newbery has lost its way (which is to say, it somehow has not turned into a popularity contest).  Perhaps the most unique and entertaining response to this piece comes via Monica Edinger who has rewritten the song "Popular" from the musical Wicked as a response to Silvey’s take.  Love the "Andes or Andy" line in particular.  Oh!  And if you’re reading this post before 10:00 you can enjoy a live webcast between author David Macaulay (note what all the ads on my site are talking up) and The Dalton School’s 7th graders (Monica’s school).

• "New" blog alert.  I never seem to catch these things when they first come out.  In any case, there’s a new D.C. blogger in town at a site called The Children’s Book Review.  I’m fond of the Aussie creator’s reviewing style. This one’s got style.

• At the last children’s literary blogger conference, blogger MotherReader made an interesting claim.  She believes that the wave of the future is the creation of group blogs.  Consider the benefits: You don’t have to write every day as an individual but only when you feel like it (and the blog will post every day thanks to your mutual efforts).  You can get a wider readership due to your independent fans.  The list goes on.  Children’s Writing Web Journal picked up the slack and ran with it in the post All Together Now: How Group Blogs Are Changing the Writing Scene.  The piece includes a list of some of the group blogs out there, but forgets the still relatively new British children’s literature group blog An Awfully Big Blog Adventure.  Worth checking out since blogs from overseas in this category are still few and far between.

• Everyone has magnificent posts, but I’m a sucker for anyone who places us within the context of history as author Sarah Ryan has done.  Author/cartoonist/librarian Ryan recently finished Leonard Marcus’s Minders of Make-Believe and, in a sense, envisions future chapters taking the children’s literary community into account.  Suits me.

• Poor Jacqueline Wilson.  First they remove her "twat".  Then they age-band her against her will.  She’s such a good sport against it but seriously, people!  Let the woman write and publish in peace.  Thanks to Bookninjafor the link.

• Just a gentle reminder.  I may have mentioned this in the past, but it’s always good to alert people to its existence.  There is a site out there called TeachingBooks which has a section entirely dedicated to the pronounciation, the correct pronounciation, of the names of various authors and illustrators.  They seem to update it, which is nice.  My mental rhyme to keep track of such things is, "Scieszka rhymes with Fresca and Krosoczka rhymes with Pro-Loss-Gah!". . . . which admittedly doesn’t make any sense.  Thanks to Saints and Spinners for the link (and I see that Web Watching with Rachel also recently mentioned it, so kudos there).

• Daily Image:

I think I’ve finally gotten around to reading all the posts about the recent KidlitCon08 and so it is that I found this magnificent cartoon by illustrator Carolyn Digby Conahan.

Note the zombie hand puppet.  Carolyn wins the unofficial Kidlistosphere 2008 Best Illustrator Award for drawing something in conjunction with the event.  If others have done the same, I’d love to hear it.

Filed under: Fusenews