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November 12, 2008 by Betsy Bird

Fusenews: Spell Check Wants Me to Say That My Facebook Page “Am” Useful. My Spell Check “Am” a Bit of a Doofus.

November 12, 2008 by Betsy Bird   18 comments

If the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland is good, I do hope it is very very good.  And if it bad, I hope it is mind-blowingly, breath-takingly terrible.  I’m not talking a train wreck.  I’m talking a veritable crater in the ground where two trains used to be.  One Dayle McClintock does a lovely encapsulation of what may or may not be in store for this film over at Tor.com.  I was particularly fond of the line, "Crispin Glover is playing the Knave of Hearts. Unless the Knave of Hearts stole the tarts and then used to smother a bunch of kittens, Crispin Glover is being wasted on the role."  Thanks to Chasing Ray for the link.

Mental Floss recently tried to come up with The Quick 10: Stories Behind 10 Dr. Seuss Stories.  Don’t get too excited.  They’re mostly talking about facts that came out after the publication of said tales.  And the quick and dirty is often too quick and dirty, particularly where The Cat in the Hat is concerned (no mention is made of the list of words Seuss was given to work off of, for example).  Still, I like the idea that "If I Ran the Zoo, published in 1950, is the first recorded instance of the word ‘nerd’."  I don’t believe it for a second, but I like the thought.  Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the link.

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  • Every time I write a review I worry that something I say might appear in a snide piece like this.  Every. Single. Time.  Thanks to Library Voice for the link.


  • Heavens!  BookMoot has a lotta information about the filmed version of The Little White Horse (one of Joanne Rowling’s favorite children’s novels).  It has now been renamed The Secret of Moonacre, so all you librarians out there need to practice how exactly you’re going to convince your child patrons that no! Really!  It’s the same as the movie!  Good luck with that.


  • I was finally convinced to join Facebook about 2-3 weeks ago, and I like to think I was one of the last of the holdouts.  It wasn’t that I’m anti-social networking sites or anything.  I just know myself too well.  There’s a site out there where I can sit in front of a computer for hours and find out every last sordid detail about my best friend from 2nd grade and her recent boob job?  Great!  So in my effort to prevent myself from getting too into Facebook I created two accounts.  One for regular me and one for librarian me, thereby completely taking care of that old spending-too-much-time-online problem (will someone PLEASE invent a sarcasm font already?).  The librarian me Facebook page is useful, but I’ve never really thought about using it with library patrons.  Yet back in July children’s author Fran Cannon Slayton interviewed a YA librarian by the name of Emily Platz about how she uses Facebook with her patrons.  Very interesting stuff.  Thanks to Cynsations for the link.


Don’t mind me.  This is just your regular reminder to read the blog Golden Age Comic Book Stories.  Not for the comics (though those are pretty neat too) but for the magnificent scans of classic illustrations put up regularly.  Recently we’ve gotten a gander at Frederic Richardson‘s illustrations in St. Nicholas Magazine for L. Frank Baum’s Queen Zixi of Ix, some beautiful Dorothy Lathrop pieces from 1931’s The Fairy Circus, and a book I’ve never heard of that pops the old eyeballs called Funnybone Alley as illustrated by Boris Artzybasheff.  That’s where this picture’s from.


There are some interesting facts and even more interesting thoughts on the National Book Awards over at Tea Cozy these days.  I was at a nice book release party two nights ago and the conversation turned to what we felt would actually WIN win the Newbery, which I hadn’t really considered seriously yet.  And we mentioned all kinds of titles until the National Book Award nominees came up and I thought, "Of course!  Chains!"  But we shall see.  Too soon to set my cap on anyone quite yet.

  • Daily Image:


So I think to myself, "Sure.  This color-in wallpaper is pretty keen.  But you know what I’d really like?  Color-in wallpaper by some of my favorite artists."  And then I get to thinking about which artists would do a really good job of creating something you could color in . . .



Mark Alan Stamaty, definitely.  Remember his Who Needs Donuts?  Heck, just xerox the pages in that book and paper a room with them.  Instant color-in fun.  Who else . . . who else . . . oo!  What about Barbara McClintock?  She’d be cool too.

Thanks to BB-Blog (of course) for the link.

Filed under: Fusenews

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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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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.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. TadMack says

    November 12, 2008 at 3:02 am

    Oh, man, color-in wallpaper would make me waste more time than Facebook.

  2. janeyolen says

    November 12, 2008 at 4:34 am

    Explain to me once again (or as Rachel Maddow would say: “Talk me down. . .”) how LITTLE WHITE HORSE was a childhood favorite of Rowling’s when she said quite specifically in a BBC interview I heard when in Scotland that she didn’t read fantasy and had never liked it.

    I am so confused.

  3. Fuse #8 says

    November 12, 2008 at 5:43 am

    Dunno. But when asked about her favorite childhood books she has time and time again said, “Little White Horse, Little White Horse.” This much I know to be true.

  4. Susan (Chicken Spaghetti) says

    November 12, 2008 at 6:19 am

    Those Gawker items are snide, but funny, too–imagine what the Gawkwriters would make of some of the discussions on Child_Lit.

    Thanks for the link; I hadn’t seen that.

  5. Boni Ashburn says

    November 12, 2008 at 8:14 am

    I’d love to color in something by william bee!

  6. teacherninja says

    November 12, 2008 at 9:49 am

    Don’t let me near that wallpaper or I’d go into OCD heaven. Or hell? Or is it heaven? Or is it…aw,crap.

  7. Adam Rex says

    November 12, 2008 at 10:22 am

    I have to say, personally, that I couldn’t even parse what that Gawker writer was getting at. Why so pissy?

  8. Lisa Graff says

    November 12, 2008 at 11:30 am

    I want a sarcasm font!!!!! Can we start a petition?

  9. Sarah says

    November 12, 2008 at 12:09 pm

    I have to say, as I child I never thought that Little White Horse was fantasy–it was just slightly _other_. I know it doesn’t make sense, and my colleagues are always giving me weird looks for not thinking that certain other books are fantasy as well.

  10. Jen Robinson says

    November 12, 2008 at 1:09 pm

    I would LOVE a sarcasm font. Seriously.

  11. Adam Rex says

    November 12, 2008 at 1:36 pm

    A sarcasm font should be any regular font, but backwards or upside down.

  12. janeyolen says

    November 12, 2008 at 4:26 pm

    My daughter has been lobbying for a sarcasm font for years.

    I just want snide punctuation.

  13. david e says

    November 12, 2008 at 6:06 pm

    Who Needs Donuts! I was so happy when that came back into print. “The Lonely Hotdog Stand: Grilling the same lonely hot dog for 25 years.” That book is GENIUS.

  14. Fuse #8 says

    November 12, 2008 at 7:00 pm

    Well David he’s also a New York resident and just the nicest fellow in all the wide world. I was so happy when it came back in print too. There ain’t nuthin’ can compare.

  15. adrienne says

    November 12, 2008 at 7:15 pm

    You know, I thought I became your friend twice on Facebook, but then I thought it was just the coffee talking. Another of life’s mysteries solved.

  16. Minh says

    November 12, 2008 at 10:21 pm

    I couldn’t agree more on Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. He used to be one of my favorite directors, but for every Beetlejuice there’s a Planet of the Apes and for every Nightmare Before Christmas, there’s a Willy Wonka and the Heebie Jeebies Factory.

    oh and p.s.: You am been tagged/”hearted”… again.

  17. jess says

    November 14, 2008 at 12:28 pm

    I expected MUCH worse from the Gawker piece. Or maybe I read too many reviews and am immune.

    I’ll sign the sarcastic font petition.

  18. aquafortis says

    November 14, 2008 at 9:54 pm

    I feel kind of bad that John Green made the top 5 worst lines written in a children’s review…assuming this is “our” John Green we’re talking about.

    Also, what Minh said.

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