Fusenews: Because I Would Not Post About Death, Death Kindly Posted About Me

That was nice. The New York Times traipsed on in a week or so ago and so we spoke about the new children’s room.  Interviews are funny things.  You’ll mention something entirely off-the-cuff one moment and see it blazing in black and white ink the next.  Serves me right, says you?  Touche.  But of all the things I mentioned why did the writer choose to pick up on my Pete Seeger comment?  On the other hand, my mama informs me that if you are ever mentioned in the Times they’ll do your obituary.  Woot!  I’m in, babies!  I am sooooo in.

• Mr. Ambassador at large (can one be an ambassador at small?), the Scieszka-man, showed up on NPR’s Weekend Edition in tandem with his book Knucklehead.  They even include Chapter 33 online for free.  Clever dogs.  Thanks to Annette Wannamaker for the link.

• School Library Journal burst out of the gate this week with their Best Books 2008 list.  It’s that time of the year again, kiddos!  Many of my favorites were alas missing (seriously, no Keep Your Eye on the Kid?) but I was happy to see the inclusion of my much beloved Well Witched.  Not a given, but a beauty.

• Speaking of lists, also check out the CCBC 2009 Preliminary List for their Best of the Year titles.  There’s my Keep Your Eye on the Kid, but fare thee well Well Witched .  You win some, you lose some.  Thanks to Kids Lit for the link.

• Dear Santa – As your faithful blogger I would like the following items for Christmas: One Coraline box.  That is all.  Thanks to Educating Alice for the link.

• New Blog Alert: I’ve noticed that at the beginning of my blog there appears to be the words "school library" and "journal" in a banner.  School libraries, eh?  Maybe I should do more with that.  Well, this new blog may be the answer to such prayers.  Called LiteraBuss the site describes itself as, "A resource for teachers, students, and researchers in the field of children, pre-adolescent, and young adult literature."  Fair enough.  And I was particularly taken with one of their recent posts.  Clearly they’re not afraid to court a little controversy when writing a piece like Must NOT Read List For Elementary School (Books That Were Once Great But Have Become Irrelevant).  Particularly when it includes the words "Why It’s Trash" alongside beloved classics like Sarah, Plain and Tall and (oh man) To Kill a Mockingbird.  Gutsy, to say the least.  This one’s going on my mental blogroll.  Thanks to Jen Robinson’s Book Page for the link.

• I am but a humble librarian.  Your massive publicity machines and insider speak hurt my simple mind.  But I’ll admit that I’ve often wanted to branch out and make friends in the other children’s literary realms.  I want to make contact with people at Borders and Barnes and Noble to try and figure out what makes them tick in terms of the books they purchase and display.  I want to do more with people who make and produce theatrical productions of children’s books.  I want movie contacts and people who have a say in what Hollywood does and does not adapt.  And then there’s the whole world surrounding galleries and the professional display of children’s books.  I’ve rarely met anyone from that sphere, though there are a few exceptions.  The R. Michelson Gallery in Northampton, MA, for example, is part of an insidious plot to get me to move to that part of the country.  How else can you explain the fabulousness of their events?  I mean, just look at the information I received about a recent fundraiser:

Our 19th Annual Illustrators Exhibition (on view through January 31) opened with a fundraiser for Reader to Reader: Changing the World One Book at A Time . Norton Juster received an award, and a stellar cast of notable author’s/illustrators were on hand to celebrate (among them, Jane Yolen, Jane Dyer, Jeanne Birdsall, Barry Moser, Jerry Pinkney, Tony DiTerlizzi, Mo Willems, Jarett Krosoczka, Mordicai Gerstein, and on and on).

Some of the celebratory pictures are on our site here: http://www.rmichelson.com/Artist_Pages/Childrens/19th-Annual/Show-Photos.html

Original illustrations on exhibit, as well as info on Reader to Reader, and pictures from previous exhibits, are on our site here:

http://www.rmichelson.com/Artist_Pages/Childrens/19th-Annual/Childrens-Illustration-Show.html

You should probably check out those links.  Particularly the first one.  It has bird’s eye view of the movers and shakers of the artistic field that all happen to live near the gallery in question.  I am not kidding.  We lost Mo recently and Brooklyn mourns his passing.  Hey, did anyone else hear the rumor that Michael Hague was moving there too?  Confirmation or denial please.  Thanks to Rich Michelson for the link.

• Awesome ideas come.  Awesome ideas go.  And then there are the ideas that are wholly and eternally awesome till the endings of all our days.  I am speaking of course of Nathan Hale’s Dinosaur Advent Blog Posts.  Twenty-five dinos, counting down the days until Christmas.  You remember Nathan, right?  Did a little something called Rapunzel’s Revenge earlier this year?  Right-o.  Well now he has combined dinos with cute and fluffy holiday headgear.  Sure, he’s doing it to promote his new Chronicle title The Dinosaurs’ Night Before Christmas. But some of them thar proceeds will be benefitting The American Museum of Natural History too.  Tis the season!

• I had lunch with a nice publisher from Israel yesterday and we spoke about the quality of illustration around the world.  In the course of our conversing she happened to mention a particular affinity she has for the French.  My primary association with that corner of the globe unfortunately focuses on those lamentable Harry Potter covers (which increased in significantly in quality over time, but forgiveness can be hard).  Then I saw the stunner of a jacket for D.M. Cornish’s Lamplighter, now known as Terre des Monstres 2: Marque de Sang.  Cor blimey, that’s a beaut.  And how many of us will live long enough to see a book translated as "Marque de Sang"?  Everything sounds good in French.

• Daily Image: 

Alison over at ShelfTalker did herself a humdinger of a good blog post on great children’s endpapers.  Initially she was inspired by this endpapers posting and I can understand why.  I love me a good endpaper.  For example, I can’t tell you how sad I was when I saw that Katherine Marsh’s The Night Tourist did not replicate or even include the map that had appeared on the hardcover’s front and finish.  To drown my sorrows, here’s an endpaper or two from the Drawger posting.

If you want to know where they’re from, follow the Drawger link.  Think we can convince Peter from Collecting Children’s Books to post some of his own collection’s beauties?  Thanks to ShelfTalker for the link.

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