Fusenews: The Snowman Goeth

• Half the discoveries I mention on this blog come about through incessant self-Googlization (note: find better term for this).  For example, the other day I saw that my blog was on the blogroll for something called Authors Now!  And I probably wouldn’t have paid it too much mind even then had it not been for the fact that the cover being displayed was this:

Eye catching, is it not?  It’s a Summer 2009 release and its cover marks a distinct shift on the part of Feiwel and Friends away from the previously dreamlike soft-hued images they’ve favored in the past.  But back to the site . . . Authors Now! describes itself as, "The Internet’s Largest Collaboration of Debut Children’s and Teen Book Authors and Illustrators".  This may actually be true.  Other debut-centric groups like the Class of 2K8 and the like are lovely but they limit the number of debut authors who can join.  Also, Authors Now! apparently includes debut picture book authors as well as novelists.  Most interesting of all, some of their titles are listed as having 2010 release dates.  So I guess anyone can join, no matter when your book is coming out.  I will be watching this site with interest.

• Over at Read Roger, Roger Sutton describes the experience of showing the film of Raymond Briggs’s The Snowman  to the young.  I cannot wait until I have a little test subject of my own to try these things out on.  I mean, when I was a kid I was perturbed by any ending that did not keep to the straight and narrow definitions of a "happy ending".  If there wasn’t a wedding, I could deal but I wasn’t pleased (a life of Shakespearean comedies appropriate for seven-year-olds was I guess what I sought).  And for a main character to just MELT!  Blew my tiny mind, I can tell you.  I still fight against some residual drops of horror free flowing in my blood when I remember the end of that book/film.  Then I rewatch this video and I feel a little better.

• Hubba wha?  The Guardian just announced the fact that Nintendo is getting goofy on us.

For any reader feeling they didn’t do enough shopping before Christmas, help is at hand from Nintendo, which is preparing to launch a library of 100 classic books for its handheld games

console on Boxing Day.

It gets weirder.

Perhaps aware that it’s catering to an audience with a short attention span, Nintendo is also offering the option, for those "stuck for somewhere to start", of telling the software your mood, upon which it will present you with a range of options. Bleak House, for example, would be a bad option for those pushed for time, while King Lear might not suit those in need of a pick-me-up.

Thanks to bookshelves of doom and Bookninja for the link.

• Oliver Jeffers’s book Lost and Found has been turned into a delightful little film narrated by Jim Broadbent.  Don’t be looking for it too soon, though.  It will be playing on Channel Four in England on Christmas Eve, but not here in the States for a while.  Foot.  Thanks to ShelfTalker for the link.

• Oh, Wayne Kokkinos, what a strange sad truths you speak.

I came this close to missing the fact that Christoph Niemann (creator of such picture books as The Pet Dragon, The Police Cloud, etc.) had a new piece in The New York Times.  This one?  An ode to coffee.  Thanks to Swiss Miss for the link.

• Jen Robinson just posted the following information on her blog for one and all to see:

"I am delighted to announce that starting in mid-to-late January I’ll be working with Susan Kusel from Wizard’s Wireless, Pam Coughlan from MotherReader, and Gina Montefusco from PBS on a new children’s book blog for PBS Parents. The mission of the blog will be to help kids learn to love reading. This, of course, fits in quite well with what Susan and Pam and I have been trying to do with our own blogs, and with what PBS does through their many other outlets. We are all very excited to get started."

Yes, my pretties.  My ultimate goal of getting us to ALL be paid for blogging is coming to fruition.  Soon we shall all be paid for what we love and NOBODY will be able to stop us! 

• I actually have one of these bookmarked on my browser, no lie.  Every year Susan over at Chicken Spaghetti creates this amazing round-up of all the Best Books Lists of children’s titles in a given year.  She’s already started with her Best of the Best: Kids’ Book ’08, and it’s well worth checking out.  If you’re looking for the ultimate consolidation of "the best", this is it.

• Huh.  Who knew the Animorphs books contained so much pathos?  I ain’t reading them, but this blog Purple Polka kinda sorta makes me wanna.  Thanks to Tea Cozy for the link.

• Daily Image – Holiday Gift Edition:

Got kids?  Got parents?  Got parents that can’t get enough of your kids?  Well a little site called Petit Debutant tells you how you can go about making silhouettes of your children for the aforementioned grandparents with little muss or fuss.

Thanks to Swiss Miss for the link.

Filed under: Fusenews