Video Sunday: Avast! There’s Literacy in Them Thar Kids!
I begin, today, with something brilliant. If you do not enjoy watching children speak in thick English accents about the books they love then you, sir, have no soul. This was created by Candy Gourlay and played recently on her blog Notes from the Slush Pile. Something to cheer you up on a chilly day. Thanks to Judith Ridge for the link.
Can you take more cuteness? Well author Darcy Pattison also discovered a child that was into a book. Her book. On YouTube. She writes, "My picture book, 19 Girls and Me has been translated into German, Arabic and Chinese. Now, intellectually, you know that a foreign translation means kids from another country will be reading your book. But in this YouTube video, ‘HeiHei’, you can clearly see the illustrations and it’s My Book, in Chinese (Taiwan) — posted in December and discovered when I was updating my website." Awwww.
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Next up is designer Chad Beckerman bringing you the inside scoop on how a book becomes a Wimpy Kid novel (I feel like Casey Kasem). Those of you who miss those old videos on how crayons are made or where mushrooms are grown will probably enjoy watching this one again and again and again. After watching the previous video, however, I think this one needs a musical soundtrack. I love the crazy machine at 3 minutes and 15 seconds in though.
This one is a Galleycat video interview with the agency Foundry’s founding partner Peter H. McGuigan talking about the state of his company today. It’s a pretty interesting look at how agents are dealing with the marketplace at this moment in time.
I’ve been doing a bit of Facebook recently. It’s fun, but undoubtedly this video does make it clear just how odd that little universe is (and how it doesn’t really translate to the real world well at all).
Thanks to Publishing Talk for the link.
And I think I will also end today by dumping a sheer bucket full of awesomeness on your head. This next video is what I wish life was like all the time. I think the only reason it works as well as it does is the amount of work they put into it AND the fact that it’s filmed very professionally (and undercover too, I suspect).
Thanks to As the World Stearns for the link.
Filed under: Videos
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 Kirkus, 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 BlueSky at: @fuse8.bsky.social
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Oh YES! Loved the musical in the mall! The second singer put me in mind of the all-musical episode of “Buffy The Vampire-Slayer” where his entire song (outside the dry cleaner’s) consisted of the triumphant lyric, “They got the mus-tard out!”
Elizabeth, I LOVED hearing these children speaking in thick British accents! Very charming. And it’s good to hear that the Death of Reading isn’t imminent. Hearing what kids like to read is always an informative thrill for me. Thank you for sharing this!
Is this the same improv group who froze all over Grand Central Station?
I just got EXTRAS out of the library. Seems my reading tastes correspond with British male teens! How about that?