Fusenews: Cough-Prone Books and Cover Fun

The blog Milk and Cookies wrote recently, "It’s amazing to me that Diary of a Wimpy Kid #3 came out yesterday and NONE of the ‘big’ kidlit blogs mentioned it."  To be fair, there is a really good reason for this.  My typing hands were otherwise occupied, beating back of the sheer hoards of children who wanted a copy.  What’s more, I was sent my very OWN copy from Abrams, only their records are old and it was originally slated to arrive at the old Donnell where I used to work.  It took 2 months for it to find itself to me, the very day after it was released on bookstore shelves.  I have it with me here.  And no, you may not have it.  MINE!  MINE!  MINE!

• From Cynopsis Kids:

Yup. You read that correctly.  Luke Perry is the dad.  Has Naylor ever had an official movie-movie (as opposed to an unofficial tv-movie)?  Considering the sheer amount of books to her name, I would think she’d be fending off offers left and right.  As it stands, this is a British film AND direct-to-DVD.  But it’s a start.

• Eva Mitnick tackles the upcoming economic woes libraries face and gets those woes into an unbreakable headlock in her piece When Times Get Tough, Children’s Librarians Get Tougher!.  Lots of good advice there.  Getting back to the basics is the name of the game.

• Unread books jostle for our attention in different ways.  Mine sit on my shelf and, at odd moments, while I type up my blog posts, they will softly cough to themselves.  It is infuriating.  I assure them that I will get to them when I have a chance and they nod politely.  Then there I go, ah-tappety tappety tap when I hear another little *cough* so delicate it sounds like a moth swallowed the wrong way.  Don’t they realize that I have a good 300+ days before the end of the year?  I complain but I have nothing on Laura Lutz.  Her books heckle her .  At least mine have the decency to look embarrassed about it.

• Oz and Ends offers additional insights into the Pooh sequel debacle, taking particular care to think about the estates and whether they did or did not commission this book.  This can only end in tears.

• I run a homeschooler bookgroup out of my library and it tends to be very fun.  The kids we have right now are great readers, after all.  Over the years I’ve grown to know the New York homeschooling community pretty well and I’ve done what I can to help them with library services and programs.  I’m sure that a lot of other librarians are in a similar position.  That’s why it’s so nice when a publisher takes the time to create additional homeschooling resources for kids.  Lee & Low have, for example, begun a Homeschooling page on their website that, when you scroll down, provides multiple links to a range of different topics, including Homeschooling Friendly Grants and the like.  A trend I would like to see more of (not to mention a pretty clever marketing technique in and of itself).

• Meghan McCarthy recently spoke at my Children’s Literary Cafe (held the first Saturday of every month) and now, lo and behold, the 7-Imp women have taken a slambang look at her recent book about Seabiscuit: The Wonder Horse.  Great book.  Great post.  Everything involved is worth reading.

Freaking out because of that Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act that passed in August of 2008?  ALA offers some advice on the matter:  "Please stand by – there is no need to take action at this time.  The situation is extremely fluid and every day this week ALA has received new and sometimes contradictory information.  The ALA Washington Office is taking measures to ensure this ruling (CPSIA) will not affect libraries and has sent a letter to all Congressional offices alerting them to the fact that we believe CPSC General Counsel has erroneously interpreted the CPSIA to include books."  You may check their website for more information.  Thanks to AL Direct for the link.

• A blogger such as myself should remain, at all times, impartial.  I shouldn’t have a favorite SCBWI region.  Tis uncouth.  Unsporting.  Thoroughly bad form.  But after speaking at the last SCBWI Western Washington Conference and then seeing their jaw-droppingly good upcoming conference line-up as well (to say nothing of their design choices) . . . let’s just say it’s enough to make a gal wish she lived in Washington.  Which, let us face is, wouldn’t be much of a chore anyway.

• 2009 Books I Want: My Life in Pink and Green by Lisa Greenwald.   [whistles to self]

• In case you missed it, SLJ did a really nice round-up of the children’s literary folks who passed away in 2008.  I’d forgotten some of them were so recent.  Like Tasha Tudor for example.  Thanks to SLJ Extra Helping for the link.

• And they said it couldn’t be done.  A Year in Reading has managed to come up with the best number one defense of Kira-Kira as a Newbery winner that I’ve heard yet.  It’s still not a favorite of my own, but I acknowledge the good points she makes.

• New Cover Alert!  Teacher Ninja has discovered that there’s a new paperback image for Elijah of Buxton (praise be to the heavens).  Voila:

Teacher Ninja finds it a little serious, but I’m a fan.  It’s a very different take from the original.  And while I know that designers do not necessarily take into account where the medals will be placed, one can’t help but notice how nicely they look when paired with this image.  Almost as if it were made for them.  Hm.

Speaking of new paperback covers, check out the new cover to The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World:

I still wasn’t fond of the book, but I do like this image.  I has a face on it!  A face!  Of a boy! 

• Daily Image:

Excessive F&G’s can clog up the workings of a library unless you’ve a creative soul lurking in your staff.  And if such a soul exists then you may be interested in this suggestion from Alison Morris over at ShelfTalker . "Not sure what to do with all those publisher catalogs you’re tossing in the recycling bin or the F&G’s you’re occasionally allowed to keep after sales calls? Recycle ’em by turning them into signs for book displays!"  She has a whole host of suggestions available on her site.  Go to her site to see them all:

CCI Releasing enters into an agreement with UK-based Momentum Pictures , a unit of Alliance Films, to release Alice Upside Down , a movie that CCI is distributing worldwide.  Under the deal Momentum will release the movie in the UK as a direct-to-DVD.  Based on author Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s Alice novels, the movie stars Alyson Stoner as Alice, a girl who just wants to fit in the new town she moves to with her dad and brother.  The movie also stars Lucas Grabeel as Alice’s older brother and Luke Perry as their dad.

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