Fusenews: Let Me Entertain You, Let Me Make You Smile
The Cuffies are out! The Cuffies are out! The Cuffies, for those of you in the know, are presented by Publishers Weekly every year. PW asks retailers for their picks in a variety of categories and then they present the results for the masses. Categories include standard fare like Favorite Picture Book of the Year (Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, proving they are no fools) and less common categories like Best Sequel (The Penderwicks of Gardam Street, yet another win). There’s a bit of a surprise in the "Book You’d Like to See Win the Newbery Medal", and absolutely no surprise at all concerning the "Book You Wish Everyone Would Shut Up About." Many thanks to Mr. Funniest Book of the Year for the link.
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I had put this link to the Mo Willems blog in my upcoming post about Barack Obama, then promptly forgot why it was there. I thought it was a goof on my own part so it got chucked out. Now I see what happened. Fan art is never so good as when it combines The Pigeon and our new president. Special added bonus: Two of the greatest living children’s authors (THE greatest living children’s authors?) in one place at the same time. Mo Willems meets Laura Amy Schlitz. I’m suprised the heavens did not promptly split in two.
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Speaking of Mr. Mo, let’s play a fun new game called How Slow Is This Blogger? I’ll start. How slow is this blogger if she looks at this picture (or one similar to it in her Entertainment Weekly) and doesn’t seem to realize who the director of the show is until a clever author does the 2+2ing for her. *sigh* Long week. Thanks to Sam Riddleburger for the info.
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Here is a trend I wouldn’t mind seeing more of. Shelf Elf has a new banner courtesy of one of the Nicest Men of Children’s Literature (a new series?) Jeremy Tankard. He did it for the price of chocolate chip cookies at that. Sweet deal.
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The slush pile can yield wonders once in a rare while. I’ve heard of getting a publisher’s attention. But a tombstone? Seems a bit extreme.
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Doggone Brits. First they tell me that they’re creating a BBC series of Eoin Colfer’s book The Half-Moon Investigations and I get all excited. Then they tell me I can’t view the cool video regarding the show because I’m not English enough. Dol gurn it. Don’t make me break out my Yosemite Sam swearing, Brits! Rezzing, frazzing, consarn tootin’ . . . By the way, when I read through the description of the show and came to this part: "Their nemesis is teacher’s pet, April Devereaux ( Nicola Duffell ), leader of ‘The Pinks’," I misread it at first, coming to the conclusion that their nemesis was an actual pet. Now somebody please write me a book where the villain really is the teacher’s pet chinchilla, please. Thanks to Bookwitch for the links.
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British Hunger Games cover alert!
Hee hee hee hee hee. Thanks to Achockablog for the link.
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Aw, one more. New Airman paperback cover too!
Wheee! Thanks to Eoin Colfer for the link.
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Horn Book Magazine and the Junior Library Guild are getting all snuggly. That’s because Media Source from Dublin, Ohio (isn’t that also where OCLC is?) owns JLG and now has acquired Horn Book as well. Changes to come. Masses to bite fingernails in the interim. Thanks to Read Roger for the news.
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BookMoot finds a Today Show gaff that is in the fine " ‘Ann Curry tradition’ of getting the author’s name WRONG."
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Jacket Whys is doing a round-up of the best covers of 2008. Here is part one and here is part two. The woman has superb taste.
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The other day I did a massive report on ten publishers and their upcoming spring season. It was exhausting. However, in the midst of all this I happened to mention that the young woman conducting the Lerner portion had on a pretty spiffy outfit. Turns out that the woman’s name was Carol Burrell and on the Carolrhoda blog she has been kind enough to explain where she got the dress and shoes. When I called her dress a Mondrian dress I was being wry. Turns out, that’s what it’s called.
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I never really figured that I needed to mention to you every single Best of the 2008 Books list that’s come out. But nothing says I can’t mention the ones I particularly like. Check out Marjorie Ingall’s Best Books of 2008
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Daily Image:
As if there were not enough things in the world to covet. Voila, the scrabble keyboard:
Thanks to BoingBoing for the link.
Filed under: Fusenews
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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I wonder if it’s such a good idea for the Hornbook to “get all snuggly” with the Junior Library Guild. One publishes books, one reviews books. Isn’t that a conflict of interest? If the Hornbook gives a bad review to a JLG selection, it could hurt sales of that book. And if the magazines give a good review to a JLG selection, people will wonder if it was deserved. This doesn’t sound like a good match to me.
I may be wrong about this but I do not think that JLG publishes many, if any, books. They are primarily a collection development and book review service, or so sayeth their website.
My understanding is that they select books that are published by other companies and then sell them to libraries either individually or in packages of X number of books. If you see a book on their site that you might want to purchase, chances are you’ll go to the Hornbook to see what their review said. That’s where I see a possible conflict of interest. But maybe they will figure out a way of avoiding that possibility.
I think there might be a groundswell of support building for Masterpiece; Charlotte of Charlotte’s Library just noted that it’s Leonard Marcus’s pick for the Newbery, too. And for what it’s worth (not much), it was my favorite, too. Turtle tank chapter and violent ending aside, or not.
Yes, Fuse, thanks for the shoutout but I winced at your (unintentional) imagery. We will NOT be in bed with JLG. Their decisions about which books to offer their subscribers, and the Horn Book’s decisions about which books we will review for OUR subscribers, are separate functions, done by different companies for different audiences. While both JLG and Horn Book are owned by Media Source (which is in turn owned by the Riverside Company) we are separate companies.
Aw, come on. Snuggly = sleeping together? Not my association in the least. But all right, I acknowledge that some could see it that way. Thanks for clearing up the confusion, Roger. I was sort of holding off on saying anything else until someone like you did.
Masterpiece is one of my top choices, too, and if it weren’t for the turtle tank, I’d expect it to be a shoo-in for one of the medals. I appreciate a book that just goes ahead and tells a story without any fancy footwork. Or, to put it in Newbery terms, “great development of a plot”.
love love hunter games – looks like she did a sweep 🙂
shelli (Market My Words)
http://www.faeriality.blogspot.com
I’d love to hear your thoughts on any difference you’ve noted on the all the buzz regarding HUNGER GAMES and what you remember hearing about TWILIGHT when it first became hot.
I’m sorry you’re not English enough! I get equally frustrated when CBS block me on account of daring to be outside the US. Grrr.
I’m inadequate to compare the Twilight vs. Hunger Games buzz since I didn’t review Twilight when it came out. My review of Hunger Games was a good example of me pushing my own “No YA reviews” rule. The same exception could have been made for Twilight, but I missed the release when it happened. Other bloggers would be better suited to speak to comparing the buzz.
thanks so much for the shout-out, betsy.
–marjorie, who is not in bed with anyone at the moment (maybe tonight!)
The Half-Moon Investigations + BBC!!!!
Hooray for Colfer. He is having a good year or two, or three. He deserves it.
Memo to self: Must troll British sites more.