Fusenews: Sadness and Cheer

Sad news precedes our usual Fusenews selections today.  From The Greenwich Time:

"Two town women, longtime librarians for the Perrot Memorial Library in Old Greenwich, were killed en route to the Denver airport Wednesday morning when their cab was struck by a hit-and-run driver, police said.

The library’s head of youth services, Kathy Krasniewicz, 54, of Palmer Hill Road, Riverside, and former youth services director Kate McClelland, 71, of Dorchester Lane, Riverside, were killed in the accident, a library official said Wednesday night."

McClelland and Krasniewicz were two of our finest.  A tribute space has been created for them on the ALSC Blog.  Those of you wishing to express your feelings may write something there at this time.  Kate was the incoming President of ALSC.  Kathy was a thoroughly remarkable librarian as well, reviewing for Kirkus and serving on many a committee.  This is a huge loss to the librarian and children’s literary community at large.  See Educating Alice for more thoughts on this sad day.

And now the happier news.  At long last the Children’s Kidlitosphere has a centralized location.  Called Kidlitosphere Central Pam of MotherReader is its mommy and had this to say of it: "Well, we have a kidlitosphere website now. I’ve been working on it with tech help from my husband and support from some other members of the community. It is still a work in progress and I hope with more input I can make it serve us better – both inside the community and as an entrance to the world of kidlit blogging."

I highly encourage you to check this site out for yourself so as to best explore its nooks and crannies.  At the very least you should look at the massive collection of Bloggers in Children’s and Young Adult Literature.  I am honored to be amongst this scintillating, magnificent crew.  Well done, Pam!

• Jeff Smith, creator of the Bone series (note to self: purchase last in the series ASAP) has created a small TOON book for the youngest kiddies.  This has potential, it does.  It’s called Little Mouse Gets Ready and though I haven’t seen its innards, surely it’s bound to be good, right?  Plus I like the idea of Smith winning a Geisel next year (I’m insatiable about this awards thing). Thanks to Good Comics for Kids for the link.

• The ALA Notables are up and running for those of you with an interest in that kind of thing.  Even better, Nina Lindsay did a quickie recap of some of the Notables discussions that I liked quite a lot.  Doesn’t quite explain why some things were left off the list (*cough cough* Wabi Sabi *cough cough* Keep Your Eye on the Kid *cough cough*) but it does answer a question or two.

• In the midst of all the award nuttiness I found myself quoted in the newspaper The Eagle-Tribune about the potential winners.  Aww yeah, baby.  I am HUGE in North Andover, Massachusetts!!  Huge, I tells ye. Fun Fact: I am not actually very huge in North Andover, Massachusetts.

• How very meta.  Did you like Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog?  Me too.  It was neat.  I need to get the soundtrack (Lori Prince).  So now what’s happening?  They’ve made a Captain Hammer comic.  No lie.  You can see lots of cool panels from it right here.  "We do the weird stuff."  Thanks to PW Comics Week for the link.

• Sure sure.  Jamie Bell and Daniel Craig have now joined the cast of the TinTin film.  But you know what I hear when I see an article like this one?  To me it’s all "Simon Pegg, Simon Pegg, Simon Pegg (Andy Serkis), Simon Pegg."  Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.

• A great piece is up right now regarding girls, comics, and Jane Yolen’s recent foray into the field.  The notion that girls aren’t into comics makes sense insofar as you never come in contact with any actual girls.  Locate a real, living, breathing sample of specimens, however, and out the window goes that particular theory. Thanks to PW Comics Week for the link.

• Daily Image:

On days when I read sad news, I run on over to Color Me Katie.  A commenter on this blog once said that she is the living embodiment of Amelie.  It is true.  For example, when bored she cuts up family photos and puts them around her house like so:

God, I love that woman.

Filed under: Fusenews