Fusenews: Fun With Paper Bags

Oof!  The old Fusenews bones are feeling a bit creaky.  I haven’t done a good round-up of the news lately and here I have all these precious links just storing.  Time to unload a couple.

• First up, you authors may think your fans love you.  But do they love so much that they’d make vomiting fish cakes out of scenes from your book?  Yeah.  Didn’t think so.

• I hereby declare this post today’s best thing ever.  I mean it.  All this other stuff is good, but it doesn’t compete with a simple paper bag, a marker, and a copy of Ian Falconer’s Olivia.  I am even going back and amending my Olivia post on the Top 100 Picture Book Poll, just so that it includes this link.  I mean it.  Best. Thing. Ev-ah.  Thanks to Carol Reid for the link.

• For a while I’ve been on the lookout for a good kids webcomic.  I know that there are a million billion webcomics for small fry out there, so let me be more specific.  I am looking for GOOD webcomics for kids.  Not half-brained dreck, which is bulk of what I’ve found in my time.  Recently, however, I found an exception to the rule.  It’s called Smash and it’s a cut above the rest.  Just your basic kid gets superpowers shtick, but the art is good, the writing is good, and the storyline adapts well to the webcomic format (which is to say, serialized).  You can go to the website here and then read the comics posted so far on the right-hand side of the screen.  If it follows the lead of such other successful webcomics as Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Jellaby in print form, I will be well pleased.  Thanks to Chris Bolton for the link.

• Speaking of comics, I’m still waiting for artist David Small’s autobiographical graphic novel Stitches to come out (I can haz grafik nuvl, plz?).  While I wait, however, I’ll be content to watch him win awards like the recent Christopher Award he got for That Book Woman.  There’s a nice piece about him here. 

• I don’t think I let you know of a recent honor I received.  Some might call it a dubious honor but to those naysayers I simply say, "Dubious means extra extra good, right?"  From Lynn Hazen I received the message: "Congrats–You just won the Michael J. Wince Award for Bad Poetry Friday!"  Sniff!  I’m so pleased!  Couldn’t have happened to a worse poem.

• The one thing that makes me a little sad about my new library room?  We don’t have much in the way of exhibition space.  I miss the days when we could do a big old cool exhibition of art both local and distant.  I miss getting to go through the Central Children’s Room’s treasure trove, pulling out the neat tidbits and placing them on display for one and all to see.  You know who still has an awesome exhibition space, though?  Brooklyn Public Library’s main branch.  No lie, it’s excellent.  And right now they’ve a show going on of Melanie Hope Greenberg’s show Ordinary Into Extraordinary.  According to the Brooklyn Heights Blog the show, "runs until June 13 in the Youth Wing of the library’s main branch at 10 Grand Army Plaza."  You can read Melanie’s recap of the opening here as well.

• From Bottom Shelf Books and Saints and Spinners this official announcement was made the other day:

The judges have finally picked three winners for the "Unnecessary Children’s Book Sequels" contest that Minh Le of Bottom Shelf Books and I are hosting. We’ve decided to spread out the announcement of the winners with honorable mentions in-between. Minh has posted 2 honorable mentions graphics already.

Here is the schedule for announcing winners:

Third Place: Monday, April 20

Second Place: Wednesday, April 22

First Place: Friday, April 24

I gotta say, I like what I’ve seen thus far.

• Daily Image:

I think that when I start a band I shall call it Fuzzy Blue Trolls.

If you can’t read the second part, he’s saying "Seriously, could you guys keep it down?  I’m reading."

Thanks to Jane Yolen for the link.

Filed under: Fusenews