Fusenews: Michael J. Fox = Shia LaBoeuf? Ew. Michael Cera? Maybe.

Why are all bubbes in children’s literature old-fashioned?  Well, why?  Marjorie Ingall asks this question in the Tablet Magazine article Bubbe Needs a Makeover and speculates upon the answer.  As she points out, "my mother is hip. She has a chic salt-and-pepper crop and wears chunky jewelry. She’s a tenured professor, working full-time. She’s no princess, but she wears nail polish and doesn’t dress as if she’s 107 years old and living in Chelm.  Why have my children never seen a bubbe like her in their picture books?"  You are welcome to come up with a counter-bubbe.  If you can think of one.

• I guess it’s just the kind of day where I want to keep talking about non-fiction.  On his blog, author Marc Tyler Nobleman tackles the idea of crossover non-fiction picture books.  Are they legitimate adult reading material?  What about those picture books that exist outside of any adult versions of their texts?  Are we, as Marc suggests, in The Golden Age of Picture Book Biography? 

• And now the interviewee has become the interviewer.  Picture book author/illustrator Melanie Hope Greenberg’s giving her picture book away, and in doing so is interviewing folks like hugely successful author (and former mermaid) Jay Asher.  Boy wears a nice n’ shiny tail, I must say.

• " ‘Badass’ is a compliment. And it describes the librarians who served on the 1946 Newbery committee and made what was probably the most daring selection in the entire history of that award — up to and including today." – Doncha wanna know what it was?  Doncha doncha?  I’m not telling, but Peter is.

• Most libraries attempt to avoid the putrid smell of rotting flesh.  There are, admittedly, some exceptions.  Thanks to AL Direct for the link.

• Just making a shout-out to one of my own.  Tanita S. Davis’s newest book Mare’s War is out and about on bookstore shelves everywhere.  Them’s my girl.  Bloggers turned authors unite!

• I was feeling just fine about not being able to go to Book Expo this year.  Sure it was in town but how much fun could it have been?  I mean, really?  Then I had to bloody go and see the Publishers Weekly photo recap of event after event after event. If you went, you should probably give it a gander. You’re undoubtedly in one of the pictures at some point. And if you didn’t go, avoid looking at it as it will only make you sad. Thanks to PW Children’s Bookshelf for the link.  

• Daily Image:

My husband’s a screenwriter.  The other day something occurred to me.  I’d been listening to a friend’s humorous podcast complain about all the movies being remade these days.  So I says to my husband, I says, "Husband!  You know what they’re going to remake next, don’t you?  Back to the Future."  He agreed that due to the way things are going, a remake of Back to the Future is definitely in the cards (and, by logical extension, that means that "the past" would now be the 1980s . . . chew on THAT).  So while it has little to nothing to do with children’s literature, I show you this.  The world’s grooviest wedding cake.

And yes.  It’s the town square from Back to the Future.  The clocktower may have been Red Velvet, but this is a case where the customary cutting of the cake by the bride and groom would make people cry for a whole new reason.  Thanks to BoingBoing for the link.

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