Video Sunday: Easing Back Into It Edition
So at the last ALA Conference, in conjunction with her middle grade novel The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z, author Kate Messner went about asking various folks the question, "If you could be a tree, what kind of tree would you be?" Everyone from the National Ambassador to Ashley Bryan gave their answers. Observe.
In the interest of full-disclosure, Kate was the one who gave me the idea for my answer. I don’t think on my feet as quickly as all that. I require prompting.
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I think today must be Folks-I-ran-into-at-ALA day. I officially met Loren Long this past July in Chicago and he was just the nicest fella. Really sweet and willing to talk about his art. So when I saw this Penguin-made video of him discussing his latest book Otis (the lovechild of Virginia Lee Burton’s The Little House and Lawson’s Ferdinand the Bull) I took an interest. You can see him explain his process and technique here. And best of all, you get to see him ride a really old tractor!
It’s no secret that I’m a comics fan. By logical extension I am therefore a Bone fan. Since Scholastic republished the Bone comics as full-color extravaganzas, kids all over the country have become Bone-crazy (as opposed to Bone idle… ha ha… *ugh*). I was informed by Franki Sibberson that a documentary on Jeff Smith, Bone‘s creator, was in the works. Now we can get a glimpse of it at this site. I’m impressed by the wide swath of commentators they were able to garner.
While on vacation I mentioned to my father that new sanchor Brian Williams is quite a funny fellow. This statement was made before I saw his skewering of some of the latest technology out there. Always pleasing to hear someone mention libraries, no matter what the context.
Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the link.
And finally, something evocative. It’s a 1975 animated Russian short film called Hedgehog in the Fog. For a Sunday, I cannot think of a better, dreamier way to end a post.
Many thanks to Children’s Illustration for the video.
Filed under: Videos
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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If I was a tree, I’d be a maple tree because they have those cool helicopter seeds.
Oh, good call. This is a little gross but when I was a kid I was really disappointed to find that you couldn’t eat those seeds. Seemed to me that they’d make an excellent foodsource, if only they were tasty. Like peas from trees.
Great video choices; thanks for sharing! I enjoyed all of them, and will probably watch one or two again.
I’m not sure what type of tree I’d be, but I like Mo’s idea of a Birch so that you could draw on the bits that peel off. I’ve always loved Birch trees. We used to have one in our front yard growing up, but I haven’t seen one in years.
Ooooh, I love Hedgehog in the Fog! A few years ago I discovered these amazing collections of Russian animation and this is one of my favorites from those.