Fusenews:Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets

• A conflict of interest question has arisen regarding the National Book Awards in the Young Person’s category over at One-Minute Book Reviews.  The writer is Janice Harayda, an award-winning journalist and former book editor of the Plain Dealer in Cleveland who has been a vice-president of the National Book Critics Circle.  It makes for interesting reading.  I understand the argument (in brief: Since Small illustrated Appelt’s book it is a conflict of interest for her to be an NBA judge and she should step down) but I can’t see how this could possibly be avoided each year unless you have written standards in place to cover what is and is not allowed.  I mean whenever you have authors and illustrators giving awards to other authors and illustrators there’s going to be an inherent conflicts of interest.  The more they work, the more they overlap.  And if graphic novels are going to have a fair shake then it’s inevitable that their artists will at some point have illustrated books for the panelists.  What should technically be considered a conflict of interest?  What if authors are in the same writing group?  Or they share the same agent or editor?  Where do you draw the line?  Fascinating topic.  I don’t know the answers.

• Feeling rich?  Feeling bored?  Feeling like purchasing some fabulous children’s literary illustrations in an auction?  Then check out the surprisingly fun interactive Bloomsbury Auction catalog for children’s book art.  There’s a lot to pick and choose from.  Would you care for the Caldecott Award of Evaline Ness?  A Rackham or two for spice?  Me, I wouldn’t mind the Pogo sketch.  Thanks to John Peters and Educating Alice for the link.

• And this week’s winner of the-craziest-darn-thing-I’ve-heard goes to . . . .  this.

• As I’m sure you already know, 100 Scope Notes has just been fantastic to watch recently.  The Chad Beckerman interview is worth the price of admission alone.  And whether it’s debating the spookiness of gothic gates (a book cover trend I had completely missed!), voting on most unfortunate covers (the winner goes to a Newbery Honor title), or comparing Robinson Crusoe (fairly) to Richard Greico, Travis Jonker keeps his site hopping!   I stand in awe.

• For that matter, it has been a while since I praised Collecting Children’s Books properly.  I assume that you are all reading regularly.  If not, you may have missed his post that included a round-up of Caldecott winners.  Can you think of the only illustrator to beat Maurice Sendak’s eight wins with a truly fantastic nine?  Here’s a hint: It’s a woman and she used to work in my children’s room.  Now I want Peter to determine whether or not it’s true that men win more children’s literary awards than women like folks always claim.  Facts!  I demand facts on the matter!

New York magazine’s Vulture site has come up with a truly unique Ranking of Roald Dahl’s Movies from Wonka to Bond.  Generally I agree with them on this.  Particularly when they note that in the recent Tim Burton Wonka remake, "most bewildering in this shoulda-been-a-classic is Johnny Depp, giving a curiously poor performance as the weird, clammy, Michael Jackson–esque Wonka, prone to lame jokes and random freakouts."  Then again, I’m in love with Gene Wilder, so I’m hardly unbiased.  Thanks to @ABCKristen for the link.

Speaking of Dahl, John Martz at the Drawn blog had a chance to interview Christian DeVita, the lead storyboard artist for Wes Anderson’s stop motion adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox.  A lot of the storyboards are there for inspection and if someone doesn’t turn them into a book or graphic novel someday I will eat and digest my proverbial hat.

• Did you know that Ed Briant, the fellow who does those Tales from the Slush Pile cartoons in your Publishers Weekly Children’s Bookshelf, has a blog?  Now you do.

• Some super smart agent got himself and his fellow alums into their University of Chicago alumni magazine.  Just observing.

• I don’t pay the kind of attention to the bookseller equation of things that I’d like to sometimes.  So I’m pleased to draw your attention today to "the WNBA Pannell Awards to recognize and publicly applaud the work of booksellers who stimulate, promote and encourage children’s and young people’s interest in books." It goes on to say, "To nominate your favorite U.S. bookstore that inspires children to read, provide the name of the store, address and phone number, a contact person at the store, and email address along with a brief reason why you believe they are worthy of the Award. Please send your nomination to mary.james@ingrambook.com or to WNBA Pannell Award Nomination, Mary Grey James, 2200 Sharondale Dr., Nashville, TN 37215."  For more information, go here.  Thanks to @mitaliperkins for the link.

• Daily Image:

I will never not ever eat food that looks at me like this:

And trust me when I say that this bread is by no means alone in the world.  Many thanks to Children’s Illustration for the link.

Filed under: Fusenews