Fusenews: Urchins and Lilliputians

Okay.  Time for some more recommended book lists. Not sure what to purchase for the urchins for the holidays? Let Jon Scieszka tell you!  He’s still our National Ambassador for a little while longer, so we need to let him get in his last kicks. Scieszka has selected a variety of gift giving holiday goodies.  Lots of friendly familiar faces there.  Someone told me the other day that Jon is the alpha dog for this new pack of authors and illustrators (Rex, Barnett, Fischer, Krosoczka, etc.).  I just found it interesting that in his two year term he visited, "over 300 schools, libraries, bookstores, and teacher and librarian conferences."  Do the math.  Wow.

• The greatest thing ever.  By which I mean . . . the greatest thing ever.  Be sure you check out the background as well.  He’s thorough.  Also, if you’ve a send-up of the November cover, someone created a Flickr site for posting them.  Feel entirely free to add your own.  Thanks to Liz B. for the info.

• On a related note, Roger Sutton shows us that SLJ is certainly not the first children’s literary periodical to receive cover complaints.  From his own archives he pulls a pretty hilarious objection to the rippling abs of one Mr. Bill T. Jones.  I can’t have it in my house either… for fear of drool!

• The question that faces you now is this: How long has the New York Times been packaging its Notable Children’s Books section (particularly this new 2009 batch) as part of their "Gift Guides"?  Hard to say.  In any case, it’s a nice list.  Fair play to the Godine press as well.  Their Genius of Common Sense: Jane Jacobs and the Story of ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities" made the list in spite of not really getting a ton of attention until now.

• Aw.  They think they’re people.  Goodreads has announced the 2009 Goodreads Choice Awards, which are chosen through this somewhat rather refreshing manner: "These 10 books were the most popular books on Goodreads this year!"  Well, okay then.  Vote for your own favorites.  I chose in several categories (since they mistakenly placed Where You Reach Me in the YA section).

• For a while there I had the idea that maybe I could listen to audiobooks on my iPod when walking to work and read children’s books when on the subway.  It was a fine notion, but there is such a thing as overkill.  So I’m often out of the children’s audiobook loop.  Fortunately there are the regular Grammy nominations in the Best Spoken Word Album for Children category to regard.  And look!  They’ve just released the 2010 nominees.  It’s David Hyde Pierce vs. Ed Asner in a fight to the finish.  Who will win?  Thanks to @mitaliperkins for the link.

• Of course, as blog names go, the only one that sticks in my mind better than I, uh, Think I Killed My Muse is the fantastic Critique de Mr. Chompchomp.  Both he and Andrew Karre at Lerner have responded to my recent musing on the future of iPod eBooks for kids.  Both have interesting points to make.  Both are well worth reading.

• Speaking of eBooks, it was only a matter of time until Nintendo stepped up to the plate.  Electronic Arts, Inc. over in the British Isles, has announced (according to their press release), "an innovative new book range created for the Nintendo DS(TM). FLIPS has been designed to give children of all ages a fun new way to read their favorite books. EA has worked with some of the UK’s leading publishers of children’s books and magazines, including Egmont and Penguin Publishing, to bring modern classic titles from critically acclaimed authors such as Cathy Cassidy, Eoin Colfer, Enid Blyton, and the various writers from the popular boys series, ‘Too Ghoul for School’ to the DS."  Meanwhile I’m having fun thinking of the future Nintendo ads trying to sell extreme reading.  It could happen.  Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the link.

• Apparently the October issue of Bookpage did a feature on author/illustrator John Hendrix that boiled down to a fantastic illustrated Q&A.  You know John Hendrix, right?  The guy who wrote that amazing biography John Brown this year?  Good stuff.  The problem with the interview?  You can’t click on it to make it larger (and don’t even attempt the one to the right here).  So in case you want to know what teeny tiny Harrison Ford is saying on the left, it’s "We’re all fine here… thank you.  How are you?"  Thanks to Children’s Illustration for the link.

• FYI, just in case you thought I was just making stuff up when I reported that there was a new Young Readers section of the Library of Congress, behold!  Photographic evidence of the grand opening!

• "The pink-and-blue divide" is as good a term as any for describing the moment when boys and girls decide to accept common stereotypical gender roles.  In response, author Viv Groskop at The Guardian decided to try out some feminist picture books with her six-year-old son and three-year-old daughter to see how they’d fly.  It’s an interesting list, all of the books (with the exception of the rather earnest coloring book) are available here in America too.  She should check out Little Rebels when she gets a chance too.

• Speaking of picture books with messages (albeit a very different one) . . . ugh.  Follow up thought:  oog.  Thanks to Melanie Hope Greenberg for the link.

• Editor Cheryl Klein needs your help.  She’s been steadily plugging away at her book (her very useful and, I hope, popular book) and she needs to make a decision.  She has two very similar talks in mind and she needs to know which one to include within the book.  Read them both and vote on which one she should select.  Let your voice be heard!

• Off-topic, but I don’t much care.  This is what you call, using Google Street View for good instead of evil.  Normally we plebes use it to check out neighborhood where we might want to rent apartments.  In this particular case, someone got the clever idea of using it in ancient neighborhoods.  Say, Pompeii.  Thanks to mom for the link.

• Don’t forget to bid at the Bridget Zinn Auction going on right now if you haven’t done so already!  All proceeds benefit author Bridget Zinn’s cancer treatments.  Bidding ends December 11th, so if you haven’t done so already, go to it!

• Daily Image:

When I am in need of a good image because I’ve run through my collection, I tend to turn to Crooked Houses.  And today, I’m so very glad that I did.  Behold!  A Gulliver’s Playground.

The images are from the blog Playscapes which is an entire site about playground design.  Warning: Once you start reading the site, you may feel desperately disinclined to stop.  A huge thank you to Crooked House for the link.

Filed under: Fusenews