Fusenews: Notable Quotables

I got this email just the other day and I couldn’t help but post it here.  Imagine a whole host of talented authors giving your manuscript in-depth feedback.  Sound too good to be true? Check it:

• From PW Children’s Bookshelf:

"Another brand-new prize, the Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults , will be given out at the ALA midwinter meeting next month. A shortlist for the award has just been announced: Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone (Candlewick); Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman (Holt); Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose (FSG/Kroupa); The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P. T. Barnum by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Ray Fenwick (Random/Schwartz & Wade); and Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland by Sally M. Walker (Carolrhoda). Heiligman’s and Hoose’s books were both finalists for the National Book Award last month, and Hoose won the medal."

• Note to Self: Next year do a post on the best unread children’s books of that year.  Though, honestly, The Guardian had the right idea when they made it the decade’s best unread books.  Hmm.  If I were to select the best unread children’s book of the decade . . . I think I might go with The Book of Everything by Guus Kuijer.  Great book.  I reviewed it back in 2006 and it has stayed with me since that time.  Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.

• From Cynopsis Kids, an old chestnut sees the light of day once more:

"DreamWorks acquires the rights to prolific author Michael Morpurgo’s tween-targeted novel War Horse (1982), per THR.  Steven Spielberg , Kathleen Kennedy , Frank Marshal and Revel Guest will produce the WWI movie, which will feature a screenplay by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot, both the movie screenplay and the book, music, lyrics for the musical).  War Horse revolves around a friendship between a farm boy named Albert and his horse Joey.  Though the two are separated when Albert’s Dad sells Joey to the army to fight in the war, the boy and horse never forget one another and work their way through the war and reunite.  OK, who’s missing Roddy McDowell right now?  A stage adaptation of War Horse is currently running in London at The National Theatre ( www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/warhorse)"

• Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast offers those of us of the American persuasion a sneaky peek look at the newest Mini Grey title Jim.  It boils down to this: What do you get when you combine Hilaire Belloc and Mini Grey?  Answer: Dismemberment.  Mini Grey: Queen of the twenty-first century cautionary tale.

• It’s always a good time when Travis notices a trend.  This week: Holding Stuff. It’s the kind of thing you don’t notice until you see a whole bunch of pictures in a row.  I remember one other cover that did the same thing years ago, but I’ve long since forgotten what it was.  Red Cygnet Press put it out.  Anyone remember?

• Daily Image:

Now I’m not saying it would work.  But if you did have this bookcase in your children’s room, wouldn’t it be kind of cool if you put books about each state within its state?

Of course, that would only work if you lived in Texas, I suppose.  And forget Hawaii or Alaska.  This is just one of 11 of the Coolest Bookcases anyway.  Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.

Filed under: Fusenews