Fusenews: Tidying Up the Loose Ends

You may notice a fair amount of reviews this week. Well, the clock is tick-tick-ticking and I’ve got to get my lazy fingers up and reviewing as much as possible before the anvil falls. That’s what drops in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, right? An anvil? Wouldn’t know. I tend to spend such evenings in my cozy little home. In any case, if I want to avoid the anvil I need to review. Still . . . what could one l’il ole Fusenews hurt, eh?

• In 2010 you may see one or two works of classic literature adapted into a graphic format. Oh. My mistake. Did I say one or two? Try SIXTY-two. Give or take. I’ve my eye on that Picture of Dorian Gray. A nine-year-old walked into my room the other day asking eagerly, "Do you have any Oscar Wilde?" and his face just fell when I told him all we had were the man’s fairy tales.  "No Dorian Gray?"  "No Dorian Gray."  Poor little jackanape.

• Woot to the woot to the woot woot woot!  Fellow SLJ blogger Joyce Valenza and her blog Neverending Search has just won the 2009 Edublog Award for Best librarian / library blog.  Well done, Joyce!  Her site really is a brilliant mix of education, information, and librarianship all coming together at once.  If you haven’t seen it before, do.

• Off the top of your head, can you name the most collectible books of the past decade?  Not too many surprises there, but I was a bit interested in the inclusion of Inkheart.  I suppose that was this past decade, wasn’t it?  Feels longer ago than that.  Thanks to AL Direct for the link.

• Take a seat back, kids.  I’m about to blow. Your. Mind.  Ann M. Martin is publishing  a Baby-Sitters Club prequel.  Can you dig it, daddy-o?  Far more interesting to me is the part where the article says that they’re reissuing the first two books in the original series, albeit with updated technology in the text.  Thank God!  I don’t know about you guys, but in my library I have a steady stream of kids asking for these books.  And while the graphic novels are swell, sometimes patrons really want plain old words.  And don’t even get me STARTED on those last 80s covers  . . . Thanks to @mitaliperkins   for the link.

• If you can resist Soviet-era robot illustrations from Eastern European science fiction kids books then you’re a stronger man than I.  Me, I was a goner when I saw the one to the right here.  Thanks to Boing Boing for the link.

• Art Director Chad Beckerman designed the Diary of a Wimpy Kid that became so very iconic.  His greatest claim to fame, though?  His ten-year-old cousin who has a blog called the book nook.  Not only does the kid do a killer review of Luv Ya Bunches with insightful commentary, there is a very amusing follow-up post about Chad himself.

• I would like to consider myself an author someday, so I’ve been looking into what an author is supposed to do.  I need to join SCBWI, obviously.  Who else?  Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America would be fun.  What about Authors Guild?  I’d toyed with the idea, but then I read Ursula K. LeGuin’s letter of resignation from that particular entity.  Hrm.  Food for thought, certainly.  Thanks to @chasingray for the link.

• How neat!  Cynthia Leitich Smith and I apparently tied by getting three titles apiece onto the Cybils nomination lists.  Woot!  This year I nominated my books immediately and correctly.  No word on what our three titles are, but I’m betting good money that Waiting for Winter by Sebastian Meschenmoser probably made the cut onto the picture book list.  That book is brilliant (as proven by a recent Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast post).

• I was more than a little intrigued by the coversation over at Heavy Medal that Jonathan started.  Asked he in terms of Newberys long past, "which books got robbed?  SILENT TO THE BONE by E.L. Konigsburg?  THE PENDERWICKS by Jeanne Birdsall?  THE KING OF ATTOLIA by Megan Whalen Turner?  THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN by Sherman Alexie?"  He speculates that Tuck Everlasting was the most overlooked book, but his very first commenter points out the real loss: Harriet the Spy got bupkiss.  And Judy Freeman is dead on about The Phantom Tollbooth too.

• Daily Image:

World’s most frightening bus ad.

Off-topic?  Maybe.  But it sort of reminds me of another bus-related picture book, The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash.  Thanks to @gregpincus for the link.

Filed under: Fusenews