Fusenews: Ga-Dunk

My prayers have been answered. If by "prayers" I mean "my desire to see out-of-print books rolling off the presses once more". And I do. Oh, how I do. The other day I happened to mention that The Cow Who Sneezed, a Jim Flora classic, will be seeing the light of day once more when Enchanted Lion Press reprints it. On my old blog is a sidebar that lists three books I would like to see in print again. Two are left now that the Floca book is coming out. Did I say two? I’m sorry, I meant ONE since recently someone sent me this link. The Noisy Counting Book, a title that I personally believe is the greatest toddler storytime readaloud in the history of the world (I do not exaggerate) is coming back, baby! Back back back! I had heard a rumor a half a year ago or so that this was the case, but no concrete proof presented itself to me. Now I can see its little online catalog display in all its pretty glory. Seriously, children’s librarians, you will be the hottest entertainment in town when you use this in a storytime. I have only ever found two books that literally hypnotize a room. One is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, which I tend to sing to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", swaying a little. It’s amazing. Zaps their little eyes so far back into their heads that the room resembles nothing so much as swaying child zombies.  The other is The Noisy Counting Book. I’ve had parents practically in tears when I tell them that the copy I just read was the only one in the system . . and it’s reference. Now everybody gets a copy!  Happy days.  My new goal is now to get The Winged Girl of Knossos in print again.  Come on, publishers!  In the era of The Lightning Thief, how are you gonna resist a Newbery Honor retelling of the Icarus myth where the formerly winged boy is now a kick-ass female heroine prone to deep sea diving, hang-gliding, and acrobatics off of the backs of angry bulls?  Money in the bank, people.  Money in the bank.  Thanks to Christy Webster for the link.

• If I have any objection to lodge against Minh of the blog Bottom Shelf Books it is that he appears to have a life of some sort.  How else to explain why he chooses to post only once in a while about the picture book genre.  Had I my way he would have a miserable existence where only constant blog postings provided him enough comfort and relief to get through a day.  Then I could get daily posts out of the man.  Ha ha!  Instead, I will have to content myself with pieces like this truly lovely take on Sebastian Meschenmoser’s Waiting for Winter.  I reviewed it myself last year after finding it to be just the greatest little book in creation.  Even if you don’t believe either of us, believe The New York Times.  Minh makes some excellent points about it that completely escaped my notice.  Says he, "Something I will say about the book is that it does a great job of allowing the child to play the role of, for lack of a better phrase, the arbiter of reason."  Go see what he means by that.

• I miss my old Ambassador, but this new one’s pretty cool too.  If Scieszka was there to whip us into a frenzy, Patterson is there to allay our fears.  Scared that the big scary iPad is going to kill the book?  Don’t be.  As she explains in this interview with the Daily News, "I have seven grandchildren, all of whom are well-equipped with electronic gadgets. Yet all of them are readers – because their parents are readers who have read to them, because they have teachers who care about literature and librarians who introduce them to books they will enjoy and be enriched by." Thanks to Meghan Newton for the link.

• Speaking of paper books, massive profits have been reported over in India in terms of children’s literature.  In The Hindu you can read the article Children’s books doing brilliant business.  Many of the books that are selling are educational but I did like this quote.  "Also, there is this book called ‘Captain Underpants’, which has a lot of grammatical errors but kids simply love the humour and the mistakes — parents, however, discourage their children from reading it."  The farther you go, the more things stay the same.  Thanks to Mitali Perkins for the link.

• It is interesting to me that at the same time J.D. Salinger was in the news, Bill Watterson (creator of Calvin & Hobbes) conducted his first interview since 1989.  Our recluses comes in pairs, though fortunately Mr. Watterson appears to be happy and healthy and alive, for all that he’ll never draw another boy or tiger again.  Doesn’t look like he’ll even go the Berkeley Breathed mode of transport and switch over to picture books either.  Consarn it.  This piece explains how the interviewer got the man to answer his questions at all (spoiler alert: he just asked him).  All this may have something to do with the upcoming Calvin & Hobbes postage stamp due out at some point. It makes me wonder . . . is the postage stamp the ultimate goal of any artist? Does Mo Willems stare at the ceiling at night, sleepless, wondering if The Pigeon will ever grace our nation’s letters? Does Scieszka or Lane Smith hope for a Stinky Cheese stamp (the scratch n’ sniff variety would be preferable, obviously)? Strange thoughts for a snowy day. Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the links.

• Speaking of Mo, Alison calls it inappropriate humor, but I hardly agree.  Seems she printed a receipt for a book the other day.  Seems the receipt cut off the entirety of the name of the book.  Seems the name of the book was originally The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog.  Put two and two together . . . I think you know the rest.  Sidenote: I’ve given my niece several Mo Willems books in the past.  The titles I haven’t given her?  Any of the Pigeon books.  Yeah, it’s weird, but that’s how the ball bounces.  In any case, my niece has suddenly realized that in all these books she owns there’s this strange pigeon that keeps cropping up.  She can’t make heads or tails of it.  Sorry, little one.  Looks like Aunty Betsy has neglected a necessary step in your picture book education.

• Leila Roy mentions three books she’s dying to read.  I agree wholeheartedly with Book #1.  How it is that every schoolchild is not yet required to read and memorize D.M. Cornish’s titles from birth onwards is strange to me.  He is the only author aside from Frances Hardinge and Laura Amy Schlitz I can think of that can make me put down another author’s title so as to read their’s first.

• I’ve fallen, and I’ve fallen hard.  Oh, Zotero.  Is this love?  I think it must be.  I went to a free class at my library teaching me how to use this program called Zotero.  If you are writing a term paper or *cough* a non-fiction title that requires that you keep track of a lot of sources, this free program is the answer to your prayers.  I just love it to pieces, I do.  To pieces.

• Daily Image:

Websites and social networking sites reimagined as cheapo paperbacks from the 50s and 60s.  Here’s one of them:

Love the faux waterstains.  Many thanks to @gregpincus for the link.

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