Fusenews: And your little dog too
I hadn’t really figured out how to celebrate Margaret Wise Brown’s 100th birthday this year. We’re having Leonard Marcus in to speak at our Literary Cafe about her on June 5th, but is it really enough? Then the folks at NYPL alerted me to this blog post from Brenda Bowen entitled Margaret Wise Brown Birthday Sing-in: May 23. You see, folks, the great children’s librarian of NYPL was Anne Carroll Moore. And Anne didn’t exactly get along with Margaret. As such, Margaret wasn’t invited to the big authorial shindigs held by NYPL. So, as Brenda puts it, "Margaret and her adored editor, Ursula Nordstrom, set up a tea for themselves on the library steps, which meant that all the included authors and publishers had to step right over the refusées in order to enter the event." Brenda will reenact this moment for Margaret’s birthday (Margaret is dead, but I’m sure she’d appreciate it) on Sunday, May 23rd at 2:00 p.m. on the library’s steps. I will be there in my Anne Carroll Moore costume, I guess. More details here. By the way, if this story is true then I suspect that the steps Ursula and Margaret took tea upon were NOT the front steps facing 5th Avenue, but were instead the 42nd Street side steps. After all, the Children’s Center at that time was located on the ground floor, and those steps would have been the easiest way to attend any event in the room. Also, it would be difficult to walk around someone on the 42nd Street side steps, whereas the 5th Avenue steps offer plenty of dodging room.
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I once asked my friend Monica Edinger (Educating Alice) what teacher blogs she recommends. I don’t know them as well as I know librarian blogs, and this seems to constitute a flaw in my blogger knowledge. Monica mentioned a few, but the one that stuck in my brain best was a little number entitled It’s Not All Flowers and Sausages. Memorable, that name. So you can imagine how pleased I was when I discovered that its author, one Mrs. Mimi, has taken it upon herself to NOT ONLY read and blog about reading our Top 100 Novels but also the Top 100 Picture Books as well. This is a good thing. She’s already started with #100 of the novels (The Egyptian Game) and #101-97 on the picture books (she’s properly baffled by the inclusion of #101, little knowing that it was a result of my being unable to count points properly). She’s very funny too. It makes for excellent reading.
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Now THIS is interesting. Those of you who took Emerging Literature courses in your youth (that was what they called mine, but I’m sure it has many names.. and nicknames) will probably be familiar with the author June Jordan. A great writer. Did you know, though, that she penned a YA novel in her youth? Yup. In 1971 no less. As The Feminist Press says of it, "A finalist for the National Book Award, June Jordan’s first young adult novel was considered controversial for being written entirely in Black English. Would children be encouraged to shirk the mastery of standard English, or would they, as Jordan proposed, become more engaged in a story about urban survival and the power of love, written as people actually speak?" Now they’ve republished the book with a Forward by Sapphire, no less. You can read the first chapter here, if you’re intrigued. I sure am. And I’m liking that cover. This is one of those cases where a book of contemporary literature turns into historical literature over the years.
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Barbara O’Connor is always funny. Even when she’s blogging. In the post Year of the Book Book: Barbara O’Connor, Ms. O’Connor regales us with a quick study of what writing a book entails. The reader is rewarded at the end with a sneaky quick peek of Ms. O’Connor’s latest. All I know is that this woman has some kind of amazing writing schedule. She’s cranking out a book a year at this rate! And most aren’t that long, true, but they’re all good. Amazing. Thanks to @jlbellwriter for the link.
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There are many reactions one might have to the Walletpop title Biggest users of $500 iPad? Kids reading books. I admit to feeling a bit of shock. I was unaware that books on the iPad had worked. The piece has a very interesting quote in it on that topic as well: " ‘Prior to the iPad, our bedtime ritual was to read a storybook or kid-friendly comic book,’ Cummings, manager of Gamesville.com , an online game show site, wrote in an e-mail to WalletPop. ‘Post-iPad, our evening routine is for each of us to play a round of ‘Plants Vs. Zombies’ (a Popcap game) on the iPad. Then we read a story on it — sometimes a traditional book, but more likely a kid-friendly digitized comic book — which either I read to them or they read to me’." So, naturally, I begin to wonder about the quality of the digitized books these kids are getting. Are parents just putting any old child-friendly bit of matter on the iPad, so long as it looks cool and entertains the kids? Or is there a service out there that directs them to the best eBooks for children? It’s unclear, and maybe a little worrisome.
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The Huffington Post has itself a new children’s literature blogger. Her first post Adult in a Children’s World is already up. Ms. Rebecca Serle isn’t the first children’s literary blogger on HuffPo (I recall author Lesley M.M. Blume has had a couple articles on there as well) but she may regularly blog about topics that involve and intrigue us. And that is good enough for me.
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Daily Image:
That just makes much more sense.
Look, if I’m walking around being witchy and a house falls on my head then naturally my legs will be facing downward. What kind of a witch lies in the middle of the road and waits for a cabin or RV to come flying out of the clear blue sky? Never made sense to me.
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According to Oz and Ends this image, "is from Glenn Alexander Hernandez’s ongoing project of illustrating The Wonderful Wizard of Oz . . . Hernandez is showing the stages of his artwork at his Hermitage Illustration blog. There are character designs, inked sketches, and completed scenes." Thanks for the link, Mr. Bell!
Filed under: Fusenews
About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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Mrs. Mimi says
Hi! Thanks for the shout out AND, more importantly, thanks for that fabulous list!!! It has been a joy to start to work my way through them and I’m glad you enjoy my commentary!!
Brooke Shirts says
So what would an Anne Carroll Moore costume entail? Besides a big rubber stamp that says “Not recommended for purchase by expert”?
Fuse #8 says
We were discussing that today. Definitely a small Nicholas doll of some sort. I like the rubber stamp. Man. I gotta get me one of those. Or make it into a tattoo for the Newbery/Caldecott banquet. Hmmmmm….