Fusenews: Woah Nellie!
Lightning quiz Fusenews today, folks!
It is one thing to play Nellie Oleson, the much loathed villain of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, in a television show. It is another thing entirely to write a book about the experience. And certainly I would not have know that such an event had taken place were it not for Peter’s post on Collecting Children’s Books. And that’s not even including the news about the children’s author that’s showing up in a soap opera! Alas, you’ll have to read Peter’s post to see who it is for yourself.
- Quiz question, beauties. Do you work in a county library that serves a population under 16,000 or a town library that serves a population under 10,000? Is your library in a rural area, with a limited operating budget, and an active children’s department? And is your budget for books a bit diminished these days? Want some free children’s books? Then now would be the time to apply for this grant from The Libri Foundation. I kid not. Read through the rules, see if you fit, and apply before August 15th for a grant that will help you and your kids out. And I am much obliged to Dawn Mundy for the link.
- You know what author I like? I like Peter Dickinson. He’s one of those blokes I’ve resigned myself to never ever meeting due to the fact that he is, y’know… British. But if you had told me that he was still up for doing online interviews I would have scoffed and huffed and generally made a fool of myself. That said, Scribble City Central has a simply lovely talk with the man up and running right now. And if you don’t know your Dickinson, I advise you to go out and read Eva or The Seventh Raven right now. Particularly The Seventh Raven. Best school play meets hostage situation book for kids I’ve ever read.
- It’s not every day that children’s literature is so heavily featured on NPR, but Monica Edinger, Esme Raji Codell, and Peter Cowdin have offered up their picks for summer reading on the show On Point with Richard Ashbrook. Good choices to be found there.
- To be frank, when I heard that Louis Sachar had written a book for kids about the game of bridge, my first instinct was to think, “What next? Golf?” I still pretty much feel that way, even after having read Leila’s review of his book The Cardturner over at bookshelves of doom. But at least I feel a little less weird about the fact that it even exists at all.
- Woah! Woah-we-woah-woah-hold-on-there-woah! Have you read the Oz and Ends piece on the new Indian edition of Mitali Perkins’ First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover? Definitely the strangest bit of news in the course of all our whitewashing controversies. Heavens above!
- Daily Image:
What do you get the Percy Jackson fan who already has everything? Haven’t a clue, but perhaps you should be considering the augmented Adidas out there.
Thanks to Margo Tanenbaum for the link!
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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Though its not about golf, there is a decent amount of it in Eric Luper’s Seth Baumgartners Love Manifesto. A very enjoyable story.
I’m more and more curious about Sachar’s book from what I’ve heard despite a complete eyes-glazed-over reaction to the very word “bridge” when meaning a card game. And when you said golf I immediately thought of Chris Lynch’s The Big Game of Everything. YA, but sort of on the younger end of the continuum.
Ooo! Ooo! (Raises hand in the air and waves it wildly about, begging to be called on…) Now that you’ve mentioned Peter Dickinson, DID you know that he is married to Robin McKinley, who wrote Beauty, and Chalice, and Dragonhaven, and The Blue Sword, and The Hero And The Crown, and… Well, you get the idea. And did you know that they have published two anthologies of short their short stories, based on the elements, (starting with Water, and then Fire came out fairly recently) with more to come?
So glad to see your shout out for Peter Dickinson, a long time favorite. But my MOST favorite Dickinson book rarely gets a mention: Time and the Clockmice, Et Cetera. A true original, and beautifully done.
I just finished The Cardturner today. I loved it! The main character does explain the game of bridge throughout, but also gives alternate short summaries for those who want to skip the details. It’s great.
Loved hearing the NPR interview with familiar kidlitosphere names.
I just finished Prairie Tale by Melissa Gilbert. I’ll have to check out this one. Interestingly, Melissa Gilbert and Nellie’s actress were best friends, off camera (And Melissa had not really read the books either. Her mother was the big fan.)
Oh and Laura renamed unpleasant characters in her books. So there was no Nellie Oleson in real life — she was a conglamaration of two characters as I understand it. Yes, Genevieve Masters was one of them.
Melissa Sue Anderson (Mary) also has a Little House memoir out-was published in May (haven’t read it).