Fusenews: Time to class the joint up

Nice movie poster, right?  Wouldn’t look too shabby in your local cineplex.  Well, don’t get too excited quite yet.  It seems that Sean Astin (a.k.a. Sam from the Lord of the Rings trilogy) is raising money to start production on this film, to be shot in Denmark.  Lowry reports on the process, though she is understandably leery since she saw what happened with The Giver film.  Which is to say, not much.  Thanks to Marjorie Ingall for the link.

There’s nothing like going viral to sell a book or two.  Though The Order of Odd-Fish by James Kennedy came out a good three years ago, thanks to the 90-Second Newbery film of A Wrinkle in Time it caught the attention of Cory Doctorow over at BoingBoing.  And I like to write reviews, but I feel true green-eyed review envy when I read someone write a descriptive sentence like, “An epic novel of exotic pie, Götterdämmerung, mutants, evil, crime, and musical theater, Odd-Fish is a truly odd fish, as mannered and crazy as an eel in a tuxedo dropped down your trousers during a performance of The Ring Cycle.”  Geez, Cory.  Make it hard for the rest of us, why doncha?  In any case, you Chicago folks might want to attend Mr. Kennedy’s Odd-Fish Art Show to be held in a creepy old mansion.  He says of one room, “full of antique printing presses, priceless art, unclassifiable knickknacks, and so much garbage it’s like the trash compactor scene from Star Wars.”  He ain’t wrong either.

• For some reason I feel inclined to keep a close eye on children’s book apps these days.  I don’t know exactly why this is.  I just have a feeling they’re going to be more important than we initially expect later on down the road.  It’s hard to figure out what’s actually important and what’s just self-promoting dribble, though.  I mean, I’m pretty sure the new Kirkus App Discovery Engine is important, but it’s hard to say.  Monica Edinger, therefore, did me a bit of a favor when she presented her recent round-up of app news on her Huffington Post blog.  Makes for good reading.

• Recently Mr. Mo Willems had his picture taken.  It was not the first time.  It was not even the first time he’d been to that particular photographer.  But it was the first time I’d been made aware of the photographer Marty Umans.  Mr. Umans happens to have photographed quite a few children’s literary folks, including Mr. Mo, Harry Bliss, Raul Colon, Randall de Seve, and more.  You can see a whole host of them here.  Thanks to Mr. Mo for the link.

• In case you missed it, Travis Jonker does a stellar recap of the Children’s Literature Breakfast in Chicago.

• There was lots to read at The Scop last week, but I think no truer truism (neither of those sound like real words) was touted than this line posted by Jonathan Auxier: “In response to my post discussing the ‘betrayal’ of discovering Christian imagery in the Narnia books, blogger KBryna pointed out how Lewis perpetrates an even greater deception:  tricking readers into thinking Turkish Delight is delicious.”  It’s true.  C.S. Lewis was like some kind of crazy Turkish Delight P.R. salesman.  Imagine if Charlie and the Chocolate Factory spent a whole chapter discussing the deliciousness of Marmite.  That’s the closest betrayal equivalent I can think of.  In any case, it’s worth reading Jonathan’s recount of how he destroyed a friend’s childhood with just a single piece of that strange little food.

• Booktalking: It’s not for wimps.  Seriously, if you can do a verbal movie trailer for a book in your hand well, you can convince an entire room of children of the merits of the obscure title you hold in your hand.  Booktalking is a librarian’s secret weapon.  It’s what separates us from the animals.  It is also rather difficult.  That’s why I was pleased as punch to read the Tea Cozy piece on Booktalking that both offers and solicits advice.

• Free book news!  Free book news for libraries, no less.  It appears that a group referring to themselves as the Elevensies are running a year-long sweepstakes, where they’re giving away free 2011 MG/YA books to libraries and their readers. Full details available at http://2011bookfeast.com/.  So, to sum up: Free books for libraries that may have to deal with slashed materials budgets.  Even if you don’t work in such a place, I bet you know of one that could use a leg up.  Thanks to Sheela Chari for the info.

• Press releases aren’t usually so interesting.  But when the Richard Michelson Gallery sent a recent update on their new Dr. Seuss acquisition, I was all ears.  I’m sure that some of you are vaguely aware that in the 1930s Seuss/Geisel indulged in a kind of “unorthodox taxidermy”.  Which is to say, he mounted creatures that you could only find if you wandered into a Seuss book with a blunderbuss and took home a few prizes.  Now I am pleased to state that a new “taxidermied” critter has emerged at the gallery.  Feast your eyes on the Flaming Herring:

Ain’t he (she?) a beaut?  And so Seussian!!  Thanks to Rich for the link.

• A friend who shall remain anonymous (I got your back, man) recently informed me that if I ever wanted to get into a high-profile Twitter war with a porn star now would be the time.  I guess it’s not entirely work appropriate (panties) but generally speaking it’s on the  . . . uh . . . up and up.  And it kind of confirms what I’ve always thought about fans of the book (present husband excepted).

• Ever since McSweeney’s published the Mac Barnett/Adam Rex/Scott Teplin book/real life mystery The Clock Without a Face I’ve been biding my time, waiting for a certain announcement.  That announcement came this week when PW pronounced that Children’s Imprint from McSweeney’s to Launch in May.  They’ll be doing both new books and old (good) and seem to be limiting themselves to picture books for now.  I have little doubt that this may change in the future.  After all, these are the same folks who brought us Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things not so long ago.

• Daily Image:

All right.  Classy time.  This here’s a print from David Schwen.  Kinda gorgeous.

Thanks to the BB-Blog for the link.

Filed under: Fusenews