Video Sunday: The Swankiest Bathmat in Town

It’s hard to have a favorite part of the Newbery/Caldecott Banquet to look forward to, but definitely up there is the red carpet interview portion.  Each year Jim Averbeck whips out the camera and questions and has the luminaries of the field give their thoughts and opinions on a variety of schtoofs.  2011 was no different and he was joined in his efforts this year by fellow co-hosts Kristin Venuti and our own Katie Davis. Here is one of the many videos Jim has placed on the marvelous Kidlit On the Red Carpet blog.  Extra points for interviewing bloggers like Liz of Tea Cozy and Sondra Eklund of Sonderbooks in addition to authors and illustrators like David Diaz, Yuyi Morales, Ellen Hopkins, Jenny Han, John Rocco, Katherine Paterson, Clare Vanderpool, Margi Preus, Alan Katz, Javaka Steptoe, Kirby Larson, Lin Oliver, Duncan Tonatiuh, Kimberly Marcus, Jeanette Larson, and Adrienne Yorinks.  Check out the Facebook page if you’ve half a mind to do so.

Now let us begin today’s trailerfest with a remembrance of notable librarians past.  The great children’s librarian Anne Carroll Moore had no tolerance for children’s books that she considered gimmicky.  Pat the Bunny, for example, was hardly up her alley.  So one wonders what she would make of this children’s book coming out this November from McSweeney’s McMullens.  It’s called Keep Our Secrets by Jordan Crane and I can honestly say I’ve never seen a book for kids do this before . . .

Apparently the ink never fades and works like this every time.  They say that, but when I was a kid we had hypercolor shirts.  So I’ve been burned before, McSweeney’s.  That pain of seeing what happened to my shirt when it went through the wash never really went away.  Oh, the humanity.

Let’s do a more traditional picture book trailer now.  Thought: Can you can something “traditional” if the medium itself has only been in existence a couple of years?  In any case, I rather liked this trailer for David Mackintosh’s Marshall Armstrong is New to Our School.

Thanks to Pamela Paul for the link.

Of course it’s an extra special treat when a trailer includes the author and even gives some background on the creation of the book itself.  And look!  Behold the remarkable Jarrett Krosoczka and his first new picture book in years!

An author once challenged me to name five African-Americans published by Candlewick Press.  I did so, though it took a search of their online catalog.  So I’m pleased to see G. Neri has moved over there with this his latest book.  A pity he and Jesse Joshua Watson left Lee & Low for this one but them’s the breaks.

One last trailer to show you.  It’s of the highly unfair variety, particularly if you’ve a graphic novel of your own coming out.  Pretty entrancing, though.

Let us now take another look at the marvelous Mr. Schu and his road trip.  If you’re an author and your book appears in this 2011 round-up, count yourself lucky indeed.

And finally, I had a devil of a time coming up with a halfway decent off-topic video this week.  Thank god for Swiss Miss.  She never lets me down.  To prove it, check out this music video.  The projected effects, as Swiss Miss says, “are real-time and the visuals respond to her movement and the sound of her voice. You read right, no post-production effects were used in this video.”  Doesn’t hurt that it’s beautiful to watch.  Click on the image to view.

Filed under: Videos