Video Sunday: Arrr! Tis Captain Jack David Small!

Writing huts!  We all have them.  And by “all” I mean “Laurie Halse Anderson”.  But famous authors of the past also have had magnificent writing huts and one of them belonged to Roald Dahl.  Now Dahl’s granddaughter Sophie is leading a fund-raiser to restore and relocate the hut.  I would think she need only appeal to Wes Anderson for her needs.  He’s a Dahl hut fan, this I know.  Thanks to Playing By the Book for the link.

So this past Saturday was the Kidlitosphere Conference.  Due to my maternity leave I was unable to attend but I did at least present via Skype a panel alongside Mary Ann Scheuer of Great Kid Books and Paula Wiley of Pink Me about children’s book apps.  To begin, we showed this video for The Three Little Pigs, a pop-up version based on the book by Leslie Brooke. It is one of the smarter app trailers out there, and possibly my favorite.

Big time thanks to Paula Wiley for the link!

Speaking of trailers, I was a big fan of last year’s Blexbolex book Seasons.  Here’s a trailer for the newest title by the Frenchman called People.  I love the connections made between the images.

Recently Jules at 7-Imp wrote a fabulous post on Jack Gantos and his ambassadorial possibilities.  Jack Gantos is a charming fellow, and well worth the price if you can ever hear him speak.  Case in point, he recently presented at the Center for Children’s & Young Adult Literature (CCYAL) at the University of Tennessee’s first annual Focus on Children’s Literature Conference on April 2, 2011.  Here’s a taste of what he was offering:

So.  Richard Dawkins wrote a book for kids.  Were you aware of this?  Nor I.  But here’s a trailer for it and everything.  The art was by none other than Dave McKean (The Wolves in the Walls, etc.).  The jury is out.  Has anyone seen this?

I’ve saved the best for last.  Your favorite children’s authors mucking about as pirates?  Observe the genius that is The Pirate Alphabet.  Nice use of live rats.  And for the record, I think the aforementioned Laurie Halse Anderson wins for Most Piratical.

Thanks to Katie Davis (who also does a fabulous job) for the link

And for the off-topic video, my husband and I discovered this one this week and it trumped everything else I had.  One owl, two very different ways of handling competition.  Don’t watch this if you have an unnatural (or, for that matter, a natural) fear of owls.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFwgblszf6s&feature=player_embedded

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