Fusenews: Like you for always *shudder*

Actually, that little icon here is a touch misleading, but I took it since it talks about our first news item of the day.  This l’il here ole blog got itself nominated for an Edublog Award, which is mighty nice.  SLJ wrote an article about me and my fellow nominees, Joyce Valenza’s NeverEndingSearch, Karyn Silverman and Sarah Couri’s Some Day My Printz Will Come, and Angela Carstensen’s Adult Books 4 Teens.  I’m in the Best Individual Blog category along with Joyce.  Let’s face it, though.  Joyce actually does discuss education on a regular basis (far more than I do), which is the point of the award as I see it.  Therefore, if you’d stop over and vote for her along with my other nominees (preferably before the 13th), I’d appreciate it.

• Speaking of accomplished folks getting noticed, our own Mary Ann Scheuer of Great Kid Books (I call her “our own” since she speaks at Kidlitosphere Conferences regularly) spoke on Boston’s NPR show Here & Now about book apps for kids.  Woman knows her stuff.

• Marjorie Ingall manages to locate two wall decals of infinite peculiarity.  One is just weird.  The other will undoubtedly be the bane of many a child’s life, possibly haunting them well into their adulthood.  Fun!

• So what, precisely, is up with that The Graveyard Book movie?  Waking Brain Cells has the skinny.

• Let’s chalk this next one up to Books for Adults That Look Like They’re For Kids.  I am speaking, naturally, about Honey Badger Don’t Care by Randall.  Oh, it may look like children’s fare, but if you’re familiar with the YouTube sensation (I only recently learned about it myself, so don’t feel bad if you haven’t seen it) then you’ve got the gist of the book.  Long story short, it has nothing to do with James Odone’s far sweeter picture book Honey Badgers.

• It’s one thing to find out that your childhood idol and author is still alive.  It’s another thing entirely to give that person the respect and honor they never found on his own.  Marc Tyler Nobleman tells the story of giving 86-year-old David and the Phoenix author Edward Ormondroyd his due.

• I only write these Fusenews posts about once a week (twice if I’m feeling cheeky) so stuff tends to fall between the cracks.  Example: Most of you, I’d wager, heard about the recent blogger-related unpleasantness with William Morrow.  If you didn’t, A Chair, A Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy has the recap.  Meanwhile Roger Sutton noted that Amazon has purchased Marshall Cavendish (a thought that makes my head spin in a counter-clockwise direction) and comments on both the William Morrow affair along with this up-to-the-minute piece of news.

• For all that I’m supposed to understand internet terms, Tumblr sites confuse me.  They appear to be blog-like but more wiki-like, yes?  Case in point, the Hey girl. I like the library too. Tumblr that stars Ryan Gosling saying various things about this institution, sometimes in a pick-up liney kind of way.  Example:

Thanks to Lara Morris Starr for the link.

• Well, the best book lists are coming out and folks are looking at what’s cropping up over and over again.  Time was when Elizabeth Bluemle would tally all the starred reviews in the major review journals for easy reference (she doesn’t do it anymore, but it was nice while it lasted).  Now we have Jonathan Hunt over at Heavy Medal saying, “If anyone is interested, I have tallied the best books list for PW, SLJ, and Kirkus.”  I’ll winnow his list down even further into just the children’s materials rather than the YA.  Here’s what he found:

On three lists –

BLACKOUT
INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN
A MONSTER CALLS
WONDERSTRUCK
HEART AND SOUL
MOUSE & LION

On two lists–

WHERE’S WALRUS
PRESS HERE
SMALL PERSONS WITH WINGS
DEAD END IN NORVELT
THE GIRL WHO CIRCUMNAVIGATED FAIRYLAND . . .
GRANDPA GREEN
OKAY FOR NOW
AMELIA LOST
TITANIC SINKS!
DRAWING FROM MEMORY
THE CHESHIRE CHEESE CAT
BREADCRUMBS
CAN WE SAVE THE TIGER?
ORANI
AROUND THE WORLD
THE HOUSE BABA BUILT
UNDERGROUND

He says he will update as the lists for Horn Book, Booklist, and Bulletin come out.  Excellent.

• The family food blog Dinner: A Love Story recently featured eight questions with the author David Sedaris.  Normally that wouldn’t be of interest to those in the children’s literary realm, but the questions were about a story he wrote for one of the Little Lit collections, illustrated by Ian Falconer.  Thanks to Marjorie Ingall for the link.

• Daily Image:

Okay.  Here you go, those of you still shopping for the perfect gift.  The British company Spineless Classics offers large posters that create images through the full text of various novels.  So basically you could give your friends or loved ones their favorite book in such a way where they could hang it on their wall.  Not surprisingly, a fair number of these are works of children’s literature, including. . .

The Secret Garden

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

And on a seasonal note, A Christmas Carol

The catch is that the company providing these is British.  Thanks to Kate for the link.

Filed under: Fusenews