Fusenews: Answer – The Horse

The laptop of my infinite sadness continues to remain broken which wrecks a certain special kind of havoc with my gray cells.  To distract myself, I plunge headlong into the silliest news of the week.  Let’s see if there’s anything here to console a battered Bird brain (something tells me that didn’t come out sounding quite right…).

• The best news of the day is that Matthew Kirby was the recent winner of the Edgar Award for Best Mystery in the juvenile category for his fabuloso book Icefall.  My sole regret is that it did not also win an Agatha Award for “traditional mystery” in the style of Agatha Christie.  Seems to me it was a shoo-in.  I mean, can you think of any other children’s book last year that had such clear elements of And Then There Were None?  Nope.  In any case, Rocco interviews the two winners (the YA category went to Dandi Daley Mackall) here and here.

• It’s so nice when you find a series on Facebook and then discover it has a website or blog equivalent in the “real world” (howsoever you choose to define that term).  The Underground New York Public Library name may sound like it’s a reference to our one and only underground library (the Andrew Heiskell branch, in case you were curious) but it’s actually a street photography site showing what New Yorkers read on the subways.  Various Hunger Games titles have made appearances as has Black Heart by Holly Black and some other YA/kid titles.  Just a quick word of warning, though.  It’s oddly engaging.  You may find yourself flipping through the pages for hours.

• A reprint of Roger Sutton’s 2010 Ezra Jack Keats Lecture from April 2011 has made its way online.  What Hath Harry Wrought? puts the Harry Potter phenomenon in perspective now that we’ve some distance.  And though I shudder to think that Love You Forever should get any credit for anything ever (growl grumble snarl raspberry) what Roger has to say here is worthy of discussion.

• And in my totally-not-surprised-about-this department… From Cynopsis Kids:

“Fox Animation acquires the feature film rights to the kid’s book The Hero’s Guide to Saving your Kingdom, per THR. A fairy tale mashup by first-time author by Christopher Healy and featuring illustrations by Todd Harris, revolves around the four princes from Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty. Chernin Entertainment (Rise of Planet of the Apes) is set to produce the movie. Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins Children’s Books release The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom (432 pages) today.”

If y’all haven’t read The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom yet, I suggest you seriously consider doing so pronto as the book is kinda sorta a hoot and a half.

• Okay.  Now everyone swing your eyeballs northward and give Canada a good long look.  Got it?  Good because the TD Canadian Children’s Book Week starts this Saturday, May 5.  Bet a number of you didn’t know that.  I sure as heck didn’t until blogger Lindsey Carmichael gave me the 411 on the matter.  Says she, “A total of 29 authors, illustrators, and storytellers are heading all across the country (even to the really cold parts!) to share, perform, and celebrate with kids (and grown-ups too).  I’ve conducted interviews with all 29 touring creators, and will post them from May 6-12.”  Wrangling twenty-nine folks for a series of blog posts is no easy matter, as well many of us know.  You can check out the full schedule on her blog Ten Stories Up and yes, there will be giveaways.  Canadian giveaways!   So buck up on your knowledge of children’s books from not-so-afar.  And thanks to Lindsey Carmichael for the link!

• Sometimes all you need is a title.  Example A: Helpful Tips for Parents on How Not to Read to Your Children.

• So the good news is that Caldecott is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2013 and in preparation Brian Selznick created this awesome logo containing ten classic picture book characters.  It’s really a stunner.  The bad news is that ALA has started to get a little more proprietary about their images recently and they really don’t like it when we reproduce, say, their medals on our blogs.  For this particular image they state quite clearly that “The Caldecott 75th Anniversary logo is property of artist Brian Selznick and cannot be used in any form or reproduced without permission of the artist.” Seems to me they’d get a lot more publicity for this if they allowed folks to post about it online (how else to become viral?) but there you go.  Check it out in any case.  Only one character has me well and truly stumped.  Can you tell which one?

• Math nuts are cool.  Math nuts that know how to knit are even cooler.  And math nuts that create prime factorization sweaters to wear to Kidlitosphere Cons?  Dude, I can’t even touch that.

• Daily Image:

My buddy Marci passed this one on to me.  Said the clock reminded her of me.  I have no idea what’s she’s talking about.

Well . . . maybe a small idea.

Filed under: Fusenews