Fusenews: Look for the Girl with the Caterpillar Tattoo and She’s Gone

I apologize for the recent radio silence, folks.  There’s something goofy in the state of Fuse 8.  For one thing, I can’t seem to comment on my own posts.  Most peculiar.  I will assume that this is just a passing fancy of the blog and that all will be well and good from this day forward.  Onward then!

This year, as some of you may know, I eschewed plastering myself with fake tattoos in favor of instead impaling myself with Shrinky Dinks at the Newbery/Caldecott Banquet.  Shrinky Dinks: The classy choice.  I did this because I was tired of picking clumps of multicolored skin off of my arms in airports, but if we want to get to the real reason behind the reason I can sum it up in three words: Becky Quiroga Curtis.  More specifically, Becky Quiroga Curtis, the Children’s Book Buyer and Event Coordinator of Books & Books (also known as one of the only reasons to visit Miami).  This is a woman who takes her love of children’s books and turns it hardcore.  Oh, you think you love picture books?  Really?  Enough to have them tattooed onto your arm?!?!  Just one arm, mind you.  In any case, you can see how she convinces artists to draw on her arm here and you can see a feature on her at the Scholastic blog On Our Minds here and an older PW article on her here.  You can also enjoy a slew of posts showing the tattoos if you follow the Becky’s Arm tag.  Hard.  Core.

• By the way, folk.  A bunch of you signed up to get cool PDFs of my Top 100 polls, yes?  You may be wondering where the heck those PDFs are, yes?  Well fear not.  I have it from on high that they are almost done, looking good, and you should see them within the next week or so.  Stay tuned, faithful readers!

• On the One Hand: The recent news that Down a Dark Hall by Lois Duncan is being turned into a film is fantastic and I am very excited indeed.

• On the Other Hand: The book is being turned into a screenplay by . . . . Stephenie Meyer.  Hubba wha?

• So I was looking at the very cool Spring 2013 Sneak Preview provided by PW, which offers a glimpse of some of the upcoming books next year.  Fun stuff.  And as I look I note several things of interest.  The most notable is by far the fact that Yuyi Morales has a book coming out called Niño Wrestles the World that features a kid dressed as a Mexican wrestler . . . I’m beyond thrilled.  Oh, and then there’s this little picture book coming out with Greenwillow called, um, Giant Dance Party.  And who is it by?  Well let’s see here. . .  could it be by me?  I do believe it could be.  *smile*

• The recent passing of Sally Ride inspired much sadness amongst those of us in the children’s literary world.  Sally was one of the few living legends I knew by name when I was a kid.  Sally Ride, Mary Lou Retton, and Maria from Sesame Street.  So I rather love this little illustrated tribute by Micah Player (of this year’s Chloe, Instead) using her character Lately Lily.  Awww.  Thanks to Lara Starr for the image!

• And speaking of space, this next bit of news definitely stars in its eyes.  I think this must be from PW Children’s Bookshelf, yes?

• Good news!  It looks like that documentary on Tomi Ungerer is coming out soon.  And boy The Atlantic is cheeky if they’re entitling an article The Artist Who Inspired Maurice Sendak Finally Gets His Due (my first thought when I saw that title was that they were finally going to give Winsor McCay some lovin’).  Thanks to Playing By the Book for the link!

• Ayun Halliday, she of Always Lots of Heinies at the Zoo, has written an article for the Times that certainly counts as children’s literature related.  If children’s literature consists of written works for kids, what could slot into that definition more perfectly than parents’ letters to their kids at camp?  Or, as Ayun puts it, How Not to Write to Your Kid at Camp.

• Daily Image:

I don’t remember if I’ve seen this before but I know for a fact that I’ve never blogged it.  Voila!  Something to wear when the universe is insisting that you do something other than what you love best.

Thanks to Marci Morimoto for the link!

Filed under: Best Books, Fusenews, Top 100 Children's Novels (2012), Top 100 Picture Books Poll