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.
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- 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?
Ginee Seo at Chronicle Children’s Books has acquired world rights to Low Riders in Space, a graphic novel about three unlikely friends (a mosquito, an octopus, and an impala) who work as mechanics but dream of having a flashy custom car of their own. Author Cathy Camper (pictured) is a librarian in Portland, Ore., and illustrator Raúl Gonzalez is a fine artist based in Boston. The two-book deal was brokered by Jennifer Laughran of the Andrea Brown Literary.
They had me at “a mosquito, an octopus, and an impala”. I don’t even care what you do with the book after that point. Impalas = instant awesome.
- This next link just made my week. A fellow librarian in my system passed it on and it’s just lovely. A long, thoughtful, attentive response to a book challenge to Uncle Bobby’s Wedding in a Colorado library system. It’s from 2008 but works beautifully no matter what the year. If I were a teacher I would make this required reading for my students. Thanks to Ryan Donovan for the link.
- And I quote: “Let’s all shut up about the Olympics and talk about baseball instead. Why? Because, in addition to the many reasons to think that the International Olympic Committee is vile, venal, and bad for the Jews, there’s this: The IOC decided to cut baseball from the 2012 Olympics.” If that didn’t make you interested in Marjorie Ingall’s Tablet post on Jewish kids in children’s and YA novels that involve baseball, I honestly don’t know what else I can do. God, that woman can write.
- 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
About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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Hold on wasn’t that caterpillar tattoo only a transfer though? Or it is real? I swear I was just reading about the teacher who had surprised his students with a fake caterpillar tattoo that looks exactly like that!
Maybe so but she is well known for tracking down artists and tattooing their works on her arms. It’s her thing. So I’ve no doubt it’s completely 100% real.