Video Sunday: Know what you know

So apparently in the 1980s the Brooklyn Public Library decided to take a page out of the Reading Rainbow handbook and came up with this series of kids recommending books that they loved.  The result, so nicely posted on the Hairpin, will pretty much keep you amused all the livelong day.  You just gotta wonder where these kids are today, of if they’re aware this stuff is out there.

Now it is a very rare thing to see comedian John Hodgman speaking seriously, but it does happen from time to time.  But he is entirely serious here and his advice quite good.  That is, if you can tear yourself away from his yellow lenses long enough to take in what he’s talking about.

Thanks to Annie Cardi for the link.

Last weekend I hosted Jeanne Birdsall, N.D. Wilson, Rebecca Stead, and Adam Gidwitz in a Literary Salon at NYPL.  Alas, no video recording was made, though there is a rather scratchy audio file that is worth it if you stick with it in spite of the quality.  To hear Ms. Birdsall as clearly as possible, I recommend watching her recent TED talk on writing for kids.  She delves both into what she does do and doesn’t do when she writes for a young audience.  Good writing advice galore, that’s the name of the game today.

You know you’re a librarian when you start analyzing the Superbowl commercials to figure out exactly what kind of a library they’re featuring.  I do offer them extra points for not making the librarian in the commercial wear a bun.  She does have glasses around her neck and a cardigan but I can’t judge that.  Cardigans are dang comfy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHXaJ7Ob_pw&feature=embed

Thanks to Mike Lewis for the link.

And for our final off-topic video of the day, this isn’t entirely off-topic since it does deal with illustrators.  It’s a stream of interviews with folks in Britain, asking them “What gets you up in the morning?

Big time thanks to David Maybury of Inis Magazine for the link.

Filed under: Videos