SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About/Contact
  • Fusenews
  • Reviews
  • Librarian Previews
  • Best Books
    • Top 100
    • Best Books of 2022
    • Best Books of 2021
    • Best Books of 2020
    • Best Books of 2019
    • Best Books of 2018
    • Best Books of 2017
    • Best Books of 2016
    • Best Books of 2015
    • Best Books of 2014
    • Best Books of 2013
  • Fuse 8 n’ Kate
  • Videos
  • Press Release Fun

August 30, 2013 by Betsy Bird

Fusenews: Like a common peasant

August 30, 2013 by Betsy Bird   6 comments

  • They say that there are more children’s book authors and illustrators in Brooklyn than any other city in the nation.  How appropriate then that they should be the ones behind the inaugural Atlantic Avenue Children’s Literature Contest.  The rules are simple: If you have never written a published children’s book then you are eligible.  You simply submit your 800 words or less picture book manuscript and an esteemed panel of judges will determine your work’s relative delights.  The top prize gets $1000.  Couldn’t you use $1000?  Of course you could.  Many thanks to Pat Cummings and Sergio Ruzzier for the tip.
  • You might call this a screed and to a certain extent you’d be right.  I would advise then that when you read School Is No Place for a Reader (from Canadian Notes & Queries) you select the portions of the article that apply best to you and your situation and act accordingly.  Plus there’s a really remarkable little mention of Matilda in this piece, and everybody loves Matilda.
  • I have six words for you today: Abandoned Wizard of Oz theme park.  Anyone else who looks at this post and fails to have Road to Oz flashbacks is just fooling themselves.  I shall post a single solitary image from the link.  It speaks for itself, I think.

  • Ah.  Here we go.  Pinterest working in the name of good rather than evil.  Today’s entry: 25 Signs You’re Addicted to Books.  The staff picks note is dead on.  Thanks to Aunt Judy for the link.
  • Because she loves you and you have been good, Marjorie Ingall has followed up her Children’s Book Footwear post with a follow-up.  All you need to know is that at some point she incorporates the following shoe:

Nuff said.

  • On your darker days you might fear that people don’t get mad enough.  They sit passively by and watch horrendous things occur without so much as blinking their piggy little eyes.  It can be a real relief when folks get mad.  It was a relief this week, that’s for sure.  Fight the good fight, people!
  • I can’t be alone in this.  Is there any reason you can think of that Kadir Nelson isn’t doing every single stamp for the U.S. Post Office from here on in?  I mean, sure, he’d have to take time off to make a children’s book every once in a while, but are they fools?  You hire that man and you don’t ever let him go.
  • Some on-set photos from the film version of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day have emerged.  Who knew Jennifer Garner had such original toddler holding skills?  I am referring, of course, to the second to last photo.  Thanks, yet again again, to Marjorie Ingall for the link.
  • When people ask me for a list of my favorite YA book blogs I tend to mention, amongst many things, The Book Smugglers.  Those gals have great taste and a tone of voice worth fighting for.  I tend to forget that they sometimes do middle grade books as well.  In their recent Middle Grade Roundtable they brought in some top talent to discuss some truly old school titles.  Thanks to Tea Cozy for the link.

I usually see a whole lot of children’s books before their publication dates.  No brag.  Just fact.  The end result is that when I cannot get my hands on something early, I want it more than anything else in the world.  Case in point: Nathan Hale’s latest Hazardous Tale Donner Dinner Party.  For the first time in I don’t know when, I had to put a hold on a book so that when it was published I’d get a copy as soon as possible.  I then proceeded to read it in one sitting.  It’s just that good.  Now I’m happy to see that Nathan Hale has been interviewed about the book over at fellow SLJ blog Good Comics for Kids.  Read it and you’ll find out what he considered the most surprising fact about the Donner Party story and what he’s working on next.

  • Awww yeah.  This is the good stuff.  Recently NYPL hosted its first Education Innovation @ NYPL Summer Institute where, over the course of three weeks, some lucky teachers “met curators from our Research Divisions, explored our Archives, and connected with members of our Strategy Department—all with the intention of addressing how we can better identify materials from our collections for use in the classroom, and how we can better connect these materials to teachers.”  Now it’s time to behold (and take advantage of) the fruits of their labors.  Each teacher choose a research topic to build a lesson plan around, and then explored our archives to uncover primary source materials to enhance their knowledge and teaching of this topic.  They’ll be writing blog posts about these materials soon, but at the moment they’ve constructed these annotated lists of primary and secondary materials for classroom use.  Check out everything from “Latinos on Broadway” to “Kids in African-American Civil Rights Protests” here at Classroom Connections.  And the first blog post Slavery and the Underground Railroad for Grades 6-8 is already up and running if you’re curious.
  • This is why we love Phil Nel.  Who else has reported on their blogs about the 2013 International Research Society for Children’s Literature (IRSCL) conference held this year in Maastricht?  No one I know.  But Phil makes the who experience fun and interesting.  The street lights alone are worth the price of admission.
  • It’s nice when folks in places like Reuters praise libraries.  Nice too when they mention my own.
  • Daily Image:

It’s that time of year.

Well played, Grand Forks Public Library. Well played indeed.  Thanks to Amie Wright for the link.

Filed under: Fusenews

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments
author interviewsKadir NelsonNathan Halepicture books to the screenshoes for every occasionstampssummer readingteacher resourcestheme parksWizard of Oz

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.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

January 2019

Fusenews: All the news that's fit to fuse

by Betsy Bird

December 2018

Fuse 8 n' Kate: Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems

by Betsy Bird

November 2018

Fusenews: She Has a Name

by Betsy Bird

October 2018

Fusenews: We Would Have Also Accepted "Fast Food Fairies"

by Betsy Bird

September 2018

Fusenews: STEM Girl Fashions, the Death of "Hypothesis", and More

by Betsy Bird

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

BLUE FLOATS AWAY Turns Two!

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Review of the Day – Bear and Bird: The Picnic and Other Stories by Jarvis

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Review: Swim Team

by Esther Keller

Heavy Medal

March suggestions: early Mock Newbery possibilities

by Emily Mroczek-Bayci

Teen Librarian Toolbox

Write What You Know. Read What You Don’t, a guest post by Lauren Thoman

by Amanda MacGregor

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey Try Something New

by Travis Jonker

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

15 Short & Sweet Love Stories for Tweens and Teens

10 Collective Biographies for Women's History Month

Eye Openers: 10 Books that Changed the Way We See the Caldecott Medal

14 New Installments in Popular YA Series

14 Fiction and Nonfiction Books to Celebrate Pi Day

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.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Paige Ysteboe says

    August 30, 2013 at 6:37 am

    I have been to the Land of Oz — we went there when I was a little girl. Don’t remember much about it except the Yellow Brick Road. Maybe someday I’ll go back for Autumn at Oz.

  2. Belinda says

    September 1, 2013 at 11:23 am

    Betsy,

    I looked over the rules for the Atlantic Ave Children’s Lit. Contest–the story must connect in some way to certain neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

    • Elizabeth Bird says

      September 1, 2013 at 6:40 pm

      Excellent point. Makes sense too.

      • Belinda says

        September 2, 2013 at 10:18 am

        Yes, I’m just bummed that I can’t enter the contest. I know nothing of Brooklyn.

        • Elizabeth Bird says

          September 2, 2013 at 8:58 pm

          Porkpie hats as far as the eye can see. Or maybe I’m generalizing a smidge.

  3. Belinda says

    September 4, 2013 at 3:43 pm

    thanks for the tip! 🙂

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

  • External Links

    • A Fuse #8 Production Reviews
  • Follow This Blog

    Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

    This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

    This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

    Primary Sidebar

    • News & Features
    • Reviews+
    • Technology
    • School Libraries
    • Public Libraries
    • Age Level
    • Ideas
    • Blogs
    • Classroom
    • Diversity
    • People
    • Job Zone

    Reviews+

    • Book Lists
    • Best Books
    • Media
    • Reference
    • Series Made Simple
    • Tech
    • Review for SLJ
    • Review Submissions

    SLJ Blog Network

    • 100 Scope Notes
    • A Fuse #8 Production
    • Good Comics for Kids
    • Heavy Medal
    • Neverending Search
    • Teen Librarian Toolbox
    • The Classroom Bookshelf
    • The Yarn

    Resources

    • 2022 Youth Media Awards
    • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
    • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
    • Summer Reading 2021
    • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
    • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
    • Summer Programming Survey
    • Research
    • White Papers / Case Studies
    • School Librarian of the Year
    • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
    • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

    Events & PD

    • In-Person Events
    • Online Courses
    • Virtual Events
    • Webcasts
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Media Inquiries
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Content Submissions
    • Data Privacy
    • Terms of Use
    • Terms of Sale
    • FAQs
    • Diversity Policy
    • Careers at MSI


    COPYRIGHT © 2023


    COPYRIGHT © 2023