Fuse #8 TV: Steve Sheinkin
Allo, folks!
Hosting Steve Sheinkin on Fuse #8 TV this month does have a bit of the old bringing coals to Newcastle feel to it. After all, Steve’s been generous in sharing his Walking and Talking comic series with us on this site regularly. So regularly, in fact, that it would be easy to forget that he’s one of our premiere YA nonfiction authors working today. Now his most ambitious book to date is coming out. Called MOST DANGEROUS: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE VIETNAM WAR, it allowed me to commiserate with Steve over everything from our childhood schools’ failure to teach anything about the Vietnam War to the state of YA nonfiction today. Oh! And I also continue my “Reading (Too Much Into) Picture Books” series with a Dallas-like interpretation of Kathi Appelt’s BUBBA AND BEAU MEET THE RELATIVES. There is also a baby cameo. Yes indeed, I will hock my baby to get you to watch my video. I’m just that cunning.
In case you’re interested, all the other Fuse #8 TV episodes are archived here.
Once more, thanks to Macmillan for being my sponsor and helping to put this together.
Filed under: Fuse #8 TV, Interviews, Videos
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 Kirkus, 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 BlueSky at: @fuse8.bsky.social
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I’m not sure what makes Sheinkin YA as opposed to middle grade? I think his books work perfectly fine for 4th-8th grade, yes?
Well sir, it’s quite the debatable point, yes? Honestly I’d call the man a middle school writer. Perfectly situated for the 7th and 8th graders of the world. Don’t know that I’d hand Bomb to a 4th grader, unless of course that was a particularly brainy kiddo. And his latest book? Straight up YA, if I do say so myself. I think the bulk of his work tends to get cataloged in the YA sections of this fine fair nation, but I’d be interested to hear from other folks who think he works just as well on the younger side of things.
My point is that I think there’s a double standard when it comes to fiction vs. nonfiction. I don’t understand why writers like Rick Riordan, Cornelia Funke, Frances Hardinge, and any number of doorstop fantasies are middle grade, but a nonfiction writer goes over 200 pages and all of the sudden it’s YA. Yeah, yeah, I know the complexity of the text figures into the equation as well as the page length, but again most of those doorstop fantasies don’t lack for complexity . . .
And I haven’t read MOST DANGEROUS so cannot comment on it specifically, but I like the ages 10 and up designation that appears on his other books. I think that’s pretty accurate.
Betsy, I have to tell you—I’ve been REALLY busy for the past couple of months so have missed a LOT of posts on many blogs. I can’t catch up. but now that I’m trying to recommence my following, I picked THIS post because I saw that pic of you and your baby, so your LURE worked! How adorable! 😀
My general rule is, when in doubt, if you have a baby on hand then you need to use that thing whenever possible. Glad to hear it worked!