Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Leo the Late Bloomer by Robert Kraus, Jose Aruego, and Ariane Dewey

Since my library is all closed up and I’ve no access to the books inside I wasn’t able to do a celebrity picture book with Kate this week. Such is the state of the world in which we live today. Not to worry! I have a full library of picture books at my fingertips all thanks to my personal collection. Please bear in mind when you listen to this that we recorded it last week, and even since that day things have changed so much. In this episode you will find a multitude of plover adjacent ideas, thoughts about developmental issues and when it’s right to seek help vs. let things work out on their own, and why it’s weird Leo isn’t a lion. Like, not even a little bit.

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, PlayerFM, or your preferred method of podcast selection.

Show Notes:

I happen to mention right at the top of the show the book Sick Simon by Dan Krall. If you want the ultimate title showing why you should wash your hands, VERY few books cover the information as well as this one. If there were any justice in this world, sales of this book would be through the roof.

So. Many. Eyebrows.

Here’s the obit of Jose Aruego via Phil Nel’s Nine Kinds of Pie.

Plover comparisons. Observe. This is the reddest plover I was able to locate online:

And here is the book’s plover:

Okay, kids. You tell me. What does the crocodile say? I say, “BELLOW” but what would you say?

One thing I’ve always admired about the book was the way in which the words and the pictures don’t always match up. I have to wonder if this was the author’s intent from the start, the artist’s, or if the editor came up with the notion.

I’m just gonna assume that this is Leo’s version of Instagramming a delicious meal.

There is a long and storied history to the art of the last sentence in a picture book. And Kate’s objection to the word “made” here verses “did” is interesting. Does the term “made it” mean in comparison to others?

For a full accounting of the Ariane Dewey controversy, please check out this excellent piece on Dewey, created by Lisa Von Drasek at the Blue Ox Review.

I make a bit of a mistake in the recording, suggesting that Aruego won a Caldecott of any sort. He did not earn any such an award.

This is the Muppet Show rendering of Danny Boy that we keep referencing:

Let the record show that I recorded this long before the episode of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me that ALSO happened to mention the Cats butt cut. We talked about it first!!

Kate mentions a show that she’s enjoying. If you didn’t catch it, it’s called Letterkenny.

Here’s that Today Show post How to homeschool during the coronavirus crisis with free resources. It’s a shockingly useful collection of links. I’m just a bit envious.

And here is the BYU Radio interview with the show Constant Wonder where I discussed Anne Carroll Moore. I pretty much had a grand old time.

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