Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Fox All Week by James Marshall

Sometimes everything comes together so beautifully. Kate had been asking for a while for me to come up with a fox-related picture book title in which the fox wasn’t evil. Meanwhile, Jerrold Connors has been creating a picture book biography of James Marshall called JIM! (which I interviewed him about this past week) in which Jim is portrayed as his famous fox character. The time just seemed right to put these two things together. The James Marshall Fox series had multiple volumes, so which one would be the best to do with Kate?

What’s that you say? The one where they all smoke cigars?

God. It’s like you know me.

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

Show Notes:

Much as I mention in my behind-the-scenes, I want to pluck out this section from my interview with Jerrold Connors recently:

BB: And what draws people to James? Why has he lasted as long as he has and what’s his unique appeal?

Jerrold: I think it’s that Marshall’s works feel real in a way that Sendak’s or Lobel’s don’t. You know? Sendak offers beautiful lands of imagination, Lobel offers cozy worlds of fantasy, but Marshall’s stories have this real-world-relatable feeling about them. His Fox, for example, attends public school, and you have the feeling his mom might be a single parent.

Should anyone doubt Fox’s intelligence, this is the PERFECT way to get to stay home from school. Just say you feel sick but are willing to go anyway. No school for you!!

Kate describes this cat fellow as Old Deuteronomy from the musical Cats.

For a moment, let us remember how common characters smoking cigars used to be in media. You certainly can’t have them smoking in picture books these days. Even if they get sick? Even if they get sick. Also, Kate is now convinced that Carmen is a member of the mob now.

And that’s how Dexter died of emphysema.

Fuzzy slippers, awesome. Carpeted kitchen floor? Terrible plan!!!

Is there a Mod Furniture Design in Kidlit Instagram account out there somewhere? If so, can we add this chair? Amazing.

I have a son. I’m taking notes on how to tie a tie on my reluctant son. “Sit on that boy! Sit on him!”

As Kate says, this is the most honest ending a book could hope to give.

Betsy Likes: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin

Kate Likes: These quilts. They are by graphic novelist Ursula Murray Husted (whose upcoming graphic novel Botticelli’s Apprentice is out this March and was discussed at length here) and they were created for Kate in honor of her pregnancy and first kid.

Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate