MORE 'FUSE-8-N-KATE' POSTS
There is NO doubt that today's book is loved deeply by Kindergarten teachers, but would you call it a picture book classic worthy of keeping on shelves for decades to come? I really didn't know how Kate would react to this one when I handed it to her. Would she be charmed? Be appalled? As ever, Kate surprises me. She's good at that.
Halloween is almost upon us! And like every year, Kate is always challenging me to come up with some classic scares. This year, we've seen Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark adapted to the silver screen. Seems only natural to then pull out what I would consider to be Schwartz's other scary classic for kids. What I had not counted on was that in 2017 Harper Collins re-illustrated the series. What to do? Well... why not do both versions?
It was our esteemed delight and pleasure to host international superstar, picture book creator, Hans Christian Andersen Award winner, Roger Mello in this, the latest episode of our podcast. We asked Roger what Brazilian classic Kate should read and he selected a book that not only got translated here (in 1982) but one where a copy was still available in my library's consortium. Whew!
In memory of the great Mr. Gerstein we decided to do his best-known, most classicy classic title. Of course, by doing this title, it means that for the first time, in all of our history, we are doing a nonfiction picture book. Not a bad way to start out, eh? Have no fear, we'll be getting to the spooky Halloween fare soon enough, but first I wanted to pay an homage to one of children's literature's greats.
How do you type with hooves? Would this book today involve the cows texting? Who’s buying from the underground milk market? How do you strap a typewriter to a duck? Kate and I are just full of questions with today’s book.
We have a good good rule here at Fuse 8 n' Kate. My sister and I do not judge any picture book that younger than 20 years of age. And with today's episode, I broke that rule. Can you blame me?
In this episode I discover that no one has ever written a fun background story on how Leo Lionni came up with this book, we consider whether or not Lionni was good at making art with cut potatoes, whether fish have eyebrows, and how hard it is to say the term "Mom pun" repeatedly.
A British book just snuck into the pack. When I picked it up from the library for Kate to read, I was positive that what we had on our hands was an American title through and through. Not as such. This book is not without its controversial elements, but in my own personal library the only edition available was the reprinted 2015 edition. And, as you will see, that is probably for the best.
We speak to renowned children's literature scholar Phil Nel for our first minisode and, naturally, it blossomed into a full-blown episode length. But when you hear all the things Phil has to say, you'll agree that it was worth it.
It's the 100th episode! The challenge of this episode of the podcast was to come up with a book for #100 that is widely known but that we hadn't done already. And this book was waiting in the wings all along. Why? Because thanks to a great deal of scholarship out there on the topic, the "Cat" is no longer the simple beloved character he once was considered to be. This isn't an easy book to do, but we managed it somehow.