MORE 'FUSE-8-N-KATE' POSTS
"This is like Schrödinger's 's Cat. The hole both is and is not there when the digging takes place." Kate and I discuss that old Ruth Krauss chestnut and figure out if it has any pertinence for the 21st century child.
This is a book that ignores the rather good advice that, "If you're in a picture book and a tiger says he's hungry, run the other way." Kate discovers that this may well be one of the MOST English picture book we've ever encountered. She also identifies this tiger as a brat as a cat and you KNOW how Kate feels about brats.
To change things up, Kate and Betsy read a picture book that neither of has ever seen before. At the same time, she mentioned in a previous episode that when it comes to classic Jewish picture books, the only ones we've ever done were Hanukkah based. AND it's a cult classic that came back in print two years ago
"Watch where you step." Kate identifies the true message behind Pete the Cat. Meanwhile, I get to riff on James Dean the actor (if he were ever to make a picture book), Kate tells me that hedgehogs are super smelly (who knew?), and we dive deep into Pete's confusing lineage.
"It's like the Where's Waldo of literature!" This week we're celebrating another cult classic picture book just as its author releases his adult collection MacDoodle Street. It fails the stranger danger test magnificently, sure, but we can all get behind its "inspired sense of the absurd."
"Folktales! They don't end the way you expect 'em to . . . if they're authentic." We might have quite a debate over what the oldest #ownvoices picture book published in America is, that is arguably famous to this day, and that also is written by someone who wasn't white and European. My vote goes to today's book circa 1932.
Ramona's not the only one calling aspects of Mike Mulligan into question anymore. This is a tale of "a man obsessed with his steam shovel," as well as muffs, dabbing, how precisely a steam shovel would work, and the weird placement of the acknowledgement to Dickie Birkinbush, mid-book.
There are so many things to talk about here. Spontaneous interior canine generation. The doctor's disappearing/reappearing latex gloves. Why no one assumes that there isn't another dog inside of George at the end. Whether or not George has eaten the vet at the end. And then I get into a whole thing about how this book isn't about Death but Rebirth!!
It's time for another update in one of my favorite series on this podcast: Classics From Other Countries. Normally on this show we like to consider children's picture books from America, but how fair is that? Why not consider picture books deemed classics in other countries? So let's jump on a plane and fly ourselves to Australia for our first Mem Fox classic.
Kate set me up with a challenge. We've been deeming too many books as "classics" later. What book could I produce that would engender more of a debate? Well, after all these episodes (82!) I think I've figured out Kate's least loved genre. It involves childlike art. It involves kids who aren't entirely saintly. Really, it was just a matter of time before we got to this one.