The last time I did a Fusenews was more than a week ago. As such my links all seem a bit out of date. Ah well. Let’s have fun with a partially abbreviated Fusenews today then. However, to begin . . .
Sometimes it feels like we always lose some of the best ones at the end of the year. Two obituaries popped up this season. First, on Christmas Day the great author/illustrator Simms Taback died of pancreatic cancer. Kay Winters reported that, “The good news… Read More
Anne McCaffrey passed away yesterday at the age of 85. I have linked to the io9 obituary because the title mentions her book The Ship Who Sang which was a great favorite of my mother’s back in the day. I was more of a Dragonriders of Pern fan myself. I have a very clear memory of being in 5th or 6th grade and discovering Dragonsong on the shelf. It was a good gateway novel to the world. Later I would go on to own
I can’t pinpoint what it was that made me think of this. In this day and age with children’s picture book characters appearing as television and movie characters every other minute, to say nothing of the new deals being made with the names of classics we all grew up with, it’s a lot easier to pinpoint the ones that haven’t been appropriated by the entertainment industry. With producers more than willing to suck every little last bit of goodwill from a property, here is a list (insofar as I know) of the characters that haven’t been seen in their own… Read More
Ah, Banned Books Week. It only comes but once a year (as opposed to banning books which appears to be a year long occupation). For the one stop shopping round-up everyone needs, bookshelves of doom has compiled just a top notch collection of links for the occasion. One of these is to the blog for ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom. They’ve started posting video testimonials from authors. One of them? My man Jay Asher. Tell it… Read More
Though I mentioned it yesterday, I was pleased as punch to discover the recent winners of the Society of Illustrator’s Original Art. The Gold? It went to a plucky (and very good) little nonfiction title by the name of Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem, both written and illustrated by Rosalyn Schanzer. I dare say that the silver winners were none too surprising (Kadir Nelson & Lane Smith = yup yup yup) so I love the surprise Schanzerization of the award. Ditto… Read More
Full credit to my co-writer Jules at Seven Impossible Things for bringing my attention to this rather awesome new site. Uncovered Cover Art calls itself a sketchbook of “reimagined children’s books”. What that means is that artists are encouraged to submit their own interpretations of children’s book jackets. The hope is that industry insiders would then see said art and commission the artists for original picture books. Can’t hurt to try, that’s what I say. The site’s creator, editor Heidi Kellenberger, goes on to
Things that I love: Blogging. My baby girl. Seattle. Two of those three things will be coming together on September 16th and 17th. That’s when the 5th (five already?) annual Kidlitcon will occur! It’s looking like a remarkable line-up as well with special keynote speaker YA author Scott Westerfeld and great presentations, as per usual. Baby girl is keeping me from attending, which is awful. I think I’ll have missed three out of five by this point. That just means you’ll have to go in my stead. For
Matt continues his husbandly duties, helping me out by blogging on topics that pertain to my world. Last week, if you’ll recall, he meddled with Harry Potter IV, V, VI, and VII. This week? A consideration of How to Train Your Dragon, both the book and the film, and how changes to the novel ended up creating a stronger movie. Fun!… Read More
Well, that was satisfying. For those of you unfamiliar with the James Kennedy/Neil Gaiman “feud” (and I use that term loosely) this video may work best with a little background. You see, I first became acquainted with the YA author of The Order of Odd Fish when he wrote this remarkable screed entitled America, Emulate This Man. Never had I read any blog post quite so joyously insane. Intrigued, I sat in when James wrestled his own “Neil Gaiman” to the floor and stole his… Read More
Elizabeth Bird is currently New York Public Library's Youth Materials Collections Specialist. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, 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 NYPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. You can follow Elizabeth on Twitter @FuseEight or email her at fusenumber8.
