I said it about Laini Taylor. I said it about Jeff Kinney. Heck, I even said it about J.K. Rowling and now, my friends, I’m saying it about Tom Angleberger: I was into him before it was cool. Seriously, a… Read More
Posts Tagged ‘funny books’
Review of the Day: Fake Mustache by Tom Angleberger
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012Fusenews: The broken motel sign adds a nice touch too
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
Oh man. Sometimes I just don’t manage to keep up with all the news. Lightning fast round today, folks! Keep up if you can.
- A show of hands. How many of you knew that the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at NYU was hosting, in conjunction with the Institute of African American Affairs, a conference called A is for Anansi: Literature for Children of African Descent? Well, it’s going on October 8th and 9th (both days that I have to work, doggone it) and will
Review of the Day: The Popularity Papers by Amy Ignatow
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
There are good and bad results that occur when a book like Diary of a Wimpy Kid hits the stratosphere. On the one hand, suddenly publishers are a lot more open-minded about breathing life into books that… Read More
In Search of the Elusive Funny Female Character
Friday, August 13th, 2010
Yeah. Too dang quiet around here. Need to needle the masses. Get a little controversy started.
Here’s an idea. I’ll throw out a sentence and then you can jump on my head with the reasons why this sentence is wrong. Here’s goes nothing:
Why do some writers (sometimes women and more often men) have such a hard time writing funny females?
Okay. Hold off for a second until I back this up a bit.
What do I mean by “funny”? Well, I mean… Read More
Review of the Day: The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010
Let us now sit back and consider what the ultimate boy/girl middle grade novel would contain. By which I mean, the novel that perfectly balances out the stereotypical vision of what boys like in a book versus what stereotypical girls like in a book. You see these stereotypes referred to all the time. “Oh, boys won’t read anything with a pink cover.” “Oh, girls… Read More
Review of the Day: Oh No! (Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World) by Mac Barnett
Saturday, June 12th, 2010
I’ve been wracking my brain trying to come up with a name for this new breed of children’s book author/illustrator we’re seeing these days. It’s a genre without a name. We’re seeing a lot of picture books these days that engage kids, but also turn on their heads classic picture book forms. It started with books like
Review of the Day – Wiff and Dirty George: The Z.E.B.R.A. Incident by Stephen Swinburne
Friday, May 21st, 2010
Wiff and Dirty George: The Z.E.B.R.A. Incident
By Stephen Swinburne
Boyd Mills Press
$17.95
ISBN: 978-1-59078-755-7
Ages 9-12
On shelves now
Once in a great while I get a little bored with the usual children’s book tropes. Another new kid in school who meets a seeming outcast and bonds with them? Whoopie. A foster kid who seems prickly but has a heart of gold? Woo. Two boys in swinging 1960s London defeating a rabbit-obsessed villain intent on making people’s pants fall down? I . . . . wait, what? Back up a bit. What was that? You see, once… Read More
