Stay ConnectedTwo sisters, one in L.A. and one in NYC, both move to the Chicago area and start a podcast. The premise? Picture books and are they really that great? Join Kate and Fuse 8 (Betsy Bird) as they track down a picture book “classic” each episode and try to determine if it deserves to remain in the canon of children’s literature.
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Kate sez: I want to do a spring book. Betsy sez: Here's a dead bird! With editions created both in 1958 and in 2016, Betsy was lucky to find BOTH editions in her library system. This episode marks our third Margaret Wise Brown book (after Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny), our second Remy Charlip (after Fortunately), and our very first Christian Robinson. Notable for the line, "Have you considered that the bird might smell really really good?" There's not a lot of information to be gleaned from Christian Robinson's version of this tale, but we were able to track down this interview he conducted with Secret Society of Books and it does offer a window into his thought process on this project: https://www.secretsocietyofbooks.com/interview-christian-robinson/ For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2023/05/01/fuse-8-n-kate-the-dead-bird-by-margaret-wise-brown-illustrated-by-remy-charlip-and-christian-robinson/(opens in a new tab)
What happens when a designer decides to make picture books? What happens when she goes and gets creative with the illustrations? While remembered for many things, I'd say that this 1983 release is without a doubt the best known of creator Ann Jonas. You may remember it yourself. It's the picture book where you read it one way and then turn it upside down and read it the other. It feels like a dare, and comes off as the number one book Betsy had to produce when she worked as a children's librarian. Countless adults would come up to her saying, "There was this book when I was a kid and it was black and white . . ." They literally didn't have to say anything else after that. We have no doubt that this book blew little minds. It may not be the most plot forward of the picture books out there, but who the HECK cares? Show Notes: We mention a couple books in the course of this podcast. If you like this one, please check out Robo-Sauce by Adam Rubin, illustrated by Daniel Salmieri or the works of Bruno Munari. Betsy Recommends: The If Books Could Kill podcast Kate Recommends: The morathanenough Instagram account For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2023/04/24/fuse-8-n-kate-round-trip-by-ann-jonas/
Here at the Fuse 8 n' Kate Podcast, we have a rule. It's a simple one, established since the start of the broadcast. Essentially, we don't like to consider books published until they've been on the market for 20 years or more. It's not exactly a hard and fast rule (we've broken it more than a few times) but it serves as a strong guideline. Today, however, we got mad. Specifically, we got mad at Ron DeSantis and all the horrendous book banners out there who seek to rid the world of books featuring LGBTQIA+ families and children. How best to stick it to the Ron? Why not feature an author that he himself has personally singled out? Today, Betsy decided to pull out a book with a mega-recent publication date: 2019. We do it because not only is the book important, we consider it to be the first truly great trans picture book for kids that will reverberate for the ages. We're talking about this beautiful baby book and all that it entails in this episode of the podcast. Check it out. Show Notes: Here's the video Betsy made for Tiktok that features the earrings she gave to Kate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCxPPf64yCs&t=3s Full disclosure, Betsy actually interviewed Kyle about this book back in 2019 before the book even published. She particularly loves this part: "... when I wrote that first page of AIDAN, I hit on three points: his name, his room, and his clothes. And those three points, in that order–name, room, clothes–show up consistently as Aidan is transitioning. Then when the baby enters the picture, the three points invert, and we learn about the baby’s clothes, room, and name, and then Aidan’s anxieties revolve around the clothes, room, and name, keeping that order intact. It’s something that readers might not notice consciously unless they’re looking for it, but is crucial for making the story feel like a picture book instead of a truncated short story." Here is a link to Kyle's 2022 Stonewall speech. It's one of our favorites: http://www.kylelukoff.com/blog-1/2022/6/29/my-stonewall-award-speech-june-27th-2022 For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2023/04/17/fuse-8-n-kate-when-aidan-became-a-brother-by-kyle-lukoff-ill-kaylani-juanita/
In what may be the most quintessentially "New York" picture book we've done to date (with hints of Where the Wild Things Are in the margins) we confront a 1979 Caldecott Award winner and tackle Betsy's childhood memories of it along the way. Today we discuss a variation on the previously reported upon picture book It Could Always Be Worse, but with an addition of tropical birds, floating islands, and John Tenniel references. Show Notes: For the full Show Notes please visit - https://afuse8production.slj.com/2023/04/10/fuse-8-n-kate-by-arthur-yorinks-ill-richard-egielski/
Roy G. Biv, eat your heart out. We're taking a deep dive into a listener suggestion with a trippy dippy 1978 German import from an Italian creator who retired to France! Today we're talking Optimus Prime, The Never Ending Story, rock album covers, and carnivorous flowers/rainbows. If you're into long, languorous moments in picture books where people drown, have I got a book for you!! A pourquoi story done in an utterly original fashion. Show Notes: If you'd like to see even more art from this book you can do so here: https://areaofdesign.com/ul-de-rico/ For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2023/04/03/fuse-8-n-kate-the-rainbow-goblins-by-ul-de-rico/(opens in a new tab)
The art of picture books based on animated properties has a long and storied history within the oeuvre of children's literature. We've eschewed doing much in the way of Seuss lately, but due to the fact that we've been doing multiple books where child or child-like characters are approached by members of the medical association, we felt we'd cap everything off with this tale of a boy doing his own thing in the early 50s. That's BOUND to go over well! Along the way we talk about picture books in which kids don't adhere to the norm and are therefore considered ill in some way (Imogene's Antlers comes to mind), as well as teachers that call 2-year-olds in first grade classes "hopeless", packing kids full of pills, and why Gerald needs to keep an eye on his own paychecks. For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2023/03/27/fuse-8-n-kate-gerald-mcboing-boing-by-dr-seuss/
To our amazement we have somehow never done this particular David Shannon book before. Tis possible? Tis! It is, as Kate says, "The trippiest book," which is part of why Betsy respects it. Betsy freaks out over the fact that this came out the same year as No, David (how often does an author/illustrator have two classic books come out in the same year?). Meanwhile Kate freaks out over the creepy guys lurking on this poor girl's lawn. But the important thing? We debate whether or not you can buy lima beans in cans anymore. Your votes on the matter are much needed. For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2023/03/20/fuse-8-n-kate-a-bad-case-of-stripes-by-david-shannon/
This month we'll see the publication of Lisa Brown's wonderful picture book The Hospital Book, which may be the best going-to-the-hospital title for kids out there. Because usually, you have to admit, when people walk into your children's library in search of picture books about going to the hospital, what they get is a title from 1966. We've already covered the problematic George in Curious George and Curious George Takes a Job. This is the seventh and last book that was created by George's original creators. Today we're talking barium, sad little Betsys, and why this book is going to give you flashbacks to the beginning of the movie Nope. Having fun at the hospital without sniffing ether. What a notion! Show Notes: Go here to read an interview with Lisa Brown about The Hospital Book: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2022/07/20/the-hospital-book-by-lisa-brown-a-cover-reveal-and-interview/ We are referring at the end to this video, by the way. The greatest St. Patrick's Day video of all time: https://youtu.be/OCbuRA_D3KU We mark the passing of Amy Schwartz. Recently we did her Bea and Mr. Jones, a book that stands the test of time. For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2023/03/06/fuse-8-n-kate-curious-george-goes-to-the-hospital-by-margaret--h-a-rey
Since the entire premise of this podcast with Betsy and Kate is to take well-known books and determine whether or not they continue to deserve their "classic" status, it probably behooves them to do a couple books everyone has actually heard of. And since the last book they did was, at best, obscure and, at worst, completely forgotten, they figured today that they should go all in and do something out-and-out famous. To their surprise, they've never tackled a Jan Brett book before. That said, they did have to admit that it's possible that Kate and Betsy are not the world's most impartial critics. You see, their mother instilled in them an appreciation for fiber arts. and can you think of a single illustrator who has ever depicted the knitted stitch better than Ms. Brett? Today, they consider the woman's best-known book and how it has held up over all this time as well as the timeliness of doing a Ukrainian folktale in this day and age. Show Notes: In the course of Betsy's research for this podcast she read a fair number of interviews with Jan Brett about her work on The Mitten. Her favorite? This one with TeachingBooks.net. In it, Jan really leans into the research she did for the title, as well as the Ukrainian ex-patriots who suggested, "I make Nicki's clothes too big for him because his family would have made them by hand and passed them down from father or older brother. He'd wear a belt to make his jacket fit closer around his tummy. The boots, too, might be a little big. He might stuff some newspaper in them or wear an extra pair of socks to make them fit." In that light, this book actually makes so much more sense: https://www.teachingbooks.net/interview.cgi?id=88&a=1 For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2023/02/20/fuse-8-n-kate-the-mitten-by-jan-brett/(opens in a new tab)
Librarians, if you're anything like Betsy, then, when the time is right, every year you trot out the same dang Valentine's Day books that are in the Holiday section of your library. All the newer books go out first, leaving behind the stuff that came out in, oh say, 1999. This is the rare example of a book that Betsy didn't know bupkiss about. She didn't know anything about the creators or the title itself, so we're just jumping in because a quick read yielded strange thoughts. In today's discussion we talk about eggnog, hamsters, the quality of the education these critters are receiving, and what this book gets right. For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2023/02/13/fuse-8-n-kate-a-valentine-for-norman-noggs-by-valiska-gregory-ill-marsha-winborn/
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