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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On this most auspicious day in which the Newbery and Caldecott winners are announced (amongst many other fine and wonderful awards), we thought it might be a nice change of pace to do a cult classic. In other words, a book that never had a chance of winning a literary award a day of its life. This book, which Betsy has in her possession was a gift from her friend and fellow co-writer on Wild Things, Peter Sieruta. It is not in print. Good luck finding a copy. But if you'd like to read it for yourself, you can find the full text online here: https://www.scribd.com/doc/24325132/Suzuki-Beane Show Notes: Much to Betsy's great delight, she found that Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy by Louise Brody contains the most thorough history of the creation and intentions behind Suzuki Beane you have ever seen. DO consult it, if you want to know more about this book and maybe not the Wikipedia entry which, for whatever reason, quotes Betsy. The Columbia Journalism Review has a wonderful piece called Hip: What's In a Name? on the birth of the term "hipster", that I highly recommend you check out: https://www.cjr.org/language_corner/hipster_whats_in_a_name.php Check out the full Show Notes at: https://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/?p=41201
There is a certain type of picture book that can be best described as a Love It or Loathe It title. These are books that some people adore with their whole heart without irony. And there are books that some people loathe deep down to their very souls without apology. It had been a long time since Betsy had handed Kate a Giving Tree or Rainbow Fish. So how would she react to this particular old chestnut? Published in 1994 in Great Britain and 1995 in the States, few would contest that this book became an instant hit when it debuted and hasn't lost love of the public since. We delve real deep into the deep psychological compunctions of male nutbrown hares including their latent daddy issues. Show Notes: Here's the pop-up book, which actually worked remarkably well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtLYG-axzDs You can find the text from Bad British Accent Reader's Theater here: http://www.guesshowmuchiloveyou.com/the-story If you've big feelings to get out after seeing this cover, perhaps the piece Can You Guess How Much I Want to Punch You in the Crotch Right Now Big Nutbrown Hare? from Medium can bring you some peace: https://medium.com/the-hit-job/can-you-guess-how-much-i-want-to-punch-you-in-the-crotch-right-now-big-nutbrown-hare-7fc59a1e0b29 The podcasts Betsy recommends are: This Is Love - https://thisislovepodcast.com/ Ologies - https://www.alieward.com/ologies Completely Arbortrary - https://www.completelyarbortrary.com/ For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2021/01/18/fuse-8-n-kate-guess-how-much-i-love-you-by-sam-mcbratney-ill-anita-jeram/
Betsy already loved all three of today's potential Caldecott Award winners down to the cold cockles of her shriveled little heart. The track record on this show hasn’t been too shabby either. In 2020 Kate and Betsy identified Going Down Home With Daddy as a winner (just don’t ask how they did in 2019). In the course of this recording the sisters discover that the most amusing way to talk about the information at the end of a book is to say “backmatterbackmatterbackmatterbackmatter”. Kate meanwhile falls hard for one of the contenders. Let’s see if you can guess which book made her cry, “In the beginning I didn’t want to see it and now I don’t WANNA LET IT GO!!!” Show Notes: - The ALA Youth Media Awards will stream live on Monday, Jan. 25, 2021, at 8 a.m. CT right here: https://ala.unikron.com/ - Remember! Anytime you need to know how to pronounce someone's name and they work with children's books, go to TeachingBooks.net. The pronunciations of everything from Scieszka and Krosozka to Goade and Bird are there: https://www.teachingbooks.net/ - Here is the link to Betsy's interview with Carole Lindstrom and Michaela Goade. WELL worth your time. Those women are amazing: https://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/04/28/a-book-that-demands-respect-interviewing-the-creators-of-we-are-water-protectors/ -Here is the piece How Children's Books Grapple with the Native American Experience on NPR: https://www.npr.org/2021/01/03/953073970/how-children-s-books-grapple-with-the-native-american-experience For the full Show Notes please visit us: https://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2021/01/11/fuse-8-n-kate-2021-caldecott-contenders/
After one of our listeners made the point that the bulk of books we've done on our podcast have been illustrated by male artists we've been trying to make a conscious effort to increase the number of women we read. And WHAT book, I ask you, could have more classic potential than Barbara Cooney's best known? We talk invasive species, seed bombing, how nice it is to read a book that doesn't call a single woman a spinster, and why it is that Maine loves its children's book creators more than any other state. Show Notes: Curious about the Lupine Award? You can see the full list of winners here: https://mainelibraries.org/lupine-winners Huzzah! Here is Dennis Moore! The highwayman who only steals lupines: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5v0voc And here's Kate's Tabletop recommendation, Tokaido. In the course of things she mentions this Will Wheaton show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pipFRzGYgdk&feature=emb_logo For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/12/28/fuse-8-n-kate-miss-rumphius-by-barbara-cooney/
"Christmas was coming, and money was more scarce than ever." How we hadn't thought to do this picture book for the Christmas holiday season yet is beyond us. Betsy simply adores the Jim Henson adaptation of this book . . . and Kate loathes it. Knowing that, Betsy still gave her the book and the two discover that this is the ultimate 2020 COVID Christmas title. I mean, what other holiday book can you name where the characters actually say, "Maybe Christmas next year will be better." In the course of things Betsy throws down a challenge for our listeners to come up with a classic Kwanzaa picture book, Kate postulates that Emmet Otter's father may have some second family somewhere ("Only charming people have two families, Betsy"), and we discuss the possibility that Emmet is going to have to take a job as a rumrunner to pay for that piano he wants to get his Ma. Show Notes: Since this is a Russell and Lillian Hoban title, make sure you listen to us discuss Bread and Jam for Frances in a previous episode: https://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2019/01/07/fuse-8-n-kate-bread-and-jam-for-frances-by-russell-hoban-ill-lillian-hoban/ If you’re curious about the interview Betsy conducted with Russell Hoban in 2010, you can read the transcript here: https://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2018/04/24/discovered-in-the-archives-an-interview-with-russell-hoban-2010/ Interested in getting your hands on some Emmet Otter swag? Get yer t-shirts here: https://gumroad.com/otterschicago This shirt is a reference to this blooper reel from the Jim Henson special: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqWJD1ov6oY Or you can get these cute little felted characters for a bit of a high price here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/213103717/felted-otter-felted-muppet-emmet-otter?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=neda+art&ref=sr_gallery-1-1&bes=1 Read the rest of the Show Notes here: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/12/21/fuse-8-n-kate-emmet-otters-jug-band-christmas-by-russell-and-lillian-hoban/
Happy Hanukkah! Having read the recent PW Children's Bookshelf announcement that a new edition of Latkes and Applesauce by Fran Manushkin is due to be republished in 2022, I thought this might be the perfect time to revisit the old book. The announcement said it was a classic, so we figured we'd check and see how well it had stood up so far. Along the way we also cover how "Big Latke" got to Kate, TBD dogs and cats, what Daveed Diggs has to do with Hanukkah, and why Betsy probably shouldn't confuse "Maccabee" with "Mennonite". Show Notes: Oh yeah. We had to include "Puppy for Hanukkah" with Daveed Diggs song in here. I think we just found something to oust "8 Crazy Nights" from its throne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbxyZAduGvY Curious about PJ Library and the free books they provide? Check out Betsy's interview with Meredith Lewis about them in the piece 21st Century Oral Storytelling: How PJ Library Connects Kids to Their Heritage via Podcasting: https://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/01/14/21st-century-oral-storytelling-how-pj-library-connects-kids-to-their-heritage-via-podcasting/ Feel free to listen to our previous Hanukkah episodes about Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins: https://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2017/12/18/fuse-8-n-kate-hershel-and-the-hanukkah-goblins-by-eric-kimmel-ill-trina-schart-hyman/ As well as The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: https://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2018/12/11/fuse-8-n-kate-the-latke-who-couldnt-stop-screaming-by-lemony-snicket-ill-lisa-brown/ For the full Show Notes, please visit us at: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/12/14/fuse-8-n-kate-latkes-and-applesauce-by-fran-manushkin-ill-robin-spowart/
An orange fellow is told to leave over and over and over again. So it clearly has nothing to do with the state of the world today. As we mention on today’s podcast episode, when it finally occurred to Betsy to have Kate read this book, she was slightly worried that maybe it would no longer be timely. HA HA! No worries there! We go through all the political ties it has had to world leaders, and Kate brings up the peculiar aspect of watching someone berate a little cute guy into leaving. I mean, whose side are we supposed to be on here? “This poor cutie-patootie”. If you’ve never listened to one of our podcasts before, we might recommend this as a place to start. It’s a lot of fun. Show Notes: Betsy's Mooney info about whether or not this book had any direct ties to calls for Richard Nixon to resign can be found on pages 20 and 21 of the book Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children’s Literature which she co-wrote with Jules Danielson and Peter Sieruta: http://wildthings.blaine.org/?page_id=2 Yeah. I think you could make a good Donald J. Trump Will You Please Go Now! mock picture book but this is not it: https://archive.org/details/DJTWYPGNBook/mode/2up Interested in that puzzle Kate mentioned? Feel free to purchase it here: https://www.target.com/p/puzzleworks-vintage-christmas-1000-piece-jigsaw-puzzle/-/A-80041949 Meanwhile here’s a link to that Bill Nye podcast Science Rocks where he talks with Yuval Noah Harari about the roll of storytelling in the development of the human species. If you’re an author and want to justify your existence on earth, this will help: https://www.stitcher.com/show/science-rules-with-bill-nye/episode/yuval-noah-harari-charts-the-evolution-of-homo-sapiens-200207067 For the full Show Notes please visit us at: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/12/07/fuse-8-n-kate-marvin-k-mooney-will-you-please-go-now-by-dr-seuss/
We don't care what any of you say. Sweet potatoes shall never cross these Thanksgiving plates of ours. To celebrate the season, though we all know it's pared down terribly this year, Kate requested a Thanksgiving picture book classic. We got some great suggestions from our readers all of which Betsy is placing on the back burner for next year. That's because this year she's doing a book circa 1971. In the course of things, Kate creates a shocking backstory worthy of V.C. Andrews while Betsy deep dives into Agatha Christie territory and starts speculating about how the incipient murder would take place. In other words, Thanksgiving fun for the whole family! Show Notes: Betsy could not be more pleased. After mentioning on the podcast that she suspected that as a child she saw a film based on Wendy and Harry Devlin's book about a witch, she looked it up on YouTube, found it, and in the show notes it says "The life of a witch is disrupted by the arrival of a boy and his mother. The intruders' presence makes her struggle to adjust to the modern world, and to change from bad to good witch. Based on the book 'Old Black Witch' by Wende and Harry Devlin." Apparently it was playing in elementary schools in the 70s as well as the 80s. One wonders when it was finally retired: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkDmt8YsZN4 Aw, heck. It's almost Thanksgiving. Here's a little treat. The Thanksgiving Song Betsy asked Kate to sing (and we MIGHT point out that on the spot she was able to sing this song verbatim, which is remarkable): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLQyjpHiM5A Betsy wasn't kidding about The National covering this song, by the way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KExughc7RE0 And you can see the Addams Family version of a Thanksgiving song here, which Kate alludes to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7v-LQsQKoY Here is Christine Taylor-Butler's piece on Gender Inequity: Caldecott by the Numbers. #KidlitWomen. And a big thank you to Sarah Brannen for pointing out the disparity in the sex of the creators we feature on our podcast: https://christinetaylorbutler.wordpress.com/2018/03/01/gender-inequity-caldecott-by-the-numbers/ For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/11/23/fuse-8-n-kate-cranberry-thanksgiving-by-wende-and-harry-devlin/
Last week Betsy gave Kate a book so chock full of details that one listener said it was the literary equivalent of The House on the Rock. In other words, just STUFFED full of stuff. This week, Betsy went an entirely different direction. She'd been avoiding doing Freight Train by Donald Crews on the podcast for a while. Why? Because it is an exceedingly simple title. Almost pure in its limited elements. And, to be frank, she couldn't figure out what Kate could possibly think to talk about. But as time goes on, it just seemed weirder and weirder to her that the podcast hadn't done any Donald Crews yet. Listen in then as Betsy crows over the importance of books where you can bounce a small child on your knee while making "chugga-chugga" noises while Kate imitates the call of the zebra. For full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/11/16/fuse-8-n-kate-freight-train-by-donald-crews/
Betsy's attempts to break Kate go nowhere this week, even when the book is being discussed is the most detail-heavy title of this podcast to date. Now Kate starts off this episode saying that she does NOT want to talk about the presidential race. Indeed, this was recorded on Thursday, and you all know how different the world was then. Quote Kate, she just wanted to do a book about "cute cats and slugs". And for the first time ever, that is a request Betsy can accommodate. The end result is still a bit of a deep dive. Just not an extensive one. For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/11/09/fuse-8-n-kate-animalia-by-graeme-base/
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