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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The first time Kate encountered Madeline, she did not care for her. But what if she encountered yet ANOTHER Madeline title? Would she like it better? Before selecting this week's book, Betsy hadn't remembered that there is significantly less Madeline inside of it. Will that help or hurt the book's chances of becoming a classic? Betsy and Kate spend an inordinate amount of time saying "Lord Cucuface", discuss "the happiness of a father of a husband", and tackle why the ending of this book bugs Betsy in the same way that the ending of the movie of The Wizard of Oz does. Show Notes: If you missed it before, here is Betsy's interview with Ludwig Bemelmans' daughter Barbara: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/10/13/sunshine-on-my-bookshelf-makes-me-happy-a-classic-returns-and-an-interview-with-barbara-bemelmans/ For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/11/02/fuse-8-n-kate-madelines-rescue-by-ludwig-bemelmans/
I've saved the scariest book this month for last! "I'm not saying that Spooky Old Tree doesn't give you the jim-jams (because it doesn't), but ..." It's our very first Paul Galdone too! Took us long enough to get to him. As Kate says of today's book, "Well, THAT didn't end how I thought it would!" We discuss how this book relates to the film Best in Show, why my Tailypo imitation is a little too Gollum-esque, and why this may be the first book we've ever done on the show that ends with murder. Show Notes: A whole slew of different variations abound at AppLit's Annotated Index of Folktales. This is where you can find a large number of different names for this story. My favorite is Chunk o' Meat: http://www2.ferrum.edu/applit/bibs/tales/index.htm If you heard Kate discussing "In Search of the Sanderson Sisters: A Hocus Pocus Hulaween Takeover", and you wanted to join in the fun then you can purchase tickets for the event here: https://watch.eventive.org/nyrphulaween/play/5f8cae40eec5900148cd44f8 For the full Show Notes please visit us at: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/10/26/fuse-8-n-kate-the-tailypo-by-joanna-galdone-ill-paul-galdone/
Spooky season continues here on the podcast. Interestingly Betsy had never done a Chris Van Allsburg book with Kate for October before. Every year she has to come up with spooky classic picture books, and today's was a recommendation from one of the fans (that would be their mom). It's less spooky than it is autumnal, but that's okay. Show Notes: The 12-foot-tall skeleton that Home Depot was selling is not something Kate made up. May we all be worthy enough to own it someday. See it here: https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/what-marketers-can-learn-from-home-depots-12-foot-skeleton/ If you would like to read Chris Van Allsburg's Caldecott acceptance speech for Jumanji you can do so here: https://www.hmhbooks.com/chrisvanallsburg/speeches-and-interviews.html For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/10/19/fuse-8-n-kate-the-stranger-by-chris-van-allsburg/(opens in a new tab)
Not long ago Betsy ran across an article in the Deseret News that was called "How a breakup led to winning a Newbery Honor for this Utah author". It's all about Newbery Honor winning writer Christian McKay Heidicker (who created Scary Stories for Young Foxes and this year's Thieves of Weirdwood by "William Shivering"). In the course of the article it mentions that Mr. Heidicker has been and continues to be a huge fan of The Spooky Old Tree by Stan and Jan Berenstain. And, naturally, since Betsy always tries to find spooky classics for Kate during the month of October, this sounded like a perfect opportunity to invite Christian to the podcast. If you'd like to hear the true origin story of Scary Stories for Young Foxes, this podcast is a must-listen. As for Kate, she has her own take on things. "She's letting her kids go out in the middle of the night . . . to die?!?" Show Notes: Here are Kate's freaky deaky ghosts, visible on my Instagram page. They are quite . . . the thing: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGOF3JCn71Q/ Be sure to also check out the Berenstain Bears parallel universe theory. Would we make this stuff up? https://www.vice.com/en/article/mvx7v8/the-berensteain-bears-conspiracy-theory-that-has-convinced-the-internet-there-are-parallel-universes Even Kate had to admit that this was better than The Berenstain Bears and the Bully. Listen to the episode on that book here: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2017/09/04/new-fuse-8-n-kate-episode-the-berenstain-bears-and-the-bully-by-stan-and-jan-berenstain/ You absolutely must check out the cassette recording for this book, available to listen to anytime. The theremin alone is worth the price of admission: https://retroreincarnations.bandcamp.com/album/the-spooky-old-tree You can find the Berenstain Bears podcast Deep In Bear Country here: https://berenstainbearcast.org/ Kate's suggestion was VERY funny. I enjoyed it heartily. I agree with her that I wouldn't necessarily show it to younger kids but the older ones would find it a stitch. This is Gavin discovering that Star Wars takes places long long ago in a galaxy far far away: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAFOqgMB2tY For the complete Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/10/12/fuse-8-n-kate-special-guest-christian-mckay-heidicker-and-the-spooky-old-tree-by-the-berenstains/
The spooky season begins with our first October surprise! Kate points out that this book is definitely relatable in 2020. "I'm tired of living in a hole." Aren't we all? Who wouldn't want to escape to a tropical isle? This is the book that also contains the world's saddest sentence: "I decided it was better to be alone than to be afraid." Oh, honey. Kate and Betsy talk about everything from how a mouse could milk a goat to the surprising cameo of Slimer from The Ghostbusters. Show Notes: Kate and Betsy have done only one other Steven Kellogg book before. If you're interested, check out the episode of The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash here: https://soundcloud.com/user-745466600/episode-73-the-day-jimmys-boa-ate-the-wash Curious about the adult novel adapted from Goodnight Moon? It's out Feb 23rd and called The Upstairs House by Julia Fine: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-upstairs-house-julia-fine For the full Show Notes please visit us at: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/10/04/fuse-8-n-kate-the-island-of-the-skog-by-steven-kellogg/
Good Yuntif! The show has never celebrated this holiday on the show before, but this week Kate and Betsy decided to do something extra special. That something special comes in the form of special guest star, Erica Perl! And when it came to suggesting a book, the answer was this 1977 Caldecott Honor winner a.k.a. The Official Picture Book of 2020 (we hope). Show Notes: Alas, TeachingBooks.net didn't have a pronunciation of Margot Zemach's name, but you can find a nice display of some of her book covers there: https://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?aid=9166 For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/09/28/fuse-8-n-kate-it-could-always-be-worse-by-margot-zemach-with-special-guest-erica-s-perl/
Another book by the man who spit in the face of the House of Un-American Activities Committee (not literally, pretty close). Our love of P.D. Eastman continues. Kate delves real real deep into the marital status of dear Mr. and Mrs. Bird here (including Mr. Bird's "extracurricular activities", if you get my gist). The women discuss how this is like a "very small version of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds" (their reign of terror is swift and tiny). They wonder about color layering, and finally they get to sing the "Toldja So" song. Show Notes: Is there a podcast called Cake Talk? No, but there is a podcast called Let's Talk Cake. As far as I'm concerned, that's close enough. Listen to it here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lets-talk-cake/id1499854971 When standing before HUAC, and told to name names, P.D. Eastman objected and proceeded to say, "The second reason why I decline to answer is that I consider you are bringing me here under subpoena to an unreasonable search and attempt to seize the contents of my mind. I also have an objection to make on the fact that, in a sense, the atmosphere here is one of a trial, and that you have accepted the testimony of witnesses without permitting me to bring witnesses of my own." You can learn more in Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America by Karl F. Cohen. Read more of Eastman online here: https://areyoumymotherbook.weebly.com/biographical-information.html Full credit to the blog Pretty Blue Glow for doing Kate-worthy levels of research on the town where The Best Nest is set . . . Waldoboro, MA: http://www.tdgutierrez.com/2016/01/09/the-best-nest/ For the full Show Notes, please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/09/21/fuse-8-n-kate-the-best-nest-by-p-d-eastman/
Betsy and Kate can say with complete confidence that this is the first picture book about a Black kid on the autism spectrum either have ever seen. Recently Kate saw a list from Black Education Matters listing several books that featured Black children with disabilities and she asked Betsy if any were possible for the podcast. And lo and behold, My Brother Charlie is ten years old this year. That's ten years younger than we usually permit for a podcast, but when the topic is as important as this, we make exceptions to the rules. Show Notes: If you have a chance, please consider reading the AERA (American Educational Research Association) April-June 2017 edition article Understanding the Puzzle Behind the Pictures: A Content Analysis of Children’s Picture Books About Autism. The article is a good encapsulation of some of the issues with this particular book: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2332858417701682 Now as Betsy mentioned on the show, she thought it might be a good idea to include a video of the authors talking about this book. What she did not expect to encounter in literally the first second was a quote from a man who makes it INFINITELY clear that 2010 was not 10 years ago. It was 10 million years ago. See what we mean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3sBYYGQcnw If you would like to read the full text of Stephanie Lucianovic's Zoom of the Flies tweets, you can find them here, including the coda: https://twitter.com/grubreport/status/1303795901194854400 For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/09/14/fuse-8-n-kate-my-brother-charlie-by-holly-robinson-ryan-elizabeth-peete-ill-shane-w-evans/
Happy Labor Day! Or, as we say on the podcast, Merry Labor Day! Today is not the first song-turned-picture-book we've done on the show (that honor went to The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night). However, it is most certainly the first (and quite possibly last) to include die-cuts. Kate wonders whether or not the "old lady" feels pissed off about being called "old" (as we attempt to sing "There was a spry lady who swallowed a fly") while Betsy launches into any number of tangents, like how gross flies are. One thing Kate and Betsy do agree on though: This woman is capable of unhinging her jaw. Awesome. Show Notes: Okay. Here is where the polling comes in. Do people "wolf" down their food or "woof" down their food? We need YOUR vote on this matter: http://www.strawpoll.me/20899100 The Weston Woods video is read by Cindi Lauper. Look at an excerpt here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCaYt1KxZiY&t=3s Check out this extensive Wikipedia page for this song. A hat tip to the number of versions here. The Judy Collins on the Muppet show one brought back a LOT of memories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC_xO2aN_IA For the full show notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/09/07/fuse-8-n-kate-there-was-an-old-lady-who-swallowed-a-fly-by-simms-taback/
First and foremost, happy engagement to Kate and the Penguinologist! She'll soon be a Coronabride with her very own microwedding. Now just to catch the rest of you up, Kate is not a huge fan of clowns. Actually, that's a bit of an understatement. She HATES clowns. Naturally that meant that Betsy had to find a classic clown book for her birthday. She's nursing a theory that they don't exist, though, so Betsy decided to get the next best thing. Marla Frazee's The Farmer and the Clown won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Picture Book category. That's enough potential classic status for us! But trust Kate to find a way to turn this sweet little wordless book into a bit of a horrorfest. No small feat. Show Notes: Betsy quotes a Marla Frazee and Roger Sutton interview quite a lot in the course of this podcast. Check it out here: https://www.hbook.com/?detailStory=marla-frazee-talks-roger If you'd like to see Natalie Portman's interview with Daniel Lavery, you can find it here: https://www.natalieportman.com/2020/08/19/in-conversation-with-daniel-m-lavery/ And here's The Shining mask Betsy referred to: https://www.etsy.com/listing/828968900/the-shining-overlook-hotel-carpet?ref=pla_similar_listing_top-2&frs=1 For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/08/31/fuse-8-n-kate-the-farmer-and-the-clown-by-marla-frazee/
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