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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We're finally doing it! The urtext. The spooky book that started them all. And it's also 100% the oldest children's book we have ever done on the show. Sporting an 1845 publication date, this German classic has been given to generations of German children in the hopes of teaching them some good moral lessons. But, of course, its creator wrote and illustrated it to kind of make fun of all the preachy didactic books out there for kids. Two things can be true at the same time. Today, we see whether or not Kate can identify the morals on these pages by reading a copy of this book that is entirely in its original German (and Betsy uses the Project Gutenberg translation to check her work). You can see the full Show Notes at https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/10/26/fuse-8-n-kate-der-struwwelpeter-by-dr-heinrich-hoffmann/
One does not usually associate the creator of the Frog & Toad Are Friends series with poetry that discusses creatures that squeeze out their victims' lungs, but turns out Arnold Lobel had a bit of a dark side. And when aided by Jack Prelutsky's uniquely horrifying poems, you get the kind of magic that is ideal for those kids desperate for a little horror in their lives. Released a full two years before the world would meet the far more famous Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, one could make the argument that this 1979 publication walked so that Stephen Gammell could run. Yet despite all of that, how do Prelutsky's words stand up today? And did Lobel really dedicate himself to the endeavor or did he phone it in? Gotta listen to the show to find out. For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/10/19/fuse-8-n-kate-nightmares-poems-to-trouble-your-sleep-by-jack-prelutsky-ill-arnold-lobel/
Betsy literally went out and decided to purchase this lesser known Martin/Carle collaboration. We all know Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle created such modern day classics as Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? But did you even know that this dynamic duo also created their own spooky picture book tale all the way back in 1970? Please be so good as to meet one of the strangest little Halloween-adjacent titles with two of America’s most famous picture book creators at the helm. So why the heck does nobody know anything about this? Let’s just say that when Kate says the words, “Look… I’m not an English teacher…” things are gonna get real real interesting. For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/10/12/fuse-8-n-kate-a-ghost-story-by-bill-martin-jr-ill-eric-carle/
While not explicitly a Halloween title, when Betsy saw that editor Taylor Norman had talked up this little oddity the other day, she was a mite bit intrigued. And then we got to the whole foot removal section and BLAM! Sold! Betsy knew she had to show this to Kate. Now don't get thrown by the snow on the ground of this tale because many is the sad Halloween we've experienced in the Midwest where trick or treaters had to deal with walking through drifts. This story reminds us quite a bit of our previous Halloween-adjacent story The Tailypo, to say nothing of The Bremen Town Musicians. For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/10/05/fuse-8-n-kate-cold-feet-by-cynthia-defelice-ill-robert-andrew-parker/
It's not quite October yet, so we didn't want to start handing Kate the scary stuff immediately. This 25-year-old spider tale collaboration of Spinelli/Dyer seemed like a good intro to the season instead. It features a creature associated with the fall, but who appears in a story that's anything but scary. Unless you can't take any tale about spiders, that is. Then you might be up a tree. This is our second Eileen Spinelli (we did Somebody Loves You Mr. Hatch in 2022 for Valentine's Day). But Jane Dyer? This is the first book of hers we've done on this podcast. We compare this title to fellow spider book The Spider and the Fly, talk about how strange this boarding house may be if you always have to check your slippers for spiders, and discuss how non-judgemental the book is about the book's single mom situation. For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/09/28/fuse-8-n-kate-sophies-masterpiece-by-eileen-spinelli-ill-jane-dyer/
Betsy was so very, entirely certain that we had covered this old title by Patricia C. McKissack on our podcast already. And yet, AND YET, we have never read it. That ends today. Originally published in 1986, we dive into this book's roots in oral storytelling, Isadora's career, and why it is that foxes always get a bad break in picture books. Just looking at our past podcast episodes, we have never done a Rachel Isadora, but we've definitely done McKissack (Goin' Someplace Special and Mirandy and Brother Wind). Today we consider this tale of tricking the trickster with a good old-fashioned existential crisis. For the full show notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/09/21/fuse-8-n-kate-flossie-and-the-fox-by-patricia-c-mckissack-ill-rachel-isadora/
We had two people recommend today's book for podcast consideration, and I'm awfully glad that they did. It's been a day or two since I last read this odd little 80s creation. Now you would not think, looking at this book's cover, that you would find a title so chock full of title details as this. But you know what we're talking about this episode? Clowns! Misspellings! And guns guns guns. Read the full Show Notes here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/09/14/fuse-8-n-kate-whatever-happened-to-the-dinosaurs-by-bernard-most/
“If you’re going to Lower Trainswitch / Be sure to wear flowers in your hair…” Today we talk Tootle. Ever read him? No? Well, in 2001 Tootle was the all-time third best-selling hardcover children’s book in English. He’s not as famous now as he was twenty years ago, but that fact made us curious. Why is he so forgotten? Should he be brought back? Is this some lost gem of children’s literature just aching to be rediscovered? We discuss how this 1945 release came out after Ferdinand, but seemed to cast the idea of frolicking with flowers in an entirely different light. For the full Show Notes, read on here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/09/07/fuse-8-n-kate-tootle-by-gertrude-crampton-ill-tibor-gergely/
"How do you say, 'You don't start nothin' there won't be nothin' in Seuss?" So Betsy promised Kate that for her birthday they'd do a book that published in 1984 (the year of her birth)... and then she promptly forgot. So on the day of this recording (which was Kate's ACTUAL birthday) Betsy found one they hadn't done before. Written during Seuss's strange didactic era (your Lorax, your Sneetches, and now your Butter Battle Book era) we've never really tackled this one. But we're sure kids today totally get... uh... the arms race. Determining how well this book has aged, one cannot separate this book from its context. But what happens when the context doesn't really apply so well anymore? As Betsy tells Kate, "This is kind of the MOST 1984-y book I could find." For the full Show Notes, go here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/08/24/fuse-8-n-kate-the-butter-battle-book-by-dr-seuss/
Suggested alternate title for this text: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished. Our very first Brian Pinkney! Are you surprised? So am I, quite frankly. Even thought we've done multiple Jerry Pinkney books at this point (Mirandy and Brother Wind, John Henry, Little Red Riding Hood, Goin' Someplace Special, etc.) I thought for sure we might have at least done Sukey and the Mermaid or something, but nope! Not as such. Today, then, we tackle our very first Brian P. text, and we're not starting small. This book? It's a doozy. For the full Show Notes please read on here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/08/17/fuse-8-n-kate-the-adventures-of-sparrowboy-by-brian-pinkney/
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