Fusenews: We'll be Fine As Long As We Hold Onto Those Accordions and Boy Scouts - A Fuse #8 Production

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Elizabeth Bird

Fusenews: We'll be Fine As Long As We Hold Onto Those Accordions and Boy Scouts
August 7, 2008

Illustrator Pauline Baynes died on August 1st. You can find her obituary here on The Guardian. Jane Yolen called her, "C. S. Lewis' favorite Narnia illustrator," and if you've ever read a Narnia book with the original pen-and-ink illustrations inside then you have seen her work. Thanks to Jane Yolen for the information.

Jo Walton over at Tor.com gives author Robert Heinlein's juvenile novels a close look. All the descriptions of his books are great but this one proved to be my particular favorite:

In Farmer in the Sky, a family emigrates to Ganymede to struggle with terraforming. Before they leave we see a little of Earth – food rationing, counting points, not wanting to waste the last scrape on a butter paper. This Earth is overpopulated and starving, even if it still has accordions and Boy Scouts.

Thanks to BoingBoing for the link.

The other day I discovered that Blueberries for Sal was reportedly going out of print. Today, much odder news. Apparently the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace are soon to be no more. I find this particularly odd since the Betsy-Tacy series is one of the few in this country with an active (and vocal) society. Little Willow has more information on her blog, with some info reprinted from the readergirlz site. Personally, I can attest that the puppies get read. We've the full paperback series in my library (or we used to *sniffle*) and I regularly reshelved and reorganized the books found there. I never had anyone ask for them personally, yet they were in constant rotation. Interesting.

The Jim Flora website has just created a separate section dedicated to all the children's books Mr. Flora created in his time. Those of you interested in great design should give it a peek.

For those of you fond of The Lord of the Rings who have pondered the idea of becoming an elf... AUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!

I am offering up oodles of thanks to J.L. Bell for directing me to the author Nick Green's recent entry on the British mondo blog An Awfully Big Blog Adventure. It describes in harrowing detail a three-year-old's thwarted attempts to remove his own shirt. "All attempts to assist, even the most surreptitious, blind-sided fingertip grip on the seam of his sleeve, to make it easier for him to extricate his arm, is met with screams of apoplectic fury." Basically, this is what good writing is all about.

Daily Image:

Hello, fellow children's librarians. Do you have a gigantic box/basket/former ice cream container full of crayons? Have your toddlers managed to reduce the bulk of them into mere nubby nubs, undesired by any and all? Do you feel oddly reluctant to throw away these little pieces of nubbly goodness and seek a solution? If so, observe:

The eco-friendly blog Daily Danny has discovered a way to recycle old crayons into colorful butterflies. If your library has access to a hot plate or stove, you may wish to do a program on this with your older kids and teens. Thanks to BoingBoing (who I will make a point to read every day if it keeps loading me up with stuff as good as this) for the link.

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on August 7, 2008 | Comments (10)

August 7, 2008
In response to: Fusenews: We'll be Fine As Long As We Hold Onto Those Accordions and Boy Scouts
Jennifer Schultz commented:

Little Willow's link isn't working. Our Betsy-Tacy books circulate well, but no one has asked me about them either (same thing for Streatfeild's books). What a shame that they are going out of print. And Blueberries for Sal? Why are these books going out of print?

August 7, 2008
In response to: Fusenews: We'll be Fine As Long As We Hold Onto Those Accordions and Boy Scouts
Fuse #8 commented:

Ah. Thank you for letting me know about the Little Willow link. If you take the % out of the URL it should work. I'll correct it when I'm able. As for why they go out of print, who can truly understand the mind of the great big giant publisher?

August 7, 2008
In response to: Fusenews: We'll be Fine As Long As We Hold Onto Those Accordions and Boy Scouts
puffer15 commented:

When I tried to order Blueberries for Sal for my store last spring, my rep said that the family was in litigation with the publisher, and publication was being held up. I don't know if this is correct, but perhaps we can still hope for Sal's return.

August 7, 2008
In response to: Fusenews: We'll be Fine As Long As We Hold Onto Those Accordions and Boy Scouts
Sandy commented:

Why oh why did I click on the elf link? I think I'm not so hungry for dinner anymore...

August 7, 2008
In response to: Fusenews: We'll be Fine As Long As We Hold Onto Those Accordions and Boy Scouts
Sandy commented:

Okay, well, the Nick Green story and crayon butterflies made up for it, though. =)

August 7, 2008
In response to: Fusenews: We'll be Fine As Long As We Hold Onto Those Accordions and Boy Scouts
Fuse #8 commented:

Yes, I don't kid with my auuuugggghhhs. They definitely represent my state of mind. Thank goodness for pretty pretty butterflies.

August 8, 2008
In response to: Fusenews: We'll be Fine As Long As We Hold Onto Those Accordions and Boy Scouts
Little Willow commented:

Thanks for the links. There are so many fantastic classic books that are now out-of-print - and why? It's frustrating and sad. Come back, Noel's Shoes! Come back, Betsy and Tacy! Not to mention contemporary mass market releases, especially in the juvenile and teen departments, which have a short shelf life in some stores give them only X amount of time to sell, then rip and strip them. Sigh.

August 8, 2008
In response to: Fusenews: We'll be Fine As Long As We Hold Onto Those Accordions and Boy Scouts
Kathryne commented:

Man, I love living in England. You know what I found in the bookstore the other day? A whole shelf of "Shoes" books. Even better--Astrid Lindgren's "Emil" books. I don't think they were even in print in the US even when I was a kid, but I used to check them out of the library all. the. time. My first thought when I heard about Betsy-Tacy was "now I need to buy complete sets for myself and my three nieces, and maybe a couple for nieces and daughters who might come along later." Then I thought, "maybe that's the idea..."

August 8, 2008
In response to: Fusenews: We'll be Fine As Long As We Hold Onto Those Accordions and Boy Scouts
Fuse #8 commented:

Ah! You mean like the Disney Vault technique? Disney will release their DVDs of certain movies for prescribed amount of time ("Get it before March 30th or it's gone!") then stop the release and put them back in the "vault" until the whim hits them again. Perhaps publishers are adopting this model (though Disney videos rarely pop up on summer reading lists, so it may not be the best plan in the whole wide world).

August 9, 2008
In response to: Fusenews: We'll be Fine As Long As We Hold Onto Those Accordions and Boy Scouts
your neighborhood librarian commented:

Jo Walton as in Farthing Jo Walton? Wow... thanks for the excellent catch!