Elizabeth Bird

Fusenews: Fusenews You Can Use
October 13, 2008

Happy, Columbus Day!  In lieu of writing any new posts that talk about the day but are instead just rewrites of older posts I shall direct your attention to my earlier thoughts on the matter.  A year ago I reviewed my favorite Columbus Day picture book A Coyote Columbus Story (shown here, it is your required reading).  And two years ago I made a case for why the day should actually be called Fiorella H. LaGuardia Day, even though the man was a strict New Yorker.  Recently I attempted to figure out if my library had any Fiorella children's biographies in our circulating collection.  We do!  There are four biographies written of the man (1962, 1968, 1972, and 1981 respectively) and one of them (Fiorello: His Honor the Little Flower) circulates!  Note to publishers: More Fiorello, please.  Looks like after '81 he dropped off the map.

• From former co-worker and children's music guru Warren (who writes on the blog Kids' Music that Rocks) I received this note:

"just reviewed a very good, very indie rock kids' CD called The Thin King by the band me3. Their drummer is Adam McCauley , the children's book illustrator ( Time Warp Trio , Mom and Dad are Palindromes , etc.). Cool!"

• We've been talking a lot about group blogs lately.  Well here's an idea for one such group organized by their agent no less.  Agent Sara Crowe has created a blog called Crowe's Nest upon which she and her twenty-four authors and illustrators blog.  Admittedly I only found out about it because she nominated me for an I Heart Your Blog Award.  A tip of the hat then.

• A very insightful encapsulation of the Obama and McCain book(s) for kids is out right now in The New York Times from this weekend.  Bruce Handy says everything I would say if I was a bit more talented in talking smartlike.  Great line from the piece: "In need of his own laudatory picture book, he [McCain] has had to rely on his daughter, Meghan McCain, which is the hagiography equivalent of having to take your cousin to the prom."  I'm just a sucker for any author who can use the term "hagiography" in a sentence.

• From Cynopsis Kids:

"Cartoon Network unveils plans for a new original live-action/CGI movie based on Tiger's Apprentice , the young-adult novel by Lawrence Yep and published by Harper Collins.  The movie features a screenplay by David Magee (Finding Neverland).  Jane Startz (Tuck Everlasting, Indian in the Cupboard) serves as executive producer on the movie.  Currently in pre-production at Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank, Tiger's Apprentice is set for release in 2010.  This movie project joins the network's expanding development slate, which already includes the adaptations of comic books Firebreather, The Vanishers, Mice Templar and the sequel to the live-action Ben 10 movie."

• Kisses and congrats to buddy Meredith Arwady who was recently featured in Opera News in a lovely double-paged spread.  She is one of my oldest friends and is current in a production of Doctor Atomic here in NYC.  Woot!

• Daily Image:

Just found a cool new design blog to add alongside good old BB-Blog on my daily reading list.  Called Swiss Miss it features design topics with a couple regular library/children's-related links to pieces like More Books, awesome toddler beds, coat racks (admittedly, that one's just cool), and a project of photographs where certain shots manage to type the sky.

Someone could probably create an abecedarian-based blog if they wanted to, you know.  Thanks to Swiss Miss for the link!

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on October 13, 2008 | Comments (4)