Elizabeth Bird

Fusenews: Oh Say CBC...
May 13, 2008

Yesterday consisted of a Children's Book Council breakfast to kick off Children's Book Week (yay!), a Little Brown & Co. librarian preview, and a screening of Prince Caspian.  All of this will be written up soon, but in the meantime I present to you the daily Fusenews too.  We are nothing if not friggin' obsessed about posting, it would seem.

• From Cynopsis Kids comes either the best or the worst news of the day:

"Hey You Guyyyys!" Sesame Workshop begins production in New York City this month on the new version of the K6-9 aimed reading readiness TV series, The Electric Company .  The original incarnation of the series ran on Public Television stations in the 1970s. 

Here's what I want to know: Will there or will there not be Spiderman sections at the end of each episode in which the character is mute and speaks with thought bubbles?  No, I'm not as innocent as all that.  But seriously, how awesome would it be to see?

• Children's literary expert GraceAnne DeCandido sent me the following message this week: "Melissa Anelli, who runs The Leaky Cauldron site for HP fandom posted this report of Harry and the Potters behind the lions."  I enjoyed this recap not only because it gave us video clips of a great event, but because she called the Humanities and Social Sciences Library "the one with the lions".  I am working to make this the official name of that particular branch.  Extra points for the presence of those naughty library lions dancing like the furry fools they be.
  
  

• Due to the fact that you ALL read your Collecting Children's Books posts every day (hint hint) I'm sure you already saw the magnificent mother-related swath of info posted by Peter this past Sunday.
  
  

• And finally, there's a dual review of two heavy duty works on children's literature that's worth taking a gander at.  The Washington Post has a piece up called From Wild Things to Happy Readers (why is it that no writer can resist using the term "Wild Things" in any piece that is even tangentially related to books for kids?).  The article examines both Seth Lerer's book Children's Literature: A Reader's History from Aesop to Harry Potter and Leonard Marcus's magnificent Minders of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of American Children's Literature.  I have Leonard's book at home and I'd better get cracking at it soon if I don't want to be left behind in the dust of all those people who've already done it cover to cover. Thanks to Shaken and Stirred for the link.... and if you missed it, S&S's Gwenda Bond did the Publisher's Weekly cover story Wikipedia's the elephant; is there room for traditional reference? this week.  Way to go, Gwenda!

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on May 13, 2008 | Comments (2)