Elizabeth Bird

Fusenews: Heterosoxuals

Now everyone knows that Seven Impossible Things covers the magnificent illustrators of the present day (and there seems to be a never ending supply of the little buggers too).  Yet I also happen to like it when contemporary illustrators tip their hats to the little known greats of the past.  You may take issue with my saying that Abner Graboff is little known, but until I read artist Ward Jenkins's pieces on the man I was unaware of his existence.  Part One introduces the fellow to us.  Part Two is an interview with Graboff's son, with tons of great illustrations, like this interior he did for a cookbook at one point.  I'll let Ward tell you more, but one last image.  As covers go, I think this is just swell:

• Speaking of the magnificent Seven, a tip of the hat to 7-Imp for beginning a post the other day with a magnificent image of the front of my library.  It gets a fair amount of press as it is, but I still get a little thrill every time I see it, just the same.

• So the big news of the week is mentioned in a post over at Pinot and Prose that I would say is initially entirely misleading.  Laura Lutz lists all the books that the Queens Library System has considered for their Mock Caldecott (I haven't even seen this Hook of which she speaks, which is making me a bit nervy).  And then way way down at the bottom Laura writes, "As many of my readers know, I actually will no longer be working at Queens Library as of July 1st. I have accepted a position with HarperCollins as their School & Library Marketing Manager!"  Talk about burying the lead, lady.  It's not every day that a library's material's specialist makes the leap from librarianship to marketing at a company as massively huge as HC.  All the best luck in the world to you Laura! 

• Far less cheery is the news coming out of MotherReader.  We probably all know folks who have been hit by the current economic climate, but it hurts.  Now a library has lost a damn good librarian.  So I wish you all the best, Pam.  Wherever you choose to go, you will knock 'em dead.

• I may have been oblivious to the outside world while at a recent writer's retreat but I still managed to hear about the Alice Hoffman debacle.  Roger's got the debate covered and all the various topics (spoilers, "professional" reviewers, Hoffman's books, etc.) have come up.  I'll just say that I misheard the information at the start, however, and thought this debate was all about Alice Walker.  Now THAT would be news!

• It's times like these that I'm glad I specialize in children's and not YA fare.  If he starts dabbling in picture books, however, heads will roll.  Thanks to Patrice Sherman for the link.

• When the economy tanks sometimes the conversations in the children's litosphere will circle around the idea of kids' books about lower-income families.  And sometimes I'll have parents in my library asking for books about responsible saving and banking (not that I'm the branch closest to Wall Street, but still . . .).  But along similar lines would be books about entrepreneurs, right?  I mean, you have your child entrepreneur titles: The Toothpaste Millionaire, The Lemonade War . . . uh . . .  Encyclopedia Brown (though that kid seriously needs to up his prices).  And then there are non-fiction titles about real life entrepreneurs.  Chris Barton has made a nice list of those books over at Bartography.  I'm feeling more than a little ashamed that I'd not read that 2000 Kathryn Lasky picture book biography of Madam C.J. Walker, though.  To the library!

• Summer means one thing to libraries: Summer reading.  Getting the little buggers in the library and then placing honest-to-goodness books in their hands.  I don't know about your branches, but my fiction stats are never higher than over the summer.  But what if you don't have a library system that provides a summer reading list or an active group of kids reading and reviewing?  Consider if you will the online world.  I thought of this after looking at Book Clubs 4 Kids.  It's a site that started out as a "collective project of 4 siblings and each of their 4 kids. (16 kids total!)."  Now it's expanded a tad and they're attempting an On-Line Book Club.  So far it's still in the rough early stages but I think it's a worthy notion.  If you know of other on-line book clubs for kids, please let me know about them.  I think such a collection of sites would be more than post-worthy. Thanks to Brittany Lashinski for the link.

• Speaking of literacy-minded online sites, Guys Lit Wire and Guys Read have a companion in arms.  It's Getting Boys to Read and it has a cool home site, a forum, and a continuing series of links to boy literacy sites.  Pretty neat.

• Nina Lindsay has interviewed K.T. Horning, one of the greats in the field, here at SLJ in a post called KT the Magnificent.  The piece covers her accomplishments and experiences, which are key.  Of course I couldn't help but notice that it mentions that Ms. Horning's fish are named "Bubbles and Omar."  Though if you love The Wire like I do, I don't know how nice it is to keep Bubbles in such close proximity to Omar like that.  She also shows some love for John Steptoe's Baby Says, a book that I've never heard anyone really talk it up before.  To the library . . . .  again!

• By the way, the aforementioned Ms. Horning used to write on a blog called Worth the Trip.  The site, which I miss, covered "queer books for kids and teens."  I'd love to hear her take on the newest and most peculiar of the books in that field, Dottie the Sock: How I Found My Pair.  Basic premise: Female sock finds another female sock and they become a matched pair.  I think Lisa Chellman had the best point about this particular title: "consider this: most socks are worn in matched pairs. I guess I've always thought of socks as identical twins rather than romantic couples, but assuming the latter, wouldn't it be the norm for socks to be (to borrow a coworker's expression) homosoxual?  Heterosoxuals would be the odds ones out."  The woman makes an excellent point. 

• Daily Image:

I've posted these before, but now you can actually up and buy one, if you've a hankering. 

Thanks to BB-Blog for the link.

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on July 2, 2009 | Comments (4)