Elizabeth Bird

Fusenews: Kith and Kin
June 19, 2008

• The 2008 Boston Globe-Horn Book winners have been announced.  I have an inordinate fondness for this list, as it often rights the wrongs of other awards (and sometimes gives a hint of future winners).  This year is particularly satisfying. The Arrival , Fred Stays With Me, and Sherman Alexie all get their due.  I was also intrigued to see that Shooting the Moon, one of my favorite books of the year, is also listed.  I am not alone in my love!  Whoop!  Thanks to Roger for the link.

• Check this other Arrival-centric tidbit out.  Cheryl Rainfeld linked to an amazing portrait Aussie illustrator Nick Stathopoulos did of fellow artist Shaun Tan.

Who knew the critter was albino?  This suggests a bit of thought on the artist's part.  Kudos.

• If proven true, this is one of the more frightening pieces of news that I have read in a very long time.  According to BoingBoing, "In the name of 'defin[ing] clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt' the Associated Press is now selling 'quotation licenses' that allow bloggers, journallers, and people who forward quotations from articles to co-workers to quote their articles." ("Journallers"?) Clearly this relates to news rather than literary reviews, but the difference is slim at best.  I should very much like to hear someone discuss the legality of this particular issue.  Thanks to Big A little a for the link and for her thoughts and further links on the matter.
  
  

• From Cynopsis Kids:

"Seems that Anna Faris and Andy Samberg (Saturday Night Live) have apparently joined the voice cast for the animated feature film adaptation of the kid book Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs , by wife/husband author/illustrator team Judi and Ron Barrett, according to Faris who told as much to the MTV Movies blog.  Sony optioned Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs some time ago, and when I last wrote about it the movie was slated for release March 2009."

• Peter's Father's Day post on Collecting Children's Books manages to cover everything from written inscriptions from fathers to sons, to children's books dealing with fathers and the likelihood one has of winning a Newbery if you "ditch the dad" (so to speak).

• ALSC has expanded its Great Websites for Kids links.  Back when I worked in the Jefferson Market Branch in Greenwich Village I attempted to do a "Cool Website a Day" thing with our computers.  I would put a little display within the computer cubicles where the kids would sign on, and switch out the signs of cool websites each day from such a list as the one ALSC created.  Of course, short of staring over the kids' shoulders like a malignant harpy, I wasn't able to ever ascertain whether or not this worked.  I suspect that it didn't.  Kids usually know what they want, but that is not to say that librarians don't need great links to sites like these. 

• In the Kidlitosphere, certain authors and illustrators attain a kind of online status they might not have achieved solely in the print (slash moneymaking) world alone.  One such author I thought  was Canadian Melanie Watt.  I thought that we all loved her but that the cold cruel callous world of bookselling was passing her by.  The 2008 Libris Award puts that assumption firmly to rest.  Ms. Watt has garnered both the best author and best illustrator of the year awards!  Thanks to Kids Lit for the link.

• I don't know about you, but if I was a member of Harry and the Potters and I read this recent AP article on Yahoo, I would be seriously pissed.

• I had wondered for quite some time what Debbie Reese, not-afraid-to-voice-her-opinion professor at UIUC's American Indian Studies program, thought of Jacob and his kin as represented in those Twilight books.  Not being a regular reader, I missed that she posted on the topic both here and here.  Thanks to Oz and Ends for the link.

• The C.S. Lewis estate is attempting to "to ruthlessly snatch away a gift intended for a young boy who loves his Narnia books", according to a recent article.  Thanks to Bookninja for the link.

• Daily Image:

Let the record show that I am not pleased that they are doing reshoots on the Where the Wild Thing Are film.  That does not mean that I don't find this particular image fascinating anyway.

Love the claws. Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the link.

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on June 19, 2008 | Comments (7)