Elizabeth Bird

Fusenews: "What about Ray Bradbury?" "I am aware of his work."
July 29, 2008

A Mr. Greg Hatcher recently reported on his vacation at the blog Comics Should Be Good in which he chronicled his trips to various used bookstores and the like.  Mr. Hatcher is primarily interesting in comics and graphic novels, but at one point he enters a store and finds a whole mess of Grosset and Dunlap series titles.  Trixie Belden, Cherry Ames, and a series I'd never heard of but am suddenly fascinated by.  Check out this flap copy:

MEET…

CHRISTOPHER COOL / TEEN AGENT as he plays the deadliest game of all––international intrigue––in America’s newest exciting spy stories.

Christopher Cool and his Apache Indian roommate, Geronimo Johnson––sophomores at an Ivy League university––combine their campus lives with undercover assignments for a vital arm of U.S. Intelligence: Top-Secret Educational Espionage Network.

Expertly schooled in all the arts of espionage, the two daring TEEN agents work closely with red-haired Spice Carter, a clever coed agent, to thwart enemy spies in trouble spots throughout the world.

Spice Carter.  Could the heart pitter pat any faster?  Oh, you must read the full post.

• Everything's coming up Anne.  Yesterday Matthew Holm mentioned in ye olde comments that his sis Jenni (you may know her from the shiny medals her books often sport) spoke on the Diane Rehm Show about Anne of Green Gables recently.  I don't know who worked up the guest list for that particular talk but if you were to scratch your head and come up with the contemporary equivalent of L.M. Montgomery it would be hard to do better than Ms. Holm.  Actually this is going to sound bad but I personally think Ms. Holm's a little better.  I know, I know, saying anyone today is better than someone from the past is heresy.  Just my two cents.  Listen here (scroll down) for the segment.  Thanks to Matthew Holm for the link.

• Librarian Alert: Oprah's getting into the kids' reading list game.  Had to happen sometime, I guess.  Now we'll get to know the joy of our adult brethren.  The site where she'll be posting her picks isn't up until August 1st, so we've that long to try to read her mind to figure out the books she'll recommend.  Better yet, let's take bets on what she picks!  I predict Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, Shiloh, and maybe Inkheart for a contemporary flourish.  Thanks to Big A little a for the link.

• Is there a generation gap amongst the science fiction writers?  That's what Elizabeth Bear asks.  She's discussing what the writers themselves read, but I almost wonder if the case is the same for readers.  Do kid science fiction fans (all four of 'em) read their Bradbury like they should or are they entirely focused on newer stuff?  Thanks to Shaken and Stirred for the link.

• Dear Santa: I want this poster. 

I want it now.  What's that?  It's July?  It's not even December?  Tough cookies, Santa.  My needs know no bounds.  In the impossible event that this not possible, however, I will gladly take this t-shirt instead.  Adam Rex, if you hadn't guessed, is toting his wares.  His online store is good, but I admittedly spent most of my time there flipping between the different models wearing his shirts.  I like to pretend that they're personal friends of Adam and that he hangs out with them in cool bars where they swap various modeling-t-shirts-online horror stories as they while away the days.

• Walter Minkle has just written a piece called End of the line for the cassette tape to which I decry NEV-AH!  He links to a recent New York Times piece on the death of that old format, but watch as my Luddite brain refuses to acknowledge the news.  Sure in my library our cassette music tapes don't go out as often as they used to, but those books on tape still circulate, man.  Not quite sure how.  New Yorkers tend to take out books on tape only when they go on car trips and fewer cars have cassette players in them these days.  *sigh*  Maybe Walter's right. 

• There's a great interview over at The Brown Bookshelf with the creators of Just Us Books, a small publisher of high quality African-American titles.  If you've read Leonard Marcus's Minders of Make-Believe then you may remember the chapter that discusses independent publishers including this company.

• The fourth sign of the apocalypse?  It involves Robert McCloskey.  Would I lie to you?

• I've mentioned the blog Meeting McCay, a site devoted entirely to the life and works of Winsor McCay, in the past.  But if you've not heard of it and would like to read it, they're providing a recap of what they hope to accomplish right now.  A must read for McCay fans everywhere.

• Daily Image:

If you worry that your next gingerbread man might try to high-tail it out the door, why not even up the stakes right from the start?

Thanks to Editorial Anonymous for the link.

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on July 29, 2008 | Comments (8)