A Fuse #8 Production

July 4, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (6)

The weird thing about putting my reviews on Amazon is that I tend to get a lot of reference questions as a result.  Recently someone wrote me the following:

"My 10 year old daughter wants to read that awful thing by Stephenie Meyer.  You know the one.  Twilight.  . . . It's not even the story (or lack thereof) or the characters (one-dimensional) or the anti-feminist undercurrent or any of the other multitude of problems with the book that I have a problem with but rather that the writing is just so terrible. Can you suggest something to create a diversion?"

Regardless of your opinions of Ms. Meyer's writing, there are other reasons to not want a pre-p...Read More

July 4, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (4)

Happy Fourth of July, all you happy campers!  We're looking at mostly sunny skies here in NYC, which is a relief after the rainy winter / rainy spring / rainy summer we've been having.  We are a little sick of the rain.  I figure, if you have the weather of Portland, Oregon you should at least get the extra added benefit of getting to see pretty mountains in the distance.  No mountain ranges here, sadly.

By the way, if you're in town, perhaps you'd like to see Jefferson's hand-written copy of The Declaration of Independence.  NYPL will have it on display on the first floor this weekend.  It's in my library, though I haven't had a chance to see it myself.  Accord...Read More

July 3, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

All right, kids.  Ears perked, and shiny eyes bright and open.  What we have here today is a little bit of info on a children's magazine that I hadn't heard of before now.  And that's a shame.

See, the way I figure it, magazines are kids are a legitimate part of a kid's literary life.  But how often do we talk about these magazines or compare and contrast them?  This side of hardly ever, that's how often.   Now before I was a children's librarian I was a Serials Manager, which is just a fancy pants terms for a person who spends all their time in a college library organizing the magazines.  Seems to me I should be taking a more active interest in the mags for...Read More

July 3, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2)

The Secret Circus
By Johanna Wright
Roaring Brook Press
$16.95
ISBN: 978-1-59643-403-5
Ages 4-8
On shelves now.

The way I see it, you can be the kind of publisher who takes risks or the kind of publisher who does the same thing over and over ad nauseam. Taking risks means possibly failing or creating wonderful forgotten pieces of art. Doing the same thing over and over means yet another princess / ballet / dinosaur / train / first day of school book. You'll sell a title here and there, sure, but twenty or thirty years down the road will your book have made any kind of an impressio...Read More

July 2, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (4)

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.  ...Read More