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I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Pop Culture Happy Hour where employees of NPR dissect some aspect of pop culture in a smart and funny way each week. The show works for me because as I age I become worse and worse at knowing what is out there and this show allows [...]
Folks, I’ll be stepping away from the desk/office/city/state for the next few days as I do a tiny little self-propelled book tour. In fact, if you happen to live in Chicago or Grand Rapids, MI or Kalamazoo then you are in luck. I’m nigh! Here are the appearances for the next few days: April 25th [...]
Well sir, it’s a heckuva week. Book stuff is happening out the wazoo, but for a moment I’d like to concentrate on what else is going on in the wider children’s literary world. What say we Fusenews it up a bit, eh? Of course there’s no way to begin today without a hat tip to [...]
Giant Dance Party By Betsy Bird Illustrated By Brandon Dorman Greenwillow (an imprint of Harper Collins) $17.99 ISBN: 978-0061960833 Ages 3-7 On shelves now. Gotcha! I’m just messing with you. No, I’m not going to actually review my book here. I’m not going to wax rhapsodic over the hidden meanings lurking behind the mysterious cupcake [...]
Maria Had a Little Llama / Maria Tenia Una Llama Pequena By Angela Dominguez Henry Holt (an imprint of Macmillan) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-8050-9333-9 Ages 4-8 On shelves August 20th Ladies and gentlemen, I stand before you a humbled woman. A woman who “knew” certain facts but, until she saw them working in her own personal [...]
They asked me to do some promotional videos for my book.
I came up with these instead. Life is too short not to have your legs eaten by legwarmers. I’m inclined to name them The Electric Blue Boogaloo.
Part One:
Part Two:
Part Three:
Part …
Okay, folks. This is where we start the self-promotion machine. I’m looking at it right now and it’s rusty and corroded and clearly falling apart at the seams. Nonetheless, I shall grab my proverbial gas can, fill the tank, pull the cord, let ‘er rip, and see where she takes me. So first and foremost, [...]
No Fits, Nilson! By Zachariah Ohora Dial (an imprint of Penguin) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-8037-3852-2 Ages 3-7 On shelves June 13th The small child is a frightening beast. A truly terrifying creature that can level the most powerful adult with the mere pitch of their fury laden screams. As a children’s librarian I used to tell [...]
Olivier Tallec & Oliver Jeffers Moderated by Pamela Paul Wednesday, May 1st | 6pm Place: NYPL, Berger Forum http://www.nypl.org/locations/tid/36/node/200792?lref=36%2Fcalendar Olivier Tallec and Oliver Jeffers are both avid world travelers and authors whose bold and colorful children’s books are bestsellers in the US. Join them for an animated conversation at the New York Public Library, moderated by Pamela Paul, Children’s Book [...]
The rules are simple. Reinterpret a famous scene from any Maurice Sendak book in the style of another famous children’s picture book artist. Perhaps you’d like to do Pierre ala Ezra Jack Keats or Outside Over There in the style of Marcia Brown. All power to you. Whatever you prefer, if you think this is [...]
Apparently I’m under the impression that it would be a good idea to write a potentially hot and toasty topic while I walk beneath the Spanish sun with limited access to the internet. But this is something that’s been on my mind a lot recently, and it all came a head the other day as [...]
Recently I was offered the chance to debut an original piece of art from the multi-talented Bob Staake. The reason? Well, National Screen Free Week is almost upon us. I don’t think I’m the only one who has noticed a small growth in books that encourage kids to put down their shiny rectangles and engage [...]
Oh me, oh my, where does the time go? Here we are, it’s Monday yet again, and I’m running about like a chicken with my head cut off. This Friday I head off to Barcelona for a full week (weep for me), then back I come to promote my picture book (Giant Dance Party, or [...]
Excluding the very rare exceptions here and there, it’s fairly safe to say that when picture books are adapted into big screen movie sensations they are inevitably packed to the gills full of unnecessary awfulness. Consider the fate of The Cat in the Hat if you doubt me at all. Now there are exceptions to [...]
There are certain words and phrases that are instantly hilarious. Kalamazoo is one of them. Platypus is another. All the more reason to combine the two. That’s my logic. When I heard that Jarrett Krosoczka (he of the Lunch Lady GN series as well as a stunner of a TED talk, amongst other accomplishments), had [...]
Brick by Brick By Charles R. Smith Jr. Illustrated by Floyd Cooper $17.99 ISBN: 978-0-06-192082-0 Ages 4-8 On shelves now Sometimes I feel like the older I get the more interesting history becomes. Not that history, real history, wasn’t always fascinating. It’s just that when I was a kid you couldn’t have named a subject [...]
