BACK ON THE BUS

The Number Five Bus Presents…, one of the coolest children’s lit interview projects ever is up and running for Season Two. First up, Matthew Cordell and David Ezra Stein. Click here to read.

THE PRICE IS RIGHT FOR BOOKS

Over at Bookends, Cindy details a thrift store find that ended up providing some library fun. I want to give this thing a spin. Click here to read.

BRAND-NEW BLOG

Reading While White is a new blog co-authored by some of the smartest and most passionate children’s literature advocates around. I’ll be reading with interest. Click here to visit.

WONDER WONDER WONDER

A new site called All the Wonders just launched, with the goal of being “a home for readers to discover new books and experience the stories they love in wondrous ways.” I’m looking forward to what the creators have in store. Click here to check it out.

THE HENK SPEAKS

I love this interview. Kevin Henkes was recently interviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered about his life and latest book, Waiting. I love when Henkes tells the story of the first (and, ultimately, unpublished) sequel to Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse. Click here to listen.

WITS AND A PURPLE CRAYON

Nine Kinds of Pie Guy (that’s fun to say) and professor Philip Nel has A Manifesto for Children’s Literature to share. Click here to read it.

ON SURFBOARDING CATS AND SUCH

Newbery Medalist Katherine Applegate is on the latest episode of the Let’s Get Busy podcast. Click here to listen.

BOOKS BY COVER

Browser-based game Judgey was recently launched, with the goal of finding out what people think of various book covers. Huh. They received over 3 million judgements and compared the overall cover rating to the book rating on Goodreads.  Click here to read more.

Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo. Out April 12, 2016.

The biggest book announcement of the week came courtesy of Kate DiCamillo.

From the publisher:

Raymie Nightingale centers on a spunky 10-year-old named Raymie Clarke, whose father has just run away with a local dental hygienist. Raymie realizes that it’s up to her to get him back, so she concocts a plan: She’ll win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition, then once her father sees her photo in the paper, he’ll come home. But can she deal with the pressures of baton-twirling and new friends like Louisiana Elefante, who has a background in show-biz, and Beverly Tapinski, who has her own plan to sabotage the entire contest.

Click here to read more about the book (and an excerpt) at Entertainment Weekly.

There are some things you can count on. The sun rising in the east. The deliciousness of trail mix. A Fuse #8’s Fall Newbery/Caldecott predictions. I found quite a bit to agree with here.

I so support this idea from author/illustrator Ryan T. Higgins.

Thinking of recording silly conversations with other kid lit folks while riding one if these. Who's in? #TandemTalks pic.twitter.com/HQmD9FsQUo

— Ryan T. Higgins (@RyanT_Higgins) September 17, 2015

Say it with me:

(image from The Joke Book by Roy McKie)