The news, man. It’s overwhelming. I look on my Facebook and my Twitter and it’s all I can see. The days when I could stroll along in blissful ignorance are long gone. This past week was particularly bad so . . . let’s watch Chance the Rapper sing the Arthur theme song with Ziggy Marley, Jon Batiste, and Stephen Colbert.

That’s better. But just to make myself completely happy I should probably watch Migos freestyle to Llama Llama Red Pajama.

Thanks to Shannon Ozirny for the first video and Jules for the second.

Okay, book trailer time.  Now I can count on one hand the number of picture books I’ve seen from major publishers dealing with the shelter system.  That number?  Zero.  Zip. Zilch.  Now Albert Whiman & Co. is not a huge company, but it’s a good one and willing to tackle the subject head on.  Good for them, says I.

This next one takes a bit of explanation.  Kim Patton wrote, “I am SO proud of my library! We had Matt De la Pena visit us last September for our Library in the Park event and we somehow coerced him into reading his book on a city bus while we acted it out! He did AND he let us film it! Its AWESOME! Please share it far and wide with all of your young readers who love his book!”

And so . . .

That. Is. Amazing. Well shot too.

Special shout out today to James Kennedy who managed to get Hollywood director Robert Rodriguez to film an intro for the San Antonio edition of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. This is right up Mr. Rodriguez’s alley too.

And finally, for today’s off-topic video, I rely yet again on my beloved Steven Universe.  Too few of you intelligent folks out there are aware of this show.  This video explains how the music of each character plays into the larger musical themes.  I was skeptical at first but the fusion music bears this out.  If you know the show, you’ll love this.