Fuse 8 N' Kate

First and foremost, happy engagement to Kate and the Penguinologist! She'll soon be a Coronabride with her very own microwedding. Now just to catch the rest of you up, Kate is not a huge fan of clowns. Actually, that's a bit of an understatement. She HATES clowns. Naturally that meant that Betsy had to find a classic clown book for her birthday. She's nursing a theory that they don't exist, though, so Betsy decided to get the next best thing. Marla Frazee's The Farmer and the Clown won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Picture Book category. That's enough potential classic status for us! But trust Kate to find a way to turn this sweet little wordless book into a bit of a horrorfest. No small feat. Show Notes: Betsy quotes a Marla Frazee and Roger Sutton interview quite a lot in the course of this podcast. Check it out here: https://www.hbook.com/?detailStory=marla-frazee-talks-roger If you'd like to see Natalie Portman's interview with Daniel Lavery, you can find it here: https://www.natalieportman.com/2020/08/1

Today's book has been on Publisher Weekly's top selling picture book list for 240+ weeks. Even so, it is not a household name here in America by any stretch of the imagination. Betsy had been seeing its name on the bestseller lists for years, so she finally decided to bite the bullet and hand the title over to Kate. What results is speculation as to whether or not Gerald is dancing to dubstep (complete with dubstep imitation), notes the fact that Gerald is followed by bugs and turtles everywhere he goes, a new tattoo contender, and more. For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/08/17/fuse-8-n-kate-giraffes-cant-dance-by-giles-andreae-ill-guy-parker-rees/

While this may not be the first time we've ever covered an illustrator that I've collaborated with (remember when we discussed Dan Santat and After the Fall?) this is one of the few cases where we've done a collaborator of mine who has an honest-to-goodness classicky classic. We discuss the strength of Imogene's neck muscles, you get to hear an impromptu jingle for the Emergency Hat Service, I manage to work in a tiny reference to Gregor Samsa, and we marvel at Imogene's good nature. As I say on the show, "Imogene's most defining quality is her lack of freaking out over pretty much anything. This is a real go-with-the-flow kind of kid." Show Notes: The blog Don't Read This to My Kids has many thoughts on the book and they're worth reading here: http://www.drttmk.com/books/imogenes-antlers This Imogene Halloween costume is brilliant. Two thumbs up! And it comes from the post Five Super Simple Halloween Costumes from the blog This Picture Book Life: http://thispicturebooklife.com/super-simple-picture-book-h

When we consider classic Latinx picture books that would qualify as #ownvoices, only a few have been covered on this show. I mean, sure we did Pura Belpre's Perez and Martina a while ago, but let's get a little more contemporary, eh? Today's book premiered in 2000, which means it just barely squeezes in under the 20 year rule for inclusion. Now, granted, we probably should have started with the first book in the series, Chato's Kitchen. The only problem with that is (A) It's not as good and (B) Betsy couldn't find it on the library shelf and grabbed this instead. Eh. That's okay. Show Notes: Susan Guevara's vision for this book goes far and beyond anything Soto could have included in the text. Her interpretation covers a wide swath of influences and references, making it one of the most interesting picture book reads out there. Read the transcript of her interview or listen to it on Teachingbooks.net here: https://www.teachingbooks.net/book_reading.cgi?id=11932&a=1 If you'd like to read Gary Soto's essay "

A lot of this show consists of Betsy thinking up an author (say, Patricia Polacco) then saying to herself "What's their most famous book?" In the case of Ms. Polacco, she was a bit stumped. This book was definitely in the top five, and she figured it would make for an interesting choice. Particularly since its shiny Sydney Taylor Award on the cover was intriguing. With its 1988 pub date, there's still a lot to really enjoy about this title. It's aged nicely, and ties in well with stories like Jacqueline Woodson's Show Way or Papa Had a Little Overcoat, even. Show Notes: I'm not kidding about the fact that Polacco went to school with Frank Oz and babysat Tom Hanks. Read all about it here: https://lifechums.wordpress.com/tag/tom-hanks/ If you would like to see the additional pages that Patricia Polacco made for the 25th anniversary edition of this book, take a gander at this video by the Mazza Museum. Our sole objection to this vid is that you never get a good close look at the quilt itself: https://www.yout

If you had to pick all the Peggy Rathmann books that exist, you probably wouldn't begin with her title The Day the Babies Crawled Away (which Kate and Betsy did do on a previous episode). Instead, you'd probably want to do today's book! Is it her most famous? Dunno. Probably a toss up between this and Office Buckle and Gloria. Today Kate and Betsy dig deep into a title that certainly contains the world's most short-sighted escape plan. The Great Escape, this is not. Show Notes: - Here is the New York Times article that talks about Peggy Rathmann's new life and grand good life is Can Dirt Save the Earth: Agriculture Could Pull Carbon Out of the Air Into the Soil: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjlhueW79rqAhWCBc0KHSyDDM0QFjAAegQIARAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2018%2F04%2F18%2Fmagazine%2Fdirt-save-earth-carbon-farming-climate-change.html&usg=AOvVaw0JURB7VQVvxWEtlVnZXr8O This book came in at #40 on the Top 100 Picture Books Poll: http://blogs.s

"Bring me a bad book. Like, a really good bad book." So Kate asked Betsy. Well, we don't want to give anything away but Betsy may have hit on something. If you were born in the late 70s or early 80s, the odds are good that somebody you know read it to you. And this all ties in quite closely to current discussions of picture books with racist elements that sit blithely on shelves in children's rooms anywhere. Show Notes: In case you've ever wondered what this show's recording set-up looks like, Drew, the resident Penguinologist, put together this quickie video on a whim. It's haphazard but fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP3f_UtbXK0 While we appreciate that The Book Hound took the time to draw a connection between the Dionne quintuplets and the publication of this book, the assertion that, "While it is possible to conclude the illustrations in The Five Chinese Brothers are ethnic stereotypes, although not everyone agrees with that, it is impossible to make a case that the text contains or implies a ra

Betsy didn't want to have a whole conversation about elongated eye tubes. She really, really didn't, but that's the price you pay when you show Kate the book Owl Babies. Today the two tackle the ebook edition of the picture book (rather than board book) version of this title and it makes for an interesting read. They end up wondering about where the gutter falls on certain two-page spreads, and have a lengthy talk about repetition in picture book texts and what this book has to do with working mothers. Show Notes: Josh Funk is correct. Splash Mountain will indeed be redone: https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/25/media/splash-mountain-disney/index.html The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore was, I believe, an Oscar-winning short animated film. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad3CMri3hOs For the full Show Notes please go to: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/07/06/fuse-8-n-kate-owl-babies-by-martin-waddell-ill-patrick-benson/

Funny to think about the authors and illustrators we've never quite gotten to on the show. Sometimes the trick behind selecting a book isn't so much which artist to do but what book to do from a given artist. After much soul searching Betsy decided that George Shrinks trumps Dinosaur Bob and the Family Lazardo in terms of sheer fame. It's a funny kind of book, and you can trust Kate to winnow out every possible detail on the page. Hope you like your kids short, your cats cruel, and your teddy bears creepy, because we're going all in on Joyce's best known today. Show Notes: You can find Bill's account of what happened when his made his last New Yorker cover here: https://apps.centenary.edu/newsarchive/2006/February/B-Joyce-cover-article.html For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/06/29/fuse-8-n-kate-george-shrinks-by-william-joyce/

Betsy broke the rules. Under normal circumstances she won't consider a children's book for this podcast unless that title is less than 20 years old. But since she made that rule in the first place, I guess she's the one who gets to break it. And today's book is, in its blood, a rule breaker. In the course of this episode Betsy attempts to encapsulate all of Jacqueline Woodson's major awards (this is a difficult thing to even try, by the way), Kate and Betsy honor Juneteenth, and they try desperately to figure out why this book never won any Caldecott love (to add to its Newbery Honor love). Show Notes: Here's the interview with Jacqueline Woodson about the background to Show Way on Reading Rockets with Carole Boston Weatherford: https://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/woodson/transcript Toshi (Jackie's daughter) was friends with Trixie from the Knuffle Bunny books. This fact was confirmed by Jackie herself at the blog The Happy Nappy Bookseller in 2011: http://thehappynappybookseller.blogspot.com/

In honor of Pride this month, we figured it would be a good idea to check out one of the first big-time LGBTQIA+ picture books published in America. We've already covered Heather Has Two Mommies in a previous episode, so what's left? Well, if Heather Has Two Mommies came out in 1989, Daddy's Roommate followed just a year later in 1990. It was on ALA's top 10 banned list from 1990-1999. Researching it, we had no idea this would be such a fruitful book to explore. Above and beyond little things like the details Willhoite is just throwing in there there's the fact that Sarah Palin hated it and it was brought up during the 2008 presidential campaign. Plus Betsy gets to tell her Jon Waters purple velvet fainting couch story (which so rarely comes up). Show Notes: If you would like to see the video that Kate was critiquing from, you can watch it here: https://vimeo.com/304030343 As Lark pointed out the Barnes Children's Literature Festival features, amongst other things, Stanley Tucci reading The Tiger Who Came

Kate gave Betsy a tricky challenge this week. She wanted her to find a book worth discussing that was pertinent to the times in which we live. So, after a great deal of soul searching, Betsy decided to focus on a book by a Black author. Even better, a book that was ahead of its time when it came out and may only find its true audience today. And few books for kids tackle the issue of police brutality as honestly as this one does. Reprinted two years ago, James Baldwin's 1976 title (the only book for children he ever made) feels both timeless and in desperate need of a new illustrator. Show Notes: The book Betsy alludes to at the start is Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children's Literature, edited by Julia L. Mickenberg and Philip Nel: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2009/02/16/review-of-the-day-tales-for-little-rebels-by-julie-l-mickenberg-and-philip-nel/ If you want additional information on Little Man, Little Man, Betsy wrote about it at length here: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8pr

For whatever reason, Kate and Betsy spoke for a whopping 45 minutes about today's book. Somehow, Kate (who is our editor on all this) cut it down to mere 28 minutes, which is a feat worth remarking. The sisters tackle whether or not "Helen Palmer" was or was not Dr. Seuss (the answer is far more complicated than you might think). They delve into what kind of reputation Mr. Carp must have to be on the watch list of both the police and the firemen. And now they have to research when fluoride entered the drinking water and when chlorine entered the public pools. It's important! Show Notes: - As we now know, in its original incarnation, this story began its life as Gustav the Goldfish by Dr. Seuss (originally appearing in Redbook magazine in June 1950). It only became A Fish Out of Water when Seuss's wife Helen adapted it to the easy book format. - Our recent episode about The Cow That Sneezed caused our listener Christine to write in, "Listening to this episode reminded me of Stand Back," Said the Elephant,

Kate and Betsy haven't done a cult classic picture book in a while. Really, the ultimate compliment any book can receive from its fans is that their love allows it to see life once more, decades after publication. This was one of the rare titles from the 1950s republished by the publisher Enchanted Lion. Betsy has always been a big fan of this book, but as we have learned time and time again, just because she likes something, that is NO indication that Kate will as well. Show Notes: Here is the link to the James Flora archives in the Kerlan Collection, should you wish to see them firsthand: https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/4/resources/5433 Curious about Flora's album cover art? You can see a whole slew of it here: https://www.jimflora.com/galleries/flora-classic-album-covers/ And if, by any chance you're interested in seeing Betsy's library's community cookbook, you can find the link here: https://inkie.pressbooks.pub/cozyevanstoncookbook/ For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.

Today's 1981 classic turned out to be a surprise to Kate. She, like many people in America, had no idea that Jumanji was a picture book before it was a movie (or two, or three). Thanks to her read, a lot of questions about this book were cleared up. For example, there is the fact that the parents must be going to a matinee (which explains why the kids eat dinner after their return later). And did you know that the two kids at the end of this book are the ones in the sequel Zathura? But here's the crazy thing. Kate actually managed to find a continuity error in the art. Don't believe us? Check it out. For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/05/18/fuse-8-n-kate-jumanji-by-chris-van-allsburg/

"I'm giving myself extra points for doing this springy book in spring . . . which I did not realize until this moment. Patting on the backy of me!" Prior to today's episode the only Jerry Pinkney title Betsy and Kate had done on the podcast was Sam and the Tigers (as part of their Little Black Sambo round-up). As for Ms. Patricia McKissack, they'd never even done a single one of her books to date. Consider this a wrong now righted. This episode taught us about how folks change picture books to make them readable as ebooks. As for the plot of the story, no one ever talks about the book's traumatized chickens or the fact that you never get to see the cake Mirandy wins. Get ready for an extra deep dive into a book that is still a favorite of teachers nationwide. Show Notes: Initially the cakewalk was created to mock white slaveholders to their faces. They would judge the first cakewalks and have no idea the slaves were mocking them. There's an interesting article about it here at Face2Face Africa: https://fac

Because it was recently Betsy's birthday, she got to choose a book that was her favorite when she was growing up. And let us say this about Tasha Tudor. The Queen of England herself is second only to Tasha Tudor in terms of corgi love. Tasha was the original corgi lover. The sisters spend a great deal of time trying to explain some of the oddities of the book by saying, "It's New England!" Like it helps or something. The best way to put it is that this book is 70s/1870s. Show Notes: If you ever care to show up at the Tasha Tudor website, it's a real class act: https://www.tashatudorandfamily.com/ Is Betsy the only one who makes this association when she sees a monk marionette? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK19zONpd04 For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/05/04/fuse-8-n-kate-a-time-to-keep-by-tasha-tudor/

Seems to us that bats are shouldering a great deal of the blame for our current COVID-19 crisis. Considering the fact that their P.R. wasn't all that great to begin with(Batman aside), Betsy decided this week's episode would combat this problem with the most famous bat-related picture book in America. It doesn't hurt matters any that this entire episode is pretty much just an excuse for her to post cute videos of baby fruit bats in the Show Notes. Show Notes: Betsy mentions that her falcons are currently nesting on her library building right now. Here they are on the live cam. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hOZ0BMx12Y Care to be pandered to? Here's the video of the juvenile fruit bat being petted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVz8rvIl_vY And here is a video of a baby fruit bat eating a banana: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaPXhYaFReY\u0026t=28s The book came in at #71 on the Top 100 Picture Books Poll. http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2012/05/21/top-100-picture-books-71-stellaluna-by-janel

True Fact: The longest book written in the English language is the easy book One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss. Other True Fact: That first fact is untrue, but it's certainly what Kate believed in her heart when she finished reading that book during this recording. While many people remember all too well the title of today's book, its plot (such as it is) remains, for many, a mystery. Kate certainly didn't know what to expect and, to be fair, how could she have? Can anyone truly predict Clark or the Ying or Ned? Sweet sweet Ned? We think not. Show Notes: One image in this book was once parodied when Betsy made a post challenging artists to Re-Seussify Seuss. Which is to say, re-illustrate a Dr. Seuss work in the style of another illustrator. And Nathan Hale (of Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales) decided to take on "yellow teeth guy" (as Kate calls him) in the style of Stephen Gammell. You know. The fellow who illustrated Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. And the result is beautiful. Go he

In honor of Tomie dePaola, who left us last week, Betsy wanted to do one of his possible classics. The show had already done Strega Nona, but one other book might qualify for "classic" status. Trouble was, all the libraries are closed and Betsy couldn't get a physical copy of this book. Happily, Overdrive offered this ebook for borrowing. The title totally threw Kate off, and Betsy couched it by saying that it is considered one of the original GLBTQIA+ books created for kids in America. It is by NO means as brave as Heather Has Two Mommies, but it has its place in the culture. Show Notes: If you're interested in the GLBTQ chapter I refer to in this podcast, it's in the book Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children's Literature: http://wildthings.blaine.org/?page_id=2 And once again, ladies and gentlemen, The Gay Men's Chorus of Washington D.C. performing this book themselves!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuBA86Ohg94 For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/04/0