Sutton interviews Gaiman for SLJ

Just found a great Roger Sutton interview of Neil Gaiman in the online version of School Library Journal.  They discuss Gaiman's profanity-laced tweet after he won the Newbery, which was apparently spun into a controversy by some people.  I hadn't heard that though.  Who tried to drum up controversy?  I thought it was kind of awesome.

Gaiman also compliments librarians, saying of the ALA awards banquet, "Librarians know how to wear gowns."  At least he's not bought in to the shushing librarian stereotype. 

I must have this book

I need, need, need to read this book.

Tales for Little Rebels: a Collection of Radical Children's Literature by Julia Mickenberg and Philip Nel. I just read Betsy Bird's review on GoodReads and this has jumped to the top of my "must read" list. Just look at the section topics:

"R is for Rebel, Subversive Science and the Dramas of Ecology, Work Workers and Money, Organize, Imagine, History and Heroes, A Person's a Person, and Peace."

R is for Rebel - that sounds to me like a kids' t-shirt that is just screaming to be made.

What do you mean that wasn't Nellie's real hair?!

One thing you should know about me is that I LOVED the Little House on the Prairie series of books as a kid. I also loved the tv show (not having yet come into that purist tendency mentioned in my previous post). I used to secretly think that my mom had named me after Laura Ingalls Wilder (my name being Laura and all). But, she didn't.

Anyway, one of my favorite sites, mentalfloss.com, recently ran a little trivia post on the Little House tv series. My favorite tidbits were that those cute curls on evil Nellie were a wig, and that the woman who played Ma got so tired of "wrapping her hair into a bun and being subservient to Charles" that she co-wrote and starred in a gritty TV movie called Battered that dealt with domestic violence. Plus, the actress that played good girl Mary went on to star in a TV movie where she played a suburban gang-banger. Classic!

These tabs are mocking me.

A couple of quick tabs to close here, and I'll hopefully get some reviews up later today as well.

First up, the 2009 Cybils awards have been announced! Hooray for The Graveyard Book and The Hunger Games! I keep meaning to read Rapunzel's Revenge and The London Eye Mystery as well - maybe this will motivate me to actually go get them off of the shelf and add them to my stack of stuff waiting to be read.

Next, some not so good news, at least to me. I've been called a purist when it comes to movie adaptations of my favorite books. There are certain movies that I've stayed away from because I love the books so much (see: The Golden Compass). So, when I saw that there are plans to make a movie out of Beezus and Ramona my heart sunk. I love Ramona to pieces, and now my son is reading Ramona in his kindergarten class and he loves her, and I dread what this movie will do to her. My fears weren't allayed when I read this article and the young girl playing Ramona (who I'm sure is a lovely girl) described herself as wacky. There's so much more to the Ramona series than wackiness. *sigh* Thanks to Leila for the link.

The Cat Heads of Dr. Seuss

The Haverford College News Room has a really interesting article about Dr. Seuss in their online version.  Although Dr. Seuss wasn't connected to Haverford, his agent Herb Cheyette was a Haverford graduate.  There are a lot of good tidbits, but here's my favorite:

"He had also created a painting called 'Plethora of Cats' featuring nothing but cat heads, and often relaxed by adding another head to the menagerie."

Thanks to the power of Google, I've found that a print of 'Plethora of Cats' can be had for only $9,995 at artprints.com.  What a steal!  

Harry Potter in 10 easy steps

Kids blogger Wizards Wireless recently posted on basic plot outlines that seem to pop up in some popular fare.  She breaks Harry Potter down into 10 steps, but points out that Deathly Hallows broke the mold pretty effectively.   My favorite part of the post is Amelia Bedelia in 5 steps.  Why in the world doesn't Mrs. Rogers fire Amelia?  Pie is good and all, but it ain't that good. 

Time to close some tabs

Fuse 8 has posted her annual Golden Fuse awards in categories such as Best Cover, Most Misleading Cover, and Worst Mother of the Year.

The 2008 Cybils finalists have been posted.

Again from Fuse 8, a nice link to a site featuring spreadsheets in which to post links to Mock Newbery, Mock Caldecott, and Mock Printz lists.

Via Smithsonian.com, the 2008 Smithsonian Notable Books for Children.  A couple on here that I've been meaning to get to (A Curse as Dark As Gold; Steinbeck's Ghost) but this just expanded my to-read list a good bit.

Leila at bookshelves of doom is launching her own fiction chapbook, TBR Tallboy.  Submission guidelines here.