Fuse 8 n' Kate

Halloween is almost upon us! And like every year, Kate is always challenging Betsy to come up with some classic scares. This year, we've seen Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark adapted to the silver screen. Seems only natural to then pull out what many would consider to be Schwartz's other scary classic for kids. And, oh joy, it's part of the I Can Read series! What we had not counted on was that in 2017 Harper Collins re-illustrated the series. What to do? Well... why not do both versions? Original illustrator Dirk Zimmer originally hailed from Germany while current illustrator Victor Rivas lives in Barcelona. Who is scarier in the end? Will this be like that time Harper Collins re-illustrated Scary Stories with Brett Helquist instead of Stephen Gammell and the world went mad? Guess you'll just have to find out for yourself. Show Notes: Here are Kate's Grown-Up Things she liked: First up the game Zombie Dice: https://www.amazon.com/SJG-131313-Zombie-Dice/dp/B003IKMR0U Second up, a Zombie catnip toy you can make yourself and the link here goes to Kate's old and, frankly, amazing blog from 2014: http://katokula.blogspot.com/2014/03/zombie-catnip-toy.html Betsy is serious. She LOVES the American Writers Museum of Chicago. No lie. When you all come to Chicago next (and for some of you that will be the next American Library Association conference in June) you must visit it: https://americanwritersmuseum.org/ For the full Show Notes, please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2019/10/28/review-of-the-day:-in-a-dark,-dark-room-by-alvin-schwartz/

We have a special guest!! It was our esteemed delight and pleasure to host international superstar, picture book creator, Hans Christian Andersen Award winner, Roger Mello in this, the latest episode of our podcast! Now it had been a while since we'd done an international picture book. We do try to make an effort to look at what other countries would consider "classics", but it can be difficult to (A) determine what a country thinks of as a classic and (B) find translations here in the States. Fortunately we lucked out with this episode. We asked Roger what Brazilian classic Kate should read and he selected a book that not only got translated here (in 1982) but one where a copy was still available in Betsy's library's consortium. Whew! Of course, the book is 96 pages long so Kate's read had to be a bit truncated. She read just the first tale in the book and the last one, and I do believe it worked out beautifully. Jorge Amado, of course, was the Brazilian novelist responsible for such serious novels about social justice as Cacao as well as more comic titles like Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. Show Notes: Curious about the Hans Christian Andersen Medal? You can find more information about it here. The Americans that are currently nominated right now are Jacqueline Woodson and illustrator Allen Say: http://www.ibby.org/awards-activities/awards/hans-christian-andersen-awards/ Why was the book written by the great novelist Amado? According to the Kirkus review it was, "Originally written in 1948 as a birthday gift for Amado's infant son." And clearly that review journal wasn't the book's biggest fan: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jorge-amado-4/the-swallow-and-the-tom-cat/ You can find the full Show Notes here: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2019/10/21/fuse-8-n'-kate:-the-swallow-and-the-tom-cat-by-jorge-amado-with-special-guest-roger-mello!/(opens in a new tab)

In memory of the great Mr. Gerstein we decided to do his best-known, most classicy classic title. Of course, by doing this title, it means that for the first time, in all of our history, we are doing a nonfiction picture book. Not a bad way to start out, eh? Have no fear, we'll be getting to the spooky Halloween fare soon enough, but first we wanted to pay an homage to one of children's literature's greats. Show Notes: - Quiz Question: Which Disney animated film begins with a shot of the Twin Towers? - How old was Philippe Petit when he did this? We looked it up. He was about to turn 25. - Here is the trailer for the documentary Man on Wire. I love that it includes the moment he balances the policeman's hat on his nose and then drops it onto his head. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz6oddi0mts - And here is the trailer for the biographical drama called The Walk. Looks like the supplemented the actual drama with some unnecessary dramatic flourishes. I like the shots though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W6byFcD5uE The Weston Woods version of this book is read by Jake Gyllenhal and it's lovely. Here's a quick peek at it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-FzEGNsH8w - Here is the $5 hand candle holder that Kate was discussing: https://www.target.com/p/halloween-votive-candle-holder-white-hyde-38-eek-boutique-8482/-/A-54381257?ref=tgt_adv_XS000000&AFID=google_pla_df&fndsrc=tgtao&CPNG=PLA_Seasonal%2BShopping_Brand&adgroup=SC_Seasonal&LID=700000001170770pgs&network=g&device=c&location=9021760&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=Cj0KCQjwrMHsBRCIARIsAFgSeI1xsokVAK6dTL_gMtwT2pvEEmDgudLvHcE1HJdQPzdYd8YeK3-AoCEaAn9MEALw_wcB For the full Show Notes please visit us at: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2019/10/14/fuse-8-n-kate-the-man-who-walked-between-the-towers-by-mordecai-gerstein/(opens in a new tab)

How do you type with hooves? Would this book today involve the cows texting? What are the logistics of not giving milk and then proceeding to start up production again? Who's buying from the underground milk market? How do you strap a typewriter to a duck? Betsy and Kate are just full of questions with today's book. Kate comes up with the cruelest advice for Farmer Brown you've ever heard and Betsy gets to come up with fake sequel names to this story Show Notes: - As it happens, Betsy was not quite right when she said this book was "definitely older than 20 years old". It is, in fact, 19-years-old. It could not buy a drink in a bar if it wanted to. Here is where we found the information about the right-wing talk show hosts finding this book too pro-union and anti-creationist: https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/beware-the-insidious-agenda-of-click-clack-moo-cows-that-type/ This book came in at #39 on the Top 100 Picture Books Poll: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2012/06/01/top-100-picture-books-39-click-clack-moo-cows-that-type-by-doreen-cronin-illustrated-by-betsy-lewin/ Betsy other podcast that she mentions? It's the Story Seeds Podcast and she highly recommends that you listen to it with your older kids: https://www.storyseeds.co/ For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2019/10/07/fuse-8-n-kate-click-clack-moo-by-doreen-cronin-betsy-lewin/

We have a good good rule here at Fuse 8 n' Kate. Betsy and Kate do not judge any picture book that younger than 20 years of age. And with today's episode, Betsy broke that rule. She broke it hard. Clocking in at a mere 8 years of age, it's a bit premature to consider Klassen's best known title as a "classic" picture book or not. And yet, Betsy clearly could not help herself. In the course of things they discuss the fact that this book is essentially a school play, the speed of a bear, and the likelihood that the rabbit is, in fact, under the bear at the story's end. Show Notes: This book came in at #74 on the Top 100 picture book poll: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2012/05/21/top-100-picture-books-74-i-want-my-hat-back-by-jon-klassen/ Then there were lots of memes of this book out there: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-want-my-hat-back Here is the Re-Seussification Project Betsy alluded to, where Dan Santat redid The Cat in the Hat in the style of Jon Klassen: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2012/03/01/re-seussification-project-the-results/ Turns out the Remember Reading podcast mentioned this show because Betsy was a guest. She spoke on the episode about the beauty of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/scary-stories-to-tell-in-the-dark-ft-j-a-white-betsy-bird/id1447897366?i=1000446362118 Remember when Kate mentioned the Severus Snape song? You can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eax4oQb5p04 And here are the comics that show Dumbledore as a jerk. Good stuff: https://www.indy100.com/article/a-cartoonist-has-reimagined-dumbledore-as-a-jerk-and-its-hilarious--ZyxEIWFCT4e For the full Show Notes, please visit us at: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2019/09/30/fuse-8-n-kate-i-want-my-hat-back-by-jon-klassen/

Betsy had been avoiding today's book, not because it isn't famous enough, but because it's on the simple side. 101 words simple, in fact. The sisters get a little silly in the course of things, but boy do they learn all kinds of things! Lawnmower parenting! How had Betsy not known about it all these years? Kate decides that the boy is secretly working for Monsanto. Betsy defends the parents, which Kate didn't see coming. Kate learns all about the germination cycle of carrots. And Betsy compares the boy to Buster Keaton. Which is right. Show Notes: Betsy doesn't mention it on the podcast but this book came in at #100 on the Top 100 Picture Books Poll: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2012/05/16/top-100-picture-books-100-the-carrot-seed-by-ruth-krauss-illustrated-by-crockett-johnson/ In his essay Ruth Krauss and Me, Maurice Sendak praises ‘that perfect picture book, The Carrot Seed (Harper), the granddaddy of all picture books in America, a small revolution of a book that permanently transformed the face of children’s book publishing. The Carrot Seed, with not a word or a picture out of place, is dramatic, vivid, precise, concise in every detail. It springs fresh from the real world of children’.” Read more here: http://www.k-state.edu/english/nelp/purple/bibliography.html#sendak.krauss_and_me And finally, here's the Carrot Seed song, so popular with many a storytime around this great nation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHxLfBSU-9E For the full Show Notes, please visit with us at http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2019/09/23/fuse-8-n-kate-the-carrot-seed-by-ruth-krauss-ill-crockett-johnson/

Betsy is very proud of herself. She managed to go this entire episode of the podcast without mentioning Rainbow Fish once. She and Kate do discuss Frederick briefly, but how can you not? In this episode Betsy discovers that no one has ever written a fun background story on how Leo Lionni came up with this book. Instead the sisters discuss whether or not Lionni was good at making art with cut potatoes, whether fish have eyebrows, and how hard it is to say the term "Mom pun" repeatedly. If you would like to see the Reading Rainbow where Tyne Daley reads Amazing Grace, here is the episode: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6f5eek For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2019/09/16/fuse-8-n-kate-swimmy-by-leo-lionni/

"Nobody wants your bunny snot cake, buddy." Betsy and Kate had done The Stinky Cheese Man on their podcast, but that still left a great big wolf-shaped hole in the canon. Time for Scieszka/Smith Part 2: Electric Boogaloo. In this episode Kate decides to take the Wolf at his word and, as you might expect, she find some holes in his defense. This guy would never be able to hold it together if that woman cross-examined him on the stand. As you might imagine, the sisters have a lot of fun with this one. Show Notes: Betsy just thinks Binge Boxes are a neat concept. If you'd like to see them in action, check out this posting from the Marion County Public Library System: https://mcpls.org/bingebox/ For the record, if you want a killer authentic version of The Three Little Pigs (though it cuts out the weird apple picking/fair going parts) try reading Yummy! by Lucy Cousins. http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2009/07/30/review-of-the-day-yummy-by-lucy-cousins/ Betsy didn't mention it, but she just loves this Sesame Street version of the story. Maybe that's just because she's House of Cards fan, though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92NXMtVtv8o For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2019/09/09/fuse-8-n-kate-the-true-story-of-the-3-little-pigs-by-jon-scieszka-and-lane-smith

A British book just snuck into the pack. When Betsy picked it up from the library for Kate to read, she was positive that what they had on their hands was an American title through and through. Not as such. Mary Hoffman, a white British woman, wrote this back in 1991. It was also a Kate Greenaway Honor book when it was released, which is impressive. This book is not without its controversial elements, but in Betsy's library the only edition available was the reprinted 2015 edition. And, as you will see, that is probably for the best. Show Notes: - For a fun time, Google "Pantomimes about Aladdin" sometime. You will subsequently be taken to a wide world of very British holiday oddities. I love this kid with his hand only partly up. Like he wasn't paying attention and isn't sure what everyone's volunteering for, but he doesn't want to be left out. As mentioned, back in 2015 Amazing Grace was re-released, but the American editions (not the British editions?) quietly excised the illustration of Grace as Hiawatha. No announcement was made at the time. On her blog, Debbie Reese has the complete rundown and history of the controversy surrounding the image and the silence that accompanied its change. Mind you, this change might have appeared earlier. As Roger Sutton says in the comment section of Debbie's piece, "The U.S. edition of Amazing Grace has always been Dial. But what i don't know is whether the elimination of the Hiawatha picture happened with this anniversary edition or if the (American) publisher had removed it before--it's a book that's been through many years and printings, so this change might not be new. I just don't know." https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2015/10/big-news-about-hoffmans-amazing-grace.html The book that's a lot like this one that's out this year is Not Quite Snow White by Ashley Franklin, illustrated by Ebony Glenn. When Betsy saw it this year she wondered if Amazing Grace had just been completely forgotten. If you would like to hear what a Neanderthal sounds like, check out the RadioLab episode Asking for a Friend: https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/asking-friend For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2019/09/02/fuse-8-n-kate-amazing-grace-by-mary-hoffman-ill-caroline-binch/

Summer is almost over, the children are off to school again, and those of us able to take last minute vacations are doing so with gusto. All this is to say that we figured now was a perfect time to release our first "minisode". We came up with the "minisode" name when we thought it would be shorter than our usual length. But then Betsy got it into her head to talk to renowned children's literature scholar Phil Nel for our first minisode and, naturally, it blossomed into a full-blown episode length. Still, when you hear all the things Phil has to say, you'll have to agree that it was worth it. In this episode, Phil and Betsy discuss our previous episode regarding The Cat in the Hat. Phil is perhaps the best person to speak to on the subject, having edited The Annotated Cat in the Hat as well as writing the book Was the Cat in the Hat Black?

It's the 100th episode! Woohoo! After all this time it's finally come. The challenge of this episode of the podcast was to come up with a book for #100 that is widely known but that Betsy and Kate hadn't done already. And this book was waiting in the wings all along. Why? Because thanks to a great deal of scholarship out there on the topic, the "Cat" is no longer the simple beloved character he once was considered to be. This isn't an easy book to do, but Betsy and Kate manage it somehow. Show Notes: - Speaking of Cat in the Hat movies, let us not forget that some brave soul out there combined the trailer for IT with the Mike Myers version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztxEHtrgTRg So what does the mom of this book think of all of this? All is explained in a New York Times piece called The Mom From 'The Cat in the Hat' Finally Speaks: https://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/05/the-mom-from-the-cat-in-the-hat-finally-speaks/ Books Mentioned on This Episode: The Annotated Cat in the Hat: Under the Hats of Seuss and His Cats by Phil Nel and Was the Cat in the Hat Black? The Hidden Racism of Children's Literature and the Need for Diverse Books, also by Phil Nel. As mentioned on the show, well worth reading is Jerry Griswold's piece on Medium called James Marshall, We Love You: https://medium.com/@jerrygriswold/james-marshall-we-love-you-ade0af961a7f. Also look for the pieceThe Tiger Who Came to Tea Earns Stripes With an All-Star Cast: https://www.animationmagazine.net/tv/the-tiger-who-came-to-tea-earns-stripes-with-all-star-cast/ For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2019/08/21/fuse-8-n-kate-the-cat-in-the-hat-by-dr-seuss/

This week's challenge from Kate: Deliver unto her a "classic picture book about divorce". So Betsy conferred with her fellow librarians and they all agreed that there is really only one that would fit the bill: A little number from 1986. There's a number of reasons for this selection. The book remains popular to this day. This book is still in print (have they updated the terms since its original publication? This is unclear). And, as Kate points out, this is clearly more a guide than something you might read cover-to-cover. So how has it aged over the years? Show Notes: - Here is the website of Ms. Laurene Krasny Brown. And here are her current and upcoming shows. Check one out if you have a chance: http://www.laurenekrasnybrown.com/ - To answer the question of whether or not divorce is up or down since 1986, we found this article from TIME Magazine, published last year: https://time.com/5434949/divorce-rate-children-marriage-benefits/ Here is a list of Recommended Divorce Picture Books, for those of you interested in books that are slightly more recent: - Two Old Potatoes and Me by John Coy, ill. Carolyn Fisher - Fred Stays With Me by Nancy Coffelt, ill. Tricia Tusa - Here and There by Tamara Ellis Smith, ill. Evelyn Daviddi - Why Do Families Change by Jillian Roberts, ill. Cindy Revell - Living With Mom and Living With Dad by Melanie Walsh For the complete Show Notes, please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2019/08/12/fuse-8-n-kate-dinosaurs-divorce-by-laurene-krasny-brown-ill-marc-brown/

Betsy had been meaning to do this, Eastman's third most famous easy book, and the first one he ever did on his own, for a while. Now, for years Betsy has believed that Eastman has illustrated "night" better than most artists. After this recording she feels justified in having felt this way. Show Notes: If you'd like to see all the ratings of this podcast, they are now avaiable for viewing at https://www.betsybirdbooks.com/lesson-plan Curious about Kate's mention of Can Can Wonderland? You learn a lot more about it at https://www.cancanwonderland.com/ For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2019/08/05/fuse-8-n-kate-sam-and-the-firefly-by-p-d-eastman/

ALERT! Before we begin, we'd like to make note that this is number 97 of our podcast so far. To celebrate our upcoming 100th we have (A) Created a Facebook page(found at https://www.facebook.com/Fuse8Kate) and (B) On Monday, August 5th at 8 p.m. CST we will record a Facebook Live episode of episode #100. So in case you've ever wanted to see the images of a "classic" picture book as Kate discovers them, now you can. This week, we wonder something. Is Martha the better hippo? Hard to determine with a single George and Martha book, but we have some serious opinions on the matter. This week we discuss methods of hiding food you don't want to eat (when you're a grown-up), how "The Tub" was a pre-#MeToo story, and why Rev. Buck McTooth is truly a Doctor of Divinity. Listen for the great Kate line: "Look the woman may be vain but she makes you food, and she doesn't spy on YOU during YOUR private moments, so let her have her mirror!" She also notices that the book ends with Martha saying that friends tell you the truth, and the first story was about how hard it was for George to tell Martha the truth. That's how you do it, James. That's how you do it. Show Notes: This book clocked in at #48 on the Top 100 Picture Books Poll back in the day: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2012/05/29/top-100-picture-books-48-george-and-martha-by-james-marshall/ Here is the Tig Notaro show Kate was referring to. We found the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO1Sfb-j9FU For the full Show Notes please visit us at http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2019/07/29/fuse-8-n-kate-george-and-martha-by-james-marshall/

It seems very odd to us that one of the most commercially successful children's books to ever be published in the United States has an almost entirely obscure author to its name. The mystery of Janette Sebring Lowrey hangs over our latest episode of this podcast. Neither Kate nor Betsy had ever read this book before, and yet it bragged back in 2001 of having sold nearly 15 million copies. The illustrator's wife even joked that the artist was pleased that he'd given the Bible a "run for its money". But is it actually any good? We consider The Poky Little Puppy on all his roly-poly glory. Show Notes: You could have a lot of fun reading the Gabriel Roth Slate article Why So Poky? The Scourge of Terrible Canonical Children's Books. Seemed pertinent to our podcast, don't you think? https://slate.com/culture/2015/06/the-poky-little-puppy-and-other-awful-canonical-childrens-books.html For the full Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2019/07/22/fuse-8-n-kate-the-poky-little-puppy-by-janette-sebring-lowrey-ill-gustaf-tenggren/