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A Fuse #8 Production
Inside A Fuse #8 Production

Fusenews: Goodnight, My Someone THIS!

Mural Watch!  This one is pretty.  So how do we feel about murals done by artists that aren’t children’s illustrators?  It’s cool, I guess.  But speaking from personal experience I always feel like it’s kind of a waste if you have a fabulous children’s illustrator living in your area and then you commission a children’s library or children’s bookstore mural out to some adult artist.  The Kalamazoo Public Library has a nice mix of professional muralists and local children’s picture book artists, which may be the best of all possible worlds.  Thanks to AL Direct for the link.

  • In other news Lee Wind thinks that I could totally take Marian the Librarian in a death match.  I agree.  How can you fear a foe that’s defeated by a single marshmallow?


  • You know, if they really tried I bet they could have come up with a title better than JK Rowling promises Daniel Radcliff ‘no more Harry Potter’.  Now that I think about it, though, if the piece had been written in America they probably would have called it "Daniel Radcliff: Not Gay".  So we should be thankful for small blessings.  Thanks to Bookninja for the link.


  • Them naked people love Mo Willems.  What?  Oh, like it isn’t true.  I suppose I could phrase it another way, but this just sounds right to me.


  • Kindle humor.  To be precise, Kindle children’s book humor.  We’ve gone beyond the rabbit hole, gentlemen.  From here on in there’s no going back.



  • And since it’s on the YA side of things I’m not going to sum up the whole Justine Larbalestier controversy surrounding the cover of her new book, Liar.  I will, however, give her some mad props for eventually  speaking out about not liking the jacket and fighting it.  Authors don’t always feel free to give honest opinions of their own books for fear that the publishers will growl.  In this particular case, however, it helps that there’s been such a public outcry.  And to think it was all started by Editorial Anonymous too.  Our little blog is all growns up!


  • I often give tours to groups of kids visiting the main branch of New York Public Library (seen here).  Along the way I like to show the children photographs of the building when it first opened back in 1911.  I ask them what’s missing from the pictures and the savvier tykes note the absence of our stone lions (a.k.a. Patience and Fortitude).  Now a site called Shorpy has posted a cool picture of the library.  The first is from 1908 (three years before the official opening).  Scroll down some and you’ll see a later picture after the rise of the automobile.  Thanks to AL Direct for the link.


  • According to Galleycat, "Author Brian Leaf has just finished "Defining Twilight," a vocabulary reference guide that helps readers apply Meyer’s writing to the tough tests on the SAT, ACT, GED, and SSAT."  Ah, yes.  I all to well recall the SATs and how they kept asking me to define difficult words like "sparkly" and "granite skinned".  Check out the Galleycat piece for a sample piece of writing containing vocab words.  It includes the sentence, "Can you resist the allure of Edward’s myriad charms–his ochre eyes and tousled hair, the cadence of his speech, his chiseled alabaster skin, and his gratuitous charm?"  How odd.  I suddenly feel quite ill.


  • Daily Image:

And since it all ties together, bookshelves of doom said of this particular article of clothing, "Nordstrom has debuted the ugliest $32 t-shirt of all time."



In case you can’t read it the red part says, "Stand by your vampire."  But surely there must be a worse Twilight themed tee out there somewhere.  Find it, my pretties!  Find it!

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About Elizabeth Bird

Elizabeth Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

Comments

  1. Susan T. says:

    Hey, Fuse. Wasn’t Mitali Perkins talking about the Liar cover a few weeks ago? Whoever started the conversation, it’s been fascinating to follow, hasn’t it?

  2. Fuse #8 says:

    Knowing Mitali, I’m sure she did mention it long ago. But for some reason all the different news sources are citing EA first.

  3. Julie F. says:

    “sublime”! Very cool, Fuse. Thanks!

  4. Denise D says:

    I heartily agree with the choice of children’s illustrators for library and school murals UNLESS the alternative is a professional muralist of artistic merit. MURALS are an artform in their own right — and we do have some modern day masters.

    See “Lanny Little – murals” in the Pacific Northwest. This man can turn a ugly parking lot wall into a (faux) architectual glory complete with people in the windows and pigeon on the sills. Amazing.

  5. That’s my library!!!! He just finished this week :) Thanks so much for featuring it! We’re all so excited to see it on your blog !!

  6. Fuse #8 says:

    Awesome! Well I am excited to have featured it. It’s all done then? Good to go and ready to roll?

  7. Mitali Perkins says:

    Aw, Susan_T, thanks for keeping track of my Fire Escape posts as I mutter away on the margins. Glad somebody’s listening apart from my Mother.
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