A Fuse #8 Production: Digest Edition

Digest /v. dɪˈdʒɛst, daɪ-; n. ˈdaɪdʒɛst/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[v. di-jest, dahy-; n. dahy-jest]:

1.to convert (food) in the alimentary canal into absorbable form for assimilation into the system.
2.to condense, abridge, or summarize.
3. to plunk together in a veritable hodgepodge.
4. to give the author of a particular blog the excuse she needs to work the word "hodgepodge" into one of her postings.

Here are some trinkets and tidbits of an especially shiny nature that I've not had time to properly digest this week. Between this and that my brain is not working to its full capacity. Fortunately that means that the brains of others work where mine has ground to a rusty dusty halt.

Less excuses. More postings.

First on the list is Roger Sutton. You all know Roger. Editor of Horn Book. Bearer of the sacred throat vinculum. This week, he mentioned that the Horn-Book Globe Book Awards committee is beginning their deliberations and you are invited to offer your bets on who the winners might be. So exciting! I side with the commenter that suggested that A Drowned Maiden's Hair finally get its due. Roger also done went and linked to the article Circle of Cliches via The Daily Telegraph. I'll have to speak more on this later this week. It talks about the words or phrases reviewers love far too much. I know that for my part there are certain comfort turns of phrase that I'll reuse more often than I really should. Give the piece a glance alongside Roger's response.

Thanks to Children's Illustration we got a glimpse of some remarkable movie posters from back in the day. Blogger Michael Sporn also offered this great bit of info:

Through Aug. 1, the Posteritati Movie Poster Gallery (239 Centre St.) lets New Yorkers escape into the past with a collection of art from fantasy films ranging from 1937’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” to modern-day favorites like “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “The Incredibles.”

Gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 6 p.m.

If that means I get to see posters like this 1960 Czech image of Dumbo then I'm in.

Those of you in town for Book Expo might want to consider making a side trip.

The Longstockings may have a lock on the Pippi blog name, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't shoot on over to the excelsior file to read David Elzey's view from an adult perspective of Sweden's hitherto best-known redhead. Great opening sentence too. "Pippi scared me when I was young."

If the webcomic Questionable Content is unknown to you, watch and learn. This one goes out to all the librarians out there. I've never heard the term "shush" sounds so very very dirty.

And because of Mo Willems I now know that Jon Scieszka has a new website. It's very nice. I'm particularly fond of the map that shows Population That Wishes They Were Reading Scieszka Books. The one thing I would change? I want that big scary picture of Jon at the top to say "Gleep" unexpectedly and without warning. Is that too much to ask?

Finally, I've been memed. I'll meme it right back tomorrow. Cross my heart.

The Chicken Dance

It's become a bit of a problem. I used to write these online reviews, sans blog, that didn't get all that much attention. And with the exception of one YA author who shall remain nameless (he knows who he is) I never received so much as a peep of complaint from any writer over my words.

Times have changed. I've moved up in the world to this sweet library in the heart of Manhattan. I've grown accustomed to the fact that authors are going to come to my town and that I'm located a scant block or so from their editors. They say hello. We chat. It's all very pleasant. Then I sit down with one of their books, find it blah or (worse) notso hotso and therein lies my dilemma. Do I write a negative review and end up dealing with a sticky situation or be honest and deal with the consequences?

You know who's currently playing the world's smallest violin for me right now? Roger Sutton. Roger's for honesty, man. We can't go about watering down our reviews willy-nilly just because, boo-hoo, some poor author's going to feel bad somewhere. NEVER! Says he, "The author-reviewer relationship is unavoidably adversarial: one is judging the other. To have it otherwise means we should just all go work in publicity." That's a mighty good point. After all, I'm not exactly getting paid here.

I was recently blurbed on an author's website as liking a book when what I had written was a brief "What I'm Reading Now" mention saying that it was good "thus far." And the "thus", suffice it to say, didn't extend all that far after all. I'll end up writing the review anyway, of course. If I don't feel good about it, that's fine. Reviewing isn't all sunshine, kittens, and roses after all. I appreciate a healthy kick in the pants to remind me of this once in a while.

"Bloggers Like Bird"

Once upon a time I was on the 2007 Newbery committee and it was a lovely time. But I was a blogger and I liked to write reviews of potential contenders so as to post them on my site. ALSC, as it turned out, had not had to contend with this issue before. So it is with great pleasure that I turn your attention to a recent School Library Journal article Should Members of Book Award Committees Be Allowed to Blog? All sorts of hotsy-totsy topics come up in it. Roger Sutton's threat to quit the Caldecott committee if he couldn't blog. What happened when someone thought that Nina Lindsay was on the 2007 and not the 2008 committee. The final decision . . .

Let us all exhale a sigh of relief then. As Mr. Sutton said, "calmer heads have prevailed."

Now to go repost all my review from 2006. Oog.

Thanks to Educating Alice for the link.

Sutton Interview

And in case you missed it, there's a simply swell interview with Roger Sutton on Seven Impossible Things up and running. Apparently he could take down Seamus Heaney in a bar fight. Who knew?