Hot Men of Children's Literature: Part 25 In a Series

I've had the few, the proud, the too often mortified Hot Men of Children's Literature nominated by publishers, fans, friends, you name it. This week, however, ye olde Fuse #8 reached a milestone when we received a nomination from a previous Hot Man of Children's Literature. Actually, the word "nomination" is a bit of a stretch. In the words of the nominator, "I have not, however anonymously, recommended Mr. [...] as a 'hot' man. I am hoping for provisonal probation. I want Mr. [...] to suffer". Which is to say, the nominator would prefer the following:

For the period of, say, six months, [...] would be a provisional, probationary ‘hot’ man. During this term he would be obligated to return to you a monthly proof of ‘heat’ in the form of images of him reading his humorous tomes to a group of adorable kittens or something of that nature. Should Mr. [...] live up to his obligations of heat, he may take my, anonymous, slot.

The temptation to follow through on such a suggestion is immense. Men could compete to become Hot Men of Children's Literature. The mind boggles. Then the mind remembers that it is A) Married and B) Way too busy to spend its spare hours sifting through pics of insipient Hot Men baking fudge brownies or what have you.

There were other factors on the side of this week's male as well. First, I have received no more and no less than five e-mails, two within the last 7 days, begging me to include him. None, for the record, were from him. And these might have begun to sway me a tad, but it wasn't until I Googled the fellow myself that I was sold. Holy mother of all things bright and beautiful, that man is HOT! God knows when the last time was that I had a fellow on here that everyone (not the least my anonymous tipster) could agree upon.

Thus it is that I present to you at long long last, the man who basically comes off as not only talented but quite successful as of late, and a nice fellow to boot...

Jarrett J. Krosoczka

... or, if you don't mind ignoring the rubes surrounding him, he's the one dead center in the back...


If his name sounds familiar (rivaling only Jon Scieszka in terms of tongue twistiness), you may remember that it was his picture book Punk Farm that was acquired by Dreamworks earlier this year for future CGI goodness. All I care? His My Buddy, Slug was sent to me at my library yesterday and it's a hoot.

Do yourself a favor and check out his website. And he blogs too! Best of all, he has learned to harness the power of You Tube. Observe:

Page by Page: the making of a monkey boy

Extra! Extra! Entirely new kind of book that will SUH-WEEP the nation in one year's time!

Since I’m cultivating a Louella Parsons-ish persona in terms of kiddie litty (and I promise never to refer to children’s literature by that name again), I think I should report on the two illustrators I got to catch a sneak peak at today.

But first, I have news. You all know and love the regular Hot Men of Children’s Literature series on this blog. Ah, sweet men. But did you know that it is not necessarily a new idea? Until today I thought I was the only person to ever come up with this bald-faced act of blatant male-objectification. Now I have learned that there was once a Hot Men of Children’s Literature calendar. Can you imagine? Each month you would turn the page and find yourself looking into the dark dreamy eyes of Kadir Nelson or the ruffled devil-may-care glasses of Mo Willems. And who was it that told me of such an item? None other than Hot Man #4 in a series - Brian Selznick. Yes, my dears, I finally was able to let a Hot Man know that he’d made my list. Mr. Selznick said that he, in turn, was once the co-creator of the aforementioned calendar. This meant, obviously, that he might have some good suggestions. He did, and with those and some of the names suggested by my colleagues, I will soon launch the very first Vote for the next Beefcake posting.

But that comes later. Today, I saw the aforementioned Mr. Selznick and fellow illustrator R. Gregory Christie speak at the New York Public Library’s annual Summer Reading Meeting. Children’s librarians are lured to this meeting every year by the promise of meeting cool authors and illustrators. And let me tell you, Selznick killed. This guy had people eating out of the palm of his hand. First off, in explaining how he went about designing this year’s Summer Reading poster for the state of New York, he showed us a little info on Mad King Ludvig of Bavaria. Any speech that can somehow work in Mad King Ludvig already has my love. Then he talked about the children’s books he’s loved. Things like “The Hundred Dresses”, “Abel’s Island”, “Forever Amber Brown” (a tip of the cap to the departed Danziger), and finally Remy Charlip. Have you ever read a Charlip book? These are truly odd little affairs that defy explanation in a blog as simple and unassuming as this one. Mr. Selznick went on to say that he eventually met Mr. Charlip and found that he was a spiting image of silent movie director Georges Melies. So Charlip is now the model for an upcoming Selznick book on the fellow who long ago brought us “A Trip To the Moon”.

But that’s not why I’m telling you all this. I’m recalling today’s meeting because I’ve something very special to inform you of. A new book. An entirely different format. The type of thing that’s gonna knock the SOCKS off the kids and the reviewers alike. Selznick has come up with something never done in America before, or at least not at this scale.

Picture this: A book that is 500 pages long. 300 of those pages are just illustrations. Beautiful black and white two-page spreads. Selznick introduced the idea for this book by mentioning that normally pictures only complement the action in a tale. Spot pictures might add some details but spot pictures do not propel the narrative forward. There are exceptions like Roald Dahl’s, “Danny, Champion of the World”, but these are few and far between. This new book takes the notion of image and text to an entirely different level. The words are there, of course. Then the words disappear entirely and the viewer is taken on a kind of silent movie series of close-ups and selective images. When the words pick up you can see that the plot has progressed, but in a visual way. Add onto that the fact that this book involves a boy thief, an automaton with a secret in its gears, and a Remy Charlip-resembling old man and you’ve got yourself the hottest little number to burn up bookstore shelves this coming Spring of 2007. As of this meeting Selznick had 5 hours, no joke, to come up with a title for this book. He thought he might call it, “The Curious Invention of Hugo Cabrais”, so keep an ear out for anything along these lines in a year or so. I think we’ve got a 2008 Newbery winner already in the making…

The other illustrator was R. Gregory Christie. You may know him best by his pictures for, “Yesterday I Had the Blues”. Mr. Christie was certainly cute enough to make it into the Hot Men of Children’s Literature (I’m shallow… so sue), but the speech was a little odd. He spent a lot of the time showing us pictures of himself hanging out in clubs (where he would paint), going to his patron’s rented tropical island, hanging out at parties with swank high-end chefs, etc. He’s really talented, no question. It just got a little silly when he’d say something like, “Now I know you’re going to be a little shocked with this next picture” and then show a shot of himself painting in a dance club. Did he think we were 75 or had never heard of this newfangled fad called “dancing”? Puh-leeze, Mr. Christie. Give us SOME credit. He did mention that he has a book called, “Dear Musicians” coming out and that the book has some kind of a tie to Pete Seeger. He also has a really gorgeous YA title by Traci L. Jones appearing under the name, “Standing Against the Wind”. FYI.

All in all a successful meeting. Now go bug Greenwillow about getting review copies of this “Hugo Cabrais” book out pronto.

A Message From a Hot Man

The total count of Hot Men of Children's Literature who have heard from in some manner climbs to 2 this week. Note the following:

Dear Miss Fuse,

It has come to my attention that I am to be considered ‘hotter’ than some guy named Philip Nel.

What has Philip Nel ever done to you?

Let me say for the record that I, catagorically, am not hot. I am ‘luke-warm’ on a good day.

In the interest of proper catogorizing (you are a librarian, no?), I suggest a new sub-heading of “Ehh…” for me and other unfortunate ‘tepid men of children’s lit’ you may encounter in the future (in order of tepidity, obviously).

If you insist on your inaccurate labeling of my relative heat, I will be forced to direct you to my forthcoming “YOU CAN NEVER FIND A RICKSHAW WHEN IT MONSOONS”, a graphic memoir of a year-long trip around the world I made 15 years back. This eccentric volume features a distressingly ‘Everybody Wang-Chung Tonite’ period author photo.

Yours tepidly,

Mo Willems

PS: Brian S. and Kadir N., who admittedly possess heat, will join me in an exhibit this May at the Eric Carle Picture Book Museum. The hottest member of the show? Betsy Lewin.

I responded in kind. And no, we will not be establishing a Tepid Men of Children's Literature. Sorry, folks. In my reply I made a not-so-mild lunge for his new book and re-established his hotness on the old Blogroll to your right. Now go pre-order his book immediately.

At this rate I can someday work on the old Hot Men of Children's Literature calender. Oh, Rob Scotton......

Wacked Out Week-end Revelry

And how was your week-end? Did you have a nice time relaxing? Yeah, me too. Only, I feel as if something important happened on Saturday. Something interesting. Something like MEETING FRANCES HARDINGE, PERHAPS! Cause that's what I did, babies. Met her. Praised her. And got to see a whole heaping helpful of interesting children's authors and illustrators to boot.

So if you live in the New York City area and you have even the slightest inkling of interest in children's books, the one place to visit (aside from the Donnell Central Children's Room, of course) is the all children's literature all the time outpost, Books of Wonder. Chock full of great books, some eerie dancing cupcake mannequins (would that I had their nice legs) and some wonderful old books, it's a lovely place to stop by. Even more fun are the authors they get. This month I missed Garth Nix but I thank the heavens above (heavens above = Monica) for alerting me to the fact that Frances Hardinge would be there for the seeing. But it's even better than that. I went expecting a single author and I got five, count 'em, five of the puppies. So let's roll 'em out and see how they fared.

Howard Fine

Isn't he though? Fine, I mean. I sniff a potential addition to the Hot Men of Children's Literature man-of-the-week. Mr. He's So Fine was promoting Dinotrain, a sequel to his popular Dinosailors. Basically Fine has recognized an essential truth to dinosaur picture books. Why not just add dinosaurs to everything else the kids like and profit accordingly? Frankly, I'm just pleased that his first book wasn't a dinosaur/pirate combo. That's be playing one's hand a little broadly, don't you think? As it was, he was a nice enough fellow. Moving on...

Arlene Alda

Sorry about the crummy photo. None of these are particularly striking, are they? And to think I wanted to be a photographer before I bowed to the inevitable and became a librarian. Shocking. Anywho, I think I was trying to show Ms. Alda's name in this shot for my own future reference. Truth be told, I'd never heard of her before, though a quick perusal of her website shows that I have heard of many of her books. She's written a goodly number of books and (at least in this case) illustrated some with photographs. She does indeed have some kind of connection to Alan Alda, but I wasn't able to tease out exactly what that connection was. She was talking up her newest title, Did You Say Pears?

Angie Sage

Aw, yeah. You yucksters know who I'm talking about here. Magyk, anyone? Well, Books of Wonder was hosting two Americans on this day (Fine and Alda) alongside three Brits. The Americans were easy to hear in the cavernous chairless space. The Brits? Much more difficult. And while Ms. Sage was lovely to listen to, she was a soft-spoken bit of a thing. Couldn't compete at all with the Yanks, I fear. She was talking up the sequel to Magyk, Flyte. I felt badly because I haven't read her first book yet. It's supposed to be quite good, yes? I felt even worse though when I walked right smack up to Ms. Hardinge (seated next to Ms. Sage) and informed her that she had written the best British import of the year. Sorry, Sage. I call 'em like I see 'em. I promise to read your own book soon. Honest. But wait... who's that I see talking about his book but none other than...

Rob Scotton

It's Hot Man of Children's Literature - Week 7! I'd like to state for the record that I was blessed by the angels the day I chose Mr. Scotton for inclusion on the list. This picture is a dreadfully poor one of him. I took others but not as many as I should have. It was weird enough being a grown woman sitting in a chairless room (seriously, Books of Wonder, what is up with that?) snapping picture after picture of the cute Brit in the blazer. Actually, I wasn't sure how to proceed with Mr. Scotton in any case. You can't exactly walk up to a fellow and say, "Hi. You're week seven on my Hot Men of Children's Literature series on my blog". I mean, how's a guy gonna react that that kind of statement? Brian Selznick reacted with great charm and aplomb, but he's just a swell fella. Other guys might be (oh, I dunno) freaked out by some rabid American floozy with an MLIS degree and too much time on her hands spouting off about their hotness. In short, I didn't tell him who I was. I might have been able to get some play out of being the sole review for his new book on Amazon, but you can't always count on authors checking that sort of thing. Ah well.

Finally we come to the woman of the hour. The reason I was able to pull my stinking carcass out of bed in the first place (10:15 a.m. on a Saturday is MADNESS) and hike on over to the bookstore itself. The one, the only, the...

Frances Hardinge!!!

Books of Wonder was no dummy. They saved the best for last. Prior to hearing her speak I had a chance to talk to Ms. Hardinge on my own. By doing so I learned that she had read my Amazon review of her book, which was heartening. I'd received an e-mail from the editor who purchased the book for the American market, but I'd never had any proof that she herself had read the review. She signed a nice little copy of the book for me and even drew a lovely picture of Saracen in there. When she spoke she resembled (and I mean this in the best possible sense) a children's literature version of the British comic Jimmy Carr. She, of course, brought her own little goose....


... and was lovely all around. No mention of it on her blog quite yet, but here's hoping.

So we left (we being myself and my very patient husband who actually enjoys coming to these things). But was THAT the end of the excitement for the day? You would have thought so. After all we were just going to meet up with some friends at a hot dog venue in Carroll Gardens known as Schnack. Schnack has a lovely website, and I've yet to come across a hot dog establishment that can rival its blog. However, the computer in the back of the bar was apparently on the fritz. So with only six customers (including myself) in the joint, the waiters kept appearing with plate after plate of mysterious food and offering them to us like some crazed I Love Lucy episode. The food that I had actually ordered (one hamburger & one coke) took 45 minutes to arrive. Moral of the story? Schnack's not so hot. Some patrons behind us expressed this opinion with a carefully worded message accompanying one of the Schnack coloring pages available at every table.

But why am I telling you this? Well, after Schnack we walked to Red Hook to take in some Ibsen in the back of a tiny bar called Sunny's. I am not making this up. We were going to see a friend of ours in Ghosts (my husband's take: I hope it isn't too scary. Y'know. With all the ghosts). Our friend was playing Regina, the "filled out" serving girl/potential incestuous figure who eventually becomes a prostitute. Fun! And playing Osvald, the fellow who succumbs to an odd strain of genetic syphilis (this is true), was Michael Maronna. Afterwards we did some hanging out with Mr. Maronna.

Still you do not understand. What is the importance of Maronna? Well, I'm about to date myself here. Did any of you ever happen to watch that old Nickelodeon show The Adventures of Pete and Pete back in the day? Yes? First season is out on DVD, actually. Anywho, turns out I was hanging out with Big Pete, from the show. You'd have to be an old-school Pete & Pete fan to understand how wonderful that was (though it was an unspoken agreement amongst my friends and myself not to say the word "Pete" around him). I tell you, I am rapidly cornering the market on small-time celebrities. My sister is currently working on a children's television show in Michigan in which she acts alongside the woman who used to do A.L.F.'s left arm. That's about the level of fame I'm juggling these days.

Hot Men of Children's Literature - Part 13 In a Series

Oh, we've a tasty treat for you folks today. So I'm at a Child_Lit dinner last night with various children's literature luminaries. Your editors. Your professors. Your reviewers. Your librarians. Your Jeanne DuPrau (more on that later). And the conversation turns towards The Hot Men of Children's Literature. Everyone has an opinion on who I should do next. I carefully write down the suggestions, fold them in half, and proceed to leave them on the table when I leave. So if anyone from that night is reading this (or if anyone has any suggestions of their own) send them to me! Consider this a "Children's Librarian Seeks Hot Men" ad, of sorts.

Moving on. This losing of the list might be considered dire, but fortunately we'd already decided on today's feller. For sitting next to me was none other than Random House Senior Editor of Children's Books and drummer for the kick-ass band Mr. MacGregor......

JIM THOMAS

Nice feller too. He was offering free copies of Jeanne DuPrau's The Prophet of Yonwood for everyone. I had told him not to bother with me since I already had a galley. How was I to know that he wasn't offering ARCs but the honest-to-goodness knock-your-socks-off, isn't-that-cover-gorgeous books? Still, he brought me two review copies of other books I wanted and since he's super cute anyway I have put him here. The picture was taken by me and does not do him justice.

ATTENTION HOT MEN OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

This evening I attended a delightful child_lit dinner with a whole host of remarkably interesting people. While there, it came to my attention that one of my honorary Hot Men of Children's Literature was less than pleased with his inclusion on my list. As it happens, he found it offensive. Apparently he was under the impression that I was making fun of him as he is a humble fellow that does not find himself to be "hot" as such. This lead me to a small crises of conscience, so allow me make the following facts quite clear:

1. Nobody has to be a Hot Man of Children's Literature. If the honor offends you, please inform me and you will be removed forthwith. It's not like I'm getting paid for this stuff.
   
2. No man has ever appeared on the list that I do not actually consider to be hot. There are different levels of attraction at work here. You have your Kadir Nelsons and your Chris Raschkas and just because these fellows embody different kinds of male hotness, this does not mean that I value one over another.
   
3. No man has ever been elected as a joke at his expense. Moreover, if I've never seen you in person then I'm probably taking your hotness on faith from some of your fans. Intelligence, talent, and sheer charm go a long way in this business.
   
4. If you would like to be removed from the list but have no qualms electing someone in your place, feel free to do so. The standards at Fuse #8 are shaky at best.
   

Hot Men of Children's Literature: Part 24 In a Series

The difficulty with finding actual pictures of my Hot Men of Children's Literature has hit a new low today. In lieu of an actual picture, I am going to display today's hottie in the format with which he is most comfortable. Drawings . He's the Editorial Director of First Second Books and a heckuva artist in his own right. The best news of all? He and his fellow First Second artists blog. Hot.

In normal circumstances, when I can't find an actual picture of the feller I wish to present, I just don't make him a Hot Man of Children's Literature at all. But this guy is different. For one thing, I had a chance to meet him at the New Orleans ALA Convention not too long ago. Secondly, when a guy presents his wife in such a fashion as is shown in today's Review of the Day, that's hot as hell. He's pleasant to the eye, but I'll just present this cartoon avatar in his absence. Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you the monumentally wonderful...

MARK SIEGEL

Woo-hoo! An excellent addition to any and all series. A pat on the back to myself.

Hot Men of Children's Literature, Part 30 In a Series

I'm sure you've all suspected this for some time, but in my e-mail account I actually have a folder entitled Hot Men of Children's Literature where I carefully collect, sort, and number all the HMOCL nominees I receive on a daily basis. This Tuesday I had every intention of going to the list and picking the next fellow there. I did! Then I made the mistake of visiting my favorite graphic novel publisher blog First Second just to see what they had up. And what they had up was information on the tour of the author of such fabulous graphic novels as Vampire Loves, Klezmer, and many others. I am well aware of today's HMOCL's work, but I guess I'd never seen a picture of him before. Wowzer. As images go, this one's hard to beat. With great pride and palpitations of the heart, then, I present unto y'all:

Joann Sfar

Has anyone else noticed that the cat sitting on his chest A) is posing for the picture like no cat has ever posed for a photographer before and B) looks exactly like the cat drawn in Sfar's book The Rabbi's Cat?

So here's where kismet comes into play. In examining his current tour schedule I could not help but discover the following venue:

* McNally Robinson Booksellers (50 Prince Street in Soho) on Monday, November 6th from 8:00 – 10:00pm. Sfar will share tales and images from his prolific body of work, including his new book Klezmer: Tales of the Wild East, followed by Q&A and book signing. The event is co-sponsored by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. For more information call (212) 274-1160.

That was yesterday. Know what else was yesterday? The kidlit drink night. Know where the kidlit drink night was held? You got it. Soho. So after a fabulous night o' schmoozing (I'll report in more detail tomorrow) and rice pudding, I high-tailed it over to McNally Robinson Booksellers. The store, by the way, is amazing. Great seating, amazing guests, and a truly impressive graphic novel section. The kicker is the children's literature portion, though. The store, being in New York and all, is not big. Yet their children's lit area has ALL the best books of 2006, even if it's just a copy each. My beloved Fly By Night was easy to find too, so I am now an official McNally Robinson Bookseller fan.

Anyway, I got there too late to hear Mr. Sfar speak. I did, however, get a visual confirmation of francophone hotness. If you too would still like to see Mr. Sfar in person and you live in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, or Miami then you are in luck. It's a cross-country tour and y'all are the lucky cities he's visiting.

Hot Men of Children's Literature: Part 25 In a Series

You know, I bitched about it for a while, but if GalleyCat wants to go on and take over the whole Hot Men of Children's Literature thing from the publishing side, they are more than welcome to do so. Why this sudden jolt of diplomacy? I think it may have something to do with the fact that they have pretty good taste in the matter. For example, we all remember when the site came up with their own Hottie of Publishing, Men's Division, right? They had some smokin' blokes, no question. Unfortunately, the voters of that particular site had little to no taste. The win went to a Mr. Stephen Barbara, who looks in his picture as if he's afraid that someone is going to shoot him once the photo-taking process is complete. I am sure Mr. Barbara is a very nice guy and who calls his mother regularly, yadda yadda yadda. When you consider, however, the competition, there was really only one choice, and he's today's hot man. I bring unto you now:

Michael Stearns

Here is how MediaBistro chose to describe him:

Michael Stearns got the nod for being "one of the few single, straight men in children's publishing"—a rare feat, indeed. An editorial director with HarperCollins' children's division, Stearns got props for his "Paul Bettany-esque" looks—with "blue eyes, perfectly sculpted nose, high cheekbones, and long lean body"—but the extra points stem from his wit—and his "martini-glass-through-the-nose" stories...

Most important of all, this is the man that brought America my beloved Best Book of 2006 novel Fly By Night. Those of you who have still yet to read this book, I know who you are. You have 24 hours to correct this anomaly before I start parceling out the cans of whoop ass. READ IT.

Back to the Stearns man. He has yet to come up with a blog of his own, but should you happen to run into him in NYC he's just (according to all known sources) the nicest guy. I had a chance to meet with him at a book signing not too long ago and I totally chickened out of the whole "talking" thing. Hopefully I'll be able to gather my guts together should the incident ever repeat itself.

Hot Men of Children's Literature - Part 11 in a series

My job would be so much easier if male children's authors just started posing naked on-line more often. They've no consideration at all. THAT's their problem. I couldn't decide which picture to use with my latest addition to The Hot Men of Children's Literature. So I've included all of them. In spite of his continual bitter comments against my precious children's room, I have forgiven this week's hot man because A) He was thrown out of my room long before my time and B) I'm running out of hot men. I will say, however, that one of the higher-ups in my library almost cancelled out the fellow because he looked (in her words) "scruffy". There. Now we're even. So this week I present to you (drumroll please)...

CHRIS RASCHKA

As shown here...

and here ...



and here ...

I forgive you, Chris. Now make bloody certain you don't bring it up at the ALA Conference in New Orleans or your lovely acceptance speech may be interrupted by the loud grinding of someone's teeth.

Hot Men of Children's Literature: Part 32 In a Series

Sometimes a person can come up with a HMOCL entirely on their own, and sometimes it takes the nominee's publisher to give me a nudge in the right direction. Today's hottie isn't unfamiliar with being objectified. After all, he was already mentioned in Paper Magazine’s Beautiful People 2006. Right now I think he's in Prague, so he may not know about this for some time. You see, I met this particular HMOCL in the midst of the Narnia movie madness when my library branch at the time (the Jefferson Market should-really-have-been-in-Kiki-Strike branch) hosted costumes and props from the film. He does not, sadly, remember me, which is unsurprising given the circumstances. It was a busy time for him and I was wearing my patent pending library shelf camouflage, thus blending in with my surroundings.

I assure you that this fellow is a huge children's literature advocate and (perhaps more importantly) a lover of libraries as well.

So here, without further ado, is the delightful, the charming, the rather young...

PERRY MOORE

ATTENTION FUTURE HOT MEN OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE: You would do very well to have a picture of yourself like this somewhere in your possession so as to pass it along to me. It makes my job just that much easier.

Here is what Paper Magazine wrote of him back in April. I'm a little sad that it took me this long to hear about it.

The 34-year-old executive producer is responsible -- along with director Andrew Adamson and producer Mark Johnson -- for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The movie did so well at the box office that Disney green-lit Prince Caspian, the second film in the series based on the C.S. Lewis books. That film should land in theaters in 2007, the same year that Moore's first novel hits bookstores -- Hero (Hyperion). "It's your regular, ordinary coming-of-age story about the world's first gay superhero," Moore says. Like Narnia, it's also the first in a series. Moore has had previous publishing success: His The Official Illustrated Movie Companion to the first Narnia film is a New York Times bestseller. What else? "I'm dying to work with [producer] Brian Grazer," he says. That's understandable: Hero sounds ripe for adaptation.

The unbelievably affable New York transplant came to Manhattan by way of Virginia Beach, Virginia (and the White House, where he interned during the good old Clinton administration). No matter how busy he is, he never fails to glow with Southern charm. And busy he is. Besides the Narnia films and his superhero cycle, Moore's working on Lake City (a film he co-wrote and will co-direct with PAPER's Hunter Hill, starring Sissy Spacek) and a documentary about Where the Wild Things Are author Maurice Sendak (co-directed by Moore, Hill and Spike Jonze).

If he can survive being called "unbelievably affable" he can survive anything. Perry, m'dear, my hat's off to you.

Hot Men of Children's Literature: Part 27 In a Series

We took a brief hiatus from this series so as to accrue as many nominations as possible. I've read them all. I've systematically filed them all away. And now I'm doing a fellow I should have done right from the start. Hot men come. Hot men go. Hot men fast. Hot men slow. But the man I chose today is known to all of us, young and old. He's the first fellow I've listed who has a particularly hot adult son that I wouldn't mind including as well, were it not for the possibility that the ICK factor of this blog might blow us all sky-high. Today's man is talented, hee-larious, and has only a single flaw that I can think of. Observe, then, as I present to you the many faces of . . .

JON SCIESZKA

Unfortunately for me, Jon has not spent his adult life having hot pictures of himself taken. I'm not entirely certain why that would be. What else has he gotta do with his time? Eh? Eh?

Now, to be perfectly honest with you, I fear the power of the soul patch. In fact, the sole (hee hee) reason he wasn't Part 2 in our HMOCL series was that I didn't know how to get around the square o' hair currently residing on the man's chin. Perhaps it is too hip for me. Dunno. Anywho, I was able to soothe my soul-patching-hatin'-heart with a couple younger images of the fellow in question. Photo #1 is, obviously, my favorite in all its tie-wearing glory. Photo #2 has a kind of Bill Nye appeal to it (again, with tie). Photo #3 is good, though it looks as if the very heavens of NYC above are about to open up and carry Jon off to kidlit nirvana (in spite of the fact that he is not wearing a tie).

I learned all sorts of stuff about this formerly most-difficult-to-pronounce-picture-book artist (his title has, by now, been well and truly trumped by previous HMOCL winner Jarrett Krosoczka). For example, like myself he is a Michigan native. His website Guys Read is the go-to reference source for any children's librarian with a patron bemoaning the fact that their son "isn't a reader." And his name rhymes with fresca. Honestly, who doesn't like fresca? Yum!

Hot Men of Children's Literature: Part 22 In a Series

I find it mildly disturbing that for some of the fellows I've turned into Hot Men of Children's Literature, my posts are the #1 Google links for those particular guys. It gives me mixed feelings. On the one hand, I'm saying they're hot sans irony. On the other hand, I don't want their mothers to go Googling their sons and finding that some random Manhattan librarian is proclaiming them to be delicious man-meat. Such is the moral quandry I find myself in every Tuesday. Fortunately I've very little in the way of ethical standards. On to the hotties!

This week we're going for a fellow with facial hair. By and large, the Hot Men of this list are clean-faced fellows with some notable exceptions. Today's fella has a bit of a goatee going on. I present to you comic creator turned picture book author...

Patrick McDonnell

And he likes pets. So... there you go, I guess. The extra added benefit of Mr. McDonnell's inclusion is that my library's moniker is concealed within his last name. Here's his website in case you'd like more McDonnell goodness.

Hot Men of Children's Literature, Part 35 In a Series

Guys who have what it takes to be Hot Men of Children's Literature could take a page out of the book of today's featured fella. Half the time I can't act on the nominations I receive simply because I find it impossible to locate photographs of the men that people want me to feature (remember Lane Smith anyone?). In a perfect world, all potential HMOCLs would have blogs filled to overflowing with delightful photographs of themselves in a variety of increasingly frightening poses. And TODAY I have found the world's most perfect HMOCL. He's married (sorry ladies) to a woman who also puts up tons and tons of photos of him on HER blog. Ha ha!

Sometimes it's awkward when I suddenly make a fellow I've already met into a HMOCL. Not this guy. Nice fellow through and through and the fact that I love his work as much as I love his wife, just makes today's nomination all the sweeter.

So sit back in your seats, ladies (and gents of the pro-gent persuasion) and get a gander at the newest addition to my stock... The one.... the only...

JIM DI BARTOLO

Aw yeah. We're into apple-pie-baking, Portland-Oregon-living, red-haired-hipster territory here, kidlits. I met Jim formally at the Bar 9 Kidlit Drink Night during the SCBWI Conference here in NYC. Until that moment in time I was only aware of his wife, Laini Taylor, best known at this point in time for writing the 2007 Best Fantasy of the Year (that I've seen, anyway). Here she is snuggling up with her sweetie.


Awwww. Just makes you want to buy Jim's shirt for your own husband, doesn't it? Or is that just me? And look at those sideburns! Those are practically J.L. Bell quality, wouldn't you say? God, I love me a good sideburn.

Anywho, I got to meet Jim as well at the Drink Night. Not long after I left them I was pulled aside by someone who asked if he wasn't just the most perfect contender for HMOCL status. Which brings us to where we are today. Jim, as it happens, is an illustrator who happens to sport a particularly deft hand. He has a nice website and blog and even a CafePress store that sells apparel with his work on it.

And you know what, ladies? Real men aren't afraid to have themselves photographed with their uncool robot buddies. Check out Jim hanging loose with this mechanical Poindexter.


Yeah. That's the stuff. That's what you hope for in a HMOCL. I simply couldn't ask for more.

The Weekly Shout-Out

I wondered why I kept getting visitors from the site CBI's Write4Kids (a self-described "Children's Writing Supersite"). Turns out they give me a lovely little shout-out. The writer (one Mr. Jon Bard) laments jokingly that I have not yet added him to my Hot Men of Children's Literature postings. That shows a good sense of humor. Here's the post:

"Fusenumber8" is the pseudonym of a children's librarian at The Donnell Central Children's Room in Manhattan. She's gone online with an excellent and thoroughly entertaining blog about children's books that's filled with insight. A Fuse #8 Production includes book reviews, opinions about publishing news, lots of links, and an ongoing series entitled Hot Men of Children's Literature (she's already on Hot Man #17 -- Carl Hiaasen -- and hasn't got to me yet, which is puzzling.)

A fun, enlightening read, and the comments are a hoot, as well.

Gregory K would like to point out that the "comments" are obviously a reference to his own. Sorry, guys. He called it first.

Hot Men of Children's Literature: Part seven in a series

It's Tuesday morning and you all know what THAT means! Time for yet another entry into our weekly Hot Men of Children's Literature roundup. Some people tell me I'm bound to run out of hot men eventually. I tell them there's always the dead ones. Hell, I'm not picky.

Now today we've a surprise winner, ladies and gentlemen. The votes were in and looked like Neil Gaiman was gonna finally secure a spot on our list when at the last minute and out of left field the award goes to....

ROB SCOTTON!!!!

This handsome young man is the author of last year's rather adorable Russell the Sheep. He has another Russell book due out this year, so we might as well raise a glass to his loveliness while we're at it. A worthy entry to a noble series.

Listening To Their Cantinas. Drinking Their Mint Juleps.

I have good news to share. Chris Raschka is still alive. I will explain.

To continue where I left off, as of yesterday the prettifying for the Newbery/Caldecott Banquet went a touch awry. Here's a useful traveling tip for all you culture lovers out there. Should you happen to find that your eyebrows have turned into connected furry masses and you have left your tweezers at home, do not attempt to shave between the area using your men's razor. This is not a wise course of action. It is rather, the best way to produce a bright red gaping gash in a highly visible area. whee

In any case, prettification reached its peak and because I ended up with an extra ticket I was able to get hubby in as well. As it happens, librarians aren't exactly security conscious when it comes to hubbies. We were able to waltz into the ballroom in question without having to flash any paper tickets as proof of our legitimacy. This is not to say that come the next Banquet I want any of you to sneak in unawares. I guess it's sort of the honor system course of things. But if you do crash, seek me out. I'd love to hear your reasons behind doing so.

I want to also state right now that I am probably the newbiest of the newbies out there kiddie-lit-wise. I like to pretend I'm wise and all knowing and over the age of thirty, but these are all lies. Damn dirty lies. So this was my first Newbery/Caldecott Banquet and as such I was, how does one say, blown away. Seriously blown. First of all, roughly 100,000 people were in attendance. Other people will give you conflicting numbers saying there were far less. Do not believe them. There were 100,000. I counted. Everyone was dressed to the nines and sitting at tables with navy blue tablecloths. Hubby found a table of nice librarians and I was invited to sit with the Boyd Mills Press/Front Street crew. This was all due to the very kind invitation of Nancy Hogan. Let that be a lesson to you all. Small delightful presses like Boyd Mills are not afraid to include wayward children's librarian bloggers into their midst. Anywho, I was at a table with notable personalities, including the rather handsome and Hot Men of Children's Literature-insipient Jason Weber (HI, JASON!). Charming man. I was also at a table with Suzanne Bloom. Ever read A Splendid Friend, Indeed? If not, go away and read it. I refuse to write another word until you've given it a glance. As it happens it was my Amazon review and not my blog that alerted Boyd Mills to my presence in the world. As for Ms. Bloom, she is a hoot. We spent half our time talking Disney villains, book sequels (hers), and various bookish folderol.

Free Items Found At My Seat: One harmonica (care of The Hello, Goodbye Window). One program for the evening. One cd of the acceptance speeches which I would podcast from this blog if I had any technical knowledge whatsoever.

Then the awards themselves. Projected onto a big screen were the presenters. For the sake of brevity I shall catalogue my thoughts as they popped into me head:

After the listing of the Newbery committee members: I know two of them! (my thoughts are never much more complicated than this after several glasses of mighty fine white wine)
After Alan Armstrong received his award: Nice fellow
After Susan Campbell Bartoletti: Young woman
After Shannon Hale: I want to befriend this person. I want us to hang out together at brunch on Sundays and talk trash celebrities. This is the award winner of the evening I would most want to find myself sitting next to on an airplane (this may sound odd, but I hear that almost everyone has this reaction after seeing Shannon Hale for the first time).
After Jacqueline Woodson: I know her. No glasses.
After Newbery Award Winner Lynne Rae Perkins: Young! So young. So very young. She has reddish hair and is not 75. I'm so confused. Why is she wearing a dalmation shirt?
After hearing Perkins' speech: Best damn Newbery speech in years, I dare say. Not a single reference to the usual Newbery speech tropes. These usually include a) How the author got the phone call and b) The librarian that befriended them when they were a child. This was a speech a person might wish they had the mental ability to concoct out of their own brain, only to find it only resides in the craniums of such authors as the fabulous Lynne Rae Perkins. The only woman who could have won for 2006.

Okay. Then the Caldecott came. The white wine was now fading and I was beginning to allow my brain to coalesce. I drank some more, quickly.

After the listing of the Caldecott committee members: I know one of them!
After Marjorie Priceman received her award: Ngh.
After Bryan Collier: Five tables have stood up in response. Goodness me.
After Beckie Prange: Lovely lovely lovely.
After Jon J. Muth: Hello, Hot Men of Children's Literature, Part 20 In a Series.
After Caldecott Award Winner Chris Raschka: Please don't mention Donnell. Please please please don't mention Donnell.

I should state here and now that not only did Mr. R not mention Donnell, he was charming. Effusive. Admittedly, I never knew a person could mention their own volunteer work to the extent that he did without coming across as pompous, but he managed it brilliantly. The speech, when you hear it online/read it in Horn Book, is a long remarkably thoughtful series of observations and clever notes. It was also, and I can't stress this enough, amusing. Speech writers everywhere could take some notes from Mr. Raschka's book.

Norton Juster also briefly had some words to give on the matter, but his speech was far more off-the-cuff. He mentioned that he had been accused of NOT being able to play the harmonica like the grandfather in the book. A quick rendition of Oh, Susanna was enough to prove such naysayers wrong. Even better, he was then soon accompanied by Raschka on the cantina. Throw in Daniel Handler on the accordian and you'd have had a sweet little band of uncertain pedigree.

By the way, the food at this shindig was amazing. Salads of walnuts and apples. Thick juicy steaks served with large luscious pre-peeled shrimp. A dessert that involved ice cream, caramel, and bananas served in such a way that the bananas tasted less like fruit and more like soft sugar. Delicious. You were up a tree if you were vegetarian, of course. I, for my part, was in heaven.

Then everyone watched the Carnegie winning The Man Who Walked Between the Towers and went into another room where all the winners were in a reception line to shake hands. Like a wedding but one in which you don't get to throw anything at the person in the prettiest dress (which would be Shannon Hale, by my count). I did not do the line. I knew Jackie Woodson, but what do you say to her? Hi, Jackie. Nice award. No glasses? I couldn't imagine anything I could mumble that would matter in the least to these people (though the devil on my right shoulder was prodding me to mention Donnell to Mr. Raschka . . . I declined). Instead, hubby and I walked through a brain-twisting casino and went promptly to bed.

Today the only interesting thing I did that you would like to hear about was a visit with Bill Joyce. A swell fella, to say the least. The invitation promised absinthe, but unsurprisingly the squeamish W Hotel would have none of it. Instead there were mint juleps and beignets in abundance. I got to speak to Mr. Joyce about his New Yorker cover that never was (story on that to follow one of these days) and his work on various movies. I also learned who Bill Morris was. I asked another librarian and she confirmed what I suspected all along - I'm too young to understand half of what goes on around me. There are worse states to be in.

Oh. One other interesting thing happened today. I met a Mr. Angus Killick, Director of School and Library Marketing for Hyperion. I have decided to construct a small cardboard idol of Mr. Killick for my bedroom, at which I might freely worship at his feet. If you say the name "Angus" to many a librarian, they know immediately of whom you speak. I did not until today. Now I not only have a Hyperion contact (leaving Candlewick as one of the few major publishers not in my rolodex) but a future Hot Man to boot. It's been a productive day, to say the least.

By the way, I tried to post this yesterday. No go. So here goes try #2.

Hot Men of Children's Literature, Part 38 In a Series

If nothing else, Kirby Larson's Hot Women of Children's Literature (she's up to #3 right now) inspires me to keep current with my own postings.

Remember when I had that recent poll to determine who exactly the next Hot Man of Children's Literature should be? Good times. Scott Magoon won it fair and square in spite of the rallying forces of several kidlit nominations. Just the same, I looked back at that old poll lately and what did I see? In my absence someone (or several someones) had continued to vote. The new winner is now the subject of today's entry.

Today's feller is a resident of Queens but we don't hold that against him. KIDDING! I'M KIDDING, PEOPLE! Phew.

He was born a Brooklynite, and draws the most adorable hugging monsters you ever did see. I suspect they may have weighed the vote in his favor, but it doesn't hurt that he rivals them in adorableness. His website includes everything from How to Make a Snappy Book to ... well did I mention the hugging monsters? I did, didn't I?

So here he is folks!

DAVID EZRA STEIN

Things That Are Not My Fault: Go to his website and you can find all kinds of pics. But on the Internet at large? This was the sole picture I could find. Thank God it's still adorable.

Hot Men of Children's Literature, Part 33 In a Series

I've been a little lackadaisical in adding new members to my Hot Men of Children's Literature series in 2007. I think the last one was Perry Moore, and that was on January 9th. Phew! So consider the recent School Library Journal article (HELLOOOOO School Library Journal readers!) a swift, sure kick in the pants. I'm back on track, baby. Back on track and pulling new men out for your consideration.

So Bob Staake, of whom I am a huge fan, sends me a gorgeously illustrated picture book by the name of Hello, Robots that's just fabulous. Only, the problem is that the book came out in 2004 and I'm currently playing catch-up with all the great 2007 titles out this year. As such, I can't justify reviewing it, consarn it. He has some books coming out this year like This Is Not a Pumpkin, but I didn't receive any of them and so I couldn't review them either. I am sad. In a depressed state I flip to the back of the book and there sits this author photo.


Oh, yummy.
So it is with great pleasure that I introduce my 33rd HMOCL. This one has a remarkable website, appeared on the 2006 New York Times Best Illustrated Book List for his title The Red Lemon, and even tried his hand at the ghoulish Der Struwwelpeter.

Plus he's just as comfortable doing this:

As he is doing this:

The Daily Bob, by the way, is a daily image you can put on your site that changes every day. So you can get a regular healthy happy helping of Staake on your site. Consider me very tempted.

Great guy, amazing art, and lovely feller. Good stuff.

Hot Men of Children's Literature: Part 26 In a Series

Today we mark a milestone in our much beloved series. I, your average Manhattan children's librarian, have given to you hot authors, illustrators, publishers, and editors. But the term, "Hot Men of Children's Literature" is a flexible all-encompassing moniker. Why limit ourselves to the real world when the virtual one offers us just as many joes to pick from? I'm talking about kid lit bloggers, of course. Bloggers that will one day be published and become famous authors allowing us the chance to say that we knew them back when.

So here he is. A sweetheart that has taken the blogworld by storm (along with his two lady friends), the one, the only...

JAY ASHER

JayandLisa

Wait... wait no. No no... let's try that again... It's a perfectly nice photo for what it is (everybody say HELLO, LISA YEE!) but our boy deserves better. Lemme see....

Bloggers

Much better! Now you can see Mr. Asher (second from the end on the left) with his various cohorts. You've got your Robin and your Eve and your Lisa Yee (can you tell which blog I swiped these from?) and your fellow attractive blogger Gregory K of Gotta Book. But the ladies who are not Lisa Yee represent the two branches in the triumverate that is Disco Mermaids. And once a year they make Jay dress in drag (hence the previous photo). I'm not entirely certain why. I think it must be a California thing, since that's where they're all from. Or it could be because the SCBWI Conference has a costume contest each year. Something like that.

Anywho, Mr. Asher writes and posts thoughts on the process on his blog regularly. You are encouraged to do the Check It Out thing. A tip of the hat to an all around swell fella.