End-o'-the-Week Kid-Lit Roundup
In this week's roundup, we witness inspiration by the likes of Roald Dahl, Bob Dylan, and SuperPaint:
The Roald Dahl Funny prize. UK children's laureate Michael Rosen (We're Going on a Bear Hunt) founded the Roald Dahl Funny prize, which rewards "the most hilarious children's authors." You have to love the frank and fairly funny rationale behind it:
"I have sat on judging panels before and what happens is that the funny books get squeezed out, because somehow or other they don't tackle big issues in the proper way," [Rosen] explained. "They'll get through to the last four or five books, and then historical fiction, or something about death or slavery or new technology will win out. I think it's a great shame, because actually when I think about the books I remember from childhood they are the funny books."
The prize's two shortlists were announced earlier this week:
Ages six and under:
Stick Man
Elephant Wellyphant
The Great Paper Caper
The Witch's Children Go to School
There's an Ouch in My Pouch!
Manfred the Baddie
Ages seven to fourteen:
Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear
Paddington Here and Now
Stop in the Name of Pants!
Cosmic
Aliens Don't Eat Dog Food
Urgum and the Goo Goo Bah!
The judges for the prize promised that "every title on the shortlists was 'properly tears-in-eyes, wheezing, sneezing, snorting funny.'" (Found via Bookninja.)
"What Book Got You Hooked?" ShelfTalker reminds us that time is quickly running out to tell people about the book that got you hooked on reading--and vote for which state you'd like to get 50K free books for low-income kids. (Can't we vote for all of them?)
Don't miss the books that got celebrities hooked, including short write-ups by everyone from Scarlett Johansson (Fantastic Mr. Fox) and Neil Patrick Harris (Bridge to Terabithia) to Stephen Colbert (Swiss Family Robinson). Colbert on the SFR: "It had it all--a shipwreck, a tropical paradise, a treehouse, pirates, home made bombs, a tiger pit, and the enviable freedom of those three Robinson boys who were seemingly on permanent Summer vacation."
Dylan's "Forever Young" as picture book. I loved illustrator Paul Roger's work with Wynton Marsalis on Jazz ABZ, so I'm excited to see what he's done with Dylan's legendary song in a new book from Candlewick Press. From his Publishers Weekly interview:
“I really love the song, especially the simple acoustic version released on Dylan’s first Bootleg Series CD, and I wanted to keep the illustrations simple and direct and not try to illustrate the lyric literally. I mean, it’s a beautiful song, and there have been some great interpretations of it--Joan Baez does a wonderful version. So I wanted to make it good.”
In the era of SuperPaint. 100 Scope Notes uncovered an example of a curious vintage of kids' book the other day: Daniel Pinkwater's Muffin Fiend, from 1986. As he points out, digital illustrations are commonplace now (and often indistinguishable from physical ones), but this was produced in the sadly bygone heyday of bitmap graphics and weird patterned fills. E.g.:
Four quick, don't-miss links:
- a hilarious, almost impossible to believe story about stock photography, the U.S. cover of How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone, and Daniel Handler a.k.a. Lemony Snicket on a beach with an accordion
- the Spike Jonze Where the Wild Things Are movie gets a new old release date (10/16/2009, the same date given before it disappeared earlier this year)
- the new Notes from the Horn Book e-mail begins with a teacher-parent couple interview full of great book recommendations
- Big A little a lets us know that it's children's book weekend in the NYT Book Review.
Robert McCarty on September 15, 2008 at 05:14 AM
Dear Paul,
We would like to send you our Planet Of The Dogs series for your review. We would like to include an advance reader copy of Snow Valley Heroes-A Christmas Tale, the third book in the series.
Please send a postal address to barkingplanet@aol.com and we will send the books (recommended for children 6-12 and dog lovers of all ages).
For more information, please visit www.planetofthedogs.com and http://barkingplanet.typepad.com.
Best wishes,
Robert McCarty
Barking Planet Productions