Fuse 8 N' Kate

Who says horror never wins the big awards? This is perhaps the last time a scary picture book got serious Caldecottian love. It also marks the end of the October spooky books for Betsy and Kate. At least you get to hear them run through a range of Halloween sound effects. Poor ones, granted, but it's the thought that counts. Show Notes: - When the book first came out, this was the book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag0LPVYpIu4 - By the way, can YOU name a classic Thanksgiving picture book? You can’t. You can name Thanksgiving picture books, sure, but one that’s massively famous? Not so much. - By the way, the answer to the quiz question this week is COMPLETELY incorrect. Can you guess the right answer? - I wasn’t wrong, as it turns out. From 2002-2003 there was indeed a “new” Twilight Zone: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318252/ - That Creepy Crawlers commercial Kate remembers? It existed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0RK-l97NHY -The Peter Brown book about the dog that I couldn’t remem

She likes it! She really likes it! Not to give anything away but Kate is fully enamored of The Spider and the Fly by Mary Howitt, illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi. And why not? That seductive spider clearly knows what he's doing from the get-go. In this episode the sisters consider killing flying monkeys, Hocus Pocus (it is October after all), and whether or not a book this new really deserves to be called a "classic" quite so soon. Show Notes: - No apologies. Frank Morgan was marvelous in The Good Fairy. Clearly a man that benefited from a good strong mustache. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34pTHbhGaYc - Here’s the link to Tony Diterlizzi’s website, where you can find all kinds of additional information. Scroll down and you’ll see a plethora of Spider and the Fly related links. http://diterlizzi.com/book/the-spider-the-fly/ - Wow! This Go Your Own YA podcast is great! They’re really just starting out but already they’ve covered Patricia McKissack and Lois Duncan. Check them out here: https://www.goyouro

Spooky October offerings continue with a book that Kate calls "Hunger Games . . . but cats!" Special guest James Kennedy joins us for a talk about cannibalistic kitties, stating accurately, "Of all of the children's books, maybe all the books ever written, this one has the highest body count." Along the way you are privy to an acapella rendition of the theme song, bad John Travolta puns, and lots of Yacht Rock. - Be sure to read The Order of Odd Fish by James Kennedy. SLJ called it "depraved"! How many YA novels can you say THAT about? https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/91572/the-order-of-odd-fish-by-james-kennedy/9780440240655/ - The 90-Second Newbery Film Festival is James's baby. Kids make 90-second (approximately) videos of Newbery Award and Honor books and then James travels around the country showing them in his film festival. Honestly, for a kid to see their video up on the big screen, there's nothing to compare to that. Newest and latest submissions are due on January 12th. http://90secondnewb

Sisterhood is stronger than fights over Jawas vs. Ewoks, though in this particular case the two come dangerously close to exchanging blows. In honor of October they decide to tackle some spooky picture book classics. And it's hard to get spookier than Sendak's classic tale of babynapping and ice changelings. Hold on to your horn, your little sister, and your sanity for this crazy ride. Show Notes: - Anyone who puts together a picture book cover involving Jim, the chicken, and the old lady from Good Night Moon for Kate wins Betsy's everlasting love. - Are you fond of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark? Then we highly recommend The 15 Most Disturbing Illustrations From “Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, particularly if your memory needs a jog. https://tuneinrockon.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/the-15-most-disturbing-illustrations-from-scary-stories-to-tell-in-the-dark/ - This is what Betsy meant when she referenced Rebel Without a Cause: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrkiBCusHs0 - Apparently the German Sheph

In this episode, Betsy and Kate decide to try to steer clear of Seussian controversy, unaware that even as they record this there is a debacle brewing with a school librarian, Melania Trump, and a host of Dr. Seuss books. Fortunately, while this book has been challenged in a library system (we'll get to that) it was not one of Ms. Trump's donations. Thank goodness for small favors. Along the way Kate identifies the most terrifying person in the book, Betsy has flashbacks to an old Smurfs episode, and the sisters talk seriously about why you can't put a skirt embedded with lights on a blow-up T-Rex costume. Show Notes: - The horrifying Smurf Rage Zombies. ComingSoon.net had exactly the same reaction to the episode that Betsy did and even makes a very strong case for why this story originally (in comic form) preceded George Romero's zombies by years. http://www.comingsoon.net/horror/news/749789-terror-tv-gnap-gnap-zombies-vs-smurfs-purple-smurfs - Washington State University says that any spelling of "g

We're back! Kate's voice has healed up so the sisters sit down to talk about our first Seuss. And what a Seuss it is too. Just in time for Banned Books Week they consider what should, in many ways, be Seuss's most controversial picture book. Along the way there may also be some talk about Bill Cosby, nerds, and raves. Show Notes: - Here is ALA’s list of Frequently Challenged Books for 2016. https://www.ila.org/content/documents/2016banned.pdf - Like I say, I found nuthin’. So I went to 2015 here. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/sites/ala.org.advocacy/files/content/2015BannedList.pdf - For further information on the implications behind the most famous of the Seuss books, please see Was the Cat in the Hat Black? by Phil Nel. I highly recommend this 45-minute illustrated lecture on the topic. https://plus.google.com/+PhilipNel/posts/3t6xoesSycm - An interesting recent article from the New York Times on Dr. Seuss, his caricatures of WWII, and how the Dr. Seuss Museum prefers not to talk about any of that (at th

In desperate need to get the taste of The Berenstain Bears and the Bully out of their mouth, Betsy and Kate turn their sights to yet another Caldecott Award winner. This time it's Ed Young's take on the classic Chinese folktale Lon Po Po. Like the Red Riding Hood tale? Then you'll certainly enjoy this lovely tale where a trio of clever sisters break every friggin' bone in a wolf's body. Show Notes: - Pudding is not actually the 10th anniversary gift. But it should be. - This is where Kate couldn't see the wolf in the first two-page spread: http://www.vickiblackwell.com/lit/images/panelpics.jpg - Had the wolf frequented his local supermarket he might have gotten the delicacies another way: http://victor.iwi.com.sg/gjh/product_image/Mili_GingkoNuts.jpg - Some light reading? Try your hand at Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality, and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale Book by Catherine Orenstein: - You know I'm desperate when I pull out my old copy of The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importanc

Our tenth episode and what a splendid one it is too. Killing two birds with one stone, Betsy and Kate wrestle to the ground a listener recommendation AND a series title. Between speculating about alternate realities, corporal punishment, and baby wigs (which are apparently a thing) the sisters come to a mutual understanding on a title for once. Show Notes: - Yeah. We know King Lear doesn't actually get his eyeballs removed. That was Gloucester. Our bad. - Different Lllama Llama rapper videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFtHeo7oMSU and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX7JAHddY84 -Back in 2006 Leila Roy at bookshelves of doom was the first person I knew to encounter this book. At a garage sale, no less. Please read her hilarious post on the matter. http://bookshelvesofdoom.blogs.com/bookshelves_of_doom/2006/08/quick_quiz_for_.html - The original Berenstain Bears theme song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjXiIZYsGJY - You can read about the alternate reality theory about the Berenstain/stein Bears h

Things get off to a bang when Kate immediately throws Betsy off by calling the entire Harry Potter series "YA". After that things get weird. Sure, Goodnight Moon is one of the best known, best loved, most-received-at-baby-showers picture book classics of all time, but does it deserve the acclaim? The sisters discuss its sordid controversies, the book's forgotten ghost, and the danger of anatomically correct udders. Show Notes: - Proof of the existence of a pinhole camera saltine cracker. http://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2017/08/17/solar-eclipse-glasses-cracker-slotted-spoon/575694001/ - The two podcasts that gave us shout outs? First up is The Secrets of Story podcast, created by my very own Matt Bird and his partner-in-crime, YA author and 90-Second Newbery's papa, James Kennedy. https://soundcloud.com/matt-bird-35537727 - The other is the Books Between podcast. Hat tip to Corrina Allen for interviewing me recently. There is a really nice fart noise contest at the end of my

Betsy attempts to present Kate with a Caldecott Award winning classic (shiny GOLD sticker and all)illustrated by a woman and finds the task shockingly difficult. Meanwhile Kate delves deep into an Irish brogue, Betsy entirely misses an image of nudity, and they both agree that if you're going to have a sun, have a sassy one. Show Notes: - Here's the list of all the Caldecott Award winners. http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/caldecottwinners/caldecottmedal If you can find a really super famous one on there that was illustrated by a woman, tell us what it is (at FuseKate8@gmail.com). The kind that the average person on the street would know. - Here's what the Caldecott Award looks like. Three geese and all: http://www.thesilverpen.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Caldecott-Medal.jpg - Here's the music video Kate and Betsy made for the song Randolph Caldecott in 2009: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMIjWQQavcY - For more information on Big Machines: The Story of Virginia Lee Burto

Load up on the Kleenex and stuff some hankies up your sleeve. We wrench out the tears (and the post-apocalyptic hellscape conspiracy theories) with P.D. Eastman's classic text. In the course of things Betsy and Kate also take time to consider chicken's eyelashes, great big rubber stamps, and Betsy manages to work in at least one more reference to holograms (yesss!). Show Notes In Brief: - In terms of feedback from Monica Edinger, please check out her blog post John Steptoe's Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters. Extra Bonus: A member of the Caldecott committee that awarded Steptoe the Honor makes a comment at the end! https://medinger.wordpress.com/2017/08/09/john-steptoes-mufaros-beautiful-daughters/ - Interested in reading the post on my Top 100 Picture Books Poll from 2012? Here's the one I did for Are You My Mother? http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2012/05/29/top-100-picture-books-45-are-you-my-mother-by-p-d-eastman/ Make sure you read the entire text of the Mallory Ortberg Are You My Mother? rendered

Lest you start believing that all children's book classics were penned by white people, Kate and Betsy delve deep into one of John Steptoe's best works. They consider some of the more problematic messages of the book today, its groundbreaking nature, the history of Steptoe, the most recent Caldecott Award winner (and its connection), and a lot more. And yes. Kate has some weird affection for the last page of every book she sees. Every. Single. One. Full show notes for this episode can be found here: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2017/08/08/new-fuse-8-n-kate-episode-mufaros-beautiful-daughters-by-john-steptoe/

It has taken five books but at long last Kate and Betsy disagree on a book. Who knew it would be the shiniest one in the sea? Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister, the book that every American schoolchild knows by heart, is dredged up out of the deep for a fine conversation about Shark Week, holograms, and why sharing is caring.

Betsy brings in a picture book classic that she deems a "perfect ten". Meanwhile Kate attempts to poison her sibling with a Chicago specialty, and the thunder is, as ever, perfectly timed.

In this episode, Betsy tries as hard as she can to find a book that she and Kate can safely disagree on. Things don't go according to plan, though there are plenty of instances of the word "Penis!" being yelled at inopportune moments. Score Thus Far: Betsy: 0 Kate: 0 Maurice Sendak: 1

In celebration of Pride Month, Kate and Betsy tackle the most famous same-sex picture book of all time. How has Heather fared over the years? Does it stand up? Has it become horrendously dated? The sisters hash it out, get a little surprised, and end up drinking rainbow-colored vodka (this is true).

Is Tikki Tikki Tembo the horribly offensive book it seems to be, or a classic worthy of love and adulation? For this first episode Betsy and Kate take a close, very very close, look at Arlene Mosel and Blair Lent's best known work.