Monica over at Educating Alice alerted me to this recent American trailer for the BBC production of Noel Streatfeild's Ballet Shoes.  Until now my primary association with Ms. Streatfeild was an almost overwhelming desire to switch the "e" and the "i" in her last name.  Now at last I've something else to concentrate on.  Emma Watson from the Harry Potter films co-stars.

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White Sands, Red Menace
By Ellen Klages
Viking (a Penguin imprint)
$16.99
ISBN: 978-0-670-06235-5
Ages 10 and up
On shelves October 2nd

When authors choose historical moments in time to set their stories against, surely the temptation must be ...Read More

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Catch That Crocodile
By Anushka Ravishankar
Illustrated by Pulak Biswas
Tara Publishing
Distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution
$16.95
ISBN: 978-81-86211-63-2
Ages 4-8
On shelves now
...Read More

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My Fusenews is taking a hit this week due to after-work busyness.  Sorry about that.  Hopefully it'll be back on track after I go camping this week-end.  In the meantime, chew on this stuff:

• Author interviews illustrator.  Linda Urban of A Crooked Kind of Perfect has interviewed the monumentally, perpetually, intellectually amazing illustrator Marla Frazee in a five part series.  You can read number one here.  Thanks to Cynsations for the link.

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At the last Kidlit Karaoke Night I heard that our beloved Sweet & Vicious closed its doors for good.  A true pity since it was a large location with lots of space.  Fortunately, editor Cheryl Klein has this stellar track record at finding great places to meet up here in town.  Here's the newest info on our September gathering.

When: Monday, September 15th starting at 6:30 p.m.

Where: Revival, 129 East 15th Street.  We will congregate upstairs.  Apparently that is where people tend to gather when attending this place.

What: Kidlit Drink Night - Classic ...Read More

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Princess at Midnight
By Andi Watson
Image Comics, Inc.
$5.99
ISBN: 978-1-58240-928-3
Ages 8-12
On shelves now

I'm always on the lookout for good kid-friendly graphic novels to stock my library's shelves with. And I am particularly interested in publishers that don't get as much library face time as they might since the presence of comics on library shelves is still a relatively new idea. Image Comics is based out of Berkeley, California and I have to ad...Read More

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We all love book jackets.  Well a site called Worth1000 has a contest going on (or it may be over, it's hard to tell) challenging people to create their own covers to books.  Some of the titles are adult books, but there's a fair smattering of children's jackets as well.  My favorite thus far was the one done by a daniellefave for The Phantom Tollbooth seen to the left here. Thanks to Sara Holmes for the link.

From ...Read More

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• Of the fifty or so new and cool facts available on Peter's most recent Brunch for Labor Day Weekend, the item I found most interesting was that the musical George M! from 1968 was written in part by none other of Fran Pascal.  As in Francine Pascal.  Well bless my stars and buttons!  Guess that whole Broadway stage thing didn't work out for her, eh?  Pity she had to fall back on writing some of the most popular series books out there.  Thanks to ...Read More

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Normally I don't do recaps of Kildit Drink Nights or, in the case of Saturday evening, Kidlit Karaoke Nights but this one stands out in particular.  There were ups and downs, and downs and ups.  Let us recap.

The Down:  Not a resident of Brooklyn I misdirected anyone who wished to attend by copying and pasting the directions from a website to the Old Carriage Inn.  The website was incorrect in terms of cross streets, thereby losing potential attendees, I am sure.

The Up: People managed to find it anyway.  And for a time we had just a nice normal Kidlit Drink Night on our hands.

The Down:  This is because the fellow who runs the karaoke, who is there...Read More

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Ellie McDoodle: New Kid in School
By Ruth McNally Barshaw
Bloomsbury
$12.99
ISBN: 978-1-59990-238-8
Ages 8-12
On shelves now

I know that the whole girl-who-draws story idea isn't necessarily new. I mean, before Ruth McNally Barshaw wrote Ell...Read More

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Did you think I might forget?  Not I.  Today is the first of the month and, as such, the monthly ARC giveaway.

Three very different titles for you this week from three very different authors.  I will explain about each.

1. How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier - By all accounts brilliant, but it is YA and I cannot touch that stuff or I dissolve like a slug under salt.  It has been getting rave reviews, however.  Please to bear in mind.

2. ...Read More

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This week, the number one video making the rounds was this one: The Conference of the Fonts.  I never liked Ransom anyway.

Thanks to Jane Yolen and ShelfTalker for the link.

That may have been the number one video making the rounds, but the video that has my heart is this one.  You wa...Read More

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