Fuse 8 n' Kate

How the HECK have we done 327 episodes of this podcast and we haven't yet done this book? Released in 1991, we can't help but note that this story, of people flying above New York City, happened to come out the same year that a fellow people flying above New York City picture book came out: Tar Beach. Something about the early 90s just made people want to fly away, we guess. Today we tackle Abuela...

By gum, if there's one thing this children's literature podcast needs, it's more Reading Rainbow books from the days of yore. And if that's something we need to go out and find, then surely we will. We were inspired to give this particular book a go after Betsy saw the model of its vehicle on display at Kansas City's The Rabbit Hole. In this episode we discuss the prevalence of the same "a" sound,...

While Betsy often prefers to hand Kate children's picture books to consider that are chock full of details, at a certain point she is forced to come up with books that contain none of that. And you cannot get much more basic than Little Blue and Little Yellow here. Your heroes are essentially paint swatches, after all. In the course of our conversation, though, Kate surprises Betsy by coming up wi...

Kooky that we haven't done this one yet? You betcha. It's well known nationwide, been turned into lots of stage plays, and is generally a book that should be right up our alley. In the pantheon of heroic librarian books, where does this particular book fall out? We discuss the correct length of dinosaur teeth, sensible shoes, and how the HECK the artist created the art for this book. Honestly, we...

The American Library Association's Annual Conference for 2024 may be over but here at Fuse 8 n' Kate the party NEVER stops! And we can back that statement up by pointing out that this latest episode was actually recorded AT the conference. And not only that, it was recorded WITH a special guest star! Turns out, conferences are a great way to connect with folks you've only ever met online. After co...

We are pleased to announce that with its 2002 publication date we are finally able to celebrate the upcoming Independence Day with a book that Betsy has been sitting on for years. It can be exceedingly hard to find books for this particular holiday. Even better, this consideration of this book marks the very first time the podcast has ever done a Janet Wong or Margaret Chodos-Irvine. Ms. Wong hasn...

Betsy's logic behind this week's choice is that it is hot outside right now, so why not do a picture book featuring nudity? Now we currently live in a country where so much as a bare butted goblin picture book can get banned by Moms for Liberty at the drop of a hat. May as well go all in and do a book that unapologetically doesn't care about such puritanical mores. This book is an odd one, but Bet...

Kate's crie de coeur for more blood and guts in children's picture books once again finds its mark. Usually you might associate a book of this sort with titles of a more European bent, but Asch and son are 100% 'merican, baby. With enough weirdness to choke a cat, this one's just so very strange. Not to give anything away but we are exceedingly pleased to state that this book is still in print in...

Oh ho! We haven't done a Steven Kellogg re-illustration title since Pinkereton, Behave! back in 2021! This is particularly strange as The Mysterious Tadpole was always, without a doubt, a favorite Kellogg picture book of Betsy's when she was a child. For various reasons we were never able to discuss it on Fuse 8 n' Kate... until today! We consider the original 1977 edition of this book versus the...

Here in Illinois the cicadas are truly beginning to emerge en masse. As such, Betsy was kind of hoping she might be able to find a book that speaks to this. Alas, Cicada Symphony by Sue Fleiss (illustrated by Gareth Lucas) is just barely a year old. So what's the next best course of action? Locate some other red-eyed creature found in trees, of course! Now finding old nonfiction picture books with...

As mentioned on this podcast episode, Kate and Betsy truly will be in San Diego at the upcoming ALA Annual Conference to record an episode WITH a special secret guest. Many thanks to the very kind Travis Jonker (alumni of Kate's college) for sharing his recording booth with us. Today's book was a Reading Rainbow book back in the day. We detect some similarities to The Mysterious Tadpole by Steven...

Today, we do our second David Wiesner book (after Tuesday). Along the way we discuss the philosophy behind Wiesner's void ("Is this just the space between the stories we tell?") and how this is (spoiler alert) our 200th classic on the podcast! Woohoo! Show Notes: For the full show notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2024/05/13/fuse-8-n-kate-the-three-pigs-by-david-wiesner

Today we dive right in to a good spring picture book that somehow we've never done before. Even better, a Caldecott Honor title at that! We haven't discussed Janet Stevens since we did Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock a little more than a year ago. Consider this the book that made vertical picture books cool (Mel Fell owes this title a hat tip of thanks). In this episode we discuss whether Bear is...

Recently LeVar Burton suggested today's picture book on an episode of The Sporkful ("Reheat: LeVar Burton Even Reads Recipes Dramatically") and in spite of the fact that Kate was dead-on about the fact that we should have done this book for a Thanksgiving episode, we're doing it, baby! Enemy Pie was a Reading Rainbow Book back in the day, how does it hold up now? We talk about How to Eat Fried Wor...

"Crime and murder!" Do you want unspeakable violence on the picture book page? Well, folks, Kate sure did. And thanks to the suggestion of listener Rachelle, and her daughter Sarah, Betsy finally had a book that would give her just what she required. Is there blood? There is not, though honestly she got her fill of blood when we talked about King Stork (remember the heads on stakes?). Enjoy our di...

What's that? You've never heard of this particular Dr. Seuss book? Well, you're definitely not alone. If one were to rank Seuss titles from best known to least, there is no doubt in my mind that Solla Sollew would be right there at the bottom. But is there any chance that this 1965 publication might have something to say about the baby boomer generation, Vietnam, escapism, and even stories like Pi...

April is National Autism Acceptance Month, so Kate asked Betsy to bring her an appropriate book. Our usual rule is that we only consider books that are 20+ years old. The trouble is that most of the best books on the topic of the autistic spectrum were created within the last two decades. So we're cheating a bit this week and going with something produced in 2005 (a whole year too early, by our us...

What makes an appropriate April Fool's post? How about a book that FOOLED its own art directors, editors, publicists, etc. by including copulation? I'd say that counts! In fact, you might say that Trina Schart Hyman was the ultimate April Fool's picture book creator! She snuck insults of book reviewers onto gravestones. She managed to get the missionary position into a Howard Pyle book. She even m...

Spring has sprungeth! Not that you'd know it looking at Illinois right now, of course, but we're getting close to sunnier days. To celebrate, we've decided to equinox the heck out of this latest podcast episode (I still say it can be a verb). Somehow we've never done this particular Caldecott Honor winner before, so we're going to right a great wrong. We talk epistolary picture books, how clean 19...

It's the Year of the Dragon and yet so far we've done precisely ZERO dragon books so far. That ends today with our first consideration of Jack Kent. The cartoonist turned picture book author/illustrator may have come to the form late in life, but he cast some indelible images in his time. Surprisingly, this turns out to be one of our more divisive books. We ask what the "Children's Book Clinic" on...

If you want something Irish, this book fulfills that desire tenfold. Now, for those of you who listen to the Fuse 8 n' Kate podcast regularly, you'll know that Kate likes three particular things in her picture books: 1. Ireland. 2. Strong women. 3. Lotsa details in the art. With that in mind, is it surprising that she adored this? In this episode we discuss Little Shop of Horrors, the fact that si...

No stranger to controversy, we dive deep into one of Tomi Ungerer's more peculiar picture books. It's all about the consumption of children, but that's not why we get icked out by this particular title. Turns out, it has an ending grosser than anything involving the consumption of kids. Sadly, Betsy was not able to give Kate the blood and guts in a picture book that she so desperately required. In...

Originally released in 2003, Skippyjon Jones is a fascinating study of a picture book that was controversial prior to the rise of We Need Diverse Books. When first it came out, the book received loads of praise and awards ... and then loads of controversy. While still in print today, we identify the probable reasons why this book doesn't have a Netflix show, a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, a liv...

Deep in the heart of February, it's not uncommon for folks to start yearning for warmer days and summer nights. While shivering in Illinois, Kate and Betsy dip into some early award-winning Udry and Sendak. Why did Sendak win a Caldecott Honor for this title? We deign to find out. There are ghosts and giants and a cat with a face Kate would tattoo on her arm tomorrow, if she could. There are also...

It's officially the 25th anniversary of No, David! by David Shannon and in celebration Betsy decided to do the second "David" book in the series. Having previously done No, David! before, Betsy figured that the sequel was the right way to go with today's episode. Kate, for her part, experiences a curious form of amnesia, capable of remembering the recording of Shannon's A Bad Case of Stripes, but...