Fuse 8 n' Kate

This week Kate and Betsy take a trip back in time to 1938. We were trepidatious, and can you blame us? Considering the era and the fact that James Daugherty created the first (and only? unclear) Newbery winner to be completely out-of-print due to shockingly overt racism, we entered into Andy and the Lion tentatively. Betsy remembered it as beloved of New York Public Library. Justifiably? This and...

"The text placing is NOT conventional!" Fresh off the 2026 American Library Association we're happy to discuss our very first Peter Sis title. We're going to begin our Sisification with one of his (relatively) younger books. In its heyday, I recall that New York Public Library absolutely adored this book. They loved its multicultural take and feel. But if we've learned anything from Schoolhouse Ro...

Sure, we missed it by a couple days, but it's never too late to lift a glass in honor of Juneteenth. Betsy was determined to figure out what the very first Juneteenth picture book published by a major publisher was, and we think we've found our answer. The kicker is that not only did this book come out in 1995, it was the very first picture book by future multi-award winner Carole Boston Weatherfo...

It's PRIDE MONTH!!! And we've done many a fine LGBTQIA+ book during the year. But this book series, while not considered queer during its initial publication, has since been embraced by the gay community and, as such, we seek to celebrate it here today. Of all the Frog and Toad books in the series (there are four) this was the only one to garner a Newbery Honor (NOT Caldecott... and isn't that int...

Rambunctious? Bumbling? It's hard to typify the sheep in this Nancy Shaw series (though their publisher has certainly tried over the years). The darlings of the 80s and 90s, "Sheep" appreciation has depreciated significantly over the intervening decades. Today, Kate and I delve into two of the most notable of the sheep book to truly declare whether they deserve a bit of classic status to keep them...

"I don't hate THESE rhymes!" It's a return to New Zealand today with a local classic that has long eluded our particular podcast. Will the little black terrier with the catchy name capture the hearts and minds of these Yankee sisters, or will his charms elude them entirely? On this episode we discuss books that you have to practice reading aloud, why people give their dogs last names, and whether...

Episode 410 - The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll & the Broom Handle and Who Was in It by Betsy Bird and Kate Atienza

Betsy promised Kate that they'd do a British picture book today in celebration of Kate's recent trip to the fair British Isles. It had occurred to Betsy that they'd never done a Babette Cole book before, so she worked out which one is perhaps best known over there. Now we probably should have done the incredible Mommy Laid an Egg, but Betsy felt like Kate needed a gentler introduction to Cole's wo...

So folks ask me to do more nonfiction on this podcast, and while I admit that it is a bit of a stretch to call today's book pure nonfiction, I at least think that it's closely aligned. It's not a biography, though. Consider it more of a personal memoir from 1962. In essence, it's the true story of Andy Warhol's extended family, written by one of his nephews. Sadly, James Warhola didn't continue to...

As it turns out, this is the second time we've done a Pat Mora/Raul Colón collaboration. With this book, though, we delve into a moment in children's book publishing history when multi-ethnic tall tales were the name of the game. It's been a while since we've done a legitimate honest-to-goodness folktale on this podcast. They were once the lifeblood of children's libraries, and these days they're...

It's time to bring out the big guns. The big... Australian guns, that is. The last time we did a Mem Fox title on this podcast it had to have been Where Is the Green Sheep? And the last time we did a Julia Vivas? It was probably The Nativity. Put the two creators together and you have yourself a fascinating tale of a new picture book author attempting to create something wholly Australian for the...

"I would trust my baby with Amelia Bedelia before I trusted it with Carl." "Well... she does have opposable thumbs." Poor Kate has just survived the ordeal of solo parenting for around a month with a child not yet a year old and still not on solids. As such, Betsy thought the time was right to spring upon her everyone's favorite doggie babysitter, Carl. How would Kate react to Carl's less than ent...

After Passover, before Tax Day, the holiday Betsy decided to discuss today is Easter! Now Kate already met Max and Ruby back in September of 2025 with Max's Dragon Shirt. Betsy thinks it's weird. Kate doesn't. But a chocolate chicken is not a thing. Betsy gets to mention how the Max & Ruby books are much like episodes of The Simpsons. Why? Because it's easy to ask, where does the cut-off between t...

We return to the wordless and spare once more. Lehman's Caldecott Honor winning title is an exercise in restraint. And since Kate is extra tired these days with her baby, I figured getting her a book with as few words possible was a smart way to go. We discuss super grippy mittens, how to "pull-a-Curious-George", and we divide on the ending. Where do you fall? You can read the full Show Notes here...

“Hubris, Kate. He suffers from hubris!” We’re on the cusp of spring, so full credit to Eric Carpenter for pointing out to us how egregious a gap we’ve had in our roster until now. Have we really and truly never done that spring book to beat all spring books Muncha Muncha Muncha??? Such a thing seems inconceivable and yet… here we are. Today Kate and Betsy discuss bunnies, munching, and the role th...

I know you're all desperate for spring out there, but winter's not done with you yet! With that in mind, we tackle what may well be the most famous snowman-related picture book outside of the Raymond Briggs classic. Betsy introduces Kate to a title that has remained WELL in print since its publication back in 2002. For those of you peeved that we don't know how to pronounce the Buehners' last name...

Can you believe it! Can this really be happening? It has taken years but at long last Kate and Betsy have hit their 400th episode of our podcast Fuse 8 n' Kate!!! Their Quatercentenary! Now they've had a variety of special guests in the past. Jon Scieszka. Aaron Reynolds. Lucy Knisley. But today they're bringing on their sister podcast (brother podcast?) from SLJ. That's right, the hosts of The Ya...

In a dual celebration of Black History Month and Valentine's Day, Betsy figured the logical connection came in the form of Eloise Greenfield's Honey I Love. But which version? Turns out that there's the original book, illustrated by the Dillons (Leo and Diane, obviously) and then the titular poem from that book was republished as a book in and of itself a bit later. Now initially Betsy envisioned...

Poor Betsy had a bit of a mix-up. In her defense, she had her reasons. Anyone who is familiar with the Children's Literature Association Phoenix Awards may be aware that they reward children's books that didn't receive major awards when they first came out, but 20 years later they can now. And Not a Box by Antoinette Portis is the most recent winner of the 2026 Phoenix Picture Book Award. Pretty c...

At last! We finally pounce upon the third and final David Wiesner Caldecott Award winning title! Having already covered Tuesday and The Three Pigs (which we promptly forgot that we'd already discussed) it seemed only fitting that we'd move on to the third title in The Wiesner Triumvirate (and can you believe that it's 20 years old?!?). Today, it's all about the fish. Fish and photography, baby. We...

Initially, this was supposed to be an entirely different episode altogether. I had somehow managed to convince myself that we hadn't done The Three Pigs by David Wiesner on this podcast before. In truth? We did that precise book on May 13, 2024 (so, yeah, not actually all that long ago). My bad, folks. My bad. In a pinch we had to find a replacement and, because Kate is now mother to a small child...

Every year, Kate and Betsy do one Caldecott prediction post for their podcast. Betsy hands over THREE books that she thinks are contenders. Then the two discuss and predict which ones might win the big awards. They usually manage to get at least one Honor (and last year they got two!). This year we're pretty confident that at least one of these three books will win something on Monday. Trouble is,...

In preparation for the upcoming holiday (on Monday) we are FINALLY tackling what I (spoiler alert) consider to be the one, the only, the BEST book on MLK ever to grace a picture book page. Published in 2001, we right a great wrong and finally tackle this most eminent of titles. Along the way we talk about why the heck it lost to another book for the Caldecott Gold (I've a theory that the true winn...

Happy New Year! We start 2026 off with a puzzle: How can four people all work on the same picture book at the same time? And why? What's the process, and how on earth do you embroider every page? When Kate told Betsy she wanted a New Year's book, she failed to specify precisely what kind of New Year's. And since the Vietnamese new year of Tet occurs in January/February, Betsy took that as permissi...

It's a Christmas book! It's a Hanukkah book! It's a Christmas AND a Hanukkah book! And a Patricia Polacco book as well. She's back, baby. Will Kate be charmed by the message of this inclusive title or will other elements win out in the end? We discuss the grammatical components of when one "thrills", continuity errors, kosher menorahs, and more! For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8...