Fuse 8 n' Kate

Having survived a bout of pestilence and plague (read: lice and flu), Betsy was still in an oddly upbeat mood in this week's episode. And why not? Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is, by its very definition, an upbeat book! It is also one of those rare "classic" picture books where the author(s) and illustrator are separate. Kate, as is expected, finds a 100% legitimate mistake in the art that nobody in th...

Were you British, you might find it downright odd that Betsy and Kate have chosen to do Raymond Brigg's wordless picture book in March. That is because in Britain this title is generally considered a Christmas classic. Here in the States not so much. You may also not expect that Betsy's conversation with Kate about this book will devolve into a very long and intense argument over whether or not Fr...

Betsy was wracking her brain to figure out what the best possible candidate might be as a contender for classic picture book status with an #ownvoices Indigenous creator. Generally speaking, when fishing for classics, Kate and Betsy like to look at books that have been out for 20 years. Today's title was published in 2000. Now the question of the day with this podcast is whether, in light of the t...

Generally speaking Kate and Betsy prefer dead people. Dead authors. Dead illustrators. But boy howdy do they like it when they have them come on as guests, so put a hash mark in the "Live" column. Back on October 30, 2017 Betsy made Kate read Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds (listen to it here: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2017/10/30/spooky-october-infused-fuse-8-n-kate-creepy-carrots-by-...

With the full and present knowledge that monkeys in children's literature are problematic to the extreme, Kate and Betsy tackle a book that involves a kind of animal that is professed to be a monkey but is, in fact, an ape, much like the problematic-in-his-own-way Curious George(seen on a previous episode). When Betsy was a new mom, she used today's book endlessly with my kids. Yet it was only rec...

Having successfully predicted one of the Caldecott Honors in a previous episode, Kate is quick to pop Betsy's puffed up ego right from the start of this week's recording. And good thing too, since the book being discussed is none other than that Reading Rainbow classic A Chair for My Mother. Betsy talks about some of the good narrative choices made by this book, while Kate talks about some of the...

"I have a big red dog. Accept the reality in which I live." Betsy had been avoiding Clifford all these years. Why? Because she always remembered the book as dull. So you've gotta hand it to Kate. Thanks to her the two find far more to talk about concerning Clifford than you ever thought possible. From Emily Elizabeth's fashion sense to why you wouldn't want to camp under his jowls to the logistics...

If you get your kicks out of Kate and Betsy disagreeing about books, today's episode may not be for you. Each year Betsy presents Kate with 2-3 Caldecott contenders. Which is to say, they discuss books that may or may not win the Caldecott Award (which will be handed out a week from today on Monday, January 27th at 8:00 ET here: http://ala.unikron.com/). This gives the two of them a chance to disc...

How old are we all that Trashy Town is 21 this year? Is it just us or does that seem like a very large number? Continuing to attempt to find storytime classics that librarians love, Betsy has Kate take a look at this readaloud classic. And, if you recall, Kate does not always take to storytime books. Many questions are raised in the course of the proceedings. Does Mr. Gilly work for the city? What...

This past weekend Betsy took a trip to the Chicago Children's Museum with her kids, and lo and behold she stumbled upon a Mo Willems exhibit currently showing. She marveled at how the show cleverly integrated elements of the artist's books with honestly good, interactive stations. In a nod to Mo's background in animation, for example, kids can turn (oddly sturdy) cranks which flip pages featuring...

It's the last day of Hanukkah and what better way to celebrate than with one book split into two parts? In 1990 Eric Kimmel adapted a story he'd written for Cricket Magazine to a picture book format and called it The Chanukkah Guest. Then, in 2013 he took that same Cricket Magazine tale and turned it into the slightly different Hanukkah Bear. One story. One author. Two different versions. Are they...

Today's book is sort of a favor to Kate and Betsy's mom. She's always been very fond of this particular telling of The Nativity, and it remains a favorite to this day. And it's so nice to return to Julie Vivas again! When last seen on this podcast we were looking at her book with Mem Fox called Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge (found here: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2019/04/22/fuse-8-n...

Ah! At last! The chance to combine three of our favorite types of literature: Holiday Books, Wordless Books, and Cult Classics. In trying to find a new Christmas classic to do with Kate, it occurred to Betsy that the two had never done this particular book. It first came to Betsy's attention years ago thanks in large part to Alison Morris (now working at First Book). Unfamiliar with it? We hope yo...

In some ways, 2019 was kind of a fortunately/unfortunately kind of year. Seems appropriate that we would tackle Remy Charlip's best known work in one of our final podcasts of the year. Librarians adore this title because its readaloud potential is huge. Will Kate love it for its originality, or detest it for the complete lack of sense it makes? You cannot help but love the fact that she believes t...

Sometimes you just gotta read something awkward. Today, in spite of Betsy's determination never to do so, she skipped over ALL the previous Little Bear books produced by Minarik and Sendak and handed her sister the strangest of them all. Will Kate or Betsy think that this book is essentially the cringe comedy easy book of children's literature? Will Kate find a good image for a tattoo? Is there an...

When Kate challenged Betsy to find a classic Thanksgiving book, she made the mistake of saying off-handedly, "Oh, it could just be about food too." Ah HAH! Food, eh? Well, they'd already done Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, so that could leave only one other famous food-related piece of children's literary history. That's right. Time to down some Green Eggs and Ham. For the full Show Notes plea...

It seemed like it would be a pretty safe bet that Kate wouldn't have heard of this week's book. A little 1977 beauty it is. Betsy and Kate haven't done a Pinkwater book before, and this is a heckuva way to begin. It's a glorious celebration of disappointing the homeowner's associations of the world. It also apparently has to do with Nickelodeon, how to keep a pet alligator, and magical mystery lem...

If there's one thing we know, it's that there are two kinds of picture books that are most often divisive: the message-y books and the sweet and fuzzies. Combine the two and you get The Kissing Hand. There is NO doubt that the book is loved deeply by Kindergarten teachers, but would you call it a picture book classic worthy of keeping on shelves for decades to come? Betsy really didn't know how Ka...

Halloween is almost upon us! And like every year, Kate is always challenging Betsy to come up with some classic scares. This year, we've seen Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark adapted to the silver screen. Seems only natural to then pull out what many would consider to be Schwartz's other scary classic for kids. And, oh joy, it's part of the I Can Read series! What we had not counted on was that i...

We have a special guest!! It was our esteemed delight and pleasure to host international superstar, picture book creator, Hans Christian Andersen Award winner, Roger Mello in this, the latest episode of our podcast! Now it had been a while since we'd done an international picture book. We do try to make an effort to look at what other countries would consider "classics", but it can be difficult to...

In memory of the great Mr. Gerstein we decided to do his best-known, most classicy classic title. Of course, by doing this title, it means that for the first time, in all of our history, we are doing a nonfiction picture book. Not a bad way to start out, eh? Have no fear, we'll be getting to the spooky Halloween fare soon enough, but first we wanted to pay an homage to one of children's literature...

How do you type with hooves? Would this book today involve the cows texting? What are the logistics of not giving milk and then proceeding to start up production again? Who's buying from the underground milk market? How do you strap a typewriter to a duck? Betsy and Kate are just full of questions with today's book. Kate comes up with the cruelest advice for Farmer Brown you've ever heard and Bets...

We have a good good rule here at Fuse 8 n' Kate. Betsy and Kate do not judge any picture book that younger than 20 years of age. And with today's episode, Betsy broke that rule. She broke it hard. Clocking in at a mere 8 years of age, it's a bit premature to consider Klassen's best known title as a "classic" picture book or not. And yet, Betsy clearly could not help herself. In the course of thing...

Betsy had been avoiding today's book, not because it isn't famous enough, but because it's on the simple side. 101 words simple, in fact. The sisters get a little silly in the course of things, but boy do they learn all kinds of things! Lawnmower parenting! How had Betsy not known about it all these years? Kate decides that the boy is secretly working for Monsanto. Betsy defends the parents, which...

Betsy is very proud of herself. She managed to go this entire episode of the podcast without mentioning Rainbow Fish once. She and Kate do discuss Frederick briefly, but how can you not? In this episode Betsy discovers that no one has ever written a fun background story on how Leo Lionni came up with this book. Instead the sisters discuss whether or not Lionni was good at making art with cut potat...