Fuse 8 n' Kate

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...

On the first day of my podcast my true love gave to me... Jan Brett! Yes, we're in the thick of the holiday season now, and what better way to kick off our holiday picture booking than with, not simply a Christmas classic song/book, but a classic picture book creator as well! Brett last appeared on our podcast in an episode on The Mitten. Since then she's been strangely AWOL from our discussions....

Having spent ample time in the presence of Jon Agee himself at The Rabbit hOle at the recent Tomi Ungerer Symposium, Betsy determined that we hadn't actually done one of his books on our podcast yet. Today we take on a book that I like to pair alongside Fortunately. As for why we've chosen this particular title, it's all thanks to the suggestion of listener Rachelle Leon Pilarski. Thank you, Rache...

For the first time we are simultaneously recording alongside another podcast. The podcast in question? The Book of Life, which has been in existence for a good 20 years now (this month!). And let me tell you... when it comes to Jewish children's literature content on a podcast? There really isn't anyone else that can match synagogue librarian Heidi Rabinowitz. She knows what she's doing. Today, sh...

Oh. Full credit goes to children's book creator Ursula Murray Husted for today's find. You know, we've done a lot of feast-adjacent picture books in conjunction with Thanksgiving in the past (Green Eggs with Ham, for example). But today's book is a bit of an outlier in that respect. Aside from Cranberry Thanksgiving, I can't think of the last time we did a legitimately Thanksgiving-themed picture...

New General Rule: When a celebrity promotes an already existing picture book, it is rarely a good thing. I am thinking, naturally, of the episode of Friends where they read Love You Forever in its entirety. But it doesn't just happen on television shows. Recently a Kardashian recommended today's title, and to my horror and delight it's 20 years old (if you go by its original self-published publica...

We don't play this up much, but this actually marks the first appearance of Chris Raschka on our podcast. And WHATTA debut! This taps into my love of all picture books in which the protagonist gets eaten. But for Kate, she hyperfixates on the very semantics of the word "sardine". How can you hope to become the thing that you already are? That little delve into the philosophical underpinnings of ed...

What is the most loathed trope in picturebookdom to date? Some might say it's the everyone-forgot-my-birthday plot but we have something even worse in mind. For us, it's the old Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer topic of everyone being mean until you save their butts in some way and now they like you. Little did we suspect that beloved children's author Dav Pilkey, he of Captain Underpants and Dog Ma...

Anyone who has ever picked up a copy of The Sneetches for their children has probably discovered that The Sneetches does not stand alone. Indeed, it appears in a collection called The Sneetches and Other Stories. Now we've never done The Sneetches on our podcast. That would be an episode for another day. Today, we look at the far lesser-known (possibly for good reason) title What Was I Scared Of?...

As Halloween creeps ever closer (and the weather begins to resemble something somewhat autumnal) we continue to seek out potential seasonal classics from the many books that have come before. Today's suggestion comes to us via Ramarie B. and it's a text based on an old Russian fairy tale. Mind you, in the original, this story featured a turnip (and it says a lot about a culture if a gigantic turni...

Kicking off October with Edward Gorey just seems obvious at this point in time. After all, since he died 25 years ago, there are a lot of celebrations happening in his honor this season. Naturally, since he did quite a few "picture books" (a term we use in the broadest sense) it seemed logical to tackle his best known work. Is it for children? Not intentionally, but Betsy makes the case on the sho...

Going into this episode,Betsy had a lot on her mind. Fancy Nancy is one of those rare 21st century characters with a legitimate shot at picture book classicdom. That said, would Kate find her bratty? One can never predict which literary children show up on Kate's brat-o-meter (Madeline? Really really?), so this was going to be a real question. And if you want to know the answer... yeah. You're goi...

This is our 379th episode. We've done 378 until now and not one, not one SINGLE title, has been a Rosemary Wells book. Strange? You bet. Well, today that strangeness ends. Not only are we doing a Rosemary Wells book, but we're doing a MAX AND RUBY Rosemary Wells book! Howdja like them apples, eh? Of course, once we decided upon this course of action we were faced with the inevitable question of wh...

Betsy doesn't know why people don't talk more about this book. While John Steptoe is well-known for Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters and, to a lesser extent, Stevie, today's book is rarely discussed. Yet can you even think of another case where a picture book creator wrote something as autobiographical AND as problematic ABOUT THEMSELVES as this? John Steptoe was working on another level with this tit...