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 usual standards). And rather than go the direct route, we are selecting a book that has been embraced ...
Apr 08, 2024•30 min
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 made her ex-girlfriend the evil queen in her version of Snow White (while she made herself one of the...
Apr 01, 2024•31 min
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 1936 New York City alleyways were (we'd love to hear your opinions on needles), Groucho Marx, and more...
Mar 25, 2024•31 min
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" once was, discuss songs stuck in our heads, and talk musical bread. For the full Show Notes please vis...
Mar 18, 2024•30 min
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 single men have a hard time determining the ages of small children, and why this should really have be...
Mar 11, 2024•31 min
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 Betsy's defense, she remembered a lot more bloody knives than we see on these pages. Certainly Unge...
Mar 04, 2024•31 min
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 live-action film, etc. Let's just say there may be a reason why the last book in this series came out i...
Feb 26, 2024•29 min
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 long discussions of how precisely these four children of approximately the same age are all related ...
Feb 19, 2024•29 min
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 not the first David book. In that sense she's the perfect person to read this book, unencumbered by ...
Feb 12, 2024•26 min
"There are fish literally everywhere in this book!" We meant to do an Ed Young title a little closer to his death last year, but life interfered. As a result Betsy has been sitting on this particular copy of Yeh-Shen for a couple months now (sorry, library). You can imagine Betsy's utter delight as she discovers that, like Lon-Po Po, Ed Young hid one particular animal on these pages: Fish! Betsy has way too much fun finding the fishies in these pages, and Kate dives deep into this particular tel...
Jan 29, 2024•31 min
It's rare that we do a picture book from Betsy's old Top 100 Picture Books Poll from back in 2012, but today's the day, we guess. This book came in at #96 and reading it today we were surprised at how well it had aged in spite of its 1972 publication date. You probably know Bernard Waber best as the creator of Lyle, Lyle Crocodile. Today we're talking about Joe the Button Pusher, the Irish Republican Army, and where folks stand on the whole teddy bear issue. For the full show notes please find t...
Jan 22, 2024•31 min
We are so friggin' psyched!! It's not every day that we (A) Celebrate our 300th episode and (B) Have the very first National Ambassador of Young People's Literature JON SCIESZKA as our special guest! We asked Jon what classic picture book he wanted to celebrate, and do you know what he selected? Not one but THREE Grimm Brothers fairy tales. Not the well known ones either. Three short ones. Weird ones. Peculiar ones. Today, we read through the following: - The Straw, the Coal and the Bean - The T...
Jan 15, 2024•41 min
"Ah, Kwame. He's going to get tired of winning Caldecotts one of these days." As track records go, we don't want to brag but the Fuse 8 n' Kate podcast does a particularly good job each and every year of selecting potential winners. Just look at last year's picks. Of the three books we discussed one (Hot Dog) became an Award winner and one (Knight Owl) became an Honor. This year, once more, we've selected three books for discussion. But what's this? Do Kate and Betsy disagree on the final winner...
Jan 08, 2024•31 min
Here we are in a great glorious new year, and what are we doing? We're directing your attention backwards in time to 1998. Heck, technically we're going even farther back in time with one of our rare nonfiction considerations on this podcast. Travel to the late 19th century and meet a controversial figure. Citizen scientist or man who mucks with the scientific record? Only you can judge when you listen to our latest episode on the Caldecott Award winning title Snowflake Bentley. Today we discuss...
Jan 01, 2024•30 min
Hiccups or no hiccups, the podcast must go on! Betsy and Kate strive to once again provide a holiday-related picture book. Now Barbara Cooney was much on our minds since Betsy premiered the cover of an upcoming Barbara Cooney picture book bio coming out in 2024. Today's little book is actually still in print (not always a given) and it's an interesting consideration of the effect of WWI on small town Christmas celebrations. We quote So I Married an Axe Murderer, Christmas Spite (which would be a...
Dec 19, 2023•30 min
Kate challenged Betsy to come up with a Hanukkah classic we hadn't done before and Betsy . . . turned right around and asked social media for their thoughts. And let me tell you, social media had some GOOD suggestions! So many that we're saving a long list to consult next year. The ultimate winner for today was selected because (A) You can trust author Eric A. Kimmel to present an original Hanukkah story every single time and (B) Betsy was already on a Barbara McClintock kick this year thanks to...
Dec 11, 2023•29 min
Do you know the mushroom man, the mushroom man, the mushroom man? Well you're about to! Here's a question for you: Is a piece of cultural entertainment a "Christmas" title if the holiday only makes a brief cameo appearance? Is the film Meet Me In St. Louis a Christmas film just because it includes the song "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"? Likewise, is The Mushroom Man, now being re-released by Tilbury House on this, its thirtieth anniversary, a Christmas book? Maybe yes. Maybe no. What ...
Dec 04, 2023•31 min
Is it just us, or did someone miss a trick by not creating a new version of Stone Soup for the post-lockdown era we currently live in? Sorry, we're just thinking out loud, but after Kate and Betsy read two different versions of Stone Soup this week (one by Marcia Brown and one by Jon J. Muth) it seemed to us that this story is a lovely metaphor for growing connections and community after harrowing times. In the meantime, it was listener Heather D. who suggested that we consider Stone Soup as a p...
Nov 20, 2023•29 min
For the very first time in the history of this podcast, we have taken a request... from a publisher. That's right! You know as well as we do that there are reprinted picture books coming out all the time. Well, New York Review of Books sort of specializes in that industry. Their Children's Collection division has a tendency to find old and shockingly beautiful titles worth bringing back to life. And this year, in 2023, they decided to do a book that is so lovely, so strange, and so original that...
Nov 13, 2023•32 min
"There's no possible way to describe what you feel, when you're talking to your meal." - Into the Woods I've been waiting far far too long to do today's book. It was introduced to Betsy in graduate school, back in 2003, as an ideal storytime title. Today we consider Keiko Kasza's best known book and discuss what the Kool-Aid Man says, whether or not the pig is a classic trickster character, and if it truly is "a cute book about a pig with an adrenaline addiction and an out-of-shape fox." Bonus: ...
Nov 06, 2023•31 min
Happy Halloween! It's a day of celebration in more than one way. After all, starting today we FINALLY are able to start doing some Yuyi Morales books on our podcast! It's been 20 years since this little number came out and we figured what could be a better title to cap off our 2023 Halloween season than with Ms. Morales's first title? It's still in print but how does it stand up after all these years? Tricking death/the devil is a Halloween classic in folktales, so we found it particularly aprop...
Oct 31, 2023•31 min
Let the record show that Betsy read through a slew of different Halloween-centric picture book titles before she alighted upon one that was appropriate for the season. Who knew that Tony Johnston and Tomie dePaola would be the answer to her prayers? Today we consider a book about, at its core, the difficulty of growing more than a single pumpkin in your pumpkin patch. Kate and Betsy, failed pumpkin farmers both, can relate. In today's podcast episode they talk Jawas, rain barrels, hairless lepre...
Oct 23, 2023•31 min
Remember when Betsy said to Kate that she wanted to do a certain book for Mother's Day but would settle on doing it for the Halloween season instead? What book could possibly encompass those two holidays? Behold! The rare Mother's Day/Halloween crossover hit! Brought to you by the illustrator best known for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (though he'll always be the winner of the Longest Caldecott Award Speech to us), this is a marvelous combination of love for your mama and downright scares. ...
Oct 16, 2023•31 min
In spite of the fact that Ed Young recently passed away and, traditionally, when a master of the picture book form passes away, we do one of their books on the show, we decided to keep him on the backburner while we do our first Halloween picture book of the season. And we are VERY excited about this because today's book came out in 2003, which means we can finally do it on this podcast (we have a 20 year rule on books we consider). It wasn't Krosoczka's first picture book but it certainly was e...
Oct 09, 2023•27 min
Having recently read the new book Ready, Set, Run! The Amazing New York City Marathon by Leslie Kimmelman, illustrated by Jessie Hartland, Betsy was reminded of the old chestnut The Philharmonic Gets Dressed. Then, suddenly, it occurred to her that she and Kate had never ever done this particular book on our podcast. It also appears to be this podcast's first Karla Kuskin and first Marc Simont on the show. Show Notes: For the full show notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2023/10...
Oct 02, 2023•31 min
It seemed only fitting that since last week's podcast episode dealt so directly with the beginnings of life, why not focus on the end this time around? I'll tell you this much, though. If you'd informed Betsy, prior to this recording, that a 1971 picture book would be one of the best books she ever encountered on death, she would not have believed you. But she probably should have realized something was up when I saw that The Tenth Good Thing About Barney was by Judith Viorst. Today we deep dive...
Sep 18, 2023•29 min
"Three dudes telling you how babies are made in 1968." The Fuse 8 n' Kate podcast focuses primarily on picture books of the past, but that focus means that we are subject to the past's limitations. Consequently, most of the books we've considered until now have been works of fiction. Well no more! Today we tackle one of our first nonfiction titles, this one dating back to 1968 and, we have no doubt, still circulating in libraries to this day. Yes, it's a book on human reproduction. So how did th...
Sep 11, 2023•31 min
Featured today was DRUMMER HOFF. An odd mix of 1960s psychedelia meets Colonial woodcuts, in 1968 it was the ultimate Vietnam War bit of picture book commentary. NOT that the Emberley ever embraced that interpretation, but I am DANG sure the librarians had that in their minds when they selected it for a Caldecott Award. In today's talk we discuss our various interpretations of this book as well as what its ultimate contribution was to children's literature as a whole. For the full Show Notes ple...
Sep 04, 2023•30 min
Betsy's a child of the Generation X movement and, as such, at some point in her early education, the song "Gonna Die With a Hammer in My Hand", adapted by the folksingers of the 60s, was something she was well and truly familiar with. That said, at no point in her childhood did she ever encounter a single picture book retelling of the legend of John Henry. And though he's one of the great American Tall Tale characters, Kate hadn't even heard of him! This will not stand. So in response to the rec...
Aug 28, 2023•31 min
Considering the fact that the movie of Lyle the Crocodile came out practically a year ago in October of 2022, it may seem a little late to be returning to this particular member of the family Crocodylidae, but what care we? This Lyle title was originally released in 1969. Remember that date. It puts the contents inside in a little bit of context. Today, Kate and Betsy discuss whether or not this lesser known Lyle title falls into the category of "forgotten gem" or "justly unmemorable bit o' fluf...
Aug 14, 2023•31 min
