Holiday Mix Redux

I’d hoped to post some new (well, new to you) mixes for the holidays, and I may yet manage to do so.  It’s been the busiest semester of my professional career and, indeed, of my life.  And, where I’m currently staying, there’s no wi-fi… well, unless I poach some from another apartment.  (I’m writing this

The author, at about age 11, reading The Hobbit

If I Were a Middle-Class White Kid

Gene Marks’ instantly infamous “If I Were a Poor Black Kid” column (Forbes, 12 Dec. 2011) is a classic example of how privilege remains invisible to the privileged.  Though he acknowledges that he is “a middle aged white guy who comes from a middle class white background” and so “life was easier for” him, the

Children’s Literature & Comics/Graphic Novels at MLA 2012

For those who may be heading to the MLA in Seattle (5-8 Jan. 2012), here’s a list of all the panels on either children’s literature or comics/graphic novels. I count sixteen panels exclusively devoted to one or more of these subjects, and an additional nine panels in which one ore more paper addresses either children’s

Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss Biography: Final Cuts, Part 3. Does This Make My Manuscript Look Fat?

I’d intended to post more of these in process, but literally had no time.  The manuscript was due back to the copy-editor yesterday – I mailed it today, and it will reach her Tuesday.  Some of her suggestions were dead-on, some were not, and others were somewhere in between.  I accepted the first type, rejected the

Mock Caldecott 2011: Manhattan, Kansas Edition

With thanks to the Children’s and Adolescent Literature Community (ChALC) for organizing the event and the Manhattan Public Library for hosting it, we held aMock Caldecott at this afternoon.  Of course, we weren’t able to get all of the books we wanted to look at – so, there are certainly Caldecott candidates we didn’t get to review.  Here are the top

Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss Biography: Final Cuts, Part 2. The Dog Problem.

Immersion in the thoroughly copy-edited manuscript has prevented me from getting more cuts up here, but there are plenty to share.  As noted in the post from earlier in the week, the copy-editor was also charged with reducing the length of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How An Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and

Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss Biography: Final Cuts, Part 1. What’s in a name?

I know. You thought that me posting omitted portions of the biography was over months ago. So did I. Thing is, the copyeditor for Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How An Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children’s Literature (coming September 2012) was also charged with getting the manuscript shorter still.  And

Barnaby, Winter 1948

Sunday Color Barnaby: O’Malley in Winter

As has been noted twice before on this blog (see here and here), a color Sunday version of Crockett Johnson‘s Barnaby ran from 1946 to 1948. Courtesy of Colin Myers, here’s a full-page one from the winter of 1948. Though it’s undated, “winter” would have to be January or February because the color Barnaby concluded