If this book was butter…

These are so lovely, I have to share: illustrations by Brian Wildsmith in A Child’s Garden of Verses.
 

 

 

 
I couldn’t express it better than Vintage Kids’ Books:
if this book was butter, right now I would be smearing it all over toast
 
Get the book here.

Famous authors on fairytales

Wicked parents, sleeping beauties (or princes?), quests, disguises, magic, love, danger… the Guardian has great a fairytale series going on with retellings and analysis by writers such as Philip Pullman, Marina Warner, and AS Byatt. Thanks to Monica Edinger (another interesting blogger, and Alice fan, discovered!) @ educating alice for pointing it out.

Where the Wild Artists Are

Check out this fantastic blog displaying a growing collection of art inspired by Where The Wild Things Are. All of the pieces are unique and gorgeous, but here are my favorites:
Learn more about the project and the artists – even buy a piece – here.

Christians start to see the light – in Harry Potter

Since the first book, the Harry Potter series has incited religious conservatives and over-protective parents to reprehensible acts against intellectual freedom, including book bannings and even book burnings. As the later books in the series were published, more theologians began to come around (spoiler alert!) – finally – to the overarching ethical and spiritual themes [...]

Harry Potter and the Half-Baked Film

After looking forward to the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie for a long, long time, I finally saw it on Sunday. The movies have done a great job of living up to the books – until now.

What worked:

The additions and change in sequence at the beginning of the film were much more visually [...]

Happy Birthday, Hungry Caterpillar! Love, me and Google

Google is my search engine of choice and I absolutely love watching as the logos change to celebrate holidays, seasons, birthdays and events. I was so happy this morning to open my internet and see this:

A tribute to Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar (40 years old today), a beautiful picture book loved by me [...]

New French title for The Graveyard Book

Did you know that the French translation of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book has a different title?

The Strange Life of Nobody Owens
Personally, I like “The Graveyard Book” much better. Along with the U.S. cover art.
I wonder who gets to make a decision like changing a book’s title? Or why it was made? Did Neil [...]

And the winner is…

I haven’t posted for some time – life caught up with me – but this is important. Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book won the Newbery! 

I don’t think I’ve read any of the contenders, but I’m still excited, as I thought The Graveyard Book was wonderful. 
2 things I just learned, while reading the news:
1. Gaiman also [...]

BBC puts on radio play of Pullman’s His Dark Materials

Just heard about BBC radio 7’s broadcast of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials – The Subtle Knife is playing right now (too bad I missed The Golden Compass / Northern Lights). Just ended – dang. Searching the site but can’t find any replays. But, listen in for The Amber Spyglass on Jan. 10 or 11 (and remember, UK [...]

Will Johnny Depp pull off Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’?

        
Johnny Depp ruined the classic “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” with an effeminate, prissy Willy Wonka (though I suppose that’s really Burton’s fault – I think Depp is enormously talented). Now he’s set to place the Mad Hatter in Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland”, due out in 2010.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has a special place [...]