This week Kate challenged Betsy to come up with a summer book to do on the podcast. And sadly, the book Betsy initially came up with was originally published in 2006 (and we have a 20-year rule on the books we can consider). Betsy found an alternative title instead, and it involves the combo of a Newbery Award winner (Hesse) with a Caldecott Award winner (Muth) (though we don't think either had won those respective awards when this book originally came out in 1999). It has been used in classrooms for years and years and years... but does it deserve to be called a classic? We discuss representation without firsthand personal experience and how well this book would fly with a publisher today.

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/07/28/fuse-8-n-kate-come-on-rain-by-karen-hesse-ill-jon-j-muth/

A Quick Note: At the beginning of this week's podcast Kate's microphone went out and only recorded Betsy instead. So Kate starts off strong, then she's gone, then she comes back after the background information section. As a result, you'll hear a slightly off recording just in the first five minutes this week, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

This is a particular pity since this week's book is one of Betsy's absolute favorites. It was one of her reliable storytime regulars. She was convinced that we'd done this book already, but as it turns out, she was completely misremembering our having done it. It's our fourth David Shannon book we've covered on this podcast so far. Today, we talk demonic eyeballs, insufficient branding, and abandoned cars.

For the full show notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/07/21/fuse-8-n-kate-duck-on-a-bike-by-david-shannon/

Maybe Betsy is still riding high from the last American Library Association conference she attended, but we're feeling like libraries deserve lots of lovely attention. And what better book to use to that purpose than this well-known collaboration between Patricia C. McKissack and Jerry Pinkney? Can you believe that we've never done a McKissack book before? Pinkney we've definitely done before (including Sam and the Tigers, John Henry, Little Red Riding Hood, and Mirandy and Brother Wind). We discuss how Kate spoils where "someplace special" is pretty early, segregated public benches, rando celebrities, and what it means to work "without permission or pay." For the full episode go to: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/07/14/fuse-8-n-kate-goin-someplace-special-by-patricia-mckissack-ill-jerry-pinkney/

Since Kate went and had a baby, the time has never been better to highlight the original "interactive book" for small children. Is it not nutty that we've never covered Pat the Bunny before? Originally published in 1940, the question before us today is to determine how the book stands up compared to so many other books out for young readers today. We discuss historical picture book apps, button boxes, and moms who do their nails on "daddy's scratchy face". We also make the MOST adult recommendations at the end that we've ever made to date.

For the full Show Notes please go to: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/07/07/fuse-8-n-kate-pat-the-bunny-by-dorothy-kunhardt/

As promised, here is the SECOND caterpillar-and-tadpole-are-friends book we’re featuring, two weeks in a row. I would like to point out that in both cases, the caterpillar is 100% the problem friend in the relationship. This probably says more about human attitudes towards fancy folks than anything else, but feel free to write your own insightful thesis on the subject if you so choose. As we go through this book, we realize that it should have been renamed TADPOLE’S UNKNOWING REVENGE since it truly is a novel way to portray an unusual relationship. For the full Show Notes please go here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/07/01/fuse-8-n-kate-tadpoles-promise-by-jeanne-willis-ill-tony-ross-second-in-a-two-part-series/

Jack Kent returns!

Not content to rest on his laurels following our episode on There's No Such Thing As a Dragon, we've decided to use one of Kent's books in our VERY FIRST two-part series. And folks? I want you to guess the #2 in this series. Now this book was turned into a Weston Woods video but that's not why it's remembered today necessarily. If we had to make a guess, we'd say that this book is probably remembered primarily because teachers around the country have used it in the spring to show how metamorphosis works. Never mind that the science in this book is WOEFULLY inaccurate. So, in a way, this episode marks the return of the Nonfiction Stickler (which is to say, Betsy). If YOU are a teacher who tends to use this book, allow us to direct your attention to a lovely 2025 publication called Papilio that is just as good as this book, but WAY more scientifically accurate.

For the full Show Notes please visit us at: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/06/23/fuse-8-n-kate-the-caterpillar-and-the-polliwog-by-jack-kent-first-in-a-two-part-series/

Here at Fuse 8 n' Kate, I'd like to clarify a few points before we start to discuss today's podcast. First and foremost, this podcast was recorded approximately two weeks ago, well before the events in California right now started to occur. It would not, in a million years, have occurred to us that a discussion of the events that take place in Smoky Night would have had any bearing on the current political situation. To be perfectly frank, more than anything else I wanted to talk to Kate about the book within the context of #MeToo. After all, with the recent discussions of Neil Gaiman and whether or not to strip him of his Newbery Medal following his own recent allegations, it seemed timely to consider our other cancelled children's literature award winner. In this podcast we attempt to delineate, as clearly as possible, the difference between a riot and a protest. We discuss whether or not this was a book that was trying to be Do the Right Thing for kids, and whose lens this story is shot through in the end. You can find the full Show Notes here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/06/16/fuse-8-n-kate-smoky-night-by-eve-bunting-ill-david-diaz/

The Queen of Board Books is in the house! I would argue that to be the board book king or queen, you need to work primarily in the genre of board book. And Sandra Boynton is that queen. Fight me. Now I agree that Moo, Baa, La La La might have been a better book to do today, but don't worry. We'll get to it eventually. Today, we look at one of my favorite Boyntons. It has everything! Running around! Evening exercise! Hidden pigs! We discuss the role of bedtime books for small children and whether or not it's fair to slot this book in with titles that are solely meant to lull your child into unconsciousness. Full link in Show Notes: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/06/09/fuse-8-n-kate-the-going-to-bed-book-by-sandra-boynton/

Back we return to the words of Doreen Cronin! We'd done her Click, Clack, Moo in the past (and Duck for President too), but not her other massively successful picture book series. This is also our first Harry Bliss book to boot. We go through all 18 different journal entries of this title and discuss its finer aspects. Along the way we speculate about dated elements like playing marbles and hats with fake arrows going through them. We discuss the history of this specific series. Finally we learn how long worms live and think about how this book would be different if it was published today (*hint* there would be backmatter).

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/06/01/fuse-8-n-kate-diary-of-a-worm-by-doreen-cronin-ill-harry-bliss/

With Kate newly mommified, we try out recording our podcast with baby in tow to see how it goes. So if the episode is a little burbly this time around, you'll understand why. Along the way we also decide to do our VERY FIRST Emily Gravett title. Her debut no less! In reading it, Kate has to deal with this unexpected Kate Greenaway Medal winner and all that that entails. Now we know that a lot of you have been asking us to do Orange, Pear, Apple, Bear for some time. Be patient, my lovelies. We can't touch that one until 2027.

For the Show Notes for this episode please go here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/05/27/fuse-8-n-kate-wolves-by-emily-gravett/