How is it we've never done an Oliver Jeffers book on this podcast? Well, that stops today, folks. Kate wanted something light and goofy, and by gum we'd say this book fills the bill. First off, it came out in 2005 (which means it just barely crests our 20-year rule). Second, it's cute and it's what, we truly believe, put Oliver Jeffers on the map in America. Today we're talking about penguins in all their myriad forms. Kate challenges Betsy to think of another picture book with a tidal wave and so if you folks could help her out, she'd really appreciate it. Any ideas come to mind?

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/03/02/fuse-8-n-kate-lost-and-found-by-oliver-jeffers/

Let the record show that Kate cut out a very long discussion of how much Betsy dislikes bidets from the beginning of this podcast (and Betsy disagrees with this choice but, to be honest, it was a kind of an odd way to start a children's literature podcast episode). Today's book, while it does involve butts, is more about teeny tiny babies. We discuss hot bidet seats, what Jim LaMarche owes to Chris Van Allsburg, adorable weasels, and more.

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/02/24/fuse-8-n-kate-the-rainbabies-by-laura-krauss-melmed-ill-jim-lamarche/

The world is in turmoil. On fire. In a terrible state. As such, it seemed a fairly good time to revisit a Jon J. Muth book that would go on to create multiple sequels as well as a series on Apple TV. And its topic? A kind of Zen mindfulness concerning the world in which we live. We're in the mood for a little contemplation and this book serves to answer that need. Along the way we're more than happy to discuss what does and doesn't hold up in this book and whether or not it deserves to be considered a classic.

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/02/17/fuse-8-n-kate-zen-shorts-by-jon-j-muth/

Just in time for Black History Month we're tackling a number of firsts on our podcast. Our first Pam Muñoz Ryan book. Our first Brian Selznick book. And while this isn't our first picture book biography, we've done relatively few over the years. Old nonfiction picture books age so poorly sometimes but this title had some incredible backmatter, even by 2025 standards. We discuss how this book has "sepia with depth" yet somehow manages not to be boring looking, and how we'd love to be remembered as "fierce but famous."

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/02/10/fuse-8-n-kate-when-marian-sang-by-pam-munoz-ryan-and-brian-selznick/

We return to John Steptoe once again today, though with perhaps a more complicated title than many of his that we've done before. We discuss at length whether or not this book can legitimately call itself "A Native American legend" and what that does for a contemporary read. This book won itself a Caldecott Honor. Did it deserve it? We have a lot of other questions as well. Does the magic frog have an angle here? Where does the fat old mouse fit into it? Is the aforementioned Magic Frog just Glinda from The Wizard of Oz? And is this story a variation on Rainbow Fish or The Happy Prince?

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/01/27/fuse-n-kate-the-story-of-jumping-mouse-by-john-steptoe/

Sometimes everything comes together so beautifully. Kate had been asking for a while for Betsy to come up with a fox-related picture book title in which the fox wasn't evil. Meanwhile, Jerrold Connors has been creating a picture book biography of James Marshall called JIM! (which Betsy interviewed him about this past week) in which Jim is portrayed as his famous fox character. The time just seemed right to put these two things together. The James Marshall Fox series had multiple volumes, so which one would be the best to do with Kate? What's that you say? The one where they all smoke cigars? God. It's like you know us.

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/01/20/fuse-8-n-kate-fox-all-week-by-james-marshall/

Hooray! With the ALA Youth Media Awards on the near horizon (Monday, January 27th at 8 a.m. MT to be precise) it's never been a better time to debate some possible winners of the Caldecott Award. Today, I hand over to Kate an unprecedented FOUR possible contenders (rather than my usual three)! Will she opt for the vibrant father-daughter vibes of My Daddy Is a Cowboy, the rainbow wry-wit of Touch the Sky, the luminous family-centric storytelling of Joyful Song, or the heartfelt sincerity of Home in a Lunchbox? Only this podcast can say for sure.

For the full Show Notes, please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/01/12/fuse-8-n-kate-the-caldecott-contenders-of-2025/

A Caldecott Award winner! It's been a minute, hasn't it? When Betsy thinks of today's book she thinks of something David Wiesner said about it during one of his own Caldecott acceptance speeches. "Structurally unlike any medal winner before it — or since — Black and White...redefined the way stories could be told in picture books. And, just as importantly, it did this while being very, very funny." That's our bag, baby. As such, Betsy introduce Kate to this metafictional picture book and the legacy it engendered. Today we discuss newspapers, abstract cows, how the book occasionally hurts Kate's brain, and why it reminds her of the testing she took for her own autism.

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/01/06/fuse-8-n-kate-black-and-white-by-david-macaulay/

Betsy has been waiting YEARS to finally get to do today's book. Literally! She read this book over and over and over and over to her small children, and she has every intention of doing the same to Kate's incipient child. Today we get to talk about sheep! Sheep of every type and stripe! We also discuss, for some reason, Australian armor-clad bushrangers, which of these sheep is the most impressive skill-wise, and whether or not this is just Hippos Go Bezerk with sheep!

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2024/12/30/fuse-8-n-kate-where-is-the-green-sheep-by-mem-fox-ill-judy-horacek/

Just in time for Christmas! So Betsy was on the lookout for Christmas books we hadn't done before and you know who we've never presented on this podcast? Langston Hughes! Heck, we've done James Baldwin, but we've never done Langston Hughes. Oddly, we've done shockingly few picture books over the years around Christmastime that involve baby Jesus. Today we consider an author who was blacklisted in his day and turned to writing books for children to make ends meet. This particular book was also never really intended to be a children's book. It's a series of poems that were adapted into a book format instead. How well does it hold up over time aside from the goodness of its mere existence? We intend to find out.

For the full Show Notes, please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2024/12/23/fuse-8-n-kate-carol-of-the-brown-king-by-langston-hughes-ill-ashley-bryan/