Fuse 8 n' Kate

We don't play this up much, but this actually marks the first appearance of Chris Raschka on our podcast. And WHATTA debut! This taps into my love of all picture books in which the protagonist gets eaten. But for Kate, she hyperfixates on the very semantics of the word "sardine". How can you hope to become the thing that you already are? That little delve into the philosophical underpinnings of edible tiny fish is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to today's discussion. Suffice to say, we diverge WIDELY on our interpretation of this book. In face, we may be as different on our votes for this book as we have ever been.

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/11/03/fuse-8-n-kate-arlene-sardine-by-chris-raschka/

What is the most loathed trope in picturebookdom to date? Some might say it's the everyone-forgot-my-birthday plot but we have something even worse in mind. For us, it's the old Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer topic of everyone being mean until you save their butts in some way and now they like you. Little did we suspect that beloved children's author Dav Pilkey, he of Captain Underpants and Dog Man fame, once capitulated to that very idea in one of his books. Behold! Our first Dav Pilkey title on the podcast! And the last? That remains to be seen. Join us then as we discuss rotary phones, trick-or-treating etiquette, and bad puns (that don't even really work, doggone it).

You can find the full Show Notes of the episode here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/10/27/fuse-8-n-kate-the-hallo-wiener-by-dav-pilkey/

Anyone who has ever picked up a copy of The Sneetches for their children has probably discovered that The Sneetches does not stand alone. Indeed, it appears in a collection called The Sneetches and Other Stories. Now we've never done The Sneetches on our podcast. That would be an episode for another day. Today, we look at the far lesser-known (possibly for good reason) title What Was I Scared Of? Previously published under the title Pale Green Pants (and I think we can all agree that this title change was a move in the right direction) it follows a pair of disembodied pants straight out of the film Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Today, Kate I consider it as a possible Halloween contender and, in the course of things, discuss the 1977 animated Halloween television special Halloween is Grinch Night, the difficulty of saying the term "anapestic tetrameter" aloud, why the true star of this book should be named "Torselus Todd", and (I won't lie) we may use the term "badonkadonk" more than once.

For the Show Notes to this episode please go to: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/10/20/fuse-8-n-kate-what-was-i-cared-of-by-dr-seuss/

As Halloween creeps ever closer (and the weather begins to resemble something somewhat autumnal) we continue to seek out potential seasonal classics from the many books that have come before. Today's suggestion comes to us via Ramarie B. and it's a text based on an old Russian fairy tale. Mind you, in the original, this story featured a turnip (and it says a lot about a culture if a gigantic turnip is someone's idea of a food you'd want in abundance). Today, in spite of the fact that Kate and I have failed MULTIPLE times to successfully grow pumpkins (I have one going right now, but it's green and I don't think it's going to orange up in time for Halloween), we examine this book. Be prepared for discussions of pumpkin sex, vampire fashion wear, and why one might want to garden in their socks.

You can find the full Show Notes at https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/10/13/fuse-8-n-kate-big-pumpkin-by-erica-silverman-ill-s-d-schindler/

Kicking off October with Edward Gorey just seems obvious at this point in time. After all, since he died 25 years ago, there are a lot of celebrations happening in his honor this season. Naturally, since he did quite a few "picture books" (a term we use in the broadest sense) it seemed logical to tackle his best known work. Is it for children? Not intentionally, but Betsy makes the case on the show that there are picture books out there that are not intended for children but that kids find anyway and grow to love (Uncle Shelby's ABZs, anyone?). Today's book is a "cult classic picture book" in precisely that sense. This is our fourth alphabet book on our podcast (we forgot we did Eating the Alphabet when we recorded this) and our second Edward Gorey (after The Shrinking of Treehorn). We discuss how this was clearly Wednesday Addams's favorite book when she was little and how Gorey's rhyming is on point!

Please note that we do have a trigger warning at the beginning of our discussion. This book does mention children dying.

Full Show Notes are visible here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/10/06/fuse-8-n-kate-the-gashlycrumb-tinies-by-edward-gorey/

In the news recently were news articles about the diseases that Canadian picture book creator Robert Munsch is facing at the moment. Inspired, we thought we owed the man a third episode (after the marvelous Paper Bag Princess and the unfortunate Love You Forever). Much like our recent foray into Max's Dragon Shirt, we return to the 90s in picture book form. The scrunchies! the clothing! The fact that there used to be kids named Stephanie! It's all there. We consider the book, its humor, its lesson, and the fact that this is one fun little book.

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/09/28/fuse-8-n-kate-stephanies-ponytail-by-robert-munsch/

Going into this episode,Betsy had a lot on her mind. Fancy Nancy is one of those rare 21st century characters with a legitimate shot at picture book classicdom. That said, would Kate find her bratty? One can never predict which literary children show up on Kate's brat-o-meter (Madeline? Really really?), so this was going to be a real question. And if you want to know the answer... yeah. You're going to have to listen to the episode. But don't worry, along the way you'll also hear us talking about the fact that Nancy turns 20 this year, how this is the first time we've done a book with spot glitter on the cover, Sublime references, and font hate.

See the full episode show notes here. https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/09/22/fuse-8-n-kate-fancy-nancy-by-jane-oconnor-ill-robin-preiss-glasser/

This is our 379th episode. We've done 378 until now and not one, not one SINGLE title, has been a Rosemary Wells book. Strange? You bet. Well, today that strangeness ends. Not only are we doing a Rosemary Wells book, but we're doing a MAX AND RUBY Rosemary Wells book! Howdja like them apples, eh? Of course, once we decided upon this course of action we were faced with the inevitable question of which Max and Ruby book to do. The early ones were board books, for all intents and purposes. But the later ones vary greatly in quality. In the end, it was the suggestion of listener Dan that alerted us to an ideal candidate. Today we're talking dragon shirts, polite toddlers, and what the HECK Ruby and Max's mother is up to in all these books. For the full show notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/09/15/fuse-8-n-kate-maxs-dragon-shirt-by-rosemary-wells/

Betsy doesn't know why people don't talk more about this book. While John Steptoe is well-known for Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters and, to a lesser extent, Stevie, today's book is rarely discussed. Yet can you even think of another case where a picture book creator wrote something as autobiographical AND as problematic ABOUT THEMSELVES as this? John Steptoe was working on another level with this title and we intend to break it down as much as possible on the podcast. We discuss picture books that talk about spankings vs. those that show them, whatever the opposite of gentle parenting is, and how Raggedy Anne occupies the Uncanny Clown Valley.

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/09/08/fuse-8-n-kate-daddy-is-a-monster-sometimes-by-john-steptoe/

This is going to strike you as a little strange. Lord knows it wasn't something we noticed. So... you know how we've done 376 episodes of this podcast until now? That's 376 different books. Of those books, we have done books both written and illustrated by creator Eric Carle precisely one, singular, solitary time. That book? The Very Hungry Caterpillar (duh). Listener Megan recently pointed out this odd aberration and we have to admit that we were a little embarrassed. We recorded our Very Hungry Caterpillar episode in July of 2017. Almost precisely 8 years later, we're ready to look at Book #2. Let's see how it fares!

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/08/25/fuse-8-n-kate-papa-please-get-the-moon-for-me-by-eric-carle/