The American Library Association's Annual Conference for 2024 may be over but here at Fuse 8 n' Kate the party NEVER stops! And we can back that statement up by pointing out that this latest episode was actually recorded AT the conference. And not only that, it was recorded WITH a special guest star! Turns out, conferences are a great way to connect with folks you've only ever met online. After commenting so well that she was dubbed "the third sister", Kate and Betsy are inordinately pleased to welcome none other than author Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic to the mic. You may remember Stephanie from her myriad books over the years, including this year's Touch the Sky (which has appeared on Caldecott prediction lists for good reason). Today she introduces her long-lost relatives to Swedish author/illustrator Jan Lööf (he, of the double umlauts), a 2011 winner of the Astrid Lindgren Prize. They look at one of his rare English-language translations and talk about whether or not they should institute a new category: Family Cult Classic Picture Books. Which is to say, picture books that aren't famous anywhere outside of your own family.

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2024/07/08/fuse-8-n-kate-whos-got-the-apple-by-jan-loof-translated-by-ole-risom-amp-linda-hayward-featuring-special-guest-star-stephanie-v-w-lucianovic/

We are pleased to announce that with its 2002 publication date we are finally able to celebrate the upcoming Independence Day with a book that Betsy has been sitting on for years. It can be exceedingly hard to find books for this particular holiday. Even better, this consideration of this book marks the very first time the podcast has ever done a Janet Wong or Margaret Chodos-Irvine. Ms. Wong hasn't published since 2015 and Margaret Chodos-Irvine hasn't since 2006, but in their heyday this book marked a dream pairing. It's not the podcast's first picture book to mention pie recently (remember Enemy Pie?) which means Kate's weary, wary, and woozy. Will this book win her over? Let's see!

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2024/07/02/fuse-8-n-kate-apple-pie-fourth-of-july-by-janet-s-wong-ill-margaret-chodos-irvine/

Betsy's logic behind this week's choice is that it is hot outside right now, so why not do a picture book featuring nudity? Now we currently live in a country where so much as a bare butted goblin picture book can get banned by Moms for Liberty at the drop of a hat. May as well go all in and do a book that unapologetically doesn't care about such puritanical mores. This book is an odd one, but Betsy has an equally odd affection for it. With this podcast episode the sisters talk about screaming at women's stomachs, the fact that babies lose hair when they're born, and Betsy incorrectly states that this book is probably out of print (Correction: the paperback is going strong!!).

For a complete list of Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2024/06/24/fuse-8-n-kate-baby-come-out-by-fran-manushkin-ill-ronald-himler/

Kate's crie de coeur for more blood and guts in children's picture books once again finds its mark. Usually you might associate a book of this sort with titles of a more European bent, but Asch and son are 100% 'merican, baby. With enough weirdness to choke a cat, this one's just so very strange. Not to give anything away but we are exceedingly pleased to state that this book is still in print in paperback form today. We discuss houndstooth suits, Itchy and Scratchy, the sinking of the Titanic, and more.

For the show's full Show Notes, please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2024/06/17/fuse-8-n-kate-mr-maxwells-mouse-by-frank-asch-ill-devin-asch

Oh ho! We haven't done a Steven Kellogg re-illustration title since Pinkereton, Behave! back in 2021! This is particularly strange as The Mysterious Tadpole was always, without a doubt, a favorite Kellogg picture book of Betsy's when she was a child. For various reasons we were never able to discuss it on Fuse 8 n' Kate... until today! We consider the original 1977 edition of this book versus the 2004 update. Now I must warn you that this episode sort of jumps into Betsy and Kate talking about cicadas (again), partly because they're awesome, and partly because the first part of this episode acquired some odd sound issues, so we had to cut out the very first part. Apologies! In this episode we discuss whether or not Alphonse became less cute in the new edition, why the parenting in this new edition is so angry, and why Kellogg felt it necessary to enroll his tadpole in obedience school.

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2024/06/10/fuse-8-n-kate-the-mysterious-tadpole-by-steven-kellogg/(opens in a new tab)

Here in Illinois the cicadas are truly beginning to emerge en masse. As such, Betsy was kind of hoping she might be able to find a book that speaks to this. Alas, Cicada Symphony by Sue Fleiss (illustrated by Gareth Lucas) is just barely a year old. So what's the next best course of action? Locate some other red-eyed creature found in trees, of course! Now finding old nonfiction picture books with the potential to be called "classic" are few and far between, thanks to our twenty year rule. Fortunately, the farther into the future we tread, the more possibilities there are to choose between. And what better 1999 informational title could one choose today than good old Red-Eyed Tree Frog? Written by an author who has had a HECK of a life (you gotta check out her Wikipedia page sometime). We discuss which came first with this book, the photos or the text, and why sometimes you just gotta get a second moth shot (as opposed to a shot of Malört).

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2024/06/03/fuse-8-n-kate-red-eyed-tree-frog-by-joy-cowley-ill-nic-bishop/

As mentioned on this podcast episode, Kate and Betsy truly will be in San Diego at the upcoming ALA Annual Conference to record an episode WITH a special secret guest. Many thanks to the very kind Travis Jonker (alumni of Kate's college) for sharing his recording booth with us. Today's book was a Reading Rainbow book back in the day. We detect some similarities to The Mysterious Tadpole by Steven Kellogg, we talk Gertie the Dinosaur, and try to understand why members of a baseball team would look at an animal and instantly think, "Shortstop!"

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2024/05/20/fuse-8-n-kate-dinosaur-bob-and-his-adventures-with-the-family-lazardo-by-william-joyce/

Today, we do our second David Wiesner book (after Tuesday). Along the way we discuss the philosophy behind Wiesner's void ("Is this just the space between the stories we tell?") and how this is (spoiler alert) our 200th classic on the podcast! Woohoo!

Show Notes:

For the full show notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2024/05/13/fuse-8-n-kate-the-three-pigs-by-david-wiesner

Today we dive right in to a good spring picture book that somehow we've never done before. Even better, a Caldecott Honor title at that! We haven't discussed Janet Stevens since we did Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock a little more than a year ago. Consider this the book that made vertical picture books cool (Mel Fell owes this title a hat tip of thanks). In this episode we discuss whether Bear is on Ambien, where this takes place (since the growing seasons is so long), and Kate's theory about adirondack chairs.

Show Notes: For the full show notes please visit https://afuse8production.slj.com/2024/05/06/fuse-8-n-kate-tops-bottoms-by-janet-stevens/

Recently LeVar Burton suggested today's picture book on an episode of The Sporkful ("Reheat: LeVar Burton Even Reads Recipes Dramatically") and in spite of the fact that Kate was dead-on about the fact that we should have done this book for a Thanksgiving episode, we're doing it, baby! Enemy Pie was a Reading Rainbow Book back in the day, how does it hold up now? We talk about How to Eat Fried Worms, how boomerangs were the drones of the 80s (and I will stand by that statement), and the joy of eating a pie small enough to fit between your eyebrows.

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2024/04/29/fuse-8-n-kate-enemy-pie-by-derek-munson-ill-tara-calahan-king/(opens in a new tab)