Picture Book Poll

Betsy Bird (Fuse #8) announced The Top 100 Picture Books of All Time Poll on her blog at School Library Journal earlier this week. Details and deadline here; but in a nutshell, she's looking for your top ten personal favorites, in order of preference, by March 31. You can submit a justification for each book if you like. Then she'll tally up the totals and count them down from 100 to 1.

I've been thinking about what to include on my list (I haven't even gotten around to ordering it) and have decided to stick to personal or family favorites.  That is, I'm not concerning myself with objective or even relative merit.  Here's what I've come up with so far (in no particular order):

• Rapunzel by Paul O. Zelinsky
• Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
• Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel and Blair Lent
• Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola
• The Maggie B. by Irene Haas
• The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
• Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington
• Peek-A-Boo by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
• The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
• Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
• Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
• The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordecai Gerstein
• Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell and Lillian Hoban
• Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

Yes, there are more than ten of them!  Still, I would love to know what you would add to (or remove from) my list.  Have you made yours yet?

Twittering the Newbery

I watched the live webcast of the ALA Youth Media Awards yesterday morning, but I also got the Twitter feed, which was somehow a couple of seconds ahead of real time. Maybe someone noticed this, because ALAyma stopped twittering just before the big announcements.

But if you were following neilhimself on Twitter, you would have already gotten this series of tweets, earlier in the morning:

• woken up by assistant at 5.30 in the morning. Not quite sure why. All rather bleary, to do with someone trying to call. argh. 8:47 AM Jan 26th from web
• oh. forget about it. 8:50 AM Jan 26th from web

And you might have guessed.  And been mightily pleased about it!

[Read Neil Gaiman's account of the phone call itself in this journal entry, (Insert amazed and delighted swearing here).  If you need help with the swearing bit, try here.]

Cybils 2008: Nominations Now Open

Nominations for the third annual Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards (the Cybils) are open from now til October 15th.  The Cybils recognize children's books that combine literary quality and kid appeal.  Anyone (that means you) can nominate a book in any or all of the following nine categories:

Easy Readers
Fantasy & Science Fiction
Fiction Picture Books
Graphic Novels
Middle Grade Novels
Nonfiction Middle Grade/Young Adult Books
Nonfiction Picture Books
Poetry
Young Adult Novels

To nominate a book, visit the Cybils blog and leave a comment (title and author will do) on the appropriate post.  Clicking on the category links above will take you right there.

Remember:

• Nominated books must have been published in 2008
• One nomination per person, per category
• Multiple nominations will not help a book's chances.  Pick another book!

I'll be offering my short lists (um, for your consideration) over the next week or so.  What are you nominating?

It's Paul O. Zelinsky Day!

Well, if it isn't, it very well could be.  Online today, illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky answers 7-Imp's Seven Questions Over Breakfast and chats about his work at Just One More Book.  Not to be missed, especially if you're interested (as I am) in fairy tale retellings..

For the record, I consider Zelinsky to be past master of the art of fairy tales.  His Rapunzel (Dutton, 1997) is an exemplary book:  beautifully retold and illustrated in oils, following the traditions of Italian Renaissance painting.  The source notes (I love source notes) are both scholarly and insightful.  Rapunzel won the Caldecott Medal in 1998.

Zelinsky says he's not good at choosing favorites.  Neither am I, ordinarily; but I can say that Rapunzel is mine.