Fuse 8 N' Kate

Betsy literally went out and decided to purchase this lesser known Martin/Carle collaboration. We all know Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle created such modern day classics as Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? But did you even know that this dynamic duo also created their own spooky picture book tale all the way back in 1970? Please be so good as to meet one of the strangest little Halloween-adjacent titles with two of America’s most famous picture book creators at the helm. So why the heck does nobody know anything about this? Let’s just say that when Kate says the words, “Look… I’m not an English teacher…” things are gonna get real real interesting. For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/10/12/fuse-8-n-kate-a-ghost-story-by-bill-martin-jr-ill-eric-carle/

While not explicitly a Halloween title, when Betsy saw that editor Taylor Norman had talked up this little oddity the other day, she was a mite bit intrigued. And then we got to the whole foot removal section and BLAM! Sold! Betsy knew she had to show this to Kate. Now don't get thrown by the snow on the ground of this tale because many is the sad Halloween we've experienced in the Midwest where trick or treaters had to deal with walking through drifts. This story reminds us quite a bit of our previous Halloween-adjacent story The Tailypo, to say nothing of The Bremen Town Musicians. For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/10/05/fuse-8-n-kate-cold-feet-by-cynthia-defelice-ill-robert-andrew-parker/

It's not quite October yet, so we didn't want to start handing Kate the scary stuff immediately. This 25-year-old spider tale collaboration of Spinelli/Dyer seemed like a good intro to the season instead. It features a creature associated with the fall, but who appears in a story that's anything but scary. Unless you can't take any tale about spiders, that is. Then you might be up a tree. This is our second Eileen Spinelli (we did Somebody Loves You Mr. Hatch in 2022 for Valentine's Day). But Jane Dyer? This is the first book of hers we've done on this podcast. We compare this title to fellow spider book The Spider and the Fly, talk about how strange this boarding house may be if you always have to check your slippers for spiders, and discuss how non-judgemental the book is about the book's single mom situation. For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/09/28/fuse-8-n-kate-sophies-masterpiece-by-eileen-spinelli-ill-jane-dyer/

Betsy was so very, entirely certain that we had covered this old title by Patricia C. McKissack on our podcast already. And yet, AND YET, we have never read it. That ends today. Originally published in 1986, we dive into this book's roots in oral storytelling, Isadora's career, and why it is that foxes always get a bad break in picture books. Just looking at our past podcast episodes, we have never done a Rachel Isadora, but we've definitely done McKissack (Goin' Someplace Special and Mirandy and Brother Wind). Today we consider this tale of tricking the trickster with a good old-fashioned existential crisis. For the full show notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/09/21/fuse-8-n-kate-flossie-and-the-fox-by-patricia-c-mckissack-ill-rachel-isadora/

We had two people recommend today's book for podcast consideration, and I'm awfully glad that they did. It's been a day or two since I last read this odd little 80s creation. Now you would not think, looking at this book's cover, that you would find a title so chock full of title details as this. But you know what we're talking about this episode? Clowns! Misspellings! And guns guns guns. Read the full Show Notes here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/09/14/fuse-8-n-kate-whatever-happened-to-the-dinosaurs-by-bernard-most/

“If you’re going to Lower Trainswitch / Be sure to wear flowers in your hair…” Today we talk Tootle. Ever read him? No? Well, in 2001 Tootle was the all-time third best-selling hardcover children’s book in English. He’s not as famous now as he was twenty years ago, but that fact made us curious. Why is he so forgotten? Should he be brought back? Is this some lost gem of children’s literature just aching to be rediscovered? We discuss how this 1945 release came out after Ferdinand, but seemed to cast the idea of frolicking with flowers in an entirely different light. For the full Show Notes, read on here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/09/07/fuse-8-n-kate-tootle-by-gertrude-crampton-ill-tibor-gergely/

"How do you say, 'You don't start nothin' there won't be nothin' in Seuss?" So Betsy promised Kate that for her birthday they'd do a book that published in 1984 (the year of her birth)... and then she promptly forgot. So on the day of this recording (which was Kate's ACTUAL birthday) Betsy found one they hadn't done before. Written during Seuss's strange didactic era (your Lorax, your Sneetches, and now your Butter Battle Book era) we've never really tackled this one. But we're sure kids today totally get... uh... the arms race. Determining how well this book has aged, one cannot separate this book from its context. But what happens when the context doesn't really apply so well anymore? As Betsy tells Kate, "This is kind of the MOST 1984-y book I could find." For the full Show Notes, go here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/08/24/fuse-8-n-kate-the-butter-battle-book-by-dr-seuss/

Suggested alternate title for this text: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished. Our very first Brian Pinkney! Are you surprised? So am I, quite frankly. Even thought we've done multiple Jerry Pinkney books at this point (Mirandy and Brother Wind, John Henry, Little Red Riding Hood, Goin' Someplace Special, etc.) I thought for sure we might have at least done Sukey and the Mermaid or something, but nope! Not as such. Today, then, we tackle our very first Brian P. text, and we're not starting small. This book? It's a doozy. For the full Show Notes please read on here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/08/17/fuse-8-n-kate-the-adventures-of-sparrowboy-by-brian-pinkney/

"Distinctive and it always looks like this." That's Betsy discussing the artistic stylings of Jack E. Davis. Published in 2000, this book is pretty quintessentially early 00's. Now we have never done a Margie Palatini OR a Jack E. Davis on this podcast to date. Neither of these two have any currently operating and working websites either, so in some ways we're flying by the seat of our pants in this episode. Happily there is MUCH in this book to capture Kate's attention. An oddly mysterious little title. For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/08/10/fuse-8-n-kate-bedhead-by-margie-palatini-ill-jack-e-davis/

Upon hearing that Jon Klassen was hugely affected by this book as a kid (fascinating when you consider how opposite it is from his latest title The House with Nobody In It), we felt it was time to revisit this old 1972 easy book to see how it stands up. Truth be told, we're less interested in the Seuss connection than by the outdated terminology in a supposed book for early readers ("bureau drawer"?!?). "Seuss knew what he was doing with Cat in the Hat. I guess he sort of lost it at this point." We talk about how the book is, at times, "adorably dated," and how this is different from The Cat in the Hat because, at least in that case, the Cat cleans up after itself!!! For the full Show Notes, please read on here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/08/04/fuse-8-n-kate-in-a-people-house-by-dr-seuss-ill-roy-mckie/

Dreamlike and surreal, it may not be as well remembered as some of the other 1980s picture books that typify the era (particularly those written by Chris Van Allsburg) but there's something luminous about this cult classic picture book. Will Kate be drawn to its gentle peculiarities or dislike them entirely? We talk about how gutsy it is to do three wordless two-page spreads, murder hornets, and what Berger owes to Magritte. For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/07/20/fuse-8-n-kate-grandfather-twilight-by-barbara-berger/

When you've worked for a system quite as large and vast as New York Public Library, it can be difficult to ascertain scope. Was Library Lion the massive nationwide hit Betsy thought it was when it premiered in 2006, or did her workplace like it only because it featured a library and a lion (two very NYPL-ish things)? To get to the bottom of the matter she brings in Kate, and together they plumb the depths of this sweet tale of feline bibliographic appreciation. This marks our second Kevin Hawkes title on the podcast (the first being Weslandia) and our first Michelle Knudsen.

This week Kate and Betsy take a trip back in time to 1938. We were trepidatious, and can you blame us? Considering the era and the fact that James Daugherty created the first (and only? unclear) Newbery winner to be completely out-of-print due to shockingly overt racism, we entered into Andy and the Lion tentatively. Betsy remembered it as beloved of New York Public Library. Justifiably? This and other questions haunt us as we dive on in. A fascinating take on a book that has lasted far longer than most of its contemporaries to date. For the full Show Notes, please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/07/05/fuse-8-n-kate-andy-and-the-lion-by-james-daugherty/

"The text placing is NOT conventional!" Fresh off the 2026 American Library Association we're happy to discuss our very first Peter Sis title. We're going to begin our Sisification with one of his (relatively) younger books. In its heyday, I recall that New York Public Library absolutely adored this book. They loved its multicultural take and feel. But if we've learned anything from Schoolhouse Rock and other early attempts at diversity, sometimes such things age less well than we'd like. Will Madlenka suffer the same fate? Only one way to find out! For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/06/29/fuse-8-n-kate-madlenka-by-peter-sis/

Sure, we missed it by a couple days, but it's never too late to lift a glass in honor of Juneteenth. Betsy was determined to figure out what the very first Juneteenth picture book published by a major publisher was, and we think we've found our answer. The kicker is that not only did this book come out in 1995, it was the very first picture book by future multi-award winner Carole Boston Weatherford. We discuss double space typing, the "cool aunt" concept, how to design an 80s kitchen, and a lot lot more. See the full Show Notes here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/06/22/fuse-8-n-kate-juneteenth-jamboree-by-carole-boston-weatherford-ill-yvonne-buchanan/

It's PRIDE MONTH!!! And we've done many a fine LGBTQIA+ book during the year. But this book series, while not considered queer during its initial publication, has since been embraced by the gay community and, as such, we seek to celebrate it here today. Of all the Frog and Toad books in the series (there are four) this was the only one to garner a Newbery Honor (NOT Caldecott... and isn't that interesting?). Today, you will witness a veritable plethora of fantastic videos celebrating this book (there will be ninjas). In the course of things Kate determines that, "I am Toad." Ain't we all, kid? We discuss how Frog falls on the autism spectrum and which story is the one I love best of all. For the full Show Notes, read on here. https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/06/15/fuse-8-n-kate-frog-and-toad-together-by-arnold-lobel/

Rambunctious? Bumbling? It's hard to typify the sheep in this Nancy Shaw series (though their publisher has certainly tried over the years). The darlings of the 80s and 90s, "Sheep" appreciation has depreciated significantly over the intervening decades. Today, Kate and I delve into two of the most notable of the sheep book to truly declare whether they deserve a bit of classic status to keep them in the mix, or to be discounted and forgotten to the sands of time. As it happens, it's an ALLLLL Michigan episode here today (Kate, myself, Nancy, and Margot all hail from there). For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/06/08/fuse-8-n-kate-sheep-in-a-jeep-and-sheep-in-a-shop-by-nancy-shaw-ill-margot-apple/

"I don't hate THESE rhymes!" It's a return to New Zealand today with a local classic that has long eluded our particular podcast. Will the little black terrier with the catchy name capture the hearts and minds of these Yankee sisters, or will his charms elude them entirely? On this episode we discuss books that you have to practice reading aloud, why people give their dogs last names, and whether these specific doggy butts in this book were sanitized for American audiences. For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/06/01/fuse-8-n-kate-hairy-maclary-from-donaldsons-dairy-by-lynley-dodd/

Episode 410 - The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll & the Broom Handle and Who Was in It by Betsy Bird and Kate Atienza

Betsy promised Kate that they'd do a British picture book today in celebration of Kate's recent trip to the fair British Isles. It had occurred to Betsy that they'd never done a Babette Cole book before, so she worked out which one is perhaps best known over there. Now we probably should have done the incredible Mommy Laid an Egg, but Betsy felt like Kate needed a gentler introduction to Cole's work. In the discussion we point out that in Canada we have The Paperbag Princess, in England we have Princess Smartypants, and what does America have? If you have any ideas of what the logical third leg in this triumvirate might be, we welcome the suggestion. You can find the full Show Notes for this episode here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/05/18/fuse-8-n-kate-princess-smartypants-by-babette-cole/