Cool! My biography, Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children’s Literature (2012), has a cameo appearance in Adrian Tomine‘s Optic Nerve #13.  (Click on the strip to see a larger version.) Appropriately, the context is an affirmation of – and some nostalgia for – print culture….
As American fast food workers strike for a living wage, it’s worth remembering that this struggle has a long history. It’s also worth teaching some of this history to children, so that they can learn about collective action, and fighting back against the powerful. Â Julia Mickenberg and I collect some of these stories in the…
No, the title of this post is not an oxymoron. Academics can write with style. Some of us do. All of us should. In Stylish Academic Writing, Helen Sword offers advice for all who aspire to write with grace and economy. The book is smart, funny, and – even better – applicable beyond academe. Many…
Being a college professor would be a great job! You do a little teaching, and get the summers off! –Â frequently expressed misunderstanding To be clear: being a professor is a great job. Since I elect not to teach during the summer, I can devote more –Â though not all –Â of my time to research and writing….
A brief report on the 2013 International Research Society for Children’s Literature (IRSCL) conference (held this year in Maastricht), including: Dutch children’s literature, street signs, and a loss of confidence in cut flowers. Tow-Truck Pluck and other tales by Annie M.G. Schmidt I first read of Annie M. G. Schmidt in Guus Kuijer’s masterpiece, The Book…
Welcome to the final day of my admittedly idiosyncratic coverage of the 2013 Comic-Con in San Diego. As on previous days, I’ve given each event or topic a heading so that you can find whatever interests you and then skip the rest. Getting Into Character You could spend all of your time here photographing people…
To begin today’s post, here is a photo of Eric Reynolds and I fending off the crowds at this morning’s signing. One at a time, folks! One at a time! There are plenty of books for everyone. Seriously. There really are plenty. I’ll be signing at the booth again on Sunday, from 2-4. Small-Press Comics…
And now, a few notes from day 3 of Comic-Con 2013. A Simple Repast, Coming This Fall Jerry Griswold invited me for breakfast at the Broken Yolk, which (we discovered) had been leased by the TruTV television show (Impractical) Jokers. As we sat at the table, we noticed that a laminated advertisement fully covered the…
Reflections and notes from the second day…. Rise and Run I began the day with a run along North Harbor. On one side, there is the bay, tall ships, yachts, seagulls flying overhead, or … 6-foot-tall fences with barbed wire at the top. On the other side, dozens of homeless men. Some sleep on the…
We are attending Comic-Con for the first time. It begins at the Kansas City airport, when I hear two people talking about the X-Files Reunion, and whether they can get tickets. Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny, and others will be on a panel honoring the 20th anniversary of the show’s debut. On the plane itself, nearly…
