Breezes from Wonderland

nbsp;http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert…

There are many great moments in this 2-part interview.  “I write” Sendak tells Colbert, “and then somebody says it’s for children.”

On the current state of children’s literature, Sendak’s verdict is “abysmal.”

“Give a Mouse a Cookie”–ugh!

Sendak: “You trapped me” when Colbert asks him whether The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a good children’s book.

Expect to see  I am a Pole–and So Can You on the bestseller list, with blurbs and drawings by Sendak.

 

 

Zachary Sniderman discusses the fate of pop-up books in an age of electronic entertainments.  And Robert Sabuda reminds us, in his Alice in Wonderland,  that you can still compete with John Tenniel.

Are pop-up books dying? We remember pulling our first paper tab and seeing a book miraculously come to life. But a lot of kids these days are getting that kick on iPads and other fancy tablets. Which makes one wonder if the steady stream of interactive ebooks aimed at kids means that this generation won’t have childhood memories of Pat the Bunny, Where’s Spot, or Peter Rabbit?

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/20/do-tablet-apps-and-ebooks-spell-the-end-of-pop-up-books.htm

 

The Atlantic has a nice slide show about the inspiration for children’s books.
 http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment…

If he were still alive, Alan Alexander Milne—you may know him as A. A. Milne—would have turned 130 years old yesterday. If you’re a fan of Milne’s books, you probably know that you can go and see the original teddy bear that inspired the character of Winnie-the-Pooh if you visit the New York Public Library—it’s on display there along with a selection of other similar stuffed toys that inspired Tigger, Eeyore, and Piglet.

 

 

 

Here’s some exciting news about Into the Woods.  A summer production in NYC’s Central Park seems like a perfect warm-up act for the film.  The musical has a wonderful cross-generational appeal, and it shows us the dark side of the fairy-tale world even as it preserves the incandescent beauty and irreverent humor of the tales.

Want the lyrics?
 http://www.mit.edu/~nocturne/athena/text…

 The way is dark,
  The light is dim,
  But now there's you, me, her, and him.
  The chances look small,
  The choices look grim,
  But everything you learn there
  Will help when you return there.

 http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment…

 

“We are thrilled to be collaborating with Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine on this extraordinary and inspiring work,” Marshall and producing partner John DeLuca said in a joint statement.

It’s not the first time a Hollywood studio has tried to adapt the musical for the big screen, Broadway.com reported. Columbia Pictures tried developing “Into the Woods” with director Rob Minkoff, but there proved to be no storybook ending for that project.

Joy of Books

Click the link above

 

 

 

 

Here’s the latest on the Grimm Legacies Symposium at Harvard University on February 3/4.
 http://web.me.com/folkmyth/Folk_%26_Myth…

Friday, February 3rd:

 

4:00 – 5:00 pm – Heidi Heiner of Sur La Lune: Workshop

 

6:00 – 7:30 pm – Jack Zipes, Keynote Speaker

“Two Hundred Years after Once Upon a Time: The Legacy of the

Brothers Grimm and their Tales in Germany”

 

 

Saturday, February 4th:

 

9:00 – 9:30 am – Welcome: Maria Tatar

 

 

9:30 – 11:15 am – INTO THE WOODS

 

Cara Zimmerman

“Henry Darger, Adolf Wolfli, and Tales of Violence in Outsider Art”

 

David Rice

“When the Forest Becomes the Woods: The Horror Effect in the Grimms; Hansel and Gretel and Beyond”

 

Megan Leroy

“Domestic Adaptations: Anne Sexton’s Transformations and the Grimms’ Tales”

 

Katie Orenstein

 

 

11:30 – 1:00 pm – UNDER THE KNIFE

 

Valerie Gribben

“Medicine and Märchen”

 

Ariane Mandell

“Empowered by Tears: Weeping in Grimm’s Fairy Tales”

 

Perri Klass

“Grimm and the Experts:  Psychiatrists, Pediatricians, and Pundits”

 

 

1:00 – 1:45 pm – Lunch

 

1:45 – 2:15 pm – Presentation

 

 

2:15 – 3:45 pm – AMONG THE BEASTS

 

Ruth Lingford

 

David Elmer

“The Metamorphosis of a Folktale: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses.”

 

Jerry Griswold

“The Many Conclusions of ‘Beauty and the Beast’”

 

 

4:00 – 5:45 pm – THROUGH THE MAGIC MIRROR

 

John Cech

“The Grimms, Sendak, and the Zeitgeist”

 

Michael Hearn

“Increasing the Happiness of Children:  George Cruikshank Illustrates the Brothers Grimm”

 

Kate Bernheimer

“The Grimm Art of Fairy-Tale Editorship”

 

Claudia Schwabe

“Between Socialism and Snow White: GDR Fairy Tales”

 

 

5:45 – 6:30 pm – Wrap Up