Fuse 8 n' Kate

Feb 08 2025 350 ep. 33 mins 100

Fuse 8 n' Kate Podcast artwork

Two sisters, one in L.A. and one in NYC, both move to the Chicago area and start a podcast. The premise? Picture books and are they really that great? Join Kate and Fuse 8 (Betsy Bird) as they track down a picture book "classic" each episode and try to determine if it deserves to remain in the canon of children's literature. Profile image by Andrea Tsurumi

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Episode 350 - When Marian Sang

Feb 08 2025 30 mins

Just in time for Black History Month we're tackling a number of firsts on our podcast. Our first Pam Muñoz Ryan book. Our first Brian Selznick book. And while this isn't our first picture book biography, we've done relatively few over the years. Old nonfiction picture books age so poorly sometimes but this title had some incredible backmatter, even by 2025 standards. We discuss ho

Episode 349 - The Story of Jumping Mouse

Jan 24 2025 30 mins

We return to John Steptoe once again today, though with perhaps a more complicated title than many of his that we've done before. We discuss at length whether or not this book can legitimately call itself "A Native American legend" and what that does for a contemporary read. This book won itself a Caldecott Honor. Did it deserve it? We have a lot of other questions as well. Does th

Episode 348 - Fox All Week

Jan 18 2025 30 mins

Sometimes everything comes together so beautifully. Kate had been asking for a while for Betsy to come up with a fox-related picture book title in which the fox wasn't evil. Meanwhile, Jerrold Connors has been creating a picture book biography of James Marshall called JIM! (which Betsy interviewed him about this past week) in which Jim is portrayed as his famous fox character. The

Episode 347 - Caldecott Contenders

Jan 11 2025 38 mins

Hooray! With the ALA Youth Media Awards on the near horizon (Monday, January 27th at 8 a.m. MT to be precise) it's never been a better time to debate some possible winners of the Caldecott Award. Today, I hand over to Kate an unprecedented FOUR possible contenders (rather than my usual three)! Will she opt for the vibrant father-daughter vibes of My Daddy Is a Cowboy, the rainbow w

Episode 346 - Black and White

Jan 04 2025 30 mins

A Caldecott Award winner! It's been a minute, hasn't it? When Betsy thinks of today's book she thinks of something David Wiesner said about it during one of his own Caldecott acceptance speeches. "Structurally unlike any medal winner before it — or since — Black and White...redefined the way stories could be told in picture books. And, just as importantly, it did this while bei

Episode 345 - Where Is the Green Sheep_

Dec 28 2024 27 mins

Betsy has been waiting YEARS to finally get to do today's book. Literally! She read this book over and over and over and over to her small children, and she has every intention of doing the same to Kate's incipient child. Today we get to talk about sheep! Sheep of every type and stripe! We also discuss, for some reason, Australian armor-clad bushrangers, which of these sheep is the

Episode 344 - Carol of the Brown King

Dec 21 2024 28 mins

Just in time for Christmas! So Betsy was on the lookout for Christmas books we hadn't done before and you know who we've never presented on this podcast? Langston Hughes! Heck, we've done James Baldwin, but we've never done Langston Hughes. Oddly, we've done shockingly few picture books over the years around Christmastime that involve baby Jesus. Today we consider an author who was

Episode 343 - Moishe's Miracle

Dec 13 2024 32 mins

Since Christmas and Hanukkah fall on the same day this year, Kate and Betsy had a difficult decision ahead: Do we do a Christmas first book or a Hanukkah book. And, if a Hanukkah book, which one? The answer came to us when Betsy discovered the incredible and incredibly weird Moishe's Miracle. Unfamiliar with it? Maybe it deserves classic status as an undiscovered gem. Today we disc

Episode 342 - The Giant Jam Sandwich

Dec 08 2024 30 mins

You may have recollections of this book so vague you almost wondered if it was a fever dream you had a child. Well, wonder no longer! Today we're taking a trip to Itching Down where four million wasps cause all kinds of trouble. Like a surreal combination of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and maybe Who Needs Donuts?, join us as we determine whether or not it truly deserves to be

Episode 341 - Hard Scrabble Harvest

Nov 23 2024 28 mins

Turkey day approacheth and, let me tell you, it can be just a tiny bit difficult finding Thanksgiving Day picture books from 20+ years ago that aren't offensive in some way. Today's title came out originally in 1976, though you wouldn't know it from the lead male's shirt which is VERY 1985. We learn a bit about Dahlov Ipcar and consider a book where every single problem in this boo