Fuse 8 N' Kate

Initially, this was supposed to be an entirely different episode altogether. I had somehow managed to convince myself that we hadn't done The Three Pigs by David Wiesner on this podcast before. In truth? We did that precise book on May 13, 2024 (so, yeah, not actually all that long ago). My bad, folks. My bad. In a pinch we had to find a replacement and, because Kate is now mother to a small child, we had title on hand that (A) I love and (B) we've never done before. We discuss this teeny tiny board book which, we would like to point out, ALSO has three pigs on the cover! It was fate to do this title. For the full Show Notes please go to https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/01/26/fuse-8-n-kate-moo-baa-la-la-la-by-sandra-boynton/

Every year, Kate and Betsy do one Caldecott prediction post for their podcast. Betsy hands over THREE books that she thinks are contenders. Then the two discuss and predict which ones might win the big awards. They usually manage to get at least one Honor (and last year they got two!). This year we're pretty confident that at least one of these three books will win something on Monday. Trouble is, Kate never seems to have the same reactions to these stories that Betsy does. Listen up and you'll see why. Get ready for a discussion about the significance of cardinals, font sizes, and how one of these books is clearly sponsored by Big Monday. For the full Show Notes, please read on here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/01/20/fuse-8-n-kate-caldecott-contenders-2026/

In preparation for the upcoming holiday (on Monday) we are FINALLY tackling what I (spoiler alert) consider to be the one, the only, the BEST book on MLK ever to grace a picture book page. Published in 2001, we right a great wrong and finally tackle this most eminent of titles. Along the way we talk about why the heck it lost to another book for the Caldecott Gold (I've a theory that the true winner was, what Betsy likes to call, a "compromise book"), its beauty, its legacy, and more. Please see the full Show Notes here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/01/14/fuse-8-n-kate-martins-big-words-by-doreen-rappaport-ill-bryan-collier/

Happy New Year! We start 2026 off with a puzzle: How can four people all work on the same picture book at the same time? And why? What's the process, and how on earth do you embroider every page? When Kate told Betsy she wanted a New Year's book, she failed to specify precisely what kind of New Year's. And since the Vietnamese new year of Tet occurs in January/February, Betsy took that as permission to finally tackle this fascinating 2003 publication. We go over our past predictions and resolutions, Tet, bananas, embroidery, and what a "leather mouse" might be. For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/01/05/fuse-8-n-kate-ten-mice-for-tet-by-pegi-dietz-shea-cynthia-weill-to-ngoc-trang-and-pham-viet-dinh/

It's a Christmas book! It's a Hanukkah book! It's a Christmas AND a Hanukkah book! And a Patricia Polacco book as well. She's back, baby. Will Kate be charmed by the message of this inclusive title or will other elements win out in the end? We discuss the grammatical components of when one "thrills", continuity errors, kosher menorahs, and more! For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/12/22/fuse-8-n-kate-the-trees-of-the-dancing-goats-by-patricia-polacco/

On the first day of my podcast my true love gave to me... Jan Brett! Yes, we're in the thick of the holiday season now, and what better way to kick off our holiday picture booking than with, not simply a Christmas classic song/book, but a classic picture book creator as well! Brett last appeared on our podcast in an episode on The Mitten. Since then she's been strangely AWOL from our discussions. All that changes today, as we talk about why anyone would put a wig on a bird, what a "milk parties" might consist of, whether a "lord" needs to capitalize their title, and so much more. For the full Show Notes, please read on here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/12/15/fuse-8-n-kate-the-twelve-days-of-christmas-by-jan-brett/

Having spent ample time in the presence of Jon Agee himself at The Rabbit hOle at the recent Tomi Ungerer Symposium, Betsy determined that we hadn't actually done one of his books on our podcast yet. Today we take on a book that I like to pair alongside Fortunately. As for why we've chosen this particular title, it's all thanks to the suggestion of listener Rachelle Leon Pilarski. Thank you, Rachelle! Will Kate find the title appropriate or will she eschew it entirely? For the full Show Notes, please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/12/08/fuse-8-n-kate-terrific-by-jon-agee/

For the first time we are simultaneously recording alongside another podcast. The podcast in question? The Book of Life, which has been in existence for a good 20 years now (this month!). And let me tell you... when it comes to Jewish children's literature content on a podcast? There really isn't anyone else that can match synagogue librarian Heidi Rabinowitz. She knows what she's doing. Today, she is joining us to talk about a very special book for our Hanukkah episode. Our podcast requires books to be 20 years old and Heidi's podcast is, itself, 20 years old. So we're doing a Hanukkah book that's 20 years old as well! She discusses interviewing Sims Taback, the demystification of Judaism through Jewish children's books, and the dangers of silo-ing Jewish literature. For the full episode Show Notes, look no further than here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/11/30/fuse-8-n-kate-with-special-guest-heidi-rabinowitz-the-borrowed-hanukkah-latkes-by-linda-glaser-ill-nancy-cote/

Oh. Full credit goes to children's book creator Ursula Murray Husted for today's find. You know, we've done a lot of feast-adjacent picture books in conjunction with Thanksgiving in the past (Green Eggs with Ham, for example). But today's book is a bit of an outlier in that respect. Aside from Cranberry Thanksgiving, I can't think of the last time we did a legitimately Thanksgiving-themed picture book. Today we do our first Crescent Dragonwagon title (complete with a marvelous explanation of her name), our second Aruego/Dewey title (after Leo the Late Bloomer) and our latest abecedarian book. Will it pass muster? Only time will tell. For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/11/24/fuse-8-n-kate-alligator-arrived-with-apples-a-potluck-alphabet-feast-by-crescent-dragonwagon-ill-jose-aruego-and-ariane-dewey/

New General Rule: When a celebrity promotes an already existing picture book, it is rarely a good thing. I am thinking, naturally, of the episode of Friends where they read Love You Forever in its entirety. But it doesn't just happen on television shows. Recently a Kardashian recommended today's title, and to my horror and delight it's 20 years old (if you go by its original self-published publication date). A self-proclaimed books for parents (rather than children) we have to weigh Tillman's talents as an illustrator against her storytelling choices. The end result is that we have two rather different final scores. Listen and see why that is! For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/11/17/fuse-8-n-kate-on-the-night-you-were-born-by-nancy-tillman/

We don't play this up much, but this actually marks the first appearance of Chris Raschka on our podcast. And WHATTA debut! This taps into my love of all picture books in which the protagonist gets eaten. But for Kate, she hyperfixates on the very semantics of the word "sardine". How can you hope to become the thing that you already are? That little delve into the philosophical underpinnings of edible tiny fish is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to today's discussion. Suffice to say, we diverge WIDELY on our interpretation of this book. In face, we may be as different on our votes for this book as we have ever been. For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/11/02/fuse-8-n-kate-arlene-sardine-by-chris-raschka/

What is the most loathed trope in picturebookdom to date? Some might say it's the everyone-forgot-my-birthday plot but we have something even worse in mind. For us, it's the old Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer topic of everyone being mean until you save their butts in some way and now they like you. Little did we suspect that beloved children's author Dav Pilkey, he of Captain Underpants and Dog Man fame, once capitulated to that very idea in one of his books. Behold! Our first Dav Pilkey title on the podcast! And the last? That remains to be seen. Join us then as we discuss rotary phones, trick-or-treating etiquette, and bad puns (that don't even really work, doggone it). You can find the full Show Notes of the episode here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/10/27/fuse-8-n-kate-the-hallo-wiener-by-dav-pilkey/

Anyone who has ever picked up a copy of The Sneetches for their children has probably discovered that The Sneetches does not stand alone. Indeed, it appears in a collection called The Sneetches and Other Stories. Now we've never done The Sneetches on our podcast. That would be an episode for another day. Today, we look at the far lesser-known (possibly for good reason) title What Was I Scared Of? Previously published under the title Pale Green Pants (and I think we can all agree that this title change was a move in the right direction) it follows a pair of disembodied pants straight out of the film Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Today, Kate I consider it as a possible Halloween contender and, in the course of things, discuss the 1977 animated Halloween television special Halloween is Grinch Night, the difficulty of saying the term "anapestic tetrameter" aloud, why the true star of this book should be named "Torselus Todd", and (I won't lie) we may use the term "badonkadonk" more than once. For the Show Notes to t

As Halloween creeps ever closer (and the weather begins to resemble something somewhat autumnal) we continue to seek out potential seasonal classics from the many books that have come before. Today's suggestion comes to us via Ramarie B. and it's a text based on an old Russian fairy tale. Mind you, in the original, this story featured a turnip (and it says a lot about a culture if a gigantic turnip is someone's idea of a food you'd want in abundance). Today, in spite of the fact that Kate and I have failed MULTIPLE times to successfully grow pumpkins (I have one going right now, but it's green and I don't think it's going to orange up in time for Halloween), we examine this book. Be prepared for discussions of pumpkin sex, vampire fashion wear, and why one might want to garden in their socks. You can find the full Show Notes at https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/10/13/fuse-8-n-kate-big-pumpkin-by-erica-silverman-ill-s-d-schindler/

Kicking off October with Edward Gorey just seems obvious at this point in time. After all, since he died 25 years ago, there are a lot of celebrations happening in his honor this season. Naturally, since he did quite a few "picture books" (a term we use in the broadest sense) it seemed logical to tackle his best known work. Is it for children? Not intentionally, but Betsy makes the case on the show that there are picture books out there that are not intended for children but that kids find anyway and grow to love (Uncle Shelby's ABZs, anyone?). Today's book is a "cult classic picture book" in precisely that sense. This is our fourth alphabet book on our podcast (we forgot we did Eating the Alphabet when we recorded this) and our second Edward Gorey (after The Shrinking of Treehorn). We discuss how this was clearly Wednesday Addams's favorite book when she was little and how Gorey's rhyming is on point! Please note that we do have a trigger warning at the beginning of our discussion. This book does mention ch

Going into this episode,Betsy had a lot on her mind. Fancy Nancy is one of those rare 21st century characters with a legitimate shot at picture book classicdom. That said, would Kate find her bratty? One can never predict which literary children show up on Kate's brat-o-meter (Madeline? Really really?), so this was going to be a real question. And if you want to know the answer... yeah. You're going to have to listen to the episode. But don't worry, along the way you'll also hear us talking about the fact that Nancy turns 20 this year, how this is the first time we've done a book with spot glitter on the cover, Sublime references, and font hate. See the full episode show notes here. https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/09/22/fuse-8-n-kate-fancy-nancy-by-jane-oconnor-ill-robin-preiss-glasser/

This is our 379th episode. We've done 378 until now and not one, not one SINGLE title, has been a Rosemary Wells book. Strange? You bet. Well, today that strangeness ends. Not only are we doing a Rosemary Wells book, but we're doing a MAX AND RUBY Rosemary Wells book! Howdja like them apples, eh? Of course, once we decided upon this course of action we were faced with the inevitable question of which Max and Ruby book to do. The early ones were board books, for all intents and purposes. But the later ones vary greatly in quality. In the end, it was the suggestion of listener Dan that alerted us to an ideal candidate. Today we're talking dragon shirts, polite toddlers, and what the HECK Ruby and Max's mother is up to in all these books. For the full show notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/09/15/fuse-8-n-kate-maxs-dragon-shirt-by-rosemary-wells/

Betsy doesn't know why people don't talk more about this book. While John Steptoe is well-known for Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters and, to a lesser extent, Stevie, today's book is rarely discussed. Yet can you even think of another case where a picture book creator wrote something as autobiographical AND as problematic ABOUT THEMSELVES as this? John Steptoe was working on another level with this title and we intend to break it down as much as possible on the podcast. We discuss picture books that talk about spankings vs. those that show them, whatever the opposite of gentle parenting is, and how Raggedy Anne occupies the Uncanny Clown Valley. For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/09/08/fuse-8-n-kate-daddy-is-a-monster-sometimes-by-john-steptoe/

This is going to strike you as a little strange. Lord knows it wasn't something we noticed. So... you know how we've done 376 episodes of this podcast until now? That's 376 different books. Of those books, we have done books both written and illustrated by creator Eric Carle precisely one, singular, solitary time. That book? The Very Hungry Caterpillar (duh). Listener Megan recently pointed out this odd aberration and we have to admit that we were a little embarrassed. We recorded our Very Hungry Caterpillar episode in July of 2017. Almost precisely 8 years later, we're ready to look at Book #2. Let's see how it fares! For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/08/25/fuse-8-n-kate-papa-please-get-the-moon-for-me-by-eric-carle/

Dear lord. If Betsy thought she was about to give Kate a lovely birthday present with today's recording, then she was SORELY disabused of that notion from the start. She never expected Frances to fall into Kate's obliterating list of "brats", but them's the breaks in this, one of our more contentious episodes. Listen in as we tackle our second Frances book (after Bread and Jam for Frances). Along the way we discuss Chompo Bar theme songs, party favors for 2-year-olds, and why Mother might have a grudge against innocent little party guest, Ida. For the full Show Notes, please go to: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/08/18/fuse-8-n-kate-a-birthday-for-frances-by-russell-hoban-ill-lillian-hoban/