The Horn Book » Sad little waifs

>I never went

Roger Sutton — Wed, 04 May 2011 14:27:00 +0000

> . . . to a prom, but I admire the way these authors proudly show off the ruffles and powder blue of youth.

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>And no pink sneakers for you, young man

Roger Sutton — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 16:23:00 +0000

>Oprah’s pal Dr. Phil offers advice to a mother whose five-year-old son likes girls’ clothes and Barbies:

“This is not a precursor to your son being gay,” explains Dr. Phil. He’ll know that in time, but this is not an indication of his sexual orientation.

Dr. Phil tells Robby that she has a job to do: “Direct your son in an unconfusing way. Don’t buy him Barbie dolls or girl’s clothes. You don’t want to do things that seem to support the confusion at this stage of the game … Take the girl things away, and buy him boy toys.”

Most importantly, he tells Robby, “Support him in what he’s doing, but not in the girl things.”

One, “Robby” needs to clean up her act and refeminate her name. Two, we wonder why boys don’t read more. Three, any man who makes a career of sitting around on a couch to chat with the ladies is in no position to throw purses.

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>A question for the pop culture critics

Roger Sutton — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:20:00 +0000

>I’ve just started listening to an audiobook edition of Jane Eyre narrated by Juliet Stevenson. (Did anyone see her recent PBS Mystery turn? It was great.) Stevenson is terrific, but hearing the spooky scene in the Red Room makes me wonder if Stephen King has ever credited it as inspiration for the “Redrum” motif in The Shining? Does anyone know?

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>I know this has happened before,

Roger Sutton — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:04:00 +0000

>but when do you think trick-or-treating starts when Halloween is on a Saturday? I can’t believe Hopey has been running things since January and still hasn’t gotten back to us on this.

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>I guess it wasn’t all candlelight and butter churns

Roger Sutton — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:33:00 +0000

>Or maybe it was, and that was the trouble.

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>What did your 1970s look like?

Roger Sutton — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:50:00 +0000

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I’m weeding the Horn Book’s collection of professional, scholarly, and other adult books about children’s literature, and damned if I didn’t find a strange little trend. Along with the many out-of-date bibliographies and childhood reading memoirs by the foremothers (don’t worry, I’m keeping those) are lots of coffee table books devoted to the work of Rackham, Nielsen and Dulac, all published in the 70′s and designed with the same disco-deco look of this here Bette Midler record. You used to see these books on remainder tables in bookstores all over; if anyone is feeling nostalgic just come and grab ‘em from the discards shelves outside my office.

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>Propp was a piker

Roger Sutton — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:11:00 +0000

>Here’s how to quantify a folktale:

Slagsmålsklubben – Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

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>Books under wraps

Roger Sutton — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:59:00 +0000

>Books under wraps" border="0" title=">Books under wraps" />

Lolly took this neat picture of what our book collection looks like during remodeling. I can’t quite tell where in the alphabet this is.

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>One scary mutha

Roger Sutton — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:06:00 +0000

>I can’t remember how to link from within comments but yesterday’s post about over-controlling caregivers reminded me of Lucy Lane Clifford’s 1882 “The New Mother,” which I instruct you to read before bedtime:

“If we were very, very, very naughty, and wouldn’t be good, what then?”
Then,” said the mother sadly–and while she spoke her eyes filled with tears, and a sob almost choked her– “then,” she said, “I should have to go away and leave you, and to send home a new mother, with glass eyes and a wooden tail.”

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>If you need a good Christmas cry

Roger Sutton — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:45:00 +0000

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