Fuse 8 n' Kate

It's PRIDE MONTH!!! And we've done many a fine LGBTQIA+ book during the year. But this book series, while not considered queer during its initial publication, has since been embraced by the gay community and, as such, we seek to celebrate it here today. Of all the Frog and Toad books in the series (there are four) this was the only one to garner a Newbery Honor (NOT Caldecott... and isn't that interesting?). Today, you will witness a veritable plethora of fantastic videos celebrating this book (there will be ninjas). In the course of things Kate determines that, "I am Toad." Ain't we all, kid? We discuss how Frog falls on the autism spectrum and which story is the one I love best of all. For the full Show Notes, read on here. https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/06/15/fuse-8-n-kate-frog-and-toad-together-by-arnold-lobel/

I know you're all desperate for spring out there, but winter's not done with you yet! With that in mind, we tackle what may well be the most famous snowman-related picture book outside of the Raymond Briggs classic. Betsy introduces Kate to a title that has remained WELL in print since its publication back in 2002. For those of you peeved that we don't know how to pronounce the Buehners' last name, I would like to point out that I did go to Teachingbooks.net and they did NOT provide a pronunciation guide to that name on either one of them. On this show, Kate provides fun snowmen-related facts, we are sad not to see any curling, and we marvel at how good Buehner is at figuring out where the lights are coming from in these nighttime sequences. For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/03/09/fuse-8-n-kate-snowmen-at-night-by-caralyn-buehner-ill-mark-buehner/

In a dual celebration of Black History Month and Valentine's Day, Betsy figured the logical connection came in the form of Eloise Greenfield's Honey I Love. But which version? Turns out that there's the original book, illustrated by the Dillons (Leo and Diane, obviously) and then the titular poem from that book was republished as a book in and of itself a bit later. Now initially Betsy envisioned this episode as a dual book review via Kate. What became almost immediately clear was that the best book to consider (for our particular podcast) is the more recent 2003 version of this poem. Why did we choose it? And why do we think it's worth noting? We discuss Betsy's issues with Ash Wednesday, baby teeth, messed up babydolls, and much much more. For the full Show Notes, please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/02/16/fuse-8-n-kate-honey-i-love-by-eloise-greenfield-ill-jan-spivey-gilchrist/

At last! We finally pounce upon the third and final David Wiesner Caldecott Award winning title! Having already covered Tuesday and The Three Pigs (which we promptly forgot that we'd already discussed) it seemed only fitting that we'd move on to the third title in The Wiesner Triumvirate (and can you believe that it's 20 years old?!?). Today, it's all about the fish. Fish and photography, baby. We discuss how hot fluorescent pink is the official color of the 2026 Caldecott winners, definitions of both "flotsam" and "jetsam", how digital prints at Walgreens are immune to inflation, and the difficulty of conveying a storyline this complex solely through pictures rather than words. For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2026/02/02/fuse-8-n-kate-flotsam-by-david-wiesner/

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/

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/

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/