Book #23:
Title: World War BunSynopsis: World War One with Bunnies.
Let me tell you about one of my favorite scenes in all of children's media: it's Halloween, Charlie Brown is dressed as a ghost, Snoopy is dressed as the World War I Flying Ace, as Snoopy exits the door, ghost-Charlie Brown gives him a rigid salute, then Snoopy goes out and has a "Dogfight" with the Red Baron. He crashes, shakes his fist at the sky, then wanders the bombed-out French countryside to some cool clarinet music (or is it an oboe?) he sneaks past signs that say things like, "Pont-a-Mousson 3km." Then he goes into a house and marches to Schroeder playing, "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" then gets weepy during the sad part of the song, but shoulders through it bravely. Gosh, what a great scene. Nobody, nobody was as cool as Snoopy.
This is at least six, seven minutes of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" which is, what, 22 minutes long. What modern tv programmer would allow such a strange, slow scene? Anyway, I love it. I loved it as a kid and I had no idea what on earth it was. It was World War I--and it was soooooo cool.
So that's a little of what I'm trying to capture here. Plus, there aren't a lot of kid's books about WWI, let's explore it--with bunnies.
5 comments:
Your Land of Doom comic today crossed from the zone of brilliant into genius. Or from genius into brilliant, I can't decide which is better.
And World War Bun is definitely in the top 5 so far.
Yes, let's do WWI with bunnies! Sorry I haven't been commenting. I would totally buy the Jester's New Clothes, Elephant of Surprise, and well, most of these books for my kids!
jw--Heehee, thanks. I was a little worried it might come off as bitter (?) I'm a total outsider to that segment of publishing--Rapunzel has maybe a tiny bit of overlap there. But I'll be honest, I do not understand the wild popularity some franchises get. Totally insane.
In my mind, publishing today should be more diverse and more interesting than it has ever been, with the internet out there allowing writers and fans to interact, blah blah blah. Instead, it seems to be LESS diverse than it has ever been. A total one-trick-pony show. Everyone wants a bestseller that gets turned into a movie that people sleep out for, leading to a line of t-shirts. Sounds like a drag to me.
I'm sure I'm wrong, as an outsider to that segment, looking in. And by all means, don't lets start talking about "the state of publishing today" ugh, I'll leave that to other (more boring) blogs. I just wanted to draw ol' J.K and Stephanie as gross, tentacle dangling gas blimps--that's the real heart of the issue.
JDG--I liked your comment yesterday about your house being full of glass top furniture. I knew one family growing up that had a glass top coffee table. It was completely fascinating to me. But, yeah, that would put a damper on the "No Touch the Ground" game.
You've captured exactly what it feels like trying to get into the YA market. And I have to say your comment about gross, tentacle dangling gas blimps was hilarious! Thanks for the laughs. I love these posts. :)
Now I'm going to be worring about bunnies all day. I hope they are impevious to mustard gas.
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