Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!
Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Cloudy all day today, rather than foggy. The newspaper was unbagged, but I got to it before it picked up dampness from the concrete. I took a walk in the evening and looked at people's decorations. Fewer inflatables, and none of the projections of swirling things that were big a few years ago, but almost everybody is using coloured lights rather than the white that was fashionable. And a lot of decorated trees visible inside.
The “Gross” list is a relatively new one in the grand scheme of my 31 Days, 31 Lists history. One might wonder what would inspire me to even include such a category, but the answer is fairly clear. Kids love gross stuff. Adults love gross stuff. EVERYBODY loves gross stuff… when it’s done well. I actually have a bit of an antipathy towards books that throw in potty humor willy-nilly without thought or consideration. For a book for kids to be gross, it needs to think beyond the easy laugh. These books featured on the list today do precisely that. They may have elements we find disgusting, but doggone it, they also respect the child reader along the way. And, yes, some of them are pretty funny.
Just to make things interesting today, we’re mixing together ALL the reading levels. You have been warned. Hope you have a strong stomach.
Lice: How to Survive on Humans by Berta Paramo, translated by Marc Correa Haro
Are you a louse that lives on a human head? Then this book is for you! A delightfully hilarious and disgusting tour of everything you need to know about lice, told for the discerning parasite. Gross in the best possible way! Kinda. For all that we have to deal with lice on a regular basis (and have since the beginning of humanity itself) it’s odd that most of us know so little about our tiny head denizens. This guidebook is a delight, pure and simple. Disgusting and so very strange, but a delight. I learned loads, from the fact that lice can, potentially, make it to your eyebrows and eyelashes, to the fact that now I finally have an answer for why you can’t just kill them with hot water. As this is a translation from Portugal the author, sadly, eschews backmatter, but I might forgive them. Just don’t be surprised if your head starts itching while you read.
Butt or Face: Super Gross Butts by Kari Lavelle
Just last week I was in a bookstore tooling about when I saw this book from afar. ANOTHER Butt or Face book and I hadn’t seen it for this list?!? Call me biased but I friggin’ love this series (and due to its massive popularity, I am clearly not alone). Plus, in addition to the word “Butt” on the cover you actually have the word “Gross” as well. So how accurate is its subtitle? Well, initially I was a bit concerned. The first animal featured is the greater short-horned lizard. The fact that they can squirt their own blood at predators is gross, yeah, but their butts aren’t even involved in that process. Granted the lizard is part of the “Face” part of “Butt or Face?” but it boded ill. Would half the facts in this book avoid butts entirely? Happily, the lizard is apparently an outlier. Most of these facts (though, admittedly, not all) are butt-tastic. 100 points for ending it all with the assassin bug. It carries dead ants on its butt, which is pretty much the most impressive way of ending a book that I can think of. Butts for the win!
A sequel, certainly, but due to the fact that I think an inordinate number of folks missed book #1 (that would be the delightful The Café at the Edge of the Woods) I am happy to report that this title stands entirely on its own. Now I love trickster tales, and in its way this book certainly seems to count. Glumfoot is a goblin-like green creature who is no fan of his father’s lovingly made booger broth. When he discovers a café run by a human he’s delighted. Trouble is, so is the local ogre. “The ogre’s hand reached for his club. / With no Rene, there’d be no grub! / Glumfoot leaped out of the shrub.” You can see how neat and clean each of these rhymes are. Attempts to tell the ogre that humans taste disgusting (“I meant they taste like booger broth / and moldy, holey, soiled cloth. / Enough to make you retch and cough.”) repeatedly fall flat until Glumfoot finally figures out the best way to turn the ogre off from eating the human. “What’s more, this flavored human treat / is DELICATE and SUPER SWEET / like MORNING DEW and HONEY WHEAT.” Problem solved. There’s a solution for Glumfoot. A solution for the ogre (turns out he and his family are big fans of Glumfoot’s dad’s cooking). Even a solution for Rene (but that’s another book). An ideal combination of rhymes, humor, and icky icky icky grossness.
Chickenpox by Remy Lai
A visually inventive (and at times extremely gross) memoir, told from the P.O.V. of the author’s older sister, about the time the Lai kids all caught chickenpox. Will they get along while trapped together in quarantine? Ha! No way! Man, I swear I had chickenpox when I was a kid but I don’t remember it being anything quite as interesting as this. Lai is giving STRONG oldest sister vibes with this title. The dichotomy of being part of a large, raucous family particularly rang true on every page. Since most of the book is set in the home during the family’s quarantine, the danger is of making the story repetitive or boring. Turns out, Lai has the situation well in hand (this would make a GREAT play/musical!). I was also impressed by how efficiently the character of Abby was able to mess up all her friendships at once. I literally wasn’t sure she’d be able to pull it all off, but lo and behold, I need not have worried. Happy endings for all! Oh, and if you want some pus with your children’s literature, there is a visual (not seen here) of a pox bursting that is pretty stomach-churning.
Japanese Yokai: Explore the Magical World of Monsters, Demons and Mythical Creatures by Fleur Daugey, ill. Sande Thommen
From nine-tailed foxes to demons, kappas, and all manner of creatures you’ve never heard of, this collection is bound to introduce you to someone (or someTHING) new! My personal experience with Japanese yokai comes primarily from Shigeru Mizuki’s Kitaro graphic novel series. Those were the books that let me know about these otherworldly creatures in Japanese mythology, that sort of straddle “ghost” and “monster” along with what you can only just call the weird. Reading this book, you’ll notice the influence of the yokai on all kinds of pop culture (the futakuchi onna remind me a LOT of one particular creature from Spirited Away, for example, and don’t think for a moment that K-Pop Demon Hunters doesn’t owe some allegiance to this book). I like very much how this is part guidebook and part collection of stories about some of these creatures. It sort of reminded me of urban legends but, y’know, with more monsters worked in there. Just a bit of a warning for American readers: Hope you like testicles. Cause there’s an image of a tanuki in this book that is… ah… ballsy, let’s say.
Lone Wolf Goes to the Library & Lone Wolf on Vacation By Kiah Thomas, ill. K-Fai Steele
Lone Wolf is back, and whether he’s trying to spend a vacation solo or trying to avoid children at the library, he really only has one goal: To be LEFT ALONE! Misanthropy has never been so funny. I mean, this would be a harder choice for today’s list if Thomas & Steele were less good at what they do. A colleague of mine pointed out that these books are great examples of problem solving for kids. After all, Lone Wolf is constantly solving the problem of how to avoid anyone and everyone for as long as possible. This is not the kind of series where the hero will suddenly realize he wanted to be around people all along (a common trope in picture books). If I had to choose a favorite amongst these two books I might go with “On Vacation” if only because it sticks the landing a little harder. But then I remembered the snotty-nosed child (there is a LOT of snot involved) and The Stern Librarian in the library book and … awwww. I can’t resist that one either. And even better? These may be even better than the original two books in the series from last year.
A Monster’s Meal by Meritxell Martí, ill. Xavier Salomó
A French import (which we must assume the author translated herself since no translator is credited), this book begins with a small card on the very first page reading, “Dearest Guest, The Rotten Core restaurant is not responsible for any digestive issues or allergic reactions the following dishes may cause. Please let your waiter know of any dietary restrictions before the meal.” Nicely said. What proceeds are about ten food-related flaps for a slew of different monsters, beasties, and general ghoulies. Each villain sits before a covered dish. You remove the lid and inside is a surprisingly beautifully arranged, utterly disgusting, meal. It is at this point that the reader begins to understand why only the French could have come up with a book of this sort. Just listen to how it describes the vampire’s meal. “Chef’s famous scarlet smoothie decorated with fresh funeral fennel / Thinly sliced bat wings and rotten radishes / Selection of princesses necks served with dead herbs.” And it just looks lovely. You might be inclined to take a slice of princess neck, if only because of how exquisite the presentation is. But the most revolting meal? I suppose it depends on your point of view, but let’s just say that the last person to be served (the surprise guest no less) is “The Hungry Kid”. Blerg!
Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Bones and Berserkers by Nathan Hale
Oh wow. So the cover is a bit misleading on this one, I’d say. The endpapers, in contrast, dead on. Emphasis on the dead. Nathan’s always harbored a love of good old-fashioned horror, but it’s tended to come out more in his standalone books like One Trick Pony or (most especially) Apocalypse Taco. His Hazardous Tales, in contrast, can get gory but always stayed relatively safe (a remarkable balance when you’re dealing with something like the Donner Party). But in this latest, with its “13 True Tales of Terror” on its cover, he lets himself go completely. I mean, the first story in this book has a newborn baby killing everyone in the receiving room so… y’know, it lets you know what’s going on right from the start. That’s why this cover, with its Viking on the cover, is downright tame in comparison. Now Nathan has always harbored a special love for Stephen Gammell, he of the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (which means Nate should take a gander at the poetry book Nightmare Jones from this year). Indeed, this book is even dedicated to Gammell and Alvin Schwartz. Years and years and years ago, I did a challenge on my blog for folks to Re-Seussify Seuss, which is to say, to rework a famous Seuss image in the style of another artist. Nathan chose to do a selection from One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, in a Gammell style and it was damned well the best thing I ever saw. Here take a gander:
A Little Too Haunted by Justine Pucella Winans
Proof positive that with the right writer, representation is always possible. Even in creepy, gory little middle grade novels like this one. Luna has a fairly serious case of IBS that gets in the way of a lot of things. That’s not the gross part of this book, though. As the story opens, she and her moms are moving into a new home. This isn’t particularly notable, since her moms flip houses. What is notable is that they flip haunted houses, and up until recently Luna was 100% on board with the whole plan. Then she found out that they were faking the hauntings (they’re influencers and that’s where most of their salaries come from) and she revealed their duplicity in front of all their viewers. Now they’ve come to this house to rebrand, but there’s a slight problem. The place really is haunted, and only Luna can see it. You get this truly funny moment at the beginning where the walls of the bathroom begin to bleed, the message “GET OUT” appears… and Luna could not be more thrilled. Some of the hauntings are definitely on the disgusting side (hope you like charred flesh!) and if you’ve a special love of butterflies, better be prepared to find them horrific from here on in. All told, a very fun ghost story, with a truly satisfying ending.
Ready, Set, Mango! by Tamla T. Young, ill. Raz Latif
Look, I’m just not the kind of person who gets into poop in her picture books. In general, the tendency to use poop and pee and farts n’ such for larfs just sort of feels like a cheap stab at humor. I ain’t into it. And yet… there is always the exception to the rule, is there not? Like Ready, Set, Mango! I think that there’s a great advantage to those picture books that are gross in some way and just utterly and completely surprise you with it. There was nothing about the cover of this book to indicate in the slightest where it was going to go. In this story we meet cousins Tee and Dee who have been sent for the summer to their aunt in Jamaica. The two go out one day to pick the perfect mango, but when they find it they both want it. Then, lo and behold, they see the coolest, shiniest pebbles of all time. “It’s smooth like a precious gem”. They start to fight over who has the most, finally divying them up so that they have five each. And then… they see the goat. Oh man. I can’t help it. Something about this book deeply amused me. Probably the moment of surprise (and the fact that I bet there are LOTS of kids out there who have seen similar “shiny pebbles” and have come to their own rude awakenings). Never seen THIS in a picture book before!
Ultrawild: An Audacious Plan for Rewilding Every City on Earth by Steve Mushin
How much do I love this book? So much so that I went on Chicago Today of NBC to talk up my adoration of it:
When I think how close I came to not seeing this book before the end of the year came, it gives me chills. Folks, please meet my favorite older nonfiction book for kids. I almost never do this, but I think a trip to its website might be a good way to at least get a start on understanding what it is that Mushin has created here. Imagine if someone were to mix Where’s Waldo with David Macaulay and then add in every insane (but possible!) scientific invention and solution to our current environmental crisis. That’s this book. It’s an import from Australia where, I should note, it won Best Designed Children’s Non-Fiction book (2024 Australian Book Design Awards), and the 2024 Elsie Locke Award For Best Nonfiction (NZ). It was also shortlisted for The 2025 NSW Literary Awards, Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature, The 2025 NSW Literary Awards UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing, and the 2025 Spark! School Book Awards (UK). It should win more. Honestly, it should have appeared on ALL the best books lists that came out this year. So why hasn’t it? Probably because, like myself, the committees didn’t hear about it in time. You can bet that I would have fought tooth and nail to put it on my library’s 101 Great Books for Kids list if I’d known about it. Fortunately, my library’s Blueberry Awards come out later, so it has a chance to appear there.
Why’s it so good? Two words: Poop cannons. I mean, come on. I’m not made of stone. In this book Mushin offers extreme (and I do mean extreme) solutions to rewilding cities. He also faces a dark moment of the soul mid-book, but then he comes roaring back with even MORE ideas! I’ve never seen a book as hugely inspirational to kids as this. It’s tall (sorry, library shelves) and made for young eyes with pages packed with type and graphic novel elements. And yes, the man has a bit of an odd obsession with us eating our own legs (it makes sense in context) but I am HERE FOR IT. Seriously. Get on this thing. You’ll be glad you did. You’ll also want to hand it to the first kid you see.
That’s it for today! Be sure to stay tuned for more lists on 2025 titles. The full roster is here:
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 “milk parties” might consist of, whether a “lord” needs to capitalize his title, and so much more.
Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, Audible, Amazon Music, or your preferred method of podcast selection.
Show Notes:
This instrument has the reed of an oboe but none of the buttons. What is this instrument, folks? Tell us! Please!
He’s just Ken. And if Ken knew about fox hunting he would SO wear this outfit!
At this point we start to diverge from reality. Perhaps these birds are supposed to look like members of the French court?
Everyone else worried about the fact that this guy has taken his true love into the woods and then he starts to… uh… chop.. things?
Sorry, I love these geese SO much. Quote Kate: “What is the obsession with putting wigs on birds?” My argument is that when you are rich and bored you will do ANYTHING to alleviate that boredom. This is the least of that. Who the heck is the person responsible for wigging the geese?
For that member, what servant did they hire (they didn’t pay them enough) to put hats on the swans?!?
“Am I on beat? Where’s Greg?” We’ve all been this guy. He’s just gonna look at everyone else and fake it.
These bagpipers are REAL close here. Bad shoes and where are the flashes? But an A for effort!
What the heck. Who HANGS gingerbread people on their trees? I’ve never heard of that.
Are these just bored rich guys who leap for fun? Also, this guy is really giving it his all. The other guys are okay, but there’s a level of dedication here that can’t be denied.
The LeUyen Pham version of this song as a picture book that I encourage you to look at is right here.
Tracking your goals, schedule, and other things is much easier with a dedicated planner or other journal. Here are some current options for those of you who prefer bound books to printables.
I'm still rather tired out and lacking motivation but as I was wrapping gifts today I was half watching Hudson & Rex which is about all I ever do (Not a mystery show I'm very invested in but it has a cute dog (who is the least realistic police dog ever)) and this episode brings me back to a point I made a while back with prequels.
When you want to do a flashback (or prequel) you need to be sure of what you want to convey and how effective it'll be. In the above mentioned show it tried hard to add tension with Hudson and Rex's first case together with the well the dog's handler is dead so we're most likely going to euthanize the K9 (something the united States stopped doing in the Clinton era, not sure about Canada where this takes place) But here's the thing it's going back and forth between 3 years in the past and the present where Rex IS Hudson's partner so we know for a fact that Rex isn't euthanized.
So there is NO tension and that is something we have to worry about when we're doing a flashback. You can't build tension when the reader/viewer already knows the answer. We need to be given new information or else the flashback feels pointless or at least a partial waste of time. Learning how Hudson and Rex first met = good use of flashback, trying to make me worry that Rex will be put to sleep = waste of my time. I know he isn't. I'm not going to invest in something I already know (Prequels have even bigger issues with this).
For me, a flash back needs to advance the present plot or fill in backstory we need (or at least want to have). Hazbin Hotel did a pretty good job of this with both Alastor (though his backstory was in the old notes but you can't b e sure they'd be considered canon any more) and Vox's (making so many fan theorists happy) Both flashbacks showed us how they ended up where they were and how they are. Yes we know they both end up overlords in hell but seeing how it happened was character building.
So I guess what I'm saying is know what you wnat from a flashback and be careful as to how you attempt it.
From here to issue #27, series art is by Bart Sears over Keith Giffen layouts until otherwise noted. All plots and layouts by Giffen, though DeMatteis will only script through #8.
The idea of a “Justice League Europe” was a natural extension of the “Justice League International” concept, but it has an intrinsic problem: almost any high-profile or mid-profile characters it could use were always going to be Americans. Giffen and DeMatteis leaned into that as an inherent source of conflict from the get-go.
Got laundry done. Carried out some of my democratic duties as a registered member of a political party. Got shopping done. Did my weekly CPAP equipment-cleaning. Also, continuing with the star map projects and checked in with some of you, here and elsewhere.
This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Sunday, December 14, to midnight on Monday, December 15 (8pm Eastern Time).
... of the misc.exhausted.me, I am going to offer a GOOD vaccination tale. As I see so many posts saying "yes it sucks but do it anyway", I want to offer the counter of "sometimes it does go fine".
I did Shingles/Flu/Covid in the fall, before Halloween, I think. NB: I 'd had covid for the first time this past winter, and it may have mitigated the vax some, or my body is finally adapting to it. I have had flu-like symptoms each time except the very first two shots, but! This time. With the trio of shots given on Friday evening, I had about a four hour window the next day, 10-ish hours later, of mild aches and NOTHING else.
Fast forward to this week. Shingles #2, and like I said, I'd seen so many people saying if the first one doesn't knock you low, the second will, and many react to both. Folks, my arm is still sore like I got TDaP, but I have had no aches, no fever, no lethargy. Sometimes, your body looks at the roadmap it just got handed, says okay, and just adds the necessary warning signs.
If you are over 50 (in the USA), consider getting it. I've known people with Shingles. YOU DO NOT WANT IT. Get vaxxed. And remember, every immune system is different, so don't assume you will have a bad time.
Anyone want anything? Drabble, meta, rant, ridiculous lyrics that scan to I Had A Little Driedel, complete bullshit about a topic I know nothing about, etc? ;)
A mutual on Mastodon shared this mind-blowing Youtube video about creating a dress based on the earliest surviving version (1564) of the ballad "Greensleeves." It was fascinating for all the details about Elizabethan dressmaking (and also food--there's a verse about food, too; 18 verses in all). The way the expert creators researched their piece of the overall outfit (silk smock, crimson stockings, pumps as white as milk, gown of grassy green), the decisions they made (e.g., in the whole inventory of Elizabethan garments, there is no extant silk smock or record of one, so they interpreted the lyric as meaning a linen smock embroidered with silk), and then the techniques used to create the items were just fascinating.
So here's that video--long! But worth it, I thought. There are guinea pigs with ruffs! It was filmed at a stately home in Dorset!
They also made a music video--also long! (almost 10 minutes), in which you can seen Lady Greensleeves gradually acquiring her costume while still rebuffing the suitor. Here's a link.
I really enjoyed watching Andor, overall. I did think there were a few places where the pacing dragged a bit and it wasn't as mindblowingly great as the hype made it sound like it would be, but it was still very good! The bits on Ghorman were kind of annoying because the Ghor language sounds so much like French but isn't French, I felt like I was taking crazy pills hahaha. Favourite episode was either the prison break or the Kleya flashbacks episode. I agressively Did Not Care about Syril or his mother, but every other character was at least interesting. I love Cassian, Vel and Cinta, but I think Kleya might be my favourite. I want to rewatch Rogue One, now.
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