Shalom Auslander, Mouse-anthrope. He hates Maisy. His son, of course, loves her. I'm actually quite fond of Maisy for the very reason Auslander hates her:
In Maisy Takes a Bath, Maisy takes a bath. The end. Maisy, to recap, takes a bath. There's no obstacle to the bath, no journey to the bath, nothing to learn from the bath — not even a "This is a shirt and this is pants," no "Is the water too hot?" or "Is the water too cold?" I'm not looking for The Brothers Karamazov, but Christ, show a little effort. Know what happens in Maisy Makes Lemonade? Maisy makes lemonade. Know what happens in Maisy Has A Party? Maisy has a party. Know what happens in Maisy's Creator Gets Slapped?
She gets slapped! Sometimes it's comforting just to know.
10 Ways to Get Inspired By the World Around You. The weirdest thing about this article is the bit about Hallmark. I'm not sure I'd use them as an example of inspired work. I like the last one -- "Stay Where You Are." Only because I don't have the energy to go anywhere.
Oh February. You are short but still far too long.
That Maisy article is very funny, thanks for linking to it.
Posted by: Sara | February 12, 2008 at 02:50 PM
The world around me right now (yet another snowstorm) inspires me to go back to bed. Shame I'm at work, where I have no bed.
Posted by: kittenpie | February 12, 2008 at 06:25 PM
My son loves Maisy, too. I don't mind the Maisy books, but I agree that the illustrations aren't very good. Of course, my son only likes the ones with the flaps. I brought one home that didn't have flaps and he kept looking for the flaps until he gave up in despair. We have Maisy's Amazing Book of Words and we used to read through it, but now my son brings out the book to read one word only - lawn mower. It gets a little tedious. But I guess that doesn't have anything to do with Maisy.
Posted by: ta | February 12, 2008 at 09:54 PM
I giggled all through that article. Auslander is a marvellous writer.
Posted by: Aishwarya | February 13, 2008 at 04:43 AM
I found the Maisy illustrations grew on me, actually; didn't see the point at first, now I love them. And the little TV cartoons are great, they've voiced by Neil Morrissey (sp?) who used to be the dim one in Men Behaving Badly, if that means anything to a US audience.
Stephanie, I have slightly cringingly passed on to you one of those 'you make my day' blog awards -- see my blog for details but please feel free to ignore it if that's not the kind of thing you do. It's my first time so I couldn't suppress the urge.
Posted by: mamagenerica | February 16, 2008 at 03:44 AM
Maisy fan says hi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU-IgH5cM5c
Posted by: tobias | March 23, 2008 at 08:30 PM