Betsy Bird's Blog

31 Days, 31 Lists: The Great Board Books of 2025

All right, all right, all right! Let’s start this month off with a bang! A board book bang, that is.

When you think about it, board books are a relatively new inclusion in the pantheon of children’s literature. For a long time (and, sadly, continuing to this day) parents were under the impression that reading to babies, toddlers, and preschoolers was a relative waste of time. Little did they suspect that the very seeds of literature love sometimes lie in these early engagements with book...

It’s Almost Heeeere….

a.k.a. Why they keep me around.

Folks, the time has come to celebrate the books published in 2025 that I just think are the bee’s knees but that won’t necessarily win any of the limited number of big children’s book awards in January. Now all year long I’ve been collecting, writing up, and generally tracking those titles that I think stand out in their field. That said, these lists are not of the “best” of the year. They are the “great” books of a year. “Best”, after all, is a relative te...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: With Special Guest Heidi Rabinowitz, The Borrowed Hanukkah Latkes by Linda Glaser, ill. Nancy Cote

This. Is. New.

For the first time we are simultaneously recording alongside another podcast. The podcast in question? The Book of Life, which has been in existence for a good 20 years now (this month!). And let me tell you… when it comes to Jewish children’s literature content on a podcast? There really isn’t anyone else that can match synagogue librarian Heidi Rabinowitz. She knows what she’s doing. She has a Substack which has enhanced show notes with bonus content here. And on both th...

Publisher Preview: Transit Editions (Spring 2026)

Can you tell that I’m desperately trying to get in the last of some really stellar small publisher previews before December hits? I could wait until January to run this one, but here’s the thing. Transit Editions? They don’t do a lot of children’s books, but the ones that they do do? Incredible. I mean, legitimately some of the best stuff I’ve seen. And this tiny preview is a pitch perfect example of that. These books… wow.

The Fountain by Lisa Loffredo

ISBN: 9798893380897

Publi...

Enchanted Lion Publisher Preview (Spring 2026)

Due to the line of work I find myself in, I sometimes have to field this question: Who is your favorite small publisher?

Naturally I hem and I haw as an answer. How could I ever choose? There are so many small publishers out there today, plying their wares, truly believing in the value and possibility inherent in children’s literature. And when I do this, when I refuse to give a straight answer, inevitably the person I’m speaking with gives me a look, that I can only ascribe with pity, an...

Bob Rossify Your Life: A YOU CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS Cover Reveal and Talk with Richard Ho and Daniel Miyares

There’s a Blick Art Materials store in my town where you can find any number of silly little knick knacks and doodads (perfect as stocking stuffers). It was at Blick that, not long ago, I started noticing the sheer number of Bob Ross-related fare that was out there. Coloring books and card games and all kinds of stuff. Bob Ross has, over the years, grown to be a kind of Mr. Rogers-like nice guy in the eyes of the public. Now there’s a picture book biography of the guy? I mean, that feels li...

Taking Play and Whimsy Very Seriously: Meet the Smushkins and Claudia Rueda

You know what’s going to save us from AI? Specifically, AI picture books?

Weirdness.

I’m not talking uncanny valley, AI hallucination-type stuff. I’m talking books that no machine could have thought up. Books that fill the gaps that our brains didn’t even know were there.

I’m talking Smushkins, people. The kind of creations that only people like creator Claudia Rueda could come up with.

Now I know I’m going to sound like a bit of a broken record to some of you when I begin to wa...

Publisher Preview: Norton Young Readers (Spring 2026)

The end of November draws near and, by extension, the end of the month, but there’s still time for previews, I say! Still time for previews from smaller publishers, at that. Today is our very first from Norton* Young Readers Preview, which is delightful to me. They recently acquired a middle grade novel from my friend James Kennedy, so I was already quite inclined to be keen on their work. James’s book won’t be out for a while, but these titles are slated for the Spring. Give them the old on...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Alligator Arrived with Apples: A Potluck Alphabet Feast by Crescent Dragonwagon, ill. Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey

Oh. Full credit goes to graphic novelist Ursula Murray Husted for today’s find. You know, we’ve done a lot of feast-adjacent picture books in conjunction with Thanksgiving in the past (Green Eggs with Ham, for example). But today’s book is a bit of an outlier in that respect. Aside from Cranberry Thanksgiving, I can’t think of the last time we did a legitimately Thanksgiving-themed picture book. Today we do our first Crescent Dragonwagon title (complete with a marvelous explanation of her na...

“… to tell the truth they must create an artifice.” We Discuss Memoirs, Comics, and I Wish I Didn’t Have to Tell You This with Eugene Yelchin

This past weekend I had the great delight in partaking in a Tomi Ungerer Symposium at The Rabbit hOle in Kansas City. If you’re unfamiliar with the location, it’s essentially the world’s first interactive picture book museum (and a lot more hands on than you’ll usually find with similar institutions). While tooling about its bookstore I happened to notice the book The Genius Under the Table prominently displayed in the middle grade fiction area. It instantly sent me back. When that book was ...