Betsy Bird's Blog, page 102

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2021 Fairy Folk, and Religious Tales

Back in the day, say 30-40 years ago, this list would be a mile long. It would rival my Translations or Board Books lists in terms of sheer length. Now? Often I feel lucky if any of these books make it to the general market. Too often religious tales belong to small religious presses with their own in-grown distribution. Meanwhile fairytales and folktales are like mushrooms. You have a general sense when they’ll crop up but you never know quite where. Well, folks, they’re cropping up here today ...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2021 Translated Books for Kids

If there’s any kind of children’s book that gets short shrift here in America then it has got to be the translated title. They can’t win most of the ALA accredited awards, with the occasional exception of the Batchelder Award and others with looser guidelines. But for the major medals, translations are verboten! And yet, often they’re the books our kids need to see just as often on their shelves. Translated books take risks that traditionally published American titles might not be able to. T...

31 Days, 31 Books: 2021 Wordless Picture Books

The wordless picture book is an artistic challenge. The illustrator that attempts it isn’t making things easy on themselves. They know what they’re getting into, to a point. Of course, not every wordless book is “written” by the artist. On today’s round-up of some of the best wordless titles of 2021 we examine two books with separate authors and three without. It’s a fascinating collection of different styles, tastes, storylines, and methods. Put another way, some of my favorites of the year...

31 Days, 31 Books: 2021 Fabulous Photography

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, long before I trained to be a librarian I trained to be a photographer. I was convinced that this bold, sexy occupation was my true calling. And that conviction lasted right up until I realized that while I could detect quality in a great work of photography, I couldn’t detect it in my own work. Out the window went a life behind the lens and into my life a librarian’s degree. Still, I’ve always retained my fondness for the medium, and in today’s collection ...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2021 Books With a Message

I can see that today’s topic is going to require some explanation. What is it that I mean when I say “message”? Well, to explain that, let’s take a deep dive into the very beginnings of children’s books at all. As Leonard Marcus explains in Minders of Make-Believe, the earliest of American children’s books were created to instill puritanical morals in the young. As Leonard explains, the 17th century was when there was “immense popularity in the colonies of James Janeway’s A Token for Childre...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2021 Math Books for Kids

Today’s list is notable for being the first foray out of the purely picture book/board book realm. Each year I keep a keen eye out for math books, and not just simply because I serve on the Mathical Book Prize committee. You know, when I started out with Mathical about a decade ago, the state of math in children’s books was a sad, sorry state of affairs. These days? There are some remarkable titles being produced! And I must confess that when it comes to the middle grade fare, I’m missing a ...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2021 Picture Book Reprints

“Out-of-print.”

Oooo. *shivers* Did I scare you? For some of us, there are few words in the English language more deadly than that. Out-of-print can be a death sentence for many a book. And of the hundreds and hundreds of children’s books that go out of print every year, only a small handful find themselves reprinted later. And of THOSE, only a very few make it to this list. Which is a very long way of saying, I didn’t have to do as much work today (woohoo!).

Enjoy these sweet little z...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2021 Caldenotts

They’re beautiful. Sublime. True award-winner quality . . . and they’ll get bupkiss this year. I am referring, of course, to “Caldenotts”. Just as the award for the best illustrated book for children is awarded to Americans alone, so too must we sit back and watch as other beautiful titles fail to garner the appropriate attention simply because they don’t fit our criteria. With that in mind, I’ve gathered together a list of books that I believe could be true contenders if only they fell unde...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2021 Funny Picture Books

About this time in the proceedings we start to tip a little more fully into my more subjective lists. I’ve produced lists this month on standard categories like “holiday” or “board books”. Funny books are a different kettle of fish entirely. What I find funny, you may not be amused by. And what you think is hilarious might elicit little more than a half-hearted snort from me. Nevertheless, I would dub the following picture books (some of which you’ve already seen before) some of the funniest...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback

Hanukkah ends today and do you know what happened? We missed our chance to do a Hanukkah picture book on the show (and I’ve one on order but it won’t come in in time). So, feeling guilty, I thought we should do a good Jewish children’s picture book classic. And to my horror, somehow it took us 207 episodes for me to realize that we didn’t do today’s book. Are you ready to hear us right a great wrong? Because it’s Simms Taback time! Yes, the man who designed the world’s first Happy Meal is he...