Betsy Bird's Blog, page 111

What’s Your Hair Story? Guest Post by NoNieqa Ramos and Friends

It’s been a long time since I had a guest post on this site, but if I had to restart it then who better to kick us off than NoNieqa Ramos? If that name rings a bell there might be any number of reasons for that. Perhaps you’ve been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of this year’s fabulous and funny picture book Your Mama with art from Jacqueline Alcántara (and if you don’t believe me then maybe you’ll listen to Kwame). Or maybe you’re remembering that feature I did on this blog of NoNieqa’s upcom...

Review of the Day: A Tree for Mr. Fish by Peter Stein

A Tree for Mr. Fish
By Peter Stein
Imprint (Macmillan Publishing Company)
$18.99
ISBN: 9781250758712
Ages 4-7
On shelves now

I wonder who put a cap on the weirdness of children’s book publishing. Remember when picture books produced in America were allowed to get really weird? Like, In the Night Kitchen / The Missing Piece style weird? Nudity and grandiose metaphors and all that jazz. I’m not saying that there aren’t odd picture books out there today. Absolutely there are! But more than half the ...

Beowulf, Viking Pigs, and the Hustle of Comics in 2021: An Interview with Alexis Fajardo

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, I attended a small Quaker college in Richmond, Indiana (“Home of Recorded Jazz”, or so it claimed) by the name of Earlham. And it was at this college that I was introduced to its annual tradition of students attempting to outstrip their predecessors with beautiful, brilliant pranks. There were the usual half-hearted attempts at yarn bombing and such, but most of the pranks were elaborate affairs. Chickens filling the Administrative Assistants’ offices. A c...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: I’ll Fix Anthony by Judith Viorst, ill. Arnold Lobel

Could you publish a book today where a sibling relationship is anything other than sunshine and roses by the story’s conclusion? I say no, and I say the elaborate revenge fantasy of this week’s podcast topic, I’ll Fix Anthony, is a healthy catharsis for some children. Kate, needless to say, disagrees. I won’t go into it, but she had a rough week. Knowing this, I made the inelegant move to present her with this out-of-print now-back-in-print title. Judith Viorst (best known for Alexander and ...

Review of the Day: How to Find a Fox by Kate Gardner, photos by Ossi Saarinen

How to Find a Fox
By Kate Gardner
Photographs by Ossi Saarinen
Running Press Kids
ISBN: 9780762471355
$17.99
On shelves September 14th

Great nature photography, like any art, is wasted on adults. Unfortunately, adults have a tendency to rule the world, so this situation is unlikely to change anytime soon. I have noticed, over the years, that when a book for adults is popular and involves photos in some way, a watered down, half-hearted children’s book version of that title is inevitably released ...

Steve Sheinkin Returns! A Deep Dive Into the FALLOUT

For those of you unaware, for a long time Steve Sheinkin and I had a weird reciprocal relationship. He would create Walking and Talking interview comics based on actual rambling conversations with other authors and I would post them on this blog. They must have taken a ton of energy for him, and I was more than happy to reap the rewards. Well, Steve hadn’t been creating any new ones lately (the last was an early pandemic piece with Candace Fleming) so I wondered what he was up to. The answer is ...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier, ill. Sheldon Cohen, translated by Sheila Fischman

With the thrall of the Olympics in the air, Kate and I decided to do a sportsy picture book this week. And what we ended up with is arguably the most famous picture book in Canada. How famous is it? It’s SO famous that a line from it has appeared on Canadian currency. It’s SO famous that it has its own musical. We dodge around topics like Canada’s Quiet Revolution (?), books with titles like La Guerre, Yes Sir!, Maurice “The Rocket” Richard, and I mispronounce Tupac. Cause I can.

Li...

Unexpected Jolts of Children’s Literature: Now Extra Jolty!

Ah! This is always one of my favorite games to play. Finding the books written for adults that have some sort of link, however tangential, to children’s literature. Today, I’ve a mess of books written by authors that have had children’s books as well as adult titles. Let’s pair them together, shall we?:

The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar

If her name sounds familiar it may be because you recognize Thrity from this beauty last year:

In truth, The Secrets Between Us was r...

Review of the Day: Too Small Tola by Atinuke, ill. Onyinye Iwu

Too Small Tola
By Atinuke
Illustrated by Onyinye Iwu
Candlewick Press
$15.99
ISBN: 9781536211276
Ages 7-10
On shelves now

If you are good at something, better than anyone else, it would be a crime not to use your talents for the greater good. Take Atinuke. I can remember the very first time I read one of her books. It was way back in 2010 when Kane/Miller Press released the very first Anna Hibiscus book in America. It was an early chapter book, one of the more maligned reading levels for kids. Unl...

Choosing Brave: Emmett Till’s Mother Has Her Own Book – An Interview

There are moments in history that our children have not been taught. Moments, sometimes, that adults too have long since forgotten. But notice the slight shift in recent years. Consider, for example, this year’s Unspeakable by Carole Boston Weatherford and Floyd Cooper. Prior to reading it, few would have thought the Tulsa Race Massacre could have been adapted into the picture book form. Now on the horizon, debuting in the Fall of 2022, another book is aiming to tell a harsh truth in a child...