Betsy Bird's Blog, page 113
July 13, 2021
Kill Your Darlings: A Sangu Mandanna Interview About Kiki Kallira Breaks a Kingdom
Today, we’re gonna start off with a bang. I interview a fair number of folks on this blog. Why? Because I honestly enjoy it. I mean, I’m in the incredibly privileged position of getting to dive deep into the heads of book creators. Content providers! And you know what?
Not enough of them are engaged in the kicking of butt.
Today?
That changes:
Awwwwwwwww yeah, baby! This is why I love fantasy. Girls. With swords. Slaying the gods they created. What could be better?
The book...
July 12, 2021
Flowers Are Pretty…Weird! A Talk with Rosemary Mosco About Those Flowers You Wouldn’t Invite to a Dinner Party
Okay, okay. Enough of all these biographies. It’s a problem we actually have every year at my library when we’re compiling our 101 Great Books for Kids List. When the time comes to consider the nonfiction, we end up staring at almost a hundred biographies and maybe thirty to forty science and math titles. Narrative nonfiction, man. It just sucks people in.
But you know what else sucks people in? Weirdo flower facts!! And fortunately, I have a dynamic duo that have already proven themselves i...
July 11, 2021
Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert
Having already covered the recently departed legend Eric Carle, we figure it only makes sense (and is fair) to mention the other recently departed legend, Lois Ehlert. But which book to do? I will confess to you that 95% of my choice to do this book was based on a letter Bad Kitty author Nick Bruel once wrote to Ms. Ehlert, alongside a box of chocolates (read on this show). In this episode we insult one another’s mom, discuss a TikTok challenge, and determine the proper pronunciation of “xig...
July 8, 2021
Dorothy the Brave Cover Reveal: A Q&A With Meghan P. Browne
Earlier today I was listening to an episode of the podcast Stuff You Missed in History Class about Arturo Alfonso Schomburg. The hosts were just stunned that they’d never heard of him until recently. Me? I already knew who he was thanks to the picture book biography Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library by Carole Boston Weatherford. It got me to thinking about how often biographies and original research are conducted not for books for adults, but for youth.
Today, I sat down with author Meg...
July 7, 2021
I Am Smoke: A Cover Reveal and Q&A with Author Henry L. Herz
All right, folks. It’s time to give smoke its due.
Even as I say this, I realize that we’re right smack dab at the start of wildfire season. It is possible that the very last thing people want to think about is smoke. Yet Henry L. Herz isn’t “people” and smoke has so many myriad uses that it’s high time they got noticed. In his upcoming title I AM SMOKE (released by Tilbury House Publishers on September 7th), Herz provides an account of the life cycle and the beneficial uses of smoke across ...
July 6, 2021
Review of the Day: Borders by Thomas King, ill. Natasha Donovan
Borders
By Thomas King (Cherokee/Greek)
Illustrated by Natasha Donovan (Métis)
Little, Brown and Company
$24.99
ISBN: 9780316593069
On shelves September 7th
Sometimes I worry that comics for kids are starting to too often rest on their laurels. In the old days, a children’s librarian’s attitude towards having a comic in their collection would probably lead to them screaming, “Burn it with fire!!!” These days, the attitude has shifted to quite the opposite reaction. 20th century librarians were co...
July 5, 2021
2021 Poetry: Versification for the Masses
Top of the Tuesday to you!
Poetry. The creator of and solution to of to all our librarian problems*. I have found in my travels that children’s books of poetry slot neatly into two categories: Good and forgettable. Let it be made clear then that there is a LOT of perfectly decent poetry out there. Perfectly decent, completely forgettable poetry. 2021 has been particularly egregious in this area. I’ve read through loads of the stuff, and I suspect it is but the tip of the iceberg. Thanks to th...
July 4, 2021
Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, ill. John Schoenherr
Having failed to secure a proper Fourth of July picture book (and really, isn’t the 4th soooo yesterday?) I decided instead to take several listener recommendations and go all in on Jane Yolen’s 1987 Caldecott Award winner. What better book to look at on these hot July days than a cold story of moonlit driven snow on a wintery night? Kate and I try to make weird owl noises, debate why we don’t eat them for food, and play the game of “Guess How Many Books Jane Yolen Has Written.”
Li...
July 1, 2021
Review of the Day: The Wild Huntsboys by Martin Stewart
The Wild Huntsboys
By Martin Stewart
Viking (an imprint of Penguin Random House)
$17.99
ISBN: 978-0-593-11613-5
Ages 9-12
On shelves now
“So there are these three boys.”
“With you so far.”
“And they don’t like each other because it’s set in this future where England’s at war and a lot of them have been bombed out, so they have to live together. And all the little kids have been sent to the countryside.”
“Cool. Like in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe?”
“Yeah, except the magic isn’t in the countr...
June 30, 2021
Cover Reveal and Interview: SOFÍA ACOSTA MAKES A SCENE with author Emma Otheguy
It seems to me that if you are good at your job, like, say, writing books for kids, you just need to up your game all the time. Try different things! Get all kinds of ideas out there. See, now take author Emma Otheguy. Here you have someone with a career that isn’t afraid to try new things. Whether she’s penning the latest Carmen Sandiego novel, writing picture book bios IN VERSE of beloved Cuban poet José Martí, penning picture books, or fulling embracing fantasy, she’s game. Now it’s time for ...
