Betsy Bird's Blog, page 136

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: My Brother Charlie by Holly Robinson & Ryan Elizabeth Peete, ill. Shane W. Evans

I can say with complete confidence that this was the first picture book about a Black kid on the autism spectrum I had ever seen when the book was first published in 2010. Recently Kate saw a list from Black Education Matters listing several books that featured Black children with disabilities and she asked if any were possible for our podcast. And lo and behold, My Brother Charlie is ten years old this year. That’s ten years younger than we usually permit for a podcast, but when the topic is as...

Review of the Day: Planet Omar – Accidental Trouble Magnet by Zanib Mian, ill. Nasaya Mafaridik

Planet Omar: Accidental Trouble Magnet
By Zanib Mian
Illustrated by Nasaya Mafaridik
G.P. Putnam’s Sons (an imprint of Simon & Schuster)
$13.99
ISBN: 978-0593109212
Ages 6-9
On shelves now.

Troublesome boys. Lifeblood of early chapter books. Where would we be without them, after all? It seems to me that at some point in history it because a well-established fact that the best way to get kids reading on their own was to hand them a series of incurably naughty heroes and heroines. Here in America yo...

A Thousand Glass Flowers Is Never Enough: An Interview with Evan Turk

Lest you believe that the only blog I read is my own, I’m starting today by pointing out that it would behoove you, maybe even before I tell you a word about today’s author/illustrator and his book, to take a gander at the recent post at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast called A Thousand Glass Flowers. Jules Danielson has a way of sussing out process like no other person I know. And when the process comes from one Evan Turk, you know it’s gonna be good.

Years and years and years a...

Dual Cover Reveal & Interview: NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves by Lee Wind

All right, all right, all right. I think we’ve all seen a lot of collective biographies in the last few years. Some were memorable. Some were not. And a bunch were about LGBTQIA+ folks. Often they’d have very nice art and then some rote little write-ups encapsulating entire lives in a paragraph or two.

It’s time for something different.

Boy, I’ve known author Lee Wind for ore than a decade, I think. We bloggers, we stick together, and the man has a longevity that I admire beyond measure. ...

Peter Brown Cover Reveal & Interview: Fred Gets Dressed

That’s right, folks. I got the goods. The new-Peter-Brown-picture-book goods. You’ve been thinking to yourselves, “Gee. I like Peter Brown’s picture books an awful lot. I wonder when he’ll make another one.” To you, I address today’s interview and cover reveal.

But what is Fred Gets Dressed? A description is in order!

The boy loves to be naked. He romps around his house naked and wild and free. Until he romps into his parents’ closet and is inspired to get dressed. First he tries on his da...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly by Simms Taback

Happy Labor Day! Or, as we say on the podcast, Merry Labor Day! Today is not the first song-turned-picture-book we’ve done on the show (that honor went to The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night). However, it is most certainly the first (and quite possibly last) to include die-cuts. Now, to warn you, we’re both a little goofy on this episode. Kate wonders whether or not the “old lady” feels pissed off about being called “old” (as we attempt to sing “There was a spry lady who swallowed a fly”) whi...

Deadpan, Page Turns, Storytelling & Digestion: An Interview with Adam Rex

I did a little research today. My question: When did I first become aware of the books of Adam Rex? A search of my old blog (the one back on blogger before SLJ picked me up) yielded my oldest Rexian posting: A review of Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich from July 7, 2006. Adam Rex has been creating books for children essentially since I started blogging about them. And this year, he has two picture books out. There is UNSTOPPABLE . . .

. . . and ON ACCOUNT OF THE GUM . . .

Let there b...

The Lost Paintings Found: What Eloise and Stuart Little Have in Common

As I age, I find that I like my podcasts to highlight two areas of expertise that I never quite enjoyed in school: science and history. I wouldn’t say I was adamantly opposed to them back in the day or anything, but the idea that I would one day seek them out for fun would have struck young me as half an inch away from preposterous. Nevertheless, I indulge in Sawbones, Radiolab, No Such Thing As a Fish, Short Wave, 60-Second Science, Invisibilia, and Stuff You Missed in History Class. My latest ...

But If I Can’t Harangue in Person, How Will They Know I’m Right?: Book Committees in a Pandemic Age

The most beautiful sight to my eyes, each and every year, is this room:

Look at it. Beautiful books for children crammed into every nook and cranny. This is what the final meeting of my 101 Great Books for Kids committee is supposed to look like. Over the year my intrepid library workers have read every single children’s book published in 2020 that they can get their hands onto. They meet monthly, debate, defend, and put their thoughts on a shared Google Doc. Then, in mid-October,...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: The Farmer and the Clown by Marla Frazee

Just to catch the rest of you up, Kate is not a huge fan of clowns. Actually, that’s a bit of an understatement. She HATES clowns. Naturally that meant that I had to find a classic clown book for her birthday. I’m nursing a theory that they don’t exist, though, so I decided to get the next best thing. Marla Frazee’s The Farmer and the Clown won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Picture Book category. That’s enough potential classic status for me! But trust Kate to find a way to turn this sweet litt...