Betsy Bird's Blog, page 142
June 17, 2020
Recommended Science Videos and the Reluctant Homeschool Teacher
In March parents around the world suddenly found themselves in the precarious position of becoming involuntary homeschool parents. Kinda. In my particular case I had a eight and a five-year-old finishing up 3rd grade and Kindergarten, respectively. That meant figuring out how to work Zoom, how to make sure I had enough devices in the home for their assignments (Fun Fact: No matter how many devices you own, you will never have enough), and how to make a regular schedule. My daughter, who finds co...
June 16, 2020
Review of the Day: When You Look Up by Decur
When You Look Up
By Decur
Translated by Chloe Garcia Roberts
Enchanted Lion Books
$29.95
ISBN: 978-1-59270-293-0
Ages 6-10
On shelves now
In retrospect, I was probably a bit too optimistic. Cast your mind back a little to when, for just a moment there, books for children began to experiment with their visual elements. We were seeing things like Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret, a massive tome of a title, win a Caldecott for best picture book. Books like The Arrival by Shaun Tan, which...
June 15, 2020
Our Favorite Day of the Year: A Talk with Iranian Illustrator Rahele Jomepour Bell
I just know I can’t be the only person to have noticed that there’s been a significant uptick in the number of Iranian authors and illustrators of children’s books published in America in the past five years. To what do we owe this international influx of talent? After all, the sheer variation in these artists is astounding.
Such were my thoughts when I read the picture book Our Favorite Day of the Year by A.E. Ali, illustrated by Iranian artist Rahele Jomepour Bell. Its description reads...
Rahele Interview: Our Favorite Day of the Year
I just know I can’t be the only person to have noticed that there’s been a significant uptick in the number of Iranian authors and illustrators of children’s books published in America in the past five years. To what do we owe this international influx of talent? After all, the sheer variation in these artists is astounding.
Such were my thoughts when I read the picture book Our Favorite Day of the Year by A.E. Ali, illustrated by Iranian artist Rahele Jomepour Bell. Its description reads...
June 14, 2020
Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
In honor of Pride this month, I figured it would be a good idea to check out one of the first big-time LGBTQIA+ picture books published in America. We’ve already covered Heather Has Two Mommies in a previous episode, so what’s left? Well, if Heather Has Two Mommies came out in 1989, Daddy’s Roommate followed just a year later in 1990. It was on ALA’s top 10 banned list from 1990-1999. Researching it, I had no idea this would be such a fruitful book to explore. Above and beyond little things ...
June 11, 2020
It’s the Final Countdown (of Picture Books 2010-19)
Some of you may recall that a number of years ago I was inspired to produce a Top 100 Picture Book poll. The rules were simple. People would send me their top 10 picture books, ranked, and I would ascribe a point system to their answers. People responded in droves and the end results were produced here and, later, here for children’s novels.
Nice enough, but if you look at these lists I think you’ll instantly see the problem. Famous were the books, yes. Particularly diverse? Not so much. ...
June 10, 2020
Review of the Day: Just Like Me by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
Just Like Me
By Vanessa Brantley-Newton
Alfred A. Knopf (an imprint of Penguin Random House)
$17.99
ISBN: 9780525582090
Ages 4-7
On shelves now
“Uplifting”
“Empowering”
Ever see a word used so much that the meaning begins to blur after a while? If you lived your whole life buying books based on their reviews rather than seeing the books firsthand, you would be forgiven for just sort of meshing all the books that get tagged with those words together in the swampy fog of your mind. And normally I don...
June 9, 2020
Guest Post: What We’re Missing #4 by David Jacobson
It’s back again! Once more guest poster David Jacobson has returned to give us the 411 on international works of children’s literature that you undoubtedly have NOT encountered before. This time we’re shaking things up a bit by also including works from the past. These include titles about entrenched economic inequalities from a Yiddish book starring a “Leftist Lassie”, math loving orphans in Russia, a YA novel filled with timely themes from Finland,
Labzik: Stories of a Clever Pup by Kh...
June 8, 2020
Adventure Time meets Moomintroll? Chatting with Aliza Layne About BEETLE AND THE HOLLOWBONES
A parent has to make a series of choices determining what is best for their child. You sort through your own childhood to a certain extent, improving on some parts, deleting others. In my own case, there was at least one aspect of my early years that has caused me to embody true Nerd Parentdom: I have bestowed upon my offspring a thorough and unshakable addiction to comics.
I regret nothing. How could I? While I had to be satisfied with Betty & Veronica, Harvey comics, For Better or For Worse...
June 7, 2020
Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Little Man, Little Man by James Baldwin, ill. Yoran Cazac
As far as I can tell, I was very limited in what book I could select Kate and myself to cover this week. She wanted me to find one that was pertinent to the times in which we live. After wracking my brain for just the right title I decided to focus on a book by a Black author. Even better, a book that was ahead of its time when it came out and may only find its true audience today. And few books for kids tackle the issue of police brutality as honestly as this one does. Reprinted two years ago, ...
