Betsy Bird's Blog, page 153

Resources for Immigration: Links for High School Students

If you read this blog with any regularity, you’ll know that I don’t truck with much that has anything to do with teenagers. However, there are always exceptions to the rule.

Marc Aronson is a writer, editor, publisher, speaker, and historian. In the past he guest blogged on this site a post about the global cooperation of the Thai cave rescue and one about the design and flow of nonfiction. Today he’s doing something far briefer. It is, however, something a teacher you know might benefit...

Review of the Day: my best friend by Julia Fogliano, ill. Jillian Tamaki

my best friend
By Julie Fogliano
Illustrated by Jillian Tamaki
Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster)
$17.99
ISBN: 978-1-5344-2722-8
Ages 3-6
On shelves March 3rd

What are we to do with Julie Fogliano? She’s presents to us a puzzle. Consider the life of the accomplished picture book author that does not illustrate their own books. Historically, picture book credit, love, and fame is reserved for author/illustrators. There are exceptions to this, of course, but generally speaking illustrators are...

Children’s Literary Obituaries: What We Lost in 2019

It’s not that I want to begin 2020 on a dour note. But while we traipse merrily into a new decade and a new era, it’s not the worst idea to look back and pay tribute to the authors and illustrators of children’s books we lost in 2019. Here is a recap of the creators that we should stand back and remember at least one more time:

John Burningham

April 27, 1936 – January 4, 2019

“… his genius lay in an ability to communicate in a childlike but never childish visual language and in his...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2019 Picture Books

And like that, 31 days just flew by. It’s New Year’s Eve, everybody! Time to take one last lingering look at 2019 before we launch into a whole new decade. What better way to see the old year out than with a final list? Picture books are such a delight to read and discover. This year, I saw so many wonderful ones. As a result, this list is going to strike you as a tad on the longish side. Still and all, I honestly believe that every book listed here deserves its day in the sun.

Thank you,...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2019 Middle Grade Novels

Every list that I write during my 31 Days, 31 Posts month is subjective. Reviewing, selecting, judging, and gatekeeping is, in and of itself, subjective. I never call any of my lists “Best” lists because I am just one person and I cannot see everything. But of all the lists that I do, surely the MOST subjective is the middle grade fiction. Just yesterday on Twitter, author Dusti Bowling started a conversation about how “MG novels have gotten longer over the years”. It’s certainly true, but...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: The Chanukkah Guest / Hanukkah Bear by Eric A. Kimmel

It’s the last day of Hanukkah and what better way to celebrate than with one book split into two parts? In 1990 Eric Kimmel adapted a story he’d written for Cricket Magazine to a picture book format and called it The Chanukkah Guest. Then, in 2013 he took that same Cricket Magazine tale and turned it into the slightly different Hanukkah Bear. One story. One author. Two different versions. Are they both Hanukkah classics or will only one make the final cut? We discuss every possible angle and...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2019 Older Reprints

Ooo! We’re so close to the end! The tension is mounting by the second. But before we get to our final two big lists, let us ease into them with a look at some of the stellar fiction reprints of 2019. These are the books for older readers that were given a second chance at life. This is not a complete list by any stretch of the imagination. Rather, it is a celebration of a selection of books that prove that the power of fiction remains with readers long after childhood. A book only truly dies...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2019 Nonfiction Books for Older Readers

The sheer necessity of actually reading each one of these books in a given year means that when compared to yesterday’s listing of Nonfiction Picture Books, today’s offering feels positively paltry. And yet, reading so many of these books turned out to be the most fun I had all year. How can you resist a book about how fashion trends have tried (and succeeded!) in killing people over the centuries? Or the book about young men who willingly ate poison for the greater good? Do you like joke...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2019 Nonfiction Picture Books

Here it is! My standouts! My stalwarts! The books that I just can’t get out of my mind, that have been swimming around in my cranium all year. The great works of picture book nonfiction of 2019!

Expect some duplication on today’s list, since a bunch of these titles may have already appeared on the Unique Biographies, Science & Nature Books, and American History lists (to name but a few). Fortunately, there are a bunch of newbies as well. For example, there’s a book that’s like Scott McCloud’...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2019 Unique Biographies

Sometimes I make a change to one of these lists and then later forget why I made that change. I merrily looked up what today’s list would be and was a bit puzzled to see that somewhere in the process I changed the name from mere “Biographies” to “Unique Biographies”. Huh. I guess I did that to show that some of the biographies you’ll find on today’s list are of people hitherto uncelebrated while others offer a new take on a familiar name.

Here are the biographies produced for kids in 2019...