Betsy Bird's Blog, page 155

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2019 Poetry Books

Again, I must assure you that in spite of the length of today’s list, I did not include every poetry book I saw this year. Is it my fault that there were so many good ones to pick and choose between? The sheer variety is enough to turn your head. We’ve classic poets re-illustrated, first timers, funny poems, deeply meaningful ones, poems that tie into the moon landing, nursery rhymes, and many many more. There’s something for everyone on today’s list. Even poems for people who don’t like...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: A Small Miracle by Peter Collington

Ah! At last! The chance to combine three of my favorite types of books on this podcast: Holiday Books, Wordless Books, and Cult Classics. In trying to find a new Christmas classic to do with Kate, it occurred to me that we had never done this particular book. It first came to my attention years ago thanks in large part to Alison Morris (now working at First Book). It was she who brought it to my attention and (spoiler alert) I fell instantly in love with it. It’s like I say in the podcast. I...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2019 Wordless Picture Books

I’ll spare you any thoughts that might pass through my mind about pictures being worth a thousand words, and so on, and so on, and such. Better to compare today’s crop of books to the works of comic book artists and illustrators. Sequential art is precisely that. An art. You can’t effectively convey the story in a wordless book without at least a rudimentary grasp of how to move the plot along from point A to point B visually.

Today’s selection is of those 2019 titles that manage to tell...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2019 Fairytales, Folktales, and Religious Tales

One of my favorite lists is debuting today. As I’ve mentioned many times before, in the past fairytales, folktales and religious tales made up a large portion of a children’s librarian’s purchasing budget. They used to be plentiful in the book market. Plentiful, and chock full of white people appropriating the tales of other cultures. Sorry, guys. Just telling it like it is. The good news is that we’re a lot more careful these days about who does the telling. The bad news is that there are a...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2019 Translated Picture Books

So. Many. Translations!!!

I am just floored. Did you see Leonard Marcus’s article in the New York Times yesterday called The Caldecott Medal Needs an International Makeover? In the piece Marcus notes that after WWII, two awards for children’s literature that were open to international recipients began (The New York Times Best Illustrated list and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, respectively). He writes, “Two devastating world wars had prompted some idealists to wonder if a cross-cultural...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2019 Children’s Books with Fabulous Photography

I had a serious debate with myself as to whether or not replace the Photography category of the list this year with something else like “sports”. Then I realized I read pretty much just one sport-related book in 2019 and back I came. You’ll find in this list that I have a fairly broad definition of what constitutes “photography”. By my thinking, it doesn’t matter if it’s a Getty Image or Nonfiction or Photoshopped or of models and silhouettes. If the book relies on the art of photography in...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2019 Books With a Message

Don’t shoot the messenger when she tells you that not all message picture books are bad! I mean the vast majority of them are, sure. You see, the funny thing about picture books is that large swaths of adults out there view them simply as message conveyance systems. They truly believe that if the message being conveyed to kids is strong enough, the quality of the text and the art can be anywhere between subpar to downright embarrassing. I happen to disagree with this sentiment. There are, as...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2019 Bilingual & Spanish Books for Kids

This year on their Best Books for Kids list, New York Public Library included a section that was just “En espanol.” It got me to thinking. On 31 Days, 31 Lists I always include a day of celebration for “bilingual books”. What do I mean by that? Well, either these are books that were originally in English and were translated to another language, or they feature both English and another language in their text. Following NYPL’s lead, however, I think that in 2020 it will behoove me to make a...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2019 Math Books for Kids

It was a funny trick of fate that I, your average librarian/former English major, ended up serving each and every year on the Mathical Book Prize committee. If you are unfamiliar with the prize, it’s awarded by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), in partnership with the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), in coordination with the Children’s Book Council (CBC). The committee consists of mathematicians,...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Unfortunately by Remy Charlip

In some ways, 2019 was kind of a fortunately/unfortunately kind of year. Seems appropriate that we would tackle Remy Charlip’s best known work in one of our final podcasts of the year. Librarians adore this title because its readaloud potential is huge. Will Kate love it for its originality, or detest it for the complete lack of sense it makes? I sort of love the fact that she believes that given Charlip’s origins, letting Ned die would have been the Frenchest ending of them all. I also like...