Betsy Bird's Blog, page 159
October 28, 2019
Me and My Brudda: Jeff Kinney & Patrick Kinney Discuss the Who Was? History Bee
My daughter has just gotten old enough for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. She discovered them at school then started reading them independently. Poor kid. Think about it. She has to deal with a mom that gets embarrassingly excited whenever she starts reading a new series. The kid was mildly surprised when I pointed out that we already owned the first six or so in the series and that they were on a shelf in her room just waiting for her (there are three gigantic bookshelves in her room so it is...
October 27, 2019
Fuse 8 n’ Kate: In a Dark, Dark Room by Alvin Schwartz
Halloween is almost upon us! And like every year, Kate is always challenging me to come up with some classic scares. This year, we’ve seen Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark adapted to the silver screen. Seems only natural to then pull out what I would consider to be Schwartz’s other scary classic for kids. And, oh joy, it’s part of the I Can Read series! What I had not counted on was that in 2017 Harper Collins re-illustrated the series. What to do? Well… why not do both versions? Original illustra...
Review of the Day: In a Dark, Dark Room by Alvin Schwartz
Halloween is almost upon us! And like every year, Kate is always challenging me to come up with some classic scares. This year, we’ve seen Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark adapted to the silver screen. Seems only natural to then pull out what I would consider to be Schwartz’s other scary classic for kids. And, oh joy, it’s part of the I Can Read series! What I had not counted on was that in 2017 Harper Collins re-illustrated the series. What to do? Well… why not do both versions? Original illustra...
October 23, 2019
Walking and Talking with . . . Ruta Sepetys
In 2011 I traveled to Bologna in the spring to attend the largest children’s rights fair in the world. While there, I was able to meet and speak with a number of other Americans. And though my concentration has always been children’s books rather than YA, I had just the nicest conversation with Ruta Sepetys. She’d just come out with Between Shades of Gray and since the featured country at the fair that year was Lithuania, her presence made a lot of sense.
Today, Steve Sheinkin continues his “Walkin...
October 22, 2019
Review of the Day: Small in the City by Sydney Smith
Small in the CityBy Sydney SmithNeal Porter Books (an imprint of Holiday House)$18.99ISBN: 978-0-8234-4261-4Ages 4-7On shelves now It doesn’t come up all that often that I have to review a picture book without giving away too much. Picture books are shor...
4-7$18.99October 21, 2019
What Cats Think: Book Trailer Premiere!
If a person didn’t know better they might begin to suspect that this week was wholly dedicated to international cats! Yesterday my podcast read the Brazilian classic The Swallow and the Tom Cat. Today we take a trip over to the Netherlands. Specifically, to the expressive features and brightly colored paints of Mies Van Hout. To say that some of these images glow from their pages would not be an overstatement.
I first encountered this latest van Hout title at the last American Library Association conference. W...
October 20, 2019
Fuse 8 n’ Kate: The Swallow and the Tom Cat by Jorge Amado with Special Guest Roger Mello!
We have a special guest!! It was our esteemed delight and pleasure to host international superstar, picture book creator, Hans Christian Andersen Award winner, Roger Mello in this, the latest episode of our podcast! Now it had been a while since we’d done an international picture book. We do try to make an effort to look at what other countries would consider “classics”, but it can be difficult to (A) determine what a country thinks of as a classic and (B) find translations here in the States. Fo...
October 16, 2019
Chicken? Viet Thanh Nguyen and Thi Bui’s New Multigenerational Collaboration
I don’t know how many of you out there keep tabs on the world of adult literature. For those of you in the know, in recent years author Viet Thanh Nguyen has received such accolades as the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel The Sympathizer. His other books are Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War (a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction) and Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America. Meanwhile, artist Th...
October 14, 2019
Betsy Doesn’t Have Time for Your Nostalgia Today
I like Squirrel Nutkin. Do not get me wrong. Sure I do. I do not want to hate on your Nutkin parade. Everyone is allowed to love the children’s books they love. If Nutkin’s your thing, then wave that little wacky red squirreled tail of yours proudly. I honestly do not care.
But when you come around to my house, crapping on the state of children’s books today, that’s when the blood begins to boil. And I’m not just talking about this commenter alone. I’m talking about any adult who starts pub...
October 13, 2019
Fuse 8 n’ Kate: The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordecai Gerstein
“I get the draw of seeing three balls and wanting to juggle them. I don’t get the draw of seeing a wire and wanting to . . . die . . .”
In memory of the great Mr. Gerstein we decided to do his best-known, most classicy classic title. Of course, by doing this title, it means that for the first time, in all of our history, we are doing a nonfiction picture book. Not a bad way to start out, eh? Have no fear, we’ll be getting to the spooky Halloween fare soon enough, but first I wanted to pay an...
