Betsy Bird's Blog, page 16
February 26, 2025
Rain Rain Go Away: A Soggy Like Cush Cush Conversation with Karly Pierre and Kristen Uroda
I like it when kids complain.
Not my kids. Definitely not my kids. But when I read a picture book with an authentic kid with authentic gripes, I dunno. It just makes me feel like there’s something legit about the book. So when I read the new picture book Soggy Like Cush Cush by Karly Pierre and Kristen Uroda (out now!), I really felt where Petite Marie was coming from.
But I get ahead of myself. Here’s a quick plot description of the book in question:
Rain falls outside an old Loui...
February 25, 2025
Cover Reveal and Conversation: A Talk with Stefanie Foster Brown and Keisha Morris About My Heart Speaks Kriolu
There’s nothing quite like the debut of your first picture book. The excitement is palpable, and often there’s a bit of nervousness as well. You’re sending your baby out into the great wild world and it’s only just been born! Talk about terrifying.
Now there are debuts and there are debuts. And when I tell you that Stefanie Foster Brown lucked out in the debut department? You’ll see what I mean. Today, we’re revealing the cover of her first picture book My Heart Speaks Kriolu (out in sto...
February 24, 2025
Where Are You, Bront��? A Conversation with Barbara McClintock About Tomie dePaola, Dogs, Quilts and More!
Posthumous picture books are all over the news lately. For example, I’m sure you all saw the articles about the fact that there will be a Stephen King/Maurice Sendak collaboration soon. Such announcements always remind me of that CollegeHumor piece They’re Running Out of Shel Silverstein Manuscripts. Still, once in a while you get a posthumous piece that works. Not because it’s another random Dr. Seuss doodle from a drawer that someone turned into an easy book, or any of that nonsense. Rather, b...
February 23, 2025
Guest Post – Oksana Lushchevska: The Picturebook That Opened Many Hearts
On this, the anniversary of the beginning of the War in Ukraine, we turn today to children’s author, Oksana Lushchevska.
One of the functions of contemporary realism for children is to accurately portray the unfolding history and to showcase the problems and issues of living today. One day ���today��� becomes history, which represents the values we pass on to the next generations. It is not an easy task to reflect on the complex events; it is a special challenge to portray war in chil...
Fuse 8 n’ Kate: The Rainbabies by Laura Krauss Melmed, ill. Jim LaMarche
Let the record show that Kate cut out a very long discussion of how much I dislike bidets from the beginning of this podcast (and I disagree with this choice but, to be honest, it was a kind of an odd way to start a children’s literature podcast episode). Today’s book, while it does involve butts, is more about teeny tiny babies. We discuss hot bidet seats, what Jim LaMarche owes to Chris Van Allsburg, adorable weasels, and more.
Listen to the whole show��here on Soundcloud or download it...
February 21, 2025
Review of the Day: Will’s Race for Home by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Perhaps I was biased towards it from the start. I remember the first moment I saw the cover for Will���s Race for Home. I was tooling about the internet (as one does) when I came across this striking book jacket. On it is a Black boy, looking around 12 years of age, on a big black horse. With the sky burning yellow behind them, b...
February 20, 2025
Publisher Preview: Levine Querido (Spring/Summer 2025)
Allow me to remind you of the following.
Only July 4, 2024, I presented a preview of the upcoming titles of the publisher Levine Querido. And when I did so, I happened to include a small picture book by the name of Chooch Helped. That book would go on to win a Caldecott Award half a year later. So! Just in case you were inclined to pass on reading today’s preview, let me remind you that you could easily be passing on the next winner of a major award in the process. Just sayin’.
Not tha...
February 19, 2025
The Ezra Jack Keats Award in Conversation: New Winners and Older Thoughts
Did you see? Did you see? The Ezra Jack Keats Awards were announced today! You can take a peek at the brand new winners in a press release at the end of this post. But before we get to any of that, what exactly ARE the Ezra Jack Keats Awards?
To answer these questions, I had the great good fortune to have a conversation with Jocelyn McCarthy, the Associate Director of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation. She was happy to clarify for me some of the questions I’ve had about the award over the ye...
A Conversation With Allie Millington on Once For Yes!
Does the title Olivetti happen to ring any bells for you?
If you said yes, then you are already aware of Allie Millington and her typewriter-centric middle grade from 2024 that won a great many hearts and minds all over this nation of ours. And when she reached out to me saying that she had two books coming out in the future… well, I countered with my standard, “Hey! Wanna do a Q&A with me?” Which she generously acquiesced to. Ain’t she swell?
Once For Yes hits shelves everywhere on Ma...
February 18, 2025
Ellen Myrick Publisher Preview: Spring/Summer 2025 ��� Nosy Crow, nubeOCHO & Pajama Press
You know the drill! I tell you about the cool new books coming out from the little guys. You seek and find and adore them. Easy peasy!
They are….
Toddler Talk series: All Gone! and Let’s Go! by Carolina B��zio
Publication Date: June 03, 2025
Let���s Go! ISBN: 9798887771649
All Gone! ISBN: 9798887771656
Begin with the board books. Most of us do, after all. Now I’m sure you’ve your fair share of first word titles. Like tiny little dictionaries, they are. This series is a litt...
