Betsy Bird's Blog, page 160
October 11, 2019
Review of the Day: This Was Our Pact by Ryan Andrews
This Was Our PactBy Ryan AndrewsFirst Second (an imprint of Roaring Brook – Macmillan)$17.99ISBN: 9781626720534Ages 9-12On shelves now Do kids quest anymore? I mean in books, of course. Kids in real life don’t have a great track record on real world quests, after all. From a literary standpoint, a children’s book seems like a natural place to put a quest. Whether it’s Bilbo Baggins setting off for a dragon’s lair in The Hobbit or the two nameless heroes finding all the colored crayons in the...
October 10, 2019
Cover Reveal & Interview: The Amelia Six by Kristin Gray
Nothing like a good old-fashioned cover reveal to round out your week. And today’s is particularly nice since I have an interview to accompany it as well. For some of you the name “Kristin Gray” might ring a bell. Perhaps you read her, Vilonia Beebe Takes Charge, a Bank Street Best Children’s Book, or maybe it was the picture book Koala Is Not A Bear. Well, it turns out she has a new book coming out with Paula Wiseman Books in 2020 and she was kind enough to offer me the reveal of The Amelia...
October 8, 2019
Press Release Fun: SCBWI’s Annual Literacy Initiative
The members of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators join forces once again as part of the organization’s 3rd Annual SCBWI Books For Readers book drive and literacy event to collect, curate, and donate new books created by its members to one of its two 2019 recipients: the Madison Reading Project in Madison, WI. (The other is REACH in Portsmouth, VA, in November!)
The SCBWI Books for Readers literacy initiative grew from the organization’s desire to create an opportunity fo...
October 7, 2019
Teddies: A Daniel Kraus Interview and Reveal
I see a lot of middle grade books in a given year. I hear about even more, and because my brain is perforated with little holes, only a certain percentage of this information stays for longer than a day. Then someone shows me a plot synopsis like this:
When Buddy, a blue teddy bear, wakes up at the center of a huge dump, he knows something is gravely wrong. he was supposed to be picked up off the shelf of his toy store and taken home in the loving arms of a child. Instead, he is in a forgotte...
October 6, 2019
Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Click Clack Moo by Doreen Cronin & Betsy Lewin
How do you type with hooves? Would this book today involve the cows texting? What are the logistics of not giving milk and then proceeding to start up production again? Who’s buying from the underground milk market? How do you strap a typewriter to a duck? We are just full of questions with today’s book. Kate comes up with the cruelest advice for Farmer Brown I’ve ever heard and I get to come up with fake sequel names to this story (which was way too much fun).
Listen to the whole show here...
October 4, 2019
Review of the Day: The Usual Suspects by Maurice Broaddus
The Usual SuspectsBy Maurice BroaddusKatherine Tegen Books (an imprint of Harper Collins)$16.99ISBN: 9780062796318Ages 9-12On shelves now Have you ever felt deep down bone mad at the universe because it withheld information from you? Information that is, by rights, yours to have? Because at this moment I’m in that very situation. I have here, in my hands, a book. I have read this book and found it marvelous. So I am in this funny state where I’m overwhelmed with love for this wonderful book...
October 1, 2019
Americans Never Enter International Awards: Introducing the Nami Concours
Illustration credit Ali Douglass In 2011 I found myself six months pregnant in Bologna, Italy. Ostensibly there to write a piece for SLJ (Betsy Goes to Bologna: Why attend the world’s largest children’s book fair?) I was actually there to investigate something I’d been told. I had heard that the Bologna Book Fair was not going to be of much interest to me. After all, it’s mostly a rights fair where big deals are done in the name of children’s books. Heck, Bologna is where Arthur A. Levine rep...
September 30, 2019
Odd Pairings of 2019 Children’s Books
In the next two weeks my library’s 101 Great Kids Books committee will attempt to reduce all the wonderful children’s books of the year into a mere 101 titles. It’s a grueling process, cutting out the titles you love. Yet wonderful training for professional committee work and, truth be told, I really love it. Right now we’re doing a last minute cram of all the books we missed. My head is spinning a little. And, because I was trained as a children’s librarian, I can’t help but draw connections...
September 29, 2019
Fuse 8 n’ Kate: I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
We have a good good rule here at Fuse 8 n’ Kate. My sister and I do not judge any picture book that younger than 20 years of age. And with today’s episode, I broke that rule. I broke it hard. Clocking in at a mere 8 years of age, it’s a bit premature to consider Klassen’s best known title as a “classic” picture book or not. And yet, I could not help myself. We’ve never done a Klassen and if you say “Klassen” fast enough it sounds like the word “classic”. Good enough for me!! In the course of...
September 27, 2019
Press Release Fun: Amazing, Adept, Appealing Alphabet Books Exhibition at the Grolier Club
Your greatest abecedarian wishes are about to come true. The Grolier Club of NYC is hosting a free exhibit of a personal collection of alphabet books through the centuries. There are even free lunchtime tours! Here are the details:
The A.B.C. of Alphabets
An Exhibition at the Grolier Club
Over the centuries, writers and illustrators have used the alphabet to categorize and enumerate ideas and concepts, to amuse, and, of course, to teach and read. The A.B.C. of Alphabets, drawn from the coll...
