Betsy Bird's Blog, page 162
September 16, 2019
Newbery/Caldecott 2020: Fall Prediction Edition
Do you hear that grinding and clanking of gears? That’s the ALA YMA prediction machines getting ready to blast us with the full force of their knowledge and expertise. This is about the time when Heavy Medal begins in earnest. Calling Caldecott is much in the same boat. But those slowpokes having nothing on Guessing Geisel, which has been posting thought after thought after thought in wicked quick succession for weeks now. It’s all coming together.
I’ve done two of these posts so far this yea...
September 15, 2019
Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Swimmy by Leo Lionni

I am very proud of myself. I managed to go this entire episode of the podcast without mentioning Rainbow Fish once. We do discuss Frederick briefly, but how can you not? In this episode I discover that no one has ever written a fun background story on how Leo Lionni came up with this book. I was shocked. I figured that I could rely upon my usual source of information, 100 Best Books for Children by Anita Silvey but old reliable gave me bupkiss. Instead we discuss whether or not Lionni was go...
September 11, 2019
Review of the Day: I Can Make This Promise by Christine Day

Middle grade literature can too often become heavily reliant on a number of well-worn tropes. For example, this year (2019) we’ve been seeing a slew of books where the mom is dead and the daughter has to essentially care for her grief-stricken father. But this literature isn’t just limited to dead moms. Grief is weighing down the protagonists of 2019 like a...
September 10, 2019
Why Do We Build the Wall, My Children, My Children?
Is there any physical object out there that carries quite as much weight and symbolism as a wall? The other day I was weeding my library’s 900 section and I ran across these two books.


Yup. Two books. From the 60s and 70s. Talking about that bummer of a structure, The Berlin Wall. We’ll get it down someday, folks! Clearly I need to get better at weeding. Reminds me of the time I found Cooking the East German Way in the children’s section. But I digress.
The point is that we were talking ab...
September 9, 2019
Interview: Mitali Perkins Talks of Between Us and Abuela

The business of children’s book publishing changes with the times, but many elements stay exactly the same. If you are so lucky as to stick around for a couple decades, you may be able to watch your favorite authors grow and change, become superstars, and then test their boundaries and try something new. Take Mitali Perkins. Gosh, how long have I known Mitali? I must have met her not long after 2007. That was the year that Rickshaw Girl came out. Fast...
September 8, 2019
Fuse 8 n’ Kate: The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

“Nobody wants your bunny snot cake, buddy.”
We’d done The Stinky Cheese Man on our podcast, but that still left a great big wolf-shaped hole in our canon. Time for Scieszka/Smith Part 2: Electric Boogaloo. In this episode Kate decides to take the Wolf at his word and, as you might expect, we find some holes in his defense. This guy would never be able to hold it together if my sister cross-examined him on the stand. As you might imagine, we have a lot of fun with this one.
Listen to the wh...
September 5, 2019
Review of the Day: Mr. Nogginbody Gets a Hammer by David Shannon

You know that old phrase, “A victim of your own success”? I think about it a lot in terms of bestselling children’s authors. If you’ve done marvelously well because you’ve taken risks in the past, are you less inclined to take more risks in the future? Do you feel hampered in some way by the expectations set upon you? I think for some...
September 4, 2019
Guest Post: Doing Impossible Things: Ideas for Supporting Children in Foster Care by Lindsay Lackey

Today I’m bowing out and letting an author with some chops take the reins. Ms. Lindsay Lackey, to be precise. As you may be aware, she has a book out this year called All the Impossible Things. If it sounds familiar, it might be because of the recent SLJ starred review which said, “Lackey tackles difficult topics including addiction and loss with infinite gentleness.” Or maybe you saw the Kirkus review that said it was, “Painful to read – in a good way.” Why painful? Because Lackey is tackli...
September 3, 2019
In Translation: The Marvelous Translated Picture Books of 2019 (So Far)
All right.
Let’s do this.
I’m thinking a lot about trends these days. What has happened in 2019 to set it apart from other years? And not to give anything away, but I believe I’ve noticed a significant uptick in translations recently. To what do I owe this marked increase? Perhaps they’ve been doing well financially. Perhaps small publishers are making up more and more of the marketplace and are more willing to take risks. Perhaps people are looking beyond borders, willing themselves to read...
September 2, 2019
Happy Book Birthday, Great Santa Stakeout!
It’s here, it’s here, it’s here here here here!

Folks, I like self-promotion just about as much as I like yanking hanks of hair out of my head. But look, I can promote a book a lot better when I have someone as magnificent as Dan Santat in my corner. Today, I am pleased as punch to announce the publication of my brand spanking new picture book THE GREAT SANTA STAKEOUT! Is it too early for Christmas? It is. Is it too early for promotion of a Santa-related picture book? NEVER!!
Here is a quick...