Betsy Bird's Blog, page 168
June 12, 2019
Do We Expect Nonfiction to Be Serious?
When I was compiling a list of different kinds of stories, poems, horoscopes, etc. I wanted to see in my book Funny Girl, I was hoping to appeal to as wide an array of interests as possible. Sportsy kids. Kids who like real stories. Comics. You name it. And, of course, I wanted some Nonfiction in there.
Unfortunately, I learned pretty quickly that if you ask a Nonfiction author to be funny on command, oftentimes that very request stumps them. And who can blame them? How do you pluck humor fr...
June 11, 2019
Fuse 8 n’ Kate: The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr
Once an author up and dies on us, it’s the perfect moment to attempt a read of that writer’s best known picture book. So it is that Judith Kerr was the perfect subject to consider for this episode. This is a book that ignores the rather good advice that, “If you’re in a picture book and a tiger says he’s hungry, run the other way.” Kate discovers that this may well be one of the MOST English picture book we’ve ever encountered. She also identifies this tiger as a brat as a cat and you KNOW h...
June 6, 2019
Phantom Twin Cover Reveal and an Interview with the Incomparable Lisa Brown
I don’t truck with YA. Not my bag, baby. But, of course, it’s so difficult to determine where a book falls on the Middle Grade/Young Adult spectrum. That’s why, when I hear that Lisa Brown, one of my favorite people, is doing a graphic novel, I drop everything and pepper her with questions. I’d hold back but darned if her answers aren’t so good . . .
Betsy Bird: Let’s start at the very beginning (a very good place to start). As far as I can ascertain you are publishing your first GN with Firs...
Review of the Day: Going Down Home with Daddy by Kelly Starling Lyons and Daniel Minter
Going Down Home With Daddy By Kelly Starling LyonsIllustrated by Daniel MinterPeachtree Press$16.95ISBN: 978-1-56145-938-4Ages 4-7On shelves now I pick the books I review based on a complicated set of criteria that only makes sense to me. Often it has to do with a number of different factors, one of which is whether or not the children’s book in question relates to my own life at all. As I type this, I am gearing up for a trip to New Orleans. My mother and father-in-law will be celebrating t...
June 5, 2019
In the Public Eye: Iranian Creators of Children’s Books
If you are a fan of international children’s literature, finding books from specific countries, or from creators that are from those countries, can be a trial. Happily, we have the internet. A hodgepodge of information, true, but once in a great while it can be of use. And if you have looked at the wide swath of children’s literature out in 2019, you might have noticed an interesting trend. We’re seeing a nice increase in the number of books and creators from other countries. The country wher...
June 4, 2019
2019 Comics for Kids You Should Keep an Eye On
All right, folks. Time for a round-up. We’re almost halfway through the year, so why not take a gander at some of the great graphic novels/comics for kids out so far (or about to come out)? You know I love my round-up posts, and what could be better than rounding up some seriously eclectic titles? I have read a LOT of 2019 comics so far. These are the seventeen that I’ve enjoyed the most. Let’s see if you agree (and if you can name any I haven’t seen yet that you absolutely adore):
June 3, 2019
Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Tell Me a Mitzi by Lore Segal and Harriet Pincus
Let us try something a little different. Under normal circumstances, the entire premise of my podcast with Kate is that I will present her with a picture book “classic” that she has never seen before and she will read it for the first time. To change things up, she suggested that we bring a picture book that neither of us had read. At the same time, she mentioned in a previous episode that when it comes to classic Jewish picture books, the only ones we’ve ever done were Hanukkah based. Add i...
May 31, 2019
Review of the Day: Climbing Shadows by Shannon Bramer, ill. Cindy Derby
Climbing Shadows: Poems for ChildrenBy Shannon BramerIllustrated by Cindy DerbyHouse of Anansi Press (an imprint of Groundwood Books)$18.95ISBN: 978-1-77306-095-8On shelves now I don’t think I know what poetry is anymore. I think once upon a time I used to, but the definition was cold and stark and not particularly interesting. I remember the vague attempts of teachers to make it comprehensible in high school (I don’t remember much from elementary school). Really, it’s only when I grew up a...
May 28, 2019
Live Oak, With Moss: Selznick and Whitman (and Sendak?) Together At Last
Sometimes what people don’t do can be as interesting as what they do do. Consider the case of one Maurice Sendak. If you have read Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children’s Literature then you would have run across a true story of a time when Sendak almost illustrated The Hobbit. Indeed, if it hadn’t been for a labeling mix-up, the job probably would have gone through. Not every project Sendak considered worked out. And though he accomplished a great deal in his lifetime, he also had no di...
May 27, 2019
Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Pete the Cat – I Love My White Shoes by James Dean
Kate gave me a challenge to go out and find a picture book that the two of us hadn’t read. And in the end . . . I completely and utterly failed to do what she’d requested. I decided to do Pete instead. So it goes.
With this entry, Kate makes a VERY strong case for why this book missed an opportunity involving the color wheel. After she points it out to me, I exclaim, “This could have been Color Kittens: Part Two!” Just a hat tip to the Provensens there. Kate also points out that the actual m...
