Betsy Bird's Blog, page 170

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Podcasts are variegated beasties. In the children’s publishing field they can range from silly to shop talk. One that I’ve started taking a real shine to is Graphic Novel TK. Don’t let the title fool you. While hosts Alison Wilgus and Gina Gagliano do delve deep into comics on occasion, many of the discussions are pertinent to the larger publishing world. From them I’ve gotten clarification on what a lead title is, the mysterious work people do with sales (and how it all relates to Barnes &...

Poetry Month Ain’t Over Till I Sez It’s Over: The Shockingly Good Verse of 2019

Yeah yeah yeah. Poetry Month is April, you say. That’s the only month the 811s in the library even move, you say. Once the first of May arrives a concrete slab falls and cuts off all future mentions of poetry until the next year rolls around, you say.

Well, you know what? Poetry doesn’t obey your rules, man! And if we want to talk about the stuff in 2019 that’s amazing (and, quite frankly, some of it isn’t even out yet) then that’s what we’re going to do. So gather round me, ye children. I kn...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton

Ramona’s not the only one calling aspects of Mike Mulligan into question anymore. Kate and I already tackled Virginia Lee Burton’s The Little House, so now we cover another book tackling the fast moving world and how it can lead to obsolescence. A tale of “a man obsessed with his steam shovel,” muffs, dabbing, how precisely a steam shovel would work, and the weird placement of the acknowledgement to Dickie Birkinbush, mid-book.

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it thro...

The Translation Conundrum: What to Do? What to Do?

Here’s a pretty little question. One that’s so broad I have a hard time wrapping my head around it. What does one do when one is handed a big question? If you are me then you throw it into the ether and see what happens to it. Commence throwing arm . . . now!

Yesterday, David Jacobson (author of the truly wonderful, original, and rare Are You an Echo?: The Lost Poetry of Misuzu Kaneko , board member of the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative, and fellow with the International Youth Libr...

Review of the Day: Trace by Pat Cummings

Trace By Pat CummingsHarper (an imprint of Harper Collins0$16.99ISBN: 978-0-269884-1Ages 9-12On shelves now

I feel like ghost stories don’t command the respect they used to. Can anyone seriously contest that they aren’t popular? When I was a kid, the Scholastic Book Club flyer always featured at least one Apple paperback that was ghost related. Inevitably written by a Willo Davis Roberts or a Mary Downing Hahn or a Betty Ren Wright, they were a consistent source of safe spooks. I trusted gho...

Funny Girl, Funny Face: Fanny Brice and Eloise

For someone who never grew up with Eloise in her life, I sure as heck have learned a lot about that little Plaza demon over the years. For me, Eloise is the gossipy gift that keeps on giving. From rumors involving dead cats, to the heist of the original portrait from the Plaza, to her incredible creator and the life she led, there is very little about Eloise that is not interesting. And, hey, you may not like her books, but darned if you find them dull.

For all this, I was fairly certain tha...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Bark, George by Jules Feiffer

“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend.

Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.”

-Groucho Marx

I’m not entirely certainly why I selected this as today’s book. Maybe I wanted a book that was merely 20 years old. Maybe it was the fact that earlier in the day, before we recorded, I had read this book to my son’s preschool class. But it may be because, and I don’t think I’m spoiling anything here, it is one of the world’s greatest readaloud picture books. The question then becomes, wha...

Booklist’s 50 Best Middle-Grade Novels of the 21st Century (Now With Ample Edits!)

If you received your latest issue of Booklist in the mail then you might have noticed that its editors got together and created nothing less than the 50 Best Middle-Grade Novels of the 21st Century. My first thought upon seeing the list was, “Boy, I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes.” My second thought was, “Wait . . . what the heck am I saying? I would LOVE to be in their shoes! Making this list would be so much fun!”

Don’t get me wrong. There are things on this list that I’d definitely ch...

Review of the Day: Crab Cake by Andrea Tsurumi

Crab Cake: Turning the Tide TogetherBy Andrea TsurumiHoughton Mifflin Harcourt$17.99ISBN: 9780544959002On shelves now

These days it’s not uncommon to walk into the children’s room of a bookstore or library and find yourself surrounded by a plethora of picture books that tackle trauma. Once the purview of specialty presses, it’s a little sad to say, but the state of the world and news cycle in the early 21st century has necessitated more authors and publishers to step up to the plate and hand...

Book Stank: The Picture Book Conundrum

Not too long ago a reader made a comment about one of the books I’d been promoting on this site. She wrote, “Hey, Betsy, I promise I’m not trying to troll, but I have one question/misgiving abt this book. It is the stinkiest new picture book I’ve ever read! It just hit our new book shelf. I was excited to read it, but the smell of this book is overwhelming! I’ve tried standing it up with the pages fanned out. That worked for 1 reading, but the smell isn’t really fading. Have you noticed this...