Betsy Bird's Blog, page 171

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge

It’s time for another update in one of my favorite series on this podcast: Classics From Other Countries. Normally on this show we like to consider children’s picture books from America, determining if they deserve their “classic” status. But how fair is that? Why not consider picture books deemed classics in other countries? We did Duck, Death and Tulip via Germany. We did The Gruffalo via the U.K. So let’s jump on a plane and fly ourselves to Australia for our first Mem Fox classic. What w...

Happy National High Five Day! An Interview with Adam Rubin, author of High Five

Did you know that there was such a thing as National High Five Day? Nor did I but boy is it one of the easier holidays to celebrate.

Recently the New York Times last week. A story about the benefits of reading physical books to children. In the piece there’s some discussion of  how physical copies of titles create connections and foster a collaborative reading environment between children and their parents. Here’s a quote: “… the tablet itself made it harder for parents and children to engag...

Review of the Day: New Kid by Jerry Craft

Gaps. Sometimes they’re all that I can see.

Imagine you have a brain that allows you to retain information in compartmentalized slots. You have chosen the field of “librarian” so this trait is useful in your day-to-day work. As you read children’s books over the course of a year, you categorize each one. You note similarities, differences, and books that don’t strike you as like anything else out there. And you continue to keep track year after year, building up your knowledge, tracking what...

When Kyle wrote Aidan: Process and the Trans Child Narrative

The words “important” and “good” are not synonyms. Just because a book is important and fills a need, that doesn’t guarantee that the book is any good. Now we find ourselves in an era where we see a vast increase in “important” books. Books that give voice to groups historically marginalized in the past. Authors and illustrators that might never have been given a chance to write or illustrate picture books for children, if not for the times in which we live. This is a great good thing, and, l...

Who Wet This Interview? Bob Shea and Zachariah OHora Fess Up

I run a committee out of my library for any and all staff members that would like to join. It’s called the 101 Great Books Committee and every year we spend month after month reading loads of children’s books. Some of the newer staff members to the committee have by now learned that I sometimes employ a phrase when looking at a particularly cute, treacly, sweet and sunny, ooey gooey, widdle twitchy nosey: Not a Betsy book. A flash of the cover and yep. Not a Betsy book. So what kind of book d...

Unexpected Jolts of Children’s Literature

You know the drill. In my day job as a Collection Development Manager I spend my time looking at, and subsequently purchasing, books for adults. As a result, I come across books that have distinct children’s literature connections, but in unexpected ways. Today we’ll consider three books with odd ties to the field I know and love. There are some surprises in the mix.

Live Oak, With Moss by Walt Whitman, illustrated by Brian Selznick

An intriguing story coupled with another intriguing story....

Review of the Day: The Line Tender by Kate Allen

There’s this song from the musical of Matilda that keeps going through my head when I read The Line Tender. Have you ever had a song get caught in your head because of an ironic connection? I’m sitting here, contemplating Kate Allen’s quiet, thoughtful, contemplative novel and then the lyrics from the song “Loud” appear in my brain. They say, “The less you have to sell, the harder you sell it / The less you have to say, the louder you yell it / The dumber the act, the bigger the confession /...

Swag Trends

I swear to you, I do not understand children’s book collectors. Here we have a market driven entirely by an archaic understanding of what constitutes value. For example, let’s say I have an Advanced Reader’s Copy of Meg Medina’s Merci Suárez Changes Gears in one hand and a first edition of the same book (first run, pre-Newbery announcement) in the other. Which of the two would you assume would be worth more money to a collector? I would think the galley would be the clear cut item of worth. G...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: No, David! by David Shannon

Kate set me up with a challenge. We’ve been deeming too many books as “classics”. What book could I produce that would engender more of a debate? Well, after all these episodes (82!) I think I’ve figured out Kate’s least loved genre. It involves childlike art. It involves kids who aren’t entirely saintly. Really, it was just a matter of time before we got to this one. We’ve not done a David Shannon book before (though I dream of someday doing Duck on a Bike, though it’s a bit too obscure). U...

Wait… That Book Was Good! Flashback 2006: Enola Holmes

Folks, I’ve been blogging since I was a wee bit of a thing, dating back to 2006. Back then I was still a relatively new children’s librarian, eking out a living in New York City. I didn’t know much, but I knew when a book was good. Extraordinary even.

Today we’re going to try out a new series. Jump into the wayback machine with me, and let’s revisit books that came out more than a decade ago, that were stellar at the time. Does anyone remember them today? Do kids still find them in libraries...