Betsy Bird's Blog, page 185

Cover Reveal: Crab Cake by Andrea Tsurumi

So around March of this year I got a nice little package from HMH Books full of galleys n’ such n’ such. And there. Lo and behold. Front and center and gorgeous as all get out was a book I didn’t even know that I wanted until it was in front of my face.

Yes. You guessed it. It was Andrea Tsurumi’s next picture book.

Just as a reminder to those folks amongst you who might not know, have you ever seen my Twitter avatar? She looks a little something like this:

She is, as Andrea once called her,...

Video Premier: A Book Chat with Molly Idle About Pearl

A new Molly Idle book is naturally a cause for some celebration. All the better if it happens to involve something awesome. Something like . . . mermaids. When Ms. Idle gets her hands on a mythical creature, however, you simply want to see more of them. Unicorns! Griffins (with her love of birds she’d do a killer griffin, you know it)! Manticores!

Today we’re featuring one of those book chats Little, Brown sometimes does with its authors. Ms. Victoria Stapleton talks to Molly about the book a...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone

Happy October! We open this month of hauntings and spirits with a book about a terribly frightening monster! And by “terribly frightening” I mean “terribly frightened“. Inspired by our discussion of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus I decided to go to the source. Which is to say, the 4th wall breaking title that started the whole American genre in the first place. Is it crazy that I never considered before the fact that this is a Sesame Street book and Mo Willems, who would later write that...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone

Happy October! We open this month of hauntings and spirits with a book about a terribly frightening monster! And by “terribly frightening” I mean “terribly frightened“. Inspired by our discussion of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus I decided to go to the source. Which is to say, the 4th wall breaking title that started the whole American genre in the first place. Is it crazy that I never considered before the fact that this is a Sesame Street book and Mo Willems, who would later write that...

Press Release Fun: SCBWI Books for Readers Book Drive

For IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SCBWI’s 2nd Annual Literacy Initiative Gives Books and Builds Dreams

With Donations of Books to Readers In Need

Children’s Book Creators Join Forces to Provide High Quality Books for the Indian Education Program of Fargo and West Fargo Public Schools

 

Los Angeles, CA, and Fargo, North Dakota—September 19, 2018

Members of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators join forces again as part of the organization’s 2nd Annual SCBWI Books For Readers book drive...

Fusenews: STEM Girl Fashions, the Death of “Hypothesis”, and More

Welcome to Fusenews! Or, as I like to call it, all the news that fit to fuse.

Yeah. We’re still working on that one.

 

First off, a great illustrator for children has died. This was very much the case of me not knowing that he was still alive, only to be doubly saddened when I heard he was gone.  Walter Tripp had a way with drawing animals.  I encountered his delightful art as a child with the quintessential, classic collection of poetry A Great Big Ugly Man Came Up and Tied His Horse to Me:...

Down Syndrome and the Great Gaping (Longstanding) Children’s Book Gap

When I was a child I knew what Down syndrome was but I didn’t know it because of any picture books that contained characters with Down syndrome. None of my childhood literature covered it, so if I wanted to see someone represented in this way I had to turn on Sesame Street. Though it’s not widely remembered today, Jason Kingsley, a boy with Down syndrome, appeared on 55 episodes of the show, becoming a regular cast member in the process (check out the post 11 Moments On ‘Sesame Street’ That C...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems

She’s so cute. Kate thought we wouldn’t have enough to talk about with this week’s podcast because the featured book is so simple in both text and image. Little did she know!!! What happens when an adult woman reads this book for the first time and is told that many consider it a modern day classic? Oh. Let’s find out. Along the way Kate questions the shenanigans (her word) of the bus driver, why the pigeon never has eyelashes (does Mo have something against them?), whether or not the bird is...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems

She’s so cute. Kate thought we wouldn’t have enough to talk about with this week’s podcast because the featured book is so simple in both text and image. Little did she know!!! What happens when an adult woman reads this book for the first time and is told that many consider it a modern day classic? Oh. Let’s find out. Along the way Kate questions the shenanigans (her word) of the bus driver, why the pigeon never has eyelashes (does Mo have something against them?), whether or not the bird is...

Review of the Day: Dreamers by Yuyi Morales

Dreamers
By Yuyi Morales
Neal Porter Books (an imprint of Holiday House)
$18.99
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4055-9
Ages 5 and up
On shelves now

Work in the children’s book business long enough and you run the risk of harboring grudges. Or, to be more specific, grudges o’ love. Grudges on behalf of the hardworking authors and illustrators that never seem to get their adequate due. There are whole lists of talented people out there that somehow don’t appeal to award committees, year after year, in s...