Betsy Bird's Blog, page 208
November 7, 2017
In Memorium: Lockwood & Company
There is a game that literature lovers play amongst themselves at parties, at ice-breakers, at speed dating events, etc. The question is this: If you could live in any book’s world, what would it be? Now children’s literature fans, of the adult variety in particular, are fairly predictable. Harry Potter’s world probably remains the top answer, and for good reason. In his books the likelihood of annihilation is there, but Hogwarts, man, Hogwarts!! They don’t make amusement parks of places peo...
In Memorandum: Lockwood & Company
There is a game that literature lovers play amongst themselves at parties, at ice-breakers, at speed dating events, etc. The question is this: If you could live in any book’s world, what would it be? Now children’s literature fans, of the adult variety in particular, are fairly predictable. Harry Potter’s world probably remains the top answer, and for good reason. In his books the likelihood of annihilation is there, but Hogwarts, man, Hogwarts!! They don’t make amusement parks of places peo...
November 6, 2017
Blog Tour: Sticks ‘n’ Stones ‘n’ Dinosaur Bones
All right, folks. I don’t usually do straight up blog tours and the reasoning for this is simple. There are a fair number of them out there and how do you choose which ones to feature? But today’s book is kind of special. As you may know, I’ve a soft spot in my heart for independent publishers and self-published titles. Today, we’ve a little bit of both. Sticks n’ Stones n’ Dinosaur Bones was originally self-published by creators Ted Enik and G.F. Newland back in 2013. Enterprising souls, the...
November 5, 2017
Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Love You Forever by Robert Munsch (a very special episode)
That’s right! After a month of good but relatively obscure titles I’m declaring today Very Special Episode Day for the Fuse 8 n’ Kate podcast. Folks have requested this one since our inception and now, for your listening enjoyment, I have the honor of springing this book on someone who has never read it before. What will she think? Will she pull a Rainbow Fish on me and defend it? Will we see eye-to-eye on the matter? Will I bring up the book’s complicated backstory or let sleeping dogs lie?...
November 4, 2017
Video Sunday: Butterfly in the sky / I can go twice as high (thanks in large part to physics)…
Happy news, neighborinos! Today I bring unto you a video from BookFest, a yearly celebration of children’s literature hosted (these days) by Bank Street College of Education. Kidlit TV recorded almost the entire thing live and then put it on air. This year I had the honor of moderating a panel discussion with funny folks Carmen Agra Deedy, Jon Scieszka, and Rita Williams-Garcia. Now this thing is pretty long so here are some of the highlights broken down for you:
10:11 – #NoWords – Picture Bo...
November 2, 2017
Coyote Tales by Thomas King, ill. Byron Eggenschwiler
Coyote Tales
By Thomas King
House of Anasi Press (an imprint of Groundwood Books)
$16.95
ISBN: 978-1-55498-833-4
Ages 7 to 12
On shelves now
The older I get the more I like tricksters. I can’t think why that might be. By rights tricksters fall into the strict purview of children. Think of Bugs Bunny and Pippi Longstocking and R2-D2. I could make a case for each and every one of those being tricksters. Children’s books, as you might imagine, are packed full with them from cultures all ov...
October 31, 2017
Radiant with Color & Art: Upcoming Holiday Exhibition at the Grolier Club
They say the holiday season creeps closer and closer every year. Well, Halloween is over so I feel entirely justified in letting you know about this upcoming exhibit from the Grolier Club. This may fall into the category of “Only Children’s Literature Nerds Need Apply”. FYI.
Radiant with Color & Art
The Holiday Exhibition at the Grolier Club
The Grolier Club is heralding the Winter holiday with the exhibition Radiant with Color & Art: McLoughlin Brothers and the Business of Picture Books,...
October 30, 2017
Halloween Costumes with First Book: Go Big or Go Home
The idea for today’s post completely annihilated my original plan. In an early draft I was just going to gather together a variety of Halloween-appropriate links from over the past few years. For example, there’s this kooky post from a blog called The Haunted Closet (which is still running and fantastic) back in 2010 that examined a James Flora book for young readers (though after reading the post that point could conceivably be deemed arguable) called Grandpa’s Ghost Stories. That’s good st...
October 29, 2017
Spooky, October-Infused Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds and Peter Brown
The end of October looms and so our last spooky picture book falls under consideration this week. As I mention on the episode, we’ve strayed a bit from the classic book path. Don’t worry. Kate suggested that for our next episode we should do something that’s “bad”. I have an idea. Let’s see if I can bring it to fruition. This week we look at the Caldecott Honor winning Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds and Peter Brown. It seemed to fit the bill. And in the process we manage to touch on tattoos...
October 27, 2017
Review of the Day: The Antlered Ship by Dashka Slater, ill. The Fan Brothers
The Antlered Ship
By Dashka Slater
Illustrated by The Fan Brothers
Beach Lane Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster)
$17.99
ISBN: 9781481451604
Ages 4-7
On shelves now
Take any number of picture books published in a given year. Read them all, cover to cover. Digest them. Ponder them. Then, I have no doubt, you’ll want to sort them. You’ll want to categorize them in some way. Maybe it’ll be the same rote categorizations we see all the time. Maybe you’ll get a little goofy. You may, for...
