Betsy Bird's Blog, page 214

Review of the Day: Patina by Jason Reynolds

Patina
By Jason Reynolds
Atheneum, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Books
$16.99
ISBN: 978-1481450188
Ages 9-12
On shelves August 29th

You cannot be a children’s librarian or an adult children’s book reviewer if you do not constantly remind yourself that you have to read outside your comfort zone on a regular basis. Our current National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature, Gene Luen Yang, put this far more eloquently when he urged people to partake in the Reading Without Walls Challen...

What Color Is the Past? History, Diversity, and Books for Kids

The headline caught my eye. In the Guardian it read Mary Beard abused on Twitter over Roman Britain’s ethnic diversity. Subtitle, “Classicist says her assertion that there was at least some diversity under Roman rule led to ‘torrent of aggressive insults’.” Apparently the BBC recently released a video for schools in which a high-ranking Roman soldier and father was portrayed as black. Beard, who teaches at Cambridge, supported the video by saying that scholarship indicates that in many places...

New Fuse 8 n’ Kate Episode: Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe

In this week’s podcast it took me what I consider a bloody long time to realize that all our previous picture books had one glaring thing in common.  They were all by white people. And sure, we talked about misappropriation with Tikki Tikki Tembo and flirted with diversity with Heather Has Two Mommies, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that our creators have been pretty darn pale. To begin to correct this I pull out one of my favorite John Steptoe books. I was either going to be this o...

Cover Reveal: Fairy Spell by Marc Tyler Nobleman, ill. Eliza Wheeler

Fake news.  It’s not exactly new. From the moment humanity created the idea of news they also saw the vast potential that comes with “tweaking” it, shall we say.  As librarians one of our jobs is to help turn out children into savvy skeptics. You can understand then why I’m always on the watch for children’s books that help drill this point home (preferably if it could be done in a fun manner). A couple 2017 publications have caught my eye as ways of showing kids that you have to read everyth...

Who Killed Louis Slobodkin [‘s Art]? The Case of the Caldecott Award Poster

This is pretty much as low-tech as a mystery can go. More than anything else it’s a celebration of the fact that I’m not actually losing my mind.

Half a year ago I got the chance to help moderate this really cool Mock Caldecott program that one of my librarians set up with the kids in town. At each meeting the kids would examine five or six potential winners and discuss them. Now at this particular meeting there was a poster of the past Caldecott winners hanging on the wall.  I’m sure you’ve...

Review of the Day: What’s My Superpower? by Aviaq Johnston, ill. Tim Mack

What’s My Superpower?
By Aviaq Johnston
Illustrated by Tim Mack
Inhabit Media
$16.95
ISBN: 978-1-77227-140-9
Ages 4-7
On shelves August 4th

I credit Booger Beard.

I will explain.

While many children’s librarians will tell you that they have strived to make their book collections diverse and inclusive, they have always been hampered by what was being published in a given year. Nowhere is this more evident than when it comes to fun and funny books. Since #ownvoices and diversity are seri...

Book Trailer Premiere: How to Make Friends With a Ghost by Rebecca Green

There are book trailer premieres and then there are book trailer premieres. When Tundra Books asked if I might be interested in premiering the trailer for Rebecca Green’s simply adorable How to Make Friends With a Ghost, I thought it might be fun. Still, you know what’s even more fun that a trailer premiere?

A trailer premiere that comes after I force the creator to answer inane questions!  Woohoo!

Rebecca Green, as it happens, is awfully nice.  So nice, in fact, that when I sent out today’s...

Cover Reveal: The Orphan Band of Springdale by Anne Nesbet

Last year I went a little bit gaga over a book that I truly thought was a standout. And while Cloud and Wallfish by Anne Nesbet didn’t get any of the Newbery love I so craved for it, my admiration for Ms. Nesbet’s work is, was, and ever more shall be through the roof.  Fast forward to this year when her publisher (Candlewick) wonders if I might be interested in doing the cover reveal for the latest Nesbet title. Released in April of 2018 here’s how they described The Orphan Band of Springdale...

New Fuse 8 n’ Kate Episode: Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister

We recorded this week’s podcast during Shark Week. What better way to celebrate than to read the shiniest fishy in the sea. This week we experimented with putting me in the left ear and Kate in the right. Is this a good way of handling the problem of our similar voices or deeply annoying to listen to? I’m going to need some feedback on this one.  Before that, however, enjoy our capering as I go off on my desperate need for a hologram book, massive fish shunning, and my inability to fight Kate...

Fusenews: Posthuman Pooh

Today on the Fusenews we begin with a mystery. Help me out here, gentle readers, I need your crowdsourced wisdom to solve a query for the ages. Every week I get my new copy of Publishers Weekly and settle down during my lunch break to read it cover to cover. It is one of my favorite things to do.  A relatively new feature of PW is “Last Week’s Top Reviews” where they show the book reviews that got the most hits on their website. Cool, right?  Only there’s something odd going on.  Every single...