Betsy Bird's Blog, page 216
July 6, 2017
Review of the Day: Accident! by Andrea Tsurumi
Accident!
By Andrea Tsurumi
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
$17.99
ISBN: 978-0-544-94480-0
Ages 4-7
On shelves October 3rd
There is no accident so small that a forward thinking six-year-old can’t turn it into World War III.
You see, there are certain things they won’t tell you when you prepare to become a parent. They’ll conveniently fail to mention the sheer amount of personal injury you’ll endure when your children treat your body like a playground 24/7. They’ll decline to say how the decib...
July 5, 2017
2017: Marking the Rise of the Almighty Board Book
It’s not as though board books have ever really gotten their due. Doomed to withstand the incessant chompers of teeny tiny gums, half the time they are mistaken for chew toys and the other half as portable germ factories. Here’s a test. Walk into your local library. Look long and hard at the board book section. If the section is filled with pristine board books, bereft of so much as a single droplet of baby spit then either (A) your town has no babies in it or (B) your library is rolling in d...
July 3, 2017
Surprising Jolts of Children’s Literature: Happy 4th of July!
In case you’re confused, there is actually no direct connection between today’s post and Independence Day. I just felt somewhat bad about appropriating the holiday without acknowledging its existence and so here we are. Happy 4th! And now, some random adult books with tangential connections to books for kids.
The Velveteen Daughter by Laurel Davis Huber
Admit it. It would never have even crossed your mind to wonder about the life of author Margery Williams Bianco and her daughter Pamela. Th...
July 2, 2017
Fusenews: Digitization for the Win
One of the many things I liked about working for New York Public Library was the institution’s longstanding dedication to diversity in children’s literature. NYPL from 1913 to about seven years ago produced a regularly updated booklist that was originally called The Negro Experience in Children’s Books and later The Black Experience in Children’s Books. These lists were kept carefully preserved in the offices of the heads of Children’s Services, and when those positions were reorganized the f...
June 30, 2017
Review of the Day: Silent Days, Silent Dreams by Allen Say
Silent Days, Silent Dreams
By Allen Say
Arthur A. Levine Books (an imprint of Scholastic)
$21.99
ISBN: 978-0-545-92761-1
Ages 8-12
On shelves October 31st
I have never written a biography, nor have I any inclination to do so. Biographical subjects don’t interest me, but the people that choose to write the biographies of others? Those folks interest me very much. Why would anyone do that? Is it based on some primal need to better understand your fellow human beings? Not all biographies a...
June 28, 2017
Book Trailer Premiere: Our Story Begins, edited by Elissa Brent Weissman
You know, FUNNY GIRL wasn’t the only anthology out this year. I seem to recall quite a few of them gracing our bookstore and library shelves in 2017. One of them struck me as particularly keen too. Called Our Story Begins it contains actual books created by famous children’s book authors and illustrators when THEY were kids. Can you think of a better way of informing children that becoming a writer is a real possibility?
Now here’s where editor Elissa Brent Weissman is much smarter than me...
June 27, 2017
Newbery Caldecott Wilder Banquet Outfit 2017: Paper Doll
It began so simply. One year I decided I discovered that it was possible to make your own temporary tattoos. For fun I made some Newbery winners and made a band of them on one arm right before I attended the Newbery Caldecott Wilder banquet that year. When the next year rolled around I did two arms. One for the Caldecotts and one for the Newberys. The year after that I tried something different, turning the covers into circular tattoos and then weaving words from that year’s Newbery winner (W...
June 26, 2017
New Fuse 8 n’ Kate Episode: Heather Has Two Mommies
In honor of Pride Month, Kate and I decided to celebrate with a practical consideration of the most famous same-sex parenting book of all time (sorry, Tango). But here’s the thing – I remembered disliking the original art intensely when I was younger. Does the book actually belong in the children’s literature canon or is it overrated, dated, and/or less timely than the newer books on the same topic coming out today? OR is it a brilliant piece that is, in its way, timeless. Only one way to...
June 22, 2017
Cover Reveal: The 11:11 Wish by Kim Tomsic
Today the American Library Conference in Chicago begins. It is the one of those rare times when casual observers can watch librarians running around like crazed chickens with their heads cut off. Tis a glorious sight. That said, I’d bet good money that a bunch of you are not attending and are, instead, in desperate need of a good cover reveal. One from, say, 2018. For you, my lucky readers, I provide. Better still, I’m giving you a debut author. How’s that for cheeky?
Meet Kim Tomsic. She wri...
June 21, 2017
Review of the Day: Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk
Beyond the Bright Sea
By Lauren Wolk
Dutton (an imprint of Penguin Young Readers)
$16.99
ISBN: 978-11-101-99485-6
Ages 10-14
On shelves now.
No author gets a free pass. Your last book have been a spot-on bit of brilliance, lighting up the literary landscape like a thousand Roman candles. Pfui. A writer is only as good as their latest book, as any jaded 10-year-old will tell you. And while I greatly enjoyed Lauren Wolk’s debut novel (and Newbery Honor winner) Wolf Hollow I also knew full...
