Betsy Bird's Blog, page 223
March 6, 2017
Announcing the 2017 Children’s Book Week Bookmarks Reveal
Folks, it is my very great pleasure today to present to you today with the Children’s Book Week Bookmarks of 2017. Featuring art from the illustrious pens and paints of Ekua Holmes, Yuyi Morales, LeUyen Pham, and Sonja Wimmer, you can thank Every Child a Reader (a nonprofit literacy organization dedicated to inspiring a love of reading in children and teens across America) for getting this all together.
You might be asking yourself, why are are there bookmarks for Children’s Book Week? Well,...
March 5, 2017
Cover Reveal: The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown
You might be saying to yourself, “Old Betsy Bird is doing quite a few cover reveals these days — is she phoning it in?” To which I would reply, “But today’s it’s the frigging sequel to Peter Brown’s The Wild Robot!!! I was gonna say no to that? I’m not made of stone!” Which isn’t actually an answer to the critique, but at least explains that when it comes to covers of books that I’m really and truly looking forward to, I will happily reveal them with a song in my heart and a spring in my s...
March 4, 2017
Book Trailer Premiere: Martina and Chrissie by Phil Bildner, ill. Brett Helquist
When I was a kid I didn’t know much about sports. I knew that the Tigers had won the World Series in ’84. I knew that there was a football player called “Refrigerator” and that sometimes football players took ballet classes (Mr. Rogers taught me that one). And I knew who Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert were. I’m conflating time a little with this, but honestly that’s as much sports info as I was able to retain in me brain. And really, the only reason I knew about Martina and Chris was b...
March 2, 2017
Review of the Day: Lucia the Luchadora by Cynthia Leonor Garza, ill. Alyssa Bermudez
Lucia the Luchadora
By Cynthia Leonor Garza
Illustrated by Alyssa Bermudez
POW! Kids Books
$16.99
ISBN: 978-1-57687-827-9
Ages 4-7
On shelves March 7th
It was probably seven or so years ago. I was working as a children’s librarian in New York City. We were hosting a class of kids, first or second graders, and after I had read them some picture books and covered the rudimentary basics on how to treat the titles they checked out, we let them run free to find whatever subjects they wanted...
Lucia the Luchadora by Cynthia Leonor Garza, ill. Alyssa Bermudez
Lucia the Luchadora
By Cynthia Leonor Garza
Illustrated by Alyssa Bermudez
POW! Kids Books
$16.99
ISBN: 978-1-57687-827-9
Ages 4-7
On shelves March 7th
It was probably seven or so years ago. I was working as a children’s librarian in New York City. We were hosting a class of kids, first or second graders, and after I had read them some picture books and covered the rudimentary basics on how to treat the titles they checked out, we let them run free to find whatever subjects they wanted...
February 28, 2017
Cover Reveal: Now With Additional Animal Countdowns!
On occasion a publisher will ask me to do a cover reveal of a middle grade novel. They’ll also ask if I’m interested in doing a Q&A with the author and usually I’ll say nope. Not so much. Thanks anyway. But this time around I had an idea.
Today we are premiering the book jacket for C. Alex London’s Great Escape, Book 3 in his middle grade series, “The Wild Ones”. To celebrate its release I asked Alex to rank the wildest members of our local animal kingdom. No small task, but he tackled the p...
February 27, 2017
Some of the Funniest Picture Books of 2017
Like many of you I snuggled down the other day and watched the Oscar Award ceremony in the comfort of my own home. I was happy. I was disappointed. I was amused. I didn’t have, what you might call, particularly high expectations, so the results often pleased me. Then we got to the end of the evening and the whole world exploded. Someone at the Platteville Public Library was a genius and posted this in response:
Spine poetry at its best (sans the spines).
But looking back at the films a...
February 26, 2017
Review of the Day: One Trick Pony by Nathan Hale
One Trick Pony
By Nathan Hale
Amulet Books (an imprint of Abrams)
$14.95
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2128-1
Ages 9-12
On shelves March 14th
Let us say, for the sake of argument, that you are a wonderfully successful author/artist of a New York Times bestselling graphic novel series about historical events. Hazardous historical events. Let us say that you want to do a new book. You have done fantasy before. You have done picture books before. You’re inclined to do a new kind of book. So what do you...
February 24, 2017
Guest Post – Influencing the Leaders of Tomorrow
Afternoon, folks. Amelia Hinn asked me to do a guest post today on creating leaders out of our kids today. I hadn’t any objections so please be so good as to welcome her piece on leadership and children.
One of the challenges as an educator is the vast responsibility of molding the next generation. Lenin once observed that the easiest way to control a population is just to have four years teaching the children. Hopefully, as an educator, our goal is to improve the next generation. Little...
February 22, 2017
Meeting a Need: Where to Find Books in Arabic for K-5th Graders
If your city is anything like mine, you may have been asked by the residents to increase the number of books in your collection written in Arabic. Finding great reliable resources can be a bit tricky, however. To this end I’d like to thank Katie Anderson, the MLS, Youth Services Consultant of Library Support and Development Services at the Oregon State Library. Katie has whipped up a list of magnificent sources for you today, and she was kind enough to say that I could repost them here on...
