Betsy Bird's Blog, page 229

31 Days, 31 Lists: Day Ten – 2016 Math Picture Books

God has a sense of humor. How else to explain the fact that for the past three or four years I have been a founding and contributing member of the Mathical Book Award committee? Yep, each year I read a slew of math-related books for kids. I do it because while I personally was not overawed by integers as a child (aside from enjoying the PBS show Square One, of course), there are a lot of kids out there who are. Where are their books? Since the founding of the award, it’s not as if the number...

31 Days, 31 Lists: Day Nine – 2016 Picture Book Reprints

Sometimes I talk about how books with illustrators from countries other than America get a bum rap because there are so few awards that they can win. And this isn’t untrue, but there are a couple lists that give them their due. There’s the New York Times Best Illustrated list, and the Society of Illustrators show with all the awards inherent therein. There’s the Batchelder Award (sorta) and all those Best of the Year lists the review journals put out.

Pity then the picture book reprint. There...

31 Days, 31 Lists: Day Eight – 2016 Calde-nots

A list based entirely on what a book is not? And what precisely is a Calde-not? Well, we’re getting into semantics and rules today, so buckle up. First and foremost, I direct your attention to the illustrious Caldecott Award. The most famous award given to the most distinguished examples of American illustration for children. Note that I said “American”. A Caldecott Award has terms and criteria. Here are two of them:

The Medal shall be awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguis...

31 Days, 31 Lists: Day Seven – 2016 Great Funny Picture Books

Every single list that appears on this blog is subjective. I mean, here I am declaring stuff to be great based entirely on a single solitary opinion: my own. That’s okay when you’re talking alphabet books or readalouds, but humor is a far trickier matter. There are a LOT of humorous picture books that come out in a single year and this list is just a miniscule smattering of the whole. That said, these are the books that really retained a strong grip on my brain after reading them. There were...

Blog Tour Warning: Contains Computer Science and Copious Gene Luen Yang

Folks, if you’re anything like me then you probably live in a lovely little mental bubble, unaware that this week is Computer Science Education Week. Why should you care? Well, I’m part of a little Gene Luen Yang blog tour right now, and the folks at First Second just put out these fast facts.

The majority of schools don’t teach computer science – 90% of parents want their kids to study computer science, but only 40% of schools teach it.

15% of households in the US don’t have a computer. So i...

31 Days, 31 Lists: Day Six – 2016 Great Alphabet Books

“In Adam’s Fall, we sinned all.” That catchy little ditty was from one of the earlier abecedarian picture books for children in America (the 1784 edition of The New England Primer, in case you’re curious). Practically from our nation’s inception, alphabet books were a go-to resource for teaching children to read. Every year more and more of them come out, but how many can you name off the top of your head? Just before typing this I was reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to my son and marveling a...

31 Days, 31 Lists: Day Five – 2016 Great Rhyming Picture Books

If potential authors of picture books are given one piece of advice when they’re first starting out, it tends to be, “For the love of all that’s good and holy DO NOT let your picture books rhyme!!!” And for good reason. Few things in life are quite as painful as poorly rhymed picture books. Too many folks think it’s a breeze but there’s a reason Dr. Seuss has never been adequately replicated.

Now there was an article back in June on the British blog Picture Book Den that took time to compare...

31 Days, 31 Lists: Day Four – 2016 Great Picture Book Readalouds

To be fair, every single picture book, with the exception of the wordless ones, is a readaloud. You’re not supposed to just silent there silent and stony when a child’s on your lap. Picture books are meant to engage through the voice of the reader. That said, not all of them do well when it comes to reading them to groups. When I first because a children’s librarian I learned the hard way that some classic titles (Horton Hatches the Egg, Blueberries for Sal, etc.) die ignoble deaths at your h...

31 Days, 31 Lists: Day Three – 2016 Great Nursery Rhymes

It’s strange to think that Nursery Rhymes prove so difficult to round-up. I’ve done my best. After all, the art of the nursery rhyme is nothing to scoff at. There’s a reason they’ve kicked around all these centuries. Reading nursery rhymes to small children does wonders for brain development, to say nothing of the fact that they remain a cultural touchstone in our society. Here then is a bit of a mix. Some of these books play with the nursery rhyme format or redefine it. Others play it straig...

31 Days, 31 Lists: Day Two – 2016 Great Board Book Adaptations

So what do we mean when we say “Board Book Adaptations” exactly? Well, you’re probably familiar with the phenomenon of taking a picture book and chopping it down into a board book When this is done poorly the end product is strange and squished. The most egregious example of this might be the Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs board book. With a long text appropriate for older readers, the type is tiny and even if you could read it you’d bore the toddler on your lap almost instantaneously.

Tha...