Betsy Bird's Blog, page 234

Review of the Day: Are You an Echo? by David Jacobson

Are You an Echo? The Lost Poetry of Misuzu Kaneko
Narrative and Translation by David Jacobson, Sally Ito, and Michiko Tsuboi
Illustrated by Toshikado Hajiri
Chin Music Press
$19.50
ISBN: 9781634059626
Ages 5 and up
On shelves now

Recently I was at a conference celebrating the creators of different kinds of children’s books. During one of the panel discussions an author of a picture book biography of Fannie Lou Hamer said that part of the mission of children’s book authors is to break d...

The Picture Book as Family Phrase Generator

It is a truth universally acknowledged that if a parent or guardian reads a picture book to a child repeatedly, day in and day out, for weeks or even months on end, something is bound to happen to the child’s brain and that of the adult reader as well. I don’t mean to make this sound dire or anything. The child, as many studies have shown, benefits from the repetition and learns from it. For the adult, however, there can be side effects. And perhaps the most common side effect is Chronic Fami...

How I Spent My Weekend Vacation: The Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards & The Scott O’Dell Award Ceremony

Serving on award committees is a time-honored tradition amongst children’s librarians. The award ceremonies that come after? Gravy. This past weekend I was delighted to attend the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards Ceremony, the Horn Book at Simmons Colloquium, and the presentation of the Scott O’Dell Award all in one fell swoop. To do this I had to travel in Boston. For whatever reason they did not pick up these three events and move them to Evanston for my own personal convenience. I shall have...

Video Sunday: *knock knock* Land shark

Good morning, my fine and frisky young denizens of this sphere upon which we make our homes. I’m particularly chipper today as I’ve just returned from a lovely trip to Boston where I attended the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards and managed NOT to lose my glasses in the process. More on that tomorrow, but today I’ve a whole heaping helpful of fun videos for your perusal.

First up, I’m happy to announce that last weekend I conducted a Literary Salon with James Kennedy and Eti Berland on the subje...

The Sibling Reality: When Picture Books Stop Being Nice and Start Getting Real

I love it when a blog title makes me sound old.

Now that my kids have reached the ripe ages of five and two, I’m finding myself more interested in picture books that pick apart the nature of sibling relationships in interesting ways . I don’t mean fighting. I mean that crazy pushmepullyou of loving each other to the extreme mixed with scream-at-the-top-of-your-lungs annoyance. With that in mind, I’ve been trying to come up with a variety of picture books that celebrate this tricky balance. Bo...

Review of the Day: Cloud and Wallfish by Anne Nesbet

Cloud and Wallfish
By Anne Nesbet
Candlewick Press
$16.99
ISBN: 978-0-7636-8803-5
Ages 9-12
On shelves now

Historical fiction is boring. Right? That’s the common wisdom on the matter, certainly. Take two characters (interesting), give them a problem (interesting), and set them in the past (BOOOOOORING!). And to be fair, there are a LOT of dull-as-dishwater works of historical fiction out there. Books where a kid has to wade through knee-deep descriptions, dates, facts, and superfluous d...

Fusenews: Debating Dapper Dandies

Happy Fusenews day to you, guv’nor. In today’s episode we tip our hat to a post last week that is probably my most popular of all time. Who knew knitting needles could be such lightning rods? In any case, on with the newz!

How old is the picture book biography as we know it today? Recently I’ve been thinking long and hard about what its purpose is, as well as its limitations. Jacqueline Davies has thought longer and harder in some ways, though, since her recent post Writers and the Real Est...

Fusenews

Happy Fusenews day to you, guv’nor. In today’s episode we tip our hat to a post last week that is probably my most popular of all time. Who knew knitting needles could be such lightning rods? In any case, on with the newz!

How old is the picture book biography as we know it today? Recently I’ve been thinking long and hard about what its purpose is, as well as its limitations. Jacqueline Davies has thought longer and harder in some ways, though, since her recent post Writers and the Real Est...

Famous Illustrators’ Depictions of Knitting Ranked in Order of Competency

Two years ago I wrote a piece called The Scourge of Upside Down Knitting in which I raged unto the heavens against picture books where the artists put little work into bothering to figure out if knitting needles should be held up or down. Well, it’s time for me to apologize to those illustrators. If depicting knitting needles with the ends to the sky is irresistible to you, you’re in good company. Seems that every picture book illustrator of the past put you on the wrong path early.

Today, we...

Press Release Fun: Meanwhile, Back in NYC . . .

So I’m no longer in New York City anymore as you might have noticed but that doesn’t meant there aren’t some fantastic events going on there. Free events. Free events at my old stomping grounds, NYPL. It’s all in conjunction with Banned Books Week and the guests are a bit on the famous side. Gene Luen Yang. Katherine Paterson. Rita Williams-Garcia. STRANGER THINGS!!! *ahem* In any case, behold below. I give you one heckuva fantastic week.

Banned Books Week annuallycelebratesthe freedom to r...