Betsy Bird's Blog, page 236
September 4, 2016
Review of the Day: Makoons by Louise Edrich
Makoons
By Louise Erdrich
Harper Collins
$16.99
ISBN: 9780060577933
Ages 7-12
On shelves now
They say these days you can’t sell a novel for kids anymore without the book having some kind of “sequel potential”. That’s not really true, but there are a heck of a lot of series titles out there for the 7 to 12-year-old set, that’s for sure. New series books for children are by their very definition sort of odd for kids, though. If you’re an adult and you discover a new series, waiting a year...
September 1, 2016
Cover Reveal: Catstronauts
Folks, let me level with you. I only love two things in this world. Cats. And astronauts.
Okay, that’s a lie. I love a whole lot more than just those two things. But let’s say I was stranded on a desert island somewhere and I was told that I could have a book about only two of my favorite things in the world combined. Would I want a book on The Brave Little Toaster + Gene Wilder? Would I want a book on kookaburras + chocolate cake? Would I want a book on the dictamnus plant (YouTube it someti...
August 29, 2016
RIP Gene Wilder: Children’s Literature’s Avatar
Consider, if you will, the life of Gene Wilder. Since his death, many people have been doing precisely that. It makes me happy, but since I’ve harbored a not-so-secret crush on the man for decades (a quick search of this blog will back that up) I felt it necessary to point out that for all that he was a great actor, he was also, and often, key in bringing to life various famous children’s literary characters.
The most obvious of these was, of course, Willy Wonka. Without Wilder’s mad genius,...
August 28, 2016
Fusenews: Dem-o-gorgon or Dem-a-gorgon?
Morning, poppins!
Yesterday, for the first time in a long while, I submitted a Video Sunday for your approval. Trouble is, I may have failed to mention one of the most fascinating videos out there with a tie-in to books for kids, so I’d like to rectify the situation today.
The title of the article read, ‘Last Week Tonight’: John Oliver Turned a 20-Year-Old Kids’ Book with ‘Startling Parallels’ to Trump into a Bestseller. Naturally I tried figuring out what book they were talking about but I w...
August 27, 2016
Video Sunday: And Stuff Like That
Good morning! We’ve not done a Video Sunday here on Fuse8 in a while, so let’s start with the ritualized boiling of the blood. Which is to say, can picture books be written in an hour? No. But Slate decided to go on and and prove as much. The results:
More interesting, in a way, is the accompanying written piece in which real editors like Alvina Ling and Cheryl Klein critique what the folks here have come up with. Kindly. Very very kindly.
Looks like that Curious George documentary got the...
August 25, 2016
The Picture Book in 2016: Social Themes and Lessons
I recently received a very interesting, if puzzling, question. A friend of mine needed to know, for professional reasons, what I would consider the top themes in picture books these days. By “themes” I don’t mean trends but rather emotional or social lessons for young readers. You might even go so far as to call them the morals we’re trying to impart upon our 21st century offspring.
This is not as easy a question. While I attempt to take meticulous notes on every picture book I read, it’s far...
August 24, 2016
Review of the Day: Who Broke the Teapot?! by Bill Slavin
Who Broke the Teapot?!
By Bill Slavin
Tundra Books
$16.99
ISBN: 978-1-77049-833-4
Ages 3-5
On shelves now
In the average life of a child, whodunits are the stuff of life itself. Who took the last cookie? Who used up all the milk and then didn’t put it on the shopping list? Who removed ALL the rolls of toilet paper that I SPECIFICALLY remember buying at the store on Sunday and now seem to have vanished into some toilet paper eating inter-dimension? The larger the family, the great the nu...
August 22, 2016
When Celebrity Picture Books Go Kuh-kuh-kuh-KRAZY!
Celebrity picture books. The gift that just keeps on giving.
Now in the past I’ve had my say about CPB ah-plenty. Heck, there was an entire chapter devoted to them in Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children’s Literature. Today, we’ll switch tactics and tackle a topic that no one ever discusses.
Weeeeeeeeeeird celebrity picture books.
Specifically, the ones based on pop songs.
Here is how I imagine how the process usually goes.
Big publisher with lots of money sits down with the people of bi...
August 21, 2016
Monster Mash: Aaron Zenz Goes On Tour
Blog tours. Generally speaking I don’t really do them. Nothing against them personally, they just don’t always speak to the tenor and distinctive tone of individual blogs. It takes a particularly keen one to get me out of my hidey-hole so that I’ll participate. It takes, in short, Aaron Zenz.
But first . . . BACKSTORY!!!!
It was at least 10 years ago. I was a young struggling blogger (“struggling” in this case meaning doing just fine with a nice steady job). A fellow by the name of Aaron Zen...
August 18, 2016
Review of the Day: Kid Beowulf by Alexis Fajardo
Kid Beowulf: The Blood-Bound Oath
By Alexis E. Fajardo
Color by Jose Mari Flores
Prologue Color by Brian Kolm
Amp Comics for Kids (an imprint of Andrews McMeel Publishing)
$10.99
ISBN: 978-1-4494-7589-5
Ages 9-12
On shelves now.
This is a true story. I started college in 1996. Earlham College. Richmond, Indiana. Nice place. Little Quaker school (“Fight! Fight! Inner light! Kill, Quakers, Kill,” our sports chant). Little colleges have little cute traditions. Mine was keen on complicat...
