Betsy Bird's Blog, page 241
June 8, 2016
Crazy Cool Things Libraries Are Doing (That I Didn’t Know When I Lived in NYC)
New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, and the Queens Library system are all magnificent institutions, each with their own tips, tricks, and innovative programs. That said, you cannot get away from the fact that in the end they’re just a collection of branches in a gigantic system. And like many such branches they are unable to partake of the innovations currently sweeping libraries nationwide. I tell you this because since moving to the Midwest I have seen libraries, such librarie...
June 7, 2016
Book Trailer Premiere: Maybe Something Beautiful
Faithful readers will recall that I have gushed on occasion about the book MAYBE SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL by F. Isabel Campoy & Theresa Howell, illustrated by Rafael López. For years he’s been creating truly delicious art in a variety of great books. Remember Drum Dream Girl? Right there. That.
In this latest book, a community comes together to create not just a mural, but a series of public art ventures. Inspired by Mr. López’s public art work with real communities, the book is a joyful dance of...
June 5, 2016
Fusenews: Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of Garbage Pail Kids and kings . . .
Happy Monday to you! You want the goods? I’ve got the goods. Or, at the very least, a smattering of interesting ephemera. Let’s do this thing.
First and foremost, you may have noticed the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards were announced. The BGHB Awards are some of the strangest in the biz since they encompass the nonexistent publishing year that extends from May to June. How are we to use such an award? No cash benefit is included. And traditionally it has been seen as either a litmus test for...
June 2, 2016
Review of the Day: The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
The Wild Robot
By Peter Brown
Little, Brown & Company
$16.99
ISBN: 978-0-316-38199-4
Ages 9-12
On shelves now
There are far fewer robot middle grade books out there than you might expect. This is probably because, as a general rule, robots fall into the Data from Star Trek trap. Their sole purpose in any narrative is to explain what it is to be human. You see this all the time in pop culture, so it stands to reason you’d see it a bit in children’s books too. Never you mind that a cool r...
May 31, 2016
We Need Diverse eBooks Too, Y’know
Here is what in truth is just a query masquerading as a legitimate blog post. I am never above misusing my power when I’m curious. And while I’m sure somebody somewhere has brought this up, I certainly can’t recall it being as big a topic as it could be.
The other day I was talking with some folks about ebooks and the state of electronic publishing for kids today. Now as you may or may not know, most library systems don’t have a lot of choices when it comes to purchasing e-materials. At New...
May 30, 2016
And How Did You Spend Your Memorial Day Weekend?
Me? I spent it in Vermont. The rolling green hills. The bears and red squirrels and little tiny insects that think your left nostril is a house and home. The lovely company, particularly when you’re deciding the 2016 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winners.
Yup. Alongside fellow committee members Roxanne Feldman and Joanna Long (she of the magnificent Vermont home) we put our heads together and came up with some stellar winners.
What’s that you say? You’d like to know who those winners might be?...
May 27, 2016
Press Release Fun: Echo Wins History Award
Ach. I miss this award. I served on it once and suggested titles for consideration twice. Be sure to check out the honors as well. There are some surprises there that made me really happy.
THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY ANNOUNCES
2016 CHILDREN’S HISTORY BOOK PRIZE
GOES TO PAM MUñOZ RYAN FOR ECHO
NEW YORK, NY –May 25, 2016—Dr. Louise Mirrer, President and CEO of the New-York Historical Society, announced today that author Pam Muñoz Ryan will receive New-York Historical’s 2016 Children’s H...
May 25, 2016
Review of the Day: Next to You by Lori Haskins Houran
Next to You: A Book of Adorableness
By Lori Haskins Houran
Illustrated by Sydney Hanson
Albert Whitman & Co.
$16.99
ISBN: 9780807556009
Ages 4-7
On shelves now
Years ago I saw a very interesting sketch produced during the early years of Disney animated filmmaking. The drawing was an explanation to animators on the precise proportions it takes to make a drawn character “cute”. The size of the eyes, the proportions between a large head and small hands, the slant of the gaze, all this con...
May 23, 2016
Gender Politics and Construction Equipment: The Eyelashening
File this one under the category: Stuff Parents Notice But Don’t Discuss
You have a child. The child is quite young, let’s say two years of age. The child loves books about tools, ladders, and banjos (and you would be shocked just how many books for kids contain at east one of those three items). What the child loves most in this great big, wide, wonderful world, though, is construction equipment. Excavators and backhoes (don’t call them diggers). Cement mixers and forklifts. And so you, good...
May 22, 2016
Fusenews: The occasional library-centric “unruly pleasure”
I’ve done it again. Delayed my Fusenews too long and now this post is going to overflow with too much good stuff. Forewarned is forearmed, as they say.
Me stuff for the start. And in fact, there just so much Me Stuff today that I’m just going to cram it all into this little paragraph here and be done with it. To begin, for the very first time my book Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Chidren’s Literature (co-written with Jules Danielson and Peter Sieruta) was cited in an article. Notably, a p...
