Betsy Bird's Blog, page 247

Review of the Day: The Magic Mirror by Susan Hill Long

The Magic Mirror: Concerning a Lonely Princess, a Foundling Girl, a Scheming King, and a Pickpocket Squirrel
By Susan Hill Long
Knopf (an imprint of Penguin Random House)
$16.99
ISBN: 978-0-553-51134-2
Ages 9-12
On shelves May 10th

What do you want from a fairy tale? Magic? Romance? Derring-do? Despicable villainy? Academics and scholars have puzzled and puzzed until their puzzlers were sore over what it is about the European fairy tale genre that so enthralls us. Recently fairy tale lo...

Fusenews: Quoth the winner – “I was at dog church!”

First and foremost, this:

That would be Kadir Nelson’s tribute to the Schomburg Library in NYC. Inan amazing bit of research you can see that he includes both the old Schomburg Library (now overrun with ivy) and the new Schomburg together at the bottom. Love that fine attention to detail.

In all the talks we’ve heard from people about A FINE DESSERT and A BIRTHDAY CAKE FOR GEORGE WASHINGTON, I sometimes feel like we haven’t heard enough from the teachers about how they teach topics like s...

Fusenews: “I was at dog church!”

First and foremost, this:

That would be Kadir Nelson’s tribute to the Schomburg Library in NYC. A couple things to note about it. First, in an amazing bit of research you can see that he includes both the old Schomburg Library (now overrun with ivy) and the new Schomburg together at the bottom. Second, the inclusion of Langston Hughes front and center is particularly clever since Langston is practically the first thing a person sees when they enter the building. Or rather, Langston’s words...

Should Authors and Illustrators Be Allowed to Collaborate?

This past Saturday I held a Children’s Literary Salon here in Evanston on the topic of writing children’s books, common mistakes made by newcomers, where to go for advice, etc. (you can view the talk in its entirety here). At one point I asked my panel to say one piece of advice they might offer to people who want to write children’s books. And in time, one person mentioned (as I had hoped that they would) that it is always a mistake to send in a manuscript with an illustrator already in plac...

Caption Contest: What Is Betsy Thinking?

This photo was shot at the Social Media Institute hosted two weeks ago at National Louis University in partnership with the Center for Teaching Through Children’s Books and SCBWI. It shows me sitting between the illustrious Mike Lewis (he of the oddly fuzzy tie) and the incomparable Colby Sharp.

So the question before you is this: What am I thinking?

It’s a caption contest, folks. Go!

Review of the Day: Elliot by Julie Pearson

Elliot
By Julie Pearson
Translated by Erin Woods
Illustrated by Manon Gauthier
Pajama Press
$16.95
ISBN: 978-1-927485-85-9
Ages 4-7
On shelves April 4th

The librarian and the bookseller face shelving challenges the like of which you wouldn’t believe. You think all picture books should simply be shelved in the picture book section by the author’s last name and that’s the end of it? Think again. If picture books served a single, solitary purpose that might well be the case. But picture...

Cover Reveal: The Great Shelby Holmes by Elizabeth Eulberg

You know where I lived for eleven years of my New York City life? Harlem. You know where no one, aside from Walter Dean Myers, ever sets a middle grade novel? Harlem. Greenwich Village, Brooklyn, even Queens get more love than Harlem in books for 9-12 year olds. So you might understand why I’m happy a middle grade novel is set there at long last. Today’s cover reveal comes via YA-author-turned-middle-grade-writer Elizabeth Eulberg. Ladies and gentlemen I give you . . .

The quick and dirty:

S...

Out-of-Print Diversity

There is a perception that we’re all very sophisticated and educated these days, as opposed to the past. That older books for children have a tendency to be racist or contain outdated ideas.

Not so.

In my *does the math* thirteen years as a children’s librarian I’ve discovered that you can find some real gems if you just dig deeply enough into a library’s backlist. And just because a title came out twenty or thirty years ago, that doesn’t mean it’s any less forward thinking than our books tod...

Review of the Day: The Sandwich Thief by André Marois

The Sandwich Thief
By Andre Marois
By Patrick Doyon
Chronicle Books
$14.99
ISBN: 978-1-4521-4659-1
Ages 7-9
On shelves March 1st

Injustice, that sweet universal quality, makes for great children’s books. Whether it’s a picture book or a young adult novel, if you can tap into a reader’s sense of unfairness you have yourself some children’s book gold. It’s the instantaneous gateway to identification. Adults too often forget how painful those early lessons about how the world is an unfair...

Review of the Day: The Sandwich Thief by Andre Marios

The Sandwich Thief
By Andre Marois
By Patrick Doyon
Chronicle Books
$14.99
ISBN: 978-1-4521-4659-1
Ages 7-9
On shelves March 1st

Injustice, that sweet universal quality, makes for great children’s books. Whether it’s a picture book or a young adult novel, if you can tap into a reader’s sense of unfairness you have yourself some children’s book gold. It’s the instantaneous gateway to identification. Adults too often forget how painful those early lessons about how the world is an unfair...