Betsy Bird's Blog, page 251

Press Release Fun: Collecting the Mocks

In preparation for the SLJ Pre-Game / Post-Game Show each year I try to collect all the Mock elections for Newbery or Caldecott or Printz or Sibert or Coretta Scott King or really anything that’s out there. It’s mildly exhausting and you’re always bound to miss someone somewhere. Last year I dutifully collected the Mocks in a post but it still seemed strange that I was the only one compiling them. Happily this year ALSC is doing the work for me. The following message was posted on several ch...

Guest Post: Melissa Stewart and Diversity in Thinking

I don’t often do much in the way of guest posts on this site. Aside from the occasional Walking and Talking episode by Steve Sheinkin it’s almost always a one-woman show over here. That said, when someone presents me with something particularly interesting and asks if they can post it on my site, I can’t help but say yes. Author Melissa Stewart is known as the author of more than 150 children’s nonfiction books off possible types and reading levels. Most recently she was the one behind the ma...

Press Release Fun: Shortlist for an Early Literacy Development Award

This is the kind of award librarians should know about and don’t tend to. For anyone searching for good picture book readalouds, this list is invaluable. Read on:

Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy Announces 2016 CLEL Picture Book Awards Shortlists

Denver, Colorado, December 15, 2015 – Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy (CLEL) announces the Shortlist titles for the 2016 CLEL Bell Picture Book Award. The CLEL Bell Picture Book Awards are a national award designed to recognize picture boo...

Why This Book? The Conundrum of Virality and A Fine Dessert

Friends, Romans, Countrymen. Lend me your ears. I come to discuss A Fine Dessert, not to praise it or denigrate it. Not to really talk much about the book itself at all except as a recent phenomenon. A phenomenon unique to our particular day and age and that remains relatively mysterious, despite (or perhaps because of) the thousands of people who have found themselves wrapped up in the discussions that surround it. Discussions that, insofar as I can tell, show no signs of coming to a halt.

N...

Review of the Day: A Great Big Cuddle by Michael Rosen

A Great Big Cuddle: Poems for the Very Young
By Michael Rosen
Illustrated by Chris Riddell
Candlewick Press
$19.99
ISBN: 978076368116
Ages 0-4
On shelves now.

Did you know that, generally speaking, Europeans have absolutely no interest in the works of Dr. Seuss? It’s true. For years his works have been untranslatable (though great inroads have been made thanks to some recent Spanish editions) and those that remain in the original English have done very poorly in the United Kingdom. Ame...

NYPL Releases Their Annual Lists (Plural!)

Each year New York Public Library produces what I seriously consider to be the most beautiful Best Books list of them all. Encompassing 100 books in total, it breaks all children’s books written in different categories to the following: Picture Books, Early Chapter Books, Middle Grade Fiction, Poetry, Folk and Fairytales, Graphic Novels, and Nonfiction. They print out hundreds of gorgeous lists with lush covers and great interior art from the winners. The list will now be in its 105th year, a...

What Is a Social Script?

Oh, the librarian and the teacher should be friends
Yes, the librarian and the teacher should be friends
One job invokes all new terms
The other hears them and they squirm
But that’s no reason why they can’t be friends

Literary folks should stick together
Literary folks should all be buds
Teachers want some Core/STEM topics
Librarians never hand them duds

It’s silly season over at Chez Bird, it would seem. But I think a lot about the teacher/librarian relationship. Not just between teachers a...

Review of the Day: The Perilous Princess Plot by Sarah Courtauld

Buckle and Squash: The Perilous Princess Plot
By Sarah Courtauld
Feiwel and Friends (an imprint of Macmillan)
$14.99
ISBN: 978-1-250-05277-3
Ages 7-10
On shelves now.

Considering that I will never but EVER write an early chapter book or, for that matter, an easy book for new readers, it’s funny how often I sit around contemplating their difficulty. More precisely, I want to know which ones are more difficult to write. Easy books sounds like they’d be the hardest, particularly since it i...

Jolts of Children’s Literature in Unexpected Places

It’s that time again! Time for me to bring your attention to a variety of strange and interesting books never meant for children, but that contain some hint of influence (little or big) from the literary world of the youth. Feast thine peepers on the following:

We Were Brothers by Barry Moser

It’s not that Moser has spent his life only doing children’s books, but a significant portion of his artistic life has been dedicated to them. So when I was perusing my library’s new book section and st...

Fusenews: Reader’s Advisory – Not Just for Librarians Anymore

Courtesy of Travis Jonker

In my current job I’ve become somewhat fascinated with what could easily be considered the key tool in a librarian’s toolbelt: Reader’s Advisory. Patron asks you to recommend a book based on a set of preferences and you knock it out of the park. That’s our job and we do it well. Booksellers do it too, don’t get me wrong, but we have the advantage of an extensive backlist of out-of-print titles at our fingertips. It’s taken a little while, but recently I noticed tha...