Betsy Bird's Blog, page 253

Press Release Fun: Picture Book Summit Yields Big Rewards for We Need Diverse Books

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Emma Walton Hamilton

picturebooksubmissions@gmail.com

Picture Book Summit 2015 Raises Over $7000 for

We Need Diverse Books

Event Featured Mac Barnett, Peter Brown, Andrea Davis Pinkney and Other Top Children’s Authors

New York, NY – The first annual Picture Book Summit, an international online conference for children’s picture book authors, raised more than $7000 for the nonprofit group We Need Diverse Books. The announcement was made at New York Media Wor...

Fusenews: “He’s a person and people don’t eat people”

It’s funny how you can start something and never see how that thing might be used in the future. When I created the Top 100 Picture Books Poll and the Top 100 Children’s Novels Poll back in the day, I figured they could be useful books insofar as they take the pulse of those books that mean the most to readers today. Bookshare Communications recently alerted me to the fact that in conjunction with SLJ they had adapted the Picture Books list to a format that included image descriptions for th...

Something Old, Something New: Reprinting Beyond the “Canon”

It’s that time of year again when Best Of lists start cropping up left and right, front and center. First Publishers Weekly begins the process and then everyone else follows suit. It’s a time of year I enjoy, particularly since I’m desperately trying to figure out what I should be reading before the New Year hits us full force.

There is, of course, a downside to these lists. Often one will find that when you compare them the same names come up over and over and over. The cream rises to the to...

Interview in Cardboard: A Talk with Dana Sheridan

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for attending yet another edition of the A Fuse #8 Production interview series. I am, as ever, your host Betsy Bird and before we go much further you might have noticed something a little different about me. Is it my hair? The fact I have my contacts in? Or could it possibly be the fact that I am a toilet paper tube wearing a cute red dress* with matching shoes? Sharp eye spotters will realize it is the last option. It’s like Michel Gondry, but even smal...

Book Trailer Premiere: The Tiara on the Terrace by Kristen Kittscher

So. Book trailers. I’ve seen my share. They are good. They are bad. Do they sell books? Probably some of them do, and considering how relatively cheap they are to produce it’s no wonder folks are encouraged to make them. But when you face facts, not all of them are winners. Very few, in fact, are worth watching.

Ladies and gentlemen . . . today’s video is worth watching.

Now I could just be saying that because I’m offering the premiere. But consider the evidence. The trailer is for a book by...

Press Release Fun: A New Scholarship, Packed Full of Literary Goodness

SIMMONS COLLEGE AND LEE & LOW BOOKS

ESTABLISH NEW SCHOLARSHIP

November 1, 2015—New York, NY—The Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at Simmons College and publisher LEE & LOW BOOKS have established a scholarship to increase diversity in the world of children’s literature. The new Lee & Low and Friends Scholarship will provide opportunities for students of color to enroll in the most prestigious children’s literature graduate program in the United States.

The scholarship initiative...

A Beloved Classic: 95% Less Offensive!

Occasionally I’m sent new editions of various picture books because those titles have managed to maintain their popularity over the decades. Often when they reach their 10 year anniversaries I feel old. I mean, seriously. Fancy Nancy? A decade? Really? Other times it makes sense. This year, two picture books were released with new editions and one very significant difference.

The first of these arrived in the mail the other day. Ladybug Girl by David Soman and Jacky Davis was originally publi...

The Life and Death of the African Folktale in American Publishing

Walk into many a children’s room in a public library and then take a trip to Dewey Decimal number 398.2. If the room is relatively old and has withstood regular weeding schedules then you may find yourself in a remarkably large folktale and fairytale section. The titles, however, will probably be a bit on the dusty side. Long ago, when libraries held the primary purchasing power when it came to children’s literature, they had some sway over publishing. Thanks in large part to their dual appre...

Even More Unexpected Jolts of Children’s Literature in Very Adult Places

And now it’s time for yet another edition of Unexpected Jolts of Children’s Literature in Very Adult Places. This is where my job as a Collection Manager comes in handy. I go through all the new adult titles coming out, and locate the books with a children’s book focus or mention. And today, I’m starting out with a bang!

The Secret Life of Stories: From Don Quixote to Harry Potter, How Understanding Intellectual Disability Transforms the Way We Read

by Michael F. Bérubé

I think I’m going to...

Asking for a Friend: Hit Me With the Right Non-Profit

Okay, Collective Brain. You’re smarter than I. Someone asked me the following question the other day and I found myself positively stumped. It was this:

Can you name a non-profit organization that focuses on “keeping neighborhood libraries open, especially in rural areas but not limited to that…low-income areas too.”

The closest thing she had found so far is ALA’s ARSL or Association for Rural and Small Libraries. Their mission statement reads, “The mission of the Association for Rural and Sm...