Betsy Bird's Blog, page 259

Review of the Day: Hypnotize a Tiger by Calef Brown

Hypnotize a Tiger: Poems About Just About Everything
By Calef Brown
Christy Ottaviano Books, Henry Holt (an imprint of Macmillan)
$17.99
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9928-7
For ages 9-12

Why do I do this to myself? Let me tell you something about how I review. Board books? Pshaw. I can take one and write a nine-paragraph review parsing precisely why it is that Bizzy Bear’s preferred companions are dogs and bunnies. Nonfiction? Lay it on me. I’ll take infinite pleasure in discussing the difference be...

Press Release Fun: Middle Grade Twitter Chat!

This week I received the following piece of info:

“Mighty Media Press is hosting and moderating a Twitter chat on August 18th, with six middle grade authors to discuss how middle grade fiction can teach readers about creativity and imagination; and how it helps them confront and solve real-life struggles and conflicts.

Our hope is to bring greater attention to this reading level of fiction, and to create a discussion among the broader community. We welcome anyone and everyone to participate a...

Sordid Taglines: Doing Children’s Lit Classics a Wrong

Moving house, home, and family does something to a woman’s brain. If that woman is me, it makes her ponder great intricacies of life, to say nothing of ballsy marketing plans. And today it all began with this book:

I suspect that we Americans are generally more familiar with The Secret Garden as our preferred Frances Hodgson Burnett classic than this little number. Still, it shows up on the occasional Summer Reading List and occasionally gets adapted into films, for good or for ill. As long...

This Bird Has Flown

Bram Stoker had this to say about Chicago: It, “neither fears the devil nor troubles its head about him and all his works.” So in light of my recent move, and in celebration of this (my first day), I offer the following to you:

Goodbye Library

(With profuse apologies to Margaret Wise Brown, who would find it hilarious that a NYPL children’s materials specialist was referencing one of her books)

Goodbye, branches 89

Goodbye, pretty Lego lions

Goodbye, Winnie. Goodbye, Pooh

Camera- Leaf Aptus...

Finding the Funny: The Newbery Award and Various Works of Hilarity

Do funny books get short shrift when award season comes ah-knockin’? It’s not a ridiculous notion. After all, the Oscars are notorious for consistently promoting and lauding saddy sad performances and films over their funnier contemporaries. So I took a gander at some of the recent winners of the Newbery Award (and Honors) and determined that while humor isn’t the most lauded quality in “distinguished” works of children’s literature, neither is it a true detriment. Some funny winners that com...

Summer Reading Lists: Worst Titles Ever

Recently I was admiring two different but certainly related articles online. The first was Mike Lewis’s Non-Required Summer Reading List, which is just the loveliest little PDF of fun summery read titles. A great list in and of itself.

The second piece was the infinitely useful article How Teachers Can Create a Summer Reading List That Won’t Make Librarians Die or Children Cry: Unsolicited Advice from a Public Librarian. That public librarian is Miss Ingrid Abrams, and when she talks about su...

Second Novels We Wish We Could Read

Like the rest of America I have watched, enthralled, the debate going on at the child_lit listserv as to whether or not folks should/are choosing to eschew reading Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman.

I’m sorry, what that?

I’m being informed that despite my opinions on the matter, America does not collectively read child_lit. I find this version of the facts suspicious and will look into it further, later.

In any case, here at NYPL, Gwen Glazer came up with an interesting idea. She wrote, “we’re t...

Press Release Fun: TeachingBooks.net Author Name Pronunciation Guide Reaches 2,000 Audio Clips

Maybe press releases I’ve released.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Authors and Illustrators Reveal the Origins and Pronunciations of Their Names

– See more at: http://forum.teachingbooks.net/2015/0...

MADISON, Wis. (July 16, 2015) – Ever wondered how to pronounce a favorite author’s name? Since 2007, almost half-a-million readers have visited www.TeachingBooks.net/Hello to hear au...

Fusenews: Containing the only Newbery 4th of July Float I’ve Ever Seen

Mm. Double quick time Fusenews today, I should think. All the goodness. Less of the commentary. As such . . .

What is the scariest children’s film of all time? If you mentioned a particular film that involved decapitated heads and Wheelers, this link’s for you. I’m not a teacher so I had no idea what the Best Websites and Apps for teaching and learning really were. Now I do. Thanks to Travis and Mr. Schu for the link. In case you missed it, the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award 2015 long...

Review of the Day: Mars Evacuees by Sophia McDougall

Mars Evacuees
By Sophia McDougall
Harper Collins
$16.99
ISBN: 978-0-06-229399-2
Ages 9-12

I’ve a nasty habit of finishing every children’s book I start, no matter how dull or dire it might be. I am sort of alone in this habit, which you could rightly call unhealthy. After all, most librarians understand that their time on this globe is limited and that if they want to read the greatest number of excellent books in a given year, they need to hold off on spending too much time devouring sc...