Betsy Bird's Blog, page 262
June 14, 2015
Review of the Day: In a Village by the Sea by Muon Van
In a Village by the Sea
By Muon Van
Illustrated by April Chu
Creston Books
$16.95
ISBN: 978-1-939547-156
Ages 4-6
On shelves now
We talk a lot about wanting a diverse selection of picture books on our library, bookstore, and home shelves, but it seems to me that the key to giving kids a broad view of the wider world (which is the ultimate effect of reading literature about people outside your immediate social, economic, and racial circle) is finding books that go into formerly familiar...
June 10, 2015
Fusenews: Sweet Uncanny Valley High
Of all the most deserving, least lauded children’s book awards out there, my favorite might be The Phoenix Awards. “The award, given to a book originally published in the English language, is intended to recognize books of high literary merit. The Phoenix Award is named after the fabled bird who rose from its ashes with renewed life and beauty. Phoenix books also rise from the ashes of neglect and obscurity and once again touch the imaginations and enrich the lives of those who read them.” T...
June 9, 2015
The Circus Mirandus Blog Tour: How Hard Is It to Write a Circus That Isn’t Creepy?
When I was asked to participate in the current Circus Mirandus Blog Tour, I was intrigued. You know how sometimes a publisher will fall in love with a debut novel and then promote the whozitz out of it, hither, thither, and yon? Well, that’s what Penguin has done with this title from first time author Cassie Beasley. And whenever that sort of thing happens, I get very skeptical. So I approached the book expecting to find it overwritten or cloying or to have something wrong with it. What I fou...
June 8, 2015
Cover Reveal: Counting Thyme by Melanie Conklin
Folks sometimes ask me if I’ll ever do cover reveals of debuts. It’s an interesting question. Often the books that I’m doing cover reveals of are by authors or illustrators that I admire. If I’m doing a review of someone new, how do I know they’re any great shakes? I don’t, of course, but sometimes you appreciate a book for reasons above and beyond your familiarity with its creator. Take the case of today’s reveal. Called “Rules by Cynthia Lord meets Counting by 7s“, it’s set in Manhattan. Th...
June 5, 2015
Buttocks — Fiction
Full credit (or blame, depending on how you look at it) goes to MK Eagle and Gretchen Kolderup on this one. It’s a pretty simple post. Hardly worth mentioning . . . except that at heart I think we’re all 10-year-olds. And it’s completely librarian related, so I don’t even know if you’ll be as amused as we were but . . .
Did you know that there’s a subject heading that’s “Buttocks — Fiction” for children’s literature?
That’s right. A whole subject heading list. When Eagle and Kolderup discover...
June 3, 2015
Review of the Day: Hilo by Judd Winick
Hilo: The Boy Who Crashed to Earth
By Judd Winick
Random House Children’s Books
$13.99
ISBN: 978-0-385-38617-3
Ages 9-12
On shelves September 1st
Relentless cheer. You can use it for good. You can use it for evil. You can use it in the name of humor too, but that’s a trickier game to play. I’m not saying it can’t be done. It just takes a certain level of finesse. Now I read a lot of graphic novels for kids in a given year that sell themselves as “funny”. And while I know that humor is s...
June 2, 2015
Gary Soto, the Art of Not Writing for Children, and the Public Shame Theater
I was flipping through my most recent copy of Horn Book feeling pretty special since I’ve an article in there (“Apples to Elephants: Artists in Animation”) and when I get to the back I see a mention of a book I’ve never heard of before: Why I Don’t Write Children’s Literature by Gary Soto.
If I missed the book it’s not too terribly surprising. The publisher is a university press (University Press of New England, no less). Not my usual bag. And I’m not going to necessarily debate the relative...
May 31, 2015
Review of the Day: Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer
Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer
By Kelly Jones
Illustrated by Katie Kath
Alfred A. Knopf (an imprint of Random House Children’s Books)
$16.99
ISBN: 978-0-385-75552-8
On shelves now
The epistolary novel has a long and storied history. At least when it comes to books written for adults. So too does it exist in novels for children, but in my experience you are far more likely to find epistolary picture books than anything over 32 pages in length. That doesn’t stop teach...
May 30, 2015
Press Release Fun: The Summer Camp You Deserve (Highlights!)
As I have in the past, I’ll be speaking at the Highlights Foundation roundabout July 16th, and it really is just the nicest place to be. With that in mind, here’s a cute little infographic the folks made about their summer camp. Come by, come by!
May 27, 2015
Day of Dialog 2015: Putting the Chaotic Past Into Some Kind of Order
Book Expo’s a funny beastie. For years it existed for the booksellers of America. Librarians? Sure, they could go but we weren’t exactly encouraged to attend. We had our ALA Conferences and that was nice and well and good.
But times, they change. The internet appeared. The bloggers congealed (I’m trying to find a better term to describe this and honestly this is the best I’ve got). And suddenly librarians weren’t just attending Book Expo. They were being encouraged to attend. Books is books...
