Betsy Bird's Blog, page 267

Video Sunday: Movie, book, library, and audiobook trailers trailers trailers!!

Morning, folks. We’re beginning this Sunday morn with stuff that’s good for the soul. How often have you said to yourself, “I’d love to own some original art from illustrator Matthew Cordell but I’m too busy spending all my cash on children’s literacy foundations”? Well, fear not! Now you can do both. In celebration of their book Special Delivery, Messrs. Cordell and Philip Stead are going to hold a raffle for five pieces of awesome art. You win by donating money to good causes. The details a...

Review of the Day: Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead

Goodbye Stranger
By Rebecca Stead
Wendy Lamb Books (an imprint of Random House Children’s Books)
$16.99
ISBN: 978-0-385-74317-4
Ages 10-14
On shelves August 4th

After much consideration, I think I’m going to begin this review with what has to be the hoity toity-est opening I have ever come up with. Gird, thy loins, mes amies. In her 2006 book Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity (don’t say you weren’t warned), philosopher Rebecca Goldstein wrote the following passag...

Newbery / Caldecott 2016: Spring Prediction Edition

There are traditions we adhere to because they are what we know. And what do I know? I know how much fun it is to predict Newbery and Caldecott winners WAY way way before I oughta. Why do I do it? Because it’s fun. Mind-blowingly ridiculous on some level. But fun.

Each year I also see whether or not my predictions had any bearing on the actual winners. With that in mind, here’s how I’ve done for the last six or seven years or so.

2008 spring predictions: I get one Caldecott right (How I Learn...

Off to Slumber Slumberland: Little Nemo at the Society of Illustrators

If you’re going to sit down and study the history of children’s literature, you cannot skip the Little Nemo section of your textbook. Maurice Sendak’s wild imaginings, for example, would not have had their distinctive flavor if a certain little boy had been able to keep his dreamlife under control. Cartoonist Winsor McCay kicked off the twentieth century in fine style when he penned the wildly imaginative comic known best as Little Nemo in Slumberland. So for those of you who count yourselves...

Fuse #8 TV: Henry Clark and The Book That Proves Time Travel Happens

I’m a sucker for a good time travel story. By my count only a few have ever won the Newbery (is it two or three? You decide). Fewer still have won the National Book Award in the youth category. Even so, they live in a special place in my heart. So to hear that a book has the title The Book That Proves Time Travel Happens . . . well that’s a near impossible title to resist, is it not? This week on Fuse #8 TV I interview Henry Clark, but only after I tell you the terrible secret lurking in your...

Video Sunday: 90-Second Newbery Edition

About a week ago the 90-Second Newbery premiered at New York Public Library (PW did a nice write-up of it here) and the afternoon was a stellar success. My Lit Salon went over so I didn’t have a chance to see much of it, but fortunately James Kennedy, who created the darn thing, did me a favor and curated some of the best little videos of the year.

First off, what may well be my favorite video. Claymation has always done the 90-Second Newbery proud. Now they’re all the prouder with a Claymati...

The Worst Mother or Father of 2015: Cast Your Votes Now

It’s a little unfair posting this request in early March, of all times of the year. After all, I’ve only read a smattering of the 2015 books for children, and I haven’t even seen the bulk of the fall list!

But what I have read has definitely stood out. Bad parents are a children’s book staple. Sometimes the author spares the kiddo and just kills them off, but once in a while an author will go that extra mile and make a truly terrible parent. It’s sort of an alternative way of separating your...

Review of the Day: Sidewalk Flowers by JonArno Lawson

Sidewalk Flowers
By JonArno Lawson
Illustrated by Sydney Smith
$16.95
ISBN: 978-1-55498-431-2
Ages 3-6
On shelves March 17th

When you live in a city, nature’s successes can feel like impositions. We have too many pigeons. Too many squirrels. Too many sparrows, and roaches, and ants. Too many . . . flowers? Flowers we don’t seem to mind as much but we certainly don’t pay any attention to them. Not if we’re adults, anyway. Kids, on the other hand, pay an exquisite amount of attention to a...

Too Fun to Be True?: The Amusing Side of Nonfiction Illustration

In the six or so years I’ve held NYPL’s Children’s Literary Salon (a monthly gathering of children’s book enthusiasts) I’ve seen it all. Epileptic fits. Audience members whose questions after a talk consisted entirely of just a series of insults aimed at my panelists. But the thing that gets under the skin the most is when I feel an attendee walked away with a mistaken impression.

For the record, this is something I have zippo control over. To give you a recent example, I spoke a week or two a...

Fusenews: Nothing but death, deer, and Zionism as far as the eye can see

Top of the morning to you, froggies! I had one heckuva weekend, I tell you. Actually it was just one heckuva Saturday. First there was the opening of the new Bank Street Bookstore location here in NYC. I was one of the local authors in attendance and, as you can see from this photograph taken that morning, I was in good company.

At one point I found myself at a signing table between Deborah Heiligman and Rebecca Stead with Susan Kuklin, Chris Raschka, and Peter Lerangis on either side. I picke...