Betsy Bird's Blog, page 290
April 16, 2014
Press Release Fun: Children’s Literary Salon – Podcasting Children’s Books
I’m so pleased with this next Salon that I’m fit to burst. Somehow I managed to wrangle THREE of our best children’s literary podcasters into one place at one time. If I were a person prone to the term “squee” I would apply it here, now.
New York Public Library is pleased to announce our next Children’s Literary Salon held this Saturday, April 19th at 2:00 p.m.:
Podcasting Children’s Books: Ins and Outs, Ups and Downs
Join podcasters Katie Davis (Brain Burps About Books), John Sellers (PW KidsCa...
April 15, 2014
Review of the Day: Boys of Blur by N.D. Wilson
Boys of Blur
By N.D. Wilson
Random House Books for Young Readers
$16.99
ISBN: 978-0-449-81673-8
Ages 9-12
On shelves April 8th.
I like a kid’s book with ambition. It’s all well and good to write one about magic candy shops or goofy uncles or simpering unicorns or what have you. The world is big and there’s room for every possible conceivable type of book for our children you can imagine. But then you have the children’s book authors that aim higher. Let’s say one wants to write about zombies....
April 14, 2014
Children’s Literature Online at a Glance: A Look Back at Friends Long Gone
So I was listening to an episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour the other day. If you happen to unfamiliar with the show it’s just your basic pop culture based podcast where they dissect the trends and news of the day so you don’t have to. In a recent episode called ‘Captain America’ And The Pitiless March Of Time a discussion was made of websites that have simply disappeared over the years. The folks over at NPR were concerned about the fact that Television Without Pity is now defunct. They menti...
April 10, 2014
Review of the Day: Rules of Summer by Shaun Tan
Rules of Summer
By Shaun Tan
Arthur A. Levine Books (an imprint of Scholastic)
$18.99
ISBN: 978-0-545-63912-5
Ages 4 and up
On shelves April 29th
When I was a young teen my favorite book was Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine. Steeped in Bradbury’s nostalgia for his youth, I was in the throes of adolescence, probably on some level nostalgic for my own younger days. In this book I reveled in a childhood that was not my own but felt personal just the same. Summer seemed like the perfect time to set s...
April 9, 2014
Fusenews: All you need is love (and books before the age of 3)
Zounds!
No reason in particular I wrote that word. I just like to say “Zounds!” from time to time. Onward!
I initially misread this post as “Summer Reading Takes a Hit From Online Scanning and Skimming Researchers Say” (which shows you where my mind is these days). It’s not “Summer” but Serious Reading Takes a Hit From Online Scanning and Skimming Researchers Say. I am not dead to the irony of linking to such a piece within a post where the entire purpose is to skim and scan. That said, I’m jus...
April 8, 2014
Review of the Day: Grandfather Gandhi by Arun Gandhi and Bethany Hegedus
Grandfather Gandhi
Arun Gandhi and Bethany Hegedus
Illustrated by Evan Turk
Atheneum (an imprint of Simon and Schuster)
$17.99
ISBN: 978-1-4424-2365-X
Ages 4-8
On shelves now.
Are you familiar with the concept of booktalking? It’s a technique librarians developed to get people interested in books they might otherwise not pick up. The whole concept is to develop a kind of movie trailer style talk that gives a sense of the book’s allure without giving up the plot. Typically booktalking is done f...
April 7, 2014
Book Trailer Premiere: The Cosmobiography of Sun Ra by Chris Raschka
Well, I am pleased to announce today’s Book Trailer Premiere, particularly since it is unlike every other book trailer I’ve ever put up. Credit that to the subject matter, really. Chris Raschka is one of those rare author/illustrators that can get away with presenting the hard subjects, particularly when it comes to jazz legends. Didn’t think anyone could do something with Thelonious Monk? Wrong. Felt like John Coltrane was bit out of a 5-year-old’s reach? Think again. But the subject of toda...
April 6, 2014
Rhyming Picture Book Month: An Interview with Bad Bye / Good Bye’s Deborah Underwood
A real post that has nothing to do with videos on a Sunday? Am I out of my friggin’ gourd? Maybe so, but today is a special occasion. You see, today, I am pleased to announce that I helped write something . . . on another person’s blog. Admittedly I don’t usually do that sort of thing but when Angie Karcher met me at an SCBWI Regional Conference in Indiana last November (my very first keynote!) she convinced me that this was a cool idea.
You see Angie’s been running a Rhyming Picture Book Mont...
April 5, 2014
Press Release Fun: The 2014 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture!
Yet another reason why we all should live in Minneapolis. I ain’t kidding, actually. Man, I wish I could go to this.
Rejoice the Legacy!
What: 2014 May HillArbuthnotHonor Lecture
When: Saturday, May 3, Doors open at 6:30 p.m., lecture at 7:00 p.m. with reception and book signing following
Where: Willey Hall, West Bank, University of Minnesota 225 19th Avenue S, Minneapolis, MN 55455Who: Andrea Davis Pinkney
Who is this event for?Parents , Educators and Librarians and children over twelve. Anyone i...
April 3, 2014
Librarian Preview: Chronicle Books (Fall 2014)
This is it! We’ve officially begun! Here is, without a doubt, the very first Librarian Preview of the Fall 2014 season. I’m so thrilled to be presenting it in its full unaltered glory. Chronicle Books, that plucky little Californian publisher, has really made a name for itself in the past few years. And now, with their very first (can you believe it?!) Caldecott Honor, it seems like their star is on the rise. All the more reason to see what wares they’re hocking. After all, if Candlewick rule...
