Betsy Bird's Blog, page 298
December 27, 2013
You thought you got good stuff for Christmas? Beat this!
Well, the Bird family had a lovely Christmas down in old Atlanta, GA. We didn’t lose any offspring either going there or back again, so I consider that a win. And the presents! Whether it was the Matilda soundtrack (yes, I’m a million years old and still request CDs as presents) or the collected Pogo comics (Vol. 2!) or a new laptop, this was a good little year.
What I did not know when I flew back at 6:15 a.m. yesterday was that I was rapidly winging my way home to an unexpected gift like no...
December 26, 2013
Review of the Day: Wild by Emily Hughes
Wild
By Emily Hughes
Flying Eye Books
$16.95
ISBN: 978-1-909263-08-6
Ages 3-7
On shelves now.
There lives in every child an animal. A wild, untamable creature that will emerge without fail at the worst possible moments, rendering its parents helpless and hopeless all in one swoop. There also exist in this world picture books that touch on this restrained/free duality. You might even argue that the BEST children’s books touch on this in some way (Where the Wild Things Arebeing the most obvious...
December 24, 2013
Review of the Day: The Silver Six by AJ Lieberman
The Silver Six
By A.J. Lieberman
Illustrated by Darren Rawlings
Graphix (an imprint of Scholastic)
$22.99
ISBN: 978-0-545-37097-4
Ages 9-12
On shelves now
Ambition. It’s not a term I usually associate with children’s graphic novels. Your average everyday children’s comic is not particularly ambitious. There are so few of them out there that you can’t make any grand sweeping statements about them, except maybe to stress that the difference between a GN for adults and a GN for kids is scope. Whi...
December 23, 2013
2014 Kids of Color: Things Are Looking Up
You know why I’m looking forward to 2014? It’s not the fresh start that comes with every turn of the globe. It’s not the incipient birth of my second child (I lie . . . it is that, but for the purposes of this piece we’re going to pretend that it’s not). It’s not the fact that I’ve mistakenly thought it was 2014 already for half the year (this is what early galleys hath wrought).
It’s none of these. It is, in fact, the plethora, the godsend, the sheer number of books with kids of color on the...
December 19, 2013
Fusenews: “The Axl Rose Hair Metal hair of picture book cover cupcakes”
It’s been a good week and it’s only Thursday! I’ve cooed and oohed and aahed over NYPL’s 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing 2013 list before. Nothing new to say . . . or is there? I don’t suppose you happened to see NPR’s interactive booklist consisting of their Best Books of 2013 (in a rare moment of bliss, I like all their children’s book choices though some diversity wouldn’t have been out of place). Well, NYPL took one look at that list and thought, “Heck. We can do that.” And so they did...
December 18, 2013
100 Magnificent Children’s Books 2013
Well, every year I like to put out my list of 100 Magnificent Children’s Books from the publishing year. So far I’ve done this in 2010and2011and 2012. And every year the list looks suspiciously similar in some spots to the 100 Titles for Reading and Sharinglist that NYPL produces. Little wonder, but I always like to use my own particular list to highlight those titles I love more than life itself but that are getting passed over. Here then were some favorites of the year. Not all my favorites...
December 17, 2013
The Mocks Thus Far: Caldecott, Newbery, Printz, & Geisel
As promised I said I’d be your eyes on the sky, keeping a close watch over the Mock lists coming out in the coming weeks and months. With the ALA Media Awards just around the corner, there’s a lot to keep track of. So what do folks like? Read through this and you’re sure to see some trends emerging.
Here’s what I have thus far. Feel free to leave a comment with more Mocks that you know of:
Mock Caldecotts 2014
Deschutes Public Library – http://www.deschuteslibrary.org/mockcaldecott/
They’ve only...
December 15, 2013
Video Sunday: The 12 Days of Christmas (Bookstore Style)
Today we are doing one and only ONE video because it was sent to me by approximately 500 people and on the strength of that alone I think it deserves to be our one and only video today. Et voila, Mike Jung and Co.:
It’s got a beat and you can dance to it. Good job, folks!
December 14, 2013
Press Release Fun: Crowdfunding for Books
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information, contact:
Ayanna Coleman,ayanna@quillshift.com,(585) 902-8548
New Digital Literary Agency Utilizing Crowdfunding Now Open for Author Submissions
Quill Shift Literary Agency LLC asks readers to decide what manuscripts it sends to publishing houses by putting money behind their favorite choices
New York, NY – December 10, 2013...
December 13, 2013
Meet the Strangest Christmas Picture Book You’ll Ever Love
In the past I’ve done posts about Weirdo Picture Books and others on Out-of-Print Crimes Against Humanity. Today’s featured book could have fallen into both categories, were it not for the fact that there is justice in the universe. Previously out of print, 1997′sA Small Miracle by Peter Collington is back by popular demand and now available from Knopf in paperback. And well it should be. There’s a reason it was featured inthe Publishers Weekly 12th Annual Off-the-Cuff Awards as booksellers’...
