Betsy Bird's Blog, page 3

Periodically Pleasing: A Talk with Helen Hancocks of SHELF

A couple months ago I was contacted by the VERY funny picture book creator Rachel Michelle Wilson (originator of the book How to Pee Your Pants: The Right Way, amongst others) about contributing to an article. It was for a piece called “Women Aren’t Funny, They’re Hilarious” and it would appear in the second issue of a magazine called SHELF. Naturally, I agreed. I’d never heard of SHELF, but if it had anything to do with children’s literature then I was interested.

It would only be later ...

A Soggy Stump Deep Dive: Preview THE FROGGY LIBRARY by Julie Fiveash

As many of you are well aware, November is Native American Heritage Month here in the States. I was asked recently, then, if I had any interest in hosting a preview of some pages from author/illustrator Julie Fiveash’s upcoming graphic novel The Froggy Library (out April 14, 2026). So I looked into it and it turns out, Julie (a most interesting person to follow on Instagram, as it happens) has a kind of killer bio. Here, check this out:

“Julie Fiveash (they/them) is a nonbinary Din�� cart...

“… good and evil, life and death, order and chaos.” We’re Talking Persian Mythology Today with Ryan Bani Tahmaseb

My love of folktales, fairy tales, world tales, religious tales, etc. is without limit. And while there is no denying that the era of such tales on our library shelves has passed, this isn’t to say that such tales aren’t still being published out there today. The trick simply lies in finding them.

In Persian Mythology: Epic Stories of Gods, Heroes, and Monsters (out today), author Ryan Bani Tahmaseb writes in his Introduction, “Persians are some of the greatest storytellers around.” When...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Arlene Sardine by Chris Raschka

We don’t play this up much, but this actually marks the first appearance of Chris Raschka on our podcast. And WHATTA debut! This taps into my love of all picture books in which the protagonist gets eaten. But for Kate, she hyperfixates on the very semantics of the word “sardine”. How can you hope to become the thing that you already are? That little delve into the philosophical underpinnings of edible tiny fish is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to today’s discussion. Suffice to sa...

Review of the Day: The Teacher of Nomad Land by Daniel Nayeri

The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story
By Daniel Nayeri
Levine Querido
ISBN: 9781646145669
$18.99
Ages 9-12
On shelves now

Daniel Nayeri keeps getting away with murder. Where other authors follow the beaten path and churn out respectable, comprehensible, perfectly decent works of historical fiction, Nayeri has this tendency to sort of pad in before blowing up assumptions left, right, and center. One Such Assumption: Historical Fiction is boring. If the first few pages of Nayeri���s Newbery...

A Just Right Q&A with Torrey Maldonado

I live my life by a strictly regimented calendar. Due to the inner workings of my particular little brain, that is how I keep everything sorted. Right now my brain is entirely focused on 2025. 2024 no longer exists and sometimes it seems as if 2026 may exist, but I don’t have much time to consider it. 2026 may have wonderful books, but currently I don’t have the mental capacity to deal with the information…

… and then I see a book like Just Right by Torrey Maldonado and all at once 2026 s...

Book Trailer Premiere: 3 Weeks in the Rainforest and a Q&A with Jennifer Swanson Q&A

Are you in the mood for a little good news today?

Certainly the news out in the world is bleak bleak bleak, these days. Sometimes I wonder if I incline towards books for children because, at their best, titles written with youth in mind have a way of maintaining an honesty about the state of things while also giving a healthy dose of hope as well. Another thing children’s nonfiction and informational books accomplish? They can highlight those heroes that don’t necessarily get their day in...

The Original Dog Man: A Talk with Donna Barbra Higuera and Mariana Ruiz Johnson About Xolo

Recently someone asked me for unexpected children’s book trends in 2025. For a moment there, I was stumped. Hm. Poop is having a bit of a field day in a variety of books, but is that particularly trend-worthy? I dunno. And, of course, we’re seeing an interesting increase in science fiction, both on the middle grade and picture book side.

But the #1 trend of 2025? Don’t ask me why, but it is inarguably heroes who lead other people through the underworld after death. You don’t believe me? ...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman, ill. S.D. Schindler

As Halloween creeps ever closer (and the weather begins to resemble something somewhat autumnal) we continue to seek out potential seasonal classics from the many books that have come before. Today’s suggestion comes to us via Ramarie B. and it’s a text based on an old Russian fairy tale. Mind you, in the original, this story featured a turnip (and it says a lot about a culture if a gigantic turnip is someone’s idea of a food you’d want in abundance). Today, in spite of the fact that Kate an...

Awe (and) Inspiring. A Cover Reveal and Q&A with Chana Stiefel and Susan Gal

As you are well aware, we recently celebrated Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The ten days between the two are called the Days of Awe, which is the kind of thing one might expect to find in a children’s picture book somewhere. Such a book may well exist, but we have yet to see a truly magnificent and jaw-dropping Days of Awe book for kids.

Correction: We USED to say that we had yet to see such a book. Today, you will see such a title with your own two eyes because due to our good, great luck, t...