Betsy Bird's Blog, page 38

In Memorium: The Great ��tienne Delessert Passes Away

My friend died recently. I wonder if you knew him.

I need to trace this back a bit. I first met ��tienne after I had posted a piece on this blog, probably sometime around 2010 or so, discussing the state of imported children’s literature in the United States. After it came out, Delessert created a truly magnificent program at The New School called Where the Wild Books Are, featuring a series of incredible speakers. I remember multiple discussions of various editions of Pinocchio, and talks fr...

Passover Postings! Chris Baron, Joshua S. Levy, and Naomi Milliner Discuss On All Other Nights

What day is it folks? The first day of Passover, that’s what!

So rarely do I actually successfully time my posts to actual holidays, but this time around I had help. Help in the form of the middle grade anthology On All Other Nights: A Passover Celebration in 14 Stories. But it was this description of the book that particularly caught my eye:

“On All Other Nights��is a joyful middle-grade��anthology��from 14 bestselling and award-winning authors.��This��unprecedented��collection of short...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Ginger Bear by Mini Grey

“Crime and murder!”

Do you want unspeakable violence on the picture book page? Well, folks, Kate sure did. And thanks to the suggestion of listener Rachelle, and her daughter Sarah, I finally had a book that would give her just what she required. Is there blood? There is not, though honestly she got her fill of blood when we talked about King Stork (remember the heads on stakes?). Enjoy our discussion of what may well be the MOST disgusting sequence in a picture book of all time, as well ...

Review of the Day: My Antarctica by G. Neri, ill. Corban Wilkin

My Antarctica: True Adventures in the Land of Mummified Seals, Space Robots, and So Much More
By G. Neri
Illustrated by Corban Wilkin
Candlewick Press
$18.99
ISBN: 9781536223323
Ages 9-12
On shelves now

The other day someone asked me a very interesting question: What were the first funny nonfiction books written for kids? This feels like it should be an easy answer, but try as I might I couldn���t really put a finger on ���the first���. Was it the Magic School Bus books? The Caldecott winner So Yo...

This Q&A is Going Exactly As Planned: A Talk with Tao Nyeu About Her Latest Book

It’s just a whirlwind series of interviews this week, and I’m particularly happy about this last one. Folks, it occurs to me that there may be a large swath of you not yet familiar with Tao Nyeu’s latest reversible picture book Exactly As Planned (out now!). The minute I saw it, it instantly became one of my favorites of 2024. Now normally, this would be the point where I’d copy out the description of the book as created by the publisher, but I love this book SO much that I’ll give you my own or...

Monster Befrienders and a Slew of Horror/Comedy: It’s a Blood City Rollers Q&A with V.P. Anderson & Tatiana Hill

The problem with most roller derby graphic novels for kids these days? Not enough blood-sucking undead. Obviously. As such, you can understand why I was so happy to hear about the book Blood City Rollers by V.P. Anderson and Tatiana Hill. It’s not that we haven’t seen roller derby in children’s books before, but adding in a supernatural element as well? *chef’s kiss*

And take a gander at that plot:

Skates on. Fangs out. Let���s roll. This perfectly paranormal graphic novel about a 13-year...

The Ultimate Love Letter to the King of Fruits: We’re Talking Mango Memories with Sita Singh

Oh man. This one hit me hard. You probably know how many picture books I read in a given year. Whole heaps of the things. I find that when one book is capable of piercing my seen-it-all mental armor, that’s one thing, but when it makes an emotionally resonant connection with my greatest childhood fear (getting left out of things) then I know I’ll be incapable of ever forgetting it. And when the group you’re getting left out of is your own family? Just carve my heart out with a spoon, why don’t y...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: I Had Trouble Getting to Solla Sollew

What’s that? You’ve never heard of this particular Dr. Seuss book? Well, you’re definitely not alone. If one were to rank Seuss titles from best known to least, there is no doubt in my mind that Solla Sollew would be right there at the bottom. But is there any chance that this 1965 publication might have something to say about the baby boomer generation, Vietnam, escapism, and even stories like Pippin and Candide? This week our special guest is none other than my very own husband Matt Bird. ...

Review of the Day: Slugfest by Gordon Korman

Slugfest
By Gordon Korman
Balzer and Bray (an imprint of Harper Collins)
$19.99
ISBN: 9780063238091
Ages 9-12
On shelves now

I have a problem. Not a huge problem. Not an insurmountable problem. It���s more of a wiggly, nagging, omnipresent problem that comes and goes but never quite disappears. Think of it like a sniffle that���s still around even on the hottest day in August. My problem involves librarians. You see, I���m a librarian myself, and each year I help run a committee at my library. Th...

“The very unlikely Forrest Gump of the avant-garde.” A Nicholas Day Q&A about Nothing: John Cage and 4’33”

I like a book that explains to me in the simplest possible terms concepts that have eluded me my entire life. This is probably why I have a tendency to prefer to deal with children’s books, and it further explains my particular fondness for nonfiction. Take, for example, the composer John Cage. Not being particularly proficient in the avant-garde, I think it would be fair to say that until very recently I have been dismissive (at best) of his famous work 4’33”. You’ve probably heard of it. It wa...