Betsy Bird's Blog, page 50

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2023 Picture Book Readalouds

It was fairly early into my creation of these 31 lists that I realized that it would behoove me to honor those picture books capable of entrancing large groups of children. Anyone who has ever read a picture book that bored kids to tears will understand what I mean when I say that not every picture book is a “readaloud” picture book. In this world there are lapsit books and there are readaloud books. The lapsit book is for a one-on-one experience. The readaloud can work just as well for 400 ...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2023 Great Board Books

I know you may not believe it, but it is SUCH a relief whenever I finally begin my 31 Days, 31 Lists process. I prepare books all year long, and the lists just build and build and build, waiting until I can finally release them. And now, at last! I’m able to share with you a slew of great (I will never say “best” because aside from these being subjective, I can’t read everything) books published in the current year.

As with every year, I tend to split my Board Books list into parts. In t...

Tomorrow, It Begins! 31 Days, 31 Lists Is Nigh!

If you’re just tuning in, here’s the skinny. Each year I dedicate the 31 days of December to a different list of children’s books released in America in the current publishing year. What that means is that all year long I’ve been tracking the books I’ve been reading (and enjoying), slotting them into different categories so that once December rolls around I can put them all together and show you what the  year looked like.

Now these lists are entirely personal and subjective. They’re what I l...

Ellen Myrick Publisher Preview: Spring 2024 – Inhabit Media, Kube Publishing, and Lantana (Part Three)

Time is ticking away until I start doing my 31 Days, 31 Lists for 2023. Until then, I’ll try to squeeze in at least one more of these small publisher previews. Part One already debuted here and Part Two was here. On to Part Three!

The Raven Boy by Rosemarie Avrana Meyok and Marcus Cutler

ISBN: 9781772274943

Okay! Let’s kick things off with a little authenticity. Now our first book today comes to us via the Inuit storytelling tradition. And friends, let me tell you, one of the thin...

Review of the Day: Maggie Lou, Firefox by Arnolda Dufour Bowes, ill. Karlene Harvey

Maggie Lou, Firefox
By Arnolda Dufour Bowes
Groundwood Books
$14.99
ISBN: 9781773068817
Ages 9-12
On shelves now

Boy, we sure love our tropes in children’s books. Once we’ve located a particular kind of book for kids that does a particular kind of thing, every book that comes after can, nay MUST, be compared to it. Take Ramona G. Quimby, for example. When Beverly Cleary wrote her best-known heroine, little did she know that she had just set the bar for “spunky” female heroines. I use the word “sp...

Unexpected Jolts of Children’s Literature

Figured I’d get one more of these in here before the end of the year. Just to remind you, this series is primarily focused on adult titles that have some connection to the world of children’s literature in some way. It could be the focus of the book. It could be the author. It’s wide open, so let’s dive right in and see what we have!

Into the Uncut Grass by Trevor Noah, illustrated by Christopher Myers

They’ve changed the pub date on this one, actually. Originally, it was slated to ...

Delving Deep Into Different Kinds of Minds: An Interview with Dr. Temple Grandin

About a year ago or so the New Yorker ran an article called How We Should Think About Our Different Styles of Thinking? Subtitle: “Some people say their thought takes place in images, some in words. But our mental processes are more mysterious than we realize.” Maybe you’ve seen that meme going around, along the same lines, about how different kinds of people visualize:

This meme got a fair amount of attention after author John Green confessed that he was a five.

For those of us tha...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Stone Soup by Marcia Brown AND Jon J. Muth

Is it just me, or did someone miss a trick by not creating a new version of Stone Soup for the post-lockdown era we currently live in? Sorry, I’m just thinking out loud, but after Kate and I read two different versions of Stone Soup this week (one by Marcia Brown and one by Jon J. Muth) it seemed to me that this story is a lovely metaphor for growing connections and community after harrowing times. If anyone wants to write one now, my last name is spelled B-I-R-D (you can just put me in the ...

Ellen Myrick Publisher Preview: Spring 2024 – Gecko and Helvetiq (Part Two)

Part two of our useful preview of small publishers during the Spring 2024 season. It only comes but several times a year, after all! Part One already debuted here. Onward to Part Two!

Lionel Is Just Like Dad by Éric Veillé

ISBN: 9781776574650

Surely SURELY you can’t have forgotten about Lionel already? The star of the previous board books Lionel Eats All By Himself and the very European Lionel Poops is back for more and this time author illustrator Veillé is sweetening the deal. L...

Justice for Pterosaurs: Tas Mukanik Guest Posts

Folks, you may have noticed that I haven’t been posting a lot of reviews lately. The fact of the matter is that once the end of the year rolls around, I begin to lose a bit of steam. That means that there are going to be loads of amazing 2023 books that I just wasn’t able to bring to your attention. Titles like Lost Time, the incredible middle grade graphic novel that has everything from time travel to baby pterosaurs to . . . well, here’s a description:

“Jurassic World meets How to Train Yo...