Betsy Bird's Blog, page 61

Ellen Myrick Publisher Preview: Fall 2023/Winter 2024 (Part Six – Diamond, Eye of Newt, & Floris Books)

Onward and upward, dear friends! Today I’ve even more books from small publishers to tell you about. Here are links to the posts I’ve done before (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, and Part Five). And here are the beauties you may wish to know more about:

Shepherdess Warriors by Jonathan Garnier and Amelie Flechais

Pub Date: August 8, 2023

ISBN: 9781684971695

You know what I like even better than warriors? Sheep! This is actually true. And in this graphic novel for kid...

Review of the Day: Papá’s Magical Water-Jug Clock by Jesús Trejo, ill. Eliza Kinkz

Papá’s Magical Water-jug Clock
By Jesús Trejo
Illustrated by Eliza Kinkz
Minerva (an imprint of Astra Books for Young Readers)
ISBN: 9781662651045
$18.99
Ages 4-7

Rules for Creating Great Picture Books: You don’t need unicorns. Not really. You don’t need magic at all. I mean, if you want to include magic then go for it! It’s all yours! But it’s not an ingredient to storytelling that’s 100% necessary. When I look at some of the great picture books of all time, often the ones starring humans are of...

Heists, Celebrity, and Mystery: An Interview with Nicholas Day About The Mona Lisa Vanishes

It was Memorial Day weekend and I was throwing a slew of new books into my bag to read on the drive up to the Wisconsin Dells. In the course of doing so, one particular cover caught my eye. This cover, to be exact:

Intriguing, no? I had this vague sense that I already knew this story, but figured it couldn’t hurt to give the book a read for a few pages.

Next thing I know I’m hurtling down the highway, engrossed in the storytelling of Nicolas Day, while yelling random facts at my kids in...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Anatole by Eve Titus, ill. Paul Gadone

In today’s podcast Kate expertly cut out the earlier part of the show where I presented a book to her only to find that we’d done it already. 20 minutes later I was back, and the book I had in hand was today’s title, Anatole by Eve Titus, illustrated by Paul Galdone. This is our first Titus and our second Galdone (we did The Tailypo for Halloween one year). We talk about why Anatole never reached the same heights of fame as such series as Madeline or Eloise, why this is the less famous of Eve Ti...

Ellen Myrick Publisher Preview: Fall 2023/Winter 2024 (Part Five – Berbay, Cicada & Creston Books)

By this point you probably know the deal. I run through a slew of smaller publishers, highlighting some of the books they have coming out that have caught my eye. And just for kicks (in case you’re curious) here are links to the posts I’ve done before (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four)

Mine! A Story of Not Sharing by Klara Persson, ill. Charlotte Ramel, translated by Nichola Smalley

Pub Date: October 3, 2023

ISBN: 9781922610621

Doggone it. Okay, here’s the deal...

That Time I Asked Chris Rufo a Question

Let me ask you a hypothetical question. Say you’re minding your own business, and out of the blue you’re asked by the site Open to Debate (previously known as Intelligence Squared) if you’d be willing to be a reporter and ask a question during the following topic: Should Certain Books Ever Be Banned in School? Oh, and during a recording you will be asking Chris Rufo a question. Chris Rufo, by the way, is the conservative activist who invented the whole “Critical Race Theory” debate so popular wi...

Maintain the Domain! A PSA for Authors/Publishers

A couple months ago I decided to give the old TikTok a try. Why not? I’d resisted for a decent amount of time, as I do with all social media sites. About the time that BookTok became a thing I broke down, since it looked like the app wasn’t going anywhere. What I found was a nice complement to my Instagram watching. So that was fun.

Generally my videos are fairly low-key extensions of this blog or consist of general thoughts about librarianship. Then, about two weeks ago, I learned about an u...

Review of the Day: There Was a Party for Langston, King of Letters by Jason Reynolds, ill. Jerome and Jarrett Pumphrey

There Was a Party for Langston: King of Letters
By Jason Reynolds
Illustrated by Jerome and Jarrett Pumphrey
Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster)
$18.99
ISBN: 9781534439443
Ages 4-7
On shelves October 3rd

In 1991 the New York Times photographer Chester Higgins Jr. went to a party. A bash. A celebration. The kind of party they’d talk about for decades to come. The New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture was celebrating the opening of their ...

Ellen Myrick Publisher Preview: Fall 2023/Winter 2024 (Part Four – TOON Books, Albatros, Arctis, and Barefoot Books)

Okay! Now we’re really cooking with gas! I’ve got a schedule and by gum I’m gonna stick to it. For those of you joining us a tad late, this is the post where I round up a bunch of smaller publishers’ publications coming out in Fall 2023 and Winter 2024. And good news, folks. Today we’re starting off with a bang:

A TOON Books bang, to be precise.

Paul Bunyan: The Invention of an American Legend by Noah Van Sciver, with stories and art by Marlena Myles

Publication Date: August 8, 2023...

Review of the Day: The Probability of Everything by Sarah Everett

The Probability of Everything
By Sarah Everett
Clarion Books (an imprint of Harper Collins)
$16.99
ISBN: 9780063256552
Ages 9-12
On shelves June 27th

Never underestimate the power of a catchy title. It was on the Publisher’s Weekly blog “Shelf Talker” that I saw the title “When the spoiler is the hook.” In the post, bookseller Kenny Brechner writes, “Handselling a book whose reading experience would be materially diminished by spoilers can be a particularly difficult challenge for a bookseller if...