Betsy Bird's Blog, page 64

Happy Earth Day! A Talk with Illustrator Debra Frasier About THIS IS THE PLANET WHERE I LIVE

I’ve seen some interesting round-ups recently about children’s books with environmental bents. In this vein, 2023 truly is a boom year. I’ve been impressed by a wide range of children’s books like Restoring: Prairie, Woods, and Pond: How a Small Trail Can Make a Big Difference by Laurie Lawlor, The Last Plastic Straw: A Plastic Problem and Finding Ways to Fix It by Dee Romito, ill. Ziyue Chen, The Forest in the Sea: Seaweed Solutions to Planetary Problems by Anita Sanchez, and more. Now, on the ...

Review of the Day: To the Other Side by Erika Meza

To the Other Side
By Erika Meza
Katherine Tegan Books (an imprint of Harper Collins)
$18.99
ISBN: 9780063073166
On shelves now

I don’t know how this book got made. I mean, I know the rudimentary basics behind it. I know how an author would write out a proposal and, if they were also an artist, draw some sketches. What I don’t know is how a person can look at a topic as impossible to encapsulate as child migrants moving across the U.S.-Mexico border and then know how to write a picture book on th...

Eager For It: P. Djèlí Clark Discusses His Summertime Fantasy Release, Abeni’s Song

Seeing a wide range of voices in our children’s literature is not a trend. It’s a necessity. What is a trend? Well, let’s look at fantasy novels as our example today. How many books in 2023 alone have you seen that still use that old Harry Potter model for writing out titles? Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom. Lei and the Fire Goddess. Nic Blake and the Remarkables. Momo Arashima Steals the Sword of the Wind (that one’s at least a little different). And those are just the books that got K...

A Work In Progress: Special Excerpt from Jarrett Lerner’s Latest Biographical Title

My middle school aged daughter is well-versed in a wide variety of issues that she or her friends may be facing in the coming years. Why? She’s a comic book reader. And if you are a comic book reader in the year 2023, that means you’re going to have a fairly thorough knowledge on a wide range of issues. The autism spectrum, the history behind Black vs. European attitudes towards hair, OCD, growing up queer, dealing with a family member with a drug addiction, menstral parity, and more. Where once...

A Colfer Cover Reveal: Three Tasks for a Dragon by Eoin Colfer and P.J. Lynch

This is what I call an old-fashioned cover reveal. You’ve got your cover. You’ve got your plot description. And you’ve got your collaborators, which in this particular case involve one Eoin Colfer and one P.J. Lynch. Strictly speaking, I haven’t done a straight up cover reveal in quite some time, so why not? The fact of the matter is that I rather like the stuff these guys do. They’ve made an honest-to-goodness dragon story with a twist, and with the kids today enjoying the new Dungeons and Drag...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: When Aidan Became a Brother by Kyle Lukoff, ill. Kaylani Juanita

Here at the Fuse 8 n’ Kate Podcast, we have a rule. It’s a simple one, established since the start of the broadcast. Essentially, we don’t like to consider books published until they’ve been on the market for 20 years or more. It’s not exactly a hard and fast rule (we’ve broken it more than a few times) but it serves as a strong guideline. Today, however, we got mad. Specifically, we got mad at Ron DeSantis and all the horrendous book banners out there who seek to rid the world of books feat...

Review of the Day: Glitter Everywhere! by Chris Barton, ill. Chaaya Prabhat

Glitter Everywhere! Where It Came From, Where It’s Found, and Where It’s Going
By Chris Barton
Illustrated by Chaaya Prabhat
Charlesbridge
ISBN: 9781623542528
$19.99
Ages 6-9
On shelves June 27, 2023

Sometimes I am allowed the chance to attend the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, a place where international publishers of children’s books join together annually to show off their wares. There are often magnificent exhibits associated with the fair, and this year I had the pleasure of viewing firsthand a ...

The Bees of Notre Dame: A Dual Interview with Meghan P. Browne and E.B. Goodale

One of these days I’m going to rank my favorite types of children’s literature. Some odd little corner of my brain honestly thinks that this would be fun. I would spend an inordinate amount of time figuring out where Board Books fall in relation to Graphic Novels or Poetry even. It’s a hard call. Maybe I’d put Nonfiction Picture Books high on that list. There are so many things I love about them these days. I love how they tell me stories long before the adult book world ever comes to them. I lo...

Unexpected Jolts of Children’s Literature

Okay! Been a little while. If you’re just tuning in now, welcome to a series I like to produce on the regular. “Unexpected Jolts of Children’s Literature” is what happens when an adult book discusses children’s literature in some manner. Could be a biography. Could be an offhanded mention in a work of fiction. Could be anything, really.

So sit back, take a breather, and enjoy this round-up of titles that have a tangential approximation to children’s books in some shape or manner.

Weir...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate by Arthur Yorinks, ill. Richard Egielski

In what may be the most quintessentially “New York” picture book we’ve done to date (with hints of Where the Wild Things Are in the margins) we confront a 1979 Caldecott Award winner and tackle Betsy’s childhood memories of it along the way. Today we discuss a variation on the previously reported upon picture book It Could Always Be Worse, but with an addition of tropical birds, floating islands, and John Tenniel references.

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it throu...