Betsy Bird's Blog, page 65

Don’t Take a Pass On This One. A Talk with Susanna Reich and Raúl Colon on Pass the Baby and Cover Reveal

It’s happened again. A picture book is about to be released that taps into something universal, yet has never been exclusively featured in a title for kids before. The adorable creation in question is none other than the upcoming Pass the Baby by Susanna Reich with marvelous art by Raúl Colon. Utterly adorable and inarguably entrancing, this is a rhythmic little wonder just begging to be said aloud. And today, I am so pleased to not only be revealing its cover, but to also provide an interview w...

Meet the Newest Imprint in Town: A Talk with Transit Children’s Editions

Word appears to have gotten out. Folks are under the distinct impression that I not only like books from other nations, brought here to the States, but that I also have an inordinate fondness for smaller publishers and their imprints. And when there’s a brand new imprint out there? One with an eye to international lit for children?

I am in.

Meet Transit Books. Founded in 2015, it’s just your average everyday “nonprofit publisher of international and American literature, based in the S...

Once There Was … an Interview with Kiyash Monsef!

Heaven help you if you want to make a fantasy novel for kids these days. I’m not saying it’s a bad time to get published. I’m saying it’s almost too good a time! Can you imagine trying to come up with an original idea in this era? Seems I can’t turn around these days without a new fantasy novel cropping up here and there, and they all just sort of . . . blend after a while.

You know a book that doesn’t blend? A book by debut author Kiyash Monsef. He’s got a fantasy novel out as of right now c...

Guest Post: Welcome Back Authors by Laura Shovan

Today I yield the floor to author Laura Shovan with a guest post that’s going to speak volumes to the children’s book authors out there.

WELCOME BACK, AUTHORSAs schools open to visitors again, what do educators want authors to know about SEL? Laura Shovan

In March of 2020, I was preparing lesson plans. Every spring for the previous twelve years, I had the honor of being Poet-in-Residence at a local elementary school. I’d been part of the school’s fabric for so long that kids rec...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: The Rainbow Goblins by Ul de Rico

Roy G. Biv, eat your heart out. We’re taking a deep dive into a listener suggestion with a trippy dippy 1978 German import from an Italian creator who retired to France! Today we’re talking Optimus Prime, The Never Ending Story, rock album covers, and carnivorous flowers/rainbows. If you’re into long, languorous moments in picture books where people drown, have I got a book for you!! A pourquoi story done in an utterly original fashion.

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or down...

Review of the Day – Bear and Bird: The Picnic and Other Stories by Jarvis

Bear and Bird: The Picnic and Other Stories
By Jarvis
Candlewick Press
$15.99
ISBN: 9781536228328
On shelves May 9th

Why do I review the books that I review? There are hundreds upon hundreds of children’s books published every single year here in America and of them I’m lucky if I’m able to review even 45 in a given 365 days. So how do I perform triage on the masses and figure out what’s reviewable? Well, often I can only review those books that have a kind of “hook” to them. Something to chew o...

Faced with a Parenting Dilemma? Write a Book About It! Jacob Grant Comes By to Talk About NO FAIR

Show of hands. How many of you out there watched the film The Legend of Billie Jean when you were young? Mmhm. Now how many of you walked around for weeks afterwards saying to your friends in faux Southern accents so thick they practically dripped, “Fair is fair!”? Yup. Me too. And who could blame us? Fairness, or the lack thereof, is burned into the bones of every child from birth onward. Honestly, there are studies out there showing that even babies want fairness, yes indeed they do.

So how...

Newbery / Caldecott 2024: Spring Prediction Edition

Aww. Can you believe how 2023 is getting away from us already? One minute it’s 2022 and the next minute some over-enthused librarian is crouched on your chest, breathing into your face, demanding, “DO YOU KNOW WHAT’S GOING TO WIN THE NEWBERY OR CALDECOTT IN 2024 YET?!?!?”

Yes, that’s right, it’s time to crank up the prediction machine again and start looking into what may or may not win something in the coming year.

As ever, I start with my two caveats. Caveat #1: I am perfectly aware ...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Gerald McBoing Boing by Dr. Seuss

The art of picture books based on animated properties has a long and storied history within the oeuvre of children’s literature. We’ve eschewed doing much in the way of Seuss lately, but due to the fact that we’ve been doing multiple books where child or child-like characters are approached by members of the medical association, we felt we’d cap everything off with this tale of a boy doing his own thing in the early 50s. That’s BOUND to go over well! Along the way we talk about picture books...

Review of the Day – Trees: Haiku from Roots to Leaves by Sally M. Walker, ill. Angela McKay

Trees: Haiku from Roots to Leaves
By Sally M. Walker
Illustrated by Angela Mckay
Candlewick Press
$19.99
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1550-2
On shelves now.

Do you know, do you honestly have any idea, how difficult it is to find brand new high-quality children’s poetry in a given year? There’s a reason we praise folks like Shel Silverstein over and over and over again. Simple children’s poems, charming as they may be, are almost excruciatingly difficult to write. Why this is, I cannot say. What I do know is ...