Betsy Bird's Blog, page 68

Discussion: Accessibility in Illustrated eBooks, or, America Take Note

NOTE: Just to give you a sense of how the next few days will play out, I’m going to divide my Bologna posts into the following sections: Discussions, Presentations, Exhibits, and Misc.

For today’s post, I was also considering the alternative title: “Stuff I’ve Never Heard American Publishers Discuss Publicly.”

So this was the first discussion I attended at the Bologna Books Fair and its title in particular caught my attention: Accessible Illustrated Books and Where to Find Them. Hosted...

Discussion: Accessibility in Illustrated Books, or, American Take Note

NOTE: Just to give you a sense of how the next few days will play out, I’m going to divide my Bologna posts into the following sections: Discussions, Presentations, Exhibits, and Misc.

For today’s post, I was also considering the alternative title: “Stuff I’ve Never Heard American Publishers Discuss Publicly.”

So this was the first discussion I attended at the Bologna Books Fair and its title in particular caught my attention: Accessible Illustrated Books and Where to Find Them. Hosted...

The 60th Bologna Children’s Book Fair of 2023: I’m Back!

It happened again! The good folks at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair’s press office have once more allowed me to attend what amounts to the largest international rights fair of children’s literature in the world. What does that mean for this blog? Lots and lots and lots of reporting!

As I write to you I’m happily ensconced in my hotel room, preparing for the next four days. And now that I know where the press office is (something I belatedly forgot to do the first time around) I intend t...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Curious George Goes to the Hospital by Margaret & H.A. Rey

This month we’ll see the publication of Lisa Brown’s wonderful picture book The Hospital Book, which may be the best going-to-the-hospital title for kids I have ever seen. Because usually, you have to admit, when people walk into your children’s library in search of picture books about going to the hospital, what they get is a title from 1966. We’ve already covered the problematic George in Curious George and Curious George Takes a Job. This is the seventh and last book that was created by G...

Review of the Day: Hands by Torrey Maldonado

Hands
By Torrey Maldonado
Nancy Paulsen Books (an imprint of Penguin Random House)
$16.99
ISBN: 9780492212792
Ages 9-12
On shelves now

Bloat. It’s natural. You like something? Then surely you’d like more of that thing! And so our movies get longer and longer along with our music, our theater, whole runs of television shows, (my own reviews), etc. Children’s books? They’re no exception. How many times have I hefted some 300+ monster only to realize at the end that with some judicious editing the b...

Guest Post: In the Neighborhood and Other 2022 Children’s Lit About Being a Good Neighbor by Elsa Buehler

Hey hey, folks! Recently Elsa Buehler wrote me about something she’d observed in recent children’s books and her points were so salient that I asked if she might expand them and be today’s guest poster. She agreed and here we are! Be so good as to appreciate what she has to say:

“The act of being a good neighbor must always begin with us” – Kelly Barnhill, The Ogress and the Orphans

Following the 2023 Youth Media Awards, I’ve been catching up on my to-be-read list by checking out some ...

Inside Out meets The Muppet Show: Michelle Cuevas Discusses Her Upcoming The Dreamatics

Have a good premise, my incipient children’s authors, and you will go far. And I like talking to authors but honestly I can’t be doing interviews with all of them out there. It’s not fair but there are only so many hours in the day to do such things. And yet, when I heard the premise of The Dreamatics (out September 12th!) I was distinctly intrigued. Here’s the premise. You read it through and then tell me if you would be able to resist:

Have you ever awakened from a dream and thought, what w...

IT RETURNS! The 90-Second Newbery Film Festival Enters Its 12th Year.

I don’t care who you are. I don’t care what you do. You have to agree with me. The idea of a film festival that celebrates kids that make 90-second long adaptations of Newbery Award and Honor books? What’s not amazing about that?

Going into its 12th year, the film festival has survived a pandemic and more. But don’t take my word for it. To start us off today, behold the opening sequence to the latest chicanery coming out of M.C. and founder James Kennedy and his partner-in-crime Keir Graff:

...

Review of the Day: Afterward, Everything Was Different by Rafael Yockteng, ill. Jairo Buitrago

Afterward, Everything Was Different
By Rafael Yockteng
Illustrated by Jairo Buitrago
Translated by Elisa Amado
Aldana Libros (an imprint of Greystone Kids)
$22.95
ISBN: 978-1-77840-060-5
On shelves May 8th

Maybe there was a moment during the early days of the pandemic when a whole slew of picture book creators thought to themselves, “Boy. Things are rough now. When has it been rougher than this? I know! The Pleistocene!” How else to explain the slew of books for kids I’m seeing out right now that ...

A Beautiful Safe Space: Getting Into the Humor and Delights of Mama Shamsi at the Bazaar with Mojdeh Hassani and Samira Iravani

I was heartbroken.

It was a day near the end of 2022 and my library had just put the finishing touches on our 2022 101 Great Books for Kids list. It was, to be frank, a gorgeous collection of books and I was feeling mighty proud of it. I had gotten my mail and was breezing through a bunch of children’s books for 2023 when a particular title caught my eye:

Ooo! I don’t know what it was, but something about the cover just called to me. Maybe it was the grandmother’s expression, or the thi...