Betsy Bird's Blog, page 73

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2022 Middle Grade Fiction

Oo. The penultimate list. The super big one is tomorrow (Picture Books) but I suspect that if you were to look at sheer amounts of reading time, today’s list took more work. Last year, I needed the help of my library’s 101 committee to drum up a decent number of titles. This year, not so much. I can’t read as much as, say, a Newbery committee can, but I can at least make a decent stab at some of the stuff coming out this year. Here were the titles I was particularly drawn to and enjoyed. And...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2022 Best Audiobooks for Kids

I’d say that this is one of my more peculiar lists. To understand how I put it together, you have to understand that every day, on my way to work, I walk. While walking, I listen to audiobooks of various children’s books. Am I seeing the great swath of titles that, say, the Odyssey Award committee is privy to this year? Nope! Not even close. In fact, I’m in awe of how much sheer time that committee must take. No, I’m self-selecting. I don’t listen to YA. And only rarely do I hear anything yo...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2022 Nonfiction Books for Older Readers

Okay. Same drill as yesterday, just a touch older. As I mentioned before, you’re going to see a lot of books on today’s list that you’ve already seen on some of the previous lists (the Gross list, the Photography list, the Science list, etc.). And you’re also going to find a couple titles on here that haven’t been on any lists at all yet because they don’t slot neatly into my other categories. One thing you will definitely find here, though, are my favorite reads for older kids in 2022, if t...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2022 Nonfiction Picture Books

Let us say that you are handed a large budget and told to update a school library with new nonfiction titles. Only the best will do! The caveat? That you must populate it ONLY with books published in the current year. Well, my dear, what would you do in such a case as this? That’s the thinking behind this list. Some of these titles you’ll have seen on one list or another already this month. Some, however, don’t really slot into any category but a “BEST” category, and that’s what this is. Her...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: The Night Before Christmas, illustrated by Tasha Tudor

We may already be past Christmas technically, but what a day or two delay? Thanks to the recent winter storms we got a tad delayed in releasing this episode, but better late than never. Today we return, once again, to the world of Tasha Tudor. Last time we considered one of her books we were examining her A Time to Keep (a favorite of Betsy’s, Kate … not so much). There are many different iterations of Clement C. Moore’s classic poem, but how many take the man at his word and decide to depic...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2022 Unique Biographies for Kids

Want to know why I call this particular list “Unique Biographies”? Because when I started this particular list back in 2016 I was sick and tired of the same 5-6 people highlighted over and over again in bios for kids. I wanted a little bit of originality. I wanted new heroes to celebrate! New faces to acknowledge! Little did I suspect that in the intervening 6 years I’d see a wave of changes sweep across this nation, and see publishers react by allowing formerly lesser known lights to shine....

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2022 Science and Nature Books for Kids

Merry . . . . uh . . . Science and Nature Books Day?

Okay, it’s a little random to have this particular list on this particular day, but what the heck! I love how much I’ve learned about both science and nature thanks in large part to the children’s books I’ve read. And while I have you here, I need to do some shameless plugging. You see, in my daylight hours I work at Evanston Public LIbrary in Evanston, Illinois. My fellow librarians are, in many ways, more talented than I. So much so t...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2022 American History for Kids

Why do I even do an “American History” list? Welp, seems to me that the current battleground over children’s books in this country, the book banning and the cries over what constitutes “real” history, has a lot to do with who gets to tell our stories. In the past, white people controlled the narrative. Now we’re seeing books for kids coming out about our nation’s past that are less than entirely sunny and some people are NOT excited about it.

Today, I’m celebrating those books for kids th...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2022 Informational Fiction

Near the end of each year I have some time to try to catch up on my adult reading. Right now I’m very much enjoying Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. At one point our main character reflects that some of the people in her life (and I’m paraphrasing here) “… had little tolerance for the inevitable gray areas of life.”

What could be a grayer area than informational fiction? Precariously perched between fact and fiction, it ascribes itself to neither world. I didn’t even...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2022 Fantasy Books for Kids

It’s always a little easier to find fantasy titles rather than science fiction ones for these lists. Honestly, anything that involves a mythological creature in any way is probably fair game. Still, I’ve been choosy with the books I’ve included on today’s list. Fantasy is so beloved in this post-Potter era that it would be a mistake to just throw anything with vaguely magic leanings in here. These books, to my mind, represent the best that fantasy for kids in 2022 had to offer. Yes, there ar...