Betsy Bird's Blog, page 77

Review of the Day: Shuna’s Journey by Hayao Miyazaki

Shuna’s Journey
By Hayao Miyazaki
Translated by Alex Dudok de Wit
$27.99
ISBN: 9781250846525
Ages 9-12
On shelves now

In the pantheon of Miyazaki fans you have to rate yourself on a kind of scale. There are, after all, folks out there that make veritable pilgrimages to places like the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka in suburban Tokyo or the café Kodama in Nagoya, Japan. Then there are folks who’ve never even seen a Miyazaki film and can’t figure out what the fuss is all about. Myself? I fall fairly squarel...

Ellen Myrick Publisher Preview (Spring 2023) Part One!

Hooray! It’s that time again! We’re taking a gander at the little guys. Once again Ellen Myrick of Myrick Marketing has done me a solid and given me a preview of some of the books coming out in the near future. That means getting a sneak peek at the independent publishers that create high quality children’s literature but don’t have those advertising budgets of the big guys. Me, I love these books. Often they come from overseas. Often they’re small or strange or quiet and simply won’t catch the ...

The Yellow Áo Dài : A Talk with Hanh Bui and Minnie Phan

Just back in July of this year I had the chance to host author Hanh Bui in a guest post entitled Libraries and Librarians Enrich Lives Far Beyond Books (a sentiment of which I’m rather fond). Honestly, it seemed only natural that when Hanh’s debut picture book came out I’d get a chance to talk to her about it. Today, however, it’s even better than that. We’re discussing her upcoming Spring 2023 title The Yellow Áo Dài not just with her but with illustrator Minnie Phan as well!

Here’s a rundow...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: The Story of the Little Mole Who Went in Search of Whodunit by Werner Holzwarth, ill. Wolf Erlbruch

If you looked at the title of this week’s podcast book and thought to yourself, “I’ve never even heard of that one before” then you may know what time it is . . . IT’S CULT CLASSIC TIME! With periodic regularity Kate and I will discuss on our podcast Fuse 8 n’ Kate those picture books that are, as I like to call them, “cult classics”. That means that they are popular with some segment of the audience, if not the entire world. Today that “segment of the audience is” [checks notes] Germany. Y...

Review of the Day: Three Strike Summer by Skyler Schrempp

Three Strike Summer
By Skyler Schrempp
McElderry Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster)
$17.99
ISBN: 9781534499140
Ages 9-12
On shelves now

The gutsy girl is a conundrum in children’s books. She seems so easy to conjure up. Writing a bit of historical fiction? Surely all you have to do is just give your heroine some feisty comebacks and historically accurate inequities and the audience will be on her/your side, right? It’s not so simple. There’s a book for adults I love called How I Became a Famo...

Guest Post: Censorship of Palestinians is So Normal, Even Antiracists Don’t See It by Nora Lester Murad

Folks, I’ve been reading and reviewing children’s books since 2003. And if I had to say the number of books I’ve seen for kids with a Palestinian focus, available here in the States in all that time, I could count the number on one hand. Today, Nora Lester Murad comes to talk to us about a topic many don’t want to discuss, and certainly not in a public forum. Nora is an adjunct professor of Humanitarian Affairs at Fordham University in the USA. She is also a writer and activist living in Palesti...

There’s a Party. It’s in Kansas City. And You’re All Invited.

Before I tell you anything, I have a video you need to watch. Don’t worry. It’s quick. Made it myself. Check it out:

Right.

So, if you’re in a space where you are unable to see this video (90% of my videos are seen in the bathroom in that break I have between lunch and getting back to work) I’ll summarize. Happily, I have a poster to help me:

Context!

So. In the metropolis known as Kansas City there was once a bookstore known as The Reading Reptile. It was the kind of place ...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins by Barbara Kerley, ill. Brian Selznick

We heard the call and we have responded! It was noted by more than one reader that we’ve done very few nonfiction picture books on our podcast. We did do So You Want to Be President earlier this year back in February but that was pretty much it. So today, we consider a book produced back in 2001. We know that the standards to which we hold nonfiction picture books has changed in the intervening 21 years. So how does this particular title stand up today? Spoiler Alert: Surprisingly well!

L...

The Scourge of Upside Down Knitting Needles: Or, Why Picture Books with Knitting Are Like Picture Books with Math

Two years ago Chuck Wendig asked Twitter the following question:

So, naturally, I wrote this reply:

In the pantheon of completely, utterly nonsensical things to care about, this is my hill. I have staked it out. I will die on this hill. It is a hill that literally LITERALLY no one wants. Yet here I am. Once more, telling you, friends and family and complete strangers, that it is time for my most ridiculous post of the year. The one that I literally work on from January until this ve...

Unexpected Jolts of Children’s Literature

It’s been a minute or two since I contributed something to this series! As you know, the world of children’s literature and the world of literature for adults is mighty different. Yet on occasion you might witness a bit of crossover. When adult books reference books for kids, it tends to say a lot about how the wider world views the written word for younger humans.

Today, let’s look at some recent and upcoming publications. Each one has something to say about kidlit (so to speak). Each and ev...