Betsy Bird's Blog, page 87
June 13, 2022
The Small Press Conundrum: Amazon vs. Purple House Press
We’re all well and truly familiar with the story. You have your small independent little guy and then there is the big business that just railroads them. We’ve even seen it in terms of Amazon vs. brick and mortar bookstores. But how does Amazon treat small independent publishers? And what can that do to those publishers’ overall sales?
Not long ago Purple House Press founder Jill Morgan found herself unwittingly in that very situation. I was able to ask her some questions recently about an in...
June 12, 2022
Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Special Guest Ursula Murray Husted (!!) Presents Lulu and the Flying Babies by Posy Simmonds
A special guest!
By gum we haven’t had one of these since our own mother came on the show. Today it is my infinite pleasure to present to you the fantastic author/illustrator/cartoonist Ursula Murray Husted of, amongst other things, the marvelous book A Cat Story. She’s a fan of the podcast and so it seemed only fitting to ask her to suggest a title for the show today. Her choice? A book that honestly I’ve never seen before. Lulu and the Flying Babies is an obvious homage to, say, The Sno...
June 10, 2022
Review of the Day: Book of Questions / Libro de las Preguntas by Pablo Neruda, ill. Paloma Valdivia
The Book of Questions / Libro de las preguntas: Selections / Selecciones
By Pablo Neruda
Illustrated by Paloma Valdivia
Translated by Sara Lissa Paulson
Enchanted Lion Books
$22.95
ISBN: 9781592703227
Ages 7-12
On shelves now.
Small children ask many questions. It’s a rather understandable instinct, to be honest. If you are young and encountering as vast, wide, and mysterious a world as this one, your little human brain may react by wishing to clarify and categorize everything you see. Sheer human ...
Review of the Day: The Book of Questions / Libro de las Preguntas by Pablo Neruda, ill. Paloma Valdivia
The Book of Questions / Libro de las preguntas: Selections / Selecciones
By Pablo Neruda
Illustrated by Paloma Valdivia
Translated by Sara Lissa Paulson
Enchanted Lion Books
$22.95
ISBN: 9781592703227
Ages 7-12
On shelves now.
Small children ask many questions. It’s a rather understandable instinct, to be honest. If you are young and encountering as vast, wide, and mysterious a world as this one, your little human brain may react by wishing to clarify and categorize everything you see. Sheer human ...
June 9, 2022
School’s Out for Summer So We’re Talking About Lunch Lady Day!
For my kids, school ended two days ago. A long, long two days ago. So it seemed appropriate to look back at all those workers who tirelessly take care of our kids during the day. We tend to hear about the teachers and the librarians a lot, but what about the lunch workers? Where’s their parade? Where’s their special day?
As it just so happens, they have a special day. May 6th. That would be School Lunch Hero Day and it was begun by none other than the creator of the Lunch Lady series, Jar...
June 7, 2022
Owl Enticements: A Cover Reveal and Interview with Eric Fan and Dena Seiferling About the Upcoming NIGHT LUNCH
Today I have just the most splendid treat in store for you! Oh, it’s wonderful. Not simply because it is a cover reveal for a enchanting, entrancing picture book. Not merely because I am interviewing Eric Fan (of the legendary Fan Brothers) about his authorial debut. Not only because I am also interviewing illustrator Dena Seiferling, an artist of such great and abiding wisdom that I just want to sit myself at her feet and listen to her talk. No, it is the great combination of all these elements...
June 6, 2022
Every Bird a Prince: An Interview with Jenn Reese
In July of 2020 we were in the earliest days of the pandemic. And as things stagnated a great number of amazing children’s authors debuted middle grade novels. Too many ended up forgotten in some way, but some were able to gain their followings. It was my very great pleasure to review Jenn Reese’s eclectic and enticing A Game of Fox & Squirrels on July 23rd of that year. At the time, I said of the book that, “There are foxes in waistcoats and squirrels that betray or befriend depending on the ci...
June 5, 2022
Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Yo! Yes? by Chris Raschka
Come one! Come all! Come hear Betsy get the tongue lashing of the century! I don’t know if any of you listen to my podcast, but if you do you may come to it for any number of versions. Maybe you listen because you just like to listen to grown women talk about picture books. Maybe you like the banter. Or maybe, just maybe, you listen in the hopes of hearing Kate yell at Betsy for her sins. If the latter is your preference then boy howdy do I have the episode for you. Bonus: Kate makes a lot o...
June 2, 2022
Review of the Day: Farmhouse by Sophie Blackall
Farmhouse
By Sophie Blackall
Little, Brown and Company
$18.99
ISBN: 9780316538948
Ages 4-8
On shelves September 13th
The role of a physical home in a child’s life has provided fodder for thousands and thousands of picture books over the years. There are those that are speculative, wondering what it would be like to live somewhere fantastical (like in Molly on the Moon). Some compare one type of home to another (Mirror by Jeannie Baker). For kids with housing security, they may identify keenly wit...
June 1, 2022
EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT! Taking a Deep Dive Into Dan Gemeinhart’s THE MIDNIGHT CHILDREN
Dan Gemeinhart“Roald Dahl meets The Boxcar Children.”
Those were the exact words they used to describe Dan Gemeinhart’s latest novel for kids, and as God is my witness, I was in. Never deny the power of a good hook. Particularly if it’s a hook a jaded blogger like myself hasn’t seen before.
If the name “Dan Gemeinhart” is ringing some bells for you, there might be a good reason for that. Perhaps you remember a little number by the name of The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise? Yes...
