Betsy Bird's Blog, page 9

Enchanted Lion Books Publisher Preview (Fall 2025 & Winter 2026)

There are a slew of small independent publishers out there, but Enchanted Lion Books has a reputation of its own. Take a look at any of the New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated lists of the last 10-20 years and you’re bound to notice the sheer number of Enchanted Lion Books making it onto that scant list of only ten books each and every year. The publishers has a particularly keen eye for not simply imports but homegrown authors and artists. For this preview they asked if I wa...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin, ill. Harry Bliss

Back we return to the words of Doreen Cronin! We’d done her Click, Clack, Moo in the past (and Duck for President too), but not her other massively successful picture book series. This is also our first Harry Bliss book to boot. We go through all 18 different journal entries of this title and discuss its finer aspects. Along the way we speculate about dated elements like playing marbles and hats with fake arrows going through them. We discuss the history of this specific series. Finally we ...

Cover Reveal and Q&A: Mac Wears a Hat with Vicki Johnson

Happy Pride Month!

How to begin? It seems fitting to kickoff with this cover reveal and interview with Vicki Johnson. You might recall her picture book, Molly’s Tuxedo. Now she returns with a kind of follow-up picture book, Mac Wears a Hat (out April 28, 2026) and we’re premiering the cover today.

Here’s how the publisher describes this book:

“There���s a thing
that makes my heart go zing.
Hats.

Mac loves to wear hats. She has a hat for any and all occasions. As an only child, she ca...

Cover Reveal and Q&A: Alice Faye Duncan Discusses MLK Jr. and The Dream Builder’s Blueprint

“Dear Betsy,” the email read. “This note is good news during trying times. Did you know that Dr. King gave one of his last��prophetic speeches to students in South Philadelphia at Barratt Junior High? The day was October 26, 1967.”

In point of fact, I did not know about this. Nor that author Alice Faye Duncan, who has done so many books for kids before (both fictional and informational), had a new book in which she writes about that significant day. Called The Dream Builder’s Blueprint: Dr. K...

Review of the Day: Tales From Beyond the Rainbow, collected by Pete Jordi Wood, ill. Various

Tales From Beyond the Rainbow: Ten LGBTQ+ Fairy Tales Proudly Reclaimed
Collected and Adapted by Pete Jordi Wood
Illustrated by Mario Hounkanrin, Anshika Khullar, Nontira Kigle, Ez Silva, Jenn So, Sasha Staicu, Xin Tang, Zat Vornik, Sophia Watts, and Pete Jordi Wood
Penguin Workshop (an imprint of Penguin Random House)
$18.99
ISBN: 9780593889725
Ages 6-12
On shelves now.

I���m a bit of a fairy tale nerd. I come by it honestly. Growing up we had a copy of the marvelous Idries Shah World Tales colle...

Publisher Preview: Elsewhere Editions (Fall 2025)

Here’s a preview I’ve never attempted before! I had the great pleasure of getting a sneak peek into the independent publisher Elsewhere Editions’s upcoming season recently. Here you’ll find spoiled flowers, selfish winds, and the man who influenced Miyazaki. It’s not a huge list, but by god it’s a memorable one!

The Magician’s Flower by Marika Maijala, translated by Mia Spangenberg

ISBN: 9781962770286

Publication Date: July 8, 2025

A sweet and dreamy little oddity of a book....

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Wolves by Emily Gravett

With Kate newly mommified, we try out recording our podcast with baby in tow to see how it goes. So if the episode is a little burbly this time around, you’ll understand why. Along the way we also decide to do our VERY FIRST Emily Gravett title. Her debut no less! In reading it, Kate has to deal with this unexpected Kate Greenaway Medal winner and all that that entails. Now I know that a lot of you have been asking us to do Orange, Pear, Apple, Bear for some time. Be patient, my lovelies. We...

Review of the Day: The Reel Wish by Yamile Saied M��ndez

The Reel Wish
By Yamile Saied M��ndez
Tu Books (an imprint of Lee & Low Books)
$22.95
ISBN: 9781643796437
Ages 9-12
On shelves now
Simultaneous Release in Spanish

When you���re an adult that reads children���s books as part of their job, you have to constantly try to keep your grown-up instincts in check. The goal is to read the book the same way a kid might. Sometimes that���s easy and oftentimes it���s hard. Really, it depends entirely on the book. That said, I had absolutely ZERO difficulty get...

“If you like my storytelling, this is your jam.” Jason Reynolds Goes All Audio with “Soundtrack”

I’m going to need to preface today’s post.

Imagine you’re at work one day and a package, that looks like this, comes in the mail:

Naturally, you are curious. It’s a big box. Somewhat light but you figure there must be a book in there somewhere. Your figuring, as it turns out, could not be more wrong. Instead a book, what you see inside is this:

As God is my witness, those drumsticks disappeared a mere hour after I opened this box. I have no idea who took them, but I wish them well. ...

Erin Entrada Kelly Goes All Nonfiction on Us! A Talk About AT LAST SHE STOOD

It isn’t enough to win a Newbery Award twice. That Erin Entrada Kelly, talented soul that she is, has gone over to the dark side.

That’s right.

She’s writing nonfiction.

She’s not the first Newbery Award winner to dance with the devil in this manner. Still, usually such winners go slow at first. They write a nonfiction picture book biography, perhaps, or something equally short. But Erin? Apparently go big or go home is her motto because her new book At Last She Stood: How Joey Gue...