Betsy Bird's Blog, page 94

The Bologna Children’s Book Fair: Day One – Exhibits

The General Rule for Bologna: There is gelato, but the magical stand that sells it will never appear when you truly want/need it. It’s like the anti-Room of Requirement.

There is a reason the Bologna Book Fair lasts for a number of days. To cram everything into a single one would be madness (or, at the very least, incredibly exhausting). Having spent my first day split between booths, exhibits, and panel discussions, I’m opting to begin today with a look at one or two of the ongoing exhibits....

The Bologna Children’s Book Fair: Prize Winners You May Wish to Know (1)

Lots of awards at the old Bologna Children’s Book Fair these days. Lots. And often, they go to names we might recognize. Now if you want to see the full roster, that’s easy enough to find here. It’s a lot to go through, though. Since I’m here at the fair for you, I’ll just highlight those titles that caught my particular attention. This is the first in a series of posts about the award winners and what they say, the good and the bad, about how we judge children’s literature on the world stage.

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Review of the Day: The Lock-Eater by Zack Loran Clark

The Lock-Eater
By Zack Loran Clark
Dial Books for Young Readers (an imprint of Penguin Random House)
$17.99
ISBN: 9781984816887
On shelves now.

Imagine, if you will, what would have happened in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz if Dorothy had ditched the Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion and traipsed off with the Tin Man to defeat the corrupt Wizard and witches of the world. That’s not a perfect description of what you get with The Lock-Eater by Zack Loran Clark, but I also don’t think it’s the worst way to ...

The Bologna Breakdown: What Exactly Is the Bologna Children’s Book Fair?

When I was a young librarian, newly minted, I had a crazy dream. Essentially, I wanted to create an organization or a website or maybe even a conference that could bring together all the different aspects of children’s literature. Imagine, if you will, a place where children’s librarians, teachers, scholars of children’s books, international enthusiasts, collectors of books, bloggers, reviewers, authors, illustrators, publishers, agents, and more, could all come together in one spot to appre...

Betsy Goes to Bologna: Now With Less Pregnancy

Eleven years ago I wrote an article for School Library Journal which ended up sporting the title Betsy Goes to Bologna: Why attend the world’s largest children’s book fair? In the piece I explained why this international rights fair is worth a trip, should you ever wish to plan a truly unique vacation. I was also, I should note, seven months pregnant at the time.

Now the Bologna Book Fair is opening up for the first time since the start of the pandemic. No longer virtual, people are stre...

Orange You Glad I’m Doing This Interview? Carrie Tillotson & Estrela Lourenco Talk Bananas

The problem with the world today is that we don’t have enough picture books about spotlight-hungry bananas written by biostatisticians. Yup. Everything would be jake if we could just get a couple of those on our shelves.

Well now, as luck would have it, one actually is coming out April 12th! How lucky is that? Counting to Bananas tells the classic tale of . . . well . . . let’s have the publisher break it down for you:

When a narrator starts filling this story with fruit, Banana can’t wai...

Fantasy Publishing Company Sequence: An Introduction to Bird Books Unlimited

I live in a pretty neat town. For its relatively small size (approximately 74,000 people) Evanston, IL has two used bookstores, a children’s bookstore, and an adult bookstore. That’s fairly remarkable, but it does mean that I’ve had to adjust my dreams a bit. You see, some people daydream about the fantasy bookstores they’d like to run. Ever had that one? Your own little bookstore. You’re at the helm. You can make it as cozy or cool as you like. Maybe put a little coffee shop in there. Have auth...

Meet the Newest Award in Town: The Blueberry!

Imagine, if you will, what would happen if the Newbery Award were to have a younger, nerdier sibling that liked books too, but was really more into science and nature more than anything else. The kind of little sibling that really cares about the environment and the world and wants to do something about it. A scrappy little activist of an award. That, in a nutshell, describes the Blueberry. It’s a brand new award created by the staff at Evanston Public Library and dedicated to celebrating, “...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: O’Sullivan Stew by Hudson Talbott

Oh, Danny Boy! St. Patrick’s Day is nigh and I’m feeling pretty smug about the fact that I actually reserved a St. Patty’s Day title (sorta) weeks in advance so that I’d have something to do with Kate. And voila! Justification! She loved it! It helps that it stars a “Kate” and my Kate recently tried (and failed) to dye her hair this color [Photo Not Found]. In any case, we delve a bit into Mr. Talbott’s influences but mostly have a high old time discussing cow side-eye, cats singing Danny Bo...

Keeping the Sun Up: A Clothilde Ewing Interview

This one’s a treat for me. A year or two ago I was part of an interesting book group in Chicago where we’d meet regularly and discuss a variety of interesting children’s books. We’d talk about titles like James Baldwin’s Little Man, Little Man or Harriet the Spy. In that group I had the pleasure of meeting Clothilde Ewing who let me know that she’d have a book coming out in the future. Welp, the future is nigh! And Clo was kind enough to let me interview her about her new title STELLA KEEPS THE ...