Chris Barton's Blog: Bartography, page 19
January 24, 2020
How to Diversify Your Kidlit-Related Lists flowchart (for attendees of the TCTELA Annual Conference)
Greetings to those of you attending my Saturday keynote at the Texas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts 2020 Annual Conference — Vision & Voice. Near the end of that talk, I mention this How to Diversify Your Kidlit-Related Lists flowchart, so I’d like to also extend this greeting to anyone else interested in […]
January 12, 2020
Signed, personalized copies of All of a Sudden and Forever now available for pre-order
My next book, All of a Sudden and Forever: Help and Healing After the Oklahoma City Bombing, comes out from Carolrhoda Books/Lerner Publishing on February 4. It has received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal and has also been named a Junior Library Guild selection. Just weeks after the publication date, we’ll […]
January 6, 2020
“My teacher made everyone stay behind until the thief owned up. It was humiliating and frightening, and I cracked after about five seconds.” (2-question Q&A and giveaway for January 2020)
Welcome to the Q&A and giveaway for the January edition of my Bartography Express newsletter, which you can sign up for here. My two-question Q&A this month is with author Abigail Rayner and illustrator Molly Ruttan. Abigail and Molly are the creators of the new picture book I Am a Thief!, a tale of light […]
January 5, 2020
A second starred review for All of a Sudden and Forever
Right before the new year, I learned that School Library Journal has awarded a starred review to my upcoming nonfiction picture book All of a Sudden and Forever: Help and Healing After the Oklahoma City Bombing, illustrated by Nicole Xu and coming on February 4 from Carolrhoda Books/Lerner Publishing: Barton commemorates the 25th anniversary of […]
January 4, 2020
“My teachers thought it was an amazing use of time!” and other feedback on my school visits
As a human who would love to occasionally experience an interaction with my fellow humans without receiving an emailed survey afterwards, I have mixed feelings (to say the least) about sending out surveys of my own after school visits. But I do send them. Every month, I have a survey company email all my recent […]
January 3, 2020
Booklist and SLJ on Fire Truck vs. Dragon
Over the holidays, two new reviews came in for my upcoming picture book Fire Truck vs. Dragon, which is illustrated by Shanda McCloskey and will be published on March 10 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Booklist says: Barton’s energetic day-in-the-life story of an unlikely pair of friends, Fire Truck and Dragon, teaches young […]
January 2, 2020
“…the balance between what readers NEED and what readers WANT”
I always enjoy learning more about how the editors of my books work and think, which makes this interview with Carol Hinz by Ryan G. Van Cleave at his Only Picture Books blog highly satisfying. Carol is Editorial Director of Millbrook Press and Carolrhoda Books at Lerner Publishing Group. She and I are in the […]
December 17, 2019
What do you give for a holiday like that?
How about a book included in Diverse Book Finder’s 2019 Holiday Gift Guide: Racially/Culturally Diverse Picture Books? Or a title recognized by the National Council of Teachers of English in this list of Outstanding Nonfiction for Children published this past decade? Or a biography of someone who had a few words to say about impeachment? […]
December 6, 2019
The first 20
Kids often ask me how many books I’ve made. Heck, my mom recently asked me that, too. It’s legitimately a frequently asked question. The answer is 20, including upcoming releases All of a Sudden and Forever and Fire Truck vs. Dragon. (For what it’s worth, it’s now been just over 19 years since the day […]
December 2, 2019
“I was drawn toward tales of underdogs — especially when they banded together to achieve something none of them could ever do on their own.” (2-question Q&A and giveaway for December 2019)
Welcome to the Q&A and giveaway for the December edition of my Bartography Express newsletter, which you can sign up for here. My two-question Q&A this month is with author Scott Peterson, a transplant to the Pacific Northwest, and with illustrator and lifelong Mexico City resident José García. Scott and José are the creators of […]
