Chris Barton's Blog: Bartography, page 20

An opportunity for Texas students: Letters About Literature

Questions (and a contest! with a cash prize!! and a video featuring me!!!) for Texas students grades 4-12: How did an author’s work change you or your view of the world? How and why are you different now than you were before you read this work? For more details, visit the Texas Center for the […]

Starred PW review for Fire Truck vs. Dragon: “Frustrated expectations have seldom been so funny”

There’s been another encouraging assessment of Fire Truck vs. Dragon, which I wrote and Shanda McCloskey illustrated, and which will be published March 10 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Behold, a starred review from Publishers Weekly! This time, the joke is on readers: unlike the rivals in Shark vs. Train, Fire Truck and […]

Fire Truck vs. Dragon review: “McCloskey’s daffy cartoons make a perfect complement to Barton’s high-wired hilarity”

Fire Truck vs. Dragon — written by me, illustrated by Shanda McCloskey, and coming next March 10 from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers — just received its first review. And it’s a good one from Kirkus: From the title, fans of Barton’s Shark vs. Train (illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld, 2010) will be prepped for […]

Dazzling ships on enchanting state list!

New Mexico’s Land of Enchantment Book Award committee has unveiled its titles for 2021, and look what’s on the Coyote list (grades 3-5): Thank you, New Mexican librarians!

“I’ve definitely become the Betty Crocker of fry bread since production of the book started. People expect it now wherever I go.” (2-question Q&A and giveaway for November 2019)

Welcome to the Q&A and giveaway for the November edition of my Bartography Express newsletter, which you can read here and sign up for here. My Q&A this month is with Kevin Noble Maillard, a New York-based author and law professor who is a member of the Seminole Nation, Mekusukey band, and Peruvian-born, Arizona-based, Caldecott […]

What do you do with a Bluebonnet book like that?

You celebrate it! It was a thrill to be in the audience in Austin last Saturday at the Texas Book Festival for the announcement of the Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List books for the 2020-21 school year: I try to attend the announcement every year, but it was especially exciting this time because among the […]

“An affecting story of loss rooted in one specific tragedy.”

I awoke this morning to the first review of 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 next February 4 from Carolrhoda Books/Lerner Publishing. It’s a starred review from Kirkus, which notes that “Grief knows no boundaries” and […]

All right, let’s go! Next time at Target…

…spend some dough on Mighty Truck: On the Farm and Mighty Truck: The Traffic Tie-Up (HarperCollins), written by me and illustrated by Troy Cummings. Paperback editions of these first two early readers in the I Can Read! series of Mighty Truck books are available at many Target stores. And remember: The rest of the Mighty […]

“While there certainly are rivalries that grow into friendships, it generally takes more than one kickball game (and possibly more than one freakout) to get there.” (2-question Q&A and giveaway for October 2019)

Welcome to the Q&A and giveaway for the October edition of my Bartography Express newsletter, which you can sign up for here. This month my Q&A is with Texas illustrator and author Beth Mills. Beth’s debut picture book, Ella McKeen, Kickball Queen, was published last month by Carolrhoda Books. School Library Journal summed up its […]

“…and Congress had to decide what to do about it.”

I don’t know what resources educators might have used in 1973 and 1974 to try to put Watergate into some sort of context for their students, or to what extent they even tried. Perhaps in that era before round-the-clock marination in media coverage, the subject of a president’s misdeeds and Congress’ obligation to investigate and […]