Betsy Bird's Blog, page 5

Maybe I’m still riding high from the last American Library Association conference I attended, but I’m feeling like libraries deserve lots of lovely attention. And what better book to use to that purpose than this well-known collaboration between Patricia C. McKissack and Jerry Pinkney? Can you believe that we’ve never done a McKissack book before? Pinkney we’ve definitely done before (including Sam and the Tigers, John Henry, Little Red Riding Hood, and Mirandy and Brother Wind). We discuss ...

This Is Orange: A Field Trip Through Color
By Rachel Poliquin
Illustrated by Julie Morstad
Candlewick Press
ISBN: 9781536230529
Ages 3-7
On shelves October 7th

Sometimes I swear it feels like half my life is spent justifying why I like one children���s book or another. This is particularly true when it comes to nonfiction. Humans (American humans) love to categorize our literature. It isn���t enough for a book to simply BE, it has to serve some kind of a larger purpose (this is true of fiction as...

Pair the right artist with the right book and the result is unforgettable. Here’s an example of that: Four years ago I first laid eyes on a picture book biography called Sharice’s Big Voice: A Native Kid Becomes a Congresswoman. The writing was great, but there was just something about the art that stood out and lodged itself firmly in my brain. I hadn’t heard of artist Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley before but I certainly hoped he’d keep creating more books.

That style… it’s impossible not to r...

I was at the American Library Association Conference in Philadelphia less than a week ago and had a rather interesting run-in or two. You see, over the years I’ve been in the presence of power couple Erin E. Stead and Philip C. Stead, but our conversations were always sort of brief and perfunctory. Then suddenly, on Sunday at lunch, I had the great grand pleasure to not only spend some time with Phil BUT after leaving with Travis Jonker to go back to the conference center, who should I run into ...

Since Kate went and had a baby, the time has never been better to highlight the original “interactive book” for small children. Is it not nutty that we’ve never covered Pat the Bunny before? Originally published in 1940, the question before us today is to determine how the book stands up compared to so many other books out for young readers today. We discuss historical picture book apps, button boxes, and moms who do their nails on “daddy’s scratchy face”. We also make the MOST adult recomm...

Freya and the Snake
By Fredrik Sonck
Illustrated by Jenny Lucander
Translated by B.J. Woodstein
Kids Can Press
ISBN: 9781525313721
$21.99
Ages 4-7
On shelves now

America first. Not a great sentiment. Not, sadly, an uncommon one. It worms its way into all kinds of aspects of our lives too. That subtle jingoism affects everyone, even folks who would profess loudly not to adhere to it. Nowhere is that more evident than in picture books. My friends, I���ve worked with some of the most open-minded, acce...

If 2025 on this site is to be remembered for anything, it may be for the fact that I’ve had more interesting and new publisher previews here than ever before. A veritable plethora of them! I like it. I like giving the little guys some of the attention. After all, I was just at the American Library Association Conference where the big fellas take out whole enormous rooms for their cocktail parties and mixers. Shouldn’t a smaller company like the Creative Company get a bit of the spotlight as ...

If 2025 on this site is to be remembered for anything, it may be for the fact that I’ve had more interesting and new publisher previews here than ever before. A veritable plethora of them! I like it. I like giving the little guys some of the attention. After all, I was just at the American Library Association Conference where the big fellas take out whole enormous rooms for their cocktail parties and mixers. Shouldn’t a smaller company like the Creative Company get a bit of the spotlight as ...

The cover of a picture book is an artform in and of itself. It must entice and intrigue not just the people with the pocket money, but the small fry who are, after all, its intended audience. Add in the fact that, in this day and age, a cover must also be capable of being interesting in JPG form, tiny and tight on a person’s cell phone, and you have yourself a bit of a conundrum. I mean, what makes a good one anymore?

Easy. This does:

Helluva cover, amiright? That’s how you do it, peopl...

As promised, here is the SECOND caterpillar-and-tadpole-are-friends book we’re featuring, two weeks in a row. I would like to point out that in both cases, the caterpillar is 100% the problem friend in the relationship. This probably says more about human attitudes towards fancy folks than anything else, but feel free to write your own insightful thesis on the subject if you so choose. As we go through this book, we realize that it should have been renamed TADPOLE’S UNKNOWING REVENGE since i...