Let’s have a round of Unexpected Jolts of Children’s Literature! You know the rules. If I run across a piece of literature or entertainment meant for adults but involving children’s books in some way, I shall mention it here. Eh voila! Consider the following.
Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve been missing until it’s arrived. I didn’t know I needed a graphic novel for kids on period parity. And now, here we are.
“Folktales were an oral tradition before they were a book tradition.” I interview Meredith Lewis about why podcasts for kids are an ideal venue for carrying on Jewish storytelling traditions.
How old are we all that Trashy Town is 21? Is it just me or does that seem like a very large number? Continuing to attempt to find storytime classics that librarians love, I had Kate take a look at this readaloud classic.
Whenever I have a chance to get my hands on a new Frances Hardinge book, it’s only because I want one thing: to be told a story I’ve never heard before. Deeplight fulfills that wish and a lot more besides. My sole regret is that I only get to read it for the first time once.
Today, I am very pleased to be interviewing not simply one creator but a whole group at once. The Sowing Circle is a sisterhood of Southern Black writers. And, in their own words, the group mission is to “sow affirming words and images in the hearts of children in order to reap a generation that is inquisitive, empathetic and enlightened”.
I’m changing things up. This year I’m splitting my predictions into three categories: Best Chance, Maybe, and Probably Not. Will doing so make me any more accurate? Only time will tell.
Kate and I had just finished recording our episode on Knuffle Bunny Too. Mind you, Kate has never been the biggest Mo Willems fan out there. She wasn’t particularly enamored of Knuffle Bunny the first. How would the second fare?
The students of Marc Aronson’s Rutgers Masters’s class on Young Adults, Reading, and Literacy set out to curate resources for high school students related to immigration. Take a look at them for yourself and pass them on to a teacher you know.
Kids will love this book. Yeah, it’s a visual/literary masterpiece of picture book art and writing but that means bupkiss if you hand it to a kid, or read it aloud to a group, and they’re bored to tears. Precisely because Fogliano knows how to talk on a kid’s level, precisely because Tamaki has made her art so visually appealing.
While we traipse merrily into a new decade and a new era, it’s not the worst idea to look back and pay tribute to the authors and illustrators of children’s books we lost in 2019. Here is a recap of the creators that we should stand back and remember at least one more time
Picture books are such a delight to read and discover. This year, I saw so many wonderful ones. As a result, this list is going to strike you as a tad on the longish side. Still and all, I honestly believe that every book listed here deserves its day in the sun.
Consider this just a sampling of titles that I found particularly toothsome in 2019. You will miss some of your favorites, no doubt, but these are the books that truly made my little heart sing.
It’s the last day of Hanukkah and what better way to celebrate than with one book split into two parts? In 1990 Eric Kimmel adapted a story he’d written for Cricket Magazine to a picture book format and called it The Chanukkah Guest. Then, in 2013 he took that same Cricket Magazine tale and turned it into the slightly different Hanukkah Bear. One story. One author. Two different versions. Are they both Hanukkah classics or will only one make the final cut?
A book only truly dies when it has been forgotten from every human brain. Here are the books of 2019 that just extended their lives a generation more.
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