Heavy Medal
June 30, 2016 by Betsy Bird
Freedom Over Me: Eleven slaves, their lives and dreams brought to life By Ashley Bryan Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $17.99 ISBN: 978-1481456906 Ages 9 and up On shelves September 13th Who gives voice to the voiceless? What are your credentials when you do so? When I was a teen I used to […]
June 29, 2016 by Betsy Bird
Sweaty, sticky, moist Orlando edition. So here’s a new way to experience the American Library Association Conference. We’re going to tackle it in a visual way. Which is to say, if I took a picture of it, it’s going into this post. Here then is a look at what caught my eye on the conference […]
June 28, 2016 by Betsy Bird
While I acknowledge that the logical way to write about the ALA Annual 2016 Conference in Orlando would be to do it chronologically, on the cusp of the banquet and all that it entailed, it makes more sense to me to write that part up first and then circle back to the conference in the […]
June 23, 2016 by Betsy Bird
Okay. So now we’re finally getting some interesting picture book biographies on a regular basis. When I was a kid you had your Helen Keller and your Abraham Lincoln and you were GRATEFUL! These days, people are interested in celebrating more than just the same ten people over and over again. Why this year alone […]
June 22, 2016 by Betsy Bird
As I mentioned in my 2016 Day of Dialog round-up, Richard Peck was the kickoff speaker this year, just before Book Expo. I was moderating the middle grade fiction panel that morning, so I got to hang out with Richard in the green room a little before the event. Now I’ve met him in the […]
June 21, 2016 by Betsy Bird
Greg Neri. Now there’s a guy with range. If he isn’t writing a picture book bio of Johnny Cash he’s doing a middle grade novel on inner city cowboys or a graphic novel on Chicago’s South Side. Some authors fall into predictable patterns. Not Greg. I honestly never know what the man’s going to come […]
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June 20, 2016 by Betsy Bird
Fickle little me. Titles appear. Titles disappear. Many of the books I placed on my Spring 2017 predictions list are gone by June, and what has changed? Aren’t the books as wonderful now as they were when I originally propped them up? Of course they are, but I’ve done enough book discussions in the intervening […]
June 17, 2016 by Betsy Bird
Coyote Moon By Maria Gianferrari Illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline Roaring Brook Press (an imprint of Macmillan) $17.99 ISBN: 978-1-62672-041-1 Ages 4-7 On shelves July 19th I feel as if there was less nature out there when I was a kid. Crazy, right? But seriously, as I grew to be an adult I was appalled at […]
June 16, 2016 by Betsy Bird
You know what’s even better than serving on an award committee? Having someone else write about it. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I was on the judging committee for this year’s Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards alongside Chair Joanna Rudge Long and Roxanne Feldman. It was Roxanne who reported on our discussion, and even took […]
June 14, 2016 by Betsy Bird
A couple weeks ago the June 6/13 edition of The New Yorker was the Fiction issue, and in it were essays by five authors, each subtitled “Childhood Reading.” As you might expect, they were ostensibly memories of books read by these authors when they were young. I approached each one with a bit of trepidation, […]
Teen Librarian Toolbox
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Politics in Practice
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Good Comics for Kids
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