With the patience of a Frog & Toad and the tone of a gentle French import, Fox & Rabbit just begs for a reread. So I did it one better. I interviewed the author. Today, Beth Ferry stops on by to talk foxes, rabbits, and why you don’t need a mouth to show someone how you feel.
A librarian that’s personally witnessed the SARS outbreak, Arab Spring, the onset of H1N1, swine flu, the ouster of President Morsi, Ebola, and now COVID-19 offers advice and perspective on school shutdowns.
Essentially this could be considered a college course on both the role fables have played in history over the centuries, as well as a deep dive into what it takes to make a book as exquisitely beautiful as this one.
“Humans read books to visit other worlds different from their own, and to connect with characters who are either different from themselves or reflect their personalities.” Why do people like Richard Scarry? Ethan Long has a theory and a book series! I talk to the man about what books of this sort mean on a larger scale.
Folks, it is my extreme pleasure and delight to welcome Mr. Gene Luen Yang to the blog today. He’s just finished up a book that’s part memoir, part sports history, and all exciting. We discuss his anxiety about finding new projects, how this book came together, and what’s slated for the future.
“You have the most to learn from the perspectives that are hardest to find in the world.” For today’s cover reveal, American Hmong author Kao Kalia Yang discusses the story behind her remarkable and beautiful upcoming picture book The Most Beautiful Thing, and how intersectionality informs her writing.
Representation and children’s books. I talk fables and fairytales with Natalie Portman.
Each year, the winners of the Sydney Taylor are “sent”, as it were, on blog tours. And today, I am pleased beyond measure to be speaking with Andrew Maraniss, winner of the Sydney Taylor Honor for Middle Grade, for his book Games of Deception: The True Story of the First US Olympic Basketball Team at the 1936 Olympics in Hitler’s Germany.
“I did change the outcomes and timelines of some major events, which allowed certain settings to exist when in real history they were already gone or hadn’t yet come into existence, but I tried to always alter them in favor of the exiled or subjugated parties.” Dylan Meconis presents new information on the sequel to her hugely lauded graphic novel, Queen of the Sea.
“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.
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 a big time Jeff Kinney fan over here. That’s why I got a teeny bit puzzled when I heard that he was getting involved with something called “Who Was? History Bee” along with some fella named *checks press release* a “Patrick Kinney”. So what precisely is going on here? Some answers come in the form of an interview with the duo.
Today, we discuss a very different kind of collaboration. One that not only involves Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen and Caldecott honoree Thi Bui, but also Viet’s son Ellison and Thi’s son Hien. Because when it comes to creating books, sometimes making something new is truly a family affair.
Today we’re revealing Kristin L. Gray’s upcoming middle grade novel THE AMELIA SIX. But before we get to all that, let’s talk a bit to Kristin herself about the book, speedcubing, Amelia Earhart’s work with Syrian immigrants, and the difficulty level of writing middle grade mysteries (of which we never have enough).
An upcoming series described as “Toy Story” meets “Lord of the Flies”? All right. Color me intrigued. I talk with Daniel Kraus about his intriguing new series.
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