The Books Whut I Wrote
If you read yesterday’s PW Children’s Bookshelf you might have seen this item mentioned in a sidebar:
Steve Geck of Greenwillow Books has acquired two picture books from Elizabeth Bird, librarian at the New York Public Library’s Children’s Center and Fuse #8 blogger for SLJ. The first, Giant Dance Party, tells of a six-year-old girl who gives dance lessons to a troupe of giants. The deal for North American rights, the first for Bird, was handled by Stephen Barbara at Foundry Literary + Media.
A sober, thoughtful, video response.
Someone asked if I had made an announcement about this on my blog. I’d been holding off until the official press release ran.
And at the risk of swelling my head to the size of a large underwater mammal, I’ve other news as well. My ALA Editions title Children’s Literature Gems: Choosing and Using Them in Your Library Career is slated for release in June. Or so sayeth Amazon. You may pre-order it here, however, if you’ve a yen to do so.
A co-worker of mine misread the title recently as Children’s Literature Germs. So, of course, now that’s the only way I can see it. I mean it makes sense, yes? We are children’s librarians. We work with a lot of germy children. Ipso facto, here is how you can use those germs to . . . uh . . . further your career? Hm. Needs work.
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In any case, woot!
Filed under: Uncategorized

About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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Woot! Woot! Congratulations Betsy! Love your happy dance. May there be many more.
Congrats! Sounds like a great premise!
Wow! I am excited for you.
LOVE THE DANCE, Betsy! I’m thrilled for you.
Put the video on Facebook.
Congratulations!!! Awesome dance.
Whoo hoo! And if the video is anything to go by, I’m sure you’ll be much in demand for school visits! (For the children’s dance book, I mean. Probably not so much for the children’s germ book.)
Congrats Betsy!
Lynn
Yipee!!! Congratulations and yes, put that video on YouTube! Love it.
*dances with you*
Congratulations!!! GREAT news!!!
I did see it and was waiting for you to follow up with an announcement. So here it is and now I can say – Congratulations!!! Love the title “Giant Dance Party” and the premise!
CONGRATULATIONS BETSY!!!!
I love how librarians have to cultivate the ability to do a silent, quiet happy dance whilst on the job. Congrats, Betsy!
Congratulations!!!
A troupe of giants? I want one! Congrats, Betsy. I’m not a bit surprised that you’ve crossed into Authorland in a big way.
Congratulations!
Congratulations! And now we await the illustrator announcement. Ooooh, let’s vote. Can we? Can we?
Congrats to you!
Ah, but the illustrator has already been long since chosen. I’m just waiting to hear a go ahead before I make that particular announcement. Hee hee.
Happy Dance Indeed !!! Congrats and welcome to the world of the published. I’m assuming that it will be great for storytime, right? The Summer Reading national theme this year is Be Creative. I would have loved to been able to use it in my summer dance program this summer. Oh well. something to look forward to. -wendie Old
Sweet! And super dancing–the first bit reminded me of a certain Simpsons bit where Apu worked 60 straight hours at the Kwik-E-Mart. “For a while there I thought I was some sort of hummingbird.”
I did see this! Congratulations!!!!!! Love the dance!
Congratulations from a long-time reader and lurker! Thanks for your 100 Books Countdown, too!
That’s wonderful! Congratulations aplenty.
Two great reasons to dance dance!!!
YAY!!! All the Best!
Way to go!!! And your celebratory video clip serves two purposes — it lets you vent/share your happy-overflow AND it demonstrates your street cred showing Giants how to bust a move at their Dance Party!
Betsy! You move FAST, chica! Wow!
Congratulations!!!!!!!!!
WOO!
Amazing, wonderful news! Congrats Betsy!
I can’t wait. Will there be another ARC contest? (Predatory instincts take over)
Wow. This echo chamber is huge.
Yeah, I’m thinking of subletting half the space. Seriously, though, thanks folks. I initially thought about making this a post without a comment feature. Then my ego laughed in my face and gave me a big ole raspberry. So there you go.
CONGRATS, BETSY!!!! And thank you for sharing the happy dance. It was awesome. 🙂
Betsy, what happy news! Congratulations.
Oh, the places you’ll go . . .
Need some Bollywood background music for that dance, Betsy! So happy for you.
I can only imagine the germs lurking in that library, which is why I have a suggestion for those of you who have and/or work with children. It could also be a great instructional aid! Its called Germy Wormy Germ Smart Kids. They learn in a mom-invented, fun and drug-free way how to both avoid AND keep from spreading germs. Parents, daycare centers and schools are raving about it!
germywormy.com
Congratulations!!!!
Giant Dance Party? What a fantastic premise! Congratulations! I’m also eager to get my hands on the germy book. (Random tangent–my little brother was initially called Jeremy, but all the neighbor kids turned it to Germy, so he started going by his other name, David.)
Rah rah rah RAH! Any word on likely release year? Yay for you! 🙂
Wowee zowee, congratulations and mazal tov!
Huzzah! Hooray! It’s only a matter of time now before you’re shelving your very own books at work. Awesome.
GIANT congrats! Twice!
Good on you! to quote my Brit/Aussie friends.
Wow–away without computer access and look what I missed! I am doing the Happy Dance with you.
Jane
Woot! Great happy dance–major congratulations!
Congratulations Betsy! So exciting!
Love the silent happy dance.
Congratulations! I’m happy for you.–Farida
This is totally belated, but no less heart-felt: Super Congratulations! The kids lit world is lucky to have you as a librarian, a blogger, and now a published author!
Oh man, I just heard about this.
It couldn’t have happened to a nicer librarian!
Z