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Tag: 2020 picture books

November 19, 2020 by Betsy Bird

Review of the Day – Waa’aka’: The Bird Who Fell in Love with the Sun by Cindi M. Alvitre, ill. Carly Lake

Artfully rendered and magnificently produced, this creation tale is by turns beautiful and clever. A story told with plenty of thought and consideration.

October 29, 2020 by Betsy Bird

Review of the Day: Sugar in Milk by Thrity Umrigar, ill. Khoa Le

A book that manages that impossible task of combining child friendliness (a kid will want to reread it) with good writing (an ADULT will want to reread it – never a given), and beautiful art.

October 1, 2020 by Betsy Bird

Review of the Day: A Thousand No’s by D.J. Corchin, ill. Dan Dougherty

If you think the process of creation is sometimes painful and collaborative and ultimately fun, this book is the first that I’ve ever seen to express that idea. You want to get to yes? Then you gotta slog through no.

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Review of the Day: I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott, ill. Sydney Smith

August 27, 2020 by Betsy Bird

Deft poetic language pairs with the resonant watercolors of Sydney Smith to create a book that is more than a memoir and more than conveying a message. This is pain, turned into art, and written for young children. Incomparable.

Review of the Day: All Because You Matter by Tami Charles, ill. Bryan Collier

August 6, 2020 by Betsy Bird

There are plenty of inspiring picture books out there for kids. Few understand their purpose as perfectly as this book does.

Review of the Day: When You Look Up by Decur

June 17, 2020 by Betsy Bird

A picture book and a graphic novel and an early chapter book and a bedtime story all rolled into one impossible-to-define package. I'm not even kidding when I say that When You Look Up by Decur gives you a deep and abiding faith in 21st century storytelling. Now if only I could figure out where to shelve it...

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Review of the Day: Nerp! by Sarah Lynne Reul

May 21, 2020 by Betsy Bird

You know those parents that get roped into reading to their kids’ preschool/Kindergarten/church group and walk aimlessly through libraries and bookstores in a hazy daze of barely contained fear? This book is for them. Guaranteed laughs, short content, and the kind of book I could see a kid demanding over and over again. Worth buying? “Yerp!”

Review of the Day: Desert Girl, Monsoon Boy by Tara Dairman, ill. Archana Sreenivasan

April 30, 2020 by Betsy Bird

I honestly think there’s a value in teaching kids the fact that the more you learn, the more you will realize just how much you do not know. That there’s always room for more knowledge. And Desert Girl, Monsoon Boy is a gorgeously wrought, simply written, smart story that does the work of engaging and informing kids alongside their ill-informed parents.

Review of the Day: Outside In by Deborah Underwood, ill. Cindy Derby

March 26, 2020 by Betsy Bird

Right now, in the Spring, when the world seems scary, this may be the comforting book about what’s beyond our back doors that we all need right now.

Review of the Day: Snail Crossing by Corey R. Tabor

March 4, 2020 by Betsy Bird

I've read snail picture books before, but few have plumbed their humor quite as well as Tabor has in "Snail Crossing". Less a story of persistence than a lesson in karma, this may well be the first snail-adjacent picture book that has ever made me AND my kids laugh out loud for long periods of time. I can think of not better praise than that.

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