Teen Librarian Toolbox
September 29, 2017 by Betsy Bird
Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut By Derrick Barnes Illustrated by Gordon C. James A Denene Millner Book, Bolden (an imprint of Agate) $17.95 ISBN: 978-1-57284-224-3 Ages 4-7 On shelves October 10th Do you ever find yourself wondering if a book is too good to be true? Publishers are sneaky little devils. They know […]
July 26, 2017 by Betsy Bird
Let’s Clap, Jump, Sing & Shout; Dance, Spin & Turn It Out! Games, Songs & Stories from an African American Childhood By Patricia McKissack Illustrated by Brian Pinkney Schwartz & Wade (an imprint of Penguin Random House) $24.99 ISBN: 978-0-375-87088-0 All ages On shelves now. Would you like to know the last film Orson Welles […]
August 8, 2016 by Betsy Bird
Recently Slate decided to create a “pop-up blog” of sorts with a concentration on children’s literature. They’ve called it nightlight. A good name. We would have also accepted “flashlight under the sheets”. In any case, I was initially worried that this would be another case of writers who have just found themselves to be parents […]
March 31, 2016 by Betsy Bird
Don’t Call Me Grandma By Vaunda Micheaux Nelson Illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon Carolrhoda Books (a division of Lerner) $19.99 ISBN: 978-1-4677-4208-5 Ages 4-7 On shelves now. In 2016 a picture book won a Newbery Award. Which is to say, a picture book was declared the best-written work for children between the ages of 0-14. After […]
February 1, 2016 by Betsy Bird
There were a couple things I left undone when I took my leave of NYPL. Of them, the one I probably regret the most is that I didn’t devote more energy towards getting NYPL’s landmark Black Experience in Children’s Literature list up and running. This historic list, started as early as the 1940s and possibly […]
January 27, 2016 by Betsy Bird
On January 19th, Claire Fallon, a Books and Culture Writer at The Huffington Post, wrote an article called 13 Honest Books About Slavery Young People Should Actually Read. The piece was a response to the news about Scholastic pulling the publication of A Birthday Cake for George Washington and got shared hither and thither and […]
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January 19, 2016 by Betsy Bird
Jazz Day: The Making of a Famous Photograph By Roxane Orgill Illustrated by Francis Vallejo Candlewick Press $18.99 ISBN: 9780763669546 Ages 9-12 On shelves March 8th Some books for kids have a hard road ahead of them. Here’s a secret. If you want a book to sell just oodles and oodles of copies to the […]
February 17, 2015 by Betsy Bird
We’re in the thick of the month of February now and recently I ran into an interesting problem. It being Black History Month and all I was looking to create a list of Black Experience children’s books for my librarians to pull from for displays and purchasing and such. So I trolled about online looking […]
January 1, 2014 by Betsy Bird
The Other Side of Free By Krista Russell Peachtree Publishers $16.95 ISBN: 978-1-56145-710-6 Ages 9-12 On shelves now Have you ever read the adult book How I Became a Famous Novelist? Bear with me for a second here, I know what I’m doing. You see, in the title the author decides that he wants to become […]
July 16, 2013 by Betsy Bird
Well a tip of the hat and an apology to Mr. Schu. Looks like he in the guise of Babymouse came to visit me at The Children’s Center at 42nd Street located in the main branch of NYPL. Alas, I am no longer in that location, having been picked up and dropped off in Long […]
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