
Politics in Practice
January 20, 2025 by Betsy Bird
This week on the podcast, the James Marshall Fox series had multiple volumes, so which one would be the best to do with Kate? The one where they all smoke cigars? God. It's like you know me.
January 15, 2025 by Betsy Bird
How do you write a picture book about a man who made picture books? A deep dive into the creation of the one and only JIM! (a.k.a. James Marshall).
December 5, 2022 by Betsy Bird
A rare case of Kate changing my mind on a book. How have the Stupids aged over the years? Not as well as I had hoped.
July 29, 2019 by Betsy Bird
Is Martha the better hippo? Hard to determine with a single George and Martha book, but we have some serious opinions on the matter. This week we discuss methods of hiding food you don't want to eat (when you're a grown-up), how "The Tub" was a pre-#MeToo story, and why Rev. Buck McTooth is truly a Doctor of Divinity.
May 28, 2018 by Betsy Bird
I don’t think I expected to get into an in-depth conversation about Miss Nelson’s cosplay as Viola Swamp, and why precisely she chooses to do so, but that’s the kind of podcast this is. Along the way Kate and I get into what the Wicked Witch of the West might have been wearing under that […]
October 25, 2016 by Betsy Bird
Good morning! I’d like to begin today by thanking the good people of Foundation 65 for allowing me to moderate a panel discussion last night with Duncan Tonatiuh, Grace Lin, Matt de la Pena, Janice Harrington, and Steve Sheinkin. Foundation 65 has created this cool program where these authors are visiting every single child in […]
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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 5, 2012 by Betsy Bird
#29 Miss Nelson is Missing! by Harry Allard, illustrated by James Marshall (1977) 56 points Oh, that clever Miss Nelson. She certainly fooled me, and I read this book countless times in childhood trying to figure out just how she pulled it off. Miss Viola Swamp is the best alter ego ever. – Katie Ahearn […]
May 29, 2012 by Betsy Bird
#48 George and Martha by James Marshall (1972) 38 points I know this is a Marshall-heavy list, but it’s not my fault that he is the greatest thing to ever happen to picture books. – Shannon Ozimy I didn’t read George & Martha until I became a librarian, but it was irreverent love at first […]
November 21, 2011 by Betsy Bird
I can’t pinpoint what it was that made me think of this. In this day and age with children’s picture book characters appearing as television and movie characters every other minute, to say nothing of the new deals being made with the names of classics we all grew up with, it’s a lot easier to […]
Politics in Practice
by John Chrastka
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