Heavy Medal
April 25, 2025 by Betsy Bird
Are there books you've always wanted to read but never have? Discover this new story craft podcast that confronts story structure and writing through the lens of its hosts' "Shame Shelf".
April 8, 2025 by Betsy Bird
This is your chance to find out how Jonathan Auxier writes every possible ending to his books to find the right one, why he doesn't reread his books, and why he rescinded his book 24 hours before sending it to the printer!
August 26, 2024 by Betsy Bird
Today we have not a single cover reveal but three at once!
April 3, 2018 by Betsy Bird
“Frog and Toad on rooftops.” Now that I have your attention . . . The funny thing about the children’s book author Jonathan Auxier (you may remember him from his Peter Nimble stories, or perhaps from his deliciously creepy The Night Gardener) is that I knew him personally before he was a writer for kids. […]
August 6, 2014 by Betsy Bird
As per usual there are some Wild Things links I’d love to share today. Lemme see here . . . Well we got a real stunner of a review over at Chapter 16. That’s some good and gorgeous stuff going down there. Phil Nel called us “Punchy, lively, and carefully researched.” The blog The […]
July 27, 2014 by Betsy Bird
Okay . . . soooooooo this. Look at this, oh ye children’s librarians. Breathe this. LIVE this! Become this. So naturally I had to find out who she is. Go to YouTube and she has numerous videos under the moniker OoeyGooeyLady. Almost all her videos date back two years. Real name? Lisa Murphy. And as […]
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May 11, 2014 by Betsy Bird
I’ll confess to you that I think I just discovered the secret to Video Sunday. If I “Favorite” videos I see in Twitter throughout the week I end up having a MUCH stronger series than if I’d just scouted them out on my own. Phew! Happy to know there’s a secret there. Now in the […]
March 12, 2014 by Betsy Bird
The Night Gardener By Jonathan Auxier Illustrated by Patrick Arrasmith Amulet Books (an imprint of Abrams) $16.95 ISBN: 978-1-4197-1144-2 Ages 10 and up On shelves May 20th For whatever reason, 2014 is a dark year in children’s middle grade fiction. I speak from experience. Fantasy in particular has been steeped in a kind of thoughtful […]
February 17, 2014 by Betsy Bird
Happy President’s Day! We’ve a lot of worthy links today but I’m going to begin with one that was sent to me by Dan Berenberg and that I’ve been enjoying ever since. Beginning with a caveat, Dan wrote to me and said, “You’ve probably been sent this by a ton of people already, but this […]
September 27, 2011 by Betsy Bird
SLJ represent! Though I could not attend this year’s KidLitCon (the annual conference of children’s and YA bloggers) many others did and they have all posted links to their recaps of the event here. So while I could not be present, fellow SLJ blogger Liz Burns of Tea Cozy showed up and has a fabulous […]
Politics in Practice
by John Chrastka
Teen Librarian Toolbox
by Amanda MacGregor
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