Jeanette Bradley: Tuesday, November 19th

Board book trends, a nonfiction book to inspire letter-writing, and new comics coming our way. We’ve got all this and more. I’m Corrina Allen and this is All The Wonders This Week.

Joining me this week as co-host is Jeanette Bradley - a writer, an illustrator, a former urban planner - and author/illustrator of the picture book Love, Mama and the upcoming When the Babies Came to Stay and No Voice Too Small: Fourteen Young Americans Making Change, Co-edited with  Keila V. Dawson, and Lindsay H. Metcalf and Illustrated.by Jeanette.

• Fans of the Baby-sitters Club graphic novel adaptations will be pleased to know that comic publisher Graphix will be publishing six new books in the series! Starting in 2021, they will be coming out twice a year and cartoonists Gabriela Epstein and Chan Chau will alternate as adapters of four of the books.
• I bumped into an interesting article by Alison Doherty on Book Riot last week analyzing the first and last lines of each Harry Potter book. So if you are a Potter fan, it’s a fascinating read. But - it does obviously contain spoilers so you have been forewarned!
• And Board Books are booming!  Publishers Weekly reports that for the fifth year in a row, sales of board books have increased and retailers are noticing more demand from customers and are expanding their board book sections.  Barnes & Noble reports a particular interest in nonfiction board books. In the article, Cynthia Compton, owner of 4 Kids Books & Toys in says, “As I watch adult customers browse in board books, there is less ‘risk’ in the purchase of these titles as gifts. They are short, can be perused easily, and the lower price point allows customers to group items to just the amount they want to spend,” giving customers a lot of flexibility. She also finds that board books are being purchased for a wider age span. “We see parents of toddlers and preschoolers selecting board books over picture books for durability.”

Jeanette

• Making Friends, graphic novel by Kristen Gudsnuk - my eight year old picked out this book. It’s the story of Dany, a lonely 7th grader who uses a magic sketchbook to make the perfect friend come to life. The story weaves together superhero fandom, contemporary middle school life, magic drawings, and some deep, philosophical concepts about what it means to be a real human and a real friend. And it works.  Going to get the sequel next trip the bookstore! I also finally got my hands on a copy of Saturday by Oge Mora this week and I am in love with her color palette, and the way her adorable characters skip across the page!  SATURDAY is a story of how everything can go wrong but you can still have the best day ever if you focus on what’s really important.  I love it.

Corrina

• Just started a middle grade book I’ve been recommended a lot called Roll With It - about a girl named Ellie who loves to bake and who has cerebral palsy so uses a wheelchair. So far - I am really enjoying it!  It’s funny and insightful - and one part that stands out to me in the section I’m reading now is how Ellie and her family are dealing with a grandparent who has dementia.  I also lived in intergenerational homes for most of my life and caring for elderly relatives is something I think a lot of kids can relate to.

Corrina

On my mind this week as we head into Thanksgiving here in the United States is the power of food and story. And how those two things are often tied together and lift each other up -  the special dishes that have been passed down generations after generation along with the stories of those relatives who helped make them. And the stories we tell as we share a meal. And maybe it’s on my mind lately because the last couple of books I’ve read - Fry Bread, and Summer of a Thousand Pies, and Roll With It all significantly feature food and family stories .

Jeanette

On my mind is soft censorship. There have been a couple situations in the last few weeks of schools cancelling visits from LGBTQ authors, with excuses about schedule conflicts or “lack of notice to parents.” Two authors who have had this happen to them recently are Leslea Newman (HEATHER HAS TWO MOMMIES), and Robin Stevenson (KID ACTIVISTS: TRUE TALES OF CHILDHOOD FROM CHAMPIONS OF CHANGE).  K.A. Holt (FROM YOU TO ME) also had a school visit cancelled in the spring. Her article in Publisher’s Weekly says so eloquently the troubling impact these cancellations will have on students:  “My heart still breaks for every kid that day who, instead of learning about writing and story structure and my dog’s cute haircut, learned that because of who they are, they should be made invisible to their class, their school, themselves”