Fuse 8 n' Kate

Betsy literally went out and decided to purchase this lesser known Martin/Carle collaboration. We all know Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle created such modern day classics as Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? But did you even know that this dynamic duo also created their own spooky picture book tale all the way back in 1970? Please be so good as to meet one of the strangest little Halloween-...

While not explicitly a Halloween title, when Betsy saw that editor Taylor Norman had talked up this little oddity the other day, she was a mite bit intrigued. And then we got to the whole foot removal section and BLAM! Sold! Betsy knew she had to show this to Kate. Now don't get thrown by the snow on the ground of this tale because many is the sad Halloween we've experienced in the Midwest where t...

It's not quite October yet, so we didn't want to start handing Kate the scary stuff immediately. This 25-year-old spider tale collaboration of Spinelli/Dyer seemed like a good intro to the season instead. It features a creature associated with the fall, but who appears in a story that's anything but scary. Unless you can't take any tale about spiders, that is. Then you might be up a tree. This is...

Betsy was so very, entirely certain that we had covered this old title by Patricia C. McKissack on our podcast already. And yet, AND YET, we have never read it. That ends today. Originally published in 1986, we dive into this book's roots in oral storytelling, Isadora's career, and why it is that foxes always get a bad break in picture books. Just looking at our past podcast episodes, we have neve...

We had two people recommend today's book for podcast consideration, and I'm awfully glad that they did. It's been a day or two since I last read this odd little 80s creation. Now you would not think, looking at this book's cover, that you would find a title so chock full of title details as this. But you know what we're talking about this episode? Clowns! Misspellings! And guns guns guns. Read the...

“If you’re going to Lower Trainswitch / Be sure to wear flowers in your hair…” Today we talk Tootle. Ever read him? No? Well, in 2001 Tootle was the all-time third best-selling hardcover children’s book in English. He’s not as famous now as he was twenty years ago, but that fact made us curious. Why is he so forgotten? Should he be brought back? Is this some lost gem of children’s literature just...

"How do you say, 'You don't start nothin' there won't be nothin' in Seuss?" So Betsy promised Kate that for her birthday they'd do a book that published in 1984 (the year of her birth)... and then she promptly forgot. So on the day of this recording (which was Kate's ACTUAL birthday) Betsy found one they hadn't done before. Written during Seuss's strange didactic era (your Lorax, your Sneetches, a...

Suggested alternate title for this text: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished. Our very first Brian Pinkney! Are you surprised? So am I, quite frankly. Even thought we've done multiple Jerry Pinkney books at this point (Mirandy and Brother Wind, John Henry, Little Red Riding Hood, Goin' Someplace Special, etc.) I thought for sure we might have at least done Sukey and the Mermaid or something, but nope! No...

"Distinctive and it always looks like this." That's Betsy discussing the artistic stylings of Jack E. Davis. Published in 2000, this book is pretty quintessentially early 00's. Now we have never done a Margie Palatini OR a Jack E. Davis on this podcast to date. Neither of these two have any currently operating and working websites either, so in some ways we're flying by the seat of our pants in th...

Upon hearing that Jon Klassen was hugely affected by this book as a kid (fascinating when you consider how opposite it is from his latest title The House with Nobody In It), we felt it was time to revisit this old 1972 easy book to see how it stands up. Truth be told, we're less interested in the Seuss connection than by the outdated terminology in a supposed book for early readers ("bureau drawer...

Dreamlike and surreal, it may not be as well remembered as some of the other 1980s picture books that typify the era (particularly those written by Chris Van Allsburg) but there's something luminous about this cult classic picture book. Will Kate be drawn to its gentle peculiarities or dislike them entirely? We talk about how gutsy it is to do three wordless two-page spreads, murder hornets, and w...

When you've worked for a system quite as large and vast as New York Public Library, it can be difficult to ascertain scope. Was Library Lion the massive nationwide hit Betsy thought it was when it premiered in 2006, or did her workplace like it only because it featured a library and a lion (two very NYPL-ish things)? To get to the bottom of the matter she brings in Kate, and together they plumb th...

This week Kate and Betsy take a trip back in time to 1938. We were trepidatious, and can you blame us? Considering the era and the fact that James Daugherty created the first (and only? unclear) Newbery winner to be completely out-of-print due to shockingly overt racism, we entered into Andy and the Lion tentatively. Betsy remembered it as beloved of New York Public Library. Justifiably? This and...

"The text placing is NOT conventional!" Fresh off the 2026 American Library Association we're happy to discuss our very first Peter Sis title. We're going to begin our Sisification with one of his (relatively) younger books. In its heyday, I recall that New York Public Library absolutely adored this book. They loved its multicultural take and feel. But if we've learned anything from Schoolhouse Ro...

Sure, we missed it by a couple days, but it's never too late to lift a glass in honor of Juneteenth. Betsy was determined to figure out what the very first Juneteenth picture book published by a major publisher was, and we think we've found our answer. The kicker is that not only did this book come out in 1995, it was the very first picture book by future multi-award winner Carole Boston Weatherfo...

It's PRIDE MONTH!!! And we've done many a fine LGBTQIA+ book during the year. But this book series, while not considered queer during its initial publication, has since been embraced by the gay community and, as such, we seek to celebrate it here today. Of all the Frog and Toad books in the series (there are four) this was the only one to garner a Newbery Honor (NOT Caldecott... and isn't that int...

Rambunctious? Bumbling? It's hard to typify the sheep in this Nancy Shaw series (though their publisher has certainly tried over the years). The darlings of the 80s and 90s, "Sheep" appreciation has depreciated significantly over the intervening decades. Today, Kate and I delve into two of the most notable of the sheep book to truly declare whether they deserve a bit of classic status to keep them...

"I don't hate THESE rhymes!" It's a return to New Zealand today with a local classic that has long eluded our particular podcast. Will the little black terrier with the catchy name capture the hearts and minds of these Yankee sisters, or will his charms elude them entirely? On this episode we discuss books that you have to practice reading aloud, why people give their dogs last names, and whether...

Episode 410 - The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll & the Broom Handle and Who Was in It by Betsy Bird and Kate Atienza

Betsy promised Kate that they'd do a British picture book today in celebration of Kate's recent trip to the fair British Isles. It had occurred to Betsy that they'd never done a Babette Cole book before, so she worked out which one is perhaps best known over there. Now we probably should have done the incredible Mommy Laid an Egg, but Betsy felt like Kate needed a gentler introduction to Cole's wo...

So folks ask me to do more nonfiction on this podcast, and while I admit that it is a bit of a stretch to call today's book pure nonfiction, I at least think that it's closely aligned. It's not a biography, though. Consider it more of a personal memoir from 1962. In essence, it's the true story of Andy Warhol's extended family, written by one of his nephews. Sadly, James Warhola didn't continue to...

As it turns out, this is the second time we've done a Pat Mora/Raul Colón collaboration. With this book, though, we delve into a moment in children's book publishing history when multi-ethnic tall tales were the name of the game. It's been a while since we've done a legitimate honest-to-goodness folktale on this podcast. They were once the lifeblood of children's libraries, and these days they're...

It's time to bring out the big guns. The big... Australian guns, that is. The last time we did a Mem Fox title on this podcast it had to have been Where Is the Green Sheep? And the last time we did a Julia Vivas? It was probably The Nativity. Put the two creators together and you have yourself a fascinating tale of a new picture book author attempting to create something wholly Australian for the...

"I would trust my baby with Amelia Bedelia before I trusted it with Carl." "Well... she does have opposable thumbs." Poor Kate has just survived the ordeal of solo parenting for around a month with a child not yet a year old and still not on solids. As such, Betsy thought the time was right to spring upon her everyone's favorite doggie babysitter, Carl. How would Kate react to Carl's less than ent...

After Passover, before Tax Day, the holiday Betsy decided to discuss today is Easter! Now Kate already met Max and Ruby back in September of 2025 with Max's Dragon Shirt. Betsy thinks it's weird. Kate doesn't. But a chocolate chicken is not a thing. Betsy gets to mention how the Max & Ruby books are much like episodes of The Simpsons. Why? Because it's easy to ask, where does the cut-off between t...