Author and Librarian Betsy Bird with Jamie Thome
On November 19th, 2020, we spoke with writer and librarian Betsy Bird!
Ms. Bird was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which is a town that's not too big, not too small, not too fast, and not too slow.
As a kid, she was incredibly shy. She doesn’t think she ever said more than five words in school on a given day. She wasn't good at sports and she wasn't exactly the best artist in the world, but there was one thing she could do really well---she read books like crazy. She read comic strips and novels and comic books and picture books and magazines and pretty much anything she could get her hands on.
She wrote stories too, but had a hard time finishing them. Then she got older and stopped writing stories. She became a librarian, because she got to work with books all day every day.
She got over being shy as she grew up and she got to work in the best children's room in New York City, the Children's Center at 42nd Street. There, she worked alongside the real Winnie-the-Pooh and met all kinds of famous children's authors and illustrators. One day, the illustrator Brandon Dorman (he does all the Goosebumps covers) asked if Ms. Bird would write a book with him. So they wrote Giant Dance Party together. And now, Ms. Bird lives in Evanston, and works at the Evanston Public Library.
For more information about Betsy Bird and her work, please visit https://www.betsybirdbooks.com/
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