even1. What’s your name?
Betsy Bird!

2. Where were you born?
Kalamazoo, Michigan

3. Where do you live?
Evanston, Illinois

4. How many books have you written?
Nine. Four picture books, two books for middle grade readers, and three books for adults ABOUT books for kids. 

5. Why did you want to be a writer?
When I was a kid I loved writing stories. Honestly, I wrote them constantly, from pretty much the second grade onward. Two of my aunts were writers, you see, and that made it clear to me that it was an actual job. So I just assumed I’d someday be a writer myself when I grew up. 

6. Where do you get your ideas?
Absolutely everywhere. I’ll just be walking down the street and something someone says, or something that catches my eye, might give me an idea. My friends and family are used to me stopping a conversation to whip out my phone and write down an idea that comes to me. And sometimes they even turn into pretty good books!

7. What was your favorite book as a kid?
I had a couple! My favorite picture book when I was really little was A Time to Keep by Tasha Tudor (nobody, and I mean nobody, paints more delicious chocolate cupcakes than Tasha Tudor). When I got older, I got a book from the Scholastic Book Fair called The Girl With the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts about a girl with superpowers. It’s still one of my favorite books for kids to this day.

8. What advice do you give to kids who want to be writers too?
My advice is kind of silly but here goes: Do you want to be a writer? That is awesome. Now here’s the good news. If you want to be a writer, and then decide for a while to do something else, you can always go BACK to being a writer later. It’s perfectly okay! You can literally be a writer anytime that you want! It’s your choice!

The Long Version

Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, undisputed center of the universe, Betsy grew up and promptly left Michigan the moment my legs could propel her southward. She didn’t get far. She received her Master’s in Library and Information Science from the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, MN and then proceeded to work for New York Public Library.

In New York Betsy eventually became NYPL’s Youth Media Specialist (a.k.a. the person who bought all the kids’ books for Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx). She started reviewing for Kirkus and publishing books. Sometimes they were about children’s literature. Sometimes they were for kids.

Betsy is the creator of the children’s literary site A Fuse #8 Production, which is hosted by School Library Journal. After leaving New York, she became the Collection Development Manager of Evanston, IL, which is a position she holds to this day. She also started the podcast Fuse 8 n’ Kate with her sister. The two discuss picture books and determine which ones do (and do not) deserve to be considered “classics”.

The author of numerous titles for adults about children’s books, Betsy has written CHILDREN’S LITERATURE GEMS: CHOOSING AND USING THEM IN YOUR LIBRARY CAREER (2010) and she has contributed to WILD THINGS: ACTS OF MISCHIEF IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE (2014), PICTUREBOOKS AND ILLUSTRATED BOOKS (2017), and, most recently, RACIAL LITERACY IN LIBRARIES (2026). 

The Short Version

Betsy Bird is an author, librarian, reviewer of children’s literature, public speaker, and podcaster (not necessarily in that order). She is the author of numerous picture books for children, including the upcoming TERRIBLE TERRIBLE BIRDS (Feb 2027) with Matthew Cordell and POP! GOES THE FAIRY TALE (June 2027) with Andrea Tsurumi. She has written books for kids ages 9–12 (most recently LONG ROAD TO THE CIRCUS with David Small), books for adults about children’s books (most recently RACIAL LITERACY IN LIBRARIES), and more. Betsy currently resides in Evanston, Illinois with her two kids, husband, and cats Izzy and Hilo (named after the graphic novel series by Judd Winick).

WHY IS YOUR BLOG CALLED A FUSE #8 PRODUCTION?

Once upon a time my grandmother gave me her car. I was in college, broke, without any particular means of moving around, and that car gave me a bit of freedom and independence I had never known. It was also ugly as sin. The car, a 1989 Buick Century, had all the paint missing from its roof since it had spent the better part of its life sitting in the hot sun of my grandmother’s retirement community parking lot. I did not care. It was wheels and I was happy to have them.

During the summer after I graduated from college, I was spending the summer in my college town doing small jobs. One day I parked the car in front of my apartment, removed the key, and all of a sudden the electrical locks started going up and down, up and down, like the poor car was possessed. I screamed, exited the vehicle… then did absolutely nothing about it. The next morning the car battery was dead. It soon became clear that the electrical system was on the fritz. So, without a dime to my name, I took it to the mechanic.

The mechanic who saw me probably could tell at a glance that anyone driving a dilapidated 1989 Buick Century lacking in any and all paint on its roof probably wasn’t rolling in the dough. So, in a moment of mercy, he reached into the glove compartment and pulled out… Fuse #8 from the fuses in there. He told me in no uncertain terms that it controlled the radio, windshield wipers, turn signal, and electric locks. All I had to do was plug it in when I drove, and remove it when I parked. Easy peasy! 

I drove that car for years and years. I drove it from southern Indiana to Portland, Oregon. I drove it years later from Portland, Oregon to Minneapolis, Minnesota. And there, in Minnesota, I met and married my husband. The car survived all of this. 

My husband was a filmmaker at the time, and one day he happened to mention that he needed a good name for his production company. I suggested… A Fuse #8 Production. It just sounded like it should be the name of something. He didn’t go for it, but the name stuck in my mind. And when I decided, after reading an article in School Library Journal, to start a children’s literature blog of my own, that seemed like the perfect name.

It has everything to do with a janky 1989 Buick Century and nothing at all to do with children’s books. I do not care. The name? It is good.