Hello dear friends! I hope you all had a lovely long Labor Day weekend and are well-rested – you are going to need to sing a strong Happy Book Birthday for this wonderful new picture book by Elizabeth Gilbert Bedia: BESS THE BARN STANDS STRONG.

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday, dear BESS THE BARN! Happy Birthday to you!

BESS THE BARN STANDS STRONG

Written by Elizabeth Gilbert Bedia

Illustrated by Katie Hickey

Published by Page Street Kids (TODAY! September 8, 2020)

Here’s a little bit about the book from the Amazon sales page:

A steadfast old barn shows she’s sturdy enough to save the day.

Beam by beam and board by board, Bess the barn is built by able hands to keep the farm’s animals safe and sound. Through many seasons and celebrations, that’s just what she does, until she starts to sag…and creak…and slump. Then new everything comes along: a new farmer and a shiny new barn. A mean storm arrives not far behind, putting both barns to a dangerous test―can old Bess weather this threat to the farm?

Bess opens her doors wide, welcoming all to celebrate the year-round ups and downs of farm life and admire the enduring strength and importance of something made to last.

And here’s an early STARRED review from BookPage:

“A true storyteller, Elizabeth Gilbert Bedia gives Bess life with literary gilding; there’s repetition, imagery, personification and more. The prose flows, poetic and brusque by turns, as the finely wrought story oh-so-delicately addresses the concept of passing on… Bess the Barn Stands Strong reminds us that love shelters us through all storms. – BookPage, starred review

And here’s a link to the author’s website and a post about how the story came to be.

I love this story! And I love that, even with the health crisis and the crazy world we are living in, authors, illustrators, and editors are committed to continuing to create beautiful books. Please remember that we can all contribute to the success of books we love by buying them, reviewing them ,telling friends about them, and asking our local libraries to add them to their collections.

Don’t forget to leave a comment to be entered into the giveaway if you’d like a chance to win a copy…author Elizabeth is generously offering TWO copies…so we will have TWO WINNERS! Why not share a time when you had to stand strong?

I hope you all have a wonderful week…and be sure to return on Friday and Saturday when we will be featuring two more brand-new picture books.