Mac Barnett says most kids' books are "crud"?! A Message to the Prepublished Writer

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:01]Hey writers, it's Bedhead Bethany coming to you talking about the latest kurfluffle in children's literature. So, the children's ambassador Mac Barnett has a new book out called Makebelie. Um, it is about the incredible art of children's books and it was published in Italy before 2024, I think. Um, so it's not referencing AI for those of you who are looking to have that be the thing. So yesterday it went viral. A children's librarian who's an influencer said, "Oh, I 100% this is my favorite quote from this book." And we'll show the quote.

[00:00:45]There's the quote. And children's authors are up in arms. Okay? And rightly so. So people from Christina Sutenvart who has the Newberry honor, Nick Bell who's a bestseller, Tracy Baptiste who wrote an amazing amazing amazing rebuttal to why this quote is damaging right now and what people are going to do with it, possibly do with it. Okay, but my concern is for writers and not those of us that are published.

[00:01:21]All right. We have crossed over. As tough as it is, we have books with our names on them on shelves. Whether anyone deems them crud or not, we have lived our dream. I work with writers on both sides of the publishing, yet to be published and published. And I want to talk today to those of you who are yet to be published, who are like, it's so hard. So much is coming out and things are narrowing and now the children's ambassador is calling us crud. Should I be doing this? Why would I be doing this? Is this art? Is this worth my time and energy? And what I want to say is what I've always said, that we don't need anyone's stamp of approval. That means we don't need Kirus' stamp of approval, although we'd like it sometimes. uh star is nice, but that's not why we do this. And we don't need Mac Barnett's stamp of approval. And you don't need my stamp of approval. What you need is to listen to your creativity. You need to find your heart and let it speak to the children that you want it to speak to. Okay? So, kids love books. All kinds of books. None of it is trash. None of it is trash.

[00:02:48]Don't let this discourage you. Stay the course. Keep your dream alive and keep fighting for the kids and the stories that matter, which in my opinion is all stories, including Mr. Barnett's, who does not need me to fight for them. But I am here fighting for you.