In December of 2021 I had this idea that I wanted to start a new YouTube channel where I’d talk about picture books. I wanted to do it in the style of Cartoonist Kayfabe over on YouTube. The deep dives into comic books the two hosts take are ridiculous. Nothing like that exists in children’s book publishing and I thought I could enjoy creating that kind of a program.
I drafted a few episode ideas and ran them past my family. My son suggested I name the program “Picture Books with Jerrold” and brand it PB&J (which was and still is a killer idea). I sketched up a potential logo and even filmed a pilot, as pictured below.
And then I realized I was more interested in making books than talking about them so I ditched the idea.
Now, though, with this blog back up and running, I’m itching to talk about picture books again. I won’t be wearing a suit (probably) and I’m not diving deep (definitely), but I’m going to share books from my collection every now and then with the tag #PBwithJ. First up will be this book that has been hovering on the periphery of my mind since I saw it in a bookstore twenty five years ago and which I just purchased off ebay for the low, low price of four dollars and eighty-five cents.
Check in on Thursday, I should have it up by then.
I should mention, too, I realized pretty quickly Betsy Bird was doing that kind of a video project over on her TikTok. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you should.