Bibsy Cross Might Be Too Much for Some, But She’s Everything to Me!

This past November, something kind of amazing and once-in-a-blue-moon happened. The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) had its annual conference in my home city of Boston, Massachusetts and I was able to attend as a volunteer with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). This HUGE conference for teachers of English and the language arts boasts swoon-worthy keynote speakers (this year it was comedian Kate McKinnon and Supreme Court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson), every major children’s book publisher, author book signings, and lots and lots of newly released books. I was in absolute heaven and awe.

I feared that the tote bag I brought to hold all these books might break on me due to the weight of them but thankfully it didn’t!

I brought back so many new treasures, including a new chapter book from Liz Garton Scanlon’s acclaimed Bibsy Cross series: Bibsy Cross and the Bike-A-Thon. I remember taking it out of my bag and curiously turning it over in my hands. This was my gateway to the entire series, and my gateway to Liz and her dazzling body of work, which includes award-winning picture books, chapter books, and novels.

It even prompted me to attend her recent Whale Rock workshop with fellow author and collaborator Audrey Vernick, “What We Wish Someone Had Told Us…And What We’d Like to Tell You.” Verdict? It was one of the best webinars I’ve ever attended, hands-down. These women shared so much of themselves, their struggles and triumphs, and perhaps most interestingly, their collaboration process with one another, which has resulted in several “book babies.”

Bibsy Cross is Liz’s first chapter book series. It features adorably rendered artwork by Dung Ho, with stylish black and white interior illustrations highlighting just one unique color that ties in thematically with each book. In the first book, Bibsy Cross and the Bad Apple, it was red. How cute is that??

These books are divided into very short and simple chapters for new readers (I want to say around thirty of them). They offer a little morsel of entertainment for a child, who can read on and on, or put it down easily, depending on their reading level and attention span.

Bibsy Cross is, in her own words, a “regular-pegular” kind of girl. Which means, as with everychild, that she’s actually very complex and one-of-a-kind. Our first introduction to Bibsy in Bibsy Cross and the Bad Apple gives us a front-row seat to her strained and at times, emotionally crushing relationship with her third-grade teacher, Mrs. Stumper. Mrs. Stumper thinks that Bibsy talks too much, wonders too much, IS too much…you get the picture. Bibsy has a lot to say—important things that don’t always fit into the neat, simple question format that her teacher demands from her.

Why can’t Bibsy be more like her cool, calm, and measured classmate, Mina? (not “Meanie”, as Bibsy sometimes slips and calls her). Mina never says or demands too much of their teacher the way Bibsy does. She never goes “a stone too far.”

I had a Mrs. Stumper. Her last name was different, of course, and I’m not going to mention it in this public space. Suffice it to say, I was not her favorite second grade student. Not even close. It wasn’t that I talked too much, but I was a daydreamer, and she could tell when I wasn’t paying attention. She used behavior incentive cards for me and a couple of other kids that she would stamp…honestly, I can’t even remember the particulars of how and in what manner she used them because in my mind, I was in trouble, and that just made me shut down and try to block it all out.

In Bibsy’s case, it’s a big corkboard apple tree stapled to the wall of the classroom with bright red construction paper apples–one for each student in the class. Full of promise and and fullness at the start of each day, until Mrs. Stumper has to speak to Bibsy several times and moves her apple down, down to the brown “dirt” at the base of the tree. And Bibsy’s spirits fall with it. At least she doesn’t get a hole punched in her apple to be sent home to her parents at the end of the week like her classmate Marcus! …until she does.

I want to say that this kind of student-teacher conflict is a normal and formative part of a child’s development (largely it is), but it’s a very tender situation. Children need all the resources and support they can get to navigate it, and I’m grateful to Liz for choosing to address it in her Bibsy Cross books.

Lucky for Bibsy, she has a strong support system in her best friend Natia, her parents, and Natia’s teacher, Mr. Moon, who sees all his students as shining stars (and Bibsy as an honorary one). Bibsy and Natia take the school science fair by storm, with a beautifully symbolic project about gravity making apples fall, but magnetic force being able to pull them back to where they belong. Bibsy’s friends and family provide that magnetic force for her. Yes, Liz is a very poetic, literary writer who shines in her ability to convey such symbolism in an early reader text.

These characters, so powerfully introduced in book one—Mrs. Stumper, Mina, Natia, and Bibsy, of course—continue to grow, develop, and play off one another in the second and third installations of the series. Bibsy Cross and the Bike-A-Thon takes us on a wild, winding ride of challenge and personal growth for Bibsy, when what starts out as a fun competition she’s out to “win” turns into a more challenging journey. In a serendipitous turn of events, her old rival Mina is now the messy and vulnerable one, in need of Bibsy’s help. The two share a powerful moment of connection and understanding, each coming out smoother and more rounded around the edges.

Bibsy Cross and the Creepy-Crawlies is a study in “self-sustaining” natural habitats for Bibsy’s third grade class, as they create pickle jar terrariums. Bibsy’s off to a great start, thoughtfully coming up with her group’s name, “Ants in Our Plants” (AIOP, for short). True to her nature, she can’t resist the urge to “help” the pickle jar ecosystem thrive which unleashes unintended consequences…and creepy-crawlies, everywhere. In what’s perhaps her most self-aware moment yet, Bibsy learns about her own earthly habitat and the power of learning to let be.

Each book has a solid premise and storyline, coupled with beautiful metaphors for childhood and life. One powerful and constant thread throughout all of them is Bibsy sitting with her parents at the dinner table, sharing the “sweets” and “sours” of her day with them. They’re a blended slurry of sweet and sour, reflecting nuanced, real life. And I love that.

I’m currently waiting to read the fourth installment, Bibsy Cross and the Time Capsule, which comes out in July. It’s a torturous wait, because I really want to read it!

A sneak peek, from Penguin Random House:

Meet Bibsy Cross, the precocious, regular-pegular eight-year-old who isn’t so sure she wants to capture her childhood in a time capsule in the fourth installment of this charming chapter book series.

Most things are easy-peasy, regular-pegular for Bibsy Cross. She loves her parents, her cat, her best friend, Natia. She loves her school and the library. And she loves a good school project.

But this time, each student is tasked with creating a time capsule, and Bibsy’s not so sure she wants to trap the present in a box. She needs her childhood now, not preserved for the future. When Nanaberry comes—not just for a visit, but for good—she helps Bibsy see the project in a new light.

Will Bibsy figure out how to preserve her memories without letting them go?

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BIBSY CROSS AND THE BAD APPLE (Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year and Junior Library Guild Selection)

by Liz Garton Scanlon, illustrated by Dung Ho

Knopf Books for Young Readers

Hardcover ISBN: 978-0593644416

Ages 7-10

Released June 2024

BIBSY CROSS AND THE BIKE-A-THON (Junior Library Guild Selection)

by Liz Garton Scanlon, illustrated by Dung Ho

Knopf Books for Young Readers

Hardcover ISBN: 978-0593644447

Ages 7-10

Released June 2024

BIBSY CROSS AND THE CREEPY-CRAWLIES

by Liz Garton Scanlon, illustrated by Dung Ho

Knopf Books for Young Readers

Hardcover ISBN: 978-0593644485

Ages 7-10

Released January 2025

BIBSY CROSS AND THE TIME CAPSULE

by Liz Garton Scanlon, illustrated by Dung Ho

Knopf Books for Young Readers

Hardcover ISBN: 978-0593644539

Ages 7-10

Released July 2025

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Liz Garton Scanlon is the author of numerous beloved books for young people, including picture books EVERYONE STARTS SMALL; KATE, WHO TAMED THE WIND; ONE DARK BIRD; the Caldecott honored ALL THE WORLD, and many others, illustrated by some of the very best artists in the business. She’s also co-authored several books with her pal Audrey Vernick, including the hilarious BOB, NOT BOB, THE WORLD’S BEST CLASS PLANT, and the upcoming FAMILY TREE. Scanlon’s middle grade novels are THE GREAT GOOD SUMMER and LOLO’S LIGHT, and her BIBSY CROSS chapter book series debuted in 2024 to critical acclaim. Liz is proud to have taught at Austin Community College, the Writing Barn, the Writers’ League of Texas, Whale Rock Workshops, and the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives and writes in Austin, Texas. Find more at www.LizGartonScanlon.com.