The Joy of Children's Literature

From Publishers Weekly , 3/30/2009 What Is This? by Antje Damm. Frances Lincoln (PGW, dist.), $15.95 (96p) ISBN 978-1-84507-899-7 Buttons become pig noses and a kitchen faucet turns into a swan under Damm's inventive hand. This appealing title, in line with Damm's Ask Me, invites readers to imagine what ordinary objects could become, given the addition of some paint, paper or clay. The titular question is cleverly scripted against monochromatic backgrounds in ways that relate to photographs of various items on the facing page (the words are written in flour opposite a slice of bread, and composed of pollen grains across from an orange daisy). The subsequent spreads reveal how Damm re-envisions each object: following a photo of a piece of Swiss cheese, a page flip reveals a cow created entirely from cheese, with the holes becoming spots. Three wooden spoons turn into a family of chickens with the digital addition of beaks, wattles and combs, and with a bit of clay, a seeded kai...

Recent articles from School Library Journal that I thought were very interesting: When danah boyd talks, people listen. The academic, blogger , and rock star of social networking research has just completed her PhD dissertation, “Taken Out of Context: American Teen Sociality in Networked Publics." SLJ caught up with her to talk about the way American teens socialize on sites like MySpace , Facebook , LiveJournal , Xanga , and YouTube . Read the article here. Lookybook's virtual shelves are now bare. A favorite of librarians, parents, and elementary school teachers, Web site Lookybook closed on Friday, unable to keep pages turning because of the economy. Read the article here . Neil Gaiman may have turned down his Hugo Award nomination for Anansi Boys (2005) in 2006, but he’s game this time with his recent recognition for The Graveyard Book (2008, both HarperCollins). Read the article here . World Health Day is April 7th, and this super Web site will help kids ages 9–13 make...

CORETTA SCOTT KING BOOK AWARDS: 40TH ANNIVERSARY FUN FACTS Lillie Patterson was the first author to receive the Coretta Scott King Book Award for “Martin Luther King, Jr.: Man of Peace.” The author who has won the most Coretta Scott King Book Awards: Walter Dean Myers with five wins. The illustrator who has won the most Coretta Scott King Book Awards: Jerry Pinkney with five wins. Coretta Scott King received a special citation in 1984 for “The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr.” Critically-acclaimed actor, Sidney Poitier, won the Coretta Scott King Book Award in 1981 for “This Life.” Internationally renowned artist, Lev Mills, designed the Coretta Scott King Book Award seal in 1974. The Coretta Scott King Book Award has honored 113 authors and illustrators over the past 40 years. In 1995, Sharon Draper was the first author to win the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award (formerly known as the Genesis Award) for “Tears of a Tiger.” Three years later, she won her first Coretta ...

This year I am anxiously awaiting the sequels of several fantasy/science fiction novels and as luck would have it, Publisher's Weekly has interviews or information on three of them! Melissa Marr became a bestselling author on her first try with Wicked Lovely (HarperTeen, 2007), a debut novel that intertwines the realm of Faerie with a contemporary, urban landscape. This spring sees the release of a sequel, Fragile Eternity , a story that begins where Ink Exchange —Marr’s second novel set in the same world—leaves off. Fans will be happy to know that Wicked Lovely is 100% free right now on HarperTeen’s Web site , and that a fourth book, Skin Starved , is on the way. Read the interview with Melissa Marr here ! One of the most heavily buzzed-about titles of 2008 was Suzanne Collins’s dystopian novel The Hunger Games , and there’s already plenty of anticipation—and news—ahead of the second book, Catching Fire , due this fall from Scholastic Press. Here’s a roundup of the latest , inc...

-- Publishers Weekly , 3/9/2009 Because I Am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas. Viking, $15.99 (368p) ISBN 978-0-670-06298-0 Chaltas's novel of poems marks an intensely powerful debut. Anke and her older siblings, Darren and Yaicha, may appear typical teenagers in public, but their home life is dominated by their father. Though he is verbally, physically and sexually abusive to her brother and sister, Anke seems beyond his notice (“with a sick/ acidic/ burbling/ bile/ i want what they have/ as horrible/ curdling/ vile/ as it is/ darren and yaicha/ get more/ than/ me”). The distance between the family members—separated by their silence—is palpable, as is Anke's growing sense of strength, partly due to her participation in volleyball at school (“My lungs are claiming expanding territory./ This is my voice./ This is MY BALL”). Though the pace is quick, tension builds slowly, almost agonizingly, as acts of abuse collect (a large bruise glimpsed on Darren's torso, muffled sounds from...

A really wonderful thing is happening in the kidlitosphere...a blog tour about reading! See below for all the details! Within the kidlitosphere, the children's literature bloggers comprise and reach a very broad audience. One of the group's greatest assets is its collective, community-minded approach to sharing information and ideas. Through events like blog tours, authors and illustrators have had wonderful opportunities to share their story and their craft. Given the success of tours for "producers," what about an event for and by the people who create and engage their readers: teachers, librarians, parents, and people passionate about literacy? Voila! Share a Story - Shape a Future is just that event. This is an ensemble effort not only to celebrate reading among those of us who already love books, but to encourage each other to reach beyond ourselves and do it in a way that we are neither judging nor instructing others. This is a venue for communicating practical...

-- Publishers Weekly , 3/2/2009 If I Stay by Gayle Forman. Dutton, $16.99 (208p) ISBN 978-0-525-42103-0 The last normal moment that Mia, a talented cellist, can remember is being in the car with her family. Then she is standing outside her body beside their mangled Buick and her parents’ corpses, watching herself and her little brother being tended by paramedics. As she ponders her state (“Am I dead? I actually have to ask myself this”), Mia is whisked away to a hospital, where, her body in a coma, she reflects on the past and tries to decide whether to fight to live. Via Mia’s thoughts and flashbacks, Forman ( Sisters in Sanity ) expertly explores the teenager’s life, her passion for classical music and her strong relationships with her family, friends and boyfriend, Adam. Mia’s singular perspective (which will recall Alice Sebold’s adult novel, The Lovely Bones ) also allows for powerful portraits of her friends and family as they cope: “Please don’t die. If you die, there’s going t...