The Joy of Children's Literature

A cool new tool to assist children and parents with finding books reported by Gail Junion-Metz in School Library Journal , 6/30/2009 www.bookadventure.org/ki/bs/ki_bs_helpfind.asp Public libraries all over the country are kicking off their summer reading programs. During July, kids in record numbers attend library programs, take part in summer reading activities, check out tons of books, and ask library staff for recommendations on what to read next. This easy-to-use online search tool, created by Sylvan Learning, will help young patrons and the librarians who work with them discover great new titles. To find books, use the Web site's pull-down menus to select grade level, reading level, fiction or non-fiction, and up to five genres. You can also search by author, title, or ISBN–just click on the orange “Search” star (all with the encouragement of Bailey the pink-nosed dog and other cartoon friends). The handy “5 Finger Test” will help kids to determine whether a book they've c...

From the Library of Congress blog: Starting about two decades ago, the Library of Congress–under the direction of Librarian of Congress James Billington–began moving more ambitiously into the K-12 education space than it had previously. In 1990 the Library began a pilot program to distribute digital primary-source materials on CD-ROM to classrooms. The program, known as American Memory, has today blossomed into a vast web-based treasure trove of about 15.3 million digital files. As the materials expanded, so to did their educational potential and the realization that students’ exposure to these resources can ignite a desire to learn, along with critical-thinking skills, in the context of high-quality, inquiry-based instruction. Thus was born the congressionally mandated Teaching With Primary Sources (TPS) program in 2005 and a full-time Educational Outreach office at the Library. The Library’s K-12 mission has now taken another step forward: a web portal bringing together its resources...

-- Publishers Weekly , 6/29/2009 Picture Books Rattle and Rap by Susan Steggall. Frances Lincoln (PGW, dist.), $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-84507-703-7 Steggall's ( The Life of a Car ) virtuoso torn-paper collages follow a boy and his family on a train trip through the British countryside to the coast, where an unnamed (but grandmotherly) relative greets them with open arms. As the title hints, the economical text is strictly impressionistic: “Whoooooosh! Whoooooosh!... rocking and rolling and rushing and racing, skimming the sky, skimming the sky.” The detail-rich, full-spread pictures, however, are stunning in their evocation of the real world. Sleekly handsome, the long red, black and white–striped train cuts quite a figure, its boldly graphic exterior and zigzag shape playing counterpoint to lush hills, rippling waters and workaday towns. Steggall's tour de force appears near the end, when the train crosses a classic masonry arch bridge spanning an estuary. It's an image th...

Recently, the International Reading Association joined Facebook . This week, I am hosting a discussion about children's literature and technology. Do you use online resources to connect your students with children's or young adult literature? If you do or if you would like to learn more, join the conversation this week . This is the last week of the Harry Potter Prize Pack Giveaway .To enter, leave a comment about your favorite Harry Potter memory between now and midnight on Sunday, July 5th. The winner will be randomly selected on Monday, July 6th.

Author/illustrator David Small's incredibly rich, dark and moving graphic memoir.

YouTube EDU contains hundreds of free video clips from each college and university's YouTube channel, including lectures by well-known professors and scholars on a variety of subjects. Site visitors can browse through each of these channels individually, or search by the most viewed clips each month (or all time). Recently added content includes commencement speeches by President Barack Obama, talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, country singer Dolly Parton, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt; the science behind the movie "Angels and Demons," as revealed by Carnegie Mellon professor Manfred Paulini. I wondered what would be available in the area of children's literature. After a quick search, I found a two-part video titled, " Office Chat: Importance of Quality Children's Literature " by Kelly Andrus of the University of Mary Washington College of Graduate of Professional Studies. I met Kelly a couple of years ago at the NCTE conference in NYC. We attended the ALAN ...

Last week I announced the Harry Potter Prize Pack Giveaway . To enter, leave a comment about your favorite Harry Potter memory between now and midnight on Sunday, July 5th. The winner will be randomly selected on Monday, July 6th. Below are this week's Publisher's Weekly starred reviews, one of which is Catching Fire , the second highly anticipated book after The Hunger Games . A couple of weeks ago, I was whining about not getting an ARC so I could read it in advance of the issue date in September. But, I did get to read it after all (a friend of a friend...)!!! And it is everything all of the bloggers and reviews are raving about. I couldn't put it down and now my son is reading it:-) When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. Random/Lamb, $15.99 (208p) ISBN 978-0-385-73742-5 Twelve-year-old Miranda, a latchkey kid whose single mother is a law school dropout, narrates this complex novel, a work of science fiction grounded in the nitty-gritty of Manhattan life in the late 1970...

I am a HUGE fan of the Harry Potter series! I have so many wonderful memories around the books over the years. I remember that the talk about the first book really didn't get started until the second book was out. I bought the first book in paperback at the airport and started reading it on the way home from a trip. I was hooked and couldn't wait for the second book. By the time the third book came out, the midnight release parties started at bookstores across the country. The news carried footage of the unexpected long lines of children and adults waitin g in line to buy the book. My family was getting ready to move and there were boxes all over the house. So, I was sitting in the floor as I watched the television and tears started running down my cheeks when I saw the lines. Not in my lifetime had I ever seen anything like it. Children actually waiting in line for hours, dressed up as their favorite character, to buy a book . This is a reading teacher's dream!!! My son w...

-- Publishers Weekly, 6/15/2009 Picture Books All of Baby, Nose to Toes by Victoria Adler, illus. by Hiroe Nakata. Dial, $14.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8037-3217-9 As infectious as a baby's first smile, this celebratory book will enchant any family with a newborn to love. While ostensibly exploring a baby's anatomy, Adler's sunny poem and Nakata's ebullient watercolors demonstrate not only a baby's exploratory joy but also the palpable delight a baby brings to a family. The satisfyingly predictable pattern of verse lends itself to interactive hugs and tickles. A closeup illustration of the roly-poly baby (“Baby's got eyes,/ bright little eyes”) is followed by a page divided into four illustrations (“Round as pies eyes./ Just the right size eyes./ Like an owl—wise eyes./ Peeka-peeka-boo”). The question “Who loves baby's eyes?” (later asked about nose, ears, tummy, etc.) is answered at the turn of the page (“Me, I do.”) as Nakata shows the baby interacting with diff...

From All Things Considered , June 8, 2009 · If you're very young, your secret pleasure may come from two friends in children's books: Frog and Toad . The two amphibian friends go sledding, look for spring, eat chocolate ice cream cones and are completely devoted to each other. They're the creation of the late writer and illustrator Arnold Lobel, who led them through small adventures in four books during the 1970s. Lobel died in 1987. But now, there's a new addition to the world of Frog and Toad , a collection of 10 rhyming stories called The Frogs and Toads All Sang . These stories and pictures were drawn before the Frog and Toad books that were previously published. The stories were gifts written and drawn in black and white by Lobel and given to friends. The newly published books have color added by his daughter, Adrianne Lobel. She tells NPR's Melissa Block that the manuscript turned up last year at an estate auction. "In a box they found these three beauti...

From Publishers Weekly , 6/9/2009 Anthony Browne has been appointed the sixth Children’s Laureate in the U.K. Browne, who won the 2000 Hans Christian Andersen Medal, is only the second illustrator chosen as Children’s Laureate. The two-year position recognizes the contribution an individual has made to children and reading. Browne’s trademarks include his iconic great ape characters. Gorilla , which won both the Kate Greenaway and the Kurt Maschler Medals in the U.K. and the New York Times Best Illustrated and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award in the U.S., while Willy the Wimp and its sequels have become widely popular. His illustrations are instantly recognizable for their witty social observations, their surrealist visual references and their ability to show that picture books need not be confined to pre-readers. Browne’s tenure will see him raising the profile of picture books to children of all ages and promoting the importance of illustrators’ work as art.

2009 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children’s Literature The 2009 winners are: Fiction and Poetry: Nation by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins) Nonfiction: The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary by Candace Fleming (Schwartz & Wade/Random House) Picture Book: Bubble Trouble by Margaret Mahy, illustrated by Polly Dunbar (Clarion) All three of the winning authors are widely renowned. Mr. Pratchett, perhaps best known for his raucous comic fantasies for children and adults, displays a philosophical bent with Nation , a young adult novel about two nineteenth-century children who create a new society from the ground up. Candace Fleming’s dual biography of the President and Mrs. Lincoln employs the intricate scrapbook format that distinguished her earlier Ben Franklin’s Almanac and Our Eleanor . Margaret Mahy, winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award and a two-time recipient of Boston Globe–Horn Book Award honor book citations, has written scores of novel...

Now that the craziness that comes with the end of the spring semester has ended, I'm looking at my summer reading lists. I usually try to accomplish several things in the summer. First, to catch up on the stack of children's/YA books that I've been dying to read but haven't gotten to yet. Second, ditto for professional reading (books and journals). Third, to read something that will stretch me a little--beyond my comfort zone. Last summer, I decided to read Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point . I thought it would be interesting. However, it ended up changing everything (long story that I won't go into, but HUGE). So, how do I top that? I'm not sure. You wouldn't believe how many stacks of books I have all over my office that I have taken a lot of time and money to put together and that are just begging to be read. Here are a few: Stack One: Brain research How Children Think and Learn (2nd ed -- I've read the 1st ed) by David Wood Building the Readi...