The Joy of Children's Literature

100 Best Book Blogs for Kids, Tweens, and Teens selected by Online School It’s been said that anyone can write a children’s book, but only the most talented can be successful. Don’t waste your time wading through poorly-written books; instead, take a look at these blogs that feature the best of children’s literature. Whether you are interested in literature for the very young, teen and young adult literature, or specialized genres such as multicultural literature, poetry, or comics and graphic novels, these blogs will help you find the best books available–leaving you more time for reading and enjoying this literature. Click here to see the list . Which blogs do you read that they didn't select? Quite a few for me, but they also included many that I do follow. All in all, a pretty good selection and a very nice resource.

Publisher's Weekly starred reviews for the week of Oct. 26: Picturebooks Alphabeasties and Other Amazing Types by Sharon Werner and Sarah Forss. Blue Apple (Chronicle, dist.), $19.99 (56p) ISBN 978-1-934706-78-7 No ordinary abecedarian, this typographical trip will wow design fans and suggest creative projects with letterforms. The book's introduction speaks affectionately of typefaces—“just like people, they look different and have different personalities”—before embarking on a thrilling spin through the alphabet. The first spread presents an alligator's silhouette, made up of capital and lowercase As, as the repeated word “algae” forms green strands around it. A bat shaped from gothic Bs holds vampire connotations; tall, skinny Gs evoke the height of a giraffe that hides behind leafy, vertical folds; and breathless italic Rs make a rabbit seem poised to leap. Werner and Forss, a debuting team of graphic designers, devote page borders to extra wordplay: a C becomes the c...

From NPR Oct. 25, 2009.. 'Daily Show' Writer's 'Genius Of Unspeakable Evil' Host Liane Hansen talks to Daily Show Executive Producer Josh Lieb about his new book, I Am A Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want To Be Your Class President .

Another story from NPR on Where the Wild Things Are... Looking Back On 'Wild Things' With Maurice Sendak Author and illustrator Maurice Sendak's classic children's book Where the Wild Things Are is a perennial favorite. It won the Caldecott Medal as the "most distinguished picture book of the year" in 1964, and was adapted into an opera two decades later. (Sendak earned his stripes as a designer on the opera production, working on the sets and costumes for the premiere production.) Now, Where The Wild Things Are comes to the big screen, directed by Spike Jonze. Sendak's other children's books include In The Night Kitchen and Inside Over There. Goosebumps Horrorland webcast Date: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 Time: 1:00 p.m. ET / 10:00 a.m. PT Host with the most: Brian Stelter, reporter at The New York Times Where: scholastic.com/goosebumpswebcast

NPR has three stories on Wimpy Kid today: Wimpy Kid Author Answers Kids' Questions All Things Considered enlisted help from kids around the country for an interview with children's book author Jeff Kinney. Kinney writes the incredibly successful series Diary of a Wimpy Kid , about smart-mouthed middle-schooler Greg Heffley, who has only one real friend because he's, well, kind of a sad sack — think modern-day Charlie Brown. Warning to those who have never read Diary of a Wimpy Kid : These questions come straight from our youngest listeners and Kinney's biggest fans. We received hundreds of e-mails from kids who wanted to have their questions answered for once! Kinney answers some of those questions below...read the rest of the article here . Cheese, Wimpy Kids And The Perils Of Middle School The Bible suggests that the meek might one day inherit the earth. For now, one particularly meek kid named Greg Heffley is burning up children's book best-seller lists. Greg ...

Today when I was finishing my morning run in the neighborhood, I passed four boys waiting at the bus stop. Usually, these boys are quite rambunctious, talking and pushing each other around. But, this morning all four were sitting on the pavement reading. What were they reading you ask? Yep, Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Dog Days! Wow, I said to myself. That's just about all I could say, Wow! Scholastic will host a free Webcast for readers of the 39 Clues series: When: Monday, November 2, 2009 at 1:30pm ET / 10:30am PT What: The 39 Clues: Advanced Agent Training Live Webcast Who: Featuring the first five authors of The 39 Clues : Rick Riordan, Gordon Korman, Peter Lerangis, Jude Watson, and Patrick Carman. Hosted by The 39 Clues super-fan Whoopi Goldberg. Where: scholastic.com/the39clueswebcast Registration is required.

Reminder: Don't forget to enter the Testing the Ice book giveaway ( see post ). The Childrenslitproject blog which I posted about previously (the production blog of The Library of the Early Mind , a feature-length documentary film about children’s literature) has two new video clips up! The first is with Mary Ann Hoberman, the US Children's Poet Laureate: Mary Ann Hoberman was named Children’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. Author of 45 books, all but one of which are in verse, Hoberman collaborated with her husband, artist Norman Hoberman, on her first four books, including her first book of poems, All My Shoes Come in Twos (1957). Some of Hoberman’s best-known titles are A House is a House for Me , illustrated by Betty Fraser; The Seven Silly Eaters , illustrated by Marla Frazee; and The Llama Who Had No Pajama , a collection of 100 of her favorite poems. Her verses have been widely anthologized and her books have been translated into several languages. She is the...

-- Publishers Weekly , 10/19/2009 Picturebooks The Mitten by Jim Aylesworth, illus. by Barbara McClintock. Scholastic Press, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-439-92544-0 Aylesworth and McClintock's ( Our Abe Lincoln ) retold folktale about a lost mitten opens sweetly, with a playful boy wearing the tomato-red hat, scarf and mittens his grandmother has knit for him. After a carefree sled ride, he returns home, gazing disconsolately at his mittenless hand. He gets a comforting hug and hot chocolate while, outside, a delighted squirrel crawls into the mitten. Soon a rabbit asks to share the warmth: “ 'Please!' begged the rabbit./ 'My toes are cold as ice!/ Your mitten looks so cozy,/ and warm toes would feel so nice!' ” The tale grows sillier as a fox, then a bear, repeat the rabbit's rhyme to humorous effect and persuade the mitten's occupants to let them in the tight space, massively distending the mitten (they soon discover its limits—with explosive results). McClin...

Two NPR stories on the movie: Where the Wild Things Are (Oct. 17, 2009) How A Kid's Movie Became A Hipster Happening Spike Jonze: Check. Dave Eggers: Check. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Check. Where the Wild Things Are has all the ingredients to become the hipster equivalent of Star Wars. Writer Cliff Kuang talks about the bonanza of the cross-marketing. Where the Wild Things Are: 50 Years Later When Maurice Sendak was looking for inspiration for the wild things that would inhabit his now-classic book, he found it right in his own extended family. NPR's Bob Mondello reviews the new film version of Where the Wild Things Are, which opened this weekend.

In 2009, 193 publishers submitted 1,129 books for the 2009 National Book Awards . The total number of books submitted to the category of Young People's Literature was 251. Out of the 251, the following five finalists were chosen (reviews by Horn Book with the exception of Stitches ): Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith (Henry Holt) In 1838 Charles Darwin, then almost thirty, drew a line down the middle of a paper and listed the reasons for marrying on one side and the reasons for not marrying on the other. After much consideration, he opted for the former, and from his prospects he wisely chose his cousin, Emma, who was open-minded but devoutly religious. She supported her husband, even editing his work, but she feared for his eternal welfare should he follow his revolutionary theories to their logical end. Charles, in turn, was equally tortured, wanting to please his wife, wanting to believe in religion, but not at the expense of science. With great e...

I would like to invite you to enter a book giveaway in celebration of the release of Testing the Ice by Sharon Robinson. Sharon, the daughter of baseball legend Jackie Robinson, has crafted a heartwarming, true story about growing up with her father. In the early 1950s, legendary baseball hero Jackie Robinson literally "tested the ice" for his kids who so eagerly wanted to skate on the frozen lake near their home. Under Sharon Robinson's skillful authorship and Kadir Nelson's vivid illustrations, Testing the Ice also becomes a stunning metaphor for her father's remarkable racial breakthrough. The book opens with Jackie Robinson's famous slide into home plate that won the seventh game in the world series, beating the New York Yankees and making the the Brooklyn Dodgers the world champions! Then the story transitions to the new home the Robinson's bought on a lake in Stamford, Connecticut. Told from Sharon Robinson's perspective, she and her two broth...

From NPR : October 13, 2009 Our local independent bookstore opened extra early on the morning of Oct. 12 to sell copies of the insanely anticipated fourth book in Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, this one entitled, Dog Days . The last time I remember that bookstore being overrun with hoards of kids yelping for a book was when the final Harry Potter novel came out. It was midnight when the Potter boxes were broken open, and the kids were dressed as macabre creatures from Hogwarts. The atmosphere surrounding the arrival of Kinney's latest book was appropriately sprightlier: The bookstore opened at dawn and distributed donuts. Like the Potter series, Kinney's books are aimed at a middle-school audience, but they translate well to older readers. Unlike the Potter series, Kinney's books are funny — the kind of funny where you have to stop reading every so often because you're laughing so hard that tears and snot are running down your face, and you feel like m...

A few days ago, I posted about my awesome experience hearing the Exquisite Corpse presentation and Jacqueline Woodson recite from many of her books during t he National Book Festival . Well, now you can see it for yourself! The webcasts are up ! Another presentation that I really enjoyed was Sharon Creech . She read aloud from her new book The Unfinished Angel . She read the part of the slightly confused Italian angel and her book publisher, Joanna Colter, read the part of the little American girl, Zola. Delightful! I also heard Jeanette Walls , which was amazing. I had a transfomative experience when I read The Glass Castle and I couldn't wait to hear her speak. I had so much hope that she would be exactly who I wanted her to be...and she was that and more! I have already bought her new book Half Broke Horses and can't wait to start reading. There were so many amazing children's and YA authors at the National Book Festival that I didn't get to see and I'm lookin...

From Publisher's Weekly for the week of Oct. 12, 2009 Picturebooks The Dinosaur Tamer by Carol Greathouse, illus. by John Shroades. Dutton, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-525-47866-9 Greathouse and Shroades's rollicking debut, set “back when the old, old West was still as green as a bristlecone pine and cowboys were as common as warts on a Stegosaurus,” introduces pint-sized cowboy Rocky who “teethed on a Deinonychus femur and used an Ankylosaurus tail as a rattle” and specializes in taming dinos of all sizes. Though the book is full of delightful hyperbole and outlandish claims, both author and artist sprinkle it with authentic dinosaur names and features; Shroades uses a palette of fantastical colors for his dinos, as when Rocky ropes a purple and blue stegosaurus “at ninety paces while wearin' a blindfold and eatin' a prickly pear.” But trouble surfaces with the arrival of T. Rex—the “rip-roarin'est, snip-snortin'est reptilian that ever did stomp the earth.” The a...

Kids love Halloween even more than Thanksgiving and Christmas put together! In the spirit of such fun, here is a round-up of links to spooktacular children's Halloween books: Trick-or-Treat: 20 Halloween Books for Kids compiled by the Children's Book Review Top 12 Halloween Books compiled by Elizabeth Kennedy Fall Harvest of Books compiled by the Reading Rockets website Halloween Round-up 2009 compiled by Kidsreads.com Halloween picturebooks for preschoolers compiled by the ESSL Children's Literature blog A List of Halloween Picture Books for Kids compiled by Suite 101 Halloween Poetry for Children, Parents, Teachers compiled by Suite 101

After posting about the upcoming The Library of the Early Mind documentary, I received a wonderful email from the film's coproducer, Steven Withrow, explaining more about the process of selecting authors and experts of children's literature for the film. He wrote: Interviewing all the wonderful authors and experts has been a dream come true for me, and we have many more exciting interviews planned. Our choices have been limited, to some degree, by geography and budget (we're based in Rhode Island), but we're also focusing in on certain thematic threads and one interview has often led naturally to another. Mr. Withrow also indicated that the next authors to be featured are Jane Yolen and Norton Juster ; both clips are already up this morning! The clip of Norton Juster's interview has the following annotation: Norton Juster is both an architect and an author of children’s books. His best-known work is The Phantom Tollbooth, which was illustrated by his then-neighbo...

One of the many highlights of my day at the National Book Festival was seeing Jacqueline Woodson. I have heard her speak many times before, but it is always a pleasure and this time she recited from memory several selections from many of her books. As a reader, I have fallen in love with so many lines from beautifully written children's books and I have often wondered if those words are emblazoned in the minds of the authors who wrote them. In the poetry section of The Joy of Children's Literature , I included a verse from Locomotion in which Miss Edna's constant " Be quiet! " keeps Lonnie from thinking: But when Miss Edna's voice comes on, the ideas in my head go out like a candle and all you see left is this little string of smoke that disappears real quick before I even have a chance to find out what it's trying to say. (p.1). Hearing this verse recited in Woodson's own voice brought me such joy! The Reading Rockets site has an interview with Jacqu...

The second installment of the episodic Exquisite Corpse Adventure , unvailed at the National Book Festival by several of the authors, is now available at the read.gov site. This episode was written by Katherine Paterson and illustrated by James Ransome . The third episode, written by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by Calef Brown , will be released October 23. Happy reading!

I clicked on Roger Sutton's blog post today to discover that he is being interview for a new documentary film on children's literature. "What documentary film on children's literature?" I said! Lo and behold, a couple of clicks later I found this discription on the film's blog: This is the production blog of The Library of the Early Mind , a feature-length documentary film about children’s literature directed by Edward J. Delaney and produced by Edward J. Delaney and Steven Withrow. We’ll be working through this year interviewing authors, illustrators and critics on the topic. The film is intended for festival release in 2010. Wow, how cool! I'm probably the last person to know about this project, but I'm glad I stumbled across the blog . It doesn't say who is posting the blogs, but it has been up and active since June. Posts include video interviews with children's authors and experts in the field. Just check out who they have interviewed so f...

A series of great articles from School Library Journal ! Classic collaborators Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer reunite Fifty years ago, Norton Juster was pacing his second-floor apartment in Brooklyn Heights, unsure that the manuscript he was working on—his first—would ever be published, much less become a classic of children’s literature. His roommate was his first reader, who also voluntarily sketched some pictures to go with Juster’s story. Read the rest of the story here . Worldwide Release for Mandela Autobiography for Kids Back in the 1980s, Nelson Mandela was front and center on the world stage. Now, Macmillan aims to see history repeat itself, thanks to a global, 13-language launch of the picture-book adaptation of his autobiography. The company’s unprecedented release of Long Walk to Freedom "was intended to reflect Nelson Mandela’s importance to South Africa and the world," says Emma Hopkin of Macmillan Children’s Books in the U.K... More Q & A with Katherine Pa...

Publisher's Weekly starred reviews for 10/5/09 Picturebooks Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Story of the Greatest All-Girl Swing Band in the World by Marilyn Nelson, illus. by Jerry Pinkney Dial, $21.99 (80p) ISBN 978-0-8037-3187-5 A Newbery Honor author ( Carver: A Life in Poems ) and Caldecott Honor artist ( Noah’s Ark ) execute a masterful duet in this tribute to an integrated female band that toured the U.S. between the late 1930s and mid-1940s. In 20 poems titled after swing tunes, Nelson writes in the voices of the Sweethearts’ instruments, now gathered in a New Orleans pawnshop. Connecting music to greater human truths (some dark, some triumphant), the verse strikes nostalgic yet celebratory notes, underscoring how the band’s music delivered joy and hope during an era plagued by war and racism (“The jitterbug was one way people forgot/ the rapidly spreading prairie fires of war./ Man, the house would bounce when her licks were hot!/ We gave those people what they were dancing f...

A great story from NPR In Testing the Ice , Sharon Robinson describes how her father, baseball great Jackie Robinson, used to walk out onto a frozen pond to make sure it was safe for his kids to go skating. October 5, 2009 When Sharon Robinson, daughter of famed baseball player Jackie Robinson, wanted to teach kids about her father, she decided to work with illustrator Kadir Nelson on a children's book. But instead of focusing the book on the achievement for which her father is most famous — breaking baseball's color barrier — Sharon Robinson chose a more humble, personal moment. As she explains to Steve Inskeep, the story she tells in Testing the Ice centers on the time her father — who could not swim — would walk out onto a frozen pond to make sure the ice was safe before allowing his children to go skating. "He was very reluctant. He had to do something that was frightening even to him," Robinson recalls. But her father needed to make sure the ice was safe for his ...

A great idea from Reading Rockets and AdLit.org : Our 2009-2010 Writing Challenge The Exquisite Prompt The Reading Rockets and AdLit.org Exquisite Prompt challenge is an activity that gives K-12 students a chance each month (October through June) to flex their writing muscles with writing prompts — and win fabulous prizes! The prompts are inspired by the 18 authors and illustrators participating in the Exquisite Corpse Adventure. About Exquisite Corpse What's an "Exquisite Corpse?" It's a kind of writing game, where one person begins a story, then passes it down through a chain of writers to continue the narrative. Writer M.T. Anderson explains it all here. What's "The Exquisite Corpse Adventure?" It's a year-long serial adventure story that offers young readers an opportunity to get to know the hilarious side of a crew of award-winning, talented, and versatile authors and illustrators — sponsored by the Library of Congress and the National Children...

From NPR: October 2, 2009 It used to be that all good things would come to an end, but these days, at least in the world of books and movies, there is always "the sequel." And so a new version of one of the most beloved children's classics — A.A. Milne's story of Winnie the Pooh — is being released. Return to the Hundred Acre Wood is the first authorized sequel to the Winnie the Pooh tales. David Benedictus, the writer who has taken on the task of re-creating the Hundred Acre Wood and all its inhabitants, says he tried to enter Milne's mind to find his voice. "What I had to do was to imagine myself to be Milne. And the best way to do that was to visit the Ashdown Forest, which was where he lived and was the basis for the Hundred Acre Wood, and to read everything by and about him," says Benedictus. "When I'd read all that, I felt I could become him." But Benedictus was not entirely alone in making this sequel. Illustrator Mark Burgess re-c...