The Joy of Children's Literature

I posted a picture earlier today from my front yard to show the phenomenal amount of snow we received today in VA (yes, it's STILL snowing!). This picture is from the backyard...my son and our puppy (a Yorkie). How cute are they??!!!!

This is the view from my front door! I've lived in Virginia for 10 years and this is the first time it's snowed like this. Sure, there's been a few inches in the past and times when it's iced over, but nothing like this! AND, it's still snowing. It's so beautiful...the perfect day for a hot cup of coffee and a good book. I'm finishing The Ask and the Answer (2nd book in the Chaos Walking trilogy) and starting  Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg . I hope you are enjoying your day wherever you are in the world.

J.D. Salinger, Author of 'The Catcher in the Rye,' Is Dead at 91 J. D. Salinger, who was thought at one time to be the most important American writer to emerge since World War II but who then turned his back on success and adulation, has died in Cornish, N.H., where he lived in seclusion for more than 50 years, his son told The Associated Press. He was 91. Mr. Salinger's literary reputation rests on a slender but enormously influential body of published work: the novel "The Catcher in the Rye," the collection "Nine Stories" and two compilations, each with two long stories about the fictional Glass family: "Franny and Zooey" and "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction." Read More: http://www.nytimes.com?emc=na

For the second consecutive year, the National Book Foundation will award prizes of up to $2,500 each to individuals and institutions—or partnerships between the two—that have developed innovative means of creating and sustaining a lifelong love of reading. The most important criteria for selecting winners are creativity, risk-taking, and a visionary quality, as well as a novel way of presenting books and literature. The Prize is less focused on the promotion of basic literacy and the pedagogy of reading than on the promotion of literary reading. To apply, visit www.nationalbook.org/innovations_in_reading.html . All applications must be postmarked by February 17, 2010

-- Publishers Weekly , 1/25/2010 Picture Books My Garden by Kevin Henkes Greenwillow, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-06-171517-4 Spring colors of lilac, daffodil yellow, pale blue, and leafy green bloom in Caldecott Medalist Henkes’s fanciful account of the great outdoors. “My mother has a garden. I’m her helper,” explains a girl, who wears a petunia-pink dress and a golden straw hat. She dutifully waters and weeds, “but if I had a garden,” she says, things would be less predictable. Gazing up at sunflowers, she giggles to imagine them colored in dots and plaids. She picks a flower and, in her perfect garden, another pops right up. Seashells and jelly beans sprout, disliked vegetables are invisible, and pests are not a problem: “the rabbits would be chocolate and I would eat them.” At this, the girl nibbles a bunny, surrounded by cocoa rabbits wearing telltale ribbons. Henkes gives the young storyteller a matter-of-fact voice and a sly sense of humor, while dewy watercolors and ink pic...

If you are a fan of the 39 Clues series, you will enjoy this interview with Peter Lerangis, author of The 39 Clues book 3 The Sword Thief and book 7 The Viper's Nest from onourmindsatscholastic . In the interview, he answers the following 5 questons: 1. What happens in The 39 Clues book 7? 2. What's your favorite part about writing for The 39 Clues series? 3. After writing book 3, what's it like to start up again at book 7? 4. Have there been any particular fan comments that really stood out to you? 5. What's on your mind?

From Inside Higer Ed (1/25/10) The Texas Board of Education, worried that a scholar's book about Marxism might infiltrate a portion of the state's third grade curriculum, accidentally has removed from an approved list work by the author of the popular children's book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? , The Dallas Morning News reported. The intended target was Bill Martin, a professor of philosophy at DePaul University, who offended some Texas board members with his book Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation. But the board accidentally removed work by Bill Martin Jr., author of Brown Bear. When things like this happen, doesn't it make you wonder....???

What an exciting day! This morning I posted the winners of the ALA Youth Media Awards and now two more awards have been announded. First though, Read Roger posted links two interviews from Notes From the Horn Book for Newbery Winner Rebecca Stead and Caldecott Winner Jerry Pinkney . Now, on to more awards! NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children Winner   The Secret World of Walter Anderson by Hester Bass, illustrated by E.B. Lewis (Candlewick Press) Honor Books • Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone (Candlewick Press) • Darwin: With Glimpses into His Private Journal and Letters by Alice B. McGinty (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children) • The Frog Scientist by Pamela S. Turner (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children) • How Many Baby Pandas? by Sandra Markle (Walker Books for Young Readers) • Noah Webster: Weaver of Words by Pegi Deitz Shea (Calkins Creek Books) Recommended Books • ...

-- Publishers Weekly , 1/18/2010 7:00:00 AM Picture Books Cat the Cat, Who Is That? by Mo Willems. HarperCollins/Balzer & Bray, $12.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-06-172840-2 In Cat the Cat's friendly world, names are an uncomplicated affair, most of the time. This early reader pictures Cat, an irrepressible kitty in a purple dress, skipping and cartwheeling to greet pals like Mouse the Mouse and Fish the Fish. All is well until Cat meets a chartreuse creature with eyestalks, a blue tongue, four arms, and three legs. She skids to a halt and her tail electrifies. The individual, unrecognizable but clearly amiable, stops stacking blocks to say, “Blarggie! Blarggie!” This time Cat's initial response to the repeated question, “Cat the Cat, who is that?” is “I have no idea,” but Cat finally decides this might be “a new friend!” and responds with a bouncy “Blarggie!” of her own. Willems provides just enough humor and surprise to entertain youngest audiences and subtly suggests some f...

Drum roll please... Newbery Medal "When You Reach Me," written by Rebecca Stead, published by Wendy Lamb Books, an imprint of Random House Children's Books Newbery Honor Books "Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice" written by Phillip Hoose, published by Melanie Kroupa Books/Farrar Straus Giroux, an imprint of Macmillan Children's Publishing Group "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" written by Jacqueline Kelly, published by Henry Holt and Company "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" written by Grace Lin, published by Little Brown and Company Books for Young Readers "The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg" written by Rodman Philbrick, published by The Blue Sky Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc. Caldecott Medal "The Lion and the Mouse" illustrated and written by Jerry Pinkney, published by Little, Brown and Company Books for Young Readers Caldecott Honor Books "All the World" illustr...

On this very quiet day before the announcement of the ALA awards (if you, like me, are not lucky enough to be at ALA Midwinter, you can watch the announcement live here ), it seems appropriate to share a little tidbit of historical information that shines a light on just how momentous this occasion is for children's literature. Last night I was flipping through books and resources I plan to use in my children's literature course that starts in a few weeks when I came across Leonard Marcus' Minders of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of American Children's Literature (Houghton Mifflin, 2008).  I immediately remembered staying up until 3:00 a.m. reading right after I got it! The first two chapters in the book discuss children's literature in colonial America  through the beginning of the nineteenth century. The remaining chapters are divided into decades starting with chapter three on the 1920s. By this time, public libr...

1. On January 5 when Katherine Paterson was announced by the Library of Congress as the the National Ambassador for Young People , I was thrilled! So naturally I was excited to see that the January issue of Notes from the Horn Book  has an interview: 5 Questions for Katherine Paterson  and 5 Great Books by Katherine Paterson . Additionally, the issue has three themed, annotated book lists on:  • Stormy weather • Picture book biographies • Animal tales 2. Coretta Scott King Book Award Online Curriculum Resource Center —a free , multimedia, online database for educators and families featuring more than 250 original recordings with award-winning authors and illustrators and hundreds of lesson plans. It is a great reading resource as teachers, librarians, and families plan for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Black History Month. In addition to free , online primary source materials (audio recordings and book readings), the collection fea...

A few groups/individuals have posted their predictions for the ALA awards: Fuse #8' Newbery & Caldecott 2010: Predict-o-rama : Newbery prediction: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead; Caldecott prediction: The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney. Rockridge Branch of the Oakland Public Library : Newbery prediction: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin Allen County Public Library : Newbery prediction: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead Have you made your predictions yet? I'm still reading... On to the new year... PW's starred reviews for 1/11/2010 Picture Books All Things Bright and Beautiful by Ashley Bryan. S&S/Atheneum, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4169-8939-4 Five-time Coretta Scott King Award–winner Bryan ( Let It Shine ) interprets Cecil F. Alexander’s 19th-century hymn with cut-paper art defined by swirling geometrical shapes in neon hues, contributing to a pervasively jubilant atmosphere. Every spread is a riot of colors, movement, and ...

Several awards for children's/YA literature have been announced recently... 2009 Costa Children's Book Award Winner (which is basically the equivalent to the Newbery in the UK) Patrick Ness: The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking, Book Two) Judges: "From the first word, we were gripped by this dazzlingly-imagined, morally complex, compulsively-plotted tale. We are convinced that this is a major achievement in the making." Alternate chapters follow teenagers Todd and Viola, who become separated as the Mayor's oppressive new regime takes power in New Prentisstown, a space colony where residents can hear each other's thoughts. 2010 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction : The Storm in the Barn  by Matt Phelan (Candlewick Press, 2009). In Kansas in the year 1937, eleven-year-old Jack Clark faces his share of ordinary challenges: local bullies, his father's failed expectations, a little sister with an eye for trouble. But he also has to deal...

On Thursday, January 28, at 7:00 p.m., Weekly Reader will offer a free webinar, the second in its Teaching Reading to Today's Wired Kids series. Titled " A Fresh Look at Reading Comprehension Instruction ," the 40-minute live webinar will be led by Rachel Etienne, director of teacher training and curriculum at the Urban Education Exchange. The webinar continues Weekly Reader's ongoing series featuring experts presenting explicit strategies that help teach reading comprehension and improve literacy. To sign up, interested participants can visit the  webpage . The webinars will be archived as an ongoing resource for educators. The first webinar in the series took place in November and was titled "Using Tech Tools to Improve Literacy Instruction: K-6."

Katherine Paterson , a two-time Newbery medalist and two-time National Book Award-winner, replaces Jon Scieszka as the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, a two-year position created to raise national awareness of the importance of lifelong literacy and education. From the SLJ article , Paterson, who has chosen “Read for Your Life” as the theme for her platform, was selected by a committee that represents many segments of the book community based on her contributions to young people’s literature and her ability to relate to children. “Katherine Paterson represents the finest in literature for young people,” says Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, who will announce her appointment in Washington, DC tomorrow morning. “Her renown is national as well as international, and she will most ably fulfill the role of a national ambassador who speaks to the importance of reading and literacy in the lives of America’s youth.” Paterson’s fame around the globe comes fro...

How  Drive and Jon Scieszka go together (or, how my mind works)... I'm a big fan of Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind , so when his new book on motivation, Drive , came out on December 29, I download a copy to my Kindle (read an excerpt here ). Shortly afterward, a story on NPR titled, How E-Books Will Change Reading And Writing by Lynn Neary was posted. The reporter interviewed several writers who think, ...traditional books will still be around for a long time, and that some of the changes that may occur in writing will be more evolutionary than revolutionary. But it's hard to know whether traditional books — and the people who read and write them — will have much influence on the culture in the future. However, in an article for SLJ , YA author John Green states that he thinks readers, especially librarians, will have a huge impact on the future of book publishing.. Now take this flat, open marketplace and add cheap, effective e-readers as ubiquitous as iP...

I spent New Year's Eve with my son sitting in front of the TV watching the ball drop in NYC. For some, that might not be very exciting, but it was just perfect for me! With the new year comes two big events in the world of children's and young adult literature. The first is the announcement of the new National Ambassador for Young People's Literature  on January 5th by the Library of Congress . A great big huge round of applause goes to the first ambassador, Jon Scieszka --he was fabulous! The second is the announcement of the ALA Youth Media Awards  on January 18th. You can watch the announcement via a live webcast  starting at 7:45 AM EST. If you're like me, it's hard to chose just ONE book for each category since there were so many excellent books published in 2009. But, there are a few groups and individuals up to the task: The Allen County Library has their mock Newbery list up on the library's website. In addition, they have started a blog f...