The Joy of Children's Literature

 From Publisher's Weekly A simple question sparked the idea for Ruta Sepetys's first novel for young adults, Between Shades of Gray (release date 3/22), about Stalin's genocide in the Baltic states during WWII. On a visit to her family in Lithuania in 2005, Sepetys asked to see photographs of her grandfather, an officer in the Lithuanian army who had fled to a refugee camp before the genocide began and ultimately emigrated to America. "I was stunned to learn that they had burned every picture of him, to expunge any connection and to avoid persecution. Then they told me more about what happened to those who didn't escape. That's when I knew I had to tell this story." Due this March from Philomel, Between Shades of Gray chronicles these horrific events through 15-year-old narrator Lina, balancing the brutality of her family's deportation to work camps in Siberia and the Arctic with remarkable hope and resilience. To research the novel, ...

housands of people of all ages from all 50 United States and at least 40 countries will celebrate the power of words and stories during World Read Aloud Day, presented by LitWorld, the New York-based global literacy nonprofit organization, on Wednesday, March 9. Visit the  LitWorld website  to join in the festivities and for support in how you can celebrate, thereby taking action for the cause of global literacy. World Read Aloud Day is an international event that motivates children, teens, and adults worldwide to celebrate the power of words and stories by encouraging them to participate in a global movement to advocate for every child?s right to literacy, safe education, and access to books and technology. In honor of the event, LitWorld is inviting all participants to read with loved ones and new friends from now through March 9 and tally your minutes (sharing those totals with LitWorld ) to reach the goal of 774 million minutes in honor o...

From Indiemoviesonline.com Don't you just hate it when a film you haven't seen gets nominated for an award? While a trip to the cinema may answer your problems for the feature films, what about the shorts? We have one for you today – Shaun Tan's Oscar-nominated short film, The Lost Thing . Based on Tan's 2002 kids book with the same name, the story sees a boy discover a strange creature at the beach while out collecting bottle tops. After spending the day with it, he realises it is lost and sets about finding a place where it belongs. While it's essentially a children's story, it will appeal to young and old alike. The animation style looks hand-drawn; it's quite cute and simple, but that just adds to its charm. The creature is very bizarre and has a steampunk vibe to it, but it's easy to see why the boy empathises with it and wants to help it. The short is co-directed by Tan and Andrew Ruhemann, and is narrated by Australian comedian,...

Straight from the Waking Brain Cells blog:     The Guardian has a fabulous slideshow of some of award-winning illustrator Emily Gravett ’s artwork.  Her illustrations are always filled with a warm humor no matter what the subject.  From multiplying rabbits to mouse-ravaged pages to a fear of wolves, her books are all gems to be enjoyed and shared.  Enjoy the slideshow!

SFWA announces the 2010 Nebula Award Nominees Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy  Nominations for this year's Andre Norton award follow: Ship Breaker , Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown) White Cat , Holly Black (McElderry) Mockingjay , Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press; Scholastic UK) Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword , Barry Deutsch (Amulet) The Boy from Ilysies , Pearl North (Tor Teen) I Shall Wear Midnight , Terry Pratchett (Gollancz; Harper) A Conspiracy of Kings , Megan Whalen Turner (Greenwillow) Behemoth , Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse; Simon & Schuster UK) I've read all but two and even though I "think" I know which book will win, I love a good surprise! What about you? For more information, visit www.nebulaawards.com or www.sfwa.org

Share a Story - Shape a Future : A Blog Tour for Literacy March 7-11, 2011  Announcing the third annual Share a Story ~ Shape a Future blog tour for literacy. This year's theme: Unwrapping the Gift of Literacy Topics: The Power of a Book - From the literal power of owning a book and a good story to the intangible power that comes with knowing how to read.  The Gift of Reading - Whether you're looking for a book to excite a reader, want to help someone learn to read or celebrate the "gift" ... it's covered. Unwrapping Literacy 2.0 - With all of the talk of digital literacy, e-readers, etc. What does "literacy" look like in this new century? Love of Reading v. Homework - Do they have to be at odds? We'll talk about ways to help readers at home and at school. The Gift that Keeps on Giving - To wrap up the week we'll be remembering "that moment" when we realized we were a reader or writer and how to celebrate it with othe...

The article for this week is eVoc Strategies: 10 Ways to Use Technology to build Vocabulary by Bridget Dalton and Dana L. Grisham , published in The Reading Teacher (February 2011/vol. 64, No. 5). Abstract : Vocabulary knowledge is key to comprehension and expression. For students in the intermediate grades, the need for breadth and depth of vocabulary accelerates as they encounter more challenging academic texts in print and on the Internet. Drawing on research-based principles of vocabulary instruction and multimedia learning, this article presents 10 eVoc strategies that use free digital tools and Internet resources to evoke students' engaged vocabulary learning. The strategies are designed to support the teaching of words and word learning strategies, promote students' strategic use of on-demand web-based vocabulary tools, and increase students' volume of reading and incidental word learning. The strategies emphasize developing students' interest in...

The 2010 Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards were announced today: Winners, elementary & middle grade Fiction Picture Books Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein Candlewick Nonfiction Picture Books The Extraordinary Life of Mark Twain (According to Susy) by Barbara Kerley Scholastic Easy Readers We Are in a Book! by Mo Willems Hyperion Short Chapter Books Zapato Power: Freddie Ramos Takes Off by Jacqueline Jules; illustrated by Miguel Benitez Albert Whitman & Co Poetry Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Josée Masse Penguin Young Readers Graphic Novels Meanwhile: Pick Any Path. 3856 Story Possibilities. by Jason Shiga Abrams Books Fantasy & Science Fiction The Shadows The Books of Elsewhere, Vol. 1 by Jacqueline West Dial Middle Grade Fiction The Strange Case of Origami Yoda By Tom Angleberger Amulet Winners, young a...

I have been running for many years, inspired by my son who has run cross country since 7th grade. One of my New Year's resolutions is to run a marathon -- crazy right? So, in the process of ramping up my training, I subscribed to Running Times magazine. In the most recent edition, to my surprise, I found a YA book review for The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen. The book review follows: Writing about running with eloquence isn't an easy thing to do. Nor is writing from a teenager's perspective. Award-winning children's book author Wendelin Van Draanen pulls both off with flying colors in her latest novel about a high school junior who loses part of her right leg after a bus accident on the way home from a track meet. Van Draanen's astute writing and attention to detail bring Jessica Carisle to life in a heartstring-jerking story about pain, suffering and overcoming enormous challenges, all set against the backdrop of the love of running. It's that int...

V O L U M E  4 ,   N U M B E R  2  •  F E B R U A R Y   2 0 1 1 In this issue Five questions for Tomie dePaola • Newbery winners • Caldecott winners • Coretta Scott King and Pura Belpré winners • Sibert winners • Printz winners • From the Editor

British author Brian Jacques, author of the popular Redwall series of adventure books for kids, has died. He was 71. When my son was in middle school, he loved the Redwall books and read quite a few. Read the NPR story here.

I LOVE the National Book Festival so the post that follows from the Library of Congress blog made me SOOO happy! Word’s going out today that the National Book Festival, heading into its 11th year on the National Mall, will be a two-day event for 2011. The festival will take place on the National Mall, from 9th Street to 14th Street, on Saturday, Sept. 24 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and on Sunday, Sept. 25 from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.. rain or shine.  Watch our website at www.loc.gov/bookfest for more developments. For a decade, the excitement has been crammed into a single late-morning-to-late-afternoon window, with more than 70 authors speaking about their works and signing books for fans in massive pavilions that shelter attendees from the sun and rain. This year, plans are for author sessions to be several minutes longer, to allow for more Q & A from festival-goers, and for more time to be allotted between sessions so authors and fans alike will have a better o...

The Chertoff mural, prior to conservation by Maurice Sendak, 1961 On Tuesday, NPR published a story about a mural that was painted on the wall in Larry and Nina Chertoff's childhood bedroom in Manhattan in 1961  by family friend Maurice Sendak, the author and illustrator who, two years later, would publish the award-winning children's book Where The Wild Things Are . The NPR story was titled, A Parade, Restored: A Maurice Sendak Mural Goes From Bedroom To Gallery , which includes an interview with Maurice Sendak and Larry and Nina Chertoff who talk about the mural and its journey from bedroom to museum. The story reports that the Chertoffs have donated the mural to Philadelphia's Rosenbach Museum and Library , the home of the Maurice Sendak Gallery, where much of the writer's work is already housed. The museum has removed the mural from the apartment — right along with the wall beneath it — and has transported it back to Philadelphia. There, it's being re...

From Read Roger " The following books will receive starred reviews in the March/April 2011 issue of The Horn Book Magazine : Where’s Walrus? by Stephen Savage (Scholastic) Chime by Franny Billingsley (Dial) Recovery Road by Blake Nelson (Scholastic) The Romeo and Juliet Code by Phoebe Stone (Levine/Scholastic) Young Fredle by Cynthia Voigt; illus. by Louise Yates (Knopf) Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart by Candace Fleming ( Schwartz & Wade/Random ) Me…Jane by Patrick McDonnell ( Little, Brown ) Meadowlands: A Wetlands Survival Story by Thomas F. Yezerski (Farrar)