Kids Lit
Books and More for Children and Teens

Barbara Bash

Homepage for this author and illustrator of children's books on plants and animals. I have enjoyed Shadows of Night, a book about bats, and What's Up, What's Down, a wonderful look at nature high and low.

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The Official Lynne Reid Banks Website

Homepage for this author of Indian in the Cupboard and many other titles.

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Kathi Appelt

Homepage for this author of children's picture books, including the Bubba and Beau series, and books for older readers.

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Storyopolis

What a cool online store! Selling art that appears in children's books and autographed copies of children's books, I could blow my entire budget for the year in minutes. Definitely worth a visit to at least drool at the items for sale.

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Fanfare

Horn Book's choices for the best books of 2003 in a range of levels.

Via Children's Books.

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Mr. Picassohead

I love finding things like this online to share with kids and teachers. This site allows users to create a Picasso-like picture by adding eyes, noses, lips, ears, and more.

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Swear to Howdy by Wendelin Van Draanen (0-375-82505-3)

Rusty and Joey are best friends getting into all sorts of trouble together, putting frogs in older sister's underwear drawers, plinking cans, and other stunts. Each time trouble find them, they make a blood pact not to tell. But when does friendship mean breaking a promise?

This is a great book for boys. It is fast paced and kids will relate to the sorts of trouble the boys get into. Some parts will have you laughing outloud while others will have you reacting just like the two friends in the story with your mouth open in amazement. The best part of the writing is that it all reads so true to life.

Give this one to boys who are reluctant readers. They will be immediately hooked by the first chapter and enticed by the short length, and they will have discovered a book that is deeper than they ever expected.

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William Durbin

Homepage for this author of books for young adults. His newest is Blackwater Ben, which is waiting for me to read on my book pile.

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A Cool Moonlight by Angela Johnson (0-8037-2846-8)

This short novel for children is about Lila, a girl with a rare sun allergy that prevents her from being exposed to any sunlight at all. Lila lives in darkness ans plays by moonlight, dreaming of being able to dance in the sun someday.

Johnson's writing is both spare and evocative, capturing the magical quality of playing outside at night. The characterization of Lila is superb, giving readers a true glimpse of someone living in a unique situation.

I would recommend this for children who understand the appeal of exploring a character. I would also use this as a read-aloud in a classroom, because it would lead to interesting discussions on people who are different yet the same as us.

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PIKA Canadian Children's Literature Database

This database of Canadian children's literature is the work of three organizations: The Canadian Children's Book Centre, Communication-Jeunesse and the National Library of Canada. The database includes information on 35,000 Canadian children's books, subject headings for fiction, and book summaries.

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The True Story of Christmas by Anne Fine (0-385-90156-9)

I had heard online that this was a very funny book, and it certainly is! This will make a wonderful read-aloud for Christmastime. Don't expect a book with saccharine images of a family get together, instead look for the chapter where all Dad says is "Sorry", the oven door that won't stay shut, horrible noises and flying dinner rolls.

Happy Holidays!

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Mercedes Lackey Homepage

This is a great time to check out Lackey's website, since she has several new books out right now and another one arriving in January. Teen readers enjoy Lackey, especially the Valdemar series. I just completed Exile's Valor and really enjoyed it. But I enjoy Lackey's writing and her obvious love of her characters and setting, that it is easy for me to return to Valdemar time and again. A great author to recommend to teens looking for adventure and magic in their novels.

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Idea Box

This is a wonderful resource for people working with children. It provides ideas for activities, seasonal programs, games, songs, recipes, and crafts.

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Paul Fleischman's Official Website

Homepage for this author of books for children and teens with announcements of future books, articles, biography, excerpts and Q&A.

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Redwall Abbey: The Official Redwall Web Site

This is the site for Brian Jacques' Redwall series, offering information on the author, illustrators, links, puzzles, and news. According to the site, they receive almost 4 million hits a year!

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keithgravesart.com

Keith Graves is an illustrator of one of our most popular Halloween books, Frank Was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance. The silly, gross illustrations appeal to most kids. He has a new book out now, Three Nasty Gnarlies, that sounds like it'll be just as much fun.

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G. Biran Karas

Home page for this illustrator of children's picture books, including the new Ten Little Mummies written by Philip Yates.

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Boston.com -- New storybook reopens old wounds

Award-winning children's book illustrator, Christopher Bing has illustrated a new version of Little Black Sambo using the text of the originial 1899 book. Of course, this new title has created a controversy, since "Sambo" is a racist term.

In 1996, Julius Lester created a wonderful version of this story called Sam and the Tigers. He captured the wonderful story while removing the racist terms.

I will have to take a look at the new Bing version, but have to wonder at his need to keep the original title and character name.

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40 Books about Peace and Social Justice

The final bibliography celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Cooperative Children's Book Center focuses on books that have ideas for change toward peace and books that speak to the cost of conflicts.

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Children's Books About Adoption

American Baby Magazine presents a lengthy list of books on adoption recommended by the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse.

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Nina Crews Home

Nina Crews is the author/illustrator of several wonderful picture books, including Snowball, One Hot Summer Day and I'll Catch the Moon. She has a new book The Neighborhood Mother Goose that I have ordered for the library but not seen yet.

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East by Edith Pattou (0-15-204563-5)

This book is a retelling of the tale East of the Sun, West of the Moon. It is the story of Rose who agrees to go with a white bear so that her sister can be healed and her family can prosper. The bear has been under an enchantment for 150 years that turned him from a boy into a bear. Rose lives with the bear in a palace that she is not allowed to leave. She is given no information on why she is there. The story is a detailed one that has aspects that entrance the reader. I don't want to go into too many details here, because the story should be discovered as it progresses in the book.

If anyone is looking for books with strong female protagonists, this would be one to recommend. Rose is strong, faithful and brave. She is a fully formed character that comes alive in the story. The story is told from a variety of points of view, including Rose, the bear, the Troll Queen and Rose's brother Neddy. This allows the reader to know more than Rose does about her situation, so the reader is not frustrated like Rose about not knowing about the cause and reason of her plight.

I strongly recommend this book for kids willing to tackle the nearly 500 pages. Though it is listed as a young adult book, there is nothing to stop a younger reader from reading it. It is pure adventure that will often have you reading faster and faster to see what happens.

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Margie Palatini

Website for this author of humorous picture books. She has 4 new ones out now.

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Macleans.ca --Sweet Reads

17 new picture books by Canadian authors selected by boksellers in Canada.

Via [places for writers].

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Nancy Werlin

Website for this author of Black Mirror and other suspense novels for teens. Her new book Double Helix has a lot of positive buzz.

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The Shifted Librarian has a posting on Joliet Public Library's new strict policy on unattended children.

"Under the policy, teens and pre-teens unaccompanied by a parent must sign in and show their library card or student ID before being allowed into the library." Those without identification will be allowed to wait in a room with tables and chairs until a parent is contacted and says that they have a reason to be at the library.

I'm sure not sure that that makes much sense. Seems to me that all a kid needs to enter the library then is ID and an excuse. Will that really stop the rowdy kids from coming in? I also know from experience that even the kids there for a reason can be loud. That is part of serving children and teens.

I understand the need to address noise problems, but shouldn't that be done with policies on noise in the library that are strongly enforced for all ages? It bothers me that this policy targets only specific ages of patrons.

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School Library Journal's Best Books 2003

As a public librarian in a small library, I don't get to read the reviews in SLJ the way I used to when I worked in a larger library. So I look forward to lists like this, because SLJ picks different books to highlight than Booklist and other resources. I love to compare the overlap and to discover the new titles.

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40 Books about the Seasons

In recognition of the 40th anniversary of the CCBC, these forty recommended titles are listed. There are quite a few on the list that I have never seen, and will have to take a look at.

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Get On Board 2003

This is the website for the new Get on Board program where teens can enter an essay contest after reading a book from the library. The grand prize winner will get to meet Tony Hawk!

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Book Wholesalers, Inc.

As well as being one of the top children's book vendors, BWI's site offers much more free information than any other vendor in the business. With no registration or any hoops to jump through, you can access their list of monthly top picks, new titles available in paperback, additions to hot series, and staff picks. Have your finger poised on the bookmark button!

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Children's Literature Choice List 2003

Children's Literature, an organization that promotes the love of reading among children, gives this award to the top 150 books of the year. The books range from those for age three and under all the way to young adult.

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Jane Addams Book Award has been presented annually since 1953 by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. The award is given to the children's book from the year before that "most effectively promotes the cause of peace, social justice and world community."

The 2003 winners are Parvana's Journey by Deborah Ellis and for the picture book category, Patrol: An American Soldier in Vietnam by Walter Dean Myers, illustrated by Ann Grifalconi.

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The Miami Herald -- Author on her way to fame; could be next J.K. Rowling

This article has a brief interview with Cornelia Funke with a wonderful quote:

"I like when a child comes to me at a reading and they have a book that looks like it's been read a dozen times. A collector who brings me a book that is perfectly clean -- that is kind of a creepy feeling. I feel like that book is dead. Nobody will ever touch it again. If I was a book, I would like to be a library book, so I would be taken home by all different sorts of kids. A library book, I imagine, is a happy book."

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Sahara Special by Esme Raji Codell (0-8072-1712-2)

This children's novel by the author of Educating Esme is one that I listened to on audio. The story features Sahara, a girl who stops doing work at school when the administration starts a file on her and includes her letters to her absent father that they found in her desk. Sahara refuses to do any more work, so that they will have nothing to add to her file, and she is held back to repeat the 5th grade. Then along comes Miss Pointy, the new 5th grade teacher, who inspires all of the children to excel, including Sahara.

I enjoyed the character of Sahara very much. She rang true to me in her confusion, her anger and her intelligence. Miss Pointy, on the other hand, was too much of a perfect character. She had solutions to everything and very creative ones too. Yes, I understand that we are seeing her through Sahara's adoring eyes, but seeing some weakness in her teaching ability would have been nice and more realistic.

All in all, the book was fun to listen to. The narration by Phylicia Rashad was very well done. Her voice was musical and evocative. I would recommend this book to kids who want to be writers or teachers. They will find a lot to think about.

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PARENTING names best children's books of 2003

This article from Austin gives a small glimpse into the books chosen as the best by Parenting Magazine for 2003. I tried going to the Parenting Magazine website, but they don't have the list available online. I especially enjoy seeing what board books they choose, since they often find ones that aren't mentioned anywhere in library review sources.

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Classic children's books are popping up in good form

This article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune is all about great children's books from the past that have new editions available. A great article for ideas for gift giving this holiday season. My favorite part of the article comes at the end with a quote from Raskin, author of The Westing Game, '"I try to say one thing in my work: A book is a wonderful place to be. A book is a package . . . a surprise package -- and within the wrappings is a whole new world and beyond."
Her book, and the others mentioned here, are that world. Look and you'll see.'

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Robert Quackenbush

Website for this author of the Miss Mallard mysteries which are now available on video.

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The Polar Express

Tom Hanks stars in a movie version of the beloved picture book. The movie, directed by Robert Zemeckis, will be released November 2004.

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Friction by E. R. Frank (080721647X) published by Listening Library

Friction is a book about Alex, a girl who attends an alternative school along with her best friend, Tim. When a new girl shows up at school, Alex tries to be her friend, but Stacy starts telling lies about Alex's relationship with her teacher, Simon. Through a series of unfortunate circumstances, Alex begins to wonder if Stacy is telling the truth about Simon.

Sexual abuse is an important topic for YA novels to grapple with and Frank does a nice job of capturing the naivety of a young girl and her confusion about sexuality. There is no mystery for the reader here, but instead a captivating character study in Alex.

Teen readers will relate to Alex and understand her confusion. Adult readers will feel echoes of their own childhoods. Frank does an impressive job of handling this subject matter with no sensationalism and with great empathy and warmth for all of the characters.

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