Kids Lit
Books and More for Children and Teens

Missy Violet & Me by Barbara Hathaway (0-618-37163-X)

This little gem of a book follows Viney during the summer she helps the local midwife Missy Violet catch babies. The characters in the book are all vivid and fresh. Set in the 30s, in a Southern community, the story flows through a variety of moods. For a first book, it is a skillfully told story, whose voice is authentic and whose main character is refreshing and a joy to spend time with.

• Permalink

The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau (0-375-92824-3)

This is the sequel to The City of Ember, and it continues the story of the Emberites return to the surface world. Lina and Doon deal with new issues as the Emberites come to a settlement called Sparks that takes them in. But the Sparks villagers resent the newcomers and the Emberites resent the restrictions placed upon them.

As tensions escalate, we see the echoes from the war that originally sent the Emberites underground to survive. My one quibble with the book is that the parallels between the battle in Sparks and the previous war is too clearly drawn. It is not left to the reader to draw the obvious comparisons. I feel that if it was more delicately handled, it would have increased the power of the message.

Kids who enjoyed the first book will also like this one, seeing what happened to the characters after they found the surface.

• Permalink
• | Comments (3)

The Game of Sunken Places by M.T. Anderson (0-439-41660-4)

This inventive but classic-feeling tale leads readers through a game where the sides are blurred, and the purpose is uncertain. Brian and Gregory on a visit to a distant relative's remote mansion find themselves caught up in a game where they meet trolls, ghost riders, ogres, and other strange beings. With an ever-changing game board to guide them, they adventure from the woods to an underground city.

The strength of this novel is in its ties to classic children's literature and the leaps of fantasy that it takes from there. Recommend this one to boys who enjoy fantasy and also those who like adventure stories.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Teens tap power of poetry

A Seattle charity runs a Young Writers' Workshop each summer, giving kids whose lives are made difficult by poverty, drugs and violence a chance to express themselves through poetry. The most powerful expression of the good being done with the program is the collection of poems at the end done by kids in the workshop. Powerful stuff.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Boston.com -- Girl power

An article on the popularity of manga for teenage girls.

"The Japanese comics are now so hot in the United States that ICv2.com, a trade-news website that focuses heavily on the genre, called it the fastest-growing sector of pop culture last year. Sales reached $100 million in 2003, growing by about 75 to 100 percent over the previous year, according to ICv2's "Retailers Guide to Anime/Manga."

Who's driving the sales? Young women.

"Manga is something especially teenagers can call their own," says Julie Taylor, senior editor of shojo manga at TOKYOPOP Inc., a popular manga publisher. "And they're really into it.""

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Adults must read children's books: Nobel laureate -DAWN - International; 26 July, 2004

"Portuguese author Jose Saramago, a Nobel literature laureate, said on Sunday he believed the world would be a better place if adults were forced to read children's books.

"They are moral fables that teach values which we consider indispensable like solidarity, respect for others and goodness," national news agency Lusa quoted him as saying in Italy."

Via [places for writers].

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Guardian Unlimited Books -- Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2004

Longlist for the 2004 Guardian Prize, plus a list of this year's judges.

• Permalink

CBS News | Reconsidering Tech For Young Kids

An ongoing debate about whether technology helps or hurts very young children. Some studies cited say that parents should restrict access to computers until children are 7, others say 3, and others say that it needs to be balanced.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

HoustonChronicle.com - Group is critical of library books aimed at young readers

A group has formed that has as its mission questioning library materials in the Montgomery County Memorial Library System in Texas. They are targeting 120 books and have formally challenged 16 of them. Of those 16, reviews of four of them have been completed and the books have been returned to the shelves.

• Permalink

Lewis Carroll Scrapbook

The Library of Congress offers access to a scrapbook kept by Lewis Carroll. It includes newspaper clippings, photographs and some manuscript materials. I have always thought that digitized rare books is one of the magical qualities of the Internet. Being able to page through Lewis Carroll's personal scrapbook is amazing.

• Permalink

The Spectator.co.uk

A cynical look at the dark trend in YA literature. The piece blurs the line between YA and children's lit, comparing Doing It to Peter Pan and Charlotte's Web. Here is a good quote from an expert cited in the article:

"But according to Professor Nicholas Tucker, author of the Rough Guide to Children's Literature, books have to be grim to explain difficult issues to children that parents shirk from discussing, especially with their pre-teens or tweenagers, and to compete with the grabby, pixillated storylines and images available onscreen.

"Look at adoption," he says. "It's better to have two books about it in the house than having a chat about it once a year at Christmas. Books provide some of this function and they probably do a lot of good. The only time to get scared is when fiction exists only as a way to teach social messages, but at the moment there are masses and masses of books that don't deal with social issues at all. And with TV it's too late to put the genie back into the bottle now. Books have got to be in some ways ahead of TV in terms of sophistication as a way of surviving.""

• Permalink

PrimaryGames.com - The Fun Place to Learn!

A collection of online games appropriate for young children. Formats include Java, Flash and Shockwave.

• Permalink

Picturing A Canadian Life: L.M. Montgomery's Personal Scrapbooks and Book Covers

A remarkable collection of book covers and scrapbooks with a nice digital interface that allows for zooming in and viewing the interiors of the scrapbooks.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Princesses get plenty of support

A look at the newly popular role of princess in books and movies for young girls. While these princesses are not as passive as in the past, I stick by a statement I made as a little girl, "Who'd want to be a princess when you could be a queen, they have a lot more power."

"Yasue Kuwahara, a professor of communications and the director of popular culture studies at Northern Kentucky University, says the image of the pretty princess is over-emphasized in the Disney movies and the Princess Barbie dolls.

"In that sense, I think it's problematic," she says. "The focus is on the looks."

Kathy Burklow, a clinical child psychologist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, says it's typical for girls to try out different roles - princesses, brides, housewives - that are consistent with their gender.

That kind of play can provide parents an opportunity to teach their daughters that they're capable of doing anything they want and don't need to be rescued, Burklow says.

"You can be on the softball team and still wear a crown," she says."

• Permalink

The end of books?

A depressing take on children's book reading where the ages 5-35 are basically discounted as reading ages. Hmm. One would think he had never heard of Harry Potter, but then he mentions it himself.

""The primary target customer for books is folks over 35, 40 years old. Children are exposed to books for the first few years of life, when they're read to, and then for the next 30 years or so, they're mainly exposed to music and movies and all that other stuff. The hope is that they'll come home to books when they're in their 40s, but can publishers really afford to wait that long? That's probably not the best game plan."

But with the Harry Potter craze still in full swing, aren't more children reading, and isn't it reasonable to expect they'll continue the habit as adults? According to Ipsos, children's books had a fairly good year in 2003, with early lackluster sales jolted by the June release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. But despite the Potter phenomenon, Rappaport said, the consumer base for children's books is actually shrinking, with 33 percent of American households buying at least one book for someone under the age of 14 in 2003, compared with 35 percent in 2002.

"Even with exciting, new and value-added books on the market," Rappaport reported recently on the Ipsos Web site, "the children's book industry has not managed to substantially increase the volume of children's book purchases or share-of-wallet.""

• Permalink

National Geographic Education Guide

Lesson plans, maps, online adventures, and a collection of favorite sites.

• Permalink

London Free Press: Today Section - Corus lists new fall programs

Very cool! Starting this fall, Canadians will have a new preschool claymation program based on the Dragon books by Dav Pilkey.

• Permalink

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: Summer Reading List Blues

This Op Ed piece has an interesting take on modern children's lit. One part really rings true for me and that is that kids are now given mandated summer reading lists that count as part of the following year's grade. Sad. I always found summer the time that I could just read any books I pleased and many more of them than I would read during the school year.

While I don't agree with her take on modern realistic novels for children being too heavy for kids. I do agree that there is a power to fantasy novels that is freeing and perfect for summer reading. I do see it as problematic that summer reading lists depend on Newbery winners to make up their lists. I would hope that teachers begin to point kids to some of the wonderful books out there that will never win awards like that.

Tha article concludes with:
"We seem to have lost sight of what children can actually process, and more important, of their own innate capacities. Instead of our children being free to roam and dream and invent on their own timetable, and to read about children doing such things, we increasingly ask our children to be sober and hard-working at every turn, to take detailed notes on their required texts with Talmudic attention, to endure computer-generated tests. And the texts we require them to pore over have become all too often about guarded, world-weary, overburdened children, who are spending their childhoods trying to cope with the mess their parents left them.

Strangely, it seems that in such stories the only people who get to break free are the missing parents: these characters seem to have found their lives too stressful and boxed-in, and have fled — right out of the books."

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

The New Yorker: The Talk of the Town

"Although you do not know his name, Siegfried (Zig) Engelmann is one of the most talked-about authors in the country right now. His most prominent work, which you have not read, is a story for second graders. It begins, "A girl got a pet goat."

Engelmann's book is the one that President Bush was reading to a class of children on 9/11. Engelmann is the developer of Direct Instruction, a controversial teaching method.

"We don't give a damn what the teacher thinks, what the teacher feels," Engelmann said. "On the teachers' own time they can hate it. We don't care, as long as they do it." Engelmann claims that Direct Instruction is one of the few teaching methods that have been consistently shown to improve student achievement, especially among disadvantaged children. "Traditionalists die over this," he said. "But in terms of data we whump the daylights out of them."

• Permalink

ACHOCKABLOG: Danziger Appreciation

Thank you to ACHOCKABLOG for another great children's lit link. This is a must-hear for those of us who grew up appreciating Paula Danziger's work.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Vandergrift's Special Interest Page

Amazing how even though I have been online since 1995, I still manage to miss some of the most important children's literature sites on the web. This site has been around since 1995 and has an immense collection of children's and YA literature information and links to related sites.

• Permalink

Guinness World Records

This is a definite site for children's librarians and teachers to have on their bookmarks. I found myself eagerly turning from one picture to the next to see the biggest lollipop and largest custard-pie fight.

• Permalink

The New York Times -- Chasing Art, Sixth Graders and a Dream

A nice interview with Blue Balliett, author of the popular and highly regarded Chasing Vermeer. At the end of the article, it is confirmed that Balliett is working on a second book that will follow the same characters later in their sixth grade year.

• Permalink
• | Comments (4)

Read at Your Own Risk - Has Dr. Seuss' legacy hobbled America's literacy crusade?

Slate offers this look at whether Dr. Seuss has helped or hurt generations of American readers. I don't agree with several of the author's conclusions, but the final paragraph truly captures my reasons for reading books.

"Truly absorbing, addictive reading of imaginative writing is intensely private and, in a social sense, escapist. "Serious readers aren't reading for instruction," as an anthropologist at work studying American literary habits told novelist Jonathan Franzen. Devoted readers are hoping for a chance to discover, in the narrated lives of other selves, what it's like to be an individual confronting the unpredictable. Maybe it's time to stop spreading fears about "reading at risk," and try generating more excitement about reading at your own risk. How? I wish I could say you could look it up, but you can't."

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

An insider's look at kid lit

Arthur Levine, from Scholastic, talks about misconceptions of new children's book authors.

""There is a great misapprehension that it's easy to write a children's book," Arthur Levine said. "It's widely held in all forms of literature -- that it's somehow easy to do -- but it often seems that people read to their kids and make the leap that they could write something that connects in the same way as the book they're reading."

A few can, but writing for children is not any easier than writing for adults. It takes talent and persistence and an ability to connect to children without coddling or patronizing them. It's not as easy as it might look, even with pictures on the page and fewer words."

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

School Library Journal - 'Pinkerton' to Stay on Shelves

In Illinois, the Evanston Public Library Board has decided to retain Steven Kellogg's Pinkerton, Behave!. A parent had ask it to be removed because there was a scene she felt was too scary for children.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

eSchool News online

The Governor of South Dakota has shut down the teen section of the State Library's website, because it had links to material that he believes is inappropriate for teens. The link in question is to Planned Parenthood, because the governor opposes abortion.

""As a parent, I would be very disturbed to have my children connecting to any of these web sites that are found through the state web site at this time," the governor said July 12 as links on the library's Teen Center page began disappearing."

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

The Kate Greenaway Medal

Shirley Hughes has been awarded the 2003 Kate Greenaway Medal for her book, Ella's Big Chance. The Greenaway Medal from the UK is awarded for outstanding illustrations in children's books.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

New York Press has a short Q&A with Ned Vizzini, author of the new teen novel, Be More Chill.

You can also visit Ned's website which is mentioned in the Q&A.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

The Observer | Review | Push one off the cliff

A charming piece on author Cornelia Funke, who is releasing Dragon Rider in August here in the U.S.

My favorite quote from the interview comes at the end: "Funke is a champion of reading aloud. She describes words as being like 'butterflies pressed between the pages - the voice releases them'."

Via h20boro lib blog.

• Permalink
• | Comments (25)

BBC NEWS | Technology | Science Museum launches games

The London Science Museum is offering five games focusing on different types of science in the hopes of getting children interested in science. The games are for both PC and Mac and more titles are planned for later this year.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

NarniaWeb

NarniaWeb offers movie news plus a rumor mill. Today you can head there to see photos of the four lead actors who will play Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy.

• Permalink
• | Comments (1)

The Australian: Children's fiction spins tale of wise patriarchs

Natasha Giardina has done a thesis on eight children's novels published between 1900 and 1997. It includes well -known books like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and examines how adults perceive childhood and how that perception has changed over the years.

"Despite those changes, some relationships between adult and child in fantasy fiction had changed little, even in modern stories such as Harry Potter, she said. "In particular, the figure of the white patriarch -- the Merlin, Gandalf, Dumbledore figure -- and the associated ideology that children should always trust the guidance of white patriarchs -- has changed very little."

Of the authors she looked at, Roald Dahl used children's culture – games, rhymes, rituals and anti-adult mentality – "most overtly", a factor she attributed to his success.

Phillip Pullman's Northern Lights bucked the trend. She said it destroyed the idea that parents knew best or were always benevolent. It empowered children and showed they could cope on their own."

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Telegraph | News | American beats British writers to child book prize

Jennifer Donnelly has won the Carnegie Medal for children's literature, beating out two very popular British books for the prize.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Literacy Connections

This site offers information for reading teachers and literacy volunteers. It includes tutoring tips, sight words, readers theater, songs, children's literature, and reading aloud.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

The New York Times -- 'The Trucker' and Other Children's Books

The New York Times has reviewed a handful of new books including The Trucker, a book about a little boy dreaming that his toy truck turns into a big rig. I know that our library always needs new truck books to keep those tiny little boys happy.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

SmartWriters.com

A sad update about Paula Danziger. Ms. Danziger died Thursday, July 8th from complications following a heart attack. She will certainly be missed.

• Permalink
• | Comments (2)

JS Online: Education law lacks expected bite

Here in Wisconsin, No Child Left Behind doesn't affect some schools since they don't receive federal funding for children living in poverty. So instead the punishment most dreaded by those schools is being listed as ones that need improvement. I can imagine with our open enrollment policy that middle class families would opt to drive their children to a nearby school not on the list.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Star - French go potty over Harry's politics

France is having a fabulous debate over the Harry Potter books. It is fabulous because so much of it is valid criticism. Yes, Harry Potter's universe is a capitalist one. Yes, there are issues within the world that are disturbing. Read the article to find out more.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

the Official Bruce Coville Homepage

Homepage for this author of several popular series for children, including The Magic Shop.

• Permalink
• | Comments (3)

SmartWriters.com

SmartWriters has information on Paula Danziger, who recently had heart surgery and is having difficulty in her recovery.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

A Perilous Power by E. Rose Sabin (0-765-30859-2)

This prequel to A School for Sorcery shares the same breakneck pace and impending feeling of danger. The books are set in a Victorian fantasy world where some people are born with magical powers and are feared and hated by those without them. Perilous Power is filled with vivid characters and a good story, but there is one nagging issue throughout the book, the love between Les (one of the main characters) and Miryam, a magically gifted girl. The love between the two seems to appear suddenly with no building and yet is the basis of a large amount of the book. Because the love story is weak, it weakens the rest of the tale. However, the action and adventure in the book still make it worth reading.

Recommend to teens who enjoy fantasy, especially boys who will enjoy two strong but very different male protagonists. There is no need to have read School for Sorcery first, though readers of that book will recognize characters.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

AP Wire | 07/03/2004 | Ruth Heller Gross, a popular children's book author, dies

Ruth Heller, author of children's books like Many Luscious Lollipops died Thursday at age 81.

• Permalink
• | Comments (1)

School Library Journal - Librarians Could Get a Break

SLJ reports on a new bill being proposed at a national level that would repay part of the student loan balance for school media specialists working in low income schools. Sweet!

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Why books are back in fashion . . . thanks to television - The Herald

"In 1977, only 54% of Britons enjoyed a good book, while in 2002 the figure had risen to 65% for Britain and 67% for Scotland." The article goes on to say that in Britain books and reading are considered sexy and that it is in part due to the national reading program, The Big Read, and partly to Harry Potter.

• Permalink
• | Comments (1)

Welcome to Gennifer Choldenko

Official site for the author of Al Capone Does My Shirts and Notes from a Liar and Her Dog. The best stuff is in the writing section and For Kids Only. Enjoy the kids illustrations.

• Permalink

Suzy Kline's webpage

Official site for this author of several very popular series: Horrible Harry, Herbie Jones and Song Lee.

• Permalink
• | Comments (5)

NPR : Next Generation Radio

An NPR sponsored radio training project at the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association annual conference has a section by James Murdock on gay teens in books.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)