Kids Lit
Books and More for Children and Teens

Apple.com offers this trailer for the movie based on the book Millions. It looks simply lovely.

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Buffalo News - Reading in tandem is an article about an elementary school that is using fifth graders as reading role-models for K through 2nd graders who are having trouble learning to read. The 5th graders read aloud to the younger children, showing how much they like books. The program is brand new, so there is no data about how effective it is, but the idea sounds like a great one for both the older and younger kids.

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The World of William Joyce

HarperCollins offers this site about picture book author William Joyce with his biography, coloring pages, and information on how he does his books.

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The Magic School Bus continues to be popular in books, videos and CD-ROMs. This site offers games, science, and information on the authors.

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Fun With Spot is the official site for Eric Hill, the author of the beloved Spot series. His site is filled with games and activities for small children that require Shockwave to play. They are simple and sweet just like the Spot books themselves.

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Many blogs and new sources have been mentioning the new study that shows that there is more violence in traditional nursery rhymes than in early evening TV shows. I think that everyone who has read nursery rhymes and folk tales understands that they are violent, cautionary tales. And now experts are coming out to refute the results of the study: What's next, labels warning of violence for the Brothers Grimm?

The researchers admit that they did the study rather tongue-in-cheek, but the way that the media has seized upton the results worries me. We are comparing literature to a visual medium. They are vastly different. In one the children are usually with an adult and having to create images with their imagination. In the other children are simply exposed to images that they may not be ready for. It also must be pointed out that they were looking at early evening TV, not the prime time of CSI, ER and others.

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Florida Today article on Orange County banning unaccompanied adults from the children's area, which could be the first policy of its type in the country. Usually we see policies that ban unaccompanied children from the adult sections of the library, but this is a move to protect children from potential predators. Adults without children are still allowed to enter the area and select books, but they are not welcome to sit and read in the area or loiter.

Because the policy does allow parents to still come in and choose books for their children, I think it is a great compromise between access and protection. I would expect more large libraries to make similar policies in the near future.

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This site offers book lists, reviews, forthcoming books, and recent award winners in young adult literature. It also links to author sites and discussion lists.

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Coming Soon! has a small post about the movie version of Roald Dahl's Twits. It is to be directed by Mark Mylod and is produced by Shrek producer John Williams. But best of all, in my opinion, is that John Cleese co-wrote the script!

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Valley News - Newspaper of the Upper Valley is one of the only newspapers online right now that is running the news of Trina Schart Hyman's death at age 65. She passed away from recurring cancer. Trina Shart Hyman won the Caldecott Medal for Saint George and the Dragon and has received the Caldecott Honor Award twice. Her illustrations are vivid, evocative, and magical.

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Children's books take new look at Thanksgiving offers a look at two of the new Thanksgiving books from this year. First is Thanks and Giving by Marlo Thomas and friends, followed by The Firefighters' Thanksgiving.

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A Reuters.com article on Disney purchasing the assets of CrossGen, the comic book publisher of 26 titles. Disney owns about half of the nonmanga comic book business in the world.

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Muppets.com

The Muppets now have a new website that is filled with information on their new ventures. So it may not be literature for kids, but they did just redo The Wizard of Oz muppet style!

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FamilyFun: Thanksgiving 2004 offers all sorts of Thanksgiving fun for children and their parents, including crafts, recipes, and games. Some of the crafts may be appropriate to use in a library setting and the coloring sheets are an easy way to offer something seasonal to patrons.

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MPR: Minnesota writer Pete Hautman wins National Book Award

Pete Hautman has won the National Book Award for young people for his novel, Godless.

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The New York Times Best Illustrated Books for 2004

The NYT offers a slide show with sample art from the top ten illustrated children's books of this year. Winners include Kevin Henkes, Chris Rashka, and Leo and Diane Dillon.

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TheStar.com - Kids' lit can compete, GG winner says

Kenneth Oppel offers these thoughts on books and other media:

"The pleasures you get from a book are so different from the pleasures you get from a movie," the boyish looking Oppel said.

"A book is longer, it's more involved, it's more intimate and I think it's longer lived than the pleasures you get from TV or movies. The two happily co-exist. They're not mutually exclusive."

Via places for writers.

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Author builds empire with friendly spider

This is an article on David Kirk, author and illustrator of the Miss Spider series, which has also become a TV show on NickJr.

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Airborn by Kenneth Oppel has a very cool website that goes from a great introduction movie into the format of an old newspaper. Very slick. And congratulations go out to Oppel for winning the Governor General's award!

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TheStar.com - Children's author soars

An article in The Toronto Star offers a glimpse into the work of Kenneth Oppel, author of the acclaimed Airborne as well as the Silverwing series.

Via places for writers.

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DCBS - Discount Comic Book Service

This is definitely a place to keep on your bookmarks if you talk to kids who buy comics. The site offers specials up to 75% off cover price.

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Grand Forks Herald: Madonna calls wealth overrated

Adding to her list of poor children's books, Madonna is coming out with her fifth. This one is all about how wealth is overrated. Well, Madonna would know just as we librarians know celebrity crap when we see it.

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The New York Times Movie Review | 'The Polar Express': Do You Hear Sleigh Bells? Nah, Just Tom Hanks and Some Train

Very vivid quotes from the review: "... most moviegoers will be more concerned by the eerie listlessness of those characters' faces and the grim vision of Santa Claus's North Pole compound, with interiors that look like a munitions factory and facades that seem conceived along the same oppressive lines as Coketown, the red-brick town of "machinery and tall chimneys" in Dickens's "Hard Times." Tots surely won't recognize that Santa's big entrance in front of the throngs of frenzied elves and awe-struck children directly evokes, however unconsciously, one of Hitler's Nuremberg rally entrances in Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will." But their parents may marvel that when Santa's big red sack of toys is hoisted from factory floor to sleigh it resembles nothing so much as an airborne scrotum."

Yikes!

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Stop Spam!

ScamBusters offers a site that has advice for all of us to reduce the amount of spam we receive. You can sign up for their free scam newsletter or read the site via RSS feed.

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ASNE - National Edition News

The American Society of Newspaper Editors offers this site that carries journalism stories written by high school journalists across the nation.

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Annual CCBC Award Discussions

The wonderful CCBC which is an incredible resource for librarians in the state of Wisconsin holds discussions of potential award winning books each year. The website offers a schedule for those discussions.

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This writing contest offers a chance for new authors of science fiction, fantasy and horror to win prizes every three months and the chance at an annual grand prize. No entry fee so teens can enter without the need to gather funds together.

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TeenFreeway

Free stuff for teens! A huge list of the types of free stuff teens can order has primarily items that don't even cost postage or shipping.

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Author plans to pen 'Holes' sequel

Louis Sachar is planning a sequel to his award-winning Holes. No news yet on title or publication date.

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Sci Fi Wire -- The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel

Tom Hanks has optioned The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau. Interesting since as I read City of Ember, I thought that it would make a great film.

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ALA | Teen Read Week

GET REAL! is the Teen Read Week theme for next year. It was decided by a national teen vote with over 1100 teens participating in the vote.

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New York Daily News - City News - Bus ban on sex ads

The ads from Akademiks, a clothing maker, say, "Read Books, Get Brain" with a girl kneeling in skimpy clothes. But teens know that "Get Brain" does not just mean get smarter. It is slang for oral sex. The ads are posted across the country, but they will no longer be on busses in Manhattan now that they have figured out the slang.

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Wizard News: J.K. releases three chapter names from Harry Potter 6

On Halloween, JK Rowling revealed three of the chapter titles in her upcoming Harry Potter book. The article on Wizard News explains how fans navigated through the clues on her website to discover the titles.

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bookheads announces that Booktrust has awarded the second Booktrust Teenage Prize to Looking for JJ by Anne Cassidy.

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Entertainment: People Article | Reuters.com

Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy says that Bush would make a great villain.

""Bush has this baying certainty and has imposed this fervent zealotry," said Pullman whose books have been condemned by church groups for attacking organized religion."

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2005 Children's Literature Conference

We Are Family is the title of the 2005 Annual Children's Literature Conference in DeKalb, IL. Take a look at the list of featured authors!

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Mickey News - Raven's projects still taking flight

Teen star Raven, who started as a child star on The Cosby Show. And now Raven is writing not one, but two books.

"Of her books, Raven tells us that one is a "contemporary novel." The other is "a guide on becoming a child star in the industry – all the things you need to know." Raven, of course, is in the position to know, having been just a tot when she got her sitcom start on "The Cosby Show.""

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Children Come First

This is a children's literature site that I hadn't ever stumbled upon before. It offers information on authors, bestsellers, publishing, book reviews, education, and more. They also offer a bulletin sent out via email that you can subscribe to free of charge.

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A look at the National Book Awards finalists / Young People's Literature

This article from the Christian Science Monitor gives short reviews of the finalists for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature.

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Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta (0-375-82982-2)

Francesca attends St. Sebastian's, a school that has just become coed. She has left behind her friends, because her mother insisted that Francesca needs to find herself and discover who she is. But now her ever-strong mother has collapsed into a debilitating depression, unable to even leave her bed. What is left for Francesca? She has no driving force behind her anymore, no friends, and is at a new school.

This is an incredible novel for teens. The writing is clean and crisp and Francesca is a vividly portrayed character. In fact, all of the teens and even Francesca's parents are multidimensional and compelling. Even better, there will be little need to push this one, because of the great cover. Just face it out and it should move.

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The New Yorker: Nancy Drew's Father

A look at Edward Stratemeyer, the man behind Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.

Via Blog of a Bookslut.

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TheDay.com

This very brief article on the value of investing in books for children is simply wonderful. Best of all, it advises parents to visit their local library as well as purchasing books for their children because, "certainly no one can afford to buy all the books a child should read."

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A Litchfield County Times article on Mary Pope Osborne, author of over sixty children's books, including the popular Magic Tree House series. The article focuses on Osborne's travels that color and enhance her books for children.

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