Kids Lit
Books and More for Children and Teens

I just adore Jez Alborough's books, especially for story times. His books alone have led me to do more duck and bear story time themes than I really should. But his books are just so wonderful! First, there is exactly the right amount of text on each page for preschoolers to listen to. Second, the pictures are bright, big and bold so they project perfectly to a group. And finally, the stories are exciting and funny. Can't beat that combo!

And best of all... You can save his books to be read last. If you do story times you will know how amazing that is. I always save his books for the finale, because they get even wiggly chatty kids to settle right down and be swept up into the crazy worlds of inept ducks and huge bears. They should be in all libraries and part of your list of story time books.

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firstamendmentcenter.org: news offers the sad article that a Florida elementary school has decided to remove Anastasia Again! by Lois Lowry from the school library shelves. A parent had asked for the entire Anastasia series to be banned, but the school board removed the single book.

After serving on a couple of committees for our local school, I wonder what their process was and whether they had a committee of community members and if so what that committee recommended. Both committees that I have served on talked at length about the Freedom to Read and parental rights, conversations that usually lead to the retention of books.

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Comic Weblog Updates offers a quick way to find out recent postings on blogs about comic books. The site has an RSS feed.

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NPR had a wonderful show on The Connection.org : Telling Tales of War to Children. Two of the books featured are about Alia, the librarian of Basra who saved the book collection from the Iraq war. The larger discussion is about books for children that are set in a war zone.

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The Association of College and Research Libraries has an article of interest to public librarians as well. Comic books and graphic novels offers a large selection of comic book sites. Some of the sites are more scholarly than public librarians may need, but many of them are top notch for collection development information or even better for casual reading.

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The Complete Andersen :: The Hans Christian Andersen Center

This site claims to have the most comprehensive collection of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales in English online. The site has an amazing array of stories, some very familiar and other new ones to discover.

Via Neat New Stuff on the Net.

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The nominees for Teens' Top Ten have been announced by ALA. This award is very cool because teens pick the winners. The books are even nominated by teens. Teens should start reading the nominations now, so that when June comes around they will be able to vote for their favorite.

Here are the nominees:

Aidinoff, Elise The Garden
Dessen, Sarah The Truth About Forever
Federici, Debbie L.O.S.T.
Le Guin, Ursula Gifts
Limb, Sue Girl, 15, Charming but Insane
Mackler, Carolyn Vegan Virgin Valentine
Marchetta, Melina Saving Francesca
Picoult, Jodi My Sister's Keeper
Randall, David Clovermead
Shreve, Anita Light on Snow
Sonnenblick, Jordan Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie
Wolf, Allan New Found Land
Zephaniah, Benjamin Gangsta Rap

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Grovel.org.uk offers information on the latest graphic novels, complete with reviews. They also provide a monthly list of the most popular graphic novels, writers, and artists. But best of all, they offer a graphic novel news section that has an RSS feed. Sweet!

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TeenWeb is the teen section of the San Jose Public Library website. It is one of the best library teen sites I have seen. First of all, it is up to date and fresh looking. Second, it allows teens to offer content of their own like book reviews. Very nice! Of course, what else would I expect from the 2004 Library of the Year?

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Comics & Graphic Novels is a great website done by Janice Biebrich, a teacher-librarian from Winnipeg. The site offers information on graphic novels for parents, teachers, librarians and teens. The list of recommended titles is very accessible because each title has an image of the cover with it. It made me want to run right out and read them all!

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cynsations is a blog by Cynthia Leitich Smith who offers interviews, nice essay pieces and Cynsational Links that anyone interested in YA and children's lit will love. One of the best children's lit blog with some of the best content I have ever seen.

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Muller In the Middle is a blog by middle school librarian, Frederick Muller, that gives reviews of the books that he has read.

There is a more complete collection of his reviews on his
Book Reviews site.

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The YA Novel and Me is the new blog written by Gail Giles, one of my favorite YA authors. She is the author of Playing in Traffic, Shattering Glass, and Dead Girls Don't Write Letters. And her blog is a brilliant look into the mind of an author.

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Rackham Fairy and Fairy Tale Art is a site that immediately returned me to some of the vintage children's books I read as a child. Arthur Rackham is an English illustrator from the end of the 19th century. He created illustrations that are ethereal and haunting. Enjoy!

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Paddington Bear's official site offers an activity area with games like Marmalade Mayhem, a fact section with information on how Paddington began and author Michael Bond, and a collector's section.

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CIAKids! is a site done by the Culinary Institute of America specifically for kids. It offers recipes for kids (make sure to look at the past features section), games, a culinary dictionary, and sections for both teachers and parents.

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OrlandoSentinel.com: In The Kitchen has an article on the popularity of cookbooks for kids. Both Emeril and Nickelodeon have cookbooks out for children. This is definitely something that a library can be focusing on that will benefit the collection and also offer display and programming ideas as well.

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Author tells children race only skin-deep

This is a short article on Julius Lester speaking at an elementary school.

"Asked why he writes for children, Lester said, "They are a great audience to write for. Children deserve good literature. They are also the most honest to write for. If they like it, they tell you, and if they don't, they tell you.""

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I just finished listening to Becoming Naomi Leon by Pan Munoz Ryan on audiocassette. What a wonderful way to discover this gem of a book. This book has gotten great reviews from many places and I completely agree.

This is one of those books that is perfect for teachers to use in a classroom setting, as long as they are comfortable with the Spanish words scattered throughout. Teachers, parents, share this one with a kid, especially a girl, and they will love it. Personally, I had problems stopping the car when I got to the end of my drive because then the story would end. It was one that I couldn't wait to return to, not only to find out what happened next but also to be re-immersed in Lemontree and Mexico.

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Joystiq is a useful blog for those of us interested in consoles or just learning more about consoles. It offers links to game reviews, news, hacks, and more and covers all of the major consoles on the market as well as PC gaming.

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Beth Galloway's post to the PLA Blog has convinced me of the validity of gaming consoles in a public library. I don't know why I was resistant to it. Perhaps because there are several competing consoles, so how do you choose which one to offer. Perhaps because we already offer games on computer and online gaming. Perhaps because I knew that it would be a near-impossible sell to my Foundation that funds all of our cool, tech items. But with Beth's take on it, I think it is worth the fight. And I know that even in our little community I would have lots of teens coming in to play. They are already using the computers for Runescape and would probaby love something that they could play head-to-head on. Now just to find a possible space to put the console in...

Update: As I ponder this more and more, I begin to wonder why libraries are doing consoles rather than PC games. Is it straight cost? My worries with consoles are that they lack the flexibility of computers and that they will become dated more quickly. Anyone have a defense of console vs. computer?

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The Blue Valley school district in Overland Park, KS is engaged in a battle to remove books from the curriculum. The books being challenged include classics like I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Fallen Angels.

Interestingly, there is also a battle of websites. ClassKC.org is the site for Citizens for Literary Standards in Schools which is the group challenging the books. Students Speak Out is the site for students at Blue Valley who oppose the banning.

This is a chance for those of us on the outside to see the type of logic that book challengers use and to witness the magic of teens defending their right to read.

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DenverPost.com has a nice article called, "New releases take kids around the world." The children's books listed include stories from Central Asia, Africa, Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Peggy Rathmann, children's author and illustrator, takes life one page at a time is a very nice article on Peggy Rathmann, author of Officer Buckle and Gloria, Goodnight Gorilla and 10 Minutes to Bedtime, which has to be one of the best lapreads of all time.
The article covers how she began writing children's books and what she is working on now.

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Walden Media's Because of Winn-Dixie site offers an interview with author Kate DiCamillo on making the movie from her book.

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The Independent Online Edition has an article on Eric Carle and his new book, 10 Little Rubber Ducks. I have shared Rubber Ducks with one preschool storytime, a preschool class, and two classes of kindergarteners and the result is always the same: pure delight. Oh, and though the article mentions malfunctions in the noisemakers at the end, ours has been thoroughly tested by lots of little fingers and continues to work flawlessly. The preschool class immediately insisted that I bring another Eric Carle book with me next week and I am only too happy to do just that.

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Vocabulary University offers all sorts of free vocab puzzles and activities. There are thematic sections and also sections to help prep for tests like SAT and ACT.

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Mystery Writers of America have announced the nominees for the 2005 Edgar Mystery Awards. Here are the teen and children's categories:

Best Young Adult

Story Time by Edward Bloor
In Darkness, Death by Dorothy & Thomas Hoobler
Jude by Kate Morgenroth
The Book of Dead Days by Marcus Sedgwick
Missing Abby by Lee Weatherly

Best Juvenile

Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
Assassin: The Lady Grace Mysteries by Patricia Finney
Abduction! by Peg Kehret
Looking for Bobowicz by Daniel Pinkwater
The Unseen by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

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Pics4Learning is a site that offers "copyright-friendly" images for use by teachers. The images can be browsed by subject or searched by keyword. The site also offers lesson plans.

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The New Yorker: A Critic At Large offers a column on Dr Seuss called "Cat People: What Dr. Seuss Really Taught Us." It is a mix of biographical information on Seuss and a look at the society his books emerged from juxtaposed with society today. Fascinating.

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The Association of Online K-12 Schools has an online AOK12S Newsletter that offers information on the association, recommended education blogs, and a collection of online resources on a specific topic.

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I do enjoy collecting online games that are OK for kids to play. The collage machine is a great site that will keep kids thinking and playing. It is an online way to create collages out of a wide selection of clippings. Just click from collection to collection on the bottom, then you can further cut, draw on or rotate the items.

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New York Daily News - 'Girls in Pants' is hot number

Ann Brashares third installment in the Summer of the Sisterhood series is the top-selling children's title in its first week of release and the number four title overall.

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A British government-funded study shows that Children of rich parents are better at reading. Children in families with higher incomes are several months more advanced than those with lower incomes. The study shows that the gap occurs despite other factors such as natural ability, parents' education, or even how often the child is read to. The call in Britain is now to provide intervention programs for disadvantaged children to see if the gap can be minimized.

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Comics 4 Libraries is a wiki that collects reviews of comic books and graphic novels. Because this is a wiki, you can share your own reviews and opinions. For those of us who struggle to find reviews and recommendations of graphic novels for libraries, this is a perfect resource.

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Peter Sis has a marvelous website. It is exactly what I look for in an author or illustrator site. It actually evokes the books they have created, making it an extension of the wonders they have created on the page. Sis' site includes information on him and his books as well as online games to play.

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Robert Sabuda offers a wonderful official site. Sabuda is the creator of amazing popup books that carry them to an entirely new level. His site offers information on how you can make your own popups.

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Paul O Zelinsky has a wonderful website featuring his latest book, Doodler Doodling. You can also take a peek at the new animated version of his Wheels on the Bus.

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The Toronto Public Library has created a list of the 100 Best Canadian Books for Today's Children and Teens. The list is nicely sorted into age categories with separate sections for folk tales and poetry.

Via About Children's Books.

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Walter Wick is the incredible photographer behind the very popular I Spy books as well as books he has both photographed and written, like A Drop of Water. Click on the Features section of the site to go behind the scenes and discover how he creates his photographic magic.

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Now you can play the Save the Trees Game based on Dr. Seuss' wonderful book. The game requires Shockwave.

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Center for Children's Books announces The 2005 Gryphon Award. THe award is given annually to the author of "an outstanding English language work of fiction or non-fiction for which the primary audience is children in Kindergarten through Grade 4."

This year's winner is Little Rat Rides by Monika Bang-Campbell, illustrated by Molly Bang. The two honor books are Down Girl and Sit: Smarter Than Squirrels by Lucy Nolan, illustrated by Mike Reed and You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Fairy Tales to Read Together by Mary Ann Hoberman, illustrated by Michael Emberley.

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YA Authors Cafe is something I should highlight more often. They hold chats on Tuesdays at 8:30 pm. Coming on February 8th, you can join the wonderful YA authors, Libba Bray, A.M. Jenkins, Catherine Atkins, and Mary E. Pearson as they discuss how point of view affects their writing.

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VOYA OnLine has some great articles on gaming with kids at the library. They cover everything from board games to video games to Dungeons and Dragons.

Currently at our library we do board games and at my previous job, I started doing D&D with teens. I have never tried video games, but now the wheels are turning in my head. We don't have consoles, but we do have a small laptop lab. Now I just have to find a multiplayer game that is child-appropriate.

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NPR : Families Wrestle with Concerns on TV Indecency

An interesting piece on parents worrying about what their children are being exposed to on television, including sex and violence. Nicely, no one is talking censorship of the programming, but trying to make appropriate choices for their children.

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About Todd Parr is a great colorful website for a colorful picture book author. His books are zany and the humor is perfect for small children.

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Animation Insider - Best Selling Manga of 2004 is a list of the best selling manga of last year. As someone who knows almost nothing about the top manga titles, it was helpful for me to decide what kids may be looking for in our collection.

I am always trying to learn more, so are there other manga titles that are must-buys for a public library?

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NPR : Manga, Anime and Japanese Culture in America was featured on Talk of the Nation yesterday. There is a lot of discussion about how much kids, especially girls, are enjoying manga. You can listen to it online by following the link.

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