Kids Lit
Books and More for Children and Teens

Big A little a is another of the good children's lit blogs out there. Full of great opinions on children's books, add this one to your feedreader.

• Permalink
• | Comments (1)

NPR has an interview with Phillip Hoose, author of The Race to Save the Lord God Bird about the rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Orange Splot is a blog done by a librarian in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. She posts on children's book subjects.

• Permalink
• | Comments (2)

The 2005 Jane Addams Peace Awards have been announced. "Books chosen for the Awards effectively address themes or topics that promote peace, justice, world community, and/or equality of the sexes and all races. The books must also meet conventional standards of literary and artistic excellence."

The winners are:

Younger Children: Selavi, That is Life: A Haitian Story of Hope by Youme Landowne.

Older Children: With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Woman's Right to Vote by Ann Bausum.

• Permalink
• | Comments (1)

Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson (0-670-05974-9) is a book that honors "normal" kids. Kids who don't excel at school or sports, who don't drive sports cars and are not the most popular kid in class. Ashley is not interested in going to prom with her boyfriend. They have better things to do, like planning on getting an apartment together after she graduates from high school. But then a math teacher steals the prom money and Ashley is drawn into helping her best friend scrape together a prom with no funds. As Ashley starts to participate, she begins to see that there is life beyond her own plans and that she is worthy of having larger dreams.

It is Ashley's voice that carries this book. Her very normal teen activities, her lack of caring, her lack of self esteem all combine to create a vivid character who everyone can relate to. Actually, it is striking after reading this book how few normal teens serve as the protagonist in books for girls. This is a wonderful choice for girls and is far more than a fluffy book about prom, looking into the life of a girl that we can all relate to.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Meet the Author is a site that offers video clips of authors introducing their books. Right now the site has over 400 clips with additions being made each day. The collection can be browsed by author, title, and date of entry. One can specify just children's titles and you will find authors that include Anthony Browne, Eoin Colfer, Philip Pullman, Kevin Crossley-Holland, and Terry Pratchett.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Detroit Free Press offers the article: 'Time Soldiers' root out young readers that covers the new Time Soldiers series from Big Guy Books and Stan Lee. The books feature glossy pages and graphics created to appeal to kids of the video game, movie and TV generation. They are designed to get reluctant male readers reading. If you visit the Big Guy Books site, you will find that they are offering a free set of Time Soldier books to libraries. The offer is only good through April 29th.

Via Reading Today Daily.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

tinylittlelibrarian is a librarian's blog that often has postings on children's lit. It also has a great blogroll covering blogging librarians, book blogs and children's lit blogs.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Create/Relate is a blog from Anastasia Suen, author of over sixty books for children. Her blog offers lots of information on the children's book business, recommended articles, links to other children's book blogs, and much more.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

I just used That New Animal by Emily Jenkins, illustrated by Pierre Pratt, in two storytimes: one for Kindergarteners and the other for a preschool class of four-year-olds. It was a hit both times. I really enjoyed the style of writing in the book, because it made it so easy to read aloud.

The book features the perspective of two dogs who are displaced when their family has a baby. "That Animal" is what they refer to the baby as. The reaction of the children when one of the dogs wants to eat the baby was wonderful. What a gasp went up! And then finally the ending where the dogs decided that it is really their animal: "To hate as much as they want to. And to like, just a little bit."

Great read aloud fun for the kids, the reader, and the adults in the room.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

The Children's Illustrator Blog Ring is a ring of children's book illustrators who have blogs. You will see several of them appearing on my blogroll the next time I update it. There are a lot of gems here!

• Permalink
• | Comments (4)

Guys Read is a site offered by Jon Scieszka that focuses on boys reading. The site talks about why boys don't read like girls do and offers lists of favorite books for boys, including a new list of summer reads.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Orca Book Publishers is a publisher of books for children and young adults. Their website offers teachers' guides, news, submission guidelines, and information on both their books and their authors.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Los Angeles Times Names Book Prize Winners

Doing It by Melvin Burgess has won the 2005 LA Times Prize for Young Adult Fiction!

• Permalink
• | Comments (2)

Free Spirit Publishing offers books that help children deal with life's challenges. On their site you can browse the catalog and order online.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

KidBibs is a website chock full of goodies. From lists of children's book awards, to online specials, to homework help, raising a reader, and a collection of great sites all about reading. This is another site that will take some time to explore, but what fun it will be!

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

The Official Website of T.A. Barron offers information on his books, including The Great Tree of Avalon, plus a large collection of links to things like Q&A with the author, information for new writers, book awards, international editions, and much more.

• Permalink
• | Comments (1)

ActiveAnime is a blog that offers information on anime and manga, including reviews, editorials, interviews, and a list of release dates.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Charlesbridge is a children's book publisher that publishes books for young children as well as instructional materials. The site offers information on their new releases, backlist, authors and illustrators, as well as a section of downloadable activities for classrooms.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

The Institute of Children's Literature's Rx for Writers offers authors support, tips, and an online place to socialize about writing.

• Permalink
• | Comments (3)

Young Adults Book Central is a site that offers articles and book reviews on books for teens. The site also has reader and teacher guides for books, a newsletter, information on authors, and a section on how to write or contact an author. This is a site with a lot of quality content that will take hours to explore. You can also find out about new content via the YA Book Central Blog.

• Permalink
• | Comments (2)

Boston.com has a nice article on the Books brothers, Chip and Mike Flaherty, who are responsible for some of the recent films based on children's books, like Holes and Because of Winn Dixie.

"As paradoxical as it sounds, we want to be known as the film company that gets kids back to reading," says Chip, 40, neatly summing up the company philosophy.

"If moviegoers walk out of one of their films saying it was OK but the book was better," says Mike, 36, "We consider that a success." Reading is "the gateway" to Walden's mission, he continues. "It's central to everything we do."

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

The April edition of VOYA has an article on using anime in the library, Animeted Library. It contains information on showing anime films, a list of recommended movies, and a contact list for anime studios. Exactly what any library considering doing an anime club or ongoing program needs to know.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Ain't It Cool News offers several ways for you to see the trailer to the English-language version of Howl's Moving Castle, an anime film of the book by Diana Wynne-Jones. The film was created by Hayao Miyazaki, who won an Academy Award for Spirited Away.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Kristine O'Connell George's Children's Poetry Corner is the official homepage of this author of children's poetry. She has a new book out that is getting rave reviews: Fold Me a Poem. Her site offers sections that let you listen to her poetry aloud, separate sections for teachers and students, and a collection of great quotes about poetry.

• Permalink
• | Comments (2)

The official website for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is now available with information on the production, the books, and Narnia itself.

The first time you try the site, make sure to allow plenty of time for it to load. Eventually a white gem will appear on the doorknob to match the one by the lock and it will turn into place. Then you get to go through the keyhole and enter the wardrobe.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

USATODAY.com - 'Nancy Drew' finds clues in graphic novel is an article about the newest version of Nancy Drew: manga style! Our library purchased the first one in both the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew graphic novel series to see how they will circ. I do wonder if they will lead kids to the old novels, if a completely different group of graphic-novel-reading kids will enjoy them, or if they will simply be ignored and not really work as a cross over. We will see!

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

The Misrule Blog is written by Judith Ridge, who posts about children's literature from an Australian perspective.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

The Purple Crayon offers information on creating children's books, including writing, illustration and publishing. It provides news, a collection of links, recommended books, and interesting articles.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

The Amelia Bloomer Project has their 2005 List of Recommended Feminist Books for Youth available online. The books were selected based on their:

Significant feminist content
Excellence in writing
Appealing format
Age appropriateness for young readers

Books range from picture book to teen levels and include fiction and nonfiction.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

kidSPEAK! :. Where Kids Speak Out for Free Speech! started to give kids a way to speak out against the censoring of Harry Potter across the nation but has burgeoned into a website offering information on the first amendment and tangible examples of how kids and teens are fighting for their rights. This is especially important in view of the study that came out showing that almost have the kids surveyed did NOT believe that newspapers should be able to publish stories WITHOUT government approval! Amazing, frightening, and very sad.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Runny Babbit is a new book from my favorite children's poet, Shel Silverstein. The entire concept is an exchange of letters from one word in a line to another. I know that if I had just sat down and read this myself, I would have tired of the concept quickly. But luckily, I have a poetry-loving eight year old to share books with. We shared this one over the course of several bedtimes, decoding the real meaning of the poems after happily reading the mixed-up versions aloud.

So our final verdict? A perfectly billy sook perfect to kare with shids who whether they pove loetry or not.

• Permalink
• | Comments (13)

Eclipse offers several online pieces for children's literature study. This site from Rutgers University has information on Mother Goose rhymes and a section on the creation of Petra Mathers' Kisses from Rose, a picture book, from conception through revisions.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Book Moot is a blog that doesn't declare itself as being all about children's lit, but it is! Just take a look at the author links, reading lists, and her postings. Another great children's lit blog added to my blogroll.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Forever by Judy Blume has been banned within the Pasadena Independent School District, removed from both intermediate and high school libraries. Sadly, the reconsideration committee advised that the book be retained in the high schools, but the superintendent decided to remove it entirely.

Now surely Forever can't still be the big news in young adult novels! I mean, please, Forever was the big news when I was a teen. It was the book that wasn't in our school library and that we had to head to the public library to read. The one that one kid brought to school that was passed around from kid to kid.

I am continually amazed at what is being targeted by parents in school districts. Let's all take a deep breath and remember exactly what we were reading as teens. In most cases, it was probably this book!

• Permalink
• | Comments (3)

Boy Proof by Cecil Castellucci is one of my favorite books of the year. Egg is a geeky girl who adores the science fiction movie Terminal Earth so much that she has modeled herself on the main character. She has shaved her head, wears a cloak, and insists on being called Egg, the same name as the main character. Egg is a prickly person, unable to let others close to her.

This books is a character study that all teens who have felt separate and strange can see themselves reflected. Egg truly comes to life on the pages in all of her complexity. Her conflicting emotions, her strange obsessions, and her clarity all meld together to form a fascinating girl. This is a book that needed to be written for all of the girls who are not interested in being with the popular clique at school, but are finding it difficult enough just to make a few friends. Top it all off with the fantastic cover art (I used a large image so that you could really see it) and this is a perfect package. Gorgeous and necessary.

• Permalink
• | Comments (2)

ALA | Children & the Internet: Policies that Work replaces the 1998 document on the same subject. The new document includes a series of articles covering subjects like community input, Internet safety, filtering, effective policies, sample policies, and related links.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Scholastic is offering a Harry Potter: Downloadable Countdown! that is a desktop countdown clock with daily Harry Potter facts.

• Permalink
• | Comments (2)

The Seattle Times: Arts & Entertainment: "Sin City": Bad guys never looked so good

"Until now, movies based on comic books or graphic novels have only approximated the kinetic style of comics while remaining rooted in the familiar conventions of film. Even the acclaimed "Spider-Man" blockbusters owe more to director Sam Raimi than to comics creator Stan Lee.

"Frank Miller's Sin City" sets a new and higher standard."

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

VOYA's 2004 List of the Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror is now available on their website. Filled with goodies for teens that range from the strange to the magical to the terrifying, this would be a great list to print out and just have available for teens to choose from.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Coming Soon! has the news of Fox remaking My Friend Flicka, based on the children's book by Mary O'Hara.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Bill Thompson's Eye on Books has audio interviews with authors of Children's Books and Teen Books. The authors include Meg Cabot, Ned Vizzini, Gary Paulsen, Chris Van Allsburg and the Berenstains.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

VOYA's Pure Poetry is an article available online that lists VOYA's poetry picks for 2004. These are poetry books for teens that were published between June 2004 and April 2005.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

I have started reading some graphic novels. The last ones I had read were my brother's collection of Batman, X-Men and other super heroes. I have found that manga can be a very mixed bag. Some of the books I found very confusing with the storylines jumbled and unclear. But I have found some other manga that I really enjoyed, including the Oh, My Goddess series and Mars series. In fact, I am interested enough to continue to read both series.

I still have quite a pile of other graphic novels to read through. I will post more of my favorites as I read on!

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

GregLSBlog is the blog of novelist Greg Leitich Smith who writes books for teens.

• Permalink
• | Comments (1)

Booklinks offers parts of their current issue online. This month's issue has several great articles online, including Field Guides to Fantastical Worlds and Do As I Do: Teachers Who Read Children's Books.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Poetry for Kids is a site filled with poetry fun from Kenn Nesbitt. They have funny poems, recommended poetry books, related links, contests, and much more to help you celebrate April as National Poetry Month.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

My Inner Child is Reading is a blog that offers reviews of children's books from an elementary school teacher.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Komikwerks, a great comic and graphic novel site, is now offering previews of iBooks graphic novels. They include a couple for younger readers the Amelia Rules books and Penguins on Ice.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)

Kid-Lit.Com offers a wonderful service for parents and teachers, one that I have never seen offered online before. You can find the right books for your kid based on their gender, age, reading level, genre and even the ethnicity of the characters. Because the child's age and their reading level are separated, you can find books for kids who are reading way above or way below their age. The site is easy to use and the collection of books in the database is extensive.

• Permalink
• | Comments (0)