Kids Lit
Books and More for Children and Teens

The Christian Science Monitor also has a well-rounded article on Matching boys with books. It includes a list of recommended books for high school boys as well as an in-depth look at why boys enjoy reading less than girls. Very interesting.

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The Christian Science Monitor has an article on teens and blogging: Teens: It's a diary. Adults: It's unsafe.

It contains some interesting perspectives on the dangers of blogging for teens as well as some impressive statistics:

"Of the world's approximately 38 million "blogs," or self-published Web pages, 52.8 percent belong to those age 19 or younger, according to survey data from the Perseus Co., a maker of Web-surveying software. By year's end, the firm expects the total number of blogs on the Web to reach 53.4 million.

Meanwhile, Perseus says the typical blogger continues to be a teenage girl who uses the medium primarily to communicate with five to 10 friends."

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The North Shore News has a great article about a new emphasis on early literacy by Vancouver Public Libraries. It focuses on the role of public librarians going beyond that of doing storytimes and more into teaching parents how to expose thier babies to books and language. Sounds wonderful to me!

Here is my favorite paragraph from the article:

"The interest and enthusiasm expressed both by the librarians I interviewed, and others that I have spoken to while visiting libraries, is a testament to the excellent resource we have in our community libraries. In an age where so much information comes at us electronically, it is remarkable that the connection our new babies and preschool aged children are hungry for - talking, rhyming, reading - is being offered to us by highly skilled professionals who are more than eager to help our children succeed in life."

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I shared Gobble Gobble Slip Slop: A Tale of a Very Greedy Cat by Meilo So with preschoolers and kindergarteners this week. They adored this picture book based on a folktale from India. The greedy cat eats his friend the parrot, five hundred cakes, and then goes on to eat and eat and eat more and more people and animals. The kids gasped with amazement at each new eating feat, and then the ending had them completely spellbound and moaning.

Best of all, this is one of those folktale versions that actually works as a read-aloud for this age group. Often folktales can be too wordy to share easily, but this one really works. The pictures pay homage to India and the cat with red feathers flying in the air really grabbed them. I used it in a storytime about eating, but it could be used with all sorts of animal themes, folktales, or silly stories to make you groan!

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I completed the school visits for our Summer Reading Program. This year our theme in Wisconsin is shared by many other states: Dragons, Dreams and Daring Deeds. I had huge success in 1st through 3rd grade reading poems aloud from The Dragons Are Singing Tonight by Jack Prelutsky. The kids paid attention amazingly well, and the poems served as the perfect cap to my speech about all of our activities. I read four poems: I Wish I Had a Dragon, I Am Boom, The Dragons Are Singing Tonight, and Once They All Believed in Dragons. (I am pretty sure those are the titles, but I am doing this without the book in hand, so they may just be pretty close.) They were all hits. I love to see kids respond to poetry so positively. In fact, it was so cool that I am considering offering to do poetry with the students up at school on a regular basis. Just reading and sharing poetry together is very powerful. Plus, all four poems are a joy to read! What could be more fun!

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The BBC announced yesterday that the Children's laureateship goes to Jacqueline Wilson. Wilson is the most borrowed author in libraries in the United Kingdom and has sold over 20 million copies of her books. She follows Quentin Blake, Anne Fine and Michael Morpurgo as children's laureate.

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Llewellyn Publishing offers books for teens and tweens on their site. Many of their other books on wicca, tarot, the paranormal, and astrology would be of interest to teen readers as well.

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A profile of Cecily von Ziegesar, author of the Gossip Girl series: Gossip Girl: The New Young Adult Novel - Adolescence Plus Wealth Equals Big Sales. The article offers a look at how Gossip Girl began and as well as the fact that von Ziegesar is looking towards writing books about young mothers and turning away from young adult writing.

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Lauren Mechling has written a wonderful article for all of us adults who are still reading books for children and teens: Stuck on Youth.

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Aaron Shepard's Home Page: *Stories, Scripts, More* is the home page for children's author Aaron Shepard. But this site offers more than the normal author site. It has extra features like resources for reader's theater and storytelling, plus a section for young authors. All of these extra section are chock full of great ideas, tips and much more.

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CLA: Book Awards ~ Young Adult Canadian Book Award have been announced. A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews won the award. The Beckoners by Carrie Mac and Airborn by Kenneth Oppel are the honor books.

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The SLJ Virtual Summit is School Library Journal's new blog. They now have an RSS Feed that you can subscribe to.

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Mystery Writers of America selected the 2005 Edgar Winners.

Winner for best young adult was In Darkness, Death by Dorothy & Thomas Hoobler.
Winner for best juvenile was Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett.

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AwesomeStories.com is a site filled with fascinating stories, poetry, and information. Combining effective hyperlinks with text, the site provides links to primary documents as they speak to specific issues. The first four chapters of all entries are available for free. And the entire site is free for schools and libraries.

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Morning Edition on NPR had a segment with Nancy Pearl where she had a list of suggested children's fantasy books: Adventures to Read All Through the Summer. You can either listen to the segment online, or just read the list on the site. As always, her selections are wonderful!

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Knowing Poe from Maryland Public Television offers information for teachers and families on Poe's life and writing. This is a must-visit site, because of the fabulous mood evoked. As readers go through the site, they will get to watch video clips, read complete works, and much more.

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Master Blogs has selected this blog as one of its top blogs! Thank you! I am honored.

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Horn Book: Summer Reading is a list from the editors of Horn Book with selections that will fill kids' summer nights with reading and magic. Book selections include picture books, younger and intermediate fiction, young adult fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. All of the books are new rather than classics, making this a real treat of a list.

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World Wide School offers a collection of online books. They even have a youth category featuring classics like The Bobbsey Twins, Anne of Green Gables, and Alice in Wonderland. The collection can be browsed by subject, title and author.

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Pink Books is a site dedicated to books for gay and lesbian youth. They offer current releases, lists by title and author, books for both children and teens, and books for gay parents and staff.

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Edutopia is the website of the George Lucas Educational Foundation. On the site you will find information on some of the latest innovations in education from some of the top schools in the nation. The site offers news, an Internet radio show, and online documentaries. Topics include assessment, community partnerships, the digital divide, mentoring, professional development, and technology.

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Okla. lawmakers target gay-themed books

Oklahoma's House of Representatives passed a nonbinding resolution that asks public libraries to move gay-themed children's books to adult sections. Beyond the obvious problem of moving books intended for children into the adult section as if gayness was a disease caught through reading, no Oklahoma library has adult sections that cannot be accessed by children. The article offers quotes from both sides of the issue.

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Beverly Cleary's life speaks volumes: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

This is a nice interview with Cleary about her childhood, her inspiration, and her most famous character, Ramona.

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Scholastic has launched a new site that focuses on summer reading. It offers booklists for children grades K-8, articles on how parents can help their children love reading, activities to inspire reading, and interactive presentations on how to be a reading coach and how to create a home that inspires kids to read.

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DesMoinesRegister.com has an article about Amanda Gotera, the teen who won a $10,000 scholarship for winning the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, an annual competition for teen writers. She was also interviewed by NPR where she reads from her work.

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Kids Web is a collection of recommended links for children grades K-12. Sites are categorized into arts, sciences, social studies, and miscellaneous. The pages are updated weekly. Also included are a list of other digital libraries and other collections of web sites for children.

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New York Public Library offers WordSmiths, a website where teens can publish poetry and short stories. Submissions are welcome from outside of New York.

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America Writes for Kids is a site that categorizes children's authors by the state they live in. This would be very handy for people looking to book an author for a visit.

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Debbi Michiko Florence's Library - Children's Fiction is a great site filled with things for those interested in children's lit. From interviews with award-winning authors, to book reviews, this site offers just what many people are looking for: quality content.

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Purple Pyjamas is an advice and humor site for girls. It offers information on dating, health, and sex and has other sections on creativity, entertainment, fun, humor, life and opinion. The site also has forums and a chat room, and claims to have new content every day.

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Harry Potter: The Goblet of Fire now offers an online trailer for the upcoming movie! Enough to get any Harry Potter fan looking forward to November.

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G Brian Karas has a great website all about his picture book art. Make sure you check out the Other Stuff category to see updates on his new projects.

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D. L. Garfinkle, the author of the new book Storky, which just received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. The site offers news, links, her favorite books, and a blog.

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UNT Libraries: Pop-up and Movable Books: A Tour Through Their History is a great site covering the history of pop-up books from the nineteenth century to the present. The best of the site is when the graphics actually demonstrate the movement within the oldest books. Wonderful.

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Linda Sue Park has an official website that offers biographical information, a collection of recommended links, a writing section, and a blog on what she is reading.

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Adria's Book Nook is a blog done by Adria, a bok-loving teen. The blog is so that her her younger sister, Louisa, will know what to read. Adria reviews picture books up through young adult titles.

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I am... HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON by CROCKETT JOHNSON. I live in an idealistic world consisting only of what I draw... kind of like my life. I only see what I want to see. Find out what Children's Book You Are!

Via The Boyfriend List.

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After seeing that MTV Books is publishing some books that other publishers are shying away from, I wanted to know more about what they have published. They are an imprint of Simon & Schuster and the site offers news, new releases and a list of books coming soon.

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USATODAY.com - Teachers are getting graphic is a great article on how librarians and teachers are embracing the graphic novel format to reach kids, especially boys, who are reluctant readers.

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Coming Soon! offers a posting on two USA Today articles on the Harry Potter movies. Good news is that Daniel Radcliffe is returning to play Harry in the fifth movie!

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Here is one of those articles that make you very proud to be a librarian:

Librarians challenge book ban in Limestone County School libraries in Alabama. The librarians are challenging all board members to read Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher in its entirety, as their board policy requires. The school board voted 4-3 to ban the book from school libraries.

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Judy Sierra's Official Web Site offers information on her books and herself. She also links to classroom activities for Wild About Books, her 2005 Notable Book that features a librarian visiting a zoo with her bookmobile.

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OK, so this isn't a literature site, but it is worth looking at. CoolMath4Kids offers math games, puzzles, coloring, brain benders, and much more. They even have a special section for 3-5 year olds as well as a large collection of recommended math links for kids.

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Absynthe Muse has created an online young adult writing community. Read articles, explore their collection of links, read news, and subscribe to the newsletter by email or RSS feed. Sign up as a member for free and you will be able to use their forums. A great site using some of the top website technology out there.

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The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a nonprofit organization that defends the First Amendment rights of comic book readers. The site offers news, feature articles, and information on conventions.

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The Children's Literature Assembly has announced their 2005 Notables List of Children's Books in the English Language Arts. The list contains many of my favorites of the year and others that I haven't read yet.

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Independent Publishers Group is a book distributor for independent publishers around the world. One section and catalog is dedicated to children's books. I am disappointed that there are virtually no pictures in the online catalog. With children's books in particular, I think that graphics are a necessary part of a catalog.

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Young Adult Authors Who Blog is a LiveJournal that specializes in listing YA authors who also have LiveJournals. Authors with other types of blogs are also listed. This is a great resource for filling your blogroll or for giving a talk on the power of blogging.

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The Carnegie Medal Shortlist has been announced.

Looking for JJ by Anne Cassidy.
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko.
Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce.
Heartbeat by Sharon Creech.
The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson.
The Scarecrow and His Servant by Philip Pullman.

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