Kids Lit
Books and More for Children and Teens

Reviewers Checklist is an amazing resource for information on new books for children and teens. You can browse the listings by genre/subject or choose to search by keyword, title, author, illustrator, publisher, ISBN or series. Your search can be limited by publication date, age range, or grade range.

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Permanent Rose by Hilary McKay (1-4169-0372-0) is a triumphant return to the Casson family and their bustling, rambling home. This book focuses on nine-year-old Rose, who is desperately waiting for news from Tom, an American boy who they had befriended in the a previous book. But as always, it still features Cassie, Saffy, and Indigo.

Reading a Casson family book is almost like returning home. Though the reader does not know what surprises may be ahead of them, it is immediately comfortable simply to be back with the family.

Recommend the entire series to children who enjoy books set in England and realistic books about children their age. The humor and whimsy of the series will draw them in and they will race through the series to see what happens next to this unique and amazing family.

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OK, so Internet access didn't really work out for me at ALA. Our hotel offered wireless but for a daily fee, and not per room, but per computer. Sigh.

But I have returned with a nice stack of ARCs, piles of gorgeous catalogs, and great ideas for children's programming and collections. I will get back to posting tomorrow, probably with lots of links to more children's book publishers. :)

My two boys loved the exhibits, especially the flashy magnets that so many people were handing out. Our trunk was filled with all the "loot" as my 8-year-old calls it.

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I am off to ALA for the next few days. Today my family is hitting Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry to see their exhibit on video game history as well as all their other way cool exhibits. Then the main conference starts tomorrow. I don't think I will be able to get to many children's programs, but I will be on the lookout for cool things for children and teens in the exhibits. I am blogging for the PLA Blog, so please check me out there, if I don't have time to blog here.

Please, if you are going to be at ALA too and you see me around, stop and chat! Any time spent talking about children and books is great by me!

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Free Kids Music is a site that offers exactly that, free downloadable music for children. Browse the music by artist or if you are a children's musician, upload some of your own original songs to share. Use this site for new songs to play at story time that fit your theme, or to create a CD that patrons can check out. Artists range from the well-known to the obscure.

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NPR : A Cure for Kids' Summer Reading Doldrums is a piece on the troubles with mandatory summer reading lists. A delightful look at the issue accompanied with a selection of good summer reads that won't be on mandatory lists.

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The problem with "problem" young-adult fiction. By Ann Hulbert has been making the rounds on children's lit discussion lists. Hulbert wants to see a return to classics in high school classrooms rather than problem novels. My response is why can't we do both? They appeal to different kids, different readers, different learning styles. Can't classes offer both? Perhaps creating a kinship between both types of book that strengthen the ties between the kids of today and classic literature?

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Virtual YA Index is a directory of public libraries that offer web pages for teens. The number of sites included is amazing, and make sure that if you have a young adult site at your library that you are listed too!

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Library Dust, a blog by Michael McGrorty, has a wonderful post: Moving Libraries. It speaks to a libraries need for outreach rather than "merely throwing open its doors every morning to the world." With concrete examples, Michael is very persuasive about the need for more outreach and outreach to those who have the greatest need for our services, including children.

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Boston Public Library offers an incredible collection of children's booklists. The lists range from picture books to items for older children. If you are interested in books for teens, they also have several Booklists for Young Adults.

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Seattlepi has a great article: Slide into summer reading: A pool of inviting kids books is now open. It offers a list of some of the top releases of the summer as well as a collection of recommended new picture books, children's books, teen novels, nonfiction, poetry, and reissues. Very nice.

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Kid-friendly comics return with 'Marvel Adventures' | The Arizona Daily Star

Marvel Adventures looks like a comic book series to watch for, especially with a Fantastic Four book coming out this summer. I really like that it is aimed for kids 10 or younger. This is definitely one series I will be looking to see at ALA. Is Marvel going to have a booth?

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Kids-In-Mind is a very handy site for parents looking for information on movies. They rate films in three categories: sex and nudity, violence and gore, and profanity. I appreciate the fact that it is not all mixed into one rating, allowing parents to decide what fits their own family best.

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Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards have been announced. This year's winners are:

Picture Book: Traction Man Is Here! by Mini Grey.

Fiction and Poetry: The Schwa Was Here by Neal Schusterman.

Nonfiction: The Race to Save the Lord God Bird by Phillip Hoose.

Two honor books in each category were also selected:

Picture Book: That New Animal by Emily Jenkins.
The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Juster.

Fiction and Poetry: Kalpana's Dream by Judith Clarke.
A Wreath for Emmett Till by Marilyn Nelson.

Nonfiction: Good Brother, Bad Brother: The Story of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth by James Cross Giblin.
Michael Rosen's Sad Book by Michael Rosen.

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A team of six readers from the Henderson Libraries in Henderson, Nevada are trying to break the Guinness World Record for reading aloud continually. See their blog: 100 Hours to Guinness Glory!

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School Library Journal offers their Wild Thing interview with Francesca Lia Block, the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Award Winner for lifetime achievement. It is certainly an interview worth reading, filled with her trademark magic.

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Reading Really Matters is an incredible site on reading. It offers author information, book awards, news, and online discussion. It also offers a special section on school libraries. This is a UK site, so it has a British perspective.

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Flashlight Readers from Scholastic is an interesting blend of books and technology for kids who love to read. Right now there are three books for kids to examine: Because of Winn Dixie, Holes and Esperanza Rising. The site offers information on the authors, book discussion, and interactive websites on the books. This is very slick and also has teacher's guides and parent guides to the online services.

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Baby book wins children's award is a BBC article about the Red House Children's Book Award being awarded to Baby Brains by Simon James. The title of the article is a little misleading because it is a book about a baby rather than for babies, and I don't like the caption about it being a book about "pushy parents." I love Baby Brains and so have the kids I have shared it with. I am not surprised that it won an award voted on by children.

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The Booktrust Teenage Prize Shortlist has been announced. The UK prize recognizes the best in contemporary teen fiction.

Here is the shortlist:

Sugar Rush by Julie Burchill
Siberia by Ann Halam
Come Clean by Terri Paddock
The Whisper by Bali Rai
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Century by Sarah Singleton
The Unrivalled Spangles by Karen Wallace

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NPR covers Hayao Miyazaki's new anime film based on Diana Wynne Jones' book with Miyazaki's Magic on Display in 'Moving Castle'. Amazing how evocative radio can be when describing film.

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American Libraries reports the good news that the New York Board Rejects Labeling for Explicit YA Book. The Guilderland Public Library Board had been considering labeling all of their teen books that have sexually explicit passages with bright orange PG stickers. Luckily, the community got involved and ensured that there would be no labeling. Hurrah!

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I have just completed the delightful book, Magyk by Angie Sage (0-06-057732-0) which is the first book in the Septimus Heap series. The book is filled with so many vivid characters, lots of action, and surprises galore. It is the story of the Heap family whose tiny infant was stolen out of his mother's arms. How that infant is found again is a large part of the story. It is also a story of an infant princess who is given to the Heaps to raise on the same night that their child is taken. It is a story of royalty, magic, power, darkness and light. It is complex and a very fun ride.

The sheer number of pages in the book and the number of characters that the reader meets make this appropriate for good readers who enjoy fantasy books. From strange creatures like Magogs and a boggart to amazing magicians like Marcia and Zelda, the book is filled with wonders. I can't wait for the second in the series to see what happens next, and I would suspect that young readers will feel the same way.

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I had no idea that TIME Magazine offers coverage of graphic novels! Andrew Arnold has a biweekly column covering them. And they just ran an article on 5 Fantastic Graphic Novels. Very cool!

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VOYA's Perfect Tens are the 2004 books that received a rating of 5Q for literary quality and 5P for popularity. So these are the best of the best for both reading pleasure and writing quality together in a single book.

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USATODAY - For Sendak, 'cute' doesn't quite cut it is a very personal interview with Maurice Sendak about his new version of an old book by Ruth Krauss, Bears. This new book features the still naughty Max from Where the Wild Things Are, which is still one of my favorite read alouds.

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eSchool News online reports on the amazing number of preschoolers who are going online. 23% of three, four and five year olds have been online with 32% of kindergarteners having used the Net. Whoa!

Then I realized that my four year old has been online. He loves the NickJr website where he can play simple games with Blue and Dora. We also find preschool math games that he can play, because he is obsessed with numbers and math. So I do contribute to those incredible percentages.

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Molly Bang is the incredible author of many picture books, including When Sophie Gets Angry, The Paper Crane, Goose, and My Light. Click on the titles of any of her books on the site and she tells you about how the book came about and discusses the type of art she created to go with the story. A wonderful chance to gain some insight into a talented author and illustrator's work.

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Witch's Boy by Michael Gruber is one of my favorites so far this year. From the compelling cover to the imaginative story, I was entranced. When the story begins, it seems a little hum-drum, but read a few more pages and you realize that you are going to see a portrayal of a witch that has never before been seen. A witch with personality and maternal feelings who struggles to show her son her love, but eventually manages to prove many times over the strength of her devotion. And then Lump, the witch's son, who is spoiled rotten, used by a demon, tortured by humans, and much more must overcome his upbringing and his temperament to discover what his mother has given him.

My favorite part of the book was the witch's unique take on well-known fairy tales. Wonderfully done!

This is one of those books that you can give to those good pre-teen readers, even though we have it in our YA collection. It has no language and no sex. But the story is deep, dark and follows Lump into adulthood. Push this engrossing story on fantasy lovers, though Lump's yellow stare from the cover may draw them in as well.

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Jeanne DuPrau's Official Web Site offers a glimpse into the humor and personality of this author of The City of Ember and The People of Sparks.

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Book Buds Kidlit Reviews is a blog that features reviews of recent children's books by two journalist mommies. It is a lot of fun to find a newly recommended book in your RSS feed!

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A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy is a blog that focuses on teen books, reading, and TV shows like Buffy, Veronica Mars, and Forever Knight. Written by the same librarian that does Pop Goes the Library, this looks to be a blog filled with personality as well as great book recommendations.

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The longlist for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2005 has been released.

Via ACHOCKABLOG.

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Unfortunately, I can't find a link to the press release online, and it is not up on the WLA website yet:

The Wisconsin Library Association has announced the winners of

the 2005 Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla Award: Kevin Henkes for Kitten's First Full Moon.

the Outstanding Books of 2005:
With Courage and Cloth by Ann Bausum, Godless by Pete Hautman, and Blue Jasmine by Kashmira Seth

and the 2005 Notable Author Award:
S.D. Schindler.

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CNN.com - McCartney writes children's book called High in the Clouds: An Urban Furry Tale. It will be released this October by Penguin. The book was inspired by an animated film that McCartney worked on called Tropic Island Hum.

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Fabulous Fiction opens with "Eye of the Tiger" playing and lots of flashy graphics. The site is for kids who dislike reading, offering suggestions in different genres. Unfortunately, each genre features only two well-known authors, but the message boards are active and filled with additional suggestions. Visitors are also able to write reviews of books.

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These bookmarks would offer a warning is an article about a Guilderland Public Library trustee who wants teen materials with racy content to be labeled with a bright orange sticker that says "PG rec." or Parental Guidance recommended.

For my teen section, I can only imagine how many orange stickers I would need and how few of the books would be left unadorned! I think that the library director in the article makes great points about sexual content not being the only concern people may have as well as the lack of complaints she has gotten about the collection.

This is one of those horrible things that can suddenly happen in a public library when an adult feels that kids need to be protected from their own books. I only hope that the library can stay strong in the face of this and that more sensible board members and community residents will step forward and fight.

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Sideways takes on prom -- from misfits to mosh pits is a look at three of the recent YA novels that deal with prom: Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson, 24 Girls in 7 Days by Alex Bradley, and Mosh Pit by Kristyn Dunnion.

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The CCBC now offers a Booklist of Graphic Novels for Children's and Young Adult Library Collections. The bibliography is for building graphic novel collections in both public and school libraries. I appreciate the fact that there is a lengthy list of titles for elementary age kids as well as lists for middle school and high school age.

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Fairies, farting fire Irish author's imagination - Yahoo! News is a nice look at how Colfer started his Artemis Fowl series and the fame it has brought him.

"Eoin Colfer planned to write a small picture book about a lost leprechaun, but it became a fast-paced adventure about a child criminal mastermind, a fairy police squad and a farting dwarf."

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