Kids Lit
Books and More for Children and Teens

Yahoo! News tells us that Babar, elephant hero of children's books, turns 75 this year. The article is wonderful and ends with this:

"Children of an age to appreciate Babar, that's to say between two and seven years, haven't changed that much even if they sometimes like playing with computers," de Brunhoff said.

That's right! They may enjoy computers, but those kids can and will read books as long as the adults around them make it a priority. Just think of all the great books new and old to share with one another. Makes you want to run right out to your local library, doesn't it?

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Expatica's German news in English: The man behind the caterpillar

His target group are those children starting school at a time which Carle describes as the "leap from home and security, from the world of play and the senses to the world of the mind, abstraction, order and discipline."

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Here is one of the more important children's literature blogs to come around in a long time. Debbie Reese is an American Indian who teaches American Indian Studies. Her blog: American Indians in Children's Literature looks at recommended authors, websites, and resources for those interested in having accurate information in their libraries on American Indians.

Thanks to Cynsations for the link.

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Margo Lanagan, author of Black Juice, has been blogging as the Writer in Residence at Inside a Dog.  Yes, I am just discovering this now and her month as Writer in Residence is almost finished!  But her writing is superb in both her books and on the blog.  A new author will be in residence in July.  This is one that you will have to travel to, there is no RSS feed that I can find.

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Independent Online Edition has an article on some of the top-selling children's book authors in Britain (and around the world.) The names are all familiar, or if the names are not, then the characters they have created are. What is nice is that each author has a nice series of paragraphs about their background and how they became such a success. The authors include Lucy Cousins, Katherine Holabird, Judith Kerr, and Lauren Child.

Speaking of Lauren Child, I have now seen the Charlie and Lola show and recommend it heartily. It takes the graphics of the books and creates a living world. Charlie and Lola are just as charming and wonderful as they are in the books and if it leads more children back to the book series and Clarice Bean as well, then it is doing a great job.

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Chasing Ray is a blog by Colleen Mondor, a reviewer and author. It is named Chasing Ray because Ray Bradbury is her favorite author and inspiration. On her blog you will find insightful posts on children's literature news mixed in with science fiction, and general fiction. Enjoy!

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Kirkus has just released its 2006 Graphic Spotlight which contains reviews of graphic novels for children, teens and adults. Some of the children's graphic novels look like great fun, though I wish that there were more of them listed.

One warning. This is a very large pdf file. Make sure you have Adobe installed and then be very patient. Have a book nearby to read while you wait. :)

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CBC Magazine has a very nice collection of summer titles: Summer Showcase 2006. It covers picture books, elementary grade books, teen, and graphic novels. Great fun!

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Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.

Once in awhile a teen books hits it completely out of the ballpark, capturing vividly and exactly what being a teen feels like.  This is one of those books.  Nick is a straight musician in a queercore band.  Norah is a very straight-laced daughter of a famous record producer.  When Nick finds himself unable to flee from his exgirlfriend, he asks Norah to be his five minute girlfriend and they start kissing.  But the connection is made and the five minutes turn into a whole night together.  The night is not perfect as their connection together is tested, ruined, lost and rediscovered. 

The book perfectly captures the angst, pride, hubris, and pain of being a teen and looking for the right person to form a connection with.  Though the book is set in the punk rock, clubbing world, all teens will see themselves in this pair.  All teens will hear themselves in their speech, recognize the ache between two people, and find themselves caught in the net of Nick and Norah.

Rarely does a book ring so true with dialogue so right on and sparkling.  Witty one moment and fumbling the next.  One caveat is that there is strong language and very heavy petting in this book.  If you are uncomfortable with that in a school library, don't order this one.  If you are working in a public library, this is a must-have book that will have plenty of appreciative teen fans.  Here's hoping that this duo continues to write books together, though they do well apart too.  But there is a certain chemistry to their joint writing that is thrilling to read. 

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The Ledger-Enquirer of Columbus, Georgia has an interesting article:Techtots generation. It eplains how today's children are expecting interactive components in their media as well as cross-platform experiences where their TV shows become portable to iPods and to computer games.

Now I am not saying that children need to spend more time watching TV or playing video games. But as librarians, how does this change in media perception by children affect how we are going to serve them? One aspect is to take advantage of what publishers are already doing with their books by creating online games and activities with their popular characters and series. Do our own websites need to have more interactive features? Definitely. We see that in our teen users already.

But let's not forget why we are here. Books. And though books may not have the flashy graphics or moving pixels, they have something even better. They have imagination which can take a child much farther than any online game or digital TV experience. The power of imagination has to stay alive and well in our children or else what is childhood?

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The Guardian has a fascinating article: A mirror to every child's life on black and ethnic minorities in children's books. Malorie Blackman is the author of the piece and tells the tale of how she became an author and the problems with writing books as a person of color that are filled with characters of color.

I really appreciate that she has used the image of a mirror in her title, but it is equally important that white non-minority children read books with minorities in them. Books must be both mirrors and windows. Either way is beneficial and important.

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Classic audio stories for children is a cool site. They offer classic children's stories from authors like Beatrix Potter, Hans Christian Andersen, and Rudyard Kipling. Each story can be listened to as an mp3 or downloaded as a zip file. Plus, they offer the text so that children can read along as they listen.

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Baker & Taylor is now doing a Booking Ahead for children's and teen titles. Hurrah!

I use their Booking Ahead for adult tiltes all the time, and really look forward to having a list of new children's and YA books that will be released in two months. What a great way to get things ordered way ahead of time so they can be ready and on the shelf when they are released.

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This weekend is moving weekend for us. Our house is packed up, garage filled with boxes of all shapes sizes and weights, and our new house is ready and waiting for us. I have shed my goodbye tears to the library I have been at for 11 years and my wonderful staff. Now I am looking forward to the new library I will be directing.

Blogging will be spotty if at all, though I have some book reviews to post and am wondering if it would be easier to simply post the reviews or move the books. We will see which type of laziness wins out in the end.

Have a wonderful weekend and hope for our sakes that the weather prediction of over 90 degrees is far, far wrong. Ah well, we always seem to move on the hottest weekend in any given month and always in the summer. Though moving in a Wisconsin winter would not be any better.

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TheNarniaForums is a discussion board for all things Narnia. It includes the movies and the books, as well as games, the TV series, fan art, fan fiction, and Christianity and the stories.

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TheNarniaForums is a discussion board for all things Narnia. It includes the movies and the books, as well as games, the TV series, fan art, fan fiction, and Christianity and the stories.

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The upcoming Charlotte's Web Movie has a sweet site where you can visit the Zuckerman farm and view a trailer of the movie. From the trailer it looks like they have changed a lot of the story and added slapstick humor, but I have hope that in the end they have retained the sweetness of the original. Let's all hope!

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VOYA has a list of the Perfect Tens, or the books that received top scores in 2005. They include many that I have heard of but never read and others that I have read and loved. Rebel Angels and Invisible are two of my favorites on the list.

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Arthur and the Minimoys will be released in film version this Christmas. The website offers a trailer you can view online, information on the main characters, a glimpse at the storyline, and looks at the amazing animation that captures the land of the Minimoys. This is certainly worth a look.

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Baby Shoes by Dashka Slater, pictures by Hiroe Nakata.

This is a delightful picture book perfect for toddlers and preschoolers who will completely understand the book's premise.  Baby (a child who could be either a boy or a girl) has just gotten brand-new very white shoes.  Then he goes off on adventures with his mom.  On those adventures, his shoes slowly become more colorful and less white until they are almost a rainbow of color.  Each time another color gets on his shoes, Baby says "Uh-oh!" and Mama says "Oh, no!"  This pattern continues as does the chorus of "but those shoes just go, go, go."  The rhythm of the book is perfectly written and the enthusiasm by Baby is contagious.  The illustrations are vivid, bright and pure fun as they show how each color gets added to the shoes.  The best picture in my eyes is the second to last, where Baby is sitting on a park bench with her now exhausted mother.  Baby has muddy knees, a messy face, a big smile and is proudly showing the shoes in all their glory. 

Add this one to your storytimes on clothes and color.  It is a lot of fun. 

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Rash by Pete Hautman.

I am a huge Hautman fan, having really enjoyed his book Invisible.  Rash is a book set in a dystopian United States, now called the USSA.  In this future, the United States and its citizens have become obsessed with self-protection, meaning that even to walk down the street kids have to wear a helmet, to run a race they have to be fully suited in protective gear and run on a shock absorbent track.  The protagonist of the book, Bo, has a father and an older brother in the penal system.  People are given jail time for anger and antisocial behavior.  Bo has his father's temper and is on the razor edge for being jailed.  When Bo finally gives into his urge to fight with another boy who is hitting on his girlfriend, he is arrested and sent to northern Canada to a McDonald's pizza factory.  It is in jail that Bo discovers his real passion: the illegal game of football. 

Rash is about a future that is more than possible.  It is about corporations taking over our penal system, a society relying on prisoner work to support itself, an amazingly self-centered society where nothing matters more than self-survival and extending your life as long as possible, even when that destroys the very quality of life.  It is a frightening world, but readers get to experience through the eyes of sarcastic Bo which is a real treat.  I enjoyed the dystopian society because it really is well fleshed out to the extent that it begins to color how you view today's society.  I also enjoyed the character of Bo, a person who doesn't fit into the world he has been born in.  There is humor throughout the book, lifting it from what could have been a dismal look at the future into something that is fresh, new and inventive. 

Share this book with teens who enjoy science fiction, but it should also be enjoyed by teens who enjoy sports books and anyone quirky enough to have felt they don't fit into society.  This is a great read and is definitely another winner by Hautman. 

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Monster Blood Tattoo: Foundling by D M Cornish.

Five star book!  Oh, I don't do stars...  Applause!  Oh, you can't hear me...  Praise galore, now that I can do.

This book is the answer to all of the issues with plagiarism in teen novels.  It is so unique, so new, so fresh that it could only be original.  Young Rossamund is foundling who lives in a ramshackle orphanage.  He is approaching the age when he will head out into the monster-infested world and get a job.  He hopes to follow his caregiver into the navy, traveling on the caustic vinegar seas, but instead he is employed by the Lamplighters, a job that sounds dull to his young ears.  On his way to take up his new position, Rossamund gets aboard the wrong boat, run by a horrid captain who deals in the dark arts.  Rossamund manages to escape and finds himself in the company of a fancy lady, Europe,  who hunts monsters for a living using electricity that comes out of her body.  But Rossamund finds himself feeling very sympathetic towards some of the monsters he meets and wondering if Europe is maybe the evil one. 

This is a vividly rendered world filled with complex characters who change, grow and mystify.  It is a entirely new world, created with a loving hand.  This is a real gem of a book.  Recommend this to teens who enjoy fantasy and also those who enjoy horror.  It is a great read, one that could also get reluctant readers to go along for the ride.  This is a must-read and must-own.

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Squidoo is an interesting Web 2.0 resource. Gayle Keresey, a participant in the ALA Library 2.0 Bootcamp, has created a Reading List for School Librarians and Youth Librarians on Squidoo. She has included recommended blogs, articles on School Library 2.0, youth librarian blogs, author blogs, and books about Web 2.0. This is a very useful resource list!

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Where's Waldo: The Great Picture Hunt is a website for the latest Where's Waldo book that will be ever so popular at your library. Ours was immediately snatched up and carried away to be closely examined.

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YALSA has announced the nominations for the 2006 Teens' Top Ten Books that will be voted on by teens during Teen Read Week, October 15 - 21. It is nice to get the list to teens in your community so that they can read the books over the summer.

Here are the nominees:

Wolf: the Journey Home by Asta Bowen
Rebel Angels by Libba Bray
Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys by Kate Brian
Powder Monkey: Adventure of a Young Sailor by Paul Dowswell
I, Coriander by Sally Gardner
Captain Hook: the Adventures of a Notorious Youth by J.V. Hart

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Today the winners of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards were announced. Here are the winners, all names that are very familiar:

Fiction and Poetry: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

Picture Book: Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert

Nonfiction: If You Decide to Go to the Moon by Faith McNulty

As an aside, I am very happy with Leaf Man and Moon winning, but I am still baffled by the appeal of Edward Tulane. Ah well, I must be missing something.

Two honor books were also selected in each category:

Fiction and Poetry:
Yellow Elephant: A Bright Bestiary by Julie Larios.
Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy.

Picture Book:
Mama: A True Story in Which a Baby Hippo Loses His Mama... by Jeanette Winter
Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building by Deborah Hopkinson.

Nonfiction:
A Mother's Journey by Sandra Markle.
Wildfire by Taylor Morrison.

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Specials by Scott Westerfeld.  

This is the final book in the Uglies Trilogy.  If you have missed this trilogy or don't have it in your library for the teens in your community, RUN out and get it.  It is a great series that offers a unique society where people of a certain age are surgically turned into Pretties.  Tally Youngblood finds herself caught in yet another web of lies and control where she has to think her way past her latest surgery.  I really don't want to give much away, especially if you haven't had the pleasure of reading the first two books in the series.  Let me just say that the final book in the trilogy is filled with as much adventure, amazement, detailed world building, and pure reading fun as the first two.  I enjoy Westerfeld's sly humor and the not-so-subtle parallels with today's society that ring very true.  

This is a great trilogy.  The only bad thing about it is that it is now finished.  But having read Westerfeld and loved his other books too, we will just have to wait to see what amazing teen novel he puts out next.  These are a must-purchase!  Recommend them to kids who enjoy science fiction.  They will be enjoyed by both boys and girls alike.  

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Publisher's Weekly offers an article: A Monster of a Debut on the hot new book Monster Blood Tattoo by D. M. Cornish. It is interesting to read how such a unique and inventive world was discovered. I am about half way through the book right now, so look for a review in the next week or so. It is definitely worth reading!

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Henrietta, There's No One Better by Martine Murray.

This chapter book introduces us to Henrietta, future Queen of the Wide Wide Long Cool Coast of the Lost Socks.  Henrietta is a little girl with a huge personality and enormous imagination who invites readers right in to experience it for themselves.  Henrietta takes us to the Island of the Rietta filled with polka-dotted friendly creatures, introduces us to the problems of having a baby brother named Albert, and shows us the joy of saying really naughty words like Sheezamageeza!  This book is a joy to read aloud and has just enough potty humor and naughtiness to keep both boys and girls laughing along.  The illustrations are modern line drawings brightened with bright red touches.  They evoke the world of Henrietta even more vividly. 

Recommend this to teachers looking for a fun read-aloud chapter book for Kindergarten, first and second grade.  It could lead to discussions on imagination and creativity and maybe even having children create their own imaginary islands and creatures.  But this is one good enough to share with any child in your life and to recommend to chapter book readers themselves. 

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VOYA has a nice article on A Plus Audiobooks for teens. Audio books are made or broken by the narrator, so it is nice to have a list of those that are very successful.

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Yikes! Not only am I moving in less than two weeks and changing jobs, but my laptop has finally decided to give up the ghost and need to be wiped. Since it is a work laptop, I have decided to use an old laptop and just have the other configured for the interim director. So bear with me while I get used to the new old laptop and get all my bookmarks functioning again. I am also WAY behind in reading all of the other children's literature blogs and my other favorites. I'll catch up eventually, but it may not be for awhile, perhaps not until the end of the month after the move and once I have started the new job. OK, so maybe I won't ever catch up again!

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TheNarniaForums is a discussion board for all things Narnia. It includes the movies and the books, as well as games, the TV series, fan art, fan fiction, and Christianity and the stories.

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Teacher, author and children's book advocate, Esme Raji Codell, has started a blog: Esme's Bookshelf: Best New Children's Books. The blog just started today and has three recommended children's books. You should also visit her website, PlanetEsme, which is filled with a LOT of information on books, themes, and reading.

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