Kids Lit
Books and More for Children and Teens

I always love seeing what VOYA has dubbed the best science fiction, fantasy and horror books.  Will my favorites make it?  How about yours?

Take a look at the list.  It is a pdf file and may require patience to load.

 

Here are ones I am glad to see on the list:

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke (I wish this had been a Cybil nominee!)

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale (Yes!  The best of the year!)

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy (Hurrah!  Love this one!)

The Chaos King by Laura Ruby

 

But there are so many I didn't read and so many that were never on our list to consider for the Cybils!  Any other must-reads on the list?  Some of my favorites are missing.  Where is Epic?  Where is Wildwood Dancing?  Any others that should be on such a lengthy list?

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Spatulatta is a cooking site for children that has recipes for foods that are real.  So the recipes are child-friendly and so is the food, but adults will want to eat it as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They have a great cookbook out right now too:

 

 

Check out the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs recipe to get your kids loving turkey meatballs with their spaghetti.  Even better, they get to smush the mixture together with their hands, something my 6-year-old considers the essence of culinary skills.

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Kidthing is offering a free online version of Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss where the book is read aloud online.  The book is free through March 31st for classroom use. 

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I think that any of us who are interested in books for children are also interested in children having childhoods rich in imagination.  NPR has an interesting piece on creative play for children and its importance in forming "executive function" such as self-regulation, cognitive flexibility and working memory.

The advice is common sense: children should be encouraged to play games where they dream, wish, pretend and invite.  Free play should be an integral part of their lives.  My youngest son has a way of pretending that he has done since he was tiny.  He whooshes around running, talking to himself and making loud explosive noises every so often.  He won't tell any of us what he is doing, and we have learned to just enjoy his orbiting.  I wouldn't rob him of that time where he is obviously in another world all his own for anything.  In fact, when teachers tell us that our sons are both daydreamers, I take it as a great compliment.  Means that I did something right.

How about you?  Any daydreaming children?  Any who have such rich imaginations that they don't need anyone else around to have fun?  Tell us!

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Oo la la!  I adore the beta Lookybook site!  The site offers all sorts of children's books that you can page through online!  And these are not books you have never heard of, they are top-of-the-line and recent children's books.  The paging works seamlessly and smoothly with an intuitive interface, plus you can embed the Lookybooks onto your blog or website, even without registering for the site.

Registration gets you your own bookshelf, the ability to comment on books, and other bells and whistles. 

You can browse the books by highest rated and most looked at.  Here is an embedded book so you can see how it works:

 

What do you think?

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A Milwaukee Journal article offers hope that finally people are realizing that there is an art to creating books for children!  Amazing!

Here are some of my favorite quotes, but it is worth reading it in full:

"Most people have a warm and fuzzy and kind of inaccurate idea of what children's literature is," says John Warren Stewig, director of the Center for Children's Literature at Carthage College.

....

In fact, the best writers for children are masters of illusion. They labor for years over their manuscripts, cutting out unnecessary words, boiling down descriptions to the finest, clearest images and immersing themselves in the worlds of childhood to make their stories authentic.

My only quibble with the article is their final section where they say that Hugo Cabret is "stronger on the graphics than the prose, which is rather plain."  Guess it goes to make their point that all children's books are being held to standards by readers.

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The Associated Press has a wonderful article on the new trend of taking the art of children's books seriously.  Children's book illustrations are now being shown in museums, studied in art courses, and of course being purchased as investments.  I especially like the second page of the article where they tie children's book illustrations to cultural and artistic movements of their times. 

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The Daily Mail has an the intriguing results of a poll for the best children's books in the UK.  Amazingly, Harry Potter came in SIXTH!  The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis was voted into the top position and if you take a look at the top 50, you will see many other beloved children's classics.  Here are the top 50.  I  started to bold my favorites, but it turned out that almost every one I have read, I have loved, so the ones in bold are the ones I have read:

1. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis

2. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle

3. Famous Five, Enid Blyton

4. Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne

5. The BFG, Roald Dahl

6. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling

7. The Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton

8. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

9. Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

10. The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson

11. The Tales of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter

12. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl

13. Matilda, Roald Dahl

14. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

15. The Cat in the Hat, Dr Seuss

16. The Twits, Roald Dahl

17. Mr Men, Roger Hargreaves

18. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

19. The Malory Towers series, Enid Blyton

20. Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie

21. The Railway Children, E. Nesbit

22. Hans Christian Fairy Tales, H.C. Andersen

23, The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum

24. The Witches, Roald Dahl

25. Stig of the Dump, Clive King

26. The Wishing Chair, Enid Blyton

27. Dear Zoo, Rod Campbell

28. The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Judith Kerr

29. Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jan Brett

30. James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl

31. A Bear Called Paddington, Michael Bond

32. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell

33. Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak

34. Aesop's Fables, Jerry Pinkney

35. The Borrowers, Mary Norton

36. Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling

37. Meg and Mog, Jan Pienkowski

38. Mrs Pepperpot, Alf Proysen

39. We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Michael Rosen

40. The Gruffalo's Child, Julia Donaldson

41. Room on a Broom, Julia Donaldson

42. The Worst Witch, Jill Murphy

43. Miffy, Dick Bruna

44. The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery

45. Flat Stanley, Jeff Brown

46. The Snail and the Whale, Julia Donaldson

47. Ten Little Ladybirds, Melanie Gerth

48. Six Dinners Sid, Inga Moore

49. The St. Clare's series, Enid Blyton

50. Captain Underpants, Dav Pilkey

Looks like I need to brush up on my Blyton!  Anyone have a favorite one to recommend that I haven't read yet?

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I have obviously been living under a rock, because I had no idea how many children's lit bloggers were using Goodreads.  So far I have a handful of friends and I have asked for many many of you to befriend me.  I am obnoxiously adding books by the stack to my lists.  So, if you want a newbie, obnoxious friend on Goodreads, feel free to ask!  Here's my profile.

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Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is set to be made into a video game!  Can you imagine a more likely title to be converted to a game?

According to the Reuters article, it will be a downloadable game available in 2009.  It will hopefully be the first game in a series of them based on the book. 

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BBC News is reporting that Three Little Cowboy Builders will not be considered for the Bett Award because "the use of pigs raises cultural issues."  No, I'm not joking.  The concern is that Muslims will be offended by the use of pigs as main characters.  The story is based on the Three Little Pigs and the judges also expressed concern that it could offend builders as well.  How about cowboys?!

To see more of this obviously offensive book, head to Shoofly Publishing and their section on this 3D Popup Book.  Golly, couldn't that format be offensive to Robert Sabuda?

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VOYA has released their newest volume online!  This month has two great articles I want to point out. 

First is the Magazines for Teens article.  Any teen librarian knows that magazines for teens are HUGE.  The article has sections on anime/manga/comics, arts and crafts, entertainment, ethnic/multicultural, teen girls, teen guys, and humor.  Sure to round out your library's magazine collection or to give you ideas for purchases for teens in your life.

The second article is part of what VOYA does best.  They have entire section in their book reviews about adult books that teens will enjoy.  The Clueless compilation offers the top adult mysteries that will appeal to teens.  A good place to broaden the scope of your teen materials, build a great cross-over brochure or bookmark, or just make sure your adult mystery collection contains them. 

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The Times reports that British publishers are going to start putting age guides on children's books.  Sigh.  Librarians have a love-hate relationship with age guidelines already.  Yes, they make it easier for patrons to find appropriate films, but they are also so very arbitrary and often strange.  Video games especially are oddly rated and because the ratings range so widely from one title to the next they are less than helpful. 

I worry that book ratings will be even more difficult to pinpoint.  The age range for books has very little to do with reading level, unless you are looking at the levels of beginning readers and any person who has tried to use numerical levels from one series to the next knows that there is no standard there either.  But what do they do with teen novels purposely written at lower reading levels.  There will be teen content but their ratings seem to have more to do with reading level than content, making it a completely different type of rating than anything else parents have dealt with. 

How about you?  Do you see book ratings as a positive move?

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Nancy Pearl was on NPR's Morning Edition yesterday and gave her list of Out of This World: Great Sci-Fi and Fantasy.  One joy of Nancy's lists are that she never feels the need to limit herself to new titles, so this list as with many of her others has a mix of old and new titles.  The titles are not all for children, though two of them are definitely child titles.  Even the more adult titles will be of interest to teens who read this genre. 

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School Library Journal has an important piece on the Senate looking at improving the way that Head Start and libraries collaborate.  Here is the part that warmed my heart.  This Senator really gets it!

In February 2007, Sheketoff sent a letter to Representative Raul
Grijalva (D-AZ) saying that libraries play a crucial role in early
childhood literacy, which is a critical part of Head Start’s mission.
“By recognizing the important role that public libraries play in
improving literacy and school readiness in the Head Start
reauthorization bill, libraries across the country can continue to
develop new innovative programs to provide young children with the
tools they need to succeed in school and life,” the letter reads.

Yes! 

One of my favorite parts of being a children's librarian in Cape Girardeau, Missouri was going out on a weekly basis to read to a Head Start class.  The incredible difference between the children who started each year and the children who completed Head Start!  I would start the year reading all of my most gimmicky books, trying to get them to sit still long enough to make it through my short pile.  At the end of the year, I was being begged to read more and amazing the teachers and myself with the books the children would not only sit through but enjoy.  I have yet to find anything as immediately rewarding as sharing books with those children. 

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This Christian Science Monitor article is all about the new titles being included on high school reading lists.  Classics like Shakespeare and Hawthorne are being joined by Sandra Cisneros, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Yann Martel.  The article ends with a list of books from high school reading lists across the country.  I love the juxtaposition of the old and new, exactly what teens should be filling their minds with.

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I found this article on the great diversity of teen literature right now.  I completely agree, it's about time that we see books about teens of all colors, sexualities and faiths.  This allows all of the teens to see themselves in books in some way.  But I think the article understates the importance of this:

Seeing their faces on lead characters who overcome some of their
same issues is a bonus. Billingsley added that teens' desire to see
themselves in print is no different from their wanting the same from
movies or TV shows.

"You need that variety," she said. "That's not to say you shouldn't
read other books you can't relate to either. There are kids who love
reading 'Harry Potter' books who can't relate to him, but there needs
to be an option."

The bold above is mine.  A bonus?  It's a heck of a lot more important than a bonus feature of a book!  And I think that books have a lot more power than movies or TV, because they allow us to see deeply into a character beyond the skin.  So teens of all colors will see themselves in characters of all colors, in people they may not understand, and that is powerful.  But it is all the more powerful in a world that does not reflect them, does not understand them and frequently stereotypes and degrades them to see themselves in the pages of a book.  It turns what society does to them on a daily basis on its head.  Renews their understanding of themselves and allows them the power to themselves open a book where the face on the cover doesn't resemble theirs, look beyond the surface, and discover a kinship.

But even more importantly, it offers that option to the majority as well.  But do we have the power, the grace and the interest to open those books?  Or are we caught in the whirlpool of our own whiteness where we can't see beyond that.  Let's make it a point to read books where the cover doesn't reflect us back, where we have to stretch and grow just to understand it, because where else is our society going to heal?  It has to be done one character, one book at a time.  That is the "bonus" of the book.

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Slate has recycled an article about how professional reviewers can review books so very quickly.  The article has a new intro on Harry Potter but is really about Bill Clinton's My Life.  Part of what I love about blog reviews is that we post about books that we feel merit the mention.  I know that when I start reading glowing reviews they are being written because that blogger feels passionately about the book.  Not because it was assigned.

There is a sort of natural quality control that happens.  While I do accept free books from publishers, I only review a fraction of them on the blog.  Only the ones I love.  Or in the case of one special book about a stuffed rabbit, the ones that others love but I don't.

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Eco-Libris, a wonderful program where you can balance out the books you read by planting a tree, is offering a way to offset your purchase of the new Harry Potter.  Send them a picture of you posing with a copy of any of the HP books, and you will get a chance to have trees planted in your name.  The first fifty entries will get trees planted in their name:  seven trees, one for each book.  Then the best picture will get a free copy of the newest Harry Potter printed on 100% recycled paper. 

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Caught this Morning Edition piece on NPR this morning.  It is a very interesting segment on the copyright pirates in China creating not only Harry Potter books in violation of copyright, but also making their own new Harry Potter stories and selling them.  Some of the titles and concepts are shocking, but being the strange person I am, I wish that I could just read one...

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AfterElton, a blog that offers news and information for gay men, has a very nice article on the battle about children's books with gay themes.  The article mentions And Tango Makes Three, King & King, and The Trouble with Babies.  As a public librarian, I especially appreciated the following quote from Arthur Levine:

"Ten percent of the children's book readership, at least, will grow up to be gay or lesbian," he said to AfterElton.com. "Wouldn't it be nice if their first exposure to the idea that there are gay people in the world isn't when they're teenagers — so when little Johnny falls in love with that really cute, brainy boy in his computer class, he's grown up with the idea that it's not unusual and there's nothing wrong with that.

"And an even higher percentage of picture book readership will grow up to know and love somebody who's gay or lesbian. So when you think about it that way, a large percentage of your picture book audience can really benefit from naturalizing the idea that there are gay and lesbian people in the world. When you think about it that way, it's even more of a mystery why there aren't more of these books."

Hurrah!  I know that many librarians think they are serving only the straight in their community, but gay families, children who will realize they are gay, or families with gay loved ones all need to have a haven in their public library where their lives are mirrored and acceptable.

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Nancy Pearl is back on NPR with a list of books with Great Opening Lines to Hook Young Readers. 

The books included are



Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterson.



Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Lee.



Ragweed by Avi.



Fear by M.T. Anderson



Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes

Make sure you listen to the clip, because Nancy's enthusiasm will completely sell you on the titles.

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Amy Keroes is a mother who was searching for good reads for her children.  She wanted books that offered positive and believable characters for her son and daughter.  Out of her search came the Anti-Princess Reading List, a collection of picture books that feature strong girls in lead roles.  Her site also offers books that feature working mothers and book for babies.  If you are a working parent yourself, she also has lots of parent reads she recommends.  

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Michael Rosen has been named the British Children's Laureate.  An author for over 30 years, Rosen has written some of the all-time favorite books of many.  Story times just wouldn't be the same if we couldn't read restless toddlers We're Going on a Bear Hunt.  And if you haven't read Michael Rosen's Sad Book, then run run run and get your hands on it.  It is a treat to see an author with this range of quality writing get an honor like this. 

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Got an email today from Cheryl Rainfield, who does a great job of providing book reviews of picture books and books for teens.  She has great taste in books, clever titles, interesting subject grouping, and a friendly written style.  She gives each title a star rating, but so many of her choices are winners that it is hard to go wrong. 

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To the Best of Our Knowledge is a great Wisconsin Public Radio program.  This Sunday (June 3rd) they will be discussing children's books.  Here is the great intro statement that I heard on WPR this morning as I drove to work:

One of the worst things about growing up is you get kicked
out of the children's section of the library. I mean, you learn to read
and life is one olong happy string of books, from Peter Pan to Winnie
the Pooh to Harriett the Spy, but then you reach a certain age and you're
supposed to graduate and spend the rest of your life reading grown-up
books. Well, have no fear. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge,
it's children's books, for us.

Great sounding, isn't it?  Authors like Maurice Sendak and Philip Pullman will join in the conversation.

Even if you don't live in Wisconsin, you can listen to the program later in the week online using the link above.  Just click the Listen button and off you go!

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Orlando will be home to a new theme park based on the Harry Potter books!  Universal Studios expects to open the park in 2009.  There is just something magical about being able to experience Hogwarts and Rowling's world.  I probably should feel more cynical about this.  I know it is sure to be expensive and  filled with cheap but expensive toys that no child can live without. But still, I would love to see Hogwarts...

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FairyTalesCollection.com is a site that offers biographical information on the authors of fairy tales as well as featured stories from their writing.  I adored fairy tales as a child, which a strong preference for the Grimm brothers rather than Hans Christian Andersen.  Unfortunately, the Grimm section is still under construction, but hopefully the gore of the Grimm stories will soon fill the pages.  And why is Mark Twain listed?  I never considered him an author of fairy tales.  Is my Twain reading too limited?

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Associated Press has an article about Harry Potter fan sites.  I enjoy the fact that the sites were started by teens who have continued to maintain and improve them over the years.  Even better is the change in the approach that Warner Brothers is taking.  Where originally they tried to shut down fan sites, they now invite the webmasters to premieres and more, knowing how many fans they reach.

The following sites are featured in the article:

The Leaky Cauldron
MuggleNet
The Sugar Quill

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Enter the gates of Bembo and you will find a very cool alphabet website. Run your mouse over a letter and it makes the noise of the animal that you will see when you click on the letter. Then the name of the animal is displayed and the word becomes the animal itself, built out of the letters in its name. Lovely stuff! And what a nice place for preschoolers and kindergarteners to spend some time.

You will need to have Shockwave installed to view the site.

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Kirkus has a pdf version of its Top Picks for Reading Groups available online. The top picks include ones for teen reading groups towards the end. I have only read two of their recommendations: Ida B and Loud Silence of Francine Green. Good books, but I'm not sure they would have been my top picks for discussions.

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CNet has an interesting article about the possibility of schools using video games in classroom instruction.  I hate the title of the piece, "More Video Games, Fewer Books at Schools?" because I see it pitting one form of communication against another.  While I will always side with the power of books for education, I wouldn't want to blindly and blithely assume that video games could not be used to reach children who shun books.  This is certainly something that we as librarians as well as educators need to keep our eye on.  Perhaps this is a way for more truly educational games to be created, especially for older children that we could then offer at public libraries?  Sounds exciting to me!

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Destiny's Book Reviews is a book review site written by a ten year old!  She reads the type of books that kids take out of the library by the armload, rather than the more literary works that the rest of us are discussing.  She has a refreshing voice, a great writing style, and her blog is a joy.  Nice to know that there are kids like Destiny out there reading, loving and sharing books.

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I love, love, love hearing about libraries that are successfully reaching teens. Tween, teen girls find literary haven tells about the Forest Park Library's program for tween girls. Obviously it is a success due to the skill and devotion of Emma Peterson:

"She's always happy and brings fun things for us to do," Martha said.

Exactly! She's not frowning and waiting for trouble. She's happy, energetic and thrilled to be working with teens. Every library needs an Emma!

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VOYA has a list of the Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers. The criteria for inclusion on the list were that the book be of particular interest to 11 to 13 year olds or kids in grades 6-8 and that it be published between October 2005 and September 2006.

I must say that I haven't read a lot of the titles, but those I have I completely agree are top of the line books. My personal favorites are Rash by Pete Hautman, Black Duck by Janet Taylor Lisle, Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock, and Skin by Adrienne Maria Vrettos.

I have happily added the others onto my future reads list and will share the list with my newly tween niece who will love it.

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Using Mentor Texts to Lift the Level of Writing in My Classroom is a fascinating blog. An anonymous NYC teacher uses mentoring texts to help her students write better. I enjoy her enthusiasm as she talks about each of her students, her reactions to her student teacher, and her recommendations for books. This is a unique look at using books to inspire, educate and teach the teacher.

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LiveScience.com offers news about innovative and interesting science. There are sections on animals, health, nature, the environment, technology, and history. Make sure you scroll down to check out their video collection, reader favorites, view photo galleries, and take part in their polls.

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BBC News has an article: Call for boys' own bookshelves that quotes British Education Secretary Alan Johnson has saying that "We need a boys' bookshelf in every secondary school library in the country, containing positive, modern, relevant role models for working class boys." Um, or you could just hire a librarian who would happily build a collection that would not have to be labeled and distinct because he/she could also be there to fit the best book to that particular child. Sounds like collection development is needed not a special boy shelf. And what happens when the boys read through those boy books? As we would all want them to. Are they then shunted to the pink and glittery shelf of girls' books? How about we just build great school libraries that will speak to both boys and girls of all social classes. There are so many books out there that will capture children heart, line and sinker. I know that boys are falling behind, that reading is looked on as being somehow not masculine enough, and that there are books that boys will appreciate, but segregating them on a separate shelf is not the answer. I have no problem with recommended lists or websites full of great boy reads. But we have to keep our libraries equal and accessible to all.

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Looking for an article with good news for libraries and reading? Don't think such a thing actually exists? Well then head to: Teens buying books at fastest rate in decades which is an article that talks about the new glory of teen literature as well as the teen readers themselves. Hurrah!

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Yahoo!  has a fascinating buzz log that shows what people are searching for.  The latest buzz log is the Top 50 Children's Books being searched for. 

Some that you would expect are there:  Harry Potter, Blood & Chocolate, Captain Underpants, and Charlotte's Web.  But there are so many classic books!  It is a joy to see The Snowy Day, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, The Secret Garden, Winnie the Pooh, and Little Women.  Does a librarian's heart good.

Thanks to Neat New Stuff for the link.

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American Indians in Children's Literature is a superb blog. Blogger Debbie Reese wrote yesterday about VOYA's new list of Native American books for teens. Seems that they really missed the mark with some of their recommendations. Nicely, Reese shares some reviews by Beverly Slapin on two of the recommended books.

I wish there were other multicultural blogs like this taking a critical look at how their culture is being portrayed for children. If you know of any, please let me know!

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I'm a Reading Fool is a blog I just discovered. It is done by a teen librarian in Connecticut who rates books according to the VOYA scale for both quality and popularity. Sweet!

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The Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) has a great new book list : Never Too Old: Picture Books to Share with Older Children and Teens.

The books are grouped into different categories that make me want to run out and gather up piles to read:

Visualize This: Books about the Arts
Notes on a Page: Books about Music
Into the Past: Books about History
Theories and Revelations: Books about Math and Science
Challenges and Change: Stories of Politics, Identity and Understanding
Seriously Surreal: Tales of (Im)possibility
Over-the-Top: Sly and Sophisticated Humor
All Cracked Up: Fractured Fairy Tales and Fables

Those last three categories really speak to me! They are the ones that have me making lists of new books to try. But I love the depth to the lists, making them useful not only to librarians but to teachers as well.

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I have found an incredible resource for reading lists for kids that feature lists by genre, read alikes, recommended read alouds for all ages, themed lists, and much much more. atn-reading-lists simply rocks! They are now a wiki, so that everyone can help contribute to and update the reading lists. This is definitely a place to have bookmarked if you are creating your own lists for your library. What a resource!

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A gorgeous website is at the heart of a new online book community, readergirlz.  Starting on March 1st, they will be featuring one book a month with at least one strong female character.  Hurrah! 

The divas behind this are four authors of teen books, Dia Calhoun, Janet Lee Carey, Lorie Ann Grover, and Justina Chen Headley.  Visit their MySpace page and leave comments. 

This is a great idea by a great group of strong females.  My only request is an RSS feed for new content. 

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Every Sunday, the great comic strip Unshelved focuses their comic on a specific book. On February 4th, their choice was one of my faves of last year, Kiki Strike! You can see the strip here. Enjoy!

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ALSC now has a wiki for children and technology: ALSC ChildTech Wiki. The use of technology with children specifically is vastly more complicated that using it with adults. There is filtering, questioning whether promoting technology moves children further from reading books, questioning whether use of technology is good for developing minds, and much more. To get a better handle on the ongoing discussion, read the wiki. If you have strong opinions of your own, contribute!

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I love finding great book lists online, and this is one of them!  Weapons of Mass Instruction is a collection of anti-war books done on a wiki, so you can add any titles that you think should be part of the list.  Browse through titles by age, Spanish and Japanese titles, graphic novels, manga, and links to other online resources. 

Boy, we should be doing this for all sorts of booklists.  I love the wiki idea where we can pool together our knowledge of children's literature.  Beware, the gears in my head are turning! 

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Every Child Ready to Read Wiki is a place for librarians who are using the Every Child Ready to Read program. You can share the difference using the program has made, how to promote and train about it, finding funding, share recommended websites, and much more. Remember, it's a wiki, so it is YOUR site. Share your thoughts and ideas and it will prosper.

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I don't know if anyone else remembers with a great fondness the Moomin books. The series was a favorite of one of my brothers when we were kids, and I have his boxed set of books and hope to hook my sons on them. Interestingly, they have a delightful website filled with all of the characters, like Little My, Moominpapa, and Moominmama. Brings me right back into childhood - oh, the power of books!

Make sure you click on the British flag at the bottom to get the English version.

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Comingsoon.net has the story that the creator of The OC will be doing a series based on the Gossip Girl books. It will be an hour-long drama.

I really don't know what to think about this. I am always dismayed when trashy novels get the attention, but then I tend to hate what many studios do to the great novels. It is rather a Catch-22. But teen girls should be thrilled and you can be equally excited to know that the 11th volume in the series will be out soon!

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Kiddie Lit is a children's and teen literature site written by a librarian who enjoys graphic novels! Snow is serving on the YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens committee, reading her way through over a thousand award-winning books, and much more. I appreciate her expert reviews of graphic novels. Look for her as a judge on the Cybils as well!

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The Guardian has announced the final Harry Potter title! Click on the title: href="http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,1977216,00.html">Final Harry Potter title revealed to find out what it is.

But if you want a little more atmosphere and fun, visit Rowling's website and follow these instructions:

1. Go to http://www.jkrowling.com and choose the graphic interface (not text-only).
2. On the main page, click on the eraser. This will take you to a room with a door.
3. Click on the door in the mirror: It will open, revealing a Christmas tree.
4. Click on the top of the main door: A wreath will appear.
5. Click on the mirror above the Christmas-tree door: Garlands will appear.
6. Click on the cobwebs: They will disappear.
7. Click on the second chime from the right: It will turn gold.
8. Drag the golden chime and it will become a key. Insert it into the lock, and the door will open.
9. Click on the present, and it will unwrap.
10. Click on the page you can see sitting inside the present. A game of "Hangman" will open.

Have fun! Then you can head over to the Leaky Cauldron and start debating the meaning of the new title. Remember all the speculation about the last one?

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ALA has announced that the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) will be offering four online courses in February and March of 2007. They are:

Making the Match: Finding the Right Book for the Right Teen at the Right Time
New Technologies & New Literacies for Teens
Reaching Teens Virtually
YALSA Competencies Live

What a great way to provide top-notch programming nationwide. You can get more information on each session on the site as well as finding out how much participating will cost you.

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The Richmond Times-Dispatch has a nice article about cookbooks for kids: Cookbooks feature kid-friendly recipes. They look at the new Williams-Sonoma series for children, as well as the Dr. Seuss cookbook, Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook. My favorite is the final book on the list: Mom's Big Book of Cookies, because what kids doesn't love cookies and doesn't love to help make them. Even better, the author Lauren Chattman has some very clever tricks up her sleeve like using melted butter rather than softened butter in her recipes. I love this! I don't know how many times I have tried to soften butter in the microwave to use in baking and end up with a golden puddle of melted butter anyway. Chattman's recipes will at least save me the angst in between.

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pixie stix kids pix is a great blog from Kristen McLean, author of children's books and Executive Director of The Association of Booksellers for Children. Her site is filled with book reviews that are rated on a 10 point scale. It is great to get the perspective from the bookselling industry.

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Sara's Holds Shelf is a fairly new children's lit blog that deserves some attention. She writes reviews of the books she reads. Recently she has been reading mostly teen novels, probably because she is serving on the YA nominating committee for the Cybils. I am on the judging committee and hope that they pick a bunch of fab titles for us to select from. I must admit that I have some on my list that I am having trouble getting through and I hope hope hope that those do not make the final group for us to judge because then I will have to force myself to read them. :)

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Publisher's Weekly has an interesting piece The Run-up to Christmas: A Bookseller Surve