Choosing Children’s Software
We are starting a circulating collection of software in our library, and I am searching for sites that review software. There are lots of sites for games for older ages, but I was having trouble finding ones for kids. Then I found this site. If you click on the reviews tab at the top of the page, you will find you can search their past reviews by software title.
If anyone knows of other sites that review software for kids (with no sign-up fee), please post them to the comments.

www.BetsyByars.com
This official site is now being updated more regularly. Though they promise monthly messages directly from the author, the last one posted was in May.

TheStar.com – Farting Dog author smelled a hit from Day 1
Now this is one that I somehow missed. I will have to dig up a copy from another library to see what all the fuss is about.
Via [places for writers].

The Shape Game by Anthony Browne (0-374-36764-7)
If you enjoyed Zoo by Anthony Browne, this book features the same quirky and very realistically presented family. This time the family visits an art museum, allowing the reader to travel right along with them listening to the comments of the family and enjoying the art along the way.
This book will remind kids that their family with all of its quirks is perfectly normal and that they can go to grand art museums and decode paintings or enjoy sculptures too. This book will get elementary age children inspired just as a visit to the art museum inspired Browne as a child.

Baby Business by Mittie Cuetara (0-525-47026-3)
This humorous look at babies through short four-line poems will get you giggling. Appropriate for parents and older siblings, the charm and different personalities of babies are captured with unerring accuracy. A great lap-share book for children who aren’t babies anymore.

Publisher’s Weekly has this article on book sale figures in August.
“Hardcover children’s books were the one bright spot during a month in which other major trade categories faltered.” “Also showing gains were university press hardcover books (up 12.5%) and paperbacks (up 4.3%), religious books (up 25.7%) and professional books (up 7.5%).”

Fall Books for Kids
This article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a list of new books, primarily picture books that are coming out this fall.

The SurLaLune Fairy Tales Site
This site features annotated fairy tales, with histories, similar tales from other cultures and illustrations.

Eragon by Christopher Paolini (0-375-82668-8)
I just finished this and wowza what a book! The first in a trilogy, this epic tale is filled with elves, dwarves, dragons, an evil ruler, people who are not what they seem, and peril at every turn. Though it represents a return to classic fantasy, there is something wonderfully clean about the writing that draws the reader in immediately. The 500 pages melted away and I was saddened when I turned the last page and had to leave the detailed world behind.
Recommend this to any older child or teen who can handle the length and the vivid battle scenes. Boys will enjoy this book, and girls will be impressed by the handful of strong female characters who are pivotal to the plot.
A winner the whole way through! Now just to wait for the next book in the trilogy to be released.