Missy Violet & Me by Barbara Hathaway (0-618-37163-X)
This little gem of a book follows Viney during the summer she helps the local midwife Missy Violet catch babies. The characters in the book are all vivid and fresh. Set in the 30s, in a Southern community, the story flows through a variety of moods. For a first book, it is a skillfully told story, whose voice is authentic and whose main character is refreshing and a joy to spend time with.

The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau (0-375-92824-3)
This is the sequel to The City of Ember, and it continues the story of the Emberites return to the surface world. Lina and Doon deal with new issues as the Emberites come to a settlement called Sparks that takes them in. But the Sparks villagers resent the newcomers and the Emberites resent the restrictions placed upon them.
As tensions escalate, we see the echoes from the war that originally sent the Emberites underground to survive. My one quibble with the book is that the parallels between the battle in Sparks and the previous war is too clearly drawn. It is not left to the reader to draw the obvious comparisons. I feel that if it was more delicately handled, it would have increased the power of the message.
Kids who enjoyed the first book will also like this one, seeing what happened to the characters after they found the surface.

The Game of Sunken Places by M.T. Anderson (0-439-41660-4)
This inventive but classic-feeling tale leads readers through a game where the sides are blurred, and the purpose is uncertain. Brian and Gregory on a visit to a distant relative’s remote mansion find themselves caught up in a game where they meet trolls, ghost riders, ogres, and other strange beings. With an ever-changing game board to guide them, they adventure from the woods to an underground city.
The strength of this novel is in its ties to classic children’s literature and the leaps of fantasy that it takes from there. Recommend this one to boys who enjoy fantasy and also those who like adventure stories.

Teens tap power of poetry
A Seattle charity runs a Young Writers’ Workshop each summer, giving kids whose lives are made difficult by poverty, drugs and violence a chance to express themselves through poetry. The most powerful expression of the good being done with the program is the collection of poems at the end done by kids in the workshop. Powerful stuff.

Boston.com — Girl power
An article on the popularity of manga for teenage girls.
“The Japanese comics are now so hot in the United States that ICv2.com, a trade-news website that focuses heavily on the genre, called it the fastest-growing sector of pop culture last year. Sales reached $100 million in 2003, growing by about 75 to 100 percent over the previous year, according to ICv2’s “Retailers Guide to Anime/Manga.”
Who’s driving the sales? Young women.
“Manga is something especially teenagers can call their own,” says Julie Taylor, senior editor of shojo manga at TOKYOPOP Inc., a popular manga publisher. “And they’re really into it.””

Adults must read children’s books: Nobel laureate -DAWN – International; 26 July, 2004
“Portuguese author Jose Saramago, a Nobel literature laureate, said on Sunday he believed the world would be a better place if adults were forced to read children’s books.
“They are moral fables that teach values which we consider indispensable like solidarity, respect for others and goodness,” national news agency Lusa quoted him as saying in Italy.”
Via [places for writers].

Guardian Unlimited Books — Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize 2004
Longlist for the 2004 Guardian Prize, plus a list of this year’s judges.

CBS News | Reconsidering Tech For Young Kids
An ongoing debate about whether technology helps or hurts very young children. Some studies cited say that parents should restrict access to computers until children are 7, others say 3, and others say that it needs to be balanced.

HoustonChronicle.com – Group is critical of library books aimed at young readers
A group has formed that has as its mission questioning library materials in the Montgomery County Memorial Library System in Texas. They are targeting 120 books and have formally challenged 16 of them. Of those 16, reviews of four of them have been completed and the books have been returned to the shelves.