Corante > Copyfight > Disney Caught Pirating from Public Domain — and Children!
Copyfight has this article on the fact that Disney is not honoring royalties owed to Great Ormond Street, a children’s hospital in London that receives the royalties from Peter Pan. Disney published the new book Peter and the Starcatchers by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry. Disney denies that there is a valid copyright on Peter Pan in the U.S.

The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan (0-375-82845-1)
David Levithan wrote a utopian fantasy in Boy Meets Boy. Now he has written an achingly real novel in verse that is the linked stories of twenty teens who all attend the same high school. It is about love, life, beliefs, and being. It features girls, boys, gay and straight.
I believe that this is one of the best verse novels yet. The poetry itself sings, adding additional meaning in word play and creatively broken lines. It is true poetry rather than a novel broken into stanzas.
Share this with older teens who appreciate words and books. Both gay and straight kids will find people in the book who are just like them and others who are very different from them but somehow feel the same way. It is a celebration of diversity and humanity in one.

‘Hamlet’ too hard? Try a comic book
The Christian Science Monitor offers this look at both sides of the graphic novel debate: do they hurt academics or help reach certain students?

The National Book Foundation has announced the finalists for the 2004 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.
Honey, Baby, Sweetheart by Deb Caletti
Godless by Pete Hautman
Harlem Stomp! by Laban Carrick Hill
The Legend of Buddy Bush by Shelia P. Moses
Luna by Julie Anne Peters

Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini (0786809957)
Jeremy is a teen who is definitely not cool. He has friends, but he doesn’t have any luck with girls. But then Jeremy hears about a new pill that contains a nanocomputer that will interface with his brain and make him more cool. Stealing from his aunt, he get the money together for the pill and buys his “squip”. Now he has a voice in his mind that leads him through liaisons with girls, dresses him in cool clothes, and helps him remember his lines in the play.
This modern story offers up some real issues cloaked in sex and humor. What happens when society creates something that fundamentally changes you? What is the squip and what is you? Who or what is making the decisions in your life? This book is for teens only, not younger kids. It has a lot of sexuality and swearing as well as some drug use. But for older teens, this is a great look into a future that may be here before we know it.

Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce (0-06-073330-6)
What would you do if you found a bag full of money, but only had seventeen days to spend it? A bag filled with over 200,000 pounds falls at Damian’s feet. Damian believes that it was sent by God in answer to a prayer, but discovers that the money causes more problems than it does help.
This is a charming tale about morals, sudden wealth and ethical dilemmas. It is a story that easily leads to discussions about what kids would do if this happened to them. The story has humor and a wonderful main character in Damian. Damian is made even more vivid due to his obsession with saints after his mother’s death and his visions. Share this one.

Arthur’s Buddy Buster Getting Spinoff Show
Starting this week, Buster the rabbit gets his own spinoff show, Postcards. The goal of the show is to show different cultures around the world through Buster’s travels.

Investor’s Business Daily: Breaking News
Cheerios and First Book made a pledge to donate books to low-income children in Kansas City. The number of books was based on how many laps Jeff Green and the Cheerios team completed in Sunday’s NASCAR race. It would be 11,266 books if Green finished the race and then they would double that if he finished in the top ten. Green didn’t finish in the top ten, but Cheerios will be donating the full 22,962 books anyway.

Children’s Corner: ‘Frog and Toad’ still leaps off the page
A nice piece on the 25th Anniversary of Days with Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel.