ACHOCKABLOG points us to The Economist’s collection of recommended children’s books.

Dibdabdoo
An ad-free child-safe search engine and directory of sites.

Homepage for James Ransome who illustrates picture books, including Bruh Rabbit and the Tar Baby Girl.

The CCBC has posted the results of their annual mock Caldecott Discussion. The winner was Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes. And the two honor books were ellington was not a street illustrated by Kadir Nelson and written by Ntozaki Shange and A Hot Day on Abbott Avenue illustrated by Javaka Steptoe and written by Karen English.

booktrade.info has a story about the V&A Illustration Awards where Sara Fanelli was the overall winner for her illustrations of Pinocchio.

The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson (0-525-47347-5)
This charming book reminds me of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Aiken. It has many of the same old-fashioned features filled with horse-drawn carriages, orphans, frightening boarding schools, and brave children. But it differs in other ways. It has warm-hearted, kind adults, and the gorgeous setting of Vienna.
Annika was left in a church as a tiny infant and found by Ellie and Sigrid who took her home and adopted her. Ellie and Sigrid work as servants for three professors, so Annika was brought up used to hard work, but also surrounded by great food and love. She dreams of her mother coming and finding her, and one day it happens. Her mother, a German aristocrat, arrives and takes Annika off to her castle in Germany. But the castle is falling apart, there is very little food, and few servants. Annika yearns to return to the warmth of her Vienna home, but refuses to leave her new-found family. But all is not as it seems, and Annika must sort out the truth in the middle of all of the lies she is being told.
This would be a great read aloud for a classroom. It has adventure and bravery on the part of both the boys and girls in the story. Enjoy!

Katherine Paterson spoke at the Cambridge Forum in November. WGBH now has her speech available online.

In a Global Test of Math Skills, U.S. Students Behind the Curve
“The PISA study, conducted every three years, ranked the United States 24th out of 29 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based group that represents the world’s richest countries. Students from Finland and South Korea scored best in the survey, which measured the ability of 15-year-olds to solve real-life math problems.”
The gap is widening between the U.S. and other countries. I liked that the article mentioned that perhaps some of the blame can be placed on “an overreliance on facile standardized tests.”

Storyteller.net offers all sorts of resources and news items for storytellers and storytelling. It has a listing of storytellers around the world, book recommendations, CD reviews, stories, and online samples of storytelling. Plus an RSS feed for the news section!