Sydney Taylor Book Awards are given by the Association of Jewish Libraries to the best Jewish children’s literature of the year. This year, Real Time by Pnina Moed Kass won the award and six books were chosen as Honor Books. Thirty-one notable books were also chosen.

We Are Family Foundation is the organization that sent the Christian right into a tizzy over SpongeBob. The fundamentalists argue that SpongeBob is a homosexual icon and that the Foundation is trying to promote homosexuality to children. A video of the song “We Are Family” was sung by over 100 characters from beloved TV shows, including Barney, Arthur, Bear, Big Bird, Clifford, JoJo and of course, SpongeBob. The performance was done in the wake of 9/11 to celebrate our diversity and tolerance. A DVD will be released “soon” that has the children’s music video on it.

The Comic Brief has a story about Marvel’s new publishing contracts:
“Marvel Enterprises, Inc., (NYSE:MVL) – the dominant force in the comic book market through its Marvel Comics division – has entered into major licensing agreements with four of the world’s leading publishing houses: DK Publishing, Harper Collins, Meredith Books and Simon & Schuster’s Pocket Books as part of a strategy to increase the presence of its leading character franchises in various mass market book publishing formats.”

ALSC announces new children’s book award named for Theodor Seuss Geisel
The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award will be presented annually to the author and illustrator of the most outstanding book for beginning readers. The first award will be presented in 2006.

BBC News reports that JK Rowling has had a baby daughter. This makes three children for Rowling. Congratulations!

The Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers is always a list that I look forward to, because it helps so much with collection development. I know that these books are going to circulate well with both readers and reluctant teens. Also, the list is quite budget-friendly, because many of the titles are in paperback.

MadChatter is a blog by Dr. Ruth Cox Clark, a YA Literature professor. One to check out and add to your feedreader.

Quad-City Times Newspaper Online has an article on an Iowa book challenge where parents are turning the tables on a school district that is restricting access to James Howe’s The Misfits.
“Two Pleasant Valley parents are challenging the decision to restrict the use of a book with a gay character in the district’s elementary schools, saying the decision violates constitutional protections for teachers and students, the process was not as open as it should have been, and the board violated its own policies.”
Woo hoo!
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The Crutcher Book Challenges page has information on the attempt this month to remove Crutcher’s Whale Talk from the curriculum in a South Carolina school district. The final decision will be made soon by the superintendent and as always, I hope that a book is retained.