Mystery Writers of America have announced the nominees for the 2005 Edgar Mystery Awards. Here are the teen and children’s categories:
Best Young Adult
Story Time by Edward Bloor
In Darkness, Death by Dorothy & Thomas Hoobler
Jude by Kate Morgenroth
The Book of Dead Days by Marcus Sedgwick
Missing Abby by Lee Weatherly
Best Juvenile
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
Assassin: The Lady Grace Mysteries by Patricia Finney
Abduction! by Peg Kehret
Looking for Bobowicz by Daniel Pinkwater
The Unseen by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Pics4Learning is a site that offers “copyright-friendly” images for use by teachers. The images can be browsed by subject or searched by keyword. The site also offers lesson plans.

The New Yorker: A Critic At Large offers a column on Dr Seuss called “Cat People: What Dr. Seuss Really Taught Us.” It is a mix of biographical information on Seuss and a look at the society his books emerged from juxtaposed with society today. Fascinating.

The Association of Online K-12 Schools has an online AOK12S Newsletter that offers information on the association, recommended education blogs, and a collection of online resources on a specific topic.

I do enjoy collecting online games that are OK for kids to play. The collage machine is a great site that will keep kids thinking and playing. It is an online way to create collages out of a wide selection of clippings. Just click from collection to collection on the bottom, then you can further cut, draw on or rotate the items.

New York Daily News – ‘Girls in Pants’ is hot number
Ann Brashares third installment in the Summer of the Sisterhood series is the top-selling children’s title in its first week of release and the number four title overall.

A British government-funded study shows that Children of rich parents are better at reading. Children in families with higher incomes are several months more advanced than those with lower incomes. The study shows that the gap occurs despite other factors such as natural ability, parents’ education, or even how often the child is read to. The call in Britain is now to provide intervention programs for disadvantaged children to see if the gap can be minimized.

Comics 4 Libraries is a wiki that collects reviews of comic books and graphic novels. Because this is a wiki, you can share your own reviews and opinions. For those of us who struggle to find reviews and recommendations of graphic novels for libraries, this is a perfect resource.

Peter Sis has a marvelous website. It is exactly what I look for in an author or illustrator site. It actually evokes the books they have created, making it an extension of the wonders they have created on the page. Sis’ site includes information on him and his books as well as online games to play.