Bartography is a blog by Chris Barton whose first book will be released in 2007. The blog chronicles his writing as well as a general look at children’s book publishing.
Month: October 2005
CCBC Booklist
The CCBC (Cooperative Children’s Book Center) in Madison, WI has Reading to Understand: Children’s Books to Use with Comprehension Strategies, a bibliography for reading comprehension. There are eight strategies for comprehension in the bibliography with matching books.
Dawn Publications
Dawn Publications is a publisher of nature books for children and adults. Their site offers a list of new releases, those coming soon, special sales, specific series, and specific topics.
Westerfeld and Sci Fi
This article from Sci Fi Wire gives us a glimpse of one of my favorite authors of teen books, Scott Westerfeld. It speaks about why he writes for teens and why teens enjoy science fiction.
Indigo Books Teen Panel
Canada.com reports on Indigo bookstores’ technique of using a ten-member teen advisory panel to screen prerelease books. The teens are essential to deciding what is stocked on the shelves.
“Indigo’s junior advisory board, in its second year of operation, is what a focus group would look like on steroids. The kids have more influence, a greater hand in the business, and get more compensation for their time — in this case, a $1,000 gift card, an iPod Mini, a trip to Toronto and their own personalized section in Chapters and Indigo stores across the country.
A youth-oriented retail website is also in the works to help meet the needs of this growing audience.
This year, retail of kids books is up 37.6 per cent, with the biggest growth showing up in the nine- to 16-age segment.
Remove Harry Potter from the equation and sales in that category are still up an impressive 21 per cent.”
Whoa! That is impressive! I wonder how libraries are reacting to this boom in teen publishing. Are they boosting their purchases in that section? I know that for me there have been a lot more books for me to choose from, so I end up purchasing more for the teens. Teen advisory boards have been a part of teen services in public libraries for awhile, but again, I wonder how much of their advice is taken on purchasing questions rather than programming.
Halloween Books
Children’s Corner: Frighteningly funny reads a real treat gives a great look at this fall’s new Halloween books for children.
Peeps
Peeps by Scott Westerfeld adds to his incredbile body of teen literature with this new take on vampirism. Cal is nineteen and a parasite carrier or peep. The parasite passes from one person to another via sex or even kissing. Cal is one of the few that is a carrier with almost no negative symptoms, most peeps end up crazy, eating other people, and surrounded by a brood of rats. Because Cal is infected, he has superhuman speed, strength, sense of smell and night vision. So he is the perfect hunter of the crazed peeps.
This story is not for the faint of heart. Alternate chapters tell the true tales of vicious parasites that will have you squirming and aching to run and wash your hands, if not your entire body. Those brave enough to make it past the disgusting parts of the story will find a fast-paced mystery clad in vampire robes. It is a book that should move off the shelves well, be passed around among groups of teens, and will be eaten up by vampire fans.
Kidogo
Kidogo by Anik McGrory is the charming tale of a little elephant who looks throughout the African landscape for an animal that is smaller than he is. The illustrations in the book contribute to the feeling of Kidogo’s size as he is dwarfed by the trees and clouds. Reach for this one when doing a story time on elephants or size. Children will enjoy seeing an elephant as small.
The Boy Book
E. Lockhart has announced on her blog the title and cover of the next book about Ruby Oliver, following her wonderful The Boyfriend List. The title of the new book is The Boy Book.
I can’t wait! The Boyfriend List captured the voice and experiences of a teen girl with writing that made the entire book ring true and clear. If you haven’t read it already, I encourage you to do so. Or you can listen to it on audio book, which is what I did. Beware of laughing aloud too much to drive well.
Waking Brain Cells 