I have obviously been living under a rock, because I had no idea how many children’s lit bloggers were using Goodreads.  So far I have a handful of friends and I have asked for many many of you to befriend me.  I am obnoxiously adding books by the stack to my lists.  So, if you want a newbie, obnoxious friend on Goodreads, feel free to ask!  Here’s my profile.

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card is set to be made into a video game!  Can you imagine a more likely title to be converted to a game?

According to the Reuters article, it will be a downloadable game available in 2009.  It will hopefully be the first game in a series of them based on the book. 

BBC News is reporting that Three Little Cowboy Builders will not be considered for the Bett Award because “the use of pigs raises cultural issues.”  No, I’m not joking.  The concern is that Muslims will be offended by the use of pigs as main characters.  The story is based on the Three Little Pigs and the judges also expressed concern that it could offend builders as well.  How about cowboys?!

To see more of this obviously offensive book, head to Shoofly Publishing and their section on this 3D Popup Book.  Golly, couldn’t that format be offensive to Robert Sabuda?

VOYA has released their newest volume online!  This month has two great articles I want to point out. 

First is the Magazines for Teens article.  Any teen librarian knows that magazines for teens are HUGE.  The article has sections on anime/manga/comics, arts and crafts, entertainment, ethnic/multicultural, teen girls, teen guys, and humor.  Sure to round out your library’s magazine collection or to give you ideas for purchases for teens in your life.

The second article is part of what VOYA does best.  They have entire section in their book reviews about adult books that teens will enjoy.  The Clueless compilation offers the top adult mysteries that will appeal to teens.  A good place to broaden the scope of your teen materials, build a great cross-over brochure or bookmark, or just make sure your adult mystery collection contains them. 

The Times reports that British publishers are going to start putting age guides on children’s books.  Sigh.  Librarians have a love-hate relationship with age guidelines already.  Yes, they make it easier for patrons to find appropriate films, but they are also so very arbitrary and often strange.  Video games especially are oddly rated and because the ratings range so widely from one title to the next they are less than helpful. 

I worry that book ratings will be even more difficult to pinpoint.  The age range for books has very little to do with reading level, unless you are looking at the levels of beginning readers and any person who has tried to use numerical levels from one series to the next knows that there is no standard there either.  But what do they do with teen novels purposely written at lower reading levels.  There will be teen content but their ratings seem to have more to do with reading level than content, making it a completely different type of rating than anything else parents have dealt with. 

How about you?  Do you see book ratings as a positive move?

Nancy Pearl was on NPR’s Morning Edition yesterday and gave her list of Out of This World: Great Sci-Fi and Fantasy.  One joy of Nancy’s lists are that she never feels the need to limit herself to new titles, so this list as with many of her others has a mix of old and new titles.  The titles are not all for children, though two of them are definitely child titles.  Even the more adult titles will be of interest to teens who read this genre. 

School Library Journal has an important piece on the Senate looking at improving the way that Head Start and libraries collaborate.  Here is the part that warmed my heart.  This Senator really gets it!

In February 2007, Sheketoff sent a letter to Representative Raul
Grijalva (D-AZ) saying that libraries play a crucial role in early
childhood literacy, which is a critical part of Head Start’s mission.
“By recognizing the important role that public libraries play in
improving literacy and school readiness in the Head Start
reauthorization bill, libraries across the country can continue to
develop new innovative programs to provide young children with the
tools they need to succeed in school and life,” the letter reads.

Yes! 

One of my favorite parts of being a children’s librarian in Cape Girardeau, Missouri was going out on a weekly basis to read to a Head Start class.  The incredible difference between the children who started each year and the children who completed Head Start!  I would start the year reading all of my most gimmicky books, trying to get them to sit still long enough to make it through my short pile.  At the end of the year, I was being begged to read more and amazing the teachers and myself with the books the children would not only sit through but enjoy.  I have yet to find anything as immediately rewarding as sharing books with those children. 

This Christian Science Monitor article is all about the new titles being included on high school reading lists.  Classics like Shakespeare and Hawthorne are being joined by Sandra Cisneros, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Yann Martel.  The article ends with a list of books from high school reading lists across the country.  I love the juxtaposition of the old and new, exactly what teens should be filling their minds with.

I found this article on the great diversity of teen literature right now.  I completely agree, it’s about time that we see books about teens of all colors, sexualities and faiths.  This allows all of the teens to see themselves in books in some way.  But I think the article understates the importance of this:

Seeing their faces on lead characters who overcome some of their
same issues is a bonus. Billingsley added that teens’ desire to see
themselves in print is no different from their wanting the same from
movies or TV shows.

“You need that variety,” she said. “That’s not to say you shouldn’t
read other books you can’t relate to either. There are kids who love
reading ‘Harry Potter’ books who can’t relate to him, but there needs
to be an option.”

The bold above is mine.  A bonus?  It’s a heck of a lot more important than a bonus feature of a book!  And I think that books have a lot more power than movies or TV, because they allow us to see deeply into a character beyond the skin.  So teens of all colors will see themselves in characters of all colors, in people they may not understand, and that is powerful.  But it is all the more powerful in a world that does not reflect them, does not understand them and frequently stereotypes and degrades them to see themselves in the pages of a book.  It turns what society does to them on a daily basis on its head.  Renews their understanding of themselves and allows them the power to themselves open a book where the face on the cover doesn’t resemble theirs, look beyond the surface, and discover a kinship.

But even more importantly, it offers that option to the majority as well.  But do we have the power, the grace and the interest to open those books?  Or are we caught in the whirlpool of our own whiteness where we can’t see beyond that.  Let’s make it a point to read books where the cover doesn’t reflect us back, where we have to stretch and grow just to understand it, because where else is our society going to heal?  It has to be done one character, one book at a time.  That is the “bonus” of the book.