A gorgeous website is at the heart of a new online book community, readergirlz.  Starting on March 1st, they will be featuring one book a month with at least one strong female character.  Hurrah! 

The divas behind this are four authors of teen books, Dia Calhoun, Janet Lee Carey, Lorie Ann Grover, and Justina Chen Headley.  Visit their MySpace page and leave comments. 

This is a great idea by a great group of strong females.  My only request is an RSS feed for new content. 

Every Sunday, the great comic strip Unshelved focuses their comic on a specific book. On February 4th, their choice was one of my faves of last year, Kiki Strike! You can see the strip here. Enjoy!

ALSC now has a wiki for children and technology: ALSC ChildTech Wiki. The use of technology with children specifically is vastly more complicated that using it with adults. There is filtering, questioning whether promoting technology moves children further from reading books, questioning whether use of technology is good for developing minds, and much more. To get a better handle on the ongoing discussion, read the wiki. If you have strong opinions of your own, contribute!

I love finding great book lists online, and this is one of them!  Weapons of Mass Instruction is a collection of anti-war books done on a wiki, so you can add any titles that you think should be part of the list.  Browse through titles by age, Spanish and Japanese titles, graphic novels, manga, and links to other online resources. 

Boy, we should be doing this for all sorts of booklists.  I love the wiki idea where we can pool together our knowledge of children’s literature.  Beware, the gears in my head are turning! 

Every Child Ready to Read Wiki is a place for librarians who are using the Every Child Ready to Read program. You can share the difference using the program has made, how to promote and train about it, finding funding, share recommended websites, and much more. Remember, it’s a wiki, so it is YOUR site. Share your thoughts and ideas and it will prosper.

I don’t know if anyone else remembers with a great fondness the Moomin books. The series was a favorite of one of my brothers when we were kids, and I have his boxed set of books and hope to hook my sons on them. Interestingly, they have a delightful website filled with all of the characters, like Little My, Moominpapa, and Moominmama. Brings me right back into childhood – oh, the power of books!
Make sure you click on the British flag at the bottom to get the English version.

Comingsoon.net has the story that the creator of The OC will be doing a series based on the Gossip Girl books. It will be an hour-long drama.
I really don’t know what to think about this. I am always dismayed when trashy novels get the attention, but then I tend to hate what many studios do to the great novels. It is rather a Catch-22. But teen girls should be thrilled and you can be equally excited to know that the 11th volume in the series will be out soon!

Kiddie Lit is a children’s and teen literature site written by a librarian who enjoys graphic novels! Snow is serving on the YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens committee, reading her way through over a thousand award-winning books, and much more. I appreciate her expert reviews of graphic novels. Look for her as a judge on the Cybils as well!

The Guardian has announced the final Harry Potter title! Click on the title: href=”http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,1977216,00.html”>Final Harry Potter title revealed to find out what it is.
But if you want a little more atmosphere and fun, visit Rowling’s website and follow these instructions:
1. Go to http://www.jkrowling.com and choose the graphic interface (not text-only).
2. On the main page, click on the eraser. This will take you to a room with a door.
3. Click on the door in the mirror: It will open, revealing a Christmas tree.
4. Click on the top of the main door: A wreath will appear.
5. Click on the mirror above the Christmas-tree door: Garlands will appear.
6. Click on the cobwebs: They will disappear.
7. Click on the second chime from the right: It will turn gold.
8. Drag the golden chime and it will become a key. Insert it into the lock, and the door will open.
9. Click on the present, and it will unwrap.
10. Click on the page you can see sitting inside the present. A game of “Hangman” will open.
Have fun! Then you can head over to the Leaky Cauldron and start debating the meaning of the new title. Remember all the speculation about the last one?