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?

ALA has announced that the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) will be offering four online courses in February and March of 2007. They are:
Making the Match: Finding the Right Book for the Right Teen at the Right Time
New Technologies & New Literacies for Teens
Reaching Teens Virtually
YALSA Competencies Live
What a great way to provide top-notch programming nationwide. You can get more information on each session on the site as well as finding out how much participating will cost you.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch has a nice article about cookbooks for kids: Cookbooks feature kid-friendly recipes. They look at the new Williams-Sonoma series for children, as well as the Dr. Seuss cookbook, Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook. My favorite is the final book on the list: Mom’s Big Book of Cookies, because what kids doesn’t love cookies and doesn’t love to help make them. Even better, the author Lauren Chattman has some very clever tricks up her sleeve like using melted butter rather than softened butter in her recipes. I love this! I don’t know how many times I have tried to soften butter in the microwave to use in baking and end up with a golden puddle of melted butter anyway. Chattman’s recipes will at least save me the angst in between.

pixie stix kids pix is a great blog from Kristen McLean, author of children’s books and Executive Director of The Association of Booksellers for Children. Her site is filled with book reviews that are rated on a 10 point scale. It is great to get the perspective from the bookselling industry.

Sara’s Holds Shelf is a fairly new children’s lit blog that deserves some attention. She writes reviews of the books she reads. Recently she has been reading mostly teen novels, probably because she is serving on the YA nominating committee for the Cybils. I am on the judging committee and hope that they pick a bunch of fab titles for us to select from. I must admit that I have some on my list that I am having trouble getting through and I hope hope hope that those do not make the final group for us to judge because then I will have to force myself to read them. 🙂

Publisher’s Weekly has an interesting piece The Run-up to Christmas: A Bookseller Survey, which interviews independent booksellers across the country about their picks for what is going to be popular this holiday season. I always like looking at bookseller lists vs best of the year lists because they are often so different. It is rather like collection development in general as we struggle to have both the popular and the high quality titles. This is one easy way to take a look at popularity in places other than Amazon and Barnes & Noble.