NPR : Hollywood Ratings Getting Looser is an important piece on the changes in Hollywood ratings and the way that ratings are creeping over the last few years so that what would have been PG-13 are now PG. Very important for not just parents but for professionals working with children to understand.

Pew Internet & American Life Project did a study on Teen Content Creators and Consumers that speaks to the patterns that teens are showing in creating online content and using online services. This is a great study to glance at even if you don’t have a lot of time. The format makes it very browsable, allowing you to read only the sections you are most interested in. Important information for those of us who work with teens, especially those who work with teens and technology.

Brad’s Bookmarks is a blog that offers very brief reviews of books and movies. Each review is follwed by a letter grade. The movies range across all sorts of genres, but the books are primarily teen and children’s titles.

Teen Book Lovers is a LiveJournal community that reads and discusses teen literature. Click on user info to learn more about their rules and how they select their book of the month.

Reading Kids’ Books Without the Kids from the New York Times is supposed to be an article on the newly released Norton’s Anthology of Children’s Literature which is a book designed to be used in children’s literature classes. Rothstein argues that removing the child from the literature is damaging to it, because there is power in sharing books with children. Of course! But there is also power in having adults aware of what great children’s books are and what qualities they share. That way we can lead children to them.
An additional problem I have with the article is the potshots it takes at teen literature along the way. I suppose the target is just so easy that it is hard to pass up. But in this article on children’s literature it is strange to see newly published teen fiction compared to Heidi and Anne of Green Gables. The classics are lovely, but we need to have space beside them on our shelves for the new fiction, even the “teen pulp” that will have kids looking at the books in the first place.

bookshelves of doom is a blog that reviews books with a focus on juvenile and teen literature mixed in with all sorts of other genres. It is obviously the work of a book lover and I am so glad to see the children’s and teen books mixed in and shared.

His dark materials is a review in The Guardian not so much about the new Chronicles of Narnia movie, but more about the ongoing questioning of the Christian message of the Narnia series. The article covers Philip Pullman’s negative response to the series as well as Tolkien’s disappointment in the lack of world building. Fascinating reading.

Hopefully all of the librarians reading subscribe already to Unshelved, the library-related daily comic. Lately on Sundays, they have been doing a color strip that features one of their librarian characters telling a patron about a book. This week, they chose Bucking the Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis as the featured book. You can read the comic here. And if you wish, can subscribe by either email or RSS feed.

AS IF! Authors Support Intellectual Freedom is a blog of authors of young adult books who document challenges to intellectual freedom for teens. The list of authors involved is impressive with Brent Hartinger, Holly Black, Chris Crutcher, Jeanne DuPrau, and too many more to list.