The New York Times > ‘The Princess Knight’ and Other Children’s Books
Another collection of reviews of children’s books from The New York Times, this one contains reviews of books for kids ages 3 through preteens.

The ABCs of better reading
Beloved Jim Trelease is covered once again in the news. He takes on mandatory testing, speaks to the strength of exposing kids to words, and tries to make reading fun.
Personally, I can get behind his idea of keeping reading material at the table. Or better yet, just not clearing the table at all. 🙂

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
Official site for the upcoming movie.

Comic hero’s got legs
The interesting part of this article is not the announcement of two new graphic novels aimed at girls, but the statistics from the graphic novel industry.
“Sales of manga trade paperbacks have tripled within the last year.
Time magazine recently estimated manga sales will top $100 million this year, with comic books geared toward girls and women — called “shojo,” literally “young girl” in Japanese — expected to account for at least half.”

Noreascon Four Hugo and Retro Hugo Nominations
Oy! It was much tougher than I thought to find the new list of Hugo nominees, but here they are. Don’t bother going to the official Hugo site, it hasn’t been updated since 2001. The nominees for top novel are Paladin of Souls by Bujold, Humans by Robert Sawyer, Ilium by Dan Simmons, Singularity Sky by Charles Stross, and Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson.

Pagan’s Crusade by Catherine Jinks (0-7636-2019-X)
I was a little doubtful about this one at first. A comedic look at the crusades? Well, let me tell you, it’s the comedy and the protagonist that makes it all work. Pagan is a boy who enters the Templar Knights to serve as a squire to hide from men that he owes money. There he meets his knight, Lord Roland, the prime example of a Christian knight. How will the irreverent and often rude Pagan deal with this icon of piety? Well, it is all in the one liners and the asides.
Recommend this one to kids who enjoy other funny novels. They will get some adventure, swordfights and history in the bargain too. And then they can join the rest of us in waiting for the next in the series.

Double Dutch by Sharon M. Draper
I listened to this book on tape. Delia and Randy are friends in 8th grade and they are both carrying a big secret. Delia is a champion double dutch jumper, but she can’t read. Randy helps out on the team and is one of Delia’s best friends, but his father has disappeared. The question throughout the book is when the kids are going to admit to someone else that they have these problems or if they are going to be exposed by something else that happens.
I really enjoyed this book. In the Recorded Books version, the narrator, Patricia R. Floyd, was wonderful. But most of all, I appreciated the complex characterization of the kids, including the terrible Tolliver twins and lying Yoyo.

HoustonChronicle.com – ‘Last in Lowry’s trilogy brings back characters, conflicts
A glowing review of Messenger by Lois Lowry, the concluding book in her trilogy that started with The Giver, which still ranks as one of my favorite children’s books of all time. I can’t wait to get my hands on this final book! Beware the review, since it seems to reveal quite a bit of the plot.

INDUSTRY BUZZ
A nice commentary on the recent success of movies for girls that are based on popular books like The Princess Diaries and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen.