Nancy Werlin
Website for this author of Black Mirror and other suspense novels for teens. Her new book Double Helix has a lot of positive buzz.

The Shifted Librarian has a posting on Joliet Public Library’s new strict policy on unattended children.
“Under the policy, teens and pre-teens unaccompanied by a parent must sign in and show their library card or student ID before being allowed into the library.” Those without identification will be allowed to wait in a room with tables and chairs until a parent is contacted and says that they have a reason to be at the library.
I’m sure not sure that that makes much sense. Seems to me that all a kid needs to enter the library then is ID and an excuse. Will that really stop the rowdy kids from coming in? I also know from experience that even the kids there for a reason can be loud. That is part of serving children and teens.
I understand the need to address noise problems, but shouldn’t that be done with policies on noise in the library that are strongly enforced for all ages? It bothers me that this policy targets only specific ages of patrons.

School Library Journal’s Best Books 2003
As a public librarian in a small library, I don’t get to read the reviews in SLJ the way I used to when I worked in a larger library. So I look forward to lists like this, because SLJ picks different books to highlight than Booklist and other resources. I love to compare the overlap and to discover the new titles.

40 Books about the Seasons
In recognition of the 40th anniversary of the CCBC, these forty recommended titles are listed. There are quite a few on the list that I have never seen, and will have to take a look at.

Get On Board 2003
This is the website for the new Get on Board program where teens can enter an essay contest after reading a book from the library. The grand prize winner will get to meet Tony Hawk!

Book Wholesalers, Inc.
As well as being one of the top children’s book vendors, BWI’s site offers much more free information than any other vendor in the business. With no registration or any hoops to jump through, you can access their list of monthly top picks, new titles available in paperback, additions to hot series, and staff picks. Have your finger poised on the bookmark button!

Children’s Literature Choice List 2003
Children’s Literature, an organization that promotes the love of reading among children, gives this award to the top 150 books of the year. The books range from those for age three and under all the way to young adult.

Jane Addams Book Award has been presented annually since 1953 by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. The award is given to the children’s book from the year before that “most effectively promotes the cause of peace, social justice and world community.”
The 2003 winners are Parvana’s Journey by Deborah Ellis and for the picture book category, Patrol: An American Soldier in Vietnam by Walter Dean Myers, illustrated by Ann Grifalconi.

The Miami Herald — Author on her way to fame; could be next J.K. Rowling
This article has a brief interview with Cornelia Funke with a wonderful quote:
“I like when a child comes to me at a reading and they have a book that looks like it’s been read a dozen times. A collector who brings me a book that is perfectly clean — that is kind of a creepy feeling. I feel like that book is dead. Nobody will ever touch it again. If I was a book, I would like to be a library book, so I would be taken home by all different sorts of kids. A library book, I imagine, is a happy book.”