Doing a blogging class! Say hello!

Publisher’s Weekly has selected its Best Books of the Year for 2007.  To find the youth titles, get ready to scroll and scroll.  Just when your mouse has fallen off the mousepad for the third time, you should be near the children’s list.  😉  The categories are Children’s Picture Books, Children’s Fiction (which has clearly teen titles in it), Children’s Nonfiction and Children’s Comics.

Picture books include two of my favorites of the year:  Orange, Pear, Apple, Bear and Leaves.

Fiction has two of my top teen books: Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and A Swift Pure Cry. 

And there are many I have not managed to read yet, but have been on my list for some time.  Looks like a very nice collection of titles.  Though I wish that they would pull YA out to a separate list and focus more on chapter books for older elementary ages. 

School Library Journal reports that Christopher Paolini is going to be releasing a fourth book in his very popular Eragon series.  Book three is due to be released in September 2008 and book four is not yet scheduled.  Sounds like an opportunity to replace our Harry Potter parties with Eragon parties.  Similar costumes…  Dragons… Magic…

JK Rowling has created a handwritten, illustrated book of fairytales, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which was mentioned in the Harry Potter novels.  A copy will be sold at auction next month to raise funds for Rowling’s The Children’s Voice charity.  Unfortunately for her myriad of fans, the tales will not be published!  She has made just seven copies of the book. 

I am off at a conference today, the Wisconsin Library Association Annual Conference, where I will be giving a speech on Library 2.0. I’ll be at the conference all this week and then will be off on vacation for the following week. A vacation with no laptop tagging along! So I will post more at the tail end of October.

ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children) has started its own blog.  According the their press release, the blog will cover “time sensitive news in children’s librarianship, current
issues in the field, programs, conferences, initiatives, resources and
activities of interest to ALSC members and those interested in children’s
librarianship.”

I think a place to discuss the special qualities of service to children is a wonderful thing.  Definitely adding it to my RSS feed list.

Baby Can by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Maxie Chambliss

There is a time in parents’ lives when they are looking for gentle books on having a new baby in the house that will help an older sibling through the transition.  And there are quite a few of them out there, but this one is a charmer!

Each time Brendan’s parents tell him that the new baby James can do something, Brendan shows that he can do it too.  The adults in the book respond with enthusiasm and kindness by appreciating Brendan’s demonstrations of his own skills.  Through the picture book, James grows from a tiny baby into a toddler.  It is Brendan who notices his brother walking for the first time, and it will surprise no one who James decides to walk towards. 

The book is pure joy with no negative messages for new older siblings.  Though Brendan is obviously concerned that the baby gets a lot of attention, it is not spelled out in the text.  Instead older siblings learn that there is plenty of attention for them as well.  The illustrations are very friendly, filled with lots of white space, warmth and bright colors.  The text is equally welcoming and is appropriate to use with toddlers who are becoming older brothers and sisters.

Recommended for 2-4 year olds.

Happy Banned Books Week! 

Libraries use this week each year to make the public aware of the fact that people are attempting (and succeeding) to restrict access to books.  Some books are more of a target than others.  Just give a picture book any homosexual content, no matter how subtle and well-handled, and I guarantee a place on the list.  As many of you probably know, And Tango Makes Three is the most banned book of the year.  Shouldn’t surprise me, but it is a lovely book and NONFICTION. 

The Office of Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association has created a video featuring the top banned books of the year.  So many of them are titles for children and teens!  Definitely worth viewing and sharing.

Nominations are now open for the 2007 Cybils Awards! 

You can make nominations in any (or all) of the categories:

Fantasy/Science Fiction
Fiction Picture Books
Graphic Novels
Middle Grade Fiction
Non-Fiction: Middle Grade and Young Adult
Non-Fiction Picture Books
Poetry
Young Adult Fiction

Of course there are rules:

The books must have a publication date of 2007.
You can only nominate one book in each category.

Just go to the category, click on comments and type in the author and title of the book.

I’m happily serving on the Fantasy/Science Fiction nominating panel.  Can’t wait to read as many of the nominated titles as possible!  So nominate some great ones!