Tomorrow KidsLit turns three years old! I am so thankful for everyone who reads my words, who share their own, and who send me free books to review. 🙂
Seriously, thank all of you for being my readers and to all of my kidslitblog cohorts, thank you for making a community that is welcoming, warm and lots of fun to be a part of.
Keep on reading! And keep those kids reading too!

The Guardian has a fascinating article: A mirror to every child’s life on black and ethnic minorities in children’s books. Malorie Blackman is the author of the piece and tells the tale of how she became an author and the problems with writing books as a person of color that are filled with characters of color.
I really appreciate that she has used the image of a mirror in her title, but it is equally important that white non-minority children read books with minorities in them. Books must be both mirrors and windows. Either way is beneficial and important.

This weekend is moving weekend for us. Our house is packed up, garage filled with boxes of all shapes sizes and weights, and our new house is ready and waiting for us. I have shed my goodbye tears to the library I have been at for 11 years and my wonderful staff. Now I am looking forward to the new library I will be directing.
Blogging will be spotty if at all, though I have some book reviews to post and am wondering if it would be easier to simply post the reviews or move the books. We will see which type of laziness wins out in the end.
Have a wonderful weekend and hope for our sakes that the weather prediction of over 90 degrees is far, far wrong. Ah well, we always seem to move on the hottest weekend in any given month and always in the summer. Though moving in a Wisconsin winter would not be any better.

Yikes! Not only am I moving in less than two weeks and changing jobs, but my laptop has finally decided to give up the ghost and need to be wiped. Since it is a work laptop, I have decided to use an old laptop and just have the other configured for the interim director. So bear with me while I get used to the new old laptop and get all my bookmarks functioning again. I am also WAY behind in reading all of the other children’s literature blogs and my other favorites. I’ll catch up eventually, but it may not be for awhile, perhaps not until the end of the month after the move and once I have started the new job. OK, so maybe I won’t ever catch up again!

I am pleased to announce that I have been selected to be the next director of the Menasha Public Library in Menasha, WI. I start in Menasha in late June.
I’m saddened that I will finally be leaving the world of children’s librarianship behind. It has been 15 years of wonderful times with kids of all ages. But, I will continue this blog, hopefully with some new faces on Menasha’s staff joining in as well. What would I read if I didn’t read children’s books? Adult books? Oh dear! So expect new voices joining in here and my voice continuing on. I will still be working on behalf of the children of the community I serve, just a little bit more distantly.
Here is the article in the Appleton Post Crescent announcing my hiring. I am flattered by all of the wonderful things people in Menasha are saying and hopeful that I can live up to it all.

Many of you may already have heard of the Canadian study mentioned in this article: Better grades? Thank a librarian. The study shows that better school libraries are linked to student achievement. And how do they decide what a better library is? Whether it has a certified teacher-librarian! Hurrah! They demonstrated that having a certified teacher-librarian is the critical component that makes a library more effective. Bad news for those American schools that are getting rid of their school librarians and replacing them with volunteers, or even worse replacing their libraries with computer labs.

I have been following the story of Kaavya Viswanathan being accused of plagiarizing her book How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life from Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty. Now it seems that the Star young author admits ‘unconscious’ plagiarism. I’ll follow her lead and just say, “No comment.”

The Princess and the Pea by Lauren Child, photographed by Polly Borland.

This is a great read-aloud fairy tale for both boys and girls to enjoy!  The book follows the same story as the classic fairy tale but has extra pizzazz.  The text is zippy and fun, filled with asides and clarifications that make it a hoot to share.  The illustrations are remarkable photographs of little theatrical sets filled with paper doll-like creations.  There is a place for this book in every public library.  It will find its audience of little girls very easily and parents will enjoy reading it aloud as much as children will enjoy listening.  It is also a perfect book to share with a group, because of the marvelous pairing of the wit of the text and the fabulous illustrations. 

Meow Ruff: A Story in Concrete Poetry by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Michelle Berg.

A more organized blogger would save this one for a Poetry Friday entry, but I am just so excited by this book that I can’t wait!  This is one of my favorite books so far this year.  It is a must-see book.  Booklist starred it, and I resoundingly agree.

It is the story of a cat and dog who start out chasing each other but everything changes when they are caught in a rainstorm.  The entire landscape and all of the characters are created out of poetry.  Just reading across the pavement and the grass is amazing.  The changing cloud poems really capture the essence of being a cloud.  But my favorite has to be the tree poems that are so similar but so different.  Lovely!

And this is one poetry book that truly invites children in.  They probably will not recognize it as poetry at first, but that is part of its unique quality.  There is a rhythm to the words that matches so well the illustrations.  I was actually amazed after reading the book to find that it was done by two people rather than one.  Share this with kids!

Enjoy!