The second issue of The Edge of the Forest is now available online.  It features an interview with Gail Gauthier as well as an interview with Jane Buchanan about judging for the SCBWI Golden Kite.

YALSA has a list of ways that libraries can celebrate National Library Week with the teens in their community.  It is filled with great ideas that don’t take money, just some time.  Wonderful!

Sheila Ruth, from the blog Wands and Worlds (which is a great source for science fiction and fantasy for children) let me know that the Final Ballot for the new Andre Norton Award has been announced. 

The nominees are:

The Amethyst Road by Louise Spiegler
Siberia by Ann Halam
Stormwitch by Susan Vaught
Valiant: a Modern Tale of Faerie by Holly Black

Boing Boing has news of interest to any fans of independent comics and graphic novels.  Marvel Comics and DC comics have jointly filed a trademark for the term “super-hero.”  That way they can go after independent comic creators and publishers simply for using the term.  Sigh.  This is the sort of thing we will see more and more of now that public domain terms are available for trademark.  Very sad.

John R. Gardiner, author of Stone Fox has died at age 61 from pancreatitis. 

I enjoyed this paragraph of the article:

“Few would have predicted Gardiner’s literary success. He didn’t enjoy
books when he was young he never read an entire novel until he was 19
and he ended up in what he called “dumbbell English” at the University
of California, Los Angeles.”

Learning to Fly by Sebastian Meschenmoser is a charming picture book about a man who finds a penguin who tells the man that he has been flying, but penguins don’t fly.  The man takes in the penguin and starts to test whether he is aerodynamic enough to fly and different forms of propulsion.  The ending is about the power of believing in yourself.  The line drawings with their subtle touches of color enhance the story, often the humor is carried by the illustrations alone.  Read this to small groups or with a child in your lap.  The book is small and the illustrations will not project well to an audience. 

This is a lovely book.  Share it with children and show them that they should follow their dreams and believe in themselves. 

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo has really divided that children’s literature community into those who adore it and those who strongly dislike it.  When I read and heard that people disliked it, I had to get a copy of my own to read.  I don’t mind sentimentality in books, enjoy doll books in general, and thought I would probably love it.

Me?  I really, really dislike the book.  Yes, the ending touched me.  But I still felt cheated and manipulated by the time I finished.  I didn’t mind that Edward was a doll without a heart, without love, but I disliked the fact that even by the end I didn’t feel like he really GOT it.   He still felt that love was something that was given to him and then he would return it.  And the ending did nothing to change his view at all.

This was one that I looked forward to.  But it is one that you must try for yourself.  Which side of the debate do you fall on?

Yuck! Stuck in the Muck by Corinne Demas, illustrated by Laura Rader.

Released in May 2006.

This is an beginning reader that has a nice sense of humor as well as a good plotline that is easy for early readers to follow.  It is the story of a dog that chases a duck into the swamp and gets caught in the mud.  One after another, animals and people try to save the dog, but each one ends up getting stuck too.  They are finally all saved by a helicopter that hoists them out.

I actually enjoyed the unexpected arrival of the helicopter.  It broke the rhyming pattern of the book, which is good for young readers, and it added some high tech interest.  The ending where the duck nests in the stuck truck is satisfying as well. 

Superhero ABC by Bob McLeod is an alphabet book perfect for kids who watch cartoons filled with superheros or those kids who play superhero all day long, in other words, most kids.  Author McLeod is a comic book artist who has worked on Superman and Spiderman comics.  This gives the book the feel of a real graphic novel or comic, not just a book paying homage.  Each letter of the alphabet gets a superhero that starts with that letter and then the page contains other comments about the hero that feature that letter.  It is cleverly done with lots of humor and even some gross moments that are perfect for the audience.

This is not one to share with a crowd, because kids will want to savor the heroes, discuss their powers and evaluate them.  So have this on your library shelves just waiting for the kid who doesn’t want a saccharine ABC book.  This one fits a perfect niche in every collection.