The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) has announced a new campaign to get school-aged children to use their public libraries:  KIDS! @ your library.  Hurrah!  One of my huge issues with many families’ use of libraries is that we see them as preschoolers, but once they hit school age they disappear.  Right at the age that they need easy readers, beginning chapter books, and great reading material to inspire them to continue learning and finding reading to be joyous.  This is a campaign I can really embrace.

BellaOnline has an article on what to do once you have finished writing your children’s book.  The recommendations are very sound.  It is certainly worth taking your time to re-edit your book, figure out which publishers may be most interested in your work, and carefully following their instructions to the letter, especially since such a small fraction of children’s book submissions actually get published. 

Add another political name to the celebrity children’s book list.  Senator Ted Kennedy has wirtten a book with his dog, Splash titled My Senator and Me: A Dogs-Eye View of Washington D.C.  It will be released in May of this year.

Storynory offers i-Pod ready stories for children.  Cool!  They have a blog with updates and reports on children’s literature topics that has an RSS feed too.  Just so you know, iPod ready does not mean you must have an iPod or any other mp3 player, you just have to download iTunes and you will be able to listen to them on your computer. 

Bookslut has a great article on upcoming science fiction for kids.  Books included are Rocket Science by Jay Lake, The Aquanauts by John Lunn, Animus by Seonna Hong, and Kids’ Night In Volume 2.

Me, All Alone, at the End of the World by M.T. Anderson, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes is the story of a boy who lives all by himself at the end of the world.  He lives a slow-paced, simple but wonderful life, until Mr. Shimmer shows up and decides to create World Tours of the End of the World.  The changes start slowly and the boy makes friends with other children for the first time in his life.  He shows them all of his special places, and they have great fun in the amusement parks being built at the End of the World.  But eventually the boy decides that he must leave.  “I miss the wind. So I left.” 

This is a book appropriate for sharing with older elementary students that can lead to discussion on the distractions of the modern world vs simple joys.  I think that it will speak to most people on a very deep level. 

The National Writing Project offers ideas for improving writing and learning in American schools.  They have articles, links to project sites across the country, and information on upcoming events. 

The Right Stuf is an anime store that offers more than things to purchase.  They have iPod trailers for anime, a free newsletter, a list of new releases, and podcasts!  Perfect for those of us looking to add more anime to our library collections. 

YA author, Susan Juby has a blog!  Juby is the author of Alice, I Think and other books about Alice.