Alma Flor Ada
Official website for this prolific author of children’s books, many in Spanish or bilingual.

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins (0-439-43536-6)
It is very rare to find a children’s fantasy title that breaks into new territory, but this is one. Gregor and his toddler sister, Boots, fall through a duct in their laundry room into the Underland. It is a world filled with talking rats, spiders, bats, roaches and humans. The story follows a quest format, but with such action and spirit that it never drags.
Recommend this title to kids who enjoy fantasy. It will open their eyes to the possibilities out there beyond Harry Potter. Even better, the end hints at a sequel to come!

Farnsworth revisits illustrative art in McCloskey tribute
The Farnsworth Art Museum in Maine is paying tribute to the art of Robert McCloskey.
“In addition to McCloskey, the exhibition gathers the work of 16 Maine children’s-book illustrators of many generations, all of whom link directly or spiritually to McCloskey. Some are of an earlier era – Dahlov Ipcar, Ashley Bryan, Carol Inouye and Peter Parnall. The rest are younger, contemporary illustrators whose work is influenced by the older generation.”

The Journal Times Online
This article outlines an incredible book program in Kenosha, WI. Run at Carthage College, the program brings kdis from middle schools who have all read the same books and presents hands-on workshops on the themes within the books. Very cool.

Hollywoodreporter.com
Cool! A movie based on The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Amber Tamblyn (star of Joan of Arcadia) has signed onto the project.

MTV.com – News -Is Alicia Keys The Next Nancy Drew? Singer Planning ‘Street Mystery’ Series
Alicia Keys, the singer, is working on a multi-book deal. One book of poetry and one book based on her diaries.
“But it’s her idea for “Alicia Keys’ Street Mysteries” that is the most unexpected portion of the proposal. The young-adult series, with each book titled after a Keys song, would present the singer as a 16-year-old attending a Harlem performing-arts high school, who dreams of being a singer but also has a “sometimes-dangerous penchant for investigating — and solving — heart-pounding whodunits.” So in between auditions, demo sessions and dating, the Alicia character would track down kidnappers or clear friends framed for murder. Recurring characters would be Alicia’s best friends, Lavinia “Lovey” Ramon, a Puerto Rican dancer whose father is a detective for the NYPD, and Schulyer “Skye” Franklin, an aspiring actress who helps bluff her way into almost any situation.
The series, which would combine “the hipness and diversity of the ‘Cheetah Girls’ and the timeless appeal of ‘Nancy Drew,’ ” would be written by the husband-and-wife writing team of Cherie Bennett and Jeff Gottesfeld, whose work includes writing for the WB’s “Smallville” series, as well as mass-market book tie-ins to “Smallville” and “Dawson’s Creek.””

The Official Harry Potter Website
Brand new website for Harry Potter! It is filled with fun things to do like be sorted by the sorting hat (I am a Ravenclaw), play Quidditch online, post to the message boards, read the Daily Prophet and much much more. A great place to send Harry Potter loving kids to.

Vampire Kisses by Ellen Schreiber (0-06-009334-X)
A great goth novel with a marvelously accurate tone and voice. Readers are immediately caught up in “Dullsville” with the town goth 16-year-old Raven. Raven is known as the strange one in town until a new family moves into the town’s abandoned mansion. And best of all is Alexander, the teenage son of the new family who seems to be Raven’s dream vampire.

Lemony Snicket’s a Series of Unfortunate Events Dominates March 21 New York Times Best Sellers List
“On the March 21, 2004 New York Times Best Sellers List, A Series of Unfortunate Events held seven out of ten slots on the Children’s Chapter Book List-a feat only duplicated by the Snicket series itself on May 5, 2002; Feb. 9, 2003 and April 13, 2003.
No series has ever dominated a New York Times Best Sellers list like A Series of Unfortunate Events. The seven titles on the March 21 list-The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, The Wide Window, The Miserable Mill, The Ersatz Elevator, The Austere Academy and The Slippery Slope-have been on the New York Times’ list a total of 448 reported weeks. The series as a whole has been on the list in excess of 600 weeks.”