Studio 2B is a site from the Girl Scouts that offers a place for teen girls to ask questions, learn, and talk. It is a very positive space for girls, even those not into scouting, to visit.
Junie B Jones
Random House has a great Junie B. Jones website with lists of books, information on author Barbara Park, and online activities.
Westerblog
westerblog is the blog of Scott Westerfeld, author of Uglies, Peeps, Midnighters, and So Yesterday, all amazingly inventive and original teen novels. I was lucky enough to read his new Pretties, the sequel to Uglies, and review it for SLJ.
Original Alice in Wonderland
Turning the Pages from the British Library is one of the best digitized libraries online. They have now added the original manuscript for Alice in Wonderland for you to read and enjoy. Their interface gives an incredible sense of actually reading the book. Enjoy!
Comic Book Chat
Barbelith Underground > Comic Books
Barbelith is an online community that encourages discussion. Their comic book area is a very active discussion board all about comics and graphic novels.
Ptolemy's Gate
The Bartimaeus Trilogy has a great website that offers information on the books, a biography of author Jonathan Stroud, excerpts, a reference guide, trivia challenge and computer wallpaper to download.
The third in the trilogy, Ptolemy’s Gate, will be out in December in the U.S.
Guardian Shortlist
There’s magic in the air announces the short list for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize.
The finalists are:
The Merrybegot by Julie Hearn.
The Boy in the Burning House by Tim Wynne-Jones
The Hunted by Alex Shearer
The New Policeman by Kate Thompson
The winner will be announced on October 1st.
One Mitten
One Mitten by Kristine O’Connell George, illustrated by Maggie Smith is a great book for toddler story times. It tells the audience all sorts of ideas that a little girl comes up with to do with her one yellow mitten. Then she finds the mate to the mitten and we get another list of ideas of what you can do with two mittens. The text is short and fun, a perfect match with the colorful illustrations.
Share this with your toddler storytime for a winter theme. Best of all would be to have kids either bring their own mittens or supply the kids with mis-matched mittens to help act out the story. Even without the mittens, kids can pretend to have a mitten on and do the gestures along with the characters. A fun time indeed!
New Teen Books
DesMoinesRegister has an article that lists new books for teens. I enjoy the fact that they have included books that will actually interest teens, ones with lots of that racy appeal we have been hearing so much about in the news.
Waking Brain Cells 