Connect for Kids is a website that encourages parents and teachers to connect and talk about issues facing children today. From newletters to recommended sites to recent news and online forums, this site is timely and filled with items of interest.
Librarian in the Middle
Another new blog find! OK, so the blog isn’t new, but it is new to me. Librarian in the Middle is a blog that focuses on resources and news for middle school librarians.
Wands and Worlds
Check out the new children’s lit blog on fantasy and science fiction: Wands and Worlds. As far as I am concerned, there can never be too much talk about kids’ books, fantasy and science fiction in particular!
Darkness in Children's Lit
Independent Online Edition: The facts about teen fiction takes a look at some of the more powerful British books for teens and children. Featured authors include Marjorie Blackman, whose first book in her Naughts and Crosses series was released in the U.S. earlier this year, and Melvin Burgess, whose books usually get some eyebrows raised. The great part of the article is that it acknowledges that there are darker parts to these new novels, and finishes with this take on children’s literature:
“More remarkable than the upfront passions and terrors is its ability to win and keep readers with an amazingly wide range of forms and genres – from the grittiest kinds of “dirty realism” through every possible brand of fable and fantasy. Alongside its exploits and experiments, much of mainstream adult writing looks stuck in a drearily naturalistic backwater. So read Blackman, or Pullman, or Burgess, and be shocked: not by their ambitions, but by their adult counterparts’ timidity.”
VOYA Interview
Teenlibrarian offers a podcast interview with VOYA editor, Cathi Dunn MacRae that gives a glimpse behind the scenes of VOYA . If you haven’t tried listening to podcasts yet, this is a great way to get started.
Escapist
The Escapist is an intelligent online gaming magazine. This is exactly the sort of information that libraries wanting to do gaming programs for teens are interested in.
Wayfarers All
wayfarers all is a children’s lit blog. Recent posts have been on the new Willy Wonka movie and Harry Potter 6.
African American Children's Lit
The Journal of African American Children’s Literature offers a website that provides links to useful websites, features African-American authors and illustrators, and lists news and book reviews.
Claremont Review
The Claremont Review is a literary magazine that publishes writings by teens. The site features some samples from their first issue, as well as information on their writing contests and resources to aid young adults in getting their writings published.
Waking Brain Cells 