Good Comics for Kids
January 24, 2012 by Betsy Bird
Since it’s apparently football season (or at least that’s what the trending topics on Twitter seem to imply) think of this as a kind of post-game recap of what went on yesterday in the land of ALA Media Awards. Each year I like to look at what I got right, what I got wrong, what […]
January 17, 2012 by Betsy Bird
When you consider the fact that whole hoards of librarians will be traipsing Texas-ward this week so as to attend the Midwinter American Library Association Conference, this post is pretty much coming in at the last possible moment. Even as we speak committee members are girding their loins (or whatever it is committee members gird) […]
December 16, 2011 by Betsy Bird
Toys Come Home: Being the Early Experiences of an Intelligent Stingray, a Brave Buffalo, and a Brand-New Someone Called Plastic By Emily Jenkins Illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky Schwartz & Wade $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-375-86200-7 Ages 5-10 On shelves now I’m feeling tetchy. Let’s set out some rules when it comes to prequels of children’s books […]
October 17, 2011 by Betsy Bird
A Monster Calls By Patrick Ness Inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd Illustrated by Jim Kay Candlewick Press $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-7636-5559-4 Ages 11 and up On shelves now I don’t mind metaphors as much as I might. I think that generally I’m supposed to hate them when they show up in children’s literature. I […]
September 14, 2011 by Betsy Bird
*sniff sniff* Smell that? That’s the sweet scent of an upcoming award season. It’s already beginning to drift our way from the future. Things are clearly heating up since we’re seeing two award-based blogs up and running. For Newbery fans Heavy Medal has already come out of the gate swinging. Between the inevitable comparison between […]
August 29, 2011 by Betsy Bird
Jefferson’s Sons By Kimberly Brubaker Bradley Dial (an imprint of Penguin) $17.99 ISBN: 978-0-8037-3499-9 Ages 9-12 On shelves September 15th When I was in high school I started reading Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved on my own. At the time, my mother said something about the book that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever […]
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July 2, 2011 by Betsy Bird
Hidden By Helen Frost Frances Foster Books (Farrar Straus & Giroux) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-374-38221-6 Ages 10 and up On shelves now. If poems had been introduced to me as a child as puzzles, maybe I would have taken to them a little more. A poem is a kind of puzzle, isn’t it? Depending on the […]
June 28, 2011 by Betsy Bird
Breadcrumbs By Anne Ursu Illustrated by Erin McGuire Walden Pond Press (an imprint of Harper Collins) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-06-201505-1 Ages 9-12 On shelves September 27, 2011 Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Snow Queen is, let’s admit it, the world’s greatest puberty metaphor. A boy and girl are friends. Something happens and he grows cold […]
June 7, 2011 by Betsy Bird
Normally I’d do this kind of post for June 15th but there’s a possibility that I might be a bit busy on that date, so we’ll do it now for kicks. It’s time for our mid-year Newbery/Caldecott querying. I’ve already indulged in some Spring Predictions, but I prefer the Summer ones because at this point […]
April 30, 2011 by Betsy Bird
Dead End in Norvelt By Jack Gantos Farrar, Straus and Giroux (an imprint of Macmillan) $15.99 ISBN: 978-0-374-37993-3 Ages 10-14 On shelves September 13, 2011 What makes Jack Gantos tick? It’s a question that haunts every book he writes, from the simplest Rotten Ralph to his own YA autobiography Hole in My Life. It’s a […]
Teen Librarian Toolbox
by Amanda MacGregor
Politics in Practice
by John Chrastka
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