Thursday, April 3, 2008

Report on Safer Children in a Digital World

On 6th September 2007, the Prime Minister asked Dr. Tanya Byron to conduct an independent review looking at the risks to children from exposure to potentially harmful or inappropriate material on the internet and in video games. Her Review is about the needs of children and young people. It is about preserving their right to take the risks that form an inherent part of their development by enabling them to play video games and surf the net in a safe and informed way.

By listening to children and young people and putting them at the heart of this Review - and by replacing emotion with evidence - she hopes she has provided some very necessary focus to what is a very necessary debate.

Green Earth Book Award / SU Children's Literature Festival

I was lucky enough to attend the Salisbury University Children's Literature Festival yesterday. Several authors spoke, the first of which was David Wiesner.



Nice blurry picture, eh?

Mr. Wiesner gave a fascinating talk about his influences (Edward Gorey, comic books, and some really cool 1930's wordless woodcut novels), his artistic development, and how his books evolved.

Then it was Phillip Hoose's turn:



Mr. Hoose talked about Hey, Little Ant, as well as the process of researching The Race to Save the Lord God Bird.



Finally, there was a panel about environmental writing. The authors talked about integrating environmental awareness into their books.



From left: Adrian Fogelin, Jean Davies Okimoto, the facilitator, O. R. Melling, and Cambria Gordon.




In the evening, I attended the Green Earth Book Award ceremony and reception. You can read about all of the award winners here.

In attendance were SU president Dr. Janet Dudley-Eschbach, dean of libraries Dr. Alice Bahr, and representatives from the Maryland State Department of Education. It was wonderful to see so many distinguished people turn out to support a children's lit award.