The Art of Reading a Storybook

This video is an introduction to reading aloud to a group of children. It may be useful if you are training volunteers or new staff members to conduct storytime programs.

Mo Willems and National Book Festival

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted here!

I want to let you know about two opportunities.

• Mo Willems is inviting schools and libraries to "spend an afternoon in his studio" via a live online simulcast on October 6 at 2:00 p.m. Participation is limited to 200 venues, so sign up now, or spread the word to your local schools.
• The 9th Annual National Book Festival will take place on September 26. There will be an impressive list of children's author presenters, including Holly Black, Kate DiCamillo, Kadir Nelson, Mo Willems, Jon Scieszka, and many more.
  

2009 Youth Media Awards

ALA has posted the winners of the youth media awards, including the Newbery, Caldecott, Printz, and King.

Here is the list of notable books, and here are all of the other notables.

Here is a video I took of the Newbery Medalist being announced. It's very difficult to hear, but I couldn't find a better video online.

The New York Times has selected this year's best picture books. That seems strange, since the year is not over yet. Anyhow, you can view a slide show here.

UK Librarians Oppose Age Recommendations on Books.

There are so many reasons that age-banding is a bad idea. Kids who are reading above or below grade level, kids who are going back to an old favorite, differing standards in families... I hope this never happens here. Accelerated Reader levels are bad enough.

KidLit Project Runway

I'm late in posting a very funny video from the ALA children's lit banquets:

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RIP Tasha Tudor

Illustrator Tasha Tudor passed away on Wednesday at the age of 92.

Student From Frederick, MD, Wins Letters About Literature Contest

Her school library received $10,000 as part of the prize!

What Kids Are Reading

The Book-Reading Habits of Students in American Schools.

This study was conducted by the Accelerated Reader people, so you should take it with a grain of salt, but there is some interesting information. Daniel Handler's comments are a highlight.

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.

An animated, digital version of Horton Hears a Who is available to download for free through the end of March.

Internet predators

Here are some interesting statistics about Internet predators and their victims, via School Library Journal.

There are some interesting revelations, such as the fact that social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook rarely figure into these types of crimes.

Hot cross books.

School Library Journal asks librarians which books kids are reading for pleasure right now. Basically, if you don't have a lot of copies of all of the Twilight books, you should! Jack Gantos is also featured.

And the winner is...

Did you hear? A Baltimore school librarian won the Newbery Medal! The book looks really good, too, and it's nice to see poetry/dramatic monologues getting some recognition.

Here is a list of all of the award winners announced this week.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

In case you didn't hear, Sotheby's was auctioning off a copy of J.K. Rowlings hand-written and illustrated book of fairy tales. Amazon.com bought it for 1.95 million pounds, and the proceeds will go to Rowling's charity, The Children's Voice.

There are extensive plot summaries and images from the book on Amazon's Beedle the Bard website.

Where the Wild Things Came From

Here is an interesting slide show of picture book art from the nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century, from Slate magazine:

How children's books evolved from morals to madcap fun.

ALSC Offers Grants to Future Children's and YA Librarians

If you are planning to get your MLS and become a children's or YA librarian, you can apply for one of these grants.

A Legislative Victory for Children's Librarians

Congress passes bill calling for collaboration between Head Start and libraries.

This is a great opportunity for libraries in general, and for children's librarians in particular. It's the most public recognition I've seen of the role that public libraries play in early literacy. Take this information straight to your local daycares, and form ye some partnerships! :)

Patron demand watch: Scanimation

So there's this new technology called "scanimation" that will be making its picture book debut this holiday season. It involves a static image that appears to move when the reader rocks it back and forth, and it will appear in the book Gallop!, by Rufus Butler Seder. I imagine this book will be heavily marketed at book fairs and such, so you may be receiving requests. Whether you will want to buy it is another question, but it doesn't look any worse than other gimmick books.

More on this topic from School Library Journal.