School Library Journal talks to publishing's brightest stars.
The Week in Rap By Debra Lau Whelan - 11/19/2008
Twenty-somethings Alex Rappaport and Blake Harrison have come up with a great way to get kids interested in current events. Their "Week in Rap" sums up the latest news using video and clever hip-hop lyrics in a way that’s fun and engaging. It’s a new addition to their Web site, Flocabulary.com, which uses hip-hop music to foster literacy and promote academic success in the classroom. More
Blue Bayou: An Interview with Kathi Appelt By Rick Margolis - 12/01/2008
The Underneath, set in East Texas’s bayou country, features two intertwined stories. One’s about a cat who befriends a mistreated dog, and the other is about a vindictive ancient shape-shifter—half serpent, half human—who longs for her daughter’s love. What most surprised you about the story? It originated from a short story I had written.
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Blundell Nabs National Book Award By Rocco Staino - 11/19/2008
Judy Blundell, author of What I Saw and How I Lied (Scholastic), is the 2008 National Book Award winner in the category of children’s literature.
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Ibbitson’s ‘The Landing’ Nabs Canada’s Highest Kid Lit Award By SLJ Staff - 11/19/2008 John Ibbitson’s The Landing, a coming-of-age story that takes place in Canada’s Muskoka region in the 1930s, is this year’s winner of the Governor General’s Literacy Awards for children’s literature in English, which honors the finest in Canadian literature. More
NYC Teens Schmooze with National Book Award Finalists By Rocco Staino - 11/18/2008
Some 200 student reporters from the New York City area yesterday grilled five of this year’s National Book Award finalists at the 11th annual Teen Press Conference .
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Gay America By Debra Lau Whelan - 11/12/2008
In Gay America: Struggle for Equality (Abrams/Amulet, 2008)—the first comprehensive history on this subject for teens—Linas Alsenas chronicles how gay men and women have lived, worked, and loved for the past 125 years.
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NYT Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2008 By SLJ Staff - 11/09/2008
Every autumn since 1952, the New York Times Book Review has invited a panel of judges to survey the year’s output of children’s books and to select the top 10 best illustrated.
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Suzy Lee Nabs Society of Illustrators’ Gold Medal By Rocco Staino - 11/07/2008
Suzy Lee, whose simplistic illustrations in the wordless book Wave (Chronicle) tell the story of a little girl’s day at the beach, is this year’s Society of Illustrators’ gold medal winner.
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PreS-K–A five-year-old (rabbit) awakes one morning to discover that there will be no school, no daddy flying home today, and no going outside–until the snow stops.
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The staff of Salinas Public Library (CA), aka The John Steinbeck Public Library, pose with Lewis Buzbee, author of Steinbeck's Ghost, a middle-grade novel that centers around the threat of the library's closing in 2004. After a difficult struggle, the library remains open and has just extended its hours to seven days a week.
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