Yes, we've moved. To new offices (they're great!) and a new website (be patient--we're still sorting out a few things there). And we all have new contact information--click here for the list.

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The Whole Child Approach to teaching and learning believes that each child deserves to be in a healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged environment. As a librarian at Malcolm Price Laboratory School in Cedar Falls, IA, for the past 11 years, Lou Weber knows exactly how to weave all of that into a child's schooling. No wonder her school recently won the Whole Child award from the educational leadership group ACSD. We asked Weber why the Whole Child concept is still so unique in schools, and how she supports the program through the library for the school's 355 students.

How did Malcolm Price launch the Whole Child concept?

We have a K-12 citizenship program, which we support with guidelines that talk about respect and responsibility. That's been around for quite a while in the school and that got us engaged with ASCD in the first place. And then as they shifted to Whole Child, we shifted to Whole Child.

A handful of universities and colleges around the nation turned to children's authors and illustrators to help send off the class of 2010 with inspirational words of hope and encouragement-while others walked away with honorary degrees.

On May 26 famed children's horror writer R. L. Stine, who penned the "Goosebumps" (Scholastic) and "Fear Street" (Simon Pulse) series, told 200 graduates of Macaulay Honors College of the City University of New York a ghost story. A haunted tale "seemed like the thing to do," said Stine, hoping this would lead his audience to remember some part of his speech.

Fans of the award-winning author Cornelia Funke won't have to wait long for the release of her next book, Reckless (Little, Brown), a fairy tale inspired by the Brothers Grimm that's expected to hit bookstores on September 14.

Funke, a guest speaker at SLJ's Day of Dialog in New York on May 25, said Reckless marks the first time she's written and illustrated a book. "It was complete bliss to get the two professions together," she told a room packed with librarians, educators, and publishers.

The science of sound is fascinating, and in the noisy world we live in, real-life lessons are everywhere. Put these books together with an activity unit and prove to your kids that the library doesn't always have to be a quiet place! PBSKids Zoom Web site has a bunch of projects to get you started, and students can even post their results online. To mix in some video, visit neoK12 for clips on the science of sound, resonance, and more.

www.sunguardman.org

Now that school's out and summer's here, kids will be outside and exposed to the sun's rays. Make sure that they and their parents know how to be "sun smart."

Start your tour by clicking on the red tabs at the top of each page. Kids can find out what UV radiation is and why they need to protect themselves from it, what their chances of getting skin cancer are, how to prevent skin cancer, why it's important to use sunscreen, the dangers of tanning beds/booths, and how to do a skin self-exam.

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Before the hugely popular "Sex and the City" HBO series and subsequent films, author Candace Bushnell chronicled her own dating experiences in a column of the same name for the New York Observer.

Now she's just released The Carrie Diaries (HarperCollins, 2010), a coming-of-age story that focuses on the high school senior year of a small-town girl named Carrie Bradshaw, who, as we all know, ends up as the main character from Sex and the City and Bushnell's alter-ego. SLJ caught up with Bushnell to talk about her latest YA book and how much of it comes from real life.

How much of The Carrie Diaries is autobiographical?

I learned a long time ago to take myself out of my books as much as possible to allow the characters to breathe. So there's nothing that happened to Carrie Bradshaw that happened to me. But I tried to keep the emotional truth of what it's like to be that age.

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If you're fed up with the term "tween," you're not alone. Librarians and authors like Newbery Award-winning Rebecca Stead and Robie Harris say that labeling kids between the ages of eight and 12 is a disservice because they're so diverse and hard to pin down.

"I won't want a marketing person telling me who this book is for," says Lisa Von Drasek, a children's librarian at the Bank Street College of Education and one of five panelists who spoke at SLJ's Day of Dialog at New York's Jacob Javits Convention Center on May 25. "I want to do the reading and recommending."

Forget Josh Lewis's new series, "Super Chicken Nugget Boy" (Hyperion), or Barbra Streisand promoting her new design book. The buzz at this year's Book Expo America (BEA) in New York City centered on Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, who was on hand to talk about and autograph her new picture book series, "Helping Hand Books" (Sterling, 2010).

Scores of reporters and camera crews were there to catch Ferguson just days after the release of an incriminating video showing her agreeing to accept money for arranging an introduction to her former husband, Prince Andrew of Great Britain.

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Brighten up your shelves with handsome new editions of difficult-to-find classics that still have plenty of pertinence and appeal for today's readers. Arnold of the Ducks (HarperCollins, 1983), the first picture book published by Caldecott Medal-winning author Mordicai Gerstein, has been reissued in a lovely edition by Roaring Brook Press. Adorned with a lemon-yellow cover and featuring beautifully reproduced warm-hued artwork, this offering is as sunny and satisfying as a spring day. On a hot May morning, a little boy is "scooped out of his wading pool by a near-sighted pelican and carried off." Dropped into a nest of new hatchlings, Arnold is devotedly cared for by a mother duck who clothes him in mud and feathers and comes to love him dearly. Though he's a bit of a square peg in a round hole, the child is content with his duck existence, even discovering that he has a natural affinity for flying. Then one day while soaring on the breeze, Arnold tangles with a kite, resulting in a crash that reunites him with his human family and returns him to a boy's way of life. Humor, whimsy, and a wistful touch of longing abound in both the narrative and artwork. Undiminished by the passage of time, this tale of transformation and self-discovery-and its endearingly intrepid protagonist-will still captivate kids. (PreS-Gr 3)

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The Crusades rocked Europe and Jerusalem for over 200 years, from the late 11th century until the Siege of Acre in 1291. In many ways, conflicts over property, culture, and religion in those regions still rage on. Tween and teen readers can experience the Crusades through the fiction included here, and for additional resource material, get your hands on Greenwood's Competing Voices from the Crusades, an anthology that will ground researchers with the facts and events that shaped this volatile period.

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