February 17, 2013



Recent Posts:


List O Mania – Rainbow List

More and more lists! From the Rainbow Book List website: “The Rainbow Book List is a joint project of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table and the Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library Association. The Rainbow Book List presents an annual bibliography of quality books with significant and authentic GLBTQ content, which [...]

2013 Judge: Margarita Engle

Margarita Engle is the Cuban-American author of The Surrender Tree, which received the first Newbery Honor ever awarded to a Latino/a.  Her other novels in verse about the island include The Poet Slave of Cuba, Hurricane Dancers, The Firefly Letters,…

On Big Box Books and Vinyl (Ain’t Sayin’ Nothin’ New)

I’m definitely not the first to make this sort of comparison… In the early Aughts I hit my fair share of chain music store liquidation sales. Sam Goody, Tower Records, and other mall-type CD shops that were going out of business post music industry collapse. I didn’t feel good about the doors closing, but I [...]

Speak Up, Already!

So, I’m having my cup of coffee, eating a cinnamon roll, and reading the news feed on my vacation day (yes, I admit it, fear of driving home during Nemo made me use a day off), when I see a tweet from Jenny Luca:  Which led me to this article in The Atlantic: Introverted Kids [...]

Visual Literacy and the Red Carpet: Celebrity ‘Make Unders’

Visual Literacy and the Red Carpet: Celebrity ‘Make Unders’

Rarely do we have the opportunity to deconstruct images so rigorously that they actually invert themselves in the process… making the celebrities in question less attractive than they really are.

List O Mania – Amelia Bloomer

Some lists that come out of ALA are not from ALSC or YALSA. Take, for example, the 2013 Amelia Bloomer List from the Amelia Bloomer Project, a product of the ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table’s (SRRT) Feminist Taskforce, announced the 2013 Amelia Bloomer List at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, held Jan. 25-29, 2013. From [...]

All ages comics and manga for 2/6/13

Now this is a list! The Penguins of Madagascar are back at Ape Entertainment with a new trade. It’s the dueling cartoon hits as BOOM! Studios has the next issue of Adventure Time with Fionna and Cake while IDW has the third issue of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Viz Media has more Voltron [...]

2013 Judge: Deb Caletti

Deb Caletti is the award-winning author of nine young adult novels, including Honey, Baby, Sweetheart, The Nature of Jade, Stay, and The Story of Us.  In addition to being a National Book Award finalist, Deb’s work has gained other distinguished recognition, including the PNBA Best Book Award, the Washington State Book Award, and School LibraryJournal’s Best Book award, and finalist citations for the California Young Reader Medal and the PEN USA Literary Award.  Her first novel for adults, He’s Gone, will be released in May of 2013, and her next Y/A novel, The Last Forever, will appear in the spring of 2014.  Deb lives with her family in Seattle.

 

Transmedia in Schools and Libraries: Thoughts and Strategies from Tyler Weaver

“How can you tell a story in a game and have it be school-appropriate, while simultaneously making the student think about the implications of what they enjoy playing?”

Transmedia in Schools and Libraries: Thoughts and Strategies from Tyler Weaver

“How can you tell a story in a game and have it be school-appropriate, while simultaneously making the student think about the implications of what they enjoy playing?”

List O Mania – BFYA

As you can see, I am trying to include all the various lists that have come out recently! I am sure I am not the only list obsessed reader out there, right? Best Fiction for Young Adult (which sort-of kinda used to be Best Books for Young Adults) includes several top titles; Angela Frederick has [...]

Interview: Jen Wang

Interview: Jen Wang

On Saturday, June 23, and Sunday, June 24, while attending the American Library Association’s Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA, I ran around to as many of my favorite kids comics creators as I could and asked them all the exact same questions. Keep in mind, exhibit halls are crazy loud and crazy busy, so there [...]

2013 Judge: Franny Billingsley

Franny writes middle-grade and young-adult fantasies.  Her most recent novel, Chime, was nominated for the National Book Award. Her novel The Folk Keeper won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and the Mythopoeic Award.  She’s written one pictur…

It Shouldn’t Work, But It Does: The 21st Century Personalized Book

Let’s set the scene for a moment.  It’s the early 1980s.  3-2-1 Contact is giving young children an unceasing stream of Bloodhound Gang episodes.  Men have not yet shaved the mustaches they acquired in the 1970s.  Bicycles remain almost universally helmet-free.  And in Kalamazoo, Michigan a little girl is given a very special present. Okay.  [...]

Morning Notes: Your Story Is Like a Car Edition

WRITING ADVICE FROM MO WILLEMS I’d say Mr. Willems has a handle on writing for kids (Boom! *Understatement Award*). He recently put out a list of tips on his blog titled How to Write in 4 Easy Steps, 4 Kinda Harder Steps, and 1 Pretty Much Impossible Step. Anyone who reads, critiques, writes, or hopes [...]

Teaching Transmedia with Comics: A Conversation with Tyler Weaver

“By allowing students to create with a medium, you give them the chance to explore the potential of the medium and of themselves. The exploration of potential is beautiful…”

List O Mania – Audiobooks and Quick Picks

Some more YALSA lists! Amazing Audiobooks is all about audiobooks, fiction and nonfiction. Anyone who has listened to a book knows that the narration and direction can make or break a book; here is the list of 2013 Amazing Audiobooks. I’ve listened to exactly none of them. Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers is a terrific list, [...]

Thoughts on Alex: Quick Picks

Our astute reviewer Amy Cheney noticed on Facebook that two of the ten Alex Award titles this year were also on the Top Ten Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, and said: This might be the first year EVER that two books made both the Alex Awards and Quick Picks. Ross’ book [Juvenile in [...]

YALSA’s The Hub Reading Challenge 2013: Ready to go!

How up are you on the year’s best graphic novels?  Want to join in the challenge to read this year’s best of the best? When the awards are announced at the American Library Association’s Midwinter conference every year, we librarians (and book nerds everywhere) start amassing a pile of titles we need to catch up [...]

2013 Judge: Kathi Appelt

Twice Kathi Appelt’s books have duked it out here, and both times they went down to worthy challengers.  But she is not bitter.  Instead, she has focused her energies on her next novel, The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp, which features r…