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Please forgive this little journey about curation and life outside of school. I’ve been doing some thinking about curation and hair. Here’s my sad story and my proposed solution. I hadn’t had a hot shower for a week after Hurricane Sandy. I was beat. And my hair was full of knots. When I got to [...]
The following books will receive starred reviews in the March/April issue of the Horn Book Magazine. Incidentally, this is also our annual special issue; the theme this year is “Different Drummers” with a ground-breaking (for us, anyway) cover by Paul Zelinsky (whose absence from the recent Caldecott announcement marks a Dark Day in that award’s [...]
The post Horn Book Magazine March/April starred reviews appeared first on The Horn Book.
The fifth Wednesday in the month is usually sparse, but it’s hard to tell when the whole month of January has felt like this! BOOM! Studios’ big hit Adventure Time is about to turn one year old with this month’s issue. The final volume of Roger Langridge’s Snarked is out, completing this great title. And [...]
The 2013 Sydney Taylor Book Awards have been announced! “The Sydney Taylor Book Award honors new books for children and teens that exemplify the highest literary standards while authentically portraying the Jewish experience. The award memorializes Sydney Taylor, author of the classic All- of-a-Kind Family series.” The Association of Jewish Libraries website has the full lists. [...]
Stardines Swim High Across the Sky and Other Poems By Jack Prelutsky Illustrated by Carin Berger Greenwillow Books (an imprint of Harper Collins) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-06-201464-1 Ages 4-8 On shelves February 26th. To non-children’s librarians the statistics are baffling. Your average poetry book isn’t exactly a circ buster. It sits on the shelf for months [...]
I’ve found that everyone loves a good celebrity doppelgänger. Even if it’s unflattering, it’s always oddly fascinating. As a guy who was once likened to Paul from The Wonder Years, I can attest to this. I think it’s time we put together a list of actors who could play today’s children’s literature luminaries. Although Kadir Nelson, [...]
IT’S TIME TO SAY GOODBYE As we wrap up another season of Heavy Medal, we’d like to thank all of our readers for their contributions. It’s always hard to recognize only a small handful of books every year, but I always feel like we are able to celebrate many more worthy titles here, titles which [...]
In case you’re wondering, BOB contenders fared pretty well at the YMAs. I’m sure some of you think we may have had the inside track on the Newbery with Roxanne being on the committee and all, but I can assure you that was not the case.
BOMB . . . This title now becomes the most decorated book of the year with the Sibert Medal, Nonfiction Award, and Newbery Honor in addition to being a National Book Award finalist.
CODE NAME VERITY . . . This one got a Printz Honor. Many were surprised that it didn’t win the Award outright, but SERAPHINA and THE FAULT IN OUR STARS which both also got six starred reviews were shut out of the Printz line-up entirely.
THE FAULT IN OUR STARS . . . This one got the Odyssey Award. Not the award most people were predicting for this book, but it gets a second chance here.
MOONBIRD and TITANIC . . . This pair joined BOMB in being recognized by both the Sibert and Nonfiction committees.
NO CRYSTAL STAIR . . . I had it penciled in as the Coretta Scott King Award, but an Honor is almost quite as good–and it did win the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award.
THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN . . . Can this one escape the dreaded Newbery curse here at BOB?
SERAPHINA . . . I think this is the strongest book to ever win the Morris Award–and I thought there was a legitimate chance to repeat …
We review a lot of graphic novels around here (thanks in large part to super-reviewer Francisca Goldsmith) so, as we said on Monday, Angela and I were very happy to see a GN on the Alex Awards list this year. As I somewhat embarrassingly indicated, though, I hadn’t read Derf Backderf’s My Friend Dahmer, so I [...]
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 [...]
Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made By Stephan Pastis Candlewick Press $14.99 ISBN: 978-0-7636-6050-5 Ages 9-12 On shelves February 26th Call it the attack of the syndicated cartoonists. For whatever reason, in the year 2013 we are seeing droves of escapees from the comic strip pages leaping from the burning remains of the newspaper industry into [...]
The hold shelf is the polygraph test of the library world. What are people truly interested in reading? Check the holds. While the popularity of certain titles is universal (see: Wimpy Kid, The Hunger Games, etc.), often times there will be a run on a book you never expected. As famous librarian, the famous Rasheed [...]
Many terrific announcements at the ALA Youth Media Awards! One of the great things about being able to attend the ALA Midwinter Meeting is being able to go, in person, to the Youth Media Awards. It’s so exciting, being in a room full of people who are excited about the awards, about what books, audiobooks, [...]
Teen behavior in libraries includes a lot of browsing. I have two different display spaces in my small high school library. Fortunately, one of them is right in front of my desk, so I often get the chance to watch students check out the latest books (surreptitiously, lest I scare them away!). Some will just [...]
Benny and Penny in Lights Out! by Geoffrey Hayes Toon Books/Candlewick Press 978-1-935179-20-7, 32 pp. $12.95 Toon Books once again brings us the adventures of Benny and his little sister Penny in Lights Out! It’s a story all too familiar with parents: little sister Penny is getting ready for bed—she’s brushed her teeth and getting [...]
I mentioned last week that it was time to stop fooling myself that I would get a lot of blog posts out the door during ALA Midwinter. Success! I did, however, manage to take pictures on Instagram. Why don’t I dump all the photos right here for anyone interested? I take your silence as a [...]
As you may remember, Kelly Jensen, Sophie Brookover and myself have a Readers’ Advisory chat on Twitter. The Readers’ Advisory chat uses the hashtag #ReadAdv; it takes place the first and third Thursdays of the month, at 8 PM EST and lasts an hour. The topic in February will be using awards and lists, such as [...]
