The world's largest reviewer of books, multimedia, and technology for children and teens
Children’s book author and former teacher Kate Messner has always had a passion for sharing books with kids, so when she recommended Hena Khan’s Golden Domes and Silver Lanternsto her Twitter followers for its portrayal of Islam, she did not expect the backlash she received. A few days after the original message, someone who does not follow her on Twitter replied with the below, continuing an intense multiday exchange with her about what he believes to be “the real Islam.”
A museum visit can be a great learning experience for students, but when the exhibit you want to take your students to see is halfway around the world, what’s a teacher to do?
Penny Warner’s The Code Busters 2: The Haunted Lighthouse won the 2012 Agatha Award. Capstone is adding 60 more Presidential titles to the K–3 PebbleGo Biographies module in August 2013. ABDO’s will publish library editions of IDW’s “Jurassic Park” and “Star Trek” graphic novels this fall.
In the last 12 years, the fantasy genre has dominated the middle grade market. Thanks to “Harry Potter”, children worry less about the number of pages, and authors have been happy to comply with longer imaginative offerings. These lengthy tomes are fast-paced reads, full of magical creatures, daring adventures, and loyal characters that fight for the good of all. In the following titles selected by JLG editors, themes of family and friendship are woven into sets of enchanted lands, and fans can escape to a place where their own problems seem far away.
Luci Tapahonso has been appointed the Navajo Nation’s first Poet Laureate. Arte Público Press launches a A Day without Sugar initiative to combat child obesity. The winners of the South Asia Book Awards and the Marion Vannett Ridgway Award were announced.
The focus on the close reading of texts suggests a new idea to SLJ’s columnist—an idea that taps librarians’ expertise and offers an exciting approach to inquiry.
Junior Library Guild editors present a selection of some of the latest chapter books that can encourage beginning readers to take steps toward reading longer texts. From new titles by favorite authors like Kevin Henkes to the next installment of the popular “Bink & Gollie” series, these picks will delight youngsters not quite ready for full-length novels.
Celebrate 10 years of Mo Willems’s Pigeon with a visit to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA, which will be hosting an exhibit on the award-winning author/illustrator. Winners for the Jane Addams, Golden Kite, and IRA awards have been announced. Attend a one-day workshop focused on integrating games into the K–12 classroom. These stories and more, in this week’s News Bites.
As reviews for Baz Lurhmann’s whirlwind adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby come roaring in, take a look at the latest installment of SLJ’s Page to Screen, where you’ll find updates on already much-touted future movies, and news of recent options on film rights. This roundup of releases will have your students and patrons heading to the theater—and, hopefully, to bookshelves as well.
The close reading of fiction and literary works is a standard requirement in our schools. Can we say the same of nonfiction?
In this week’s News Bites: As an incentive to get children in the library during the summer, Bedtime Math is offering two free math-focused program kits. National Geographic Kids content is being added to Cengage Learning’s National Geographic Virtual Library product line. Four S. E. Hinton novels are now available in ebook format for the first time. Capstone partners with Save the Children.
In the fifth and final installment of our series celebrating National Poetry Month, Jack Prelutsky, America’s first children’s poet laureate, offers us five of his top poetry collections for kids.
Jackie Robinson’s story is a captivating, inspiring, and important one, and young moviegoers who have seen the new biopic 42 will want to know more about his groundbreaking accomplishments as well as his life and times. Here are some great books to recommend.
From San Antonio to Fort Worth, literacy educators and librarians converged on Texas last week to celebrate books and reading.
Junior Library Guild editors offer a variety of stories for independent readers: a classic orphan story, a fantasy about nightmares, a Hollywood drama, a laugh-out-loud detective tale, and a mystery surrounding a missing camera. Also perfect for reading aloud, the following fiction titles will keep readers engaged with the characters, old and new.
From dump trucks to fire trucks, young children can’t seem to get their fill of vehicles that have jobs to perform. In this week’s column, we present apps from a variety of developers, featuring vibrant illustrations, song, videos, and loads of interactivity that will keep kids engaged for hours.
American College of Education is hosting a free massive online open course (MOOC) on digital tools for the K–12 classroom from May 6 to June 9, 2013 for educators and other professionals who want to integrate web-based tools like Animoto, Glogster, Prezi in the classroom. YALSA announced the 2013 Teens’ Top Ten nominees, and American Booksellers Association has selected the 2013 Indies Choice and E. B. White Read-Aloud Award winners.
“If you can bring the community into the library, those children will ultimately flourish. And if a library can go outside of its walls, you’re only expanding the area in which young people can be affected,” says Rebecca Zarazan Dunn, 2013 Mover and Shaker, lifelong bookworm, blogger, advocate, youth services librarian assistant for the Lawrence Public Library (KS), and soon-to-be MLIS candidate. In this interview, Dunn shares her top kids’ book picks of all time, her inspirations and passions, and why it’s critical for public librarians to collaborate with school librarians and teachers.
If your resolve to reduce your use of plastic ever wavers, even slightly, consider the Eastern Garbage Patch, an area of the Pacific Ocean where currents converge to create a floating landfill the size of Alaska. We’re ‘Tracking Trash’—and more—in our column devoted to Earth Day.
In adopting the Common Core State Standards, U. S. educators are part of a larger educational reform movement. From England to Japan countries around the world are debating a national curricula. Why are so many nations considering one? And where does the impetus to do so come from? Marc Aronson ponders these questions in his latest Consider the Source column.
