February 16, 2013

Review of the Day – Diego Rivera: An Artist for the People by Susan Goldman Rubin

Washington Post Politics app screenshot

Diego Rivera: An Artist for the People By Susan Goldman Rubin Abrams Books for Young Readers $21.95 ISBN: 978-0-8109-8411-0 Ages 10 and up On shelves now National Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15th to October 15th. How many folks could tell you that off the top of their heads? Meanwhile, few awards are specifically [...]

What’s the Buzz? Nonfiction Books for Common Core

small

Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET What are the best nonfiction Common Core books to stock with your shelves with? DK Publishing, Teacher Created Materials, Lerner Publishing and ReferencePoint Press are here to help fill your library’s nonfiction section by presenting their upcoming titles that fit perfectly into the new standards. This is a must-see resource for Common Core, featuring forthcoming books, nonfiction trends, and answers to your questions! Register now!

How to publish for the CCSS

Ha ha, not really. I hope everybody is getting some use out of our latest newsletter, Nonfiction Notes from the Horn Book. I’ve been thinking about NF a lot since ALA, where I spent two solid days talking to publishers about what they were planning for the coming year(s). Along with inflicting upon the world [...]

The post How to publish for the CCSS appeared first on The Horn Book.

SLJ Talks to Author Andrea Cheng: Her latest book, ‘Etched in Clay,’ charts the courageous life of Dave the potter | Under Cover

Andrea Cheng

Author Andrea Cheng’s latest book, ‘Etched in Clay,’ charts the courageous life of Dave the potter, a 19th-century slave who became an accomplished artist.

Giveaway: Blu-ray and DVD Combo Pack of BULLY

Giveaway: Blu-ray and DVD Combo Pack of BULLY

Young people need to understand the way that media texts position them—even with, or perhaps especially with, those texts whose content they are sympathetic to…

Thoughts on Alex: One Shot at Forever

Chris Ballard’s One Shot at Forever is one of the three books on the Alex Awards this year that we declined to review. In the comments of our Alex Reactions post, John Sexton explained why: I believe the last time a sports themed book received Alex recognition was in 2007 when the committee i served [...]

What’s the Buzz? New Books in Nonfiction

SLJ-2013-NonFiction-Headersmall

Wednesday, February 20, 2013, 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET Need helping choosing books this fall? Check out this webcast dedicated to what’s new in nonfiction! Hear John Peters, Series Made Simple contributor and children’s literature consultant, discuss the trends in nonfiction and what the publishers have to say about the future of the genre. Scholastic Library, DK Publishing, Capstone and Black Rabbit Books will share their forthcoming titles to let you know how to stock up your library this spring! Register now!

Thoughts on Alex: My Friend Dahmer

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 [...]

Weekly Reviews: Nonfiction for Browsing

Weekly Reviews: Nonfiction for Browsing

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 [...]

Exploring Common Core’s Informational Text… with Violent Video Games

I’ll hazard that many of us don’t immediately think “games” when we think of “transliteracy,” but why not?

Weekly Reviews: Raiders! and Little Wolves

I am sharing two very different books today, which I can only tenuously connect thanks to the Alex Awards. (Thus the completely unimaginative title of this post!) Let’s begin on a light-hearted note. First, a review of Raiders!, which won a place on the Booklist Editors Choice: Adult Books for Young Adults, 2012. Our reviewer [...]

More on Nonfiction–Now With (possibly dubious) Statistics!

More on Nonfiction  Now With (possibly dubious) Statistics!

Back in December, I wrote a post in which I wondered why we don’t see more nonfiction books recognized in awards for teens, and in particular, why memoirs and biographies are so dominant among the nonfiction titles that do show up. Commenter Meghan suggested: My own experience as a public librarian has shown it’s easier [...]

Review: Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different by Karen Blumenthal. Feiwel and Friends, an imprint of Macmillan. 2012. Review copy from publisher. Finalist for the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award. It’s About: A biography of Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, Inc. The Good: Reading books like Bomb, Titanic or We’ve Got a Job [...]

Nonfiction Monday: Look Up! by Annette LeBlanc Cate

Look Up! Bird-Watching in Your Own Backyard By Annette LeBlanc Cate Candlewick Press ISBN: 9780763645618 $15.99 Grades 2-4 In Stores March 12, 2013 *Best New Book* Find it at: Schuler Books | Your Library Let us be honest – in terms of activities for kids, birdwatching is pretty low on the popularity list. Due to [...]

Nonfiction Roundup, Part 2

Karyn wrote about the long slog of winter break reading just before a conference/blog deadline. I understand her image, but I think I spend winter break/early January more like a muppet: waving my arms around in a flurry of indecision (and, sometimes, stress because I’ve put off so much committee reading. Blerg!); now’s the time [...]

Commercial Success May Hide a Multitude of Secrets

from regular AB4T graphic novel guest blogger, Francisca Goldsmith: Cortés gained popular stature last year with his sweetly counterpoint art in satiric Go the F**k to Sleep. That’s part of his genius: giving the eye important information barely hinted at in the text. In “The Secret History” series, of which this exploration of Coffee, Coca, and [...]

Review: Titanic

Titanic: Voices From The Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson. Scholastic 2012. Review copy from publisher. Finalist for the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award. It’s About: The sinking of the “unsinkable” Titanic on April 15, 1912, resulting in the loss of over 1,400 men, women and children. The Good: I believe the first Titanic movie I [...]

Nonfiction Monday: Hoop Genius by John Coy

The Nonfiction Monday round-up is right here (see below). If you’d like to be included, share a link in the comments. Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball By John Coy Illustrated by Joe Morse Carolrhoda Books (Lerner) ISBN: 9780761366171 $16.95 Grades 1-4 In Stores March 1, 2013 Find [...]

Nonfiction Monday is Coming…

Preview: Annoying Orange

In a mere three days, the weekly fact explosion known as the Nonfiction Monday roundup will land at 100 Scope Notes. Hope to see you then.  

Will this be on the test?

I’d like to have been at this NYPL panel on nonfiction put together by Betsy Bird. The four panelists are among the best of our nonfiction writers, and I would have loved to ask them how their  job prospects were looking under the Common Core State Standards. With the CCSS (have we agreed this is [...]

The post Will this be on the test? appeared first on The Horn Book.