September 18, 2013

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Books for Kids: Fall Picture Book Announcements

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Wednesday, September 11, 2013, 3:00-4:00 PM ET A picture is worth a thousand words. With beautiful illustrations, imaginative journeys, and timeless lessons, a great children’s book captures the hearts and minds of all generations.
Join Fuse 8′s Betsy Bird for this exciting preview of the best new upcoming books for kids from NorthSouth, Albert Whitman, and Groundwood Books. Register Now!

Review of the Day: Rifka Takes a Bow by Betty Rosenberg Perlov

Rifka Takes a Bow By Betty Rosenberg Perlov Illustrated by Cosei Kawa Kar-Ben Publishing (a division of Lerner) $17.95 ISBN: 978-0-7613-8127-3 Ages 4-8 On shelves now. History is written by the winners, they say. I’m going to lump personal history into that too. As far as I can tell, if you live long enough to [...]

Colorado Librarians Launch Bell Picture Book Awards Program

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Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy (CLEL), an advisory group to the Colorado State Library, is launching the Bell Picture Book Awards, with the first honorees set to be announced on February 5, 2014. The program is designed to celebrate books that foster adult-child engagement around the early literacy practices of read, write, sing, talk, and play.

David Wiesner on Visual Storytelling | video

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Simply put, “The pictures tell the story,” says David Wiesner. The three-time Caldecott Medal winner Wiesner shared his thoughts on visual storytelling,—along with fellow panelists, Lizi Boyd, Oliver Jeffers, Matt Phelan, and Chris Raschka—at SLJ’s 2013 Day of Dialog held May 29 at Columbia University.

PowToon + Katie = even more awesomeness

PowToon + Katie = even more awesomeness

I am a big fan of the talented, adorable and slightly wacky author/illustrator/kidlit blogger/podcaster Katie Davis. I am also a big fan of the slightly wacky, digital animation tool PowToon with its cool themes, props, animated characters and transitions. So what happens to the equation when a popular picture book author/illustrator partners with digital, comic-based presentation/video maker platform? [...]

Review of the Day: A Funny Little Bird by Jennifer Yerkes

A Funny Little Bird By Jennifer Yerkes Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-4022-8013-9 Ages 3-7 On shelves now When I was a kid I tried to learn how to draw by reading Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. A lot of the book was dedicated to showing your average [...]

Amped Up Readers’ Theater: A 21st-Century Spin on ‘Miss Nelson’

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They may be young, but teacher Arturo Avina’s talented kindergarteners are already celebrities in their own right. Students at the Los Angeles Unified School District Olympic Primary Center are the stars of a short-film adaptation of Harry G. Allard Jr.’s beloved children’s classic Miss Nelson Is Missing. Over the course of two months, Avina directed the youngsters, filmed the scenes, and, with the help of the budding actors, edited the movie with technology available in most classrooms.

Five Questions for Anna Dewdney

Llama Llama… author-illustrator and rock star to preschoolers Anna Dewdney will be our special guest at the Fostering Lifelong Learners conference on April 25th, joining in the conversation about making and sharing great books for preschoolers. Here are five questions for her. 1.What did your own children teach you about creating books for preschoolers? My [...]

The post Five Questions for Anna Dewdney appeared first on The Horn Book.

Five Questions for Kitty Flynn

At our upcoming Fostering Lifelong Learners: Prescribing Books for Early Childhood Education conference, Horn Book Guide Executive Editor Kitty Flynn will be leading a presentation about how the Horn Book evaluates and reviews preschool books. This is one aspect of her work that also engages her off the clock: Kitty and her husband are parents [...]

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Pictures of the Week: Jon Klassen at Little, Brown’s Spring and Summer Picture Book Celebration

Jon Klassen with his Little, Brown editor, Susan Rich, and Little, Brown’s Art Director, Patti Ann Harris at Little, Brown’s spring and summer picture book celebration on March 13 in New York City.

Picture book author Jon Klassen, Little, Brown editor Susan Rich, and Little, Brown Art Director Patti Ann Harris at the Little, Brown picture book celebration.

Review of the Day: It’s Monday, Mrs. Jolly Bones! by Warren Hanson

It’s Monday, Mrs. Jolly Bones! By Warren Hanson Illustrated by Tricia Tusa Beach Lane Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-4424-1229-3 Ages 4-7 On shelves March 19th Older children are not big fans of reading about middle-aged adults. That’s just obvious. Unless that adult is a furry woodland creature, of course. Then [...]

Review of the Day: Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle

Flora and the Flamingo By Molly Idle Chronicle Books $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-4521-1006-6 Ages 3-7 On shelves February 3rd Did you know that flamingos are pink because of their diet of plankton? Did you know that the flamingo is the national bird of the Bahamas? And did you know that when it comes to a pas [...]

Counting Down Caldecott

As K.T. Horning embarks on her decade-by-decade Caldecott Medal retrospective (Mei Li in January; Prayer for a Child coming up in March) in the Horn Book Magazine, I’m reminded of Leonard Marcus’s own Caldecott Celebration, a book for kids (but you’ll like it too) in which he similarly looked at one winner from each decade, [...]

The post Counting Down Caldecott appeared first on The Horn Book.

Open Circle Names 25 Best Books for Kids’ Social and Emotional Learning

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To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the Open Circle Program at the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW), a provider of evidence-based social and emotional learning for K–5 kids, has released its list of the top 25 children’s books that connect to kids’ social and emotional development . The chosen books cover a range of important skills, such as self-awareness, self-management, empathy, dealing with conflict, and problem-solving.

OUR Liza with a Z

PW‘s Elizabeth Bluemle (who, by the way, has a wonderful article coming up in the March/April Horn Book Magazine) visits our own Liza Woodruff, who unaccountably  left work as a circulation assistant at the Horn Book to live in Vermont with her lovely husband and children and dogs while she pursues a full-time career as [...]

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Review of the Day: The Chicken Problem by Jennifer Oxley and Billy Aronson

The Chicken Problem
By Jennifer Oxley and Billy Aronson
Random House
$16.99
ISBN: 978-0-375-86989-1
Ages 3-7
On shelves now.
I was once in Prospect Park in Brooklyn when I passed a very small child wearing a porkpie hat running as fast as his chubby legs could carry him. Behind him his father yelled out (to little avail), “Pontius! Pontius, [...]

Review of the Day: The Chicken Problem by Jennifer Oxley and Billy Aronson

The Chicken Problem By Jennifer Oxley and Billy Aronson Random House $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-375-86989-1 Ages 3-7 On shelves now. I was once in Prospect Park in Brooklyn when I passed a very small child wearing a porkpie hat running as fast as his chubby legs could carry him. Behind him his father yelled out (to [...]

O Come All Ye Faithful?

Don’t miss Leonard Marcus’s latest column about picture book covers, and speaking of that, SLJ stalwart Rocco Staino reports on a gallery of ‘em that would make Judy Blume blush. Or would they? The pictures were created by several well-known picture book artists in service of raising money for the National Coalition Against Censorship. They [...]

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Word salad, yum.

Jon Klassen’s This Is Not My Hat certainly encourages discussion– see Lolly’s review here, Robin’s review here and mine over here–but over at Amazon I discovered a rather breathtaking display of the strategic (psychotic?) deployment of the non sequitur as a tool. (By a tool? Discuss.): “This book is another in the long line of [...]

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Candlewick is back in Cambridge

this Saturday, with “From Screen to Book” at the Cambridge Public Library, an afternoon’s discussion of picture books and digital media. The presenters include three illustrators, Candlewick art director Ann Stott, and agent Holly McGhee; the moderator is Jenny Brown from Shelf Awareness, who, incidentally, wrote a great account of the Horn Book at Simmons [...]

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