September 18, 2013

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YALSA Reveals Five Nonfiction Award Finalists

Titanic

The five finalists for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults were recently announced.

YALSA Names Five William C. Morris Award Finalists

Aftersnow

Finalists for the William C. Morris Award, an honor given to a book for young adults written by a debut author, were announced today.

Consider the Source: Two Is the Thorniest Number

masterofdeceit

In his latest Consider the Source column, Marc Aronson uses the recent presidential election as a jumping off point to discuss the different ways that American history is viewed.

YALSA’s YA Lit Symposium Considers Fandom, Contemporary Fiction and Transmedia

Scott Westerfeld, Photo by Samantha Jones

What are the next big trends for teenage readers? Fandom, contemporary fiction, Australian lit, and transmedia, according to experts leading panels on these subjects at the third biennial YALSA Young Adult Literature Symposium in St. Louis, MO, held November 4-6.

News Bites: Free Video Series from NBC Learn: “Writers Speak to Kids”

writers speak to kids

Watch a series of 17 interviews with children’s author’s for free, apply for book donation and literacy grants, get free writing rubrics, and much more—just check out this week’s News Bites for lots of great information for librarians, teachers, and everyone involved in education.

The YALSA Young Adult Literature Symposium Hones in on Social Reading and Classics vs. Contemporary

YALitSymposium

About 500 librarians gathered in St. Louis for YALSA’s Young Adult Literature Symposium to discuss social reading within Ereaders, apps such as Inkling, Kno, and Subtext, and which contemporary books teens will be reading in the 2057.

Consider the Source: On the Common Core Trail

Motorcycle on the road

Here’s Marc Aronson’s latest report from Common Core land. Two weeks ago, he was on the road for four days along with Sue Bartle leading Common Core (CC) workshops. They learned a lot—much of it encouraging.

News Bites: Freebies for Star Wars Reads Day!

Star Wars Reads logo in green

Star Wars: National Star Wars Reads Day is October 6. The event is an initiative of Lucasfilm and its publishing partners, Abrams, Chronicle Books, Dark Horse, Del Rey, DK, Scholastic, Titan Magazines, and Workman. ABDO Publishing is offering a free Star Wars event guide containing teacher’s guides, promotional posters, interviews with celebrities connected to the franchise, a list of nearly 300 Star Wars universe terms, a video of the event that was held in the Hennepin County Library in Minneapolis, and an order form for the 68 ABDO/Spotlight Star Wars library editions.

“Big ALA” and the new School Library Resolution

“Big ALA” will be focused on school librarians even more after the 2012 Annual Conference recently held in Anaheim. We need it. So many school librarians want to join AASL or other divisions without paying dues that include the parent organization,  “Big ALA.”  I personally joined ALA and AASL as a new school librarian because [...]

Budget Time: What Is Your “Big Splash” this Month?

What is the local newspaper article headline for the event that will happen in your library in the next 30 days? “School Library Catches Students Reading” or “New Nooks Ready To Circulate in the School Library” may be ours. March 6th there is a school board meeting in my school district at which the budget [...]