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With rich sensory language and colorful comic style-illustration, award-winning author illustrator team Isabel Quintero and Zeke Pena celebrate Latinx culture, family, community and the thrill of a motorcycle ride in their latest picture book collaboration.
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As part of our ongoing Teen Services 101 series, today we're looking at the challenges and rewards of serving teens in our public libraries.
Koyama Press and Toon Graphics find mystery and fairy tale adventure in the picks from this week's new comics.
Offering hope for a more socially conscious, kinder tomorrow, New Kid should be required reading for every middle schooler before the start of every school year. The latest lesson plan from "The Classroom Bookshelf."
"It's like the Where's Waldo of literature!" This week we're celebrating another cult classic picture book just as its author releases his adult collection MacDoodle Street. It fails the stranger danger test magnificently, sure, but we can all get behind its "inspired sense of the absurd."
There’s a new book out about children’s literature legend Margaret Wise Brown. Today I talk with the author, Mac Barnett, and the illustrator, Sarah Jacoby, about how this book came to together. First up, Mr. Barnett Hi Mac! Margaret Wise Brown. MWB. When did it first occur to you that you should write a bio […]
Our Saturday preview this week is of a new trade paperback, Archie’s Superteens, which is a crossover between the two superhero teams in the Archie universe: The Riverdale gang as Pureheart the Poweful et al. and the Mighty Crusaders. This volume collects the two-volume crossover as well as more Pureheart stories. It goes on sale […]
This Week at TLT Book Review: I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver Book Review: The Missing Season by Gillian French Teen Services 101: What Do Teens Want from Public Libraries? Book Review: Road Tripped by Pete Hautman Teen Services 101: Foundations – Understanding Teens Today Around the Web A Decade of LGBTQ […]
The Lion Forge Free Comic Book Day giveaway comic contains a new story by Brenna Thummler with the same characters as her graphic novel Sheets. In A Sheets Story, Marjorie, her father, and her younger brother visit her grandmother, who wants to sew with her. Her ghost friend Wendell has tagged along as well. It’s […]
This week's picks finds adventure under the sea and in the digital works with titles from Action Lab Comics and Graphix.
Every once in a while, I sneak over to the Goodreads Mock Newbery and Caldecott lists to see what books are getting attention. While the lists are open to voting by any Goodreads user (so DEFINITELY take them with a grain of salt), they are sometimes fairly accurate (although the 2019 Caldecott list didn’t fare […]
Today I look at an infinitely gentle take on the feelings we lug around inside of ourselves and why we don’t have to always lug them on our own. Maybe Tomorrow? is, at its heart, about how to be a good friend. A seemingly simple lesson for a deeply complex world.
Can you guess the classic children’s book by its scathing one-star review on Goodreads or Amazon? I sat through enough pee and poop references without flinching until page 129 where one officer holds up a pile of poop in his hand and then another officer instinctively high-fives the hand full of poop creating a huge […]
This heartfelt story about a nonbinary teen will empower readers. Ben's journey is not always easy, but it is full of love, affirmation, and eventual happiness. This story, this representation, this example is so needed.
Fess up, librarians. Let it out. What do you keep in a drawer or cabinet or closet that you cannot part with?
Popularity comes, popularity goes. As librarians we’re always balancing between what will circulate like crazy and what we need to have in the collection. And we’re not the Library of Congress – we can’t (and shouldn’t) keep everything. An endangered series is one that appears to be waning in terms of popularity. But popularity isn’t everything. Should it […]
Some small towns have creepy urban legends that leave you hoping they aren't true. Will Clara meet the Mumbler?
As part of our deep dive into Teen Services 101, today we're talking about what teens want from our libraries.
Wrack my brain though I have, I can't think of a picture book that specifically discusses the mispronunciation of the protagonist's name. I mean, we've had lots of name-related picture books. My Name Is Yoon. Chrysanthemum. The Name Jar. Alma. But about the way you say it specifically? Hmmm.
Here’s an advance look at Teen Titans Go #34: The Titans get swept up in a 73-hour dystopian teen movie marathon, then reenact “The Hungry Games” when they realize there’s only one slice of pizza left! And when a meatball-making contest sponsored by a local Jump City joint (first prize: free heroes for life!) provokes […]
SLJ BLOG NETWORK
100 Scope Notes
Travis Jonker
A Fuse #8 Production
Elizabeth Bird
Good Comics for Kids
Brigid Alverson, Robin Brenner, Lori Henderson, Esther Keller, Michael May, J. Caleb Mozzocco, Mike Pawuk, Scott Robins, & Eva Volin
Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
Steven Engelfried, Sharon McKellar, & Roxanne Hsu Feldman
Neverending Search
Joyce Valenza
Teen Librarian Toolbox
Karen Jensen, Heather Booth, Robin Willis, & Amanda MacGregor
The Classroom Bookshelf
Mary Ann Cappiello, Erika Thulin Dawes, Grace Enriquez, & Katie Cunningham
The Yarn
Travis Jonker & Colby Sharp
NEWS & FEATURES
Teen Services 101: Serving Teens, Challenges and Rewards
Karen Jensen, TLT
Teaching Ideas for "New Kid" by Jerry Craft
Katie Cunningham
Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Who Needs Donuts? by Mark Alan Stamaty
Elizabeth Bird
‘The Important Thing About Margaret Wise Brown’ A Q&A with Mac Barnett and Sarah Jacoby
Travis Jonker
‘Sheets’ Sequel Due Next Year
Johanna