Industry News

A parent in Marietta, Georgia, has lodged a complaint with his local school board about the inclusion of Hena Khan’s picture book Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns: A Muslim Book of Colors at his daughter’s Scholastic Book Fair on October 17. Thomas Prisock claims that the book is “an indoctrination of Muslim culture,” according to the The Marietta Daily Journal.

In just a few weeks, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) will finalize the soft launch of its long-awaited badging program, which aims to provide a uniquely interactive opportunity for skill-building in its seven Competencies for Librarians Serving Youth. YALSA hopes the program will be fully launched by January, Linda Braun, the project’s manager, tells SLJ.

An ordinary Texan teen. A dragon with devastating power. Together they can save the future… or destroy it. Only Mari Mancusi could put this all together, and she does in her latest, Scorched. Six lucky SLJTeen readers can win a signed copy of Scorched, and a limited edition T-shirt!

On the blogs, Fuse 8 features a "Book Worm" exhibit at the newly christened National Center for Families Learning, featuring glass creations based on treasured characters and moments from children's literature.

Like most people who have grown up in southern California, author Matt de la Peña has always feared the arrival of the “Big One”—a massive earthquake that would decimate the US West Coast. In his latest young adult novel, The Living, de la Peña explores issues of race, class, and identity, set against the backdrop of a cataclysmic event that hurls humanity into a fight for survival.

Floral Park Memorial High School's Reads program continues to bring readers of all ages together. Earlier this month, the school library was packed with students and their parents, all who came to meet Luis Carlos Montalvan, author of Until Tuesday: a Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him, and his service dog Tuesday.

Little, Brown celebrated the art of Caldecott Medalist Jerry Pinkney at a special event on October 29. The Powerhouse Arena, home to art book publisher powerHouse Books, recently launched its brand-new children's imprint, POW! on October 25.

 The Mozilla Foundation has launched a new  Web Literacy Standard intended to serve as a roadmap for competent Web use and comprising “the skills and competencies people need to read, write, and participate effectively on the Web,” according to Mozilla’s site. Launched during the nonprofit organization’s October 25–27 Mozilla Festival, the Standard features recommendations for [...]

Teens interested in Ender's Game—both the acclaimed science fiction novel and its big budget film adaptation opening this weekend—may be curious about the recent controversy surrounding author Orson Scott Card’s outspoken views. Fortunately, the library offers an ideal safe intellectual harbor for teaching the media literacy skills that allow them to explore critical thinking questions about the role of social politics and media, and to examine ways in which we might begin to separate art from the artist.