News & Features

Students are invited to enter the annual National STEM Video Game Challenge, and organizers are hoping school librarians will help mentor and support kids throughout the process.

BOMB

Pick me up and look at my cover. Read a bit of me. What am I? An historical fiction? An adventure? A mystery? All wrong! I am something that none of the other books are: a history. That’s right, I belong up there on the shelf among all the other great history textbooks. I am the best kind of textbook: very epic, awesome, courageous, cool, fun-loving, and modest. You can’t forget modest. (So, pick me?)

– mb, 6th grade

CODE NAME VERITY

To whomever may read this, I reveal the cruelty of The Battle Commander in putting me in this war…who will most likely read these words. But please, God, let Maddie somehow find this. I have three weeks to complete my story to the most minute detail and win the Battle of the Kids Books. My work will end up being beautifully poetic yet very direct, and utterly engrossing. It will contain shades of horror and love, so wonderfully intertwined that it’s hard to distinguish your emotion, hard to know a thing at all.

– rgn, 8th grade

ENDANGERED

I am a grim reflection of human and animal mortality, survival, and love. Relating the dangers of poverty and war in developing countries, I enlighten readers about the horrors of life and survival more emotionally than most non-fiction books. In doing so, I tell a beautiful, personal story of Sophie and her family, which includes, of all things, cute, endangered bonobos!  Don’t let me …

» Continue Reading: 2013 Contenders Speak – Day 1

For many teens, prom night is the biggest night of their high school lives. There are so many things to think about—what to wear, who to ask, and how it’s all going to fit on a budget. Some things (like who’ll make their entrance in a pink Hummer limo or who’ll be elected prom queen andThe Prom Book king) can’t be planned for, but for everything else, there’s The Prom Book: The Only Guide You’ll Ever Need (Zest Books, distributed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $16.99 paperback; 9781936976287).

Series update lists the latest installments in ongoing fiction series. This month's titles include fast-paced adventures, hilarious middle-grade reads, and more.

Karyn Silverman, half of the genius behind Some Day My Printz Will Come, joins us to write about the last, lone Alex Award Winner yet to be covered here on AB4T. Take it away, Karyn! Angela and Mark have been covered all of the Alex winners at this point except one. And because Angela saw me [...]

Newbery Medalist Katherine Applegate offers a behind-the-scenes look at how she created The One and Only Ivan, a modern-day classic.

Rocco Staino and Robert L. Forbes announce the eight writers who will be inducted into the New York Writers Hall of Fame.

As part the library’s efforts to raise awareness about poetry leading up to National Poetry Month in April, NYPL is encouraging aspiring poets to “follow @NYPL on Twitter, and submit three poetic Tweets in English as public posts on your Twitter stream between March 1 and 10, 2013.”

New York City middle school librarian and social media devotee Deven Black caught the attention of many in the library community a few weeks ago with an unusual blog post in which he lamented being underutilized by his school. SLJ caught up with Black for a candid interview on his unusual path to librarianship, why partnering with one’s principal is key to a successful school library, and the challenges (and triumphs) of professional development.