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In SLJ's recent “Common Core and the Public Librarian” one-hour live webcast, Olga Nesi, regional coordinator for the New York City Department of Education, Division of Library Services, and Nina Lindsay, the children’s services coordinator for Oakland (CA) Public Library, discussed the national initiative and, in particular, what it means for public librarians.

SLJ staff wanted to share their thoughts on Trevelyn Jones, who retired as Book Review Editor after more than three decades. Industry representatives paid tribute in an appreciation of Jones's career in the October issue. Now, it's our turn.

All right.  Me stuff off the bat.  I was recently asked to moderate a panel of authors for the Children’s Media Association.  The panel consisted of Ame Dyckman, Joanne Levy, Katherine Longshore, Elisa Ludwig, Lynda Mullaly Hunt, and Sarvenaz Tash.  During the course of the evening it was suggested that we perform a Giant Dance [...]

Neil Gaiman's bestselling urban fantasy novel Neverwhere is still available to students at the library at New Mexico’s Alamogordo High School, despite recent news reports that it is “banned,” the school’s librarian and media specialist Vicki Bertolino tells SLJ. The district is currently accepting written public comments ahead of its planned review of the book’s literary merit.

Teen Read Week, YALSA's annual national adolescent literacy initiative, was held this year from October 13-19. Librarians who serve teens organized events, displays, and programs to encourage them to be lifelong readers and library users. This year's theme, "Seek the Unknown @ your library," is illustrated in this terrarium based on Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Boys, created by Molly Wetta of Lawrence Public Library, Kansas.

Word had already gotten out that Disney has a Space Mountain graphic novel in the works, but they filled in a lot more details at New York Comic Con last weekend. The book is due out in May 2014, and the Disney folks were handing out the poster above to promote it. Here’s the blurb [...]

Ann Jonas, award-winning writer and illustrator of numerous children’s books, died September 29 in Rhinebeck, NY. She is perhaps best known for Round Trip, which was named an ALA Notable Book and a New York Times Best Illustrated Book.

The Kids’ Right to Read Project (KRRP) announced that it has urged New Mexico’s Alamogordo Public School district to return Neil Gaiman’s urban fantasy novel Neverwhere to high school English classrooms.

Kiese Laymon’s debut novel, Long Division, is about 14 year-old City Coldson, an outspoken, slightly chubby, black boy who is sent to stay with his grandmother in Mississippi. Readers will love Laymon's frank, hilarious take on life in Mississippi in 2013, 1985, and 1964.