Nobody's Secret, the latest offering from Michaela MacColl, continues to get rave reviews. School Library Journal's reviewer says, "The fast-moving plot makes this a well-crafted page-turner. The dialogue rings true, both to the historical time and to the chronological ages and social status of the characters." And SLJTeen's reviewer agrees. M.G. Higgins's Bi-Normal is going on my to-read list. I just finished listening to David Levithan and John Green's Will Grayson, Will Grayson, and I'm wondering what advice their openly gay jock Tiny Cooper would give Higgins's protagonist, Brett Miller.
After surveying the kids in my facility, I created the following system to rate the books that they're reading: one star = Wack, two stars = Bootsy, three stars = Koo, four stars = Clean, and five stars = That book Go! A book that’s “clean” is “real.” A book that “goes” has action. For my readers, a book is ideally both action-packed and real. What makes a book either or both? As usual, it’s not that straightforward, but here’s one attempt to decipher the question.
OK, rub it in—our music reviewer wasn't even born when My Bloody Valentine released its first album in 1991.... How about a puzzle game in which a cave with a "wicked sense of humor" is your guide? I don't usually associate puppets with blood and gore, but the review of Black Knight Sword has changed my outlook.
As dwindling funds and looming budget cuts reach many of the nation’s public libraries, 12 institutions received $5,000 mini-grants to support programming in their diverse communities. ALSC recently gifted these Día Family Book Club Program awards to expand El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Día) into an ongoing yearlong celebration. The winning libraries give SLJ some insights into how they garnered the much-needed funds.
After a directive by Chicago Public Schools last week to restrict student access for all grades below 11 to Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi’s award-winning memoir about growing up during the Iranian Revolution, CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett quickly issued a memo clarifying that the graphic novel should remain on library shelves. However, educators remain wary about the classroom restrictions, prompting the ALA's Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and the Freedom to Read Foundation to respond.
The books below will effectively sharpen readers’ knowledge and understanding of the Roaring 20's, from carefully researched nonfiction to perceptive examples of historical fiction.
Together we looked for ‘cheese holes’, or spaces in the story that allow the audience to participate in, contribute further to, and augment the original story using their own intelligence and imagination.
Learn how one man changed the course of history during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis in The Man Who Saved the World, a starred DVD from PBS.
Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead Wendy Lamb/Random House
Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz Candlewick
Judged by Franny Billingsley Shall I Compare Thee
They want me to compare you, the two of you. But I don’t want to. I’d rather compare you to a summer’s day, or to my Mistress’s eyes, or to anything but to each other. How can I choose between you when I love you both, when you are each so different? One of you temperate, the other anything but. One of you shaking with rough winds, the other blooming with the darling buds of May.
But perhaps this is the wrong question. Perhaps I need instead to ask, How do I love thee?
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
Let’s start with you, Splendors and Glooms.
You are the kind of book I adored as a kid and still do. You are The Wolves of Willoughby Chase; you are David Copperfield. You are gothic. Your words are like sugarplums, rich and sweet and a little spicy. Your words describe orphaned children and fiendish adults. They describe chilblains and secrets and locked towers. They describe Dickensian mud and Dickensian characters. It’s hard to out-Heep Uriah Heep, but your villainous Grisini, master of the greasy compliment, stacks up wonderfully well. Your words describe a magical world; they leave sugarplum visions dancing in my head. An opal that consigns its owner to a fiery death. A fire opal in a filigree …
