News & Features

The American Library Association’s News Know-How initiative has selected the teen services department of the San Antonio Public Library to receive more than $50,000 to train and support kids in grades 10–12 in learning how to distinguish fact from opinion, check news and information sources, and distinguish between propaganda and news, the library announced this week.

Grumbling about the relevance of CES notwithstanding, several standout products are set to impact K–12 education. SLJ columnist Jeff Hastings taps the highlights, including one overarching trend that’s bound to affect a wide range of devices for all users.

Antonio Frasconi, the award-winning illustrator best known for his woodcuts, died on January 8 at age 93. Among his notable contributions to children's literature are his bilingual picture books The House That Jack Built, a Caldecott Honor Book, and The Snow and the Sun, an ALA Notable Book.

When you’re a parent you don’t get a whole lot of time to take off and see new movies.  Tell you something you don’t already know, right?  Well for Christmas my husband and I got a copy of Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom and even with the film in our home we STILL didn’t get around [...]

Librarians who serve children in predominantly Latino communities were shocked this past December to read a New York Times article claiming that there is a dearth of Latino characters in books written for young readers—a notion that is at odds with their own experiences. In fact, they tell School Library Journal, there is actually a wealth of resources currently available to these kids, and librarians have the power (and the responsibility) to make those meaningful connections.

If we build it well, a Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) can help school libraries meet the information needs of students even as local budgets shrink. The DPLA can provide important resources to the partnership between library-based and classroom-based teachers, especially during this period of rapid change in education, in libraries, in technology, and in the world of information generally.

This past December, YALSA announced the shortlist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award. Edited to add: The Award went to Seraphina by Rachel Hartman! You can get more information on the Morris Award at the YALSA website. I’ve had the chance to read and review all the books, and let me say, it’s going to [...]