News & Features

The Hans Christian Andersen Award shortlist has been revealed; the Christopher Awards names six winners in the Books for Young People category; and Shmoop, a publisher of digital curriculum and test prep, is offering a new SAT math practice tool—Math Shack. All of this and more in this week's News Bites column.

This year’s nominees for the Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards have been announced, and it’s quite a varied lineup. Last year’s judges (ahem) increased the number of young reader categories from two to three, and this year’s judges have continued that practice, which opens up the nominations to a wider range of books. Best Publication [...]

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) has announced that the recipient of its 2013 Distinguished Service Award is Dr. Keith Curry Lance, a Ph.D. sociologist who works with school and public libraries and related library organizations.

Collaboration among teachers and media specialists is critical to promote learning, increase student achievement, and help students develop 21st century skills. Gale, part of Cengage Learning, and Library Media Connection magazine are calling for media specialists and educators at K-12 public and private schools in the U.S. and Canada to share their collaboration success stories by submitting for the 2013 TEAMS Award (Teachers and Media Specialists Influencing Student Achievement).

A picture book that focuses on Albert Einstein's intellect hrough the concepts that puzzled and excited him. Check out SLJ's starred review.

Timberlake's performance during the Grammy Awards earlier this year may have been panned, but our reviewer finds his efforts on The 20/20 Experience laudable. If you've never heard of Son Volt, it may be time to give their latest album, Honky Tonk, a listen. Been missing Lara Croft? She's back in Tomb Raider, a prequel to the wildly successful franchise that first launched in 1996.

These two guys have influenced a lot of lives. Fred Rogers takes a trip to visit Eric Carle in his studio. All thanks to @ZachariahOHora for the link. Skip ahead to the 12:30 remaining point to watch.

Michael Grant wraps up his Gone series superbly with the sixth book, Light. In Openly Straight, Bill Konigsberg depicts a gay teenager who wants to shed his "gay boy" label and just be one of the guys. And, Caprice Crane takes a crack at finding something new to say about mean girls in high school it with her novel Confessions of a Hater.

Veteran teacher, educational consultant, and author John Hunter talks to SLJ about his innovative World Peace Game, unlocking kids’ infinite potential, his faith in young people to improve our world, and how he daily inspires (and is inspired by) his students.