News & Features

“Summer is the time when you can read what you want to read, not what you have to read.” With that in mind, here is some middle-grade fiction and poetry that is perfect to suggest to young bilingual readers who are looking for something to read for pleasure.

An overview of sea life from coral reefs to sailfish, sea jellies to fiddler crabs.

There's something for everybody in this roundup of reviews from the teen book group, Bookmarked. Shawn Goodman's Kindness for Weakness is a contemporary coming-of-age story, much of which takes place in a juvenile detention center. Global warming meets mythological monsters and gods in Solstice, by P. J. Hoover. Kara Taylor's whodunit, Prep School Confidential, explores the obstacles a teen encounters as she tries to track down her roommate's murderer. Put these on your summer reading list!

Around this time I like to put some reading glasses (clear lenses – it’s for the look) on the end of my nose, pull up some data, and find out which books were the most popular of the 2012-13 campaign. Click here for last year’s list. We have a few weeks of school left, and [...]

The focus on the close reading of texts suggests a new idea to SLJ's columnist—an idea that taps librarians' expertise and offers an exciting approach to inquiry.

House Bill 5614 (An Act Cocerning Ebooks and Libraries) passes Connecticut House of Representatives. Bill now heads to Senate. From the AP: The state House of Representatives voted Tuesday 143-0 to pass a bill requiring the commissioner of consumer protection to report to the General Assembly on the issue by Feb 1. The bill, which [...]

SYNC is back in session again this year, offering two free complete YA audiobook downloads every week from May 30 to August 21. This is the third year for the program, in which a contemporary young adult audiobook is paired thematically with a classic audiobook title.

From the Columbus Telegram: The Columbus Public Library Board received its second materials challenge in five months and again rejected the protest. This time a patron objected to the book “Batman: The Killing Joke” by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland. [Clip] It is currently located in the young adult area of the library, but cataloged [...]

Three cheers for Miskatonic University! That’s the rallying cry of the La Vista Public Library (NE)’s teen advisory board—who, under the guidance of youth librarian and advisor Lindsey Tomsu, 2013 Mover & Shaker—turned its 2012 Teen Read Week into a massive celebration of the works of H. P. Lovecraft, complete with crafts, workshops, and a life-sized version of the complex, cooperative Arkham Horror board game based on the Cthulhu Mythos.