News & Features

Acclaimed author/illustrator Ashley Bryan celebrated his 90th birthday at the Simon & Schuster Children's fall preview on July 25. The winner of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, and the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton and Coretta Scott King Awards was joined by librarians, publishing professionals, and fellow children's books artists.

School libraries in Galt, California, are open this summer and preparing to circulate 240 new Google Chromebooks to the community. Once slated for closure after a $790,000 budget gap, it's a big turnaround, thanks to community fundraising that started with a seventh-grader, who opened her wallet and said she would donate $40 to keep the school libraries running.

I’m very excited to introduce today’s novels, all three centered on emotionally damaged young women, and two of which are debuts that earn starred reviews from us.  I read the two debuts–Panopticon and Lotería–in short succession, about a month ago, and I’m hard pressed to say which I’m more excited about–both introduce readers to ferocious new talents [...]

Dodie Ownes, editor of SLJTeen couldn't keep quiet about Printz honoree A. S. King's latest title, Reality Boy, and reviews it alongside teen-approved This is How I Find Her by Sara Polsky.

The Big Brain Club is now offering its how-to manual for student publishing programs to any schools interested in participating. The manual provides a blueprint for the program, making it easy to get organized and up and running quickly, especially key with the new school year just weeks away.

Habo, an albino youth, seeks dignity and respect in Tanzania.

MTV recently surveyed its core audience, the Millennials, in order to better understand the younger subset of that group, ages 13-17, as they age into the older group, ages 18-24. And while the results may not be surprising, MTV's deft interpretation of the responses divides the Millennials into two distinct archetypes as represented by the two biggest names in fiction over the past 15 years—Harry Potter and Katniss Everdeen.

New Blog Alert: There’s a CCBC blog.  Did you know that?  I didn’t know that.  I am, of course, perfectly aware that only a good 15% of my readers instantly can call to mind what CCBC even stands for.  It’s the Cooperative Children’s Book Center and for years I’ve followed ccbc-net, their listserv.  I must [...]

How much do our expectations influence our reading? Sometimes it's the cover that throws you off, or maybe the author's back story. And then again, what we think is great may not ring the bell for the teens we serve. Amy Cheney presents several titles that have met her teen readers' expectations, including classics, self-help narratives, and YA novels for reluctant and urban readers.