News & Features

Millions of fans will be flocking to football stadiums and television screens to cheer on their favorite teams. To enhance their enjoyment of the sport, readers may want to turn to this week's On the Radar selections for middle grade and teen readers, selected by the editors at Junior Library Guild.

Navigating the transition from high school to college can be really tough, and debut YA author/illustrator Ramsey Beyer has turned her experience into Little Fish. It is an honest look at making those first step into an exciting world, with new friends and discoveries around every corner. Five lucky SLJTeen readers will win a copy of Little Fish from Zest Books.

From educational equity and fan fiction to Kanye West and serious games, educator Antero Garcia brought it all together in a rousing keynote, inspiring attendees of the September 28-29 School Library Journal Summit in Austin, TX. The complete presentation is viewable here, along with additional comments from Garcia and related resources on participatory culture.

From Victorian England to modern day America, orphaned children often face struggles that kids with parents rarely confront. However, most middle-grade students will relate to the issues explored in these new fiction titles―from poverty to self-confidence―selected by the editors at Junior Library Guild. In fact, these works may give young readers hope about their own issues, while giving them stories that help them step back from their own realities.

Innovative school librarians invaded Austin, Texas en masse from September 28-29 for School Library Journal’s ninth annual Leadership Summit. With invigorating presentations by journalist Annie Murphy Paul, author of the forthcoming Brilliant: The New Science of Smart (Crown, 2014) and Colorado State associate professor Antero Garcia, library leaders gathered together to discuss and plan for the future of education and the profession. Take a sneak peek at some of the scenes from the weekend with a slideshow from the Summit.

She’s not a teacher or a librarian but, during the more than 25 years that Sesame Street’s Sonia Manzano has spent talking about kindness with Big Bird, letting the Count number her toes, and singing about trash to Oscar the Grouch, she has observed quite a bit about how kids learn. The actress, education advocate, and children’s book author was presented with the Américas Award in Washington, D.C., on September 23, given annually by the Consortium for Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP).

STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) is part of a new trend that integrates hands-on learning with STEM. It taps into children’s natural interests while also facilitating informal learning. Show Me Librarian Amy Koester shares how school and public librarians can incorporate STEAM into their programs.

Children's librarian Amy Koester shares some of her go-to STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math) programs, for all ages.

A recent, voluntary survey of 3,000 high school students by EasyBib, the online citation and research platform, shows that kids are wary of Wikipedia’s accuracy—but still turn to it as a primary research tool—and they condemn plagiarism, though it remains an issue for high schools. The survey also finds that students are increasingly seeing libraries as providers of tech resources.