News & Features

If you see me in Seattle, please say “hi”. Remember, unlike how I look in my photo, I wear glasses. Also, I have these snazzy new business cards! Because I’ll be busy, I’m not sure when my posts about the ALA Media Awards or the various ALSC and YALSA lists will go up, but they [...]

Jan Ormerod, author and illustrator of many books for young children, died Wednesday in England. Ormerod began her kid-lit career more than 30 years ago after the birth of her first child; previously she taught art and design. Her first book, Sunshine, won the 1982 Mother Goose Award for British kid lit and was named the Australian Picture Book of the Year and an ALA Notable Book.

I'll hazard that many of us don't immediately think "games" when we think of "transliteracy," but why not?

School Library Journal’s fifth annual Battle of the Kids’ Books tournament, affectionately known as “BOB,” is about to begin! Modeled after college basketball’s March Madness, the tournament pits 16 of 2012’s best books for young people—everything from fantasy to nonfiction to wicked good romance—against one another in a winner-take-all online elimination contest kicking off on Monday, March 12.

With the Youth Media Awards just a few days away, School Library Journal editors and contributors took a stab at naming some possible contenders.

Scholastic will offer a free, behind-the-scenes video tour of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History with author David Baldacci as a guide. The “Decoding History” virtual field trip coincides with the release of Baldacci’s new book, “The 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers: Day of Doom,” the latest in the bestselling series.

Check out this week's News Bites for information on a business-related competition for students and teachers, minigrants offered to teachers and librarians by the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, and the latest publishing news.