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Where were you when the lights went out on August 14, 2003? John Rocco’s Caldecott Honor book, Blackout, presents an inspirational portrayal of that iconic night in New York City. Be sure to check out the starred review of the DVD version.

Boxers & Saints By Gene Luen Yang Colored by Lark Pien First Second American Born Chinese creator Gene Luen Yang’s two new graphic novels can be read separately from each other, but that doesn’t mean that they should be. Boxers and its companion volume, Saints, tell individual stories about two young people during China’s Boxer [...]

October is Connected Educator Month (#ce13). The CEM calendar is packed with opportunities for growth and, of course, connection. The Starter Kit, by Sheryl Nussbaum Beach and Powerful Learning Practice, in collaboration with the Connected Educators initiative, is packed with links and videos and takes a 31 days approach for this special month, giving you one simple way to [...]

The worker bee and its vital role in the life cycle of the honeybee are interwoven with the threat that Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) poses to bees, plants, and humans.

Two Boys Kissing, David Levithan Alfred A. Knopf. August 2013 Reviewed from ARC Sometimes a book packs such an emotional whammy that every other aspect becomes irrelevant to 99.9% of the readers. Two Boys Kissing is seriously packing. Before I go any further, a disclaimer: I just read this for the first time last week. [...]

The exciting news this week was that I got to host a couple panels regarding Banned Books (it being the week of ‘em and all).  The first was at the Brooklyn Book Festival with David Levithan, Francesca Lia Block, and Lauren Myracle.  I then cannibalized my own questions and used them in this, a Google+ [...]

Young adult author Patty Blount was inspired to write her debut novel Send after her son was bullied, and was then accused of being a bully himself. Blount has come to realize that "perception is the root of most bullying."

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that Charise Mericle Harper thinks in words and pictures, to the extent that when we interviewed the prolific author and artist about her contribution to the new Fairy Tale Comics anthology, she prefaced her answers with this caveat: “Since I didn’t provide images to accompany these questions, [...]

To better serve the growing Spanish-speaking population in Dallas, TX, the local school district’s library media services director, Gay D. Patrick, put out a call for volunteers. Since 2006, this group of intrepid school media specialists, the Luminarias committee, has been developing an annual list of 20 of the best bilingual and Spanish-language books for children. Their goal is to help fellow librarians curate quality materials to meet the needs of the young Hispanic community in Dallas, while staying true to the culture and the language.