People

Alyssa Victoria Gardner is a 16-year-old skateboarder, artist, devoted child, and the great-great-great granddaughter of Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, written by Lewis Carroll in 1865. Her mother, Alison, has spent the last decade in Soul’s Asylum, where she eats only food served in teacups and spends her time talking to flowers and insects. Alyssa also hears insects talking, but has not told anyone—since she doesn't want to follow the same path as her mother. After a visit to Soul’s Asylum that's particularly disturbing, Alyssa starts to put disparate clues together and realizes that the only way to save her mother and her own sanity is to find the rabbit hole and put Wonderland back together again. In Splintered, which SLJTeen calls “satisfyingly sensual, delightfully dark, and absolutely riveting,” YA debut author A.G. Howard puts a modern-day twist on Carroll's classic.

animal poems with subjects ranging from pugs to geese to fireflies

As dwindling funds and looming budget cuts reach many of the nation’s public libraries, 12 institutions received $5,000 mini-grants to support programming in their diverse communities. ALSC recently gifted these Día Family Book Club Program awards to expand El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Día) into an ongoing yearlong celebration. The winning libraries give SLJ some insights into how they garnered the much-needed funds.

Slate senior editor Emily Bazelon has two new professions to add to her resume this year: acclaimed book author and school bullying expert, as positive reviews for her first book, Sticks and Stones , have been pouring in. In a recent interview with SLJ , Bazelon helps debunk some of the popular myths about bullying; offers insights and advice for educators, parents, and kids; and shares some of her most surprising discoveries while researching the book.

The American Library Association (ALA) will be selecting the presidents of its three youth divisions in the coming weeks, with voting opening tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. Central Time and closing at 11:59 p.m. on April 26, 2013. School Library Journal asked each of the candidates why they want to be president of their respective division, and what they would bring to the position. Here is what they had to say.

Junior Library Guild editors select picture books perfect for the younger set who beg for a scary story, but are safe enough to prevent nightmares.

Viz Media has launched a kid-oriented comics app, sticky DOT comics, which features a slew of Pokemon manga as well as their Voltron Force, Redekai, and Mameshiba graphic novels; Mr. Men and Little Miss are on the way as well. And they had another big announcement as well: They will publish a line of original [...]

Picture book author Jon Klassen, Little, Brown editor Susan Rich, and Little, Brown Art Director Patti Ann Harris at the Little, Brown picture book celebration.

Award-winning poet, author, and photographer Nancy Wood, who devoted her career to exploring the culture and lives of the Native American people of the Southwest, died this week in Santa Fe, NM.