ANNA DEWDNEY: 1965-2016

Sad news. Anna Dewdney, creator of the beloved Llama Llama series of picture books, has passed away. Click here to read more over at Publishers Weekly.

CELEBRITY LIBRARIAN

I hope after this piece, Rita Meade introduces herself as “Celebrity Librarian Rita Meade”.

(Thanks to LISNews for the link)

PICTURE BOOKS FOR NEWBERY

After last year’s Newbery shocker (much much deserved, but a shocker), Heavy Medal is back in action with a batch of picture books that deserve consideration this year. Click here to read.

#OWNVOICES

Over at Reading While White, September is #OwnVoices month. The blog is featuring books “written by authors and artists of color and Native authors and illustrators.” Click here to read.

SOUND THE NEW BLOG BELLS

The Classroom Bookshelf is up and running on the School Library Journal site. Click here to check it out.

Gum Luck (The Amazing Gum Girl! Book 2) by Rhode Montijo with Luke Reynolds (Out June 13, 2017)

I was a big fan of the first book in this illustrated chapter book series, which was published back in 2013. I’ve been waiting on book two (especially hard because series years kinda work like dog years) and now it’s on the horizon.

Two things:

1. The Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast feature on Erin Stead and her latest, The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles, is awesome.

2. Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast recently turned 10 years old! Three cheers to that.

Jon Scieszka is a fan of the upcoming Jon Klassen book (and also, Scieszka is probably of the way Klassen spells his first name):

This is the picture book of the decade.
This is how it's done.
Art/text/design = story

All hail Jon Klassen. pic.twitter.com/JmyQXm1NjY

— Jon Scieszka (@Jon_Scieszka) September 1, 2016

If it’s a Video of the Month over at Watch. Connect. Read. you know it’s going to be good. And these don’t disappoint: you can now watch the Newbery (Matt de la Pena), Caldecott (Sophie Blackall), and Wilder (Jerry Pinkney) Acceptance Speeches.