Kicking it old school this week by revisiting the old Morning Notes format…

Yesterday our National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Walter Dean Myers, took part in an Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Reddit. He fielded some excellent questions about his work. And divulged his feelings on muffins. Click here to read.

The 2013 Goodreads Choice Awards have been dispensed in the categories of Middle Grade and Picture Book. And the winners are…

Picture Book

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers

Middle Grade

House of Hades by Rick Riordan

Click here to see all the winners.

Can I say I love the 2013 Nerdy Award Finalists? I do. Too many good books to name here. Click here to see them.

Attention Michiganders – an incredible-sounding museum exhibit will soon be up and running in our fair state. Here’s the scoop via PW Children’s Bookshelf:

Opening December 14 at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts in Kalamazoo, Mich.,Fantastic Rumpus: 50 Years of Children’s Book Illustration showcases 120 works produced by 31 artists from 1963 to the present. Each of the artists represented in the exhibit – Mo Willems, Brian Selznick, and Ed Emberley, among others – acknowledges the importance and influence of Maurice Sendak’s work.

I gotta get over there.

Better Book Titles takes on children’s Christmas classics, with funny results. Click here to see them all.

(Warning: there’s cursing in one of them)

I gotta tell you, this whole Amazon drone delivery is one of the more unusual things I’ve heard in a while. Forbes muses on the positive impact drone delivery could have for print, saying “Drone delivery just might be the first development to tip the balance back toward physical books”. Click here to read.

The recent Boing Boing post about a dad that expertly colors in his kids’ drawings was cool to read, but did anyone else think this should be attempted in a children’s book? I’ve seen books illustrated by kids, but how about a professional illustrator/kid tag team? Click here to read.

A Winnie-the-Pooh sketch by EH Shepard that was thought lost is going up for auction on Dec. 10. Start saving your nickels. Click here to read.

While I search for it, head on over to School Library Journals Top 10 Apps of 2013. I found myself wanted to check out just about every one. App-solutely! (Nailed it.) Click here for the list.

I enjoyed this short and sweet article from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, “How Where the Wild Things Are Changed Children’s Literature”. I’m always impressed with the fact WTWTA won the 1964 Caldecott, and the article mentions both positive and negative reactions the book received when it was published. Click here to read.

It’s crazy – you get so focused on books in the U.S. that it’s easy to forget there’s an entire world of children’s publishing that we don’t get much of a glimpse of. Well then take a look at this post on the Loveliest Children’s Books of 2013. All of them Polish, all of them easy on the eyes. Click here to read.

Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood (A World War I Tale) by Nathan Hale. On shelves May 13, 2014.

I can’t say enough about this historical graphic novel series – now I see there will be more to talk about. The next installment arrives this spring. And with a cover like that, it shouldn’t have much trouble finding its way off the shelf.

The Fourtheenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm. On shelves August 26, 2014.

If you were online this week, chances are good you saw the big reveal for Newbery Honor winner Jennifer L. Holm’s upcoming The Fourtheenth Goldfish. With a plot that includes sci-fi elements, it looks to be a bit of a departure for Holm. Read more about the book at Watch. Connect. Read. Check out Colby Sharp’s interview with Holm at The Nerdy Book Club.

Attention school librarians! Matthew Winner (The Busy Librarian) and Sherry Glick (Library Fanatic) are up to something – challenging students to answer one question:

If you could change one thing about your school, what would you do?

They’re calling it GeniusCon, and are encouraging librarians far and wide to take part. Click here for more info.

What does Scholastic have coming down the pipeline? Their Spring 2014 Online Preview tells all.