*UPDATE*

This morning, we go from the long list to the short list. DiCamillo, Graff, Johnson, Levithan, and Ursu are out. Click here (and scroll down) to see who made the cut in the Young People’s Literature category.

Inspired to take action after the Boston Marathon bombing, Joe and Susan McKendry created We Art Boston, a fundraising event and auction to raise money for the Boston Children’s Hospital. The auction includes contributions from over 50 well-known children’s book illustrators. Let the bidding begin. Click here to take a look.

Way back I created the Children’s Literature Movie Generator and the Middle Grade Book Title Generator. I was excited to see the excellent blog Reads for Keeps recently created a generator to assign narrators to audiobooks. The results are completely absurd (see also: great). Where else can you automatically generate sentences like, “Lois Lowry reads Green Eggs and Ham while floating in the International Space Station”. That’s gold, people! Click here to try it yourself.

Neil Gaiman’s recent lecture on the future of  reading and libraries has been making the rounds quite nicely online, but let me point you in that direction again. Gaiman’s comment that “Well-meaning adults can easily destroy a child’s love of reading”, is something we should all take a moment to reflect on. Click here to read.

Quidditch documentary!

From November 1-15 McDonald’s is set to give away 20 million books. While I wish the books weren’t created by an ad agency, I’m going to listen to the words of pal Neil Gaiman (see above) and say that this is still a god thing. Click here to read.

NPR recently spoke with John Bemelmans Marciano (grandson of Ludwig Bemelmans) about the staying power of Madeline. Click here to read or listen.

Real headline alert! One of the more inscrutable covers ever at the home of the inscrutable Sci-fi book cover, Good Show Sir. Click here to check it out.