A message to Taylor Lautner: stop being so handsome will ya? It seems like any time your flawless mug appears on a book cover in my school library, it goes M.I.A. It happened last year with this book… …and now it’s happened again. I’m calling it The Taylor Lautner Problem (not to be confused with [...]

Around this time I like to put some reading glasses (clear lenses – it’s for the look) on the end of my nose, pull up some data, and find out which books were the most popular of the 2012-13 campaign. Click here for last year’s list. We have a few weeks of school left, and [...]

Librarian: parade-friendly occupation. They bring their own floats. Every year in my town they hold a Tulip Festival, which is great if you like tulips (which I do – solid flower) or elephant ears (check that box yes as well). Our local public library joined in this week, promoting their summer reading program. (via the [...]

The following is a work of fiction. A 100 Scope Notes Investigation Ask anyone involved in children’s literature and they’ll tell you books for kids are getting longer. Are rising page counts due to changing tastes, a lack of editing – or something more sinister? Some believe it is a deliberate scheme to take up [...]

In April… …we previewed a brand spanking new children’s publisher. In a Preview Interview, Flying Eye Books laid their 2013 books on the table. …Tim Tebow was my gateway to biography section frustration. After a record-setting fall in popularity, The Tebow Problem hints at larger biography section difficulties. …I made a pitch to host a [...]

Can you guess the classic children’s book by its scathing one-star review on GoodReads or Amazon? Really, let’s say goodnight to a whole bunch of inanimate objects! Wow, that was a lot of fun. It feels like the book was written by an accountant. Now lets move to the next object in the room and [...]

We did something cool in my 3rd and 4th grade library. And by “we” I mean “mostly not me” – all credit for this project goes to library assistant Nancy and aides Tina and Mary. I helped, but they had the vision and the painting skills. About a year or so ago my school district [...]

Well, it happened again – a student discovered my world-record-holding look-alike in one of our library books. This time it was in the pages of Scholastic Book of Records 2011. A 3rd grader came up to me today and showed me this: Hicham El Guerrouj This has happened before. Turns out that Mr. Guerrouj holds the [...]

I was as startled as any to find that Amazon will be acquiring Goodreads, my favorite bookish social network site. I wrote about the topic for School Library Journal. Click here to read it. (Illustration created using Paper by 53)

Biography section – why are you so vexing? I think my frustration can be nicely summed up in one image: I like to call it “The Tebow Problem”. Has there ever been a biography subject that has gone from must-purchase to weeding candidate more quickly? Unless someone did a bio on Michael Phelp’s Mom, I’d [...]

This is unbelievable. And sad. via ChildLitZoom Patent trolling, the much maligned practice of aggressively enforcing a patent with no intention of manufacturing a product, has popped up in the most unexpected of places – children’s literature. In a case that is sure to be controversial, James L. Schmiddy, an Alaskan lawyer, has been granted [...]

In March… …we learned that Abraham Lincoln is alive and into graphic novels for kids. The reincarnated 16th President appeared in a video created by John Schumacher and Colby Sharp about Newbery-winning book Lincoln: A Photobiography. …we found out about some of the graphic novels hitting shelves in 2013. In the inaugrual Preview Interview, First Second [...]