Kicking it old school this week by revisiting the old Morning Notes format… WALTER DEAN MYERS: MUFFIN FAN 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. [...]
CHARLOTTE ZOLOTOW 1915-2013 Sad news. Esteemed children’s author and editor Charlotte Zolotow has passed away. Click here for a piece remembering Zolotow in the New York Times. NBA NIGHT Don’t even tell me you’re thinking basketball. Tonight (Wednesday, November 20) is when the National Book Awards are doled out. This includes the winner for the [...]
HAVE A BOOKISH CHRISTMAS Well, this is a cool idea. In preparation for Christmas, Amy at Delightful Children’s Books is putting a bookish spin on the idea of the advent calendar – 25 days, 25 books. A fine, fine idea and an excellent batch of Christmas titles to boot. Click here to check it out. [...]
GET OUT THE GOODREADS VOTE The social network for book lovers, Goodreads, just unveiled their annual “people’s choice”-type awards. You can always count me in on checking out a best of the year list. As a whole, I’m liking their picture book picks more than middle grade group of nominees. Click here to vote in [...]
WHERE FOR ART THOU? I think any self-respecting children’s literature fan is going to be with me on this, but I believe the world may not need a board book version of Romeo & Juliet. Trimming the classics down to board book size is on the rise. Click here to read. A RARE PRIZE Do [...]
AN AMERICAN IN THE U.K. The Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize was opened up to American authors in 2011. This year, we have our first Yankee winner – Rebecca Stead for Liar & Spy. Click here to read. AN AMERICAN IN CANADA Newbery Medal winner Polly Horvath (born in Kalamazoo, MI and living in British Colombia) [...]
*UPDATE* NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALISTS ANNOUNCED 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. WE ART Inspired to take action after the Boston Marathon bombing, Joe [...]
THIS IS NOT MY FUSE NEWS Ok, stay with me here. The other day I noticed that I have a channel called Fuse and that they do a show called Fuse News. This may be funny (alright, mildly amusing) to librarians because the excellent blog A Fuse #8 Production does a weekly children’s lit link [...]
WHEN SEUSS AND POLITICS COLLIDE I’m a sucker for seemingly standard news stories where children’s literature unexpectedly pops up. That’s just what happened when Sen. Ted Cruz read Green Eggs and Ham from the Senate floor Tuesday night in the midst of an all-night speech against Obamacare. This seemingly incongruous choice of books (since Green [...]
PATTERSON WRITES CHECKS James Patterson is giving one million dollars to independent bookstores around the country. He’s the second-richest author in the world, so he can do things like this. He recently went on CBS This Morning to talk about his plans. Two criteria for getting a cut? The bookstore must be viable, and it [...]
The National Book Awards are a wholly different award animal than, say, the Newbery Medal. Whereas the Newbery is selected by a 15 person panel of librarians, the Young People’s Literature category of the National Book Awards is decided by a small group of five authors. It’s always interesting to see which books come out [...]
EVERYTHING IS STARTING Snnniiiifffff! Ah, the smell of fall. Now that it’s September, thoughts begin to turn to Newbery and Caldecott medal contenders. Right on time, blogs Heavy Medal and Calling Caldecott are back in business taking a hard look at the books that might win the big awards come January. NEWBERY AND CALDECOTT WINNERS [...]
POPPINS APPRAISAL I love this Antiques Roadshow video (sent to me by school librarian John Schumacher) of a woman getting a signed first edition of Mary Poppins appraised. 800 channels, and we can’t get an Antiques Roadshow: Children’s Books Edition? INDIE TOP 10 FOR THE FALL Every season the American Booksellers Association puts out a [...]
CYBILS SIGN-UP Man, do I ever love the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards (a.k.a. the Cybils). Having been a part of the awards for the last few years, I can tell you that being on a Cybils committee is definitely hard work, but a lot of fun. If you’re a children’s or YA [...]
SHARPEN YOUR SCHUS Have I talked about Sharp-Schu Book Club here yet? (The 100 Scope Notes Research Department says “nope”) If you’ve never checked out this monthly Twitter gathering hosted by teacher Colby Sharp and school librarian John Schumacher, here’s your chance. It’s part book talk, part chat, part author/illustrator Q&A session, and is meeting TWO-NITE. [...]
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