NEWBERY IN 90 SECONDS Well, the Newbery announcement is coming in a week and a half, but The 90 Second Newbery Festival is also just around the corner. This is the fourth year of Young filmmakers retelling Newbery winners if often wonderful ways. A Fuse #8 Production covered it a couple years back and it looks [...]

FURTHER THEORIES… Let the conjecture continue! In the fall I tried to figure out what happens at the end of Sam & Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen. Over at Bookie Woogie, Aaron Zenz and his nine-year-old son talk about what they think happened, and I love every moment of it. Click [...]

SLJ GETS BESTING School Library Journal announced their best books of the year. I love seeing the excellently weird What If…? among their picture book picks. Click here to see the whole thing. KIRKUS GETS BESTING TOO Kirkus always seems to have one of the biggest Best of the Year lists. It’s out and about now. [...]

PICK THIS LIST Over at Brain Pickings, Maria Popova has selected her favorite children’s books of the year. It’s a list so cool it almost hurts, but it highlights some great books that you won’t find anywhere else. Click here to read. CHEZ DEPAOLA Alright – who wants to see Tomi dePaola’s house? You sir? [...]

BATTLE OVER MAURICE SENDAK’S BOOK COLLECTION Now that Maurice is no longer with us, what will become of his book collection? Two interested parties are having it out in court to decide. Click here to read. 25 DAYS, 25 BOOKS Niki at Daydream Reader is doing something cool to celebrate Picture Book Month – presenting [...]

BESTING THE BEST Last week’s New York Times Best Illustrated list opened the floodgates, folks. Now the Best of 2014 stuff is coming at a steady pace. First up today are the Goodreads Choice Awards. This is an award decided by readers, so head on over and vote for your favorites in the categories of [...]

KLASSEN IN DEMAND The Globe and Mail has a great piece about Jon Klassen’s career and current place as one of the most sought-after illustrators around. Click here to read. YOU ATE MY BOOK Halloween book return, anyone? Spotted at an Omaha public library branch. (Thanks to LISNews for the link) YOU CAN SUPPORT DIVERSE BOOKS [...]

SOCIAL ME-DIA I had a good time writing and article for School Library Journal this month about social media. They sneakily went and added an illustration (by Tom Richmond) of me where I’m sporting my favorite green sweater. Click here to see the sweater (oh, and read the article). As a sidebar, I listed five people [...]

UNGERER ON DEMAND Thanks to this tweet by picture book creator Greg Pizzoli: I found out that the Tomi Ungerer documentary I mentioned a while back is now available on Netflix. I started watching it tonight and had to tear myself away to write this. So far, so great. So if you have Netflix, get [...]

THE LIST BEFORE THE LIST The long lists for The National Book Award have been announced, including the category we care about – Young People’s Literature. Hmm, let’s see here – some middle grade, YA, a bit of nonfiction, fantasy, historical fiction – yep, just about everything. On October 15 the group will be pared down [...]

FURTHER PROOF THAT #WENEEDDIVERSEBOOKS Sorry to kick things off on a depressing note, but this story really bothered me. The UK Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman called for more diversity in children’s literature. Completely reasonable, right? The response was not. Click here for the whole story. WHO WILL BE S.L.Y.? That’s School Librarian of the Year. [...]

WISE WORDS FROM JON SCIESZKA Ambassador of Young People’s Literature emeritus (oh yeah, and much loved author) Jon Scieszka was interviewed over at Musing (How to Get Kids to Love Reading (Tip: Stop Telling Them How Important Reading Is)) and it’s the perfect reminder heading into the school year. A great post to share with [...]

FEAR THE SMOKING SCARECROW In shaking my head news, Bookshelves of Doom points to an article about a minor brouhaha concerning picture book The Scarecrows’ Wedding, in which the bad guy smokes a cigar. Click here to read. SLOW BOOKS Trees today, books in 100 years. That’s the goal of Future Library 2014-20114, an art project by [...]

SNEAKY, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, SNEAKY Who’s up for some cheap time travel? Check out the recent Spring 2015 Children’s Sneak Previews from Publishers Weekly. All kinds of eyebrow-raising stuff coming up. Click here to read. THE DAY THE CRAYONS CAME TO A THEATER NEAR YOU What I’m experiencing right now is the unexpected and sudden realization [...]

UNHAPPILY EVER AFTER The Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals are the oldest and most prestigious of UK children’s book awards. Both winners this year have less-than-happy endings. The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks picked up the Carnegie and will soon be available for US readers in spring 2015 – it was just acquired by Carolrhoda Lab. [...]