Morning Notes: Fly or Xylophone Edition

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 the Middle Grade category. Click here to vote in the Chapter Books category.

IF YOU READ ONE INTERVIEW THIS WEEK…

…Read Colby Sharp’s interview with Battle Bunny creators Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett. The authors give Colby’s questions the Battle Bunny treatment, rewriting the whole thing. Click here to read it.

WASHINGTON POST: A.R. IS NUTS

That’s the gist of this article by Valerie Strauss, who looked at how the concept of text complexity (measured via readability formulas created by Accelerated Reader) and how it fits with the Common Core. Be prepared for some pretty wild examples of readability gone wrong. Click here to read.

STAYING BUSY

School librarian Matthew Winner’s podcast, Let’s Get Busy, continues to roll along with strong episodes and guests. This week, Bob Shea and Matt talk about, among many other things, Shea’s hilarious picture book Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great. Click here to check it out.

KIDCASTING

While we’re on the topic, did you know Publishers Weekly has a children’s lit podcast? It’s called PW KidsCast and is hosted by John Sellers, the children’s review editor at PW. And the guests ain’t too shabby – Jerry Pinkney, Holly Black, and Kazu Kibuishi to name a few. Click here to check out all the episodes.

MR. HONOR

How about some Game of Thrones characters drawn in the style of Mr. Men and Little Miss books? Click here to check them out.