Morning Notes: Awkward Illustrator Nickname Edition

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 Picture Books and Middle Grade & Chilcren’s. Click here for all the categories.

MORE BEST

Publishers Weekly also came out with their Best Books of 2014. The picture book category is a solid assortment with some unexpected surprises. I love that Naptime! made the cut. Click here to see the picture book list. The middle grade category is a bit more expected. Click here for the middle grade list.

COMIC COVER TO FETCH 250K

A quarter of a million bucks for the Spider-Man #300 cover, anyone? Click here to read.

Old Wolf by Avi; illustrated by Brian Floca. Out August 4, 2015

A Newbery Medalist and Caldecott Medalist team up for a novel about a boy crossing paths with a wolf pack on the hunt. Sign me up. Pretty striking cover by the ol’ Floc-ster.

Teacher Colby Sharp and teacher-librarian John Schumacher announced their 2015 Mock Caldecott list this week – a great collection of books that might end up with come gold and silver seals soon.

@JensBookPage leads the way to an article in SLJ about Skype author visits, written by someone who knows a thing or two about them – author Kate Messner.

It’s been making the rounds, but I would be a fool not to also share the latest (and excellent) Scaredy Squirrel video.

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