Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.
Each year when Caldecott medal and honor winners are announced, there usually at least one (and sometimes more) previous winners among them. In 2019 it was Sophie Blackall, who won her second Caldecott. So let’s have a look at 2019 books from previous Caldecott winners, eh? Maybe some of these will end up on the […]
Since it began in 2016, Illustoria magazine has been one of the coolest around. Billed as a mag “for creative kids and their grown-ups”, every issue is bursting with visual delights. Today the folks at Illustoria have some news to share: moving forward they will be published by McSweeney’s, the San Francisco publishing house founded […]
Over at the ALSC YouTube channel, they are slowly posting reaction videos from the 2019 Youth Media Award winners. First up, Newbery winner Meg Medina.
Can you guess the classic children’s book by its scathing one-star review on Goodreads or Amazon? Totally all about how racial profiling is a good idea and justified by reality. “Subtle” nudges in the direction of traditional gender roles. Other than that, pretty cute. Click here for the answer. Why do I share these? Click […]
The Other Half of Happy, Rebecca Balcarcel’s debut middle grade novel, arrives on August 20th. I have the honor of debuting the cover today.
Year after year, a Fuse #8 Productions proves she has more guts than your average blogger by giving her first round of Newbery and Caldecott predictions 10 months before they are announced. Meanwhile, us less guts-having bloggers just chime in with our picks mere weeks beforehand. But while I would be totally lost if I […]
It was a pleasure to present to the Oakland County Reading Association today with John Schumacher. If you were in attendance – thank you for coming! Click here to view the handout from the presentation.
As a child, Arthur Geisert really wanted to be a mountain climber. Selfishly, I’m glad it didn’t work out. Because now we have a bunch of great Geisert-created picture books (like this one). This video finds A.G. in his studio, talking about his life and work.
Last week author and illustrator Leslie Helakoski visited my school. We had a great time and I have the pictures to prove it. Looks like someone’s school got a new electronic sign that doesn’t photograph as nicely as the old one! In the weeks leading up to her visit, I read a bunch of […]
I scoured publisher catalogs (can I borrow your Visine?) and I’m here to share 10 spring books that I’m excited about. Picture Books I Love My Colorful Nails by Alicia Acosta and Luis Amavisca, illustrated by Gusti April 2 | NubeOcho | Grades K-2 This one’s for all the boys who like to paint their nails. […]
Can you guess the classic children’s book by its scathing one-star review on Goodreads or Amazon? It’s from a British author, it promotes witchcraft and sorcery amongst American children. It’s the 7th book that has done this very same thing. It shouldn’t be allowed to be sold in US bookshops or stocked in a school […]
STUDIO YUYI Want to see inside Yuyi Morales’ treehouse studio? Click here. TALKING ABOUT SEUSS The most must-read item of the week is one I think a lot of people would like to ignore: a report of the racism contained in the work of Dr Seuss. We all know about it in If I Ran […]
I met Jorge Lacera at the NCTE conference this year. Jorge illustrated the cover for The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya. He told me that he and his wife Megan had a picture book coming out in the spring and when I saw the cover/title, I was in. We are here today […]
2019 Mini Trend Alert! Well, maybe this one has been brewing for a while. I keep noticing 2019 picture books with characters that may be something different than they appear. I know I missed some – let me know in the comments.
Angie Thomas was on The Daily Show on Wednesday. She was a great conversation and I recommend you watch it.
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