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.

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.

Publishers Weekly recently released data on the best selling books of last year. Here are a few things that stood out to me. Only one book in 2018 sold more copies than The Wonky Donkey. Congratulations to Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown, you were the only book that managed to best the Scottish […]

When I stumbled across what-dog.net, I was curious. Could it really give a dog breed comparison for any picture? Initiate children’s book blogger mode. Phase One: Do a test run on myself: As much as I hate to admit it, this is exactly spot on and I am now certain this thing is incredible. This is […]

A few weeks back I talked about how in the final season of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Kimmy writes a children’s book called The Legends of Greemulax: Cut to last week, and the fictional book is now going to be a reality (via Publishers Weekly): It’s gone from being a picture book in the show […]

March Book Madness might be the programming idea you’re looking for in your library or classroom.

Today is Presidents Day and I’m here celebrating with a bowl of plain oatmeal, or as I like to call it, “The Champaign of Breakfast foods.”¹ It got me thinking about books coming out in 2019 that have to do with presidents. Turns out, some pretty interesting stuff. Let’s have a look. Did I miss […]

Now that the Newbery and Caldecott medals have been handed out, how are the winners faring on the New York Times bestseller lists? First up, Caldecott winner Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall: It hit the list last week at #8. This week, it fell off, but that may be because copies became scarce after all […]

I’m sad to hear that the great picture book creator Tomi Ungerer has passed away. RIP our beloved Tomi. Words escape us at this difficult moment but in the end, Tomi says it best. Yvonne, Aria, Pascal, Lukas and Phoebe Ungerer. Video Brad Bernstein & Rick Cikowski pic.twitter.com/b9A1PTKqVJ — Tomi Ungerer (@TomiUngerer) February 9, 2019 […]

This post over at Tales of an Elementary School Librarian had me thinking about critically acclaimed books that didn’t end up winning awards. I was especially curious about books that were on the National Book Awards shortlist – how many of them have gone on to win a Newbery Honor or Medal? I looked back […]

Children’s books can teach you how to do a lot of things. In 2019 they will teach you . . .

In January . . . . . . I got excited about some books. So excited that I shared 11 upcoming books I’m looking forward to instead of the usual 10. . . . I asked you to name these books by their LEGO-fied book covers. I thought #3 was a bit tricky. . . […]

Newbery 2019 committee has wrapped! Can’t wait to share amazing news tomorrow! #newbery2019 #ALAMW19 pic.twitter.com/UyVjk33W2k — Lalitha (@librarian_lali) January 28, 2019 The crowd outside the #ALAyma ballroom ? pic.twitter.com/Ng260xm25E — jennifer "cute snake emoji" laughran (@literaticat) January 28, 2019 Thank you Emmet for stopping by @alamw! ?#ALAyma #alamw19 #LibrariesTrasform pic.twitter.com/6e8bnuA5D0 — American Library Association (@ALALibrary) […]

Which Caldecott choice are you happiest with? Which book did the committee miss?