Tomorrow I’ll be posting the latest episode of my blog with my sister Fuse 8 n’ Kate. In it, we’ll be reading a picture book challenged relatively recently somewhere in the continental U.S. To find such a book I consulted the American Library Association’s listings of Frequently Challenged Books. As I scrolled through the lists […]
Bolivar By Sean Rubin Archaia (a division of BOOM Entertainment) $29.99 ISBN: 9781684150964 Ages 7-12 On shelves November 28th It took a year and a half for me to notice, but by then it was too late. I moved to the Chicago area from New York City in what can only be described as a […]
Those of you that were fans of Melissa’s previous posting on this blog Diversity in Thinking will be pleased to mark her return. Melissa’s been running a series on her blog about expository literature, including guest posts from experts in the field recommending recent examples you should know about. What exactly is expository literature? I’ll […]
News! Of a newslike variety, no less. Here’s a question for you: What is the oldest blogger conference in the United States today? If you said Bookcon you are actually not right at all. The true answer is KidLitCon and this year the Con will take place from November 3-4 in Hershey, PA. You can […]
You know me. I’m a sucker for a clever book trailer. Book trailers in general are such a strange creation. No one knows the degree to which they influence readers to pick up their books. Yet there’s almost an art to their ephemeral creation. Today, we feature a book that is a pitch perfect example […]
*stumbles into the room* Is everybody happy?!? Okay. So. So it’s been quite the year already and we haven’t even gotten to the awards announcement in *checks watch* . . . Wait. The Youth Media Awards celebration is in February this year?!? For crying out loud, anything could happen between now and then. No no […]
Top o’ the Sunday to you! Let’s get down to business, shall we? First up, the best of the best of the best. Now I have scoured the internet for information on whether or not documentarian Frederick Wiseman will be showing Ex Libris, his latest film on New York Public Library, on PBS any time […]
The First Rule of Punk By Celia C. Perez Viking (an imprint of Penguin Random House) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-425-29040-8 Ages 9-12 On shelves now They don’t warn you in library school. They’ll tell you about all the cool children’s books you’ll get to read. They’ll stress how you’ll be able to make a difference in […]
A couple months ago I made mention of the fact that Bruce Handy, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, had written a book called Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult. Naturally I was curious, and not just because his book shared a title with my own. I approached it with […]
It’s back! It’s back! Steve Sheinkin’s regular series of conversations with great writers of books for youth has returned from its summertime hiatus. Steve has such a fantastic ear for the best parts of any dialogue, and considering the sheer amount of buzz that Ms. Heiligman’s novel Vincent and Theo has been garnering in 2017 […]
Am I surprising anyone when I tell you that our podcast episodes with the greatest number of listeners are the ones where we review bad or contentious books? Well if that’s your aim then time to bail out now. This week Kate has to grapple with the awesomeness that is Lon Po Po. Will she […]
When I lived in New York City I cultivated the usual roster of brigands, ne’er do wells, shifty eyed squatters, and general layabouts. In other words, actor friends! One of them, a good one, joined at one point with an organization called The Story Pirates. And though I never saw them perform in my particular […]
This is my son: He’s an appealing little squirt, and three years of age. That means that he has a particular adoration of construction equipment, sticks, hoses, and general mayhem. This, we anticipated. Encouraged even. But like a lot of parents out there I was not entirely ready for his #1 enthusiasm of all […]
On occasion I will do a presentation that encapsulates the history of children’s literature on social media. It’s fairly simple. You start with listservs, move on to blogs, work in the rise of Twitter, and then close with a variety of examples of children’s books (or YA, though that’s a different animal for the most […]
Happy tenth episode! We can’t choose favorite episodes, still being a relatively new podcast, but after recording this latest I can confirm that it is without a doubt the one closest to my heart so far. It is our first series book and our first listener suggestion. It is also the weirdest dang book. I […]
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