has entire picture books online! I’ve bought many picture books (based on reviews) that have turned out to be dogs. I always check Amazon to see if they have a “Search Inside” version - but often they don’t. This is even better - you can check out the entire book. The selection is pretty small now, but I hope they keep it up. A handy collection development tool, and it’s fun watching the pages turn.
Here in Vermont, we’re having a perfect storm of book awards. Voting for this year’s books and lists for next year are popping up all over.
The DCF committee is now offering online voting (yay Steve!) and their super new list is up too. (pdf) They’re going to get big props from my kids for including Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It probably won’t completely make up for the lack of Rick Riordan books, but it’s a start.
The 2008/09 Red Clover list is online.
Librarians need to send in the votes for both the DCF & Red Clover awards by Friday, April 11.
The Green Mountain Book Award tallies are due May 2nd, forms for reporting can be found one their site. The new list isn’t online yet, but was sent out to the listservs. Great books. (Sarah Vowell - wow!)
13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson
Black and White by Paul Volponi
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Bucking the Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis
Crank by Ellen Hopkins
Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
Inexcusable by Chris Lynch
It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Nick Vizzini
Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home by Nando Parrado with Vince Rause
The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci
With a new movie coming out every six hours based on a children’s book, I have learned to ignore the hype. So, it’s got to be a big deal for me to pay attention to another one. Ok, well, here’s a big deal.
Did you know that Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) and Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) have written a screenplay for Where The Wild Things Are?
Wha?
Footage from the film may or may not have been leaked online this weekend. Frankly, don’t care. I just want this thing now. I won’t post images here (big studio meanies are on patrol), if you Google them, there are plenty. They look gorgeous.
The Kindergarten and Primary classes greatly enjoyed Max’s Words by Kate Banks, a Red Clover book. We took inspiration from Max’s huge piles of words cut from magazines to sort our own collection of words (much thanks goes to the kindergartener at home willing to help with the cutting). Students came up with their own sorting schemes, including number of letters, first letters, vowel sounds, even width of font. The results look like nonsensical ransom notes. (If you’ve got the time, get the students to cut out their own words.)
The book is a great read-aloud and the project was a fun & simple literacy lesson. Yay, Red Clover!
Flotsam, by David Wiesner, Red Clover book and recent winner of the Quill award was a real fun read with the primary grades. First, we went through the book together (Wordless books are a challenge for read aloud. What works for me is letting each student narrate one page as I project it. Elmos are fabulous for this. )
Then, inspired by the wonderful illustrations and the fun ideas in the book, we made some great art.
We made our own versions of under-the-sea fantasy worlds and took photos within photos over time, like those in the book. It was really fun helping the kids figure out where they would be in the finished product. The last kids often said - aw, we’ll be so tiny! Then, after some thought they’d realize it went backward, and the most recent photo was the largest.
Oh, and there’s a beautiful book trailer at this site that might come in handy for anyone booktalking Flotsam.
I’m still disappointed by the spotty information I’ve found on graphic novels for k-8, but this new pamphlet from ALA has some interesting tips on shelving and challenges.
Graphic novels: Suggestions for Librarians (pdf)
ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom has prepared a downloadable PDF booklet (with artwork by Sergio Aragonés), in conjunction with the National Coalition Against Censorship and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, that offers tips on how to develop a graphic novel collection, ways to deal with challenges in libraries, and where to shelve them….
I first heard of Neil Gaiman from the students at the college where I used to work. I bought the Sandman series for that library and won instant approval for being so cool. Of course, I hadn’t read them and still haven’t (it’s easy to impress when you’re a librarian. You just buy stuff and the kids love you. You don’t even have to read it.) But now I’ve got a huge pile of Gaiman for grownups next to my bed, waiting for me to have a second’s break from YA.
Why the sudden interest, you ask?
The Dad I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish is about as close to perfect as picture books come. I’ve been raving about it to everyone who will listen. (Your turn!)
Goldfish is the bomb. It’s hilarious. It’s one of the books that’s a perfect storm of excellent writing and fabulous illustrations. My four year old and I crack up just listening to it in the car on my iPod. But the pictures - bam! So funny. Dave McKean, what a guy.
I’m also searching for the time to read Coraline with my 5th graders, and can’t wait to try out The Wolves in the Walls with the 3rd graders who keep asking me for “darker” books. (Really they do. They want books on Black Sabbath too.)
Gaiman is one of the few writers who don’t underestimate the intelligence of kids. I just love how he doesn’t lay everything out, he leaves you something to ponder. Why does the dad just keep reading his paper? Why the Queen of Melanesia? Why does his kid sister mumble when his mom comes home? (An excellent example of an illustrator and author working together.)
I’m sure Gaiman’s not for everyone. As in many of Raold Dahl’s books, his grownups are often clueless. The dad in Goldfish, and the parents in Coraline, might as well be mumbling like the parents in the Peanuts TV shows. The books are dark, and sometimes a little bit scary.
Like I said, perfect.
I’ve been reading Farfallina & Marcell by Holly Keller with my first & second grade classes for a couple years and I like it more and more. It’s an easy read for the age group, so it eases them back into sitting still and listening to a story. And it’s got a caterpillar changing into a butterfly, which gives the kids a chance to revisit last year’s monarch studies.
But what makes it right on target for a first day of school read is the way it leads into good conversations about friendships. The characters are consistently considerate of each other and treat each other well. When they meet again after each has grown and changed, neither recognizes their friend at first. Which gives us a chance to look around at our pals and see how much we’ve all grown, plus reminds us to play nice.
And what kid wouldn’t like saying Farfallina out loud?
I like it. It’s another of the millions of titles that seem to have flown under the radar, so I like to share it.
Follett is emailing offers of free copies of The Library Lion. I saw this book on the Eric Carle Museum’s new book shelf the other day. I can’t wait until Booklist reviews it.
A lion walks into a library. (So far so good). And there’s the uptight librarian Miss(!) Merriweather who’s only concerned with…rules. Is the lion breaking any library rules? No? Well then he can stay, as long as he’s quiet. I do believe I even spotted a card catalog. Ah, the good ol’ days.
You know, I wouldn’t be so annoyed by this book if I weren’t so turned off by these frequent attempts by publishers to suck up to librarians. How many mediocre kids books about librarians do they expect us to by? They know we’re all out here, thinking about what books to read to the little kids on the first day of school. They know we’re the ones with the book budgets. And who wouldn’t love a charming little book that told a good story as well as introducing the concept of library to little kids? Well, you know what, I would. So publish one!
Oh, and Follett includes a darling little plush lion. Let the love fest begin.