Children's Book Week

Now in its ninetieth year, Children's Book Week runs May 11-17. It began as the dream of Franklin K. Matthiews, librarian of Boy Scouts of America, who hoped to encourage higher standards among childrens books. And judging from this year's Children's Book Award Finalists, I'd say Matthiews' dream came true.



A few of this year's nominees:

Donut Chef by Bob Staake

A fun, yummy read with great rhyme.

Pigeon Wants a Puppy by Mo Willems

Underwear: What We Wear Under There by Ruth Freeman Swain

Paper Towns by John Green

Possibly my favorite teen read of 2008 (along with The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks).

To celebrate Children's Book Week, I encourage you to engage in a little conversation with a child about a favorite book, author or illustrator (either of theirs or yours).

It'd be great if you'd take it a step further: read that book with the child and chat about it afterwards.

Display the book in a special place this week.

Print out this Children's Book Week downloadable bookmark, illustrated by Dan Yaccarino.

How will you celebrate?

********************5/12/09 UPDATE*************************

The 2009 Children's Choice Book Award winners announced!

I'm a little disappointed that Paper Towns didn't win, but if kids and teens are voting, I guess it'd be hard to beat out the Twilight saga. Congratulations to the winners as well as the nominees!

Library Jackpot

I had to work today and while there I finally picked up the huge stack of reserves that have been patiently waiting for me all week. I am excited to take a look at all of them. There's lots of non-fiction in this to-read stack, and a couple of teen books, including the Printz Award candidate, Paper Towns by John Green.

The complete list of what I picked up today:

The Woman Who Can't Forget - Jill Price

Beyond Time Out: From Chaos to Calm - Beth Grosshans

The 10-Day Glycemic Diet - Azmina Govindji

Reading Magic - Mem Fox

The Creative Family - Amanda Blake Soule

Let it Snow: Three Holiday Romances - John Green, Maureen Johnson, Lauren Myracle

Paper Towns - John Green

Creative Play for Your Toddler: Steiner Waldorf Expertise and Toy Projects for 2-4s - Christopher Clouder

My Stroke of Insight - Jill Bolte Taylor

Apples for Jam: A Colorful Cookbook - Tessa Kiros

Stay tuned to my Goodreads account for my reviews on these. (Assuming I get to all of them, which I highly and unfortunately doubt.)

Printz Discussion

I am very excited to be participating in the Printz Award discussion at CML this year! At the December Youth Services meeting each year, librarians gather for round table discussions of possible award-winning books of the year.

Each year, one of the three "biggies" (Printz, Newbery, or Caldecott) has a meeting devoted to it. Collectively, staff compiles a list of possible winners of the year. Librarians are assigned to a table, at which they will participate in a discussion of 5 or 6 titles. This year there are some great contenders.


My reading assignments are:

• Shift by Jennifer Bradbury


• Lock & Key by Sarah Dessen


• The Fold by An Na


• Ringside, 1925 by Jen Bryant


• The Compound by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen
  

I'm really pleased with this list. I read Shift over the summer and very much enjoyed it (even included it with my Columbus Parent reviews). The Compound was already on my to-read list on Goodreads. Sarah Dessen is an author I've not yet had a chance to read, but one that I watch and often recommend to teen girls. An Na is brilliant, and Ringside, 1925 sounds like an interesting historical novel.

I am ready to get started!