4.08.2009

Linktasticness: The Young Readers' Edition

I'll admit it: children's literature has gotten short shrift from me lately. I know, I know. It's just that, with all the bacon and wine out there, I was momentarily distracted. But I'm about to remedy that and give kids' books their due.
  • Teen blogger extraordinaire, Miss Erin, has a new look to her blog. Lovely. It inspires me to change my look at some point, as I used the generic Blogger design when I started up. Someday soon...
  • So this is late of me to be reporting, but SLJ has kicked off their 1st Annual Battle of the Books. BOB has their own blog, and Brown Bookshelf also had a great post about it. I've filled in my picks and I'm hoping my friend/colleague Lori will compete with me: winner gets a bottle of Casa LaPostelle Sauvignon Blanc - one of our shared favorites. Like everyone, I can't believe the Frankie/We Are the Ship match-up...come ON!

  • I just got the inside tip - and hopefully it's okay to share - that School Library Journal will be hosting their first-ever Day of Dialogue (but they're spelling it Day of Dialog?) at BEA this year. It will be on Thursday, May 28th. Stay tuned for more news!
  • Books of Wonder here in NYC is having a ridiculous amount of events coming up. I would love to meet Dan Yaccarino and, while I don't feel the need to attend the event, I do have to compliment Viking for Troll's Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales : that cover is absolutely wicked awesome! Not to mention that the book is a veritable who's-who of children's and YA authors. Well done!
  • I was forunate enough to meet one-on-one with the Director of Children's Publicity and Marketing at Chronicle Books recently to hear about their upcoming titles. It doesn't come out until September, but I am particularly excited about Creature ABC by Andrew Zuckerman, which is a concept book version of his adult title Creature . It's stunning and will appeal to a large age range - keep an eye out for it.

  • At a publisher's preview yesterday, a couple of us were bemoaning the fact that we hadn't read anything truly exciting lately. What's going on? Even if I'm hearing buzz about the book, it usually has a cover that so turns me off that opening the book becomes all but impossible. Lots of meh. Especially in the middle-grade fiction department: I keep joking with my YA compatriots that they get all the good stuff! Picture books are faring better - here are a couple of the books I'm really excited about*:
- The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney (Little, Brown, 9.09)
- Tsunami by Kimiko Kajikawa, illustrated by Ed Young (Philomel, 2.09)
- Birds by Kevin Henkes, illustrated by Laura Dronzek (Greenwillow, 2.09)
- Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas (Beach Lane, 1.09)
- Dinotrux by Chris Gall (Little, Brown, 6.09)
- Wink: The Ninja Who Wanted to be Noticed by J.C. Phillipps (Viking, 3.09)
* Based on what I've seen so far. For instance, I haven't seen Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Gennady Spirin or A Book by Mordecai Gerstein yet. I also really want to see Redwoods by Jason Chin.



3 comments:

Erin said...

I'm glad you like my new 'look.' :)

Busy Mama said...

Ok - so can't let this pass!!! I read your blog ALL the time - I am another librarian! So when you said you may need a new look someday- I just had to poke my head out here! I design blogs to help our family raise money for our second international adoption - just wanted to throw my info out there!!

Meghan said...

I'm starting to think middle-grade has Dragon Fatigue and they're not sure what to do with the post-Harry readers out there. That's one theory anyway...