This month's post comes to us from blogging librarian extraordinaire, Edi Campbele, whose insights and resource lists are seriously bookmark/blogroll material. This month of February is known as Black History Month in the U.S., and below, Edi has a fantastic list of ways that educators everywhere can celebrate with substance and style.

Every teacher has a curriculum to follow and for a school librarian, it’s called information literacy. Simply put, we work not only to develop a lifelong love of reading, but how to locate, access, organize and present information.

As teachers begin to plan special projects to celebrate Black… Continue reading

Lyn Miller-Lachman--activist, educator, editor of Multicultural Review, and the author of the highly acclaimed Gringolandia, "...a rare reading experience that both touches the heart and opens the mind” (School Library Journal)--is ringing in the new year by speaking truth to power. Gringolandia has been hailed as a "...poignant, often surprising and essential novel {that} illuminates too-often ignored political aspects of many South Americans’ migration to the United States.” The Horn Book raved that "the nuanced relationship between Daniel and his father is beautifully delineated, and the overarching exploration of injustice and its costs gives the novel memorable… Continue reading

Here in New York City, it can seem as though it's required to be extremely 'busy'. (And to talk about the busyness a lot.). And I know we're not alone. It's also the 'holiday season' here, which can intensify the pressure to have a lot of hustle and bustle going on.

A few book lovers share their favourite ways to carve out a 'circle of quiet':

Now, my favorite place is wherever I happen to be. More often or not that's my bed and the few minutes I have to read before I call it a night. When I was… Continue reading

p> Regina Brooks is a true Renaissance Woman. She is an author, the founder and President of Serendipity Literary Agency, and in addition to her careers in publishing, she's worked as an aerospace engineer for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, and made history as the first African American woman to receive a Bachelors of Science Degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Ohio State University. Brooks is also the Executive Director of the Y. B. Literary Foundation, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote the reading of literature as a meaningful, lifelong activity… Continue reading

It's not easy to write about 'issues' in a way that's not didactic or preachy, but there are those authors whose passion and prose create a story that does more than just introduce us to people and places -- we develop new ideas, make new meaning in our lives, and are inspired in unexpected and lasting ways. Below, readers and writers share their experiences with children's literature that 'has issues':

"Of course, in SHINE, I was focused on the issue of post-9/11 discrimination against anyone who was perceived to be Arab, Muslim, or Middle Eastern, but that was an issue I… Continue reading

People often ask why I wrote a book with a male MC, and I usually have a garbled answer, something along the lines of “Um, that’s the story that came out”, and that's true. But I do think that at its heart, 8th GRADE SUPERZERO is a sort of ‘school story’, and I’ve always adored those. The camaraderie, competition, self-discovery...that ‘midnight feast’/secret club element that always seemed to appear, the children’s world-unto-itself all just delighted and intrigued me to no end. In my reading life, the traditional British boarding school books, and classic stories from Charles Dickens… Continue reading

It was Ramona Quimby who first made me aware of the extreme wonderfulness of gummi bears -- though it was hard to find the highly coveted red cinnamon ones she loved so much. Sydney Taylor's All-Of-A-Kind Family series made me aware of the sweet, salty, and sour delicacies of the Lower East Side in New York City, (an eating expedition that I still take at least once a month), and I almost cried when I bought horehound candy at Disney World, because it tasting nothing like the sweet delight that Laura Ingalls had described. There are some books that… Continue reading

Congratulations, Blair -- you're our grand prize winner!

Last month, Matt de la Pena and Filmmaker Brin Hill allowed us a glimpse into the process of taking de la Pena's BALL DON'T LIE from page to screen. In Part 2, we find out what the collaborators think makes an adaptation great, how this filmmaking process has changed they way they think and work, and what this talented pair want to give YOU -- so read on, and enjoy!

What's going on with BDL now? Now that the film has been made -- what's worked, what's been… Continue reading

"don’t be too precious with the book – the book is one piece of art and the film should be seen as another piece of art merely trying to tell the same story in a completely new way. " Continue reading

Sometimes people, even the people you love most, won't get it. That's OK.

It's a good idea to have a one-sentence pitch/blurb/whatever about your book ready. (Note to self: do this already!)

Not everything in your head always shows up on the page.

Everything in your head shouldn't always show up on the page.

Stop, breathe, put the manuscript away for a bit before you respond to revision notes.

No matter what area of the book business you work in, there are always opportunities to get schooled. Some of the lessons hurt, some of them are moments of joy -- but we can learn… Continue reading

Author Anne Provoost wrote: "I want to write books that, if they had hands, would grab you by the throat.” There are those books, the ones that are not just good, or even traditionally great, but they get under your skin in wonderful and often painful ways. Books like AMERICAN-BORN CHINESE, GIRLS FOR BREAKFAST, and SOMEDAY THIS PAIN WILL BE USEFUL TO YOU yanked me into a must-look-away-but-I-just can't conundrum that was almost unbearable. Francisco X. Stork's MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD is so lovingly written, both heartbreaking and exhilarating in a remarkable way. Laura Kasischke's FEATHERED and Saundra… Continue reading

Connect with C. Lee McKenzie Today is  another thirteenth on the calendar and not only a thirteenth, but the second Friday with the number thirteen in 2009. First February and now March. How "lucky" is that? I wonder if this has anything to do with the plunging stock market? And here we've been blaming greed. Tsk. Tsk. I was thinking about how the world of children's literature capitalizes on our superstition.  One famous example that pops up when you Google those key words is A Series of Unfortunate Events by Daniel Handler AKA Lemony Snicket. Does he end his children's book series at… Continue reading

There are elements of There Will Be A Light by Ben Harper and The Blind Boys of Alabama, Bob Marley's Buffalo Soldier, and the music of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Odetta, and Tracy Chapman that feel as though they belong on the pretend soundtrack to SUPERZERO. My WIP is all about Blind Melon's classic No Rainand (more Marley) Redemption Song right now. And while generally I'm all about the soothing murmurs of Public Radio while I work, sometimes Dimitri from Paris, Roni Size, Lagbaja, Couperin, Yo-Yo Ma or Maxim Vengerov playing, or the Goldberg Variations are just the… Continue reading

With all of the grim industry forecasts around, it was heartening to read this op-ed declaring that all was not lost a few months ago. Then there are the articles that tell me that I'm not alone; The Book Loved By Everyone But You, and, at A Fuse #8 Production, a confession of Most Shameful Non-Reads, both nudge and comfort. Those blog posts that have you talking to the computer (it's not just me, right?)...the articles that you forward to all of your friends and then call right away to see if they've read them yet...the… Continue reading

In my childhood, I had the burning desire to become 'an accomplished woman', and am ever grateful to the tesseract for injecting magic into math and science; just the memories, and I'm instantly returned to that moment when a book became 'mine own'. Which children's books prompted you to try something new, or think differently? "...It was the first time I'd been to the library without my mom or my whole class, and Mrs. Coffee quizzed me about what I liked and what I'd already read and helped me check out what I think was the first novel I ever read… Continue reading

Welcome to Five Faves on Friday!   Olugbemisola Rhuday Perkovich, author of EIGHTH GRADE SUPERZERO (Arthur A. Levine Books), points out her favorites things about books, authorship, and all things reading, the first Friday of each month.  (Don't check your calendars for this month though, folks. The website wasn't ready last week, but you'll see her column again the first Friday in January.) Anyway, Olugbemisola begins her column at AuthorsNow! with ...

Five Ways to Find a Find

Glossy promotional campaigns, bestseller lists everywhere, that indefinable buzz that skyrockets a book to the forefront of our collective imagination -- we're inundated with… Continue reading