Strollerderby : children's literature

The 10 Most Popular Bedtime Stories of 2008

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:30:00 GMT

A recent British survey found that traditional fairy tales are no longer popular bedtime stories for children. So what are parents choosing to read instead? According to The Baby Web Site, which conducted the survey, the top 10 children's books of last year were mostly funny or sweet tales, with a smattering of classics that have stood the test of time.

In order of popularity, here are the books that put kids to bed in 2008:

1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

2. Mr. Men by Roger Hargreaves

3. The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson

4. Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

5. Aliens Love Underpants by Claire Freedman & Ben Cort

6. Thomas and Friends from The Railway Series by Rev. W. Awdry

7. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

8. What a Noisy Pinky Ponk! by Andrew Davenport

9. Charlie and Lola by Lauren Child

10. Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Robert Southey

I have no objections to anything on the list (though I have always liked the premise of the Thomas books much more than the actual stories), but I must admit I was disappointed that the Skippyjon Jones books didn't make the list. Apparently, Spanish-speaking Siamese kitties are just so 2006.

What do you read your kids before bed?

Photo: jellybabies.co.uk

The Demise of the Fairy Tale

Five Nature Facts Kids' Authors Should Tattoo on their Forearms

Newbery Winners Decrease in Diversity in Recent Years

Shannon LC Cate — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:56:00 GMT

According to analysis by Brigham Young University, the diversity of characters portrayed in Newbery medal winning books for children has decreased significantly over the past 27 years. Only one book with a main character who is African American has won the award in the past eight years and only one with a Latino main character has won in 43 years. Additionally, Newbery winners tend to feature children living in two-parent households at a far higher rate than the general population.

Why does this matter, in a world full of great books for kids, medal or no medal? One reason is that Newbery winners are considered representative of the best of the best in children's literature. They remain in print perpetually and are often used as quick-and-dirty reading lists for busy parents, teachers and even librarians (after all, the Newbery medal is awarded by the American Library Association).
It isn't a matter of hippie-dippie tokenism either. One in three U.S. Americans are not white. On in four U.S. children live with only one parent or some other non-two-parent family. Lack of diversity in children's literature is a lack of opportunities for children other than Beaver Cleaver to see themselves reflected in their books. And a lack of characters to identify with may well subtly turn such children off of reading.

In my family, books are of central importance. We are writers, teachers (of literature, no less) and pleasure readers. We spend happy hours in independent bookstores, chatting up the staff and browsing every single section. My kids have no want of books--even books that reflect an aspect here and a trait there of their own highly unusual family. (We are two white moms and two adopted African American daughters.) But that's because we have the time and the inclination to look beyond Newbery for our library selections.

There is no dearth of good material out there that falls outside the narrow scope of white children in two-parent families. it's time the Newbery committee took a broader look at the possibilities.

Roald Dahl's Widow Recalls His Childlike Sensibility

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:30:00 GMT

Felicity Dahl, the widow of the beloved children’s book author Roald Dahl, rarely gives interviews. 18 years after Dahl’s death, she finds it difficult to speak about her husband without crying. But in an interview with the Sunday Guardian, she spoke candidly about her husband's writing and personal life in order to publicize the inaugural Roald Dahl Funny Prize, which will be awarded to a humorous children’s book author on Thursday.

Felicity (pictured), won now runs the Roald Dahl Foundation, attributes Dahl’s popularity among kids not just to his humor, but to the fact that he treated children as his “equals,” never talking down to them or forgetting his own childlike wonder. He would drink pink milk for breakfast and constantly look for ways to surprise strangers with “treats,” such as buying all the nurses on his hospital floor new clothes in the last months of his life.

Dahl’s life was punctuated by tragedy. His sister and father died of unrelated illnesses within a month of each other when he was young, and his own daughter contracted a fatal illness many years later. But Felicity said he kept positive in large part by keeping his child’s mind alive and well. “He was always looking to help people and just make their day a little more interesting,” Felicity said, “because most people's days were very dull.”

Felicity is certain that Dahl would have been sorely disheartened by the advent of Game Boys and Nintendo Wiis that occupy so much of young people's free time these days. “I think [computer] games are absolutely appalling,” she said. “A child is never left on their own with nothing, so that they have to create their world.”

On the upside, one million of Dahl’s books continue to be sold each year.

Photo: Antonio Olmes/The Guardian

Why Roald Dahl Matters

Banned Books Week: Is Racism Packaged as Children's Literature Defensible?

Shannon LC Cate — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 01:12:00 GMT

"It's not racist! My mother says it!" objected an acquaintance when I suggested she not continue to use the phrase "that's white of you"*

Why is it that people assume things associated with childhood or their own loved ones are magically not racist simply by virtue of that association? When I saw Little Black Sambo on the banned book list, I winced. Because there's more than a small part of me that would like to see such minstrel-esque images of Black people erased from the culture. (And before someone dismisses this by telling me that he is Indian, "Sambo" and his ilk migrated to America and came to be representative of the enslaved and formerly enslaved population here, too.) Maybe the world wouldn't be any worse off without Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, all those mammy-figurines made into salt and pepper shakers, pickaninny dolls, the film Birth of a Nation...

Two parts of me are at war when I see these things: one part cultural theorist with a specialty in black and white race relations in the United States and one part white Mama Bear to two beautiful Black daughters. Seeing "them" (all Black children reflect my daughters to me now) portrayed with caricature thick-lipped grins, rolling white eyes in an unnaturally black face--unnuanced by the shades of gold and mahogany that make my babies so take-your-breath-away gorgeous--doesn't just turn my stomach; it makes tears spring to my eyes. I want to slay the dragon of racism for my girls. I want to make the history go away. I want never to have to explain slavery, Jim Crow, minstrelsy and blackface, lynching, disproportionate Black poverty, and perhaps least of all the sexual vulnerability of Black women throughout American history from the first woman whose baby was ruled to "follow her condition" of slavery, rather than his slave-master father's.

And yet, it is these very forces that have brought my children to me. It is surely the fallout of centuries of racism that hammered their mothers into circumstances requiring them to place their babies for adoption. To deny this history is to deny my children's very existence--not just as my children, but as the progeny of generations of women who have struggled under the burden of racism and made life beautiful anyway; who have taught their daughters the true value of their minds, hearts and souls, however unappreciated by the world outside their skin. To hide the seemingly insurmountable obstacles these women (and men of course) have lived with and through is to hide the power of their spirits and the sacrifices of their heroes both famous and obscure. It is to take something away from their individual dignity and their collective glory.

Little Black Sambo was a fixture in my own childhood. The kind daycare workers at the church preschool I attended from ages three to five read it regularly to my all-white class. I loved it. I was intrigued by the mechanism by which tigers could churn themselves into butter. I was still too young to know that couldn't really happen. For all I knew, I would turn into butter if I ran in fast enough circles.

But just because I remember enjoying the story as an "innocent" child doesn't mean it wasn't/isn't racist. And just because I don't think it should be banned, doesn't mean I will be reading it to my own three-year old. But I think it is vitally important that these representations of blackness be acknowledged, remembered, taught, explained, critiqued, and understood. I will have to teach my daughters the shameful history of racism in this country, perhaps most of all because that history continues to unfold within our lifetimes. We should no more ban books like Little Black Sambo than we should pretend to be "colorblind." Acknowledgement of the real meaning of race in real people's daily lives and in the history of our country is necessary honesty required to fight against racism's continued power.

* For the lucky ones of you who haven't heard this, it's a fairly common southern expression meaning roughly, "you're a mensch!"

More from Banned Books Week here at Babble:

Banned Books Week: R.L. Stine's Goosebumps

Banned Books Week: Shel Silverstein

Banned Books Week: Kama Sutra for Kids

Banned Books Week: Little Women

Banned Books Week: In the Night Kitchen

Banned Books Week: Sarah Palin

Banned Books Week: "And Tango Makes Three"

Banned Books Week: R.L. Stine's Goosebumps

JeanneSager — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:32:00 GMT

Before a boy wizard bounced him from his post, R.L. Stine was once the best-selling children's book author of all time. And while his scary stories reigned supreme in kids' hearts, they sat at number 16 on the American Library Association's most challenged books of the 1990s.

The kids loved him. The parents loved to hate him. To be honest, I've never been a fan. He's been writing teen and child books since the the mid-1980s, so ostensibly I could have picked one up at the library over the years. I don't remember any. I do remember picking up a Goosebumps paperback a few years ago - my Harry Potter obsession serving as a gateway back into childhood literature in my adult years. What struck me wasn't how clever the book was or how I couldn't put it down - I could have left it just as quickly as I'd taken it - but that I finally understood why my little brother always had a tough time getting these back to the library on time. It was right up any preteen boy's alley. Which is exactly what makes people's attempts over the years to have them removed from library shelves such a travesty.

Getting kids to read as they enter the tween years - especially boys - can at times be like pulling teeth. A study funded by Scholastic in 2006 showed 40 percent of kids between the ages of 5 and 8 are "high frequency readers" who read for fun every day. That number drops to 29 percent of kids in the 9 to 11 range and even lower as they get older. Separating the genders, the study found boys are three times more likely than girls to say reading for fun is "not at all important."

Ironically, one mom speaking out in an 1997 CNN story about a parental movement to get Goosebumps pulled from the shelves at her local school admitted her son only read for school reports before he started picking up Stine's novels. "And I had to force him to do that," she said. Excuse the Homer Simpson moment, but . . . DOH!

If you want to encourage kids to read, you let them do it. You give them books or magazines that interest them. They can be reading absolute drivel and still learn vocabulary, sentence structure, grammar. Yes, they're a little scary - which is why they've been challenged over the years. But a generation of boys growing up without books on their shelves is enough to give me nightmares.

Image: Amazon

Banned Books Week: Shel Silverstein

Banned Books Week: Kama Sutra for Kids

Banned Books Week: Little Women

Banned Books Week: In the Night Kitchen

Banned Books Week: Sarah Palin

Banned Books Week: "And Tango Makes Three"

J.K. Rowling Takes Copyright Lessons from Professor Umbridge

Miriam Axel-Lute — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Apparently being the highest earning novelist of all time doesn't stop you from getting a case of distraught writer's block at the thought of fan publishing an encyclopedic reference guide to the world you created.

Steven Vander Ark's Harry Potter Lexicon went online 1999, and was wildly popular. Rowling even reported being fond of it and checking it herself while out writing. But once he got a contract to publish it as a book she cried foul and, with the kind assistance of Time Warner, sued. Vander Ark's publisher's lawyer argued that it fell under fair use of copyrighted material for reference books, but he lost (though was assigned the minimum possible penalty).

Intellectual property lawyer Paul Rapp has a few things to say to Rowling—and the judge. Specifically, he thinks the ruling is on sketchy legal and moral grounds and "contribute[s] to the paralyzing uncertainty artists face when they have an opportunity to create something new out of fragments of our culture."

I agree with Rapp. I do understand that she had plans to do her own encyclopedia, and that it would be annoying if a fan beat her to it, but is that a reason to get all sickly-dancing-kitten about the letter of the law over the spirit? Besides which, clearly hers would still sell, since it would have tons of original background info a fan wouldn't have access to.

I can see getting persnickety about spoilers. But isn't it the height of praise to have your fictional world considered worthy of its own reference book, in your lifetime? Worth, even, relaxing a little on maximizing your future billions?

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Eat Your Greasy Bloaters! Or Just Read This Book

Amy Kuras — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:31:00 GMT

Do you know Aunt Fidget Wonkham-Strong? Do you know what sneedball is?

If so, you're my kind of person. If not, here's some excellent news: Publisher David R Godine has bought the rights to, and reissued, overlooked classic children's books "How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Retired Sportsmen" and "A Near Thing for Captain Najork."

Aunt Fidget Wonkham-Strong is maiden aunt and guardian to Tom, a boy who likes to fool around. Aunt Fidget, however, disapproved mightily of fooling around and thinks learning off pages of the Nautical Almanac is a much better pastime. When she loses patience with Tom's fooling around, she calls in Captain Najork and his Hired Sportsmen, who come to town on their pedal-boat to teach Tom a lesson.

This reissue actually happened last year, but somehow I missed it – as a matter of fact I didn’t know there was a followup to the first Captian Najork book. My father read "How Tom Beat Captain Najork…" to my brother and I constantly when we were children, and when we each had kids he tracked down then-out-of-print copies for his grandchildren.

My three-year-old will finally sit still for it, and is beginning to love it as much as I do, probably because of the giggle fits I lapse into whenever I read it. It's a gloriously silly book, full of that sort of surreal
British humor that you either find funny or lame. It was written by Russel Hoban, better known for the Frances books, and illustrated by Quentin Blake, who also illustrated many Roald Dahl novels.

I'd highly recommend checking it out. Hey, it's better than cabbage-and-potato sog.

Book of the Week: Dudley the Daydreamer

editors — Fri, 30 May 2008 14:43:00 GMT

It’s odd when a children’s book is adult-relatable. Kid lit usually takes you to another world, frequently animal, with the express goal of teaching your little ones valuable life lessons. But Dudley the Daydreamer by Anders Brundin, illustrated by Joanna Rubin Dranger and translated by Frank Perry is a little more sophisticated than your favorite mouse. When we join Dudley in his ordinary world we get a load of adult drudgery: getting rained on at the bus stop, burning sausages, writing supplementary draft reports.

This Walter Mitty of Swedish children’s literature escapes his ho-hum job as assistant supervisor in the Civil Service by daydreaming of feeding ice cream to antelopes and landing on the moon. Even Dudley’s home life requires escapism. Rather than absorbing the nightly news, Dudley tunes out:

All they talked about on the news last night was war. War and more war. Someone’s got to save the world. “Find inner peace – stop making war!” says the head of the peace movement, Dalai Dudley.

While living in this alternate universe does not initially bode well for Dudley – he gets fired and can no longer daydream because he’s so incredibly hungry - eventually Dudley finds fulfillment in his “dream” job.

Other than the trite, “Hold on to your dreams,” the life lesson of Dudley the Daydreamer is this - when mom is shopping in the children’s book aisle, sometimes quirky illustrations and adult issues win out over sweet teddy bear families. – April Peveteaux

Dudley the Daydreamer (WingedChariot Press, 2008) can be found at Amazon for $11.01.

Book of the Week appears every other Friday. Sometimes every Friday. We’re fickle like that.

What's Up With No Cell Phones in Kids Books?

Madeline Holler — Wed, 14 May 2008 19:01:00 GMT

On about our 20th reading of Llama Llama Red Pajama, it struck me that Mama Llama was doing dishes while talking on a slimline, wall-mounted, spiral corded phone, and I wondered if my kid even knew what that was. I asked, she shrugged her shoulders, which could have meant "no" or could have meant "I'm not a trained monkey ... keep reading!"

Later, I flipped back to see when it was published, 2005. Christ, even my in-laws had upgraded to a cordless by then. That's when I started seeing dated technology in everything we read.

Slate has a nitpicky slideshow -- Llama Llama Red Pajama launches the pictoral thesis (I'm vindicated!) -- delving into why kids lit illustrators don't bring the most updated technology to the pages of kids books. One idea is that by dating the technolgy, parents are able to harken back to their own childhoods and develop a fondness for the book. In deconstructing the huge set of headphones on a passerby in Knuffle Bunny, the writer detects a nod to some Brooklyn dwellers' purposeful embrace of old technologies (yes, but would they call for take-out on that clunker of a phone in Goodnight, Moon? Just asking.)

Image: Slate

Circle Time: Latest Kids Lit Explains Why/How You Get High

Madeline Holler — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:01:00 GMT

It's official: my kids have the most boring books in America (and, alternatively, the most boring parents, too).

Not only do we not have the new kids book on plastic surgery, we also don't have It's Just a Plant, a 48-page children's story on why Mommy and Daddy get high.

Here's the beginning of the story in a tightly packed nutshell:

One night, little Jackie walks in on her mom and daddy passing a joint. Rather than scream or wave the smoke away or stammer and call them "happy candles," Mom and Dad invite Jackie onto their bed where Mom introduces the term "marijuana." (Dad's totally bogarting the joint while mom does the talking: see above pic). Turn the page and there's a jarring picture of Jackie and one of her parents whose clothes appear to be referencing the Sgt. Pepper's album cover, and you're like, "what are they, high?" Turns out it's Halloween (random!) and they're riding bikes to Farmer Bob's -- Mommy and Daddy's weed man.

Farmer Bob tells Jackie about the different parts of the marijuana plant. He confesses he doesn't smoke it since it "just makes me sleepy." (Farmer Bob, I so feel you!) Then Jackie's mom takes her to see Dr. Eden (note the trippy interior). Dr. Eden explains marijuana is just for grown-ups, not for kids.

Later, they walk by a group of guys, whom Jackie fingers like a little narc, "you're smoking marijuana!" at which point these men (all black, which might be relevant later on in the book, not sure, feels weird though) all tell her their preferred term for ganga/reefer/cheeba cheeba/sweet leaf ...

In comes an Officer Of The Law! "Hands against the wall!" Jackie's confused. The officer explains to the incredulous girl, "these men were smoking what I call grass!"

Which is when Jackie learns what her parents do is illegal, and also the cliffhanger moment.

Hey, anybody know how the story ends? Does Jackie become an activist? Or does she turn her parents in at the behest of her school's D.A.R.E. program officer?

Anybody shelling out the $15 for a little help in discussing their own Smoking While Parenting lifestyle?

Let's make some predictions? What's next in kids lit? Why Mommy Needs to Swab Your Cheek: Life After the FLDS Compound?

Image: It's Just a Plant

Corduroy Gets Contemporary

Jen Chaney — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:04:00 GMT

"Corduroy" turns 40 this year.

The beloved children's book, which introduced us to a cuddly teddy bear searching for a new button for his suspenders and a home to call his own, was written in 1968 by Don Freeman. Your parents probably read it to you when you were young. Most likely, you are now reading it to your kids. Even though the illustrations are a little dated, the basic message -- of how important it is to see the beauty in someone, despite the messiness that might exist on the surface -- still endures.

But as I recently read this sweet story, the children's-literature equivalent of a warm mug of cocoa, to my son, I wondered how the plot of "Corduroy" would be altered if it were updated for 2008.

For starters, Corduroy would never stay on a store shelf at full price with a popped suspender on his overalls. Someone would complain to customer service and he'd either go into a bargain bin or get taken off the floor completely. The latter option would make a pretty sucky children's book: "Corduroy is a bear who once lived in the toy department of a big store. Then some middle manager in the toy department stuck him back in the warehouse because his clothes looked ratty, and that's where he stayed until he accidentally got run over by a forklift."

2008 "Corduroy" would never be set in a department store like the '68 version was. Retailers like that don't exist anymore. The new Corduroy would be found in a Target. And instead of taking the escalator up to the section where mattresses are sold, our more modern bear would wander over to the women's clothing area, where he would accidentally knock over a couple of racks and eventually be discovered amidst a pile of Mossimo T-shirts.

In the original, a sweet girl named Lisa begs her mother to let her buy the bear, then saves up money to purchase him herself. In "Corduroy" 2.0, the jaded Madison would beg her mom for a rhinestone-encrusted cell phone. When her mother says that she's too young for such things and should still be enjoying kid stuff, like teddy bears, Madison would begrudgingly let her buy the stuffed animal for her.

As for the ending? Well, I like to think that would stay exactly the same. Once he arrives in Madison's bedroom, Corduroy would look at her and say, "You must be a friend. I've always wanted a friend." And Madison, all alone in her room, where she feels no need to act any age other than her own, would say, "Me, too."

And she'd give that darling, fuzzy, middle-aged bear a big hug.

Photo Credit: Viking Press Via Library of Congress

New Children's Laureate Promotes Cheese, Stink

Amy Kuras — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:35:00 GMT

When it comes to kid's books, I'll read goofy and zany any day over uplifting. If it doesn’t bore me to death to read it 17,000 times a week, my daughter will probably like it too, I reason.

So I thought it was kind of awesome that Jon Scieszka, author of "The Stinky Cheese Man' and "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs," has been named the first "children's laureate" by the Library of Congress Center for the Book and the Children's Book Council.

Scieszka, whose official title is National Ambassador for Young People' Literature, is a big believer in the power of funny to get kids to read. He's also the founder of the Guys Read initiative, which aims to get boys to love literature. When you think about it, a lot of the classics of children's lit are aimed at girls – the Anne of Green Gables and Little House on the Prarie books and almost the entire ouvre of Judy Blume, just for starters.

"Humor is essential," he told Newsweek. "When I was teaching second grade, if they were going to get a laugh out of something, they'd read it. The Children's Book Council and the Library of Congress wanted to change our image of kids' books being staid and calm and sweet!"

He started out as an elementary school teacher, which will give you the survival skills to engage kids if it doesn’t kill you, and also tested out his stories on his two now-grown kids. And he says he learned to write funny by just reading stuff that makes him laugh. Awesomely, one of the people he hangs out with is Mo Willems, author of such brilliance as "Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus." Now there's a daddy date I'd pay to crash.

Children's Books Online: Classic Lit from the Public Domain

Patti — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 15:03:00 GMT

One of the first things that made me think the internet might be good for something other than porn was the birth of sites like Project Gutenberg and Bartleby, where public domain works of literature were transcribed and presented for online perusal or download. Talk about a great way to get through the dark hours of a night shift during the mid-1990's! Now that all of us geeks have had babies, the internet's keeping up with the times. The Rosetta Project's Children's Books Online is a gorgeous repository of classic children's picture books of the sort our grandparents would have read, neatly scanned for your enjoyment.

Awesomely, there are numerous works in translation as well as several audiobooks, so you can download them for car trips and quiet time.

With the noisy clatter of modern websites geared toward children, it's sweet and kind of a relief to see old fashioned stories like these. Definitely going to be bookmarked in our house.

For more fun with downloadable audiobooks in the public domain, including children's literature, check this out.

Stephen Hawking and Daughter Writing Children's Book

Alisyn — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 18:11:00 GMT

The world's most famous physicist, Steven Hawking, has written a chlidren's book, George's Secret Key to the Universe, due sometime in Fall 2007. The book was co-written by Lucy Hawking, Steven's daughter, and illustrated by Garry Parsons.

Like his world-renowned bestseller A Brief History of Time, the new book aims to explain complex scientific concepts in a streamlined and accessible way. A brief synopsis:

George's parents, who have always been wary of technology, warn him about their new neighbors: Eric is a scientist and his daughter, Annie, seems to be following in his footsteps. Despite their warnings, George befriends them and Cosmos, their super- computer, and he finds himself on a wildly fun adventure, while learning about physics, time, and the universe. With Cosmos's help, he can travel to other planets and a black hole, but what would happen if the wrong people got their hands on Cosmos? George, Annie, and Eric are about to find out, and what ensues is a funny adventure that clearly explains the mysteries of science.

With Parsons' illustrations lending a sense of whimsy to the far-out story, it might really take off. Heck, I'd buy it. You?

J.K. Rowling to Libraries: Preserve This "Magical Moment" for Kids - Or Pay!

Alisyn — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 14:24:00 GMT

Scholastic book publishers and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling sent a strongly worded contract to all libraries in anticipation of the seventh and final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The contract states that all libraries must limit the number of employees who handle the books before the July 21 release and provide names and contact information for each branch manager. And failure to keep the book under wraps until July 21 could exclude libraries from receiving future embargoed titles. "We acknowledge and agree that any such violation will cause irreparable harm to Scholastic and the author, J.K. Rowling, and that monetary damages will be inadequate to compensate for violations," the contract states.

In other words: no peeking! NONE! Or no one in your town will ever find out whether Harry and Ginny end up together, whether Harry defeats the evil Lord Voldemort or is defeated by him, what the deal with Snape is, or how Harry and Neville's mysterious connection will finally play out (I'm convinced that it will figure into the new book somehow).

Scholastic spokeswoman Kyle Good says such strict guidelines are necessary to respect what J.K. Rowling calls a "magical moment" for children. "When you have a print run of 12 million books that you're sending out into the world, just in the U.S. alone, and you do want to preserve a very special moment for children, you take whatever precautions you need."

I love the Harry Potter series as much as anyone else, and I pre-ordered my Deathly Hallows copy from Amazon at least 6 months ago... but seriously? Contracts and proposed sanctions - for libraries? Isn't that taking it a bit too far? Does the same contract apply to private bookstores and giant superstores? I know J.K. Rowling is now more successful than god... but jeez, man. Take it easy!

New Harry Potter Book Will Kill Fewer Trees

Patti — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 19:35:00 GMT

At 784 pages and millions of preordered copies around the world, the seventh and final installment of the Harry Potter saga stands to destroy a lot of forests. But don't feel guilty about buying it: The first US edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be printed on recycled paper. This marks the single largest purchase of sustainably produced paper used in a single book printing--not so surprising, given that the first US print run will be twelve million books.

My kids are nowhere near old enough even to listen to these stories, so I have no excuse for how excited I am about this book. Maybe now I can chalk it up to my fierce devotion to environmental causes.

Of course, you can preorder the book at Amazon. You know, for your kids. And for the planet.

(via Naturemoms Blog)

Seuss, Dylan-Style

Patti — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:51:00 GMT

Theodore Seuss Geisel, better known to generations of kids as Dr. Seuss, would have been 103 this Friday. We'll be celebrating his birthday at my daughter's preschool with, of course, green eggs and ham. We'll be celebrating at home with the works of Seuss as interpreted by Robert Zimmerman, better known to generations of kids as Bob Dylan (or, to clarify: by an uncanny impersonator of Dylan). Now that's one for your preschooler's iPod.

(via Fuse #8)

Who are the Best and Worst Parents In Children's Lit?

Patti — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 12:42:00 GMT

Great children's-lit blog The Longstockings' Question of the Week: Who are the best and worst parents in children's literature? Daphne at Longstockings chooses the dysfunctional parents in Adrienne Vrettos' young adult novel Skin for worst of the lot.

My choices? The parents in Roald Dahl's Matilda (that's Matilda at the right there, in case you've forgotten and your kids haven't grown into her yet) have always freaked me out. As cartoonish as they are, Dahl's knack for making his most grotesque caricatures hit so close to reality is at its best with the Wormwoods and the other adults in Matilda's life. And for best? Ma and Pa Ingalls, hands down.

Who are your favorite parents in children's lit? Who are your cautionary tales?

Marley Was Dead. And Apparently Dickens Is, Too.

JasonAvant — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 11:04:00 GMT

I never thought I'd be one to sing the praises of Young Goodman Brown, The Canterbury Tales, Billy Budd, or any of the classics forced upon me as a freshman in high school. (In my defense, I was 14, and if you asked me then who I considered to be a literary genius, my answer would have been Neil Peart.) With age comes appreciation, and while my tastes still gravitate towards writers who didn't wear powdered wigs or who worked by the light of an oil lamp, I'd argue that the classics still help us to understand the world today. But is classic literature being phased out of the classroom?

Janine Wood thinks so. In this article, she details her challenges in finding a copy of Great Expectations for her 12-year-old son, a quest that turns interesting as she finds that very people she encounters have read the book, and even fewer are remotely interested in it. (Before you ask - no, I haven't either. I was going to, right after finishing the Tom Clancy book I'm working on.)

One father she talks to asserts that "teachers don't read Dickens, so they don't assign him." Indeed, her son's assigned reading list is missing a number of writers that should be standard issue - no Mark Twain? Really? Undaunted, Wood offers up tips on getting your kids to read great literature; she suggests reading the works along with your kid, and forming book groups to help them navigate their way through all the "prithee"s and "anon"s.

Like I said, when I was a kid, the classics weren't my bag. But there were a few I liked - I might have been the only 8th grader who read Moby Dick by choice, even if it was after I heard that Melville provided inspiration for The Wrath of Khan. The piece got me thinking that I need to put some Golden Oldies into the rotation (I do feel obliged to clarify something - the Tom Clancy line? Sarcasm. With a capital "arcasm".); I've been reading a ton of nonfiction lately, mostly about the Middle East. Maybe I'll revisit Shakespeare; after all, his Henry IV had some pretty interesting advice about a ruler's need to "busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels."

2006: Good Times For Kid Lit

Patti — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 12:00:00 GMT

It's my favorite part of a new year: the enumerating, the categorizing, the criticizing. It's Award Season! And it's happening in the blogosphere and it's happening to children's and young adult literature, as the short lists are out for the Cybils. Eight categories, five finalists in each (ten for graphic novels, split into two age groups). Winners should be announced early next month.

In the meantime, the wonderful kid-lit blog Fuse #8 has announced the winners of the Golden Fuse Awards with lots of fun categories like "Most Excessive Use of Violence In a Children's Book" and "Best Translated Picture Book", as well as several awards for cover art.

Leaving no stone unturned and no award unawarded, the Longstockings are calling for nominations for the 2006 Flappies, honoring the best cover-flap copy in children's literature (via the fine and always entertaining kid-lit blog The Miss Rumphius Effect)

Outside the blogosphere, for your consideration:

The American Library Association's 2006 Notable Children's Books

2006 Newbery Medal Winner and Honorees

2006 Caldecott Medal Winner and Honorees

Publisher's Weekly Best Books of 2006 (scroll down for children's books in three categories)