Newbery/ Caldecott predictions?

Click on the link to check out the books Super Librarian, Betsy Bird has her list of what she considers the contenders for the Newbery/ Caldecott medal awards.

Here's another article , this time from NPR, featuring a few of the wonderful picture books that might win the Caldecott medal on Monday.

Be sure to check the ALA website to watch the award announcement (beginning 8 am eastern standard time) or check the website later to read the list of award winners on their publicity announcement.

Interview with the Newbery Medal Winner

Click on over to School library Journal and read Betsy Bird's interview of

Katherine Applegate!!!

Author of the 2013 Newbery Medal winner -- The One and Only Ivan. 

Blog -- A Fuse #8 Production

It's 4 am and the temps outside are still in the high/ humid 70s. It's a good thing I insisted we turn on the air-conditioning yesterday. I took the grandkids to the pool yesterday afternoon. Although they jumped right in, there's no way I'm agonna do that until the pool warms up closer to 80 degrees. Instead, I sat in the shade and worked on one of the revisions I have to do for my graduate writing course. (I couldn't use my old laptop out of doors -- I couldn't see the screen. But this new MacPro laptop worked fine.)

There is one blog that is a daily read for me -- A Fuse #8 Production. Betsy Bird is a children's librarian in New York City who has been blogging for years, mostly about books, but she manages to insert a lot of other amazing things and links into her blog as well. Her writing is clever and a joy to read. Once a week she publishes a post she calls, "Fusenews." If you read no other, do read that one. Every paragraph contains news and views she's found across the internet, along with links. And on Sunday, she shows nothing but videos she has found. Mostly about books and writing, but she always throws in an off-topic funny one as well.

Click and enjoy. -wo

Choose a Winner

The Newbery has been announced.
The Caldecott has been announced.
In fact, every ALA award winner can be found in this list of 100 Magnificent Children's Books on Betsy Bird's blog today.

The only problem?

You have to figure out which one of these wonderful books will be the award winners. (to be announced in January)
Your choice.
I'm sure that one of these WILL be the winners, or at least one of the honor books.

However, if you don't agree -- or have other titles to suggest, well then, just click on over to her blog and add your favorite in the comments.
-wendieO

Elephant and Piggie love to party

Why do I have this picture of Elephant and Piggie here?
No reason -- I just LOVE it. Don't you?
(created by Mo Willems, found on Betsy Bird's Fyse #8 blog)

For those of you who don't have a young reader in the house, may I introduce you to the series of easy readers created by Mo Willems about two friends -- Elephant and Piggie. Winner of the ALA Geisel Award plus several honor book awards.
(You've gotta read -- There is a Bird on your Head.
This picture comes from -- I am Invited to a Party)
-wendieO

Newbery/ Caldecott 2011 predictions (so far)

Time to think about the big awards.
What? (you say)
But the fall books haven't come out yet.

So true.
And how many times have we been sideswiped by winners that we haven't even read yet, because they came out late in the fall and only the committee knew about them.

But still...
There's a great discussion going on over at Fuse #8's blog. Betsy Bird (the Fuse #8, herself) has laid out her predictions for these awards on her blog for all to see, discuss, and object to if they wish.
She's waving the flag for some of my favorite books of the year.

What are your favorites?
-wendieO

What is a Hero?

Are there traditional heroes in children's books?

Or is the 'Hero's Journey' more of an adult novel sort of thing?

Betsy Bird and her husband discuss this with all sorts of comparisons and examples from Children's Literature.
Join the conversation over at A Fuse #8 Production.

Who you Gonna Call?

Many people (I hope) know that libraries are one of the important community service groups whose funds are being cut these days -- right when people, both workers and those out of work, need the free information and services that libraries provide.

A little while ago some ghosts invaded the New York City Public Library. Click here to watch the video of it, and to see some of the behind the scenes planning of this public service spot for the campaign, "Don't close the book on the library," done by the group Improv Everywhere.

Betsy Bird, a children's librarian who actually works in the building where it was filmed, talks here on her blog, A Fuse #8 Production, about this event. (plus some other videos) Enjoy. -wendie O

The search for the Top 100 Picture Books

For you picture book fans out there, I hope you are following Betsy Bird's blog these days. She's listing the Top 100 Picture Books of All Time.

In March, she asked her blog readers to send her their choices of the top 10 picture books of all time.
I couldn't do it -- I sent her 12.
Naturally my choices focused on the writing (books with authors different from the illustrator) rather than those wonderful Caldecott winners done by Illustrators [almost wordless] or author/ Illustrators.

Using some complicated calculations, she came up with the top 100 of all time. Some of the winners are a complete surprise -- to her as well as to most of the rest of us.
This isn't just a list.
She is also writing reviews of them, analyzing why they work so well as picture books and offering them to her blog readers five at a time. She's into the top 30 of the list by now, but each blog post has links to the earlier reviews.

(and yes, I know this is not a scientific study -- just a survey of books submitted by her blog readers.)

Besides being a children's librarian, Betsy has some picture books of her own coming out soon, which means she's looking at these as a writer as well as a librarian.
Enjoy.
-wendieOld