• Lifestyle

    LibraryCon Live!

    A VIRTUAL FESTIVAL FOR BOOK NERDS, LIBRARIANS, AND FANS OF GRAPHIC NOVELS, SCI-FI, AND FANTASY Yesterday I got a chance to participate in LibraryCon Live, an event hosted by School Library Journal and Library Journal. It was really well put together with some awesome presenters, authors, and illustrators – the keynote speaker…

  • Lifestyle

    Early Literacy At Its Finest

    There’s a great article on the School Library Journal’s website about the positive effects of storytime on young children. Storytime began in the late 1800s and has changed drastically over the years from a time when children were expected to sit quietly and listen to an adult read books to…

  • Lifestyle

    SLJ's Battle of the Kids' Books

    Where do I even begin? This somehow got past me this year, so we’re in the think of round 1 matches right now.  A little background behind this fun event – The School Library’s Battle of the Kids’ Books is a competition among 16 of the very best titles published…

  • Lists

    Checking In: Newbery/Caldecott 2017

    Yep, you read that right.  Travis Jonker wrote up a great list of some Caldecott and Newbery suggestions for his blog 100 Scope Notes on  School Library Journal, granted we have no idea what the Committees will be talking about, but I’m in love with at least half of each of…

  • Lists

    SLJ's Battle of the Books

    The School Library Journal’s (SLJ) Battle of Books pits middle grade books against each other and for each battle there is a judge (and each judge is a children’s author) who gets to choose who will move on in the tournament.  My favorite part of this Battle is the way…

  • Lifestyle

    Winner of the 2015 BoB!

    I don’t have any clever April Fool’s joke for today, but excitingly the winner of the School Library Journal’s 2015 Battle of the Kids’ Books was announced today!  Drumroll please….. the winner is The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin.  And of course,…

  • Lifestyle

    SLJ's Battle of the Books

    Each year School Library Journal created a Battle of the Books focusing on 2014 children’s and young adult literature.  The 2015 judges have been announced and each battle is judged by a different person.  What is really fun (and sometimes frusturating) about Battle of the Kids’ Books is that the…

  • Lifestyle

    First Multiple Intelligences Library

    I just picked up the December issue of School Library Journal and came across a very interesting article.  I first focused on it because my sister is an interior designer and I thought she might find this idea intriguing and of course because it has to do with libraries, I…

  • Lifestyle

    It’s Never Too Early to Think About the Newbery Award

    In recent years, I’ve begun following the Newbery Award more closely.  It’s extremely interesting because the Newbery Committee does not provide the public with a short list of books that they are looking at for receiving the award, but there are plenty of blogs circling the blogosphere that offer their own opinions…