2009 Children's Literature

100 Scope Notes is one of my personal favorite blogs about children's literature. His end of the year review is fun and a delight...The Year in Miscellanea.

Tongue-in-Cheek Christmas Book List for Children

Looking to give books that convey just the right “if only you had tried harder this year” vibe? The 100 Scope Notes Children’s Book Lump of Coal Gift Guide is for you.

November 5 -- Thank a Youth Worker Day

Elmo Flu PSAs

A dance called "The Librarian"

Caldecott Medal Video

Randolph Caldecott, as performed by the Effin' G's.

Using Videos of books at Storytimes

Have you ever thought about using a video from YouTube for your storytimes? There are loads there. Here are two for the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

Great Drawing Sites

So much fun to be had at Jackson Pollock site and on Dreezle Be careful it becomes addictive. Goes great with our summer reading program theme.

We Read Everything

This is just fun to watch from Booklist editors.

African Alphabet Song

Love this song by Kermit and friends.

CREW Method of Weeding

The CREW Method of Weeding (Continuous, Review, Evaluation, Weeding) is out in the 3rd edition and is free! Plus the site has a good PowerPoint to use to explain it to groups.

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Return to the Hundred Acre Wood

An authorized sequel to Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner is due out the first part of October. It is being written by David Benedictus. Have you ever wondered how they choose the person to write a sequel when it isn't the original author? This one has me puzzled as to why him. I did a quick search on B&T, World Cat and our own database and although he is an author he has not written any children's books. He has read for several audio versions of some Winnie-the-Pooh stories with some very distinguished names e.g. Judy Dench and Geoffrey Palmer. Maybe this gives him a feel for the stories and the characters making him a good candidate. We shall have to wait until October to see how he does.

Where the Wild Things Are

Have you seen the movie trailer for Where the Wild Things Are? Usually I'm not that entralled with movies made from picture books, but this one has caught my attention. I may even go see it!

How Not to Use PowerPoint

We have all used PowerPoint and we have all got blurry eyed at watching badly made PowerPoints.
How Not to Use PowerPoint is a fun, but useful guide to help us avoid the mistakes.

Gesturing is Now Part of Early Literacy

Early Child Gesture Show Important Link To School Preparedness - Differences Discovered Based On Social Economic Status
The University of Chicago has just released the results of study showing the more a toddler gestures the more likely they will be better prepared for school than a toddler that used few gestures. The article refers to natural gestures such as pointing and waving goodbye. I wonder if there is a connection with finger rhymes since this is such an integral part of story times?

Center for Early Literacy Learning (CELL)

Center for Early Literacy Learning (CELL) has wonderful, ready to print handouts on early literacy for your storytimes. Not only for pre-schoolers but also for infants and toddlers. What a handy, and useful way to share early literacy with you storytime parents.

Print them out, hand them out, change them weekly.

Series Wiki

Webster Public Library in Webster, New York, has created a Wiki on children's fiction series. It is very easy to navigate and would be useful in reference as well as reader's advisory.