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Scholastic debuts This Is Teen (aimed at getting more teens into reading by connecting them with authors and each other via a social network. Here’s a list of 50 books (every 11 year old should read. We second putting Treasure Island on the... Read the rest of this post

Sylvia Jean, Scout Supreme by Lisa Campbell Ernst

This is the second book about the irrepressible Sylvia Jean.  In this book, Sylvia Jean’s Pig Scout troop is working on getting their Good-Dead Badge.  Each of them has to select one a good deed to do.  Sylvia Jean realizes that she can help her neighbor Mrs. VanHooven who twisted her ankle and can’t walk.  Sylvia Jean gathers everything she is going to need to help Mrs. VanHooven and arrives on her doorstep merrily blowing her tuba in case Mrs. VanHooven has difficulty hearing.  Sylvia Jean arrives with too much energy and ends up tripping and falling on top of Mrs. VanHooven.  The doctor then insists that Sylvia Jean not visit any more to let her have rest.  But Sylvia Jean is not that easily turned away.  She comes up with a clever solution that allows her to keep helping her neighbor without her neighbor knowing.  But what happens when she has to turn in her information for her badge and no one knows how helpful she has been?

Ernst has poured so much energy and creativity into this young pig that she is more than a breath of fresh air.  She is a gale.  Sylvia Jean is a great character who young readers will enjoy spending time with.  Ernst’s writing and illustrations are filled with plenty of humor and the book moves along at a brisk pace.  The story is interesting and has more depth than many picture books.  There is more text here than in some picture books.  It reads aloud very easily and the details add to the story and the fun.  Ernst’s illustrations are done in warm colors and gently waving lines.  They are equal in humor and energy to the story itself.

Recommended as a read aloud, this book will be enjoyed by a wide range of ages and children.  Appropriate for ages 4-8.

Reviewed from copy received from Penguin Books.

Adding to our recent website update on illustrators…

When Australian writer-illustrator Alison Lester won an Antarctic Arts Fellowship to visit Antarctica in 2005, she created the Kids Antarctic Art Project. Her trip diary was monitored world-wide by schoolchildren who read her emails and drew pictures of what they imagined from her reports. In Australian Antarctic Magazine, Alison demonstrates the process of adding her own design and color sense to the kids’ drawings, with examples. The children’s literature museum Dromkeen has exhibited a sampling of the collaboration.

Alison’s trip has inspired two books so far. Snoopy Sparks Goes South is the journal of a young detective who travels south with her aunt, who is a bryologist (a moss biologist). With Coral Tulloch, another former Arts Fellow, she is working on One Small Island, The Destruction and Regeneration of Macquarie Island. They are sharing the writing and illustration and plan to finish the book by 2009.

Purr, Moo, and Roar are Alison’s new series for very young children. Her best-selling book internationally, Imagine, has been translated into 10 languages. Thanks to the internet, this much-loved Down Under writer-illustrator is available internationally, 24/7: take a look at these charming and informative excerpts from her master classes with kids and from an interview about her creative process with an Australian teacher.

An exhibition of Alison’s original illustrations for her recent and wildly popular Are We There Yet? picture book (about traveling around Australia) is being curated by Books Illustrated. (More on Books Illustrated here.)

Debbi Michiko Florence has bestowed upon me a great honor. I have been awarded a Roar for Powerful Words Award.




The Award
"According to the Shameless Lions Writing Circle -- the award was created to acknowledge "those people who have blogs we love, can't live without, where we think the writing is good and powerful." Each award recipient then presents the award to five other bloggers,"helping to scream from the mountains the good news about the powerful posts that are produced every day in the blogosphere."

It's a a fun idea and I'm honored to be recognized, so I figure I'll pass the award along:

Best Blog About Writng and the Writing Life But Also Puts in Cool Photos of Bald Eagles in Her Backyard: Kate Messner

Best Blogger Who Blogs Despite Being Confident Only Three People Read Her Blog: Liza Martz

Best At Staying on Task With Her Blogging Mission: Loree Griffin Burns

Best Blog With an Inanimate Sidekick That I Care About More Than Most People: Lisa Yee and Peepy

Most Overall Entertaining Blog About Random Stuff But Mostly About Writing: Greg Neri

and just because I like to break the rules, I'm adding a sixth:

Blog About YA Books That I Am Most Looking Forward To When They Start Blogging Regularly: Boys Blogging Books

And just to keep you abreast of the situation, I'm 139 pages into the first pass of my 213 page revision. Eat that, Jo Knowles!

Book I am reading now: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
Song I am listening to now: "Add It Up" by The Violent Femmes