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Such an exciting week this week with great awards, reviews and victories! As you can imagine, much of my focus has been on the upcoming Multicultural Children’s Book Day Event (1/27) and all the excitement surrounding this national event. Bloggers are frantically reading books and publishing their reviews and activities. Here an example:

Great review on multicultural children’s books from Lil’ Libros at @espanolita #ReadYourWorld!

All Sorts of awards and victories this week too! Here are a few notable ones:

2016 Newbery and Caldecott Winners  via @imaginationsoup

MCCBD now has it’s official poster thanks to the huge talents of Robert Liu-Trujillo! Sqqquueeeee! LOVE this poster!
FREE Downloadable Multicultural Children’s Book Day!

I was the first Featured Expert for 2016 on KidLit TV!

Booklists To Investigate
11 Inspiring Multicultural Biographies For Kids from I’m Not The Nanny

The Ultimate List of 2016 Children’s Picture & Board Books! at Here We Read.

Fond Memories of Katie Woo & 3 Book #giveaway via @PragmaticMom

Diverse Winter Books for Children-via @Multicultural Kids

A Snowy Kidlit Booklist at Jump Into A Book

Sadly, the book world lost a very bright star recently Godspeed Andrea Cheng Read the interview we did with her last year and also Lee and Low’s wonderful tribute post as well Remembering Children’s Author Andrea Cheng.

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Follow Valarie Budayr @Jump into a Book’s board A Year In The Secret Garden on Pinterest.

The post Weekend Links: Multicultural Links, Awards and Updates appeared first on Jump Into A Book.

A KidLit TV EXCLUSIVE!

Follow along with Best Selling author Hervé Tullet’s spirited reading of Press Here!

From Chronicle Books:
Press here. That’s right. Just press the yellow dot, and turn the page. The single touch of a finger sparks a whimsical dance of color and motion in this joyful celebration of the power of imagination.
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BESTSELLER
A NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER
AN ALA NOTABLE CHILDREN’S BOOK NOMINEE
A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR

“Brilliant.”
—School Library Journal, starred review

“An interactive book that gives the iPad a licking.”
—The Horn Book, starred review

Click here for your Press Here Activities GUIDE!

Watch Hervé Tullet’s FULL interview with Rocco on STORYMAKERS!

StoryMakers
Host: Rocco Staino @RoccoA
Executive Producer: Julie Gribble @JulieGribbleNYC

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Get Your Backstage Pass to view interview EXTRAS from Hervé Tullet: http://kidlit.tv/newsletter

Backstage at KidLit TV

The post Read Out Loud | Hervé Tullet’s PRESS HERE ! appeared first on KidLit.TV.

Modern First Library — the program that BookPeople and I began last year to encourage the purchase of diverse new titles along with classic picture books — was featured this past Friday on KidLit TV, with children’s buyer Meghan Goel and me interviewed about the program by author, pal, and all-around dynamo Phil Bildner. I’m […]

I have known Sarah Towle since my early days of writing. Back before I moved from Nice to New York and she moved from Paris to London. One day we may actually end up living in the same city! We … Continue reading →

• Hi-ho, folks. Well, there’s a nice little second part to that interview I did with Kidlit TV last week.  Basically, if you’ve ever wanted me to predict the Newbery and Caldecott on air or offer up my assessment of the worst written children’s book of 2014, you are in luck.  I think there may even be some additional free copies of WILD THINGS: ACTS OF MISCHIEF IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE in the offering as well.

• In other news, I wouldn’t call this next link workplace safe.  Not because it’s gross or inappropriate in any way.  More because it’s going to make you laugh out loud, probably in a rude snorting-like fashion.  The kind of sound a hippo might admire.  When I worked the children’s reference desk there were certain websites I was not allowed to read because they’d make me give great gulping guffaws and scare the little children.  And a close close examination of Goodnight Moon?  Yep.  That would be dangerous.  Ditto the author’s previous post on Knuffle Bunny.

• Hey, New Yorkers! Those of you who happen to find yourself with time to spare this Sunday and need somewhere to be.  You like author Gregory Maguire?  You like Tuck Everlasting?  You like the idea of actually seeing Natalie Babbitt for yourself live and in person?  Well Symphony Space is having a heck of a cool event with all these elements put together, and I cannot help but think you’ll have a good time if you attend.  Just sayin’.

• I come home from work the other day and my husband says, “So. You heard about that J.J. Abrams / Mo Willems thing, right?” Come again?  What the which now?  Yes indeed, there was a story going around the news about a case of mistaken identity between Mo Willems and Mo Williams.  It’s a funny piece, but I do wish they let us know if Abrams ever actually got in touch with Mo.

• Full credit to Zetta Elliott.  She has created a list of all the 2014 African American Black-authored middle grade and young adult novels were published in the US in 2014.  She found 40.  An incredibly low number, but the list should prove useful to those of you preparing for some African-American book displays in your libraries and bookstores.

New Blog Alert: With two small children in the house (slash taking up valuable cranial real estate) I haven’t indulged in my blog readings like I used to.  I miss things.  So a picture book blog like Magpie That can exist for lord only knows how long before I see it.  And talk about content!  Or a beautiful layout!  If the plethora of illustrators providing magpies along the side are any indication, this site’s been up for a while. A lovely thing to stumble upon then.

Oo!  Thing!  So recently PW was kind enough to write up my last Children’s Literary Salon on the topic of science fiction for kids (as in, why the heck don’t we have any?). Now I know that some of you are planning on coming to NYC for the SCBWI Conference at the beginning of February.  I’m sure you have a lot on your plate, but if you just happen to be free on Saturday, February 7th at 2:00 p.m., take a stroll over to the main branch of NYPL for my (free!) Children’s Literary Salon on “Collaborating Couples“. The description:

Living together is one thing.  Working together?  Another entirely.  Just in time for Valentine’s Day, join married couples Andrea & Brian Pinkney (MARTIN & MAHALIA) and Sean Qualls & Selina Alko (THE CASE FOR LOVING), and Betsy & Ted Lewin (HOW TO BABYSIT A LEOPARD) as they discuss the pitfalls and pleasures of creating collaboratively.

For a full roster of my upcoming Salons (more are in the works) go here.

The holidays are nearly upon us!  Time to buy things!  To chop down trees.  To find books for the small fry!  I can’t help you with the first or second of these necessities but #3?  Here’s a bit of an aid for you.  As you may know, Rocco Staino and KidLit TV have together been interviewing all the heavyweights in the children’s literary field.  Now he has a kind of holiday special (cool, right?) with three of my favorite folks: Jenny Brown (Children’s Editor for Shelf Awareness, director of the Center for Children’s Literature at Bank Street College), Susannah Richards (Associate Professor of Education at Eastern Connecticut State University), and Luann Toth (Managing Editor School Library Journal Reviews).

You can see the full roster of their recommendations here.

Not to be outdone, Candlewick sent their holiday greetings as well.

I sort of wish the guy in the bear suit had turned out to be Jack Gantos or Tobin Anderson or something.

Now can you keep a little secret?  This is a good one.  Here it is: If you would ever like to watch me grapple with my own personal hell, make me do a TED Talk.  This is nothing I fear more.  I like public speaking.  I like people looking at me.  But for whatever reason the prospect of doing a talk, like the one presented here by expert speaker and children’s librarian Shannon Ozirny of Vancouver, reduces me to a quivering mass of goo.  Fortunately, Shannon’s a pro.  Watch this:

Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the link.

And now, this series. It appears to be a sort of Dr. Who meets Buffy concoction.  I’m just amused that it’s supposed a group of adults with MLIS degrees and yet not a single one of them is wearing glasses.  Ah, Hollywood.  How you hate frames so.

Thanks to Marci for the link.

And finally, for our off-topic video, I never post cute cat videos.  Life is too short.  I’m not that kind of gal.  Certainly there are enough fabulous videos out there that I’d never have to rely on . . . OH!  Whack-a-Mole!

• Recently I’ve grown rather fascinated with the academic children’s collections of the world.  The rare book collections in particular.  With that in mind, what do you do if you’re an institution that specializes in archived materials, and yet you still want to engage young readers in some capacity?  Enter Teaching the untouchable, a great article by Dana Sheridan at the Cotsen Collection of Princeton University.  Written for College and Research Libraries News the piece really delves deep into how to best conduct rare book programs with real honest-to-goodness children.  Great stuff.

• I’m also fond of international children’s book festivals.  Monica Edinger just got back from FILIJ: Mexico’s International Children’s Book Festival and is willing to tell all.  Sounds like it was absolutely amazing.

• Whatcha up to tonight?  Got big Tuesday night plans?  No?  Excellent since there’s to be a Twitter chat between Debbie Reese of American Indians in Children’s Literature and brilliant librarian Allie Jane Bruce at 9:00 p.m.  Just go to #SupportWNDB.  Be there or be square.

• So cool.  Over at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, Jules got cartooned up.  I would love it if that became a regular thing at her site.  Everyone should cartoonify her when interviewed.

• Jules also tackled a recent re-illustrated title that will have librarians everywhere just shaking their heads, trying desperately to figure out where to put the darn thing in their collections.  If you’re familiar with the 2001 picture book Jim’s Lion by Russell Hoban then you’ll have a hard time looking at its new incarnation without blanching.  It’s one of the most innovative children’s books of the year but a psychological nightmare that would actually pair magnificently with Patrick Ness’s A Monster Calls, if nothing else.  Jules has the scoop.  Well played, she.

Wow.  Just, wow.  Kidlit TV is live, people, and boy does it look fancy.  I mean just LOOK at that site!  Someone put their heart and soul into it, that’s for sure.  Makes me feel like a bit of a slacker, if I’m going to be honest.  Boy howdy.

I am always very pleased with folks take public review sites like Amazon or Goodreads and use them to have a bit of fun.  One Hamilton Richardson evidently must have sat through one Mr. Men book too many and the result is a series of thoroughly enjoyable “reviews” that are all distinctive in their own little ways.  Thanks to Steve for the link.

• Sometimes you just don’t know if the name you see on a series is a real person or not.  Take R.A. Montgomery, for example.  Recently he passed away in his Vermont home, and if his moniker is ringing a couple bells that might be because he’s the fellow behind the Choose Your Own Adventure series.  Like any good child of the 80s I devoured my own fair share of CYOA titles back in the day, perfecting the art of sticking all my digits in between the pages so that the moment I chose poorly I could instantly retrace my steps.  There’s a metaphor lurking in that statement somewhere, I’d wager. Thanks to Mom for the link.

• Daily Image:

Christmas is on the horizon and you know what that means?  Time to start trying to figure out what to purchase for the children’s literature-obsessed person in your life.  Want an early idea?  I know it isn’t even Thanksgiving yet but I just discovered that that Children’s Book Council sells their old Children’s Book Week posters in a variety of different forms, dating back to 1921.  Everyone from N.C. Wyeth to the most recent one by Robin Preiss Glasser.  Here are some of my own personal favorites: