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This is a drawing of my favorite tree from my childhood. It was the greatest climbing tree ever. It even had a place where a branch separated and grew back together to form a throne to sit on. It was an avocado tree, so it also provided a tasty snack and a plenitude of amo to through at neighborhood bullies.

I grew up in Leucadia, California, which was entirely covered in avocado orchards and small green houses before anyone started building real houses. It was a lazy beach town with a population comprised of surfers, hippies, and immigrants. As the years wore on, the trees were all but sacrificed for the cement and wood of housing and commercial pursuits. The beach culture, that I loved, was transformed into a consumer culture. Yet through it all this tree still stands on Sanford St. in the front yard of the house I grew up in.

Hey! Josh Pincus made a few suggestions for the weekly challenge and I thought this one looked like fun: "My Hometown (illustrate something specific to the city where you live or the city where you're from)"

My Hometown

Again, illustrate something about your hometown - the city you live in or are from. Have fun!

…gets underway on Tuesday 4 March, with five writers, plus publisher Andrew Kelly and a surprise or two. The first Booktalkers features Lee Fox, Elizabeth Fensham, Allayne Webster, Sean Condon and James Roy. Venue is the Village Roadshow Theatrette, State Library of Victoria. We kick off at 6.30pm and the event is fully catered. Admission is [...]

At Insideadog, the Australian website of the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library Victoria (Australia), voting is underway for the Inkys awards for best Australian and international books of the year. The site, designed especially for young readers, solicits voting from 12-18-year-olds. Shaun Tan’s The Arrival is shortlisted for Golden Inky (best YA Australian book) and Looking for Alaska by John Green for the international Silver Inky award. Every week until the contest ends November 9, kids can click “Win Stuff” and answer an opinion question to enter a drawing for one of the shortlisted books. There are lots of other goodies at Insideadog, including guest authors who blog for a month, teen book reviews and discussions, and more book giveaways, plus audio downloads and first chapters to read online. Check it out and send the link to a Australian teen bibliophile!

Annie Donwerth Chikamatsu of Here and There Japan reports on a similar (and different) process for the Sakura Medal Awards. Her report for the SCWBI Tokyo newsletter (scroll down to page 11) provides more details about this great Japanese students’ choice award.

Educating Alice’s Monica Edinger’s fourth grade classroom sure is lucky to have such an inspiring and committed teacher. Immigration is their year’s theme, so she is working with students on different projects using Shaun Tan’s magnificent, wordless book The Arrival. She has been documenting the experience on Educating Alice and her classblog, featuring comments, podcasts, and photos.

Enjoy, vicariously, the loads of learning and fun they are concocting, or get ideas for how to use the book in your own classroom. They will be working with The Arrival for at least another week, so make sure to check her “In the Classroom” updates.

… and if you haven’t checked it out yet, be sure to do so. The focus of this issue is Young Adult books, including interviews with YA authors Alan Gratz (Samurai Shortstop) and Hazel Edwards (Antarctica’s Frozen Chosen); and YA librarian Miranda Doyle. Our Illustrators’ Gallery focuses on two artists who have contributed greatly to making illustration relevant to Young Adults: Shaun Tan (The Arrival) and Gene Yang (American Born Chinese).

Book of the Month is Paul Yee’s What Happened This Summer, a rich collection of short stories about different teenagers growing up in Toronto, with a focus on their Chinese Canadian backgrounds. If you’re looking for inspiration about which book to read next, try our Reviews section; and take a look at those selected by writers Susanne Gervay in her Personal View YA Books: Cutting Edge Literature and Mitali Perkins in hers, Teens Between Cultures: A Reading List.

I have also picked out a short list of only some of the wonderful YA books we have featured on PaperTigers: Open up and get reading: YA books you just can’t put down and I hope you will add some of your own suggestions - we would love to hear from you.