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Leigh Turina is Lead Librarian for the IBBY Collection for Young People with Disabilities, which is held at Toronto Public Library in … Continue reading ... →

Another year has flown by and it is almost time to ring in 2010. At this time of the year we are inundated with “Best of 2009″ lists and, for those of us interested in children’s and young adults literature, there is no better place to see the literature lists  than at Susan Thomsen’s blog Chicken Spaghetti. Susan has compiled a Best Children’s Books of 2009: The Big List of Lists which is truly an amazing resource and well worth your time to check it out!

In my mind 2009 was truly an outstanding year for children’s and young adult literature especially multicultural books. One of my resolutions for the year was that I would focus on reading more young adult books than adult books and I am proud to say that I succeeded! However I can’t say the same for my other resolution of keeping a list of all the books I read during the year. I’ll have to make a better attempt at that list in 2010!

Some of my highlights from 2009 were:

Wanting Mor by Rukhsana Khan

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

Little Leap Forward: A Boy in Beijing by Guo Yue and Clare Farrow, illustrated by Helen Cann

The Bite of the Mango by Mariatu Kamara with Susan McClelland

What about you? What did you enjoy reading in 2009? Any book related resolutions for 2010?

The 22nd Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival, one of North America’s premier literary events, takes place Oct 18 - 25 in Vancouver, BC. The Vancouver Sun just published a great article on the festival, Big Names and a Six-Day Smorgasbord for Local Books Worms, that gives a glimpse of the treasures in store for literary fans attending. The article highlights one event that I would love to attend but is unfortunately sold out: author Mariatu Kamara of The Bite of the Mango in conversation Kathryn Gretsinger.

On Thursday I will be chaperoning students in my son’s class to Event #29 - Hide and Seek with acclaimed young adult authors Gordon Korman and Matthew Skelton. My son Evan is most excited to see Gordon Korman in person! Last year Evan “discovered” Korman and was instantly hooked on his books especially the Dive, Everest and Island series. This promises to be a great experience for the students (as well as us chaperones!). Here’s the preview for the event:

Adventures around the world and through time join together these two skilled authors. A phoenix-like bird in a nest guarded by crows, a daring hot-air balloon ride, a skillful heist of animals from a floating zoo, a speedboat chase through the canals of Venice, modern Europe and 18th century Antarctica and 16th century England—all find their way into the books of Gordon Korman and Matthew Skelton. Novels can take you to places you’ve never been and times that you’ll never see. Come and play hide and seek with two of the best children’s authors writing today.

To read and watch the events unfold at this year’s festival visit the Festival Blog. 7 bloggers will be contributing text, audio clip interviews and photos on a daily basis.

Pat Aufderheide is a professor in the School of Communication at American University and is the author of Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction. In the post below Aufderheide gets excited for the Academy Award nominations by recalling some of her favorite documentaries.

Ready to handicap the documentary short list for the Academy Awards?

I didn’t think so.

In fact, unless you go looking, you might never even find a mention of these films before the Oscars, much less watch them, even with new Academy rules requiring more theatrical showings than before. But before long, they’ll start creeping into circulation, and feeding the growing appetite for documentaries. (more…)

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