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The Hub has responded to yesterday’s brouhaha caused by this Care Bears press release from their pr agency, BWR Public Relations. Crystal Williams, the Hub’s manager of communications and publicity, sent me the following note this afternoon:

Hi Amid,

Last night I came across your story on Cartoon Brew titled “The Hub Hopes Men Will Start Calling Themselves “Belly Bros” and “Care Dudes.” In response, I wanted to let you know that this was an unapproved and unsanctioned pitch by our PR agency that we are completely taken aback by. Both The Hub TV Network nor American Greetings Properties had any knowledge of the pitch angle. It is not our intention to compare Care Bears to My Little Pony and/or the Brony community.

All the best,
Crystal Williams
Manager, Communications & Publicity
The Hub

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | 8 comments | Post tags: Bronies, Brony, Care Bears: Welcome To Care-a-Lot, The Hub

Win a copy on YA Book Queen. Register now through 21 Apr

First, I’m so excited to tell you that Julie Kagawa’s Immortal Rules trilogy (yes! the entire trilogy!) has been purchased by Palomar Pictures. Her response to the news?

Julie Kagawa ‏ @Jkagawa Guys, if you could see me…my feet are about 6 inches off the ground. Thank you all. #Giddy#theimmortalrulesmovie

Congratulations!

The State Farm Youth Advisory Board, a philanthropic program of State Farm, is accepting applications for youth service-learning projects designed to create sustainable local change in communities across the United States and Canada. Projects must be designed to address the root cause of the following issues: access to higher education/closing the achievement gap, financial literacy, community safety and natural disaster preparedness, social health and wellness, and environmental responsibility.

Applicant organizations must be a K-12 public or charter school, or institution of higher education. Nonprofit organizations also are eligible if they are able to demonstrate how they plan to impact student achievement within the public K-12 curriculum. Grants will range from $25,000 to $100,000. Deadline: 4 May

The White House recently responded to the School Librarian petition. Using the “We the People” portion of the White House website, the response concluded by saying

The Obama Administration remains committed to supporting school libraries and the critical role they play in providing resources and support for all students in their learning, to ensure that all students — regardless of their circumstances — are able to graduate from school ready for success in college and career. Check out this response on We the People

It seems that while some areas are continuing to eliminate school librarians, the state of Texas is struggling to find more people qualified for these positions. In reading about the shortage, it’s interesting to learn how they’re  transitioning from book based librarians to being librarians who working with accessing, organizing and working with information, not just books.

Do you know RE

As the chair of the inaugural YALSA Writing Award Jury, I am proud to announce the four outstanding pieces of writing contributed by YALSA members last year. After receiving a shortlist of nominations from the respective publications’ editors and managers, our committee carefully considered each of the article’s merits to select the winners. Without further ado, here are the winning articles:

• Sarah Ludwig for best article in the previous volume of Young Adult Library Services, for “Teen Tech Camp” (Vol. 9, Number 2). Sarah wrote an account of a three-day tech workshop at her library, including details about the planning process and the lessons themselves and a summary of what worked and what didn’t.
• Casey H. Rawson for best article in the previous volume of The Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults for “Are All Lists Created Equal? Diversity in Award-Winning and Bestselling Young Adult Fiction” (Vol. 1, Number 3: Spring). Casey examined diversity in books for teens along a variety of factors compared to the make-up of the U.S. population, including race/nationality, religion, family status, sexual orientation, and disabilities.
• Linda Braun for best post on the YALSABlog between Dec. 1, 2010, and Nov. 30, 2011, for “The Internet IS a Toaster.” Linda argues that librarians need to consider more than just the mere presence of technology as a draw for teens, but instead should think about new ways to market the services surrounding it.
• Maria Kramer for best post on The Hub between Dec. 1, 2010, and Nov. 30, 2011, for “In Which Our Author Tips Her Cog-Bedecked Top Hat to Steampunk.” Maria introduces readers to the wide world of steampunk literature and beyond in an entertaining and humorous fashion.

We encourage you to read the winning articles and congratulate the winning authors. The winners for the journals will each receive $500, due to the more extensive nature of their work. The winners for the blog posts will each receive $200. All winners will receive a plaque and be recognized at YALSA’s Membership Meeting at the ALA Annual Conference this summer in Anaheim, Calif. Of course, there were plenty of excellent contributions during the year from others, so don’t forget to browse through each publication’s archives for articles covering a diverse range of topics.

The YALSA Writing Award eligiblity period runs from Dec. 1 to Nov. 30 for the blogs and for the current volume year for the journals. Winners are selected based on the following criteria: applicability to a variety of library settings, originality of ideas, timeliness, relevance to young adult librarianship, persuasiveness of arguments, quality of writing, clarity of presentation, and contribution to the YALSA membership. Winners must be YALSA members at the time of submission. If you want to be in the running for this fledgling award, start thinking about writing for one (or more!) of the YALSA publications in the coming months. See below for more information about getting started:

• YALS: Accepts manuscripts on an ongoing basis that showcase current research and practice relating to teen services and spotlight significant activities and programs of the division. See the author guidelines or contact the editor, Megan Honig
• JRLYA: Accepts manuscripts based on original qualitative or quantitative research, an innovative con
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Today we bring you our weekly sampler of cool youth media and marketing gigs. If your company has an open position in the youth media or marketing space, we encourage you to join the Ypulse LinkedIn group, if you haven’t yet, and post there for... Read the rest of this post

Teen Read Week is officially October 16 through 22, but at The Hub, YALSA is celebrating all month long with 31 Days of Authors. On each day in October, The Hub will bring you author interviews and profiles and reflections on what YALSA-recognized books have meant to its writers and readers.

Today’s entry salutes Edwards Award winner Terry Pratchett (and Stephen Briggs, who narrates many of his audiobooks); the series kicked off this weekend with Courtney Summers, Gordon Korman, and Cassandra Clare.

So bookmark http://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/tag/31-days-of-authors and check in every day to see who we’re featuring and add your own reflections in the comments!

What does financial guru Warren Buffet have to do with Millennials? (A lot since he’ll appear on The Hub in a four part TV segment next month called “Secret Millionaire’s Club” where he — in animated form — will give teens financial... Read the rest of this post

If you think Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’ is bad (check out these other “artists” from the music label that spawned that awful song. Ark Music Factory is capitalizing on [wait, are they capitalizing, because we can't... Read the rest of this post

Today we bring you another installment of Youth Media Movers and Shakers. We've culled through industry publications looking for the recent executive placements we think you should know about. If you have executive news that you want us to highlight... Read the rest of this post

Jerkin' comes to MySpace (The urban dance movement started by LA teens will be the focus of "Jerk All-Stars," the first original web series to come out of the site's content partnership with Ben Silverman's Electus) (THR) - MTV looks to diversify... Read the rest of this post

The Hub, a network owned partly by toy company Hasbro, launched a little over a week ago with new animated series including Strawberry Shortcake’s Berry Bitty Adventures, G.I. Joe: Renegades, and My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. The network’s debut closes the curtain on what has commonly been referred to as the creator-driven era of TV animation, which lasted from approximately the early-1990s through the late-2000s. During this two-decade span, the balance of creative control in TV animation favored artists for the first time since the early-1960s. It was a fertile period that spawned dozens of lasting cartoon stars and series, many of which are still as popular today as when they first debuted ten or twenty years ago.

What clearer death knell for creator-driven animation than the reemergence of Margaret Loesch. After running Hanna-Barbera and Marvel Productions in the 1980s, and Fox Kids through the mid-1990s, her influenced waned in animation during the height of the creator-driven movement, but now she is back in the driver’s seat as president and CEO of the Hub.

Watching names like Rob Renzetti and Lauren Faust pop up in the credits of a toy-based animated series like My Little Pony is an admission of defeat for the entire movement, a white flag-waving moment for the TV animation industry. The signs have been there for a long time, however, and the Hub is but one indicator in the precipitous decline of creator-driven content, whose demise was hurried along by Cartoon Network and its decision to relaunch with large amounts of live-action programming. The erosion of support for creator-driven animation happened gradually but surely, and today networks clearly prefer established properties over original ideas, and dislike dealing with individual artists who have a clear creative vision.

Nobody denies that the Hub’s shows will perform well and fulfill the programming needs of the network. But then again, nobody suggested that Smurfs, Snorks and Pound Puppies wouldn’t do well in the 1980s either. The reason that creators like John Kricfalusi, Matt Groening, Mike Judge, John Dilworth, Craig McCracken, Genndy Tartakovsky, Danny Antonucci, Bruce Timm, Trey Parker, and Matt Stone stepped up to the plate originally wasn’t because animation was performing poorly. It was because these artists had a vision for the art form that was more inspired, more vital and more consistently creative than those of executives like Loesch; they aspired to create BETTER cartoons instead of simply acquiescing to committee-driven mandates that underutilized their skill and talent.

The creator-driven mentality stubbornly exists among a group of hold-outs and idealists (Pen Ward’s Adventure Time, Devin Clark’s Ugly Americans, Christy Karacas’ Superjail! to name a few), but their numbers will continue to shrink in the coming years. As TV audiences become more fragmented, and advertisers shift ad dollars away from TV, networks will increasingly rely on worn but reliable formulas. They will demand only the surest bets—Looney Tunes revivals, TV series based on feature film characters (The Penguins of Madagascar is already on Nick and Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness is coming soon), shows based on live-action films (Napoleon Dynamite is headed to Fox), and the toy-based ideas that comprise the largest

Perez Hilton promises to stop bullying (celebrities on his website — no "nasty nicknames," no "outing" people. The infamous gossip blogger even took to 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' yesterday to talk about how he's changing his ways….but is... Read the rest of this post

Today we bring you our weekly sampler of the cool youth media and marketing gigs. If your company has an open position in the youth media or marketing space, we encourage you to join the Ypulse LinkedIn group, if you haven't yet, and post there... Read the rest of this post

'Twilight,' Tom Cruise and lots of bleeping (dominated the MTV Movie Awards last night. Also Sandra Bullock accepted the MTV Generation Award. Understand the PR move, but anyone else feel like this was an odd fit? New York Magazine asks the same... Read the rest of this post

Today we bring you our weekly sampler of the cool youth media and marketing gigs. If your company has an open position in the youth media or marketing space, we encourage you to join the Ypulse LinkedIn group, if you haven't yet, and post... Read the rest of this post

Today we bring you another installment of Youth Media Movers and Shakers. We've culled through industry publications looking for the recent executive placements we think you should know about. If you have executive news that you want us to... Read the rest of this post

Today we bring you another installment of Youth Media Movers and Shakers. We've culled through industry publications looking for the recent executive placements we think you should know about. If you have executive news that you want us to highlight... Read the rest of this post

Today we bring you our weekly sampler of the cool youth media and marketing gigs you can expect to find on our Ypulse Jobs Board. If your company has an open position in the youth media or marketing space, we encourage you to post there. Post a... Read the rest of this post

Well this could be a total disaster!
I received this email last night from Georgia at the HUB ... in part it reads:

There has been pressure from all state departments of education for devolution, flexibility and choice in school staffing. Teacher librarians, where they have existed, are often being “cashed in” for classroom or other specialist teachers, for extra administrative staff or pushed increasingly into the classroom themselves.

TLs ARE an endangered species.
They always were hard to spot in WA primary schools.
They are going extinct in Tasmania. 50% of state schools there have no TLs.
TLs are endangered in Victoria. 35% of schools don't have one.
One third of South Australia's school libraries are understaffed or staffed with non-qualified personnel.
Don't even ask about the NT!! (only 5% of schools have some TL time. Makes you understand why Therese Rein is running indigenous literacy project.)

.... We hope you might add yourself to the Friends of the Hub -- FROTH (http://hubinfo.wordpress.com/froth/).

I did ... so join the call and leave a comment. Here is mine....

Where is the heart beat of the school?

Who is the heart beat of the school?
It has to be the library and the person is the teacher librarian.
The school librarians are vital to Australian authors and illlustrators but even more so to the schools and the community they lovingly serve.

Who is able to match the child to the appropriate book?
Who is able to say to the child I know you will love this book – I’ve read it too?
And what about the classroom teachers who need the support material for their lessons – who do they turn to?
The teacher librarian – who knows the books, who has been scouring the web for the programs and resource material that will enhance their classrooms.

And what about the parents who need support … they can turn to the teacher librarian who will show them the latest kids books, books to read to their child, or the age appropriate book to be reading to their child, or who can lend to the parents books on parenting that are held in the library. And those preschoolers and parents, where can they go while waiting to pick up their child after school – the LIBRARY and who do they talk to the TEACHER LIBRARIAN of course.

A brighter, smarter, literate Australia needs school teacher librarians.

Now it is your turn ..... go to FROTH at the Hub (http://hubinfo.wordpress.com/froth/) and leave a comment!