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  • DOGObooks.com Announces its First Annual Summer Reading Program

    With the help of its Children’s Book Publisher partners, DOGObooks has assembled a catalog of 84 popular titles of books for grades 3-8.  By reading and posting 3 reviews of  …

  • Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Named Master Publishing Licensee for Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood by Licensing Agency Out of the Blue Enterprises

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE New York, NY – May 2013 – Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, one of the world’s leading children’s book publishers, has been named master publishing licensee for PBS KIDS …

  • Watch the Children’s Choice Book Awards Ceremony Now!

    During the awards presentations, attendees were treated to sage advice from Henry Winkler, rapping from Meg Cabot, and a passing of the tiara from Brian Selznick to Robin Preiss Glasser. …

  • The National Book Development Council of Singapore Announce the SingTel Asian Picture Book Award

    The writers who have earned a place on the authors’ shortlist include Swapna Haddow (United Kingdom), Sophie Dewayani (Indonesia), Debra Chong (Singapore), Ganbaatar Ichinnorov (Mongolia), Lak-Khee TAY-AUDOUARD (Singapore), and Maria …

  • Children’s Book Week Reading Lists Round Up

    Some of the titles featured include Divya Srinivasan’s Octopus Alone, Anne Nesbet’s A Box of Gargoyles, and Kelly Bingham’s Formerly Shark Girl. Visit this web page daily to see updates …

  • An Ongoing Question, An Ongoing Discussion

    Guest post by associate editor at Charlesbridge, Julie Ham.

    When Charlesbridge decided to host a diversity panel during this week’s Children’s Book Week, the onset of planning felt a lot like editing: asking the right questions was key. Who will speak well and honestly to this sensitive subject? Will the CBC partner with us? (Yes!) How will the panel contribute to this valuable, ongoing dialogue? Who will be in charge of buying the cheese? The crackers?!

    I soon became preoccupied with one question that we think will come up during the panel discussion.

    Can authors or illustrators write about or illustrate cultures and races different from their own? 

    This question brought me back to a children’s literature graduate course I took about five years ago. We were examining Sold, a contemporary middle-grade novel about child prostitution in Nepal. We contemplated whether the author, Patricia McCormick (a white American woman), had the right to tell this story—one that falls outside her own experience and culture. As far as I could tell, no one else had written such a narrative for the middle-grade readership; I felt it needed to be told. Patricia had visited India and interviewed women and girls who had been sold to brothels, preparing herself to authentically tell this story as best she could. I felt confident that she had done her due diligence. I valued her choice to write about this subject matter and hoped her book would affect a diverse readership—a testament to the idea that the human condition—both good and bad—similarly touches all cultures, in all parts of the world. Maybe some of those diverse readers would be even closer to the book’s reality than Patricia was able to get through her research. Maybe they’d be inspired to tell their own stories.
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  • Sixth Annual Children’s Choice Book Awards Winners Announced

    New York, NY — May 13, 2013 – The Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader announced the winners of the sixth annual Children’s Choice Book Awards (CCBAs) at …

  • 2013 Pannell Award Winners Announced

    “A jury of five book industry professionals selected the winners based on creativity, responsiveness to community needs and an understanding of young readers. Nicola’s Books was cited for its ‘over …

  • Happy Children’s Book Week!

    Visit the official Children’s Book Week website to find out more information on how to take part in all the celebrations. Also, check out the digital toolkit, kidlit freebies, and …

  • Diversity 101: Who’s That Fat Kid?

    Fat Politics and Children's Literature

    Contributed to CBC Diversity by Rebecca Rabinowitz

    My Personal Connection
    I’m a fat person living in a virulently fatphobic culture. We’re soaking in it. The ubiquitous fear and hate of fatness is both glaring and invisible. It’s job discrimination; it’s insults from strangers on the street; it’s doctors who refuse to treat fat patients until we lose weight. I’m dedicated to fat politics, which is a social justice movement, and Fat Studies, which is a critical/academic lens.

    Stereotypes/Cliches/Tropes/Errors
    In children’s books, fatness often symbolizes negativity. One common trope is the fat bully. Think of Dudley Dursley. Think of Dana, the fat bully in Carl Hiaasen’s Hoot. Think of Nazir Mohammad, the fat bully in Suzanne Fisher Staples’ Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind. Also common are fat victims. Think of Miranda in Cynthia Voigt’s When She Hollers – a fat girl who was terribly abused for years and has just committed suicide as the book opens. Miranda exists specifically to show Tish, the similarly-abused protagonist, what path not to take. Think of Dell in K.M. Walton’s Empty – a fat protagonist who’s raped, bullied, abandoned, and (like Voigt’s Miranda) driven to suicide. And think of Jake in Rebecca Fjelland Davis’s Jake Riley: Irreparably Damaged – Jake’s a fat bully and a fat victim. The tropes of fat bully and fat victim occur far too often to be random. Lest we think that any particular example might be random, textual evidence often specifically links the actual fatness with the negative trait, cementing the conflation. About Hoot’s fat bully: “This time Dana hit him with the other hand, equally fat and damp” [96]. About When She Hollers’ fat victim: "Tish had watched the fat girl lumbering out the doors and down the sidewalk to where the car waited. Waddle, waddle – her buns rolling up against one another – like a girl going down the hallway to the electric chair every day" [42]. Fatness is mapped onto negative characteristics as if it were some sort of profound literary symbol, and as if such mapping were harmless to people in the real world.

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  • Children’s Choice Book Awards Gala Venue Changed

    Please share this information with your friends and colleagues who will be attending. The Gala is a charity event to benefit Every Child A Reader, a 501(c)3 literacy organization committed …

  • Diversity in the News: May 2nd — May 9th, 2013

    ON OUR RADAR Lionsgate Acquires Film Rights for R.J. Palacio’s Wonder  via the CBC This, That, Both, Neither: The Badging of Biracial Identity in Young Adult Realism at YALSA YA …

  • The Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators Announce the Karen and Philip Cushman Late Bloomer Award

    The SCBWI is proud to announce the immediate launch of the Karen and Philip Cushman Late Bloomer Award for authors over the age of fifty who have not been traditionally …

  • Melissa de la Cruz to Create a New Blue Bloods Series Spin-Off

    The series will follow the adventures of newly-annointed vampire Oliver Hazard-Perry. When de la Cruz started writing the first Blue Bloods novel, she originally imagined Oliver as a vampire and …

  • Diversity in the News

    May 2nd—May 9th, 2013

    ON OUR RADAR

    Read more »

  • 2013 Diversity and Outreach Fair

    Removing Barriers to Service for All: Creating Meaningful and Integrated Library Experiences for People with Disabilities

    Held at ALA's Annual Conference every year, the Diversity and Outreach Fair is coordinated by the ALA Office for Literacy and Outreach Services as a way to provide, "an opportunity for libraries and member groups to share their successful diversity and outreach initiatives with ALA Annual Conference attendees, celebrate diversity in America’s libraries and exhibit “diversity in action” ideas."

    With every new year the fair has a new theme. In general the fair "highlights library services to underserved or underrepresented communities [and past fairs have focused on]...poor and homeless populations; people of color; English-language learners; gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people; new Americans, new and non-readers; older adults; people living in rural areas; incarcerated people and ex-offenders; and mobile library services and bookmobiles." This year's theme is all about how libraries can and have created a better experience for people with disabilities.

    The selected presenters at the fair will hold a poster session in the exhibits hall. If you are a library professional and have a successful diversity initiative to share concerning people with disabilities, ALA encourages you to submit your proposal by May 17th, 2013.

    If you have any questions, contact the ALA Office for Literacy & Outreach Services at 800-545-2433, x2140 or email olos@ala.org with any inquiries.

  • Lionsgate Acquires Film Rights for R.J. Palacio’s Wonder

    “The novel has been on the New York Times Bestseller list since its publication in February 2012. Thorne is a BAFTA-winning screenwriter and playwright, whose credits include The Scouting Book …

  • Rare Signed Original Maurice Sendak Sketch To Be Auctioned Off

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE New York, NY, May 2, 2013–The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression announced today that they have acquired a Maurice Sendak original to be sold at the Annual Children’s Book …

  • YA Author Maureen Johnson Calls for an End to Gendered Cover Designs with a “Coverflip” Challenge

    This idea that there are ‘girl books’ and ‘boy books’ and ‘chick lit’ and ‘whatever is the guy equivalent of chick lit’* gives credit to absolutely no one, especially not …

  • City-wide Student Winners of 27th Annual Ezra Jack Keats Bookmaking Competition Announced By Ezra Jack Keats Foundation and New York City Department of Education

    At an awards ceremony to be held on May 17 at the Library, the four city-wide and 23 borough-wide winners of the Bookmaking Competition will receive medals. In addition, the city-wide winners …

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