Earlier this year I had a lovely lunch with an author of nonfiction titles for kids. As we discussed the wide range of nonfiction available to children these days she lamented the fact that we’ve become so narrow in what we deem worthy of our children’s attention. Sticking strictly to what we consider to be […]
Fun Fact: The American Library Association does not currently give an award specifically to great works of children’s book poetry. Is not that strange? When I first discovered this to be true, I was perplexed. I’ve always been a bit of a rube when it comes to the poetic form. Placing stresses on syllables and […]
Okay! I’ve been looking forward to this particular list for a while. But first, a quick note on what we’re calling these things. Not too long ago the very funny Glen Weldon wrote a piece for an NPR blog about whether or not we should be calling these books “comics” or “graphic novels”. Weldon is […]
Alongside yesterday’s easy book list, this is the other list that could have been a little beefier this year. Not a lot of racial diversity to be found, to be frank. That fault lies with me, not the books published in 2016. Still, with that in mind, this list is a collection of great books […]
I first came up with the idea for a 31 Days, 31 Lists series in late September. Having kept track of a number of books over the year, it made a logical kind of sense. But as we got closer to the actual lists I realized that in some categories I’m going to be seriously […]
Time to define my terms again! This is undoubtedly the most subjective of all my lists. Basically, what I’m saying with it, is that picture books are far more wide-ranging than many people suspect. If you say “picture book” they’ll imagine something for a 4-year-old. Nothing wrong with picture books for 4-year-olds, of course, but […]
Back in August of this year Travis Jonker wrote a great post on 100 Scope Notes called The Most Astonishingly Unconventional Children’s Books of 2016. It was an excellent post, really getting into the nitty gritty of what it is that makes a book “unconventional”. My list is a little different from Travis’s, though there’s […]
Credit where credit is due, there’s no way I could keep up this 31 Days, 31 Lists series if I hadn’t put in my time with New York Public Library. It was there that I learned how to read, track, remember, and call forth the books I read in a single year. The 100 Books […]
When I was in college I temporarily rejected my natural inclinations to be a librarian (an occupation I dismissed as boring and nightmarishly appealing) and decided I would become a photographer. So got a B.A. with a concentration in Fine Arts – Photography. And what I learned from my stint as an architectural/portrait/sports photographer was […]
Hm. Awkward title on today’s post. “Books With a Message”. Be a lot cleaner if I just said “Didactic Books” or “Books That Try to Teach You Something.” No . . . no . . . that’s worse. I think you get the general gist of what I’m going for, though. Today we’re highlighting books […]
I know it gets confusing but this list is a bit different from the Calde-not list from a couple days ago. The reason is simple. While the Calde-not list looks primarily at books with illustrations so distinguished they could easily win major illustration awards if given half a chance, this is list is more for […]
I wish I had the numbers in front of me. I wish I could tell you how many bilingual books for kids have been published in the past and how that number compares to today. If we’re going to speak to my experience as a children’s librarian over the past decade, all I can say […]
God has a sense of humor. How else to explain the fact that for the past three or four years I have been a founding and contributing member of the Mathical Book Award committee? Yep, each year I read a slew of math-related books for kids. I do it because while I personally was not […]
Sometimes I talk about how books with illustrators from countries other than America get a bum rap because there are so few awards that they can win. And this isn’t untrue, but there are a couple lists that give them their due. There’s the New York Times Best Illustrated list, and the Society of Illustrators […]
A list based entirely on what a book is not? And what precisely is a Calde-not? Well, we’re getting into semantics and rules today, so buckle up. First and foremost, I direct your attention to the illustrious Caldecott Award. The most famous award given to the most distinguished examples of American illustration for children. Note […]
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