Nick's Picks

Selected Resources from TeachingBooks.net

Nick Glass, TeachingBooks.net for Curriculum Connections -- School Library Journal, 2/3/2009

It’s an eventful time of the year in the publishing world: the winners of the Newbery, Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Pura Belpré, and other children’s and young adult book awards have just been announced and the excitement is high. This year was a particularly rewarding one for me as a member of the 2009 Newbery committee. From that seat at the table, I gained a remarkable appreciation for the selection process and overwhelming respect for my colleagues who volunteered as many as 1000 hours each to read, evaluate, discuss, and choose the best books of the year. Their work is a true labor of love.

In this month’s column, meet some of the 2009 award-winning authors. View videos of authors Neil Gaiman and Kadir Nelson and listen to Margarita Engle, E. Lockhart, and Sherman Alexie introduce and read passages from their acclaimed titles. These recordings will personalize your connection to the books while revealing how and why each of these exceptional titles was written.

So sit back, listen, and invite some of your students to join you as you meet some of the year’s outstanding authors.

If you have comments or have personal favorites from 2008, write me at: nick@TeachingBooks.net

 Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book

Winner of the John Newbery Medal (most distinguished contribution to American literature for children) 

 Witness master storyteller Neil Gaiman read–in its entirety–The Graveyard Book (HarperCollins, 2008)

 Graveyard Book resources on TeachingBooks.net 

Kadir Nelson's We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball

Winner of the Coretta Scott King Author Award, the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book, and the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal Award

Watch author/illustrator Kadir Nelson as he discusses his stunning, (multiple) award winner We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball (Hyperion, 2008)

We Are the Ship resources on TeachingBooks.net

An additional School Library Journal resource on Kadir Nelson 

Margarita Engle's The Surrender Tree

Winner of the Pura Belpré Author Award (outstanding writing by a Latino/a author), and a Newbery Honor

Listen to Margarita Engle introduce and read from The Surrender Tree (Holt, 2008)–her haunting, free-verse narrative of Cuba’s 19th-century Wars for Independence  

Surrender Tree resources on TeachingBooks.net

E. Lockhart's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Winner of the Michael L. Printz Honor Award (for excellence in young adult literature)

Gain insight into what compelled E. Lockhart to write about a high school secret society in The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (Hyperion, 2008) and enjoy her reading of an excerpt from the novel

Disreputable History resources on TeachingBooks.net

Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Winner of the Odyssey Award (for excellence in audiobook production) 

Listen to author/narrator Sherman Alexie read from the first chapter of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Recorded Books, 2008)

Absolutely True Diary resources on TeachingBooks.net