Media News

Parents’ Choice has announced their Spring 2009 awards in a variety of categories including DVDs, audio (audiobooks, music, storytelling), software, video games, books, magazines, Web sites, and toys. These award-winning items for kids of various ages were selected by a panel of educators, performing artists, librarians, parents, and children. Among the many DVD winners are Disney’s The Science of Disney Imagineering, Jane and the Dragon: A Dragon’s Tale (Shout! Factory), How’d They Build That Fire Truck (Marvelous Media), and Rock 'n Learn: Earth Science (Rock 'n Learn). Multiplication Mountain (Hap-Pal Music/CDBaby.com) and Billy Jonas’s Happy Accidents (CDBaby.com) are among the numerous Audio/Music winners. Listening Library’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland topped the list of audiobook winners. For a complete list in all categories, visit parents-choice.org.

The St. Paul (MN) Public Schools and Capstone Publishers have worked together to develop bilingual Hmong/English and Somali/English ibooks. The district’s English Language Learner (ELL) department partnered with the publisher to translate four titles in the “A Visit to” series that feature familiar community places. Students can change the text from English to Hmong and Somali, offering bilingual and ELL students help in developing reading skills. These interactive books can be purchased (capstoneinteractivelibrary.com) in CD-ROM format or in a site-based network version.

Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games (Scholastic, 2008) is going to be made into a movie. The distribution rights to this futuristic novel set in a dystopic capital where two teens are required to participate in an annual live, televised fight to the death, has been acquired by Lionsgate. The second book in the projected trilogy, Catching Fire, is scheduled for September 2009 publication.