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Review of the Day: Diamond Willow

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on May 9, 2008




Diamond Willow
By Helen Frost
Farrar Straus Giroux
$16.00
ISBN: 978-0-374-31776-8
Ages 8-14
On shelves now

Poetry Friday, lovelies.  Check out Writer 2b for the round-up.

The sentence "I told you so!" is deeply satisfying. Granted, the satisfaction you feel when you say it only lasts a minute or two, but for a little while, as you do your "I told you so" dance, you ...Read More

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Fusenews: In Springtime, the Only Pretty Ring Time

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on May 9, 2008

  • I'm not sure if this will work but . . . .

...Read More

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Review of the Day: The Underneath

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on May 8, 2008



The Underneath
By Kathi Appelt
Illustrated by David Small
Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster)
$16.99
ISBN: 978-1-4169-5058-5
Ages 8 and up
On shelves now

I review lots of books. Oodles of caboodles of books. And a lot of the time my thoughts can basically be boiled down to very simple sentences. "Me like book. Book good." or conversely "Me no like book. Book bad.&...Read More

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Kidlit Drink Night: Gotta Book Edition

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on May 8, 2008



The nice thing about doing Kidlit Drink Nights in New York with editor Cheryl Klein is the freedom with which one is able to go, "You're in town?  You want a Drink Night?  Ka-ZING!"  And it is done.  So when Gregory K of the poetry-laden and very nice blog Gotta Book said to me, "I'm going to be in town May 19th.  Want to do a Kidlit Drink Night then?", my answer was, "Sure!"  Okay, that's not true.  My answer was actually "Uh... uh... uh... I got to check with Cheryl."  And lo and behold Cheryl cannot make it this particular month (boo!) but will be able to next time (yay!).  In he...Read More

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Fusenews: If It's Any Comfort, I Hate That Doggone Pop-Up Ad Too

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on May 8, 2008


The Donnell Library closes to the public on May 18th and then the first floor magically reopens in early June.  What does that mean for the Central Children's Room in which I currently reside?  It means that we will be closed to the public over the summer.  Make a note of that, oh ye who wish to see it before its final hours at this location.  I will continue to be here at the Donnell Library, at the heart of New York City (though not accesible), during the summer . . . . without air conditioning.  Expect sweaty sticky posts in the coming months.  We're currently trying to convince everyone here that kiddie pools and our office floors would be a perfect match.  And now, some news.

...Read More

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Fusenews: Villeins and Secrets, Ninjas and Harry

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on May 7, 2008

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Review of the Day: Tadpole Rex

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on May 6, 2008



Tadpole Rex
By Kurt Cyrus
Harcourt
$16.00
ISBN: 978-0-15-205990-3
Ages 4-8
On shelves June 1, 2008

Rhyming's not easy. It's not everyone in the world that can pull it off either. In fact, there have been so many picture books that rhyme and rhyme poorly that it has infected me. Now whenever I pick up a picture book and find the bouncy bouncy text, I instinctively cringe. I initially did this with this book too. On paper, Tadpole R...Read More

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Fusenews: Shortsy Short

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on May 6, 2008



  • Slooooooowly.... so so sloooooowly retailers are beginning to notice something.  YA fantasy and science fiction appears to be outselling their adult literary equivalents over and over again. According to the Whatever blog, "last week, the top 50 YA SF/F bestsellers outsold the top 100 adult SF/F bestsellers (adult SF and F are separate lists) by two to one. So 50 YA titles are selling twice as much as 100 adult SF/F titles."  Well heavens above, grab me my smelling salts.  I appear to have the vapors!  It would be nice if this were recognized a little more widely amongst the bookseller community.  The repercussions of the fact that th...Read More

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Book Covers: Why So Nasty?

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on May 5, 2008



Reader Matthew Wigdahl recently wrote me with an interesting query:

"Hey, I also had a quick question for you.  My colleagues and I were talking about a "Faded Stars" (working title) program in our school library, wherein we have some staff pick out a few of the old tattered books from the shelves and feature them somehow.  As we pulled old books to consider, we got to talking about the (I'm just going to say it) ugliness of many of them.  For example, we have a copy of Mr. Popper's Penguins with no dust jacket and bound in what appears to be cardboard covered with gray h...Read More

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Imagine There's No Galley, It's Easy If You Try

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on May 5, 2008



This may be of particular interest only to blogging reviewers such as myself.  Can you envision a future in which all the ARCs and galleys are sent to you electronically?  Some people can.


NetGalley Signs St. Martin's, Hachette; Will Officially Launch at BEA
...Read More

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Video Sunday - If I Had a Llama, I'd Llama in the Morning

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on May 4, 2008



Got a couple goodies for you this fine and frisky day. Recently I discovered a new librarian blog called The Shifted Librarian. Jenny locates all kinds of great library-related doohickeys and she found this AL focus video to the annual conference.

...Read More

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