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| August 23, 2011
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Editor's Letter
Brian Kenney, Editor-in-Chief
 Do you use technology or does technology use you? Chris Harris has some interesting thoughts on a dilemma we're all facing today.
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| INTERVIEW |
Jay Asher's Next Big Thing
By Debra Lau Whelan
 SLJ catches up with Jay Asher on The Future of Us (Razorbill, 2011), cowritten with Carolyn Mackler, about two teens in 1996 who turn on a computer to find themselves on Facebook—15 years into the future. In anticipation of the book's November release, the authors will be giving away one advance reader's copy each week until the big day. All fans need to do is visit Asher's blog every Friday and leave a comment for a chance to win.
Is it true that the success of Thirteen Reasons Why (Razorbill, 2007) was so terrifying that you had trouble writing another book?
It wasn't so much the number of copies being sold, but the beautiful emails readers were sending. I wrote the book hoping at least some people would say it inspired them to treat others with more respect. I didn't expect so many to say it helped them deal with a friend's suicide or to reach out for help when they were considering suicide. Those emails were amazing and wonderful, but a fear of letting down readers who felt such a strong connection with the first book caused me to overthink everything about the next book.
Read More... |
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Job of the Week
The city of Lawrenceville, GA is looking for a Collection Development Librarian. You are the expert in selecting and cataloging Library materials and passionate about researching current trends, analyzing current collections and recommending materials to Library administration. Read More...
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| NEWS |
U.S. Students Rank 32 in Math Proficiency, 31 in Reading, Study Says
By SLJ Staff
 Our nation's graduating high school class of 2011 had a 32 percent proficiency rate in math and a 31 percent proficiency rate in reading, leaving many to question whether schools are adequately preparing students for the 21st century global economy, says a new report.
U.S. students fall behind 31 countries in math proficiency and behind 16 countries in reading proficiency, according to the recent study, "Globally Challenged: Are U.S. Students Ready to Compete?" by Harvard's Program on Education Policy and Governance. Read More...
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MO Teachers Union Sues State Over New Social Networking Law
By SLJ Staff
 The Missouri State Teachers Association is challenging the constitutionality of a new state law, saying it restricts their use of social networking sites and other online speech with current and former students.
The 44,000 member union is asking the Circuit Court of Cole County to block enforcement of part of Senate Bill 54, also known as the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act, which has several provisions that relate to student safety. The bill, signed into law by Governor Jay Nixon, goes into effect August 28. Read More...
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The Worst Is Yet to Come: Dystopias are grim, humorless, and hopeless—and incredibly appealing to today's teens
By Philip Reeve
 Tomorrow isn't what it used to be. The latest trend in young adult fiction features visions of the future, and most of them are pretty grim. In Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games (Scholastic, 2008), the teenagers of a fractured future U.S.A. are pitted against one another in televised battles to the death. In Paolo Bacigalupi's Ship Breaker (Little, Brown, 2010), the oil has run out and child laborers dismantle obsolete supertankers on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. Moira Young's striking debut, Blood Red Road (S & S/Margaret K. McElderry Bks., 2011), pits its young heroine against the perils of a post-catastrophe world, while Jo Treggiari's Ashes, Ashes (Scholastic, 2011) vividly describes a flooded, quake-prone Manhattan depopulated by deadly plagues. Read More...
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| TECH TRENDS |
Apps of Interest
By Kathy Ishizuka
 The World in Your Hands
How well do you know your neighborhood? Load a free iOS app by geolocation data outfit SimpleGeo and you'll get layers of information about wherever you happen to be, from local politics and demographic data to native fauna. The "context" tab offers an interesting mix of layers from Wikipedia, Flickr, Geonames, and Project Noah, a startup that collects crowdsourced documentation of local wildlife. The confluence of vast stores of public information all in the palm of your hand—we're beginning to realize the true power of mobile computing. You can also add your own data to SimpleGeo's mix.
Read More...
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| WATCH AND READ |
Fun with Phineas and Ferb
By Joy Fleishhacker
These two stars of a popular animated TV series are experts on making the most of each and every moment of summer vacation, and their entertaining antics provide the perfect antidote for the back-to-school blues. Created by Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, the show premiered on the Disney Channel in 2007. In each episode, Phineas Flynn (voiced by Vincent Martella) and his English stepbrother Ferb Fletcher (Thomas Sangster) come up with a mind-bogglingly spectacular way to spend their day, usually involving odd inventions or way-out-there activities, while their older sister Candace (Ashley Tisdale), when not distracted by her all-consuming crush on the super-cute Jeremy Johnson (Mitchel Musso), tries to reveal their schemes and get them into trouble with their mom. Read More...
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| SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL EVENTS |
| It's that time of year again, and what better way to get young readers get back into the school spirit than to entice them with some great new titles or maybe some books they didn't know about yet? |
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September 15th: Join Jon Scieszka, bestselling children's author and founder of Guys Read, as he leads our free webcast on Books for Boys. Find out about the upcoming titles that just might coax those reluctant readers to pick up a book and dive in!
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September 22nd: It's the Young Adult Fall Announcements webcast you've been waiting for all summer! Join Harlequin/Kimani Press, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Kensington Publishing, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as they dish on their latest and upcoming titles for teen readers so you'll know what they want before they do!
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| And be sure to keep coming back for more great upcoming webcasts as well as free archives of the webcasts from the past year. |
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| REMARKABLE READS |
Fun with Physics
By Dodie Ownes
 Ever wonder why you feel weightless at the top of the roller coaster? Or what would happen if the Earth became superheated and all the icebergs melted? These are issues best tackled with a working knowledge of physics, the branch of science concerned with the nature and properties of matter and energy. Make exploring physics fun with this collection of titles, and point your teens to the American Physical Society website, Physics Central, which is loaded with interesting facts, experiments and cool physics news.
JAMES, C. Renée. Seven Wonders of the Universe That You Probably Took for Granted. illus. by Lee Jamison. Johns Hopkins Press. 2010. Tr $70. ISBN 978-0-8018-9797-9; pap. $25. ISBN 978-0-8018-9798-6.
Gr 10 Up—Each chapter takes on one of the seven wonders in charming and informative text accompanied by detailed cartoonish pencil and ink illustrations. In the chapter on light, readers will learn about radiation, rainbows, and infrared light; in the one about time, black holes and the origin of the seven day week are among the topics tackled. Great for browsing as well as for those just wishing to bone up on the big concepts. Resources and index included. Read More...
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| MEDIA MIX |
Curiosity in the Classroom
By Phyllis Levy Mandell
 Curiosity in the Classroom, an interactive, science-based tool, is being launched jointly by Discovery Education and Intel Corporation. Designed to extend concepts presented in Discovery Channel’s TV series, Curiosity, this free online resource addresses a variety of topics that pique students’ interest including communications, computers, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and robotics. Curiosity in the Classroom features lesson plans and videos for grades 6-8 and 9-12, career videos, quizzes, and more. For example, there are lesson plans on “Robotics: Measuring the Capacity of the Robotic Arm” and “Communications: Principles of Encryption” and videos on the binary number system and probability. Read More...
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| BLOG SPOTLIGHT: GOOD COMICS FOR KIDS |
Links: Archie Goes to Bollywood
By Katherine Dacey
 Keep informed about the latest tidbits in the world of comics and graphic novels for kids: Archie's a hit in India; how Borders' closure affects manga publishers; and Yen Press celebrates an anniversary. Read More... |
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