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Today’s guest post comes to us with a topic near and dear to my own heart. To know me now, you might not realize that I was a supremely quiet kid. Never raised my hand. Spoke next to never in school. But what kinds of kids did I prefer to read about in my books? […]
In our second Wednesday roundup, we focus on Newbery eligible graphic novels
Peter Brown takes us behind the scenes of the newest book in the WILD ROBOT series.
A brother and sister are both unreliable narrators in this flipbook that tells the same story from two different points of view.
It is hard to understand how hope could endure in conditions like those the enslaved lived under, yet the author shows the love, connection, resilience, and reclamation of a people whose voices are essential to the narrative of slavery and of our country.
A dog nanny, a psychic tween, mermaids, a wish-granting dog, and more!
Stories let us see ourselves doing things and having adventures. They let us imagine ourselves in those places and know that we are valid.
“Make no more clouds. I have drawn the rainbow here.” Attend the tale of Bea Wolf, and a better comic for kids you're unlikely to find anywhere.
Kayvion Lewis discusses her new YA heist novel, THIEVES' GAMBIT
A teen couple finds themselves facing an unexpected pregnancy in this impactful manga.
I hope this book finds its way to the readers who need it most and makes them feel seen. But I also hope this book inspires conversation, and debate, and, ultimately, action.
I hope readers are learning that being a bit different and unique is a good thing. That things will get better if they just hang in there.
Innovative library outreach can take all kinds of forms. Today we talk with the creators of Wimee, and discuss how libraries and outside innovators can work together in all new ways.
Check out this week's list of new comics, manga, and graphic novels for readers 12 and under, featuring Nell of Gumbling: My Extremely Normal Fairy-Tale Life from Random House Children's Books and Sonic the Hedgehog: Amy's 30th Anniversary Special #1 from IDW Publishing.
Will any of the titles on the National Book Award's Longlist for Young People's Literature turn out to be Newbery contenders as well? We look at the 10 titles, paying extra attention to SIMON SORT OF SAYS and THE LOST YEAR.
Strong contender here for my top read of 2023. A stunning read.
Like his teachings, the Buddha's biography continues to adapt itself to befit the times we live in and the audience it's intended for.
COLBY: The Wild Robot is one of those series that leads so many readers to a love of reading. Getting the chance to talk to Peter Brown about this amazing series for The Yarn was so much fun. I hope you’ll give the episode a listen below, or on your podcast listening app of choice. […]
Interested in studying in one of the finest children's literature libraries in the nation? Now's your chance!
In today's Friday Exercise. we take a look at what suggestions we don't think quite fit the Newbery field.
How to Find a Missing Girl can be fun, silly, and fast-paced and defined by grief and hope. The feelings are still there. They can co-exist. I know they do.
Buckle up for another round of NEW BOOKS to put on your TBR list (or add to your TBR Mountain Range, which is how I think of mine).
Book award talk is ramping up for fall.
If you think the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, the famine in Ukraine in the 1930s, and Brooklyn at that same time makes for an awkward tri-narrative, you are wrong. And if you also think that it would be highly difficult to weave three such perspectives together, there you are correct, but it can be done. The Lost Year proves as much.
Warrior Girl makes visible what has for centuries of schoolbooks been treated as invisible.
Can you guess the children’s book by its scathing one-star review on Goodreads?
Poetry and friendship. Family and legacy. The story behind the collaboration of Jerry Pinkney, Nikki Grimes, Brian Pinkney, and Charnelle Pinkney may be one of the finest you read all year.
Unico: Awakening, a reworking of Tezuka's classic manga, will come out from Scholastic Graphix in August 2024
Teen librarian Cindy Shutts walks us through a quick and easy diy tutorial for painting book pages
Anderson releases his adaptation of The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, with an all-star cast.
It's a Wednesday Roundup of some of the top nonfiction contenders for the 2024 Newbery Medal, with topics ranging from microbes and molecules to orcas and the Internet.
It's a Wednesday Roundup of some of the top nonfiction contenders for the 2024 Newbery Medal, with topics ranging from microbes and molecules to orcas and the Internet.
Change will always be hard, but now I have a new mantra. If Kavi can do it, so can I.
And so can you.
One of my favorite parts of this job is talking to picture book creators about their art. But you know what's even better than that? Talking to picture book creators about other picture book creators.
Starting Wednesday Sept. 20th, we will focus on certain types of books on Wednesdays. View the schedule in this post.
Here's a look at some recently signed graphic novel deals—and what we can expect coming up!
It wasn’t until writing Amina’s story that I truly learned to believe that I am not at fault for not reacting a certain way to an event that should never have happened.
Committees, I do not envy you your job this year. We just have too many award-worthy books. Someone needs to speak to management about this.
Thank you to the 34 people who answered our Beginning of the Year Survey! It was very interesting to see people’s thoughts as we entered the year. These survey results will also guide Steven and I’s postings as we discuss throughout the year. You can view the pie chart results below (I love my pie […]
You read it here first! Christine Larsen is returning to Orcs for a third and final series, Orcs: The Gift.
Check out this week's list of new comics, manga, and graphic novels for readers 12 and under, featuring Meems and Feef: Ferrets from Planet Ferretonia and First Cat in Space Volume 2: The First Cat In Space and the Soup of Doom.
In multi-voiced, first-person poems and dramatic scratchboard illustrations created by my son, Jeffery Boston Weatherford, Kin conjures the voices and stories of our ancestors and their contemporaries on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
The verse novel format adeptly captures Chloe's racing mind, her outbursts, and her new need for introspection. A solid read with a main character who undergoes genuine growth.
It seemed only fitting to me that since last week's podcast episode dealt so directly with the beginnings of life, why not focus on the end this time around?
Yen Press breaks new ground with graphic novels for kids, Dark Horse announces a new Avatar: The Last Airbender graphic novel, and Viz offers a preview of its Star Wars: The Mandalorian manga.
I hope the proliferation of fantasy books grounded in African societies will create familiarity for readers and a new shorthand. I hope it will inspire readers to learn more about the real places and people that underpin the stories.
The Newbery Medal announcement is still four months away, but it's never too early to start speculating. In today's "Friday Feedback" exercise, we're asking readers to name your current top two Newbery contenders as of mid-September.
Today we look at one of the latest National Book Award nominees, and the only picture book in the batch.
A powerful and immensely readable look at a time period and place not often represented in books for children.
A read aloud that has never let me down.
Fresh off of its National Book Award nomination, we're talking today with the authors behind a book about the 1963 March on Washington on the cusp of its 60th anniversary.
The National Book Awards are putting out their longlists this week, and the one that we're all most interested in (Young People's Literature) is up first.
Today we look at the 2024 suggestions by the numbers breaking down into ages, genres and categories.
Only when people feel understood and seen, not when they are shamed, can conversation and change can truly begin.
How lucky we are. So many stories out there, hiding in plain sight. Just waiting to be found.
Today guest poster Ralph Shayne discusses the inspiration behind the brand new graphic novel HOUR OF NEED with a healthy dose of Blues Brothers.
Here's a look at some recently signed graphic novel deals—and what we can expect coming up!
These attacks, these attempts from a system that does not value so many of us creates a world where the outcome of these actions negatively affects us all, regardless of race, ethnicity, whether you’re queer or trans or not, whether you’re currently disabled or whether you’re currently not.
"...we are better working together, but this in itself is a skill that needs to be practiced over and over again." We're talking Iñupiaq origin myths with author/illustrator Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson today!
Check out this week's list of new comics, manga, and graphic novels for readers 12 and under, featuring Sonic the Hedgehog's 900th Adventure from IDW Publishing and Wildfire from Little Brown Ink.
Teen librarian Karen Jensen reviews the new adult novel by Daniel Kraus, WHALEFALL
To start off our Heavy Medal Mock Newbery season, Steven and I wrote back and forth about the books we’ve read and the books we’re looking forward to reading. Please join us with your own thoughts in the comment section below, and also be sure to take our Beginning of the Year Check-In survey as well, where you can vote for your own early favorites by genre.
This haunted house mystery is less scary than it is simply interesting and engaging. A great book to recommend widely.
Fairy tales meets The Canterbury Tales meets Clue. You're in, right? Because I was in from the very first line.
Over on The Yarn podcast, I interviewed Lane Smith about his latest book, Stickler Loves the World.
"Three dudes tell you how babies are made in 1968." Do you like papercuts? Do you like ancient children's sex-ed nonfiction for kids? Than have we got a book today for you!
It was a pleasure to talk with Lane Smith about his latest picture book: STICKLER LOVES THE WORLD.
Can you guess the children’s book by its scathing one-star review on Goodreads?
My roots, traditions, language and stories all come from that place, so in writing All That Shines, I was calling home. Trying to recreate those nights full of shimmering stars, meadows full of blue green grass you could get lost in and friendships that last forever.
Meet the Heavy Medal bloggers, Emily and Steven. Learn about their favorite books and find out what they did last summer. And you're invited to share a bit about yourself too, as we get ready for our Mock Newbery discussions to kick off next week!
A really great story of the lengths one teen will go to to help keep her family together. Somehow Zimmermann makes this story of neglect as hilarious as it is heartbreaking. A stellar read.
“You have a family, friends, a home. You go to school, and like all children, you like to play. One day, a threat appears and changes everything.”
Friends for Levine Querido is an online auction to raise funds for a publisher doing good work.
Your shelved stories won’t be lost to the dust. Rework bits of it into your new manuscript. Borrow entire chunks and passages freely (after all, it’s your own writing).
Saving Sunshine is also about planet earth and all the issues surrounding it today: global warming, human encroachment into animal habitats, endangering of species, and so much more.
COLBY: It feels like more and more people are consuming podcasts through video, so we thought it would be fun to start to release some of our episodes on video. Our first video episode features book creator Jarrett Lerner talking about his illustrated novel-in-verse A Work in Progress. You can listen to the audio only […]
Teen librarian Cindy Shutts walks us through a DIY tutorial of a miniature garden in a tin
After compiling suggestions for the past six months, now is the time to finally start year 16 of Mock Newbery Discussions. Here’s a rough summary of what’s in store on this blog for the next five months.
The imaginative and fantastical landscapes that horror germinates in are great fun. And when done right they are: scary, exciting, revealing, unnerving, unexpected, funny, dramatic…you know, like life.
TLT contributor Riley Jensen shares some upcoming September 2023 YA lit titles on her TBR list
Dinosaur paleontology: a science mediated by illustrators. Today we're talking with multi-talented Sean Rubin about dinos and an upcoming book that explains how we get them a little more right with every generation.
Check out this week's list of new comics, manga, and graphic novels for readers 12 and under, featuring Lights from Oni Press and Dona Quixote: Rise of the Knight from Henry Holt.
REMEMBER: There’s always someone, somewhere, who is glad that you were born.
REMEMBER: There’s always someone, somewhere, who is glad that you were born.
This powerful, well-written debut is an outstanding read not to be missed. I have read 164 books this year so far and this book is definitely in my top ten reads of 2023.
If you live in a place where it snows, you know that the flakes can start flying at any time. So why not be prepared?
You know her. You love her. You love her books as well. So if you'd like a sneak peek at the latest Laurie Halse Anderson title, come and take a look at the cover of REBELLION 1776.
We officially concluded our suggestion period on Heavy Medal. Over the past seven months readers suggested 86 2024 Newbery eligible titles. This suggestion list will guide our blog posts and discussions through the rest of the year. Starting in October, readers can nominate books that they strongly believe are Newbery contenders (more on that Wednesday). […]
"The critics don't know. The creators don't know. The kids get to see a giant explosion!" We debate the true meaning of this 1968 Caldecott Award winner.
This is the kind of book that’s going to appeal to kids young and old. A contemporary classic with ingrained appeal and the occasional jolt of weirdness to keep things interesting.
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