Golden Kite Awards

[Via Children's Bookshelf]

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators has announced the winners of the 2009 Golden Kite Awards, which recognize excellence in children’s literature. Winning authors and illustrators receive $2,500 and a trip to the award ceremony in Los Angeles on August 9. This year’s winners are Steve Watkins for Down Sand Mountain(Candlewick) in Fiction; Pamela S. Turner for A Life in the Wild: George Schaller’s Struggle to Save the Last Great Beasts (FSG) in Nonfiction; Bonny Becker for A Visitor for Bear, illus. by Kady MacDonald Denton (Candlewick) for Picture Book Text; and Hyewon Yum for Last Night (FSG) for Picture Book Illustration. For a list of honor titles and additional information, visit the SCBWI Web site.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

[Via Children's Bookshelf]

Warner Bros. has announced the official release date for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two: it will be July 15, 2011. The studio has split Deathly Hallows, the final book in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, into two movies. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One releases November 19, 2010.

Today’s Must-Read – Under a Blood Red Sky

blood_red Under a Blood Red Sky

by Kate Furnivall

Davinsky Labour Camp, Siberia, 1933: Sofia Morozova knows she has to escape. Only two things have sustained her through the bitter cold, aching hunger and hard labour: the prospect of one day walking free; and the stories told by her friend Anna, beguiling tales of a charmed upbringing in Petrograd ? and of Anna's fervent love for a passionate revolutionary, Vasily. So when Anna falls gravely ill, Sofia makes a promise to escape the camp and find Vasily: to chase the memory that has for so long spun hope in both their hearts. But Sofia knows that times have changed. Russia, gripped by the iron fist of Communism, is no longer the country of her friend's childhood. Her perilous search takes her from industrial factories to remote villages, where she discovers a web of secrecy and lies, but also bonds of courage and loyalty ? and an overwhelming love that threatens her promise to Anna

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change

The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.

Dubois

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Dr Seuss

From St. Joseph News-Press: It would have been Dr. Seuss’s 105th birthday on Monday, and communities across the country held celebrations large and small. Here, a Missouri librarian talks about what makes Seuss’s books so popular.

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BEA announces children’s breakfast speakers

 
 

The speakers for the annual Children’s Book and Author Breakfast at BookExpo America have been announced. The breakfast will feature Meg Cabot, author of the Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls series (Scholastic); Tomie dePaola, author of Strega Nona’s Harvest (Putnam); and Amy Krouse Rosenthal, author of Duck! Rabbit! and Little Oink (both Chronicle). Julie Andrews Edwards, author of Julie Andrews’ Collection of Poems, Songs and Lullabies (Little, Brown) will be the master of ceremonies. The breakfast is presented in cooperation with the Children’s Booksellers and Publishers Committee, a joint committee of the American Booksellers Association, Association of Booksellers for Children and the Children’s Book Council. It will be held on Friday, May 29, in New York City. read more

2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize shortlist announced

The shortlist for the best fiction written by writers from the Commonwealth has been announced. South East Asia and the Pacific is the region that includes Australia and the shortlist is here:

http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/culturediversity/writersprize/cwp/2009%20prize/2009list/

building strength

"Our real problem is not our strength today; it is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow."

Calvin Coolidge

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Book – The 39 Clues: (The Maze of Bones, Book 1)


by Rick Riordan

Minutes before she died Grace Cahill changed her will, leaving her decendants an impossible decision: "You have a choice - one million dollars or a clue."

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