100 Great Picture Books

Looking for some terrific picture books to recommend, use at storytime, or enjoy yourself? Check out this list prepared by Melissa Depper, Virginia Brace and Lori Romero. 100 Great Picture Books features "Fresh, fun books just right for sharing with children ages birth to 5 years!"

Use the search box on Tales' Treehouse to find "great picture books" or find the list on the Great Books page. Remember you can use the print icon on the top right corner to produce a printable list. (Print example)

Looking at Picture Books

The remarkable Karla Kuskin, poet, author, and illustrator, recently passed away. Roger Sutton remembers a piece she wrote for the Horn Book about reviewing picture books. I just looked at it and am printing it out to read more slowly. Even if you never review picture books yourself, I strongly encourage you to read this article. It will help clarify your thinking about evaluating the picture books you come across, whether that's on the new book shelf or for storytimes or for displays or whatever.

Karla says, "A PICTURE BOOK IS A COMPLICATED FORM OF COLLABORATIVE ART. When it is very well done, it is an artistic achievement worthy of respectful examination and honor. Even failures, and especially near misses, deserve the kind of attention and understanding given to serious creative endeavors."

Seventh Early Literacy Skill?

There's an article in SLJ/Aug. by Ann Crewdson in which she makes the case for identifying and supporting a seventh, technology-based, early literacy skill. She provides a nice description of several gaming systems and CD-Roms that support the six early literacy skills. I'm not sure that the mere use of technology to support literacy needs to be elevated to the status of "literacy skill" and Crewdson admits that the 7th early literacy variable "remains elusive". She says it is out there, though, and evolving and she further urges librarians to help parents locate early literacy software. Do you think that video games for the 2-5 year old crowd (even with a literacy component) can really promote literacy or will they compete with books for a child's attention? I'm particularly thinking about recent studies that have shown Baby Einstein videos and the like to be detrimental to a child's early literacy development...

More books on ACPL Mock Caldecott

The Allen County Public Library released their next "short list" of Caldecott hopefuls. Remember we are adding books to the Caldecott Hopefuls shelf on our ALD Goodreads account. You can also vote on the 2010 Caldecott Hopefuls listopia we started.

My personal favorite, One Beetle Too Many by Kathryn Lasky because I wanted to take off to wild places to explore nature (which was definitly the book's influence not my usual hobby). Moving up the Listopia list is Lion and the Mouse, which is not even published yet!

Database of Award Winning Children's Literature

I just taught my new-and-improved version of Beyond the Newbery, which is a class for staff on all the children's and teen youth literature awards. Next one is in December! Anyway, I was reminded (after the class, of course) about the great online resource The Database of Award Winning Children's Books and thought I'd remind you guys as well.

This site has a searchable database of over 70 award lists. You can look for award winners by setting, historical period, suggested age of the reader, race/ethnicity, all sorts of things. When you get a teacher who wants to read a good book to their class, you can point them here and see what comes up.

YOUMedia of the Chicago Public Library

YOUMedia is a revolutionary space at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago.

"According to CPL, its goal is to 'support youth to participate with digital media across all three of these practices [hanging out with friends in online spaces, playing with digital media, and "geeking out" in online groups that deal with their core interests]. The goal, in time, is to increase, substantially, the number of youth in Chicago who use online resources and new media as tools to engage in inquiry about their neighborhoods, the city, and the world. The design of the YOUmedia learning space will encourage individual and collaborative work and also be a safe and open space where teens can come just to hang-out.' "

Here are some pictures from Flickr.

Fresh Storytime Ideas

Hi folks! We are halfway through August which means many of us are starting to think about storytimes again. This summer on PUBYAC someone asked for Unusual Storytime Topics--they were getting a little bored with their regular ideas and wanted to get some fresh ideas. The list everyone came up with was really fun. I'm adding the list to this post, but if you'd like to see the full compilation with more commentary, let me know and I will send it to you via email.

Don't forget Lori Romero and I are offering another Storytime Practicum share session. We will be talking about Dialogic Reading--how to ask those open-ended questions that are so powerful for kids developing their language skills. As always, there will be time to share something from your storytime kit with everyone else--a new book you love, a flannel you've made, a song you are having a great time singing. Check with your supervisor and sign up on ALD-U. The class is called Literacy Based Storytime (Practicum) and it is on August 27, Thursday, at the May library. Hope to see you there!

Here's the list of storytime topics:

List of Unusual Storytime Themes

__________ Appreciation Day
(use Chase’s Calender of Events / Internet sites)
5 Senses
Ah-choo!
All About Me
Alligators
Alphabet
Amazing Adventures
Amusement Park
Animals
Animal Crackers
Animals Nobody Loves
Arctic
Art
Author Appreciation
Babies
Backwards Stories
Bad Days
Bags & Backpacks
Beans
Be Creative
Bedtime
Berries
Best Friends
Bicycles
Birds
Birthday Parties
Black & White
Blue
Boxes
Bravery Stories
Bread
Bubbles
Bugs
Busses
Buttons
Can’t Sit Still
Castles
Carrots
Chain Reactions
Cheese
Cherries
Chocolate
Circular Stories
Circus
Cleaning Up
Community
Cookies
Coyotes
Crocodiles
Cumulative Stories
Crackers
Cupcakes
Dads
Dancing Shoes
Deliveries
Dinosaurs
Dirty Jobs
Discipline
Dragons
Drawing
Dreams
Earth
Edwards
Election Day
Fairs
Fast & Slow
Favorites
Farms
Feathers
Feet
Finding Your Place
Fire Prevention
Firsts
Five Senses
Five (of something)
Flags
Fractured Fairy Tales
Frogs
Garbage
Gardening
Getting Out of Interesting Situations
Glitter Time
Goats
Going…
Going Hunting (bear hunt, a-hunting)
Grandparents Day
Green
Gulp
Guessing Games
Hair
Happy Unbirthday
Heroes
Home of My Own
Hide & Seek
Hugs & Kisses
Ice Cream
Illness
Imagination
I’m Big
In My Pocket
Insects
Interesting Animals
I SPY
Journeys
Jumping
Kings
Kites
Knights
Knitting
Let’s Learn About __________
Let’s Play Pretend
Llamas
Lost & Found
Laundry
Mail
Make Believe
Marshmallows
Me & My Dad
Me & My Mom
Messes
Miss / Mrs. / Mr. __________’s Favorites
Milk
Mistaken Identity
Moms
Movement
Museums
Music
Mysteries
Names
Napping and Waking Up
New Books!
Night Happenings
NO!
Noises
Noodles
Noses
Now I’m Big!
Numbers
Ocean
Oh No! I’m Scared!
Old Ladies (I Know an Old Lady Who…)
Opposites
Orange
Outer Space
Pancakes
Parties
Pasta
Peas
Pickles
Pirates
Pizza
Places to go in the Summer
Pockets
Poetry
Polka Dots
Position Words
Post Office
Princes
Princesses
Purple
Queens
Questions
Quilts
Recycling
Red
Rescued Animals
Rice
Ridiculous Stories
Rhymes
Running
Same But Different
Scientific Principles
Secrets
Sheep
Shadows
Shoes
Shoo Fly Shoo
Shopping
Show & Tell
Sign Language
Silly
Sing-A-Book
Sleepovers
Slugs
Snails
Snakes
Socks
Solving a Problem
Song Stories
Soup
Spatter Paint
Spooky stories
Squirrels
Stinky Things
Story villains
String
Stripes
Stuck
Tails
Talking
Things on Your Head
This & That
Three of Something
Time Travel
To the Rescue
Toys
Trash
Trees
Troublemakers
Un-Kissing
Under the Weather
Unusual Animals
Unusual Appetites
Unusual Pets
Unusual Rescues
Vocabulary Building
Wacky Farm
Waiting
Walking
Weaving
Wheels
Where is?
What’s Black and White and Red All Over?
What’s on Your Head?
What’s That Sound?
Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad ________?
Wild & Wacky
Wind
Wolves
Wool
Worms
X-Rays & Skeletons
Yellow
Zoos

Ultimate YA Bookshelf

If you're on Facebook, you've probably seen one of those memes about how many classic books you've read or great movies you've watched. How will you do with these Ultimate YA titles?

I've read 21...which means I have lots to put on my to-be-read shelf!

Quick Cover Update

The book jacket for Justine Larbalestier's Liar is going to change. The author updated her blog today (and even has a post with a picture of the new cover!)and Publisher's Weekly posted this piece about the change. It seems that Bloomsbury listened to public opinion about the cover photo and decided to alter it in time for the book's release in October. Be sure to check the comments on Larbalestier's post for input from other YA authors!

And the next Ambassador?

Roger Sutton from the Horn Book is on the committee to select the next National Ambassador of Young People's Literature (you know, the job Jon Scieska's had). He's asking for ideas. Who do you think could speak well and promote children and reading? Check out the comments to see who his readers are rooting for!

"It Was a Dark and Stormy Night..."

Check out this list of great first lines for YA books!