>Lane Smith’s It’s a Book got into hot water on Boston’s North Shore when a literacy foundation tried to donate copies to 340 first graders via their schools. While I don’t buy into the harrumphing that has plagued this book’s final page I do have two cautions. One, first-graders? I think It’s a Book is [...]
>Quelle surprise
November 6, 2010 By 2 Comments
>No, I should eat less ice cream
October 19, 2010 By 2 Comments
>Common sense, my aunt Fanny
August 6, 2010 By 3 Comments
>Pat Scales weighs in on “Common Sense Media.” (How can I NOT put that in quotes?) You might recall our earlier discussion. Off to New York today to help Elizabeth celebrate her 29th birthday. I have The Little Stranger and The Godfather of Kathmandu for the Limoliner, so I should be sufficiently prepared for the [...]
>Woman in chains
July 20, 2010 By 7 Comments
>Hunkered down writing my reviews for the September issue (among them the new Knuffle Bunny, a Mary Downing Hahn and Annexed), I’ve been simultaneously worried that this blog isn’t keeping up up up! with the action, leading me to worry that Scott Westerfeld had it right, that the future was all going to be about [...]
>Do these people even like to read?
July 12, 2010 By 15 Comments
>Brian Kenney’s SLJ editorial about Common Sense Media led me over to their site for a gander. While Brian and Liz Burns, among others, have pointed out the problems with their labeling system and lack of a review policy (plus the creepy way they simply disappear reviews that have raised eyebrows), what bothers me most [...]
>Championed by Children
June 16, 2010 By 9 Comments
> Mitali Perkins has up a great letter sent on her behalf by a group of second-graders to Barnes and Noble: “we were surprised when we figured out that most of your bookstores in Massachusetts don’t carry her books. Why do you not carry Mitali Perkins’ books in your bookstore?!” Who knows if they will [...]
>Euwwww, used e-books
May 11, 2010 By 9 Comments
>Amazon’s practice of keeping track of what you underline is not only creepy, it’s disgusting. There I was, happily beginning Herman Wouk’s The Winds of War on my iPod Touch’s Kindle reader (all in all a nifty piece of software) when I came upon this: To hear Rhoda Henry’s daily chatter, her life passed in [...]
>How to fix BBYA
January 25, 2010 By 9 Comments
>Liz Burns and Marc Aronson have been keeping an eye on the Best Books for Young Adults drama. That list is going to become strictly YA fiction; the Alex Awards (adult books of potential interest and value to teens) and) list will get bigger, thus picking up the adult book slack; and the new YALSA [...]
>Step away from the bar, ladies
December 2, 2009 By 15 Comments
>So SLJ is in trouble with some of its readers over their cover photo of some boozin’ bloggers. Honestly, you never know what’s going to bring in complaints–and Letters to the Editor are far more frequently objections than compliments. As Monica Edinger (first reprobate to the left) points out, you might expect objections to the [...]
