Note to Parents

Those of you reading this blog are professionals at reading aloud, whether to your own kids or the kids in your classroom or that come into your library or bookstore.

If you know of parents or individuals that might not be sure how to go about selecting books for their young readers, or how to incorporate story time into their daily routine, here are a couple of articles that you might want to pass along to them:

A How-To on Reading Aloud to Your Kids
Harder Books Aren't Always Better Books: Talking with Parents about Text Difficulty

Choice Literacy, the source for this second article, is a great website which includes many great articles for educators and literacy professionals. They offer many great tips for free, or you can sign up for an annual membership ($99 per year) to receive:

• All site materials in an ad-free environment, including hundreds of articles, web-based videos, and workshop e-Guides
  
  
• Continuously updated content
  
  
• Downloadable tips, tools, and templates for literacy leaders, curriculum specialists, principals, and teachers
  
  
• The latest writing from your favorite teacher authors before it appears in their next book
  
  
• Dozens of videos filmed and edited by our award-winning crew of videographers and technicians
  
  
• Discounts on products and services available only to members

• And much, much more

If you know of more resource sites to share, please add them in the comment section.

First Book

Since my role as Marketing Manager requires that I know what's going on in the on line world, I have been following many moms, writers, authors and marketing gurus through Facebook and Twitter.

The following video was included in a tweet by an author who was touched by the First Book's impact on literacy, as was I:

Coleen Sally - A National Treasure

This week, we mourn the loss of Ms. Coleen Sally. On Monday, we received an update of her condition from a fellow colleague.

After her recent diagnosis of the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), a terminal illness, her son David shared his thoughts with thousands of his mother's fans:

To say Mom has had a full life would be a monumental understatement. She has made more friends than most people can ever imagine, and touched and inspired thousands more.

Obviously Mom did not deserve this fate (no one does) and it is sad that it has happened to her. It is a little ironic that a disease that literally strikes only one in 1,000,000 struck someone who is one in 1,000,000, actually 10,000,000. I am sorry that I have to bring everyone this news.

However, I know each and every one of you have fond and fun filled memories of your times with Mom and I know you will recall those as you think of her at this time.

Hail to the Queen!!!

Update: If you've posted on the late Coleen Sally, please include the URL to the blog post in a comment below. I've already started by including the few I know of already.

Pop Goes the Library!

Librarian turned Kidlit Blogger turned Author!

Together with co-author Sophie Brookover, Liz Burns of A Chair, a Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy wrote Pop Goes the Library! Written to help librarians connect with patrons and to energize their staff, Pop Goes the Library! defines what pop culture is (and isn’t). Liz & Sophie share insights, tips, techniques, and success stories from all types of libraries.

Based on the blog, Pop Goes the Library! the book now has its own: PopBook!

Congratulations Liz and Sophie for putting together a creative, useful and exciting adventure into pop culture from a librarian's point of view. Congratulations again for introducing a new publishing model: from online to print.

LOL

Happy Birthday Mark!

Today is Mark David's birthday. He's the author and illustrator of Crazy Cars, for Crazy Kids.

Mark David was born in Melbourne, Australia but grew up in Sydney. As a kid, he was forever making up machines in complex illustrations, mainly because it was fun, but also because his friends enjoyed them!

Happy Birthday Corrine!

Today is Corinne Albaut's birthday! She is the author of The Nights of the World.

After studying English and teaching in UK and France, Corinne began writing nursery rhymes and songs for children. She has published over thirty books for children as well as several for adults. Her books have been translated into many languages and published around the world.

Happy Birthday Anji!

Today is Anji Yamamura's birthday! She is the author and illustrator of Hannah Duck, a new picture book from Japan.

After beginning work as an illustrator, Anji Yamamura moved to Tokyo where she taught herself the art of wood engraving. Her work takes a variety of forms, including picture books, and has won numerous awards.

Happy Birthday Darrel!

Today is a very special birthday celebration. Today, March 7th is Darrel Odgers' birthday. He is co-author of the magnificent Jack Russell: Dog Detective series. There are currently seven titles available with #8 coming out in the Fall. Embark on the adventure today!

Fast Forward

Technically, our Spring 2008 titles will not be released until March 1st, and yet, I'm asking you all to fast forward a little bit to talk about fall. Yes, that's right. I will now share the September 1st, Fall 2008, forthcoming books from Kane/Miller.

Included among the twelve books are two Toddler Tales that are being translated into Spanish (Las hermanintas son... - Little Sisters Are...- and Los hermanitos son... - Little Brothers Are...), Book #8 in the Jack Russsell Series - The Kitnapped Creature, four picture books (The Big Little Book of Happy Sadness, The Story of Growl, Something for School, There's No Such Thing as Ghosts), a modern-day fairy tale (Singing to the Sun), and four early readers (The Wicket Chronicles #1 and #2: Ely Plot and Fen Gold, Snake and LIzard, and Wombat & Fox.

From England

978-1-933605-84-5
$5.95 (U.S.)

978-1-933605-87-6
$5.95 (U.S.)


From New Zealand

978-1-933605-83-8
$14.95 (U.S.)


From Australia

978-1-933605-81-4
$13.95 (U.S.)


978-1-933605-90-6
$15.95 (U.S.)


From Belgium

978-1-933605-91-3
$13.95 (U.S.)


From South Korea

978-1-933605-85-2
15.95 (U.S.)


From Australia

978-1-933605-80-7
$15.95 (U.S.)

From England

978-1-933605-94-4
$16.95 (U.S.)

Authors for this forthcoming season are Jucy Horacek, Vivian French, Colin Thompson, Terry Denton, Joy Cowley, Hyun Young Lee, Joan Lennon, Sally & Darrel Odgers, Emanuelle Eekhout, and Beth Norling. Gavin Bishop and Jackie Morris join us as new illustrators we're publishing and countries represented include our first book from New Zealand, along with Australia, England, South Korea, and Belgium.

More details to come...

Updates & Modifications

We've been making some minor changes to our website over the last few weeks - some of which may go unnoticed - such as changing the Conference Schedule to a more comprehensive and - we think - more useful Calendar.

We've changed the content on the What's New page to include the full text of the latest Kane/Miller book mentioned - Sally & Dave is featured this week - and we will continue to update this page with the latest reviews.

We have added photos to a few of the biography pages of our authors and illustrators, including Anette Bley and Bine Brändle.

You'll also see that many authors and illustrators have allowed us to include their birth dates on the Calendar, giving us more reasons to celebrate - and promote their work!

As always, feedback, comments and suggestions are welcome. If you find a feature on our website that could use a little tweaking, we'd like to know about it. We want our site to be as helpful and user-friendly as possible so please let me know what might not be working for you.

Speaking of updates, you'll see that there's a new Kane/Miller widget on our blog which lists the most recent posts. We're always looking for more creative ways to reach our readers and we hope you enjoy the modifications.