Five Little People

 Celebrating the fourth Grandchild's birthday with our five grandchildren. 

Bloomin' lovely

First rose of the season.

Ken Catran Award

Ken Catran, writer of nearly 30 acclaimed novels for children and young adults, is the 2007 winner of the New Zealand's most prestigious award for children's writers, the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal.

New PEW Research Report

"Tagging Play - Forget Dewey anad his decimals, internet users are revolutionising the way we classify information - and make sense of it."http://pewresearch.org/pubs/402/tagging-play

33 Reasons Why Libraries and Librarians are Still Extremely Important

There is still a place for librarians in the 21st century
http://www.degreetutor.com/library/adult-continued-education/librarians-needed

Waterstone's children's winner

Darkside by Tom Becker

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/displayProductDetails.do?sku=4315850

Congratulations Belle Alderman

From ABC News Items:

Dr Belle Alderman has been appointed Member of the Order of Australia for her services to children's literature as a researcher and mentor to emerging writers and illustrators.

Dr Alderman developed and now manages the Lou Rees Archives for Australian Children's Literature.

"It enables authors, illustrators, writers, publishers and others to have a place they can direct people to come and do research," she said.

"We have people from all over the world that visit the Lou Rees Archives."

Drawn to the image

New Melbourne Age article talks about Shaun Tan's new book "The Arrival"

Australian Kids Book Blog

Just discovered Marita Thomson's blog-
Evidence | Here be proof of reading to aid the fading memory of the writer!

I have long appreciated Marita's knowledge of children's and young adult literature and enjoy her posts to various Australian listservs including a_ya . In this blog, an online reading log, Marita reviews and writes about books she has read.

2007 ALSC Literary and Related Award Winners

Winners of the Newbery, Caldecott and other awards from The Association for Library Services to Children have been announced. I must admit that I have read none of the winning titles - I will add them to the reading list.

Set in Stone

A long car trip on the weekend (as a passenger) gave me the opportunity to read the Costa Award Winner in the children's category (plus two other great books). The book was engaging, believable and beautifully written - I enjoyed it immensely although I now wonder about it being in the children's category(Books for 8-14 year olds in the Costa Awards) as incest is one of its major themes - it is definitely for readers at the upper age of the category. I had placed the book in my children's fiction collection but will be moving it to senior fiction on my return to work.

Garry Disher profile

For a profile of Garry Disher recently published in the Adelaide Advertiser see:
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,21076016-5006348,00.html

"Book Thief" UK success

Zusak's "Book Thief" has only recently been released in the UK. In his Guardian review Philip Ardagh says "Everyone should read Markus Zusak's The Book Thief". The review can be found at http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1983080,00.html

The Cat in the Hat turns 50 this month

The website has competitions for teachers (i presume only in the US) and activities for children.

The Publisher's Weekly site has an article "The Cat in the Hat Turns 50…With a Bang" detailing the history of the classic children's book.

Promethean ActivBoards

I just came across the Activboarding blog from a Graham Wegner, an ICT Coordinator in Adelaide. The blog should assist our staff as we work on integrating our boards into teaching and learning. The links to the use of Promethean boards in Australian schools is most useful.

Costa Book Awards

I've been holidaying in the sun so I missed the Costa Awards Announcement. The full list is available at
http://www.costabookawards.com/awards/category_winners.aspx

Of the Children's Award Winner Set in Stone by Linda Newbery the judges commented: " a novel of intrigue and deception. Newbery's landscape is a joy to walk into."

My "Books to read" list is growing exponentially!

New Blogger

It's a New Year and we have a New Blogger. I made the change and had terrible trouble trying to customise my blog from Internet Explorer. I fired off a bug message and then tried Mozilla. I had immediate success and have been playiing with the blog. I'll continue to fiddle until I get a look that fits.

Riveting Reads 6-8 - New

From the School Library Association comes another title in their fabulous Riveting Reads series. It can be ordered from the SLA website. I have found the earlier issues to be very handy collection development resources.

Riveting Reads 6-8 by Prue Goodwin
ISBN 9781903446355 · December 2006
£7.50 (SLA Members £6.00) ·

For children learning to read, the years between their sixth and ninth birthdays are the most important and the most exciting. Adults want to provide support, but children who are discouraged or bored by the books they are offered can quickly become reluctant to read. The books in this collection have been selected principally to provide enjoyment and a rich and varied choice. Full bibliographical information is given for each title.

Fun between the covers - New TV series

The ABC will be screening a six part series "The Librarians" in the second of 2007.

ACHUKAwiki

Great news in ACHUKA's latest newsletter:
"ACHUKA now has its own wikipedia!" http://www.achuka.co.uk/wiki