Author and Illustrator Shaun Tan wins Academy Award

Congratulations to all of last night's Oscar winners, including author and illustrator Shaun Tan! Shaun Tan won an Academy Award for Best Short Film (Animated) for his film The Lost Thing, based on his picture book of the same name. The Lost Thing, never before widely available in the U.S., is one of three picture books included in a new collection of Shaun Tan’s work coming in March: Lost & Found: Three.

You can see Shaun’s Oscar acceptance speech here. Check out the full list of Oscar nominees and winners here.

Shaun Tan's previous books, The Arrival and Tales from Outer Suburbia, have been named to the lists of New York Times Best Illustrated Books, ALA Notable Children's Books, Horn Book Fanfare Books, and New York Public Library Best Books for Reading and Sharing, as well as many other Best of the Year lists. He lives in Melbourne, Australia. Visit his website for more information.

Scholastic ALA 2011 Award Winners

Congratulations to all of the award winners!

Here are Scholastic's award-winning books along with free teaching resources:

Pura Belpre Award (Author) is presented to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.
The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan

• The Dreamer Booktalk
• The Dreamer Video Booktalk
• The Dreamer Discussion Guide
• Video interview with Pam Munoz Ryan

Schneider Family Book Award/Middle-Grade Category honors an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.
After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick

• After Ever After Booktalk
• After Ever After Video Booktalk

Michael Printz Honor Award  for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature.
Stolen by Lucy Christopher

• Stolen Booktalk
• Video interview with Lucy Christopher

 

This year's Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature was awarded to Clare Vanderpool's Moon Over Manifest. The Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children was awarded to A Sick Day for Amos McGee, written by Philip C. Stead and illustrated by Erin E. Stead. See the complete list of honorees and winners at www.ala.org.

Find more great ways to teach with award winning books here. 

Toys for Tots Literacy Program Award Nomination

We know they are out there. Volunteers, students, tutors, librarians, teachers, grandparents - doing their part  to help inspire a love of reading in children. We want to recognize their commitment to helping make a difference in the lives of children.

The Toys for Tots Literacy Program, together with The UPS Store and Scholastic, invites you to nominate someone inspiring in your life who is committed to helping children improve their reading skills.

Learn more about the award and nominate someone now! Nominations must be postmarked by May 31, 2010.

Questions? Email us at literacyaward@scholastic.com

Friday Blog Round Up

'Tis the season of book awards and prizes and I was interested to find that on American Indians in Children's Literature there is mention of the "First Nation Communities Read" program, complete with annual award. Previous winners include Ancient Thunder, As Long as the River Flows, and SkySisters.  

While I'm not a big snake fan, Sonja is a big Nic Bishop fan, so this link is for her. The Jean Little Library offers a review of The Snake Scientist and with lines like, "They portray the fascinating world of snakes without being too frightening or icky, if you're a non-snakes lover," I might be tempted to actually check out the book!

Last week I challenged you all to donate a book to your local library and it turns out that Support Our Shelves is a campaign to do just that. The Brooklyn Public Library is just one of the systems participating along with others in Arlington, Kensington, and Red Hook. What a super cause.

I thought I was doing well to plan ahead and have some new poetry books out to review for April, National Poetry Month. GottaBook's Gregory has gone above and beyond with a poet a day for the month of April. Jane Yolen, Nikki Giovanni, and Jack Prelutsky are just the tip of the iceberg.

Are you in the mood to create a character scrapbook? Well you will be after you check out the Character Scrapbook tool, complete with a pick-the-facial-features feature.  It reminds me of a high-tech and educational Mr. Potato Head.

All righty folks. My work here is done. Have a fantastic weekend and we'll see you back here on Monday.  

Friday Kid Lit Round-Up

Hey folks. Glad you could pop in. I think the Batches of Butterflies project at the Eric Carle Museum is so cool! They're asking "friends, families, and schools throughout the country and abroad to create their own butterflies to flutter in the museum." Pop on over to see how to get your butterfly fluttering in the Great Hall. But hurry, they need to get there by the 15th!

All you Percy Jackson fans had better start buttering your popcorn because February 2010 is the release date for the new movie. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief will star Logan Lerman and Brandon T. Jackson in 20th Century Fox's cinematic delight.

Mir is back at the Kitchen Table with a book review about a serious subject. At one point her daughter asked her about the Holocaust. "That could never happen nowadays, right?" With all that's happening in the world today, it really makes you stop and think.

With all of the book awards flying about lately, my students have become adept at identifying the Caldecott sticker and have been asking me all sorts of questions about it. They got me thinking and Wizards Wireless has the answers. So...."How do Caldecott and Newbery-winning books get their shiny stickers?"

I ran across this title the other day and was positively salivating. Amazon Supplier Loses Warehouse Lease, Invites the Public to Loot Its Books. I know you feel my pain that I wasn't in the UK to participate in this event!

Alrighty folks. I want you all to have a super weekend. Try to take a little time out to hunker down with a good book. And remember to support your local independent book store. They really help to keep the choices rich and... I sound like a coffee commercial. Just go read!

CBC Book Awards Finalists 2009

The 2009 CBC Children's Choice Book Award finalists have been announced. Nearly 15,000 children and teens cast votes to determine the list -- and thousands more will weigh in on who should win.

Kid Lit Kit applauds all the fantastic nominated books, authors, and illustrators. The Scholastic finalists are:

Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade Book of the Year
100 Most Dangerous Things On the Planet by Anna Claybourne 
Amulet, Book One: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi (watch an interview with Kibuishi and the Amulet book trailer)

Teen Choice Book Award
Airhead by Meg Cabot (see the Airhead video booktalk)
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (read Hunger Games chapter one (PDF), watch an interview with Collins, find The Hunger Games discussion guide)

Illustrator of the Year
Jon J Muth, Zen Ties

Encourage your students to vote at www.BookWeekOnline.com from March 16 through May 3.