All Hail Ashley Bryan

The Theater at the Dallas Convention Center was packed on Monday morning, filled with librarians and children's literature enthusiasts waiting to see what books, authors and illustrators would be recognized among the 2012 American Library Association awards.

Find more lists of the ALA winners and nominees: Caldecott, Newbery, Printz, Coretta Scott King and Pura Belpre.  

We went in happy, and, for the most part, we left happy. The various ALA division presidents named the awards and honors they were responsible for, and we all clapped appropriately. To be sure, anyone listening would have heard many iterations of "What happened ...

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Family Legacies

King Edward the Fourth was gay
King Edward the Fourth was charming,
He'd a voice like silk,
And manners like milk,
And a smile that was most disarming.

As parlor tricks go, this was a pretty dumb one. I could recite the character flaws of Edward IV of England and how he manifested them: "he / Upsided-downed / His brother and drowned / Him dead in a butt of malmsey."

No matter that I didn't know what malmsey was, much less how much of it would be found in a butt. The limerick rhythm was hard to resist, and, besides, I ...

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Walter Dean Myers, Ambassador

The Library of Congress has just named Walter Dean Myers the third National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, and I couldn't be happier. The author of picture books, novels, nonfiction and poetry, his writing career spans almost 50 years. He has touched and changed countless lives, including mine.

Read more books by Walter Dean Myers at Kirkus.

The position was created, according to the Library of Congress website, "to raise national awareness of the importance of young people’s literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education and the development and betterment of the lives of young people ...

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What Makes a Great App

In looking at the year in apps and trying to decide which were among its best, I found it impossible to ignore the fundamental question: Just what makes a book app great?

Read more of 2011's Best Book Apps for Kids.

First and foremost, it has to succeed on its own terms as a "book" (using the term advisedly in this electronic environment). Apps that started as books, such as Big Little Brother, by Kevin Kling, illustrated by Chris Monroe and developed by Mighty Media, have a distinct leg up in this department. The story, of a little boy ...

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Bringing ‘Van Gogh and the Sunflowers' to Digital Life

Laurence Anholt has been making traditional books for years, both by himself and in collaboration with his wife, Catherine. Recently, he has dipped his toes in digital waters, working with developers Auryn, Inc., on an app version of the first book in his Artists series, Camille and the Sunflowers.

Find more great apps developed from printed books among our Best Book Apps of 2011.

This app, Van Gogh and the Sunflowers, received a starred review from Kirkus and was named to our list of Best Book Apps of 2011. It tells the story of Camille, son of the Arles postmaster ...

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App Developers to Watch: Auryn

This was the first full calendar year after the introduction of Apple's iPad, and it saw tremendous growth in the market of storybook apps available for the tablet. Great new apps are aplenty out there, and we have highlighted many as the best of the year. But there is one developer that has distinguished itself by its innovative practices and dedication to quality.

That developer is Auryn Inc.

See all of the Best Apps of 2011.

From its 2010 charmers, Teddy's Day and companion Teddy's Night, with their ever-so-cozy interactions, it moved on to its stunning and ...

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'Bartleby': The Future of Digital Storytelling

A year ago, when we began to review iPad apps, an apparently unassuming little book called Bartleby's Book of Buttons struck us as one of the best story apps available in the then-infant market.

Discover more of the best organic-to-iPad apps of 2011.

We were captivated by the story of this button-collecting gentleman because it actively engaged readers in advancing the story through the technology. It didn't just give them a story with interactions to play with. "It’s remarkably different in look, tone and structure from most story apps, a true original in an App Store filled ...

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Favorite Children’s and Teen Books of 2011: Editor’s Choice

You know what it's like: Someone asks you for a book recommendation, and all of a sudden your mind goes blank. Then it fills so rapidly you can't possibly filter out just one title or two.

Read more of the best Children's and Teen books for 2011.

That's how I felt in trying to pick my five favorite books of the year. After all, it was murder just narrowing down to the hundred-and-a-few that appear on Kirkus’ combined Best Books list for children and teens. And no matter what I pick today, I'm going to ...

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An East-Meets-West Comic-Book Romance

Mangaman is no ordinary tale of star-crossed lovers. Romeo and Juliet may have been separated by a clan feud, but at least they inhabited the same universe. Ryoko and Marissa are separated by layers of fictive conventions that are blown apart by "an extrascientific event" that has stranded the two-dimensional Ryoko in Marissa's seemingly three-dimensional world. Manga conventions clash with those of Western comics in a daring, funny tale.

The author of such well-received prose novels as The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl and Boy Toy, Barry Lyga is a self-described "recovering comic book geek." He has ...

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Just What Is a "Real Book" Anyway?

"Oh, you're reading a real book this time." I'm sure my acupuncturist didn't mean to be cruel when she tossed off this casual observation. But that's how it felt to me.

You see, that "real book" did not refer to the fact that I was reading a traditionally printed-and-bound codex instead of one of those newfangled e-books. No, it was more elemental: I was reading a book for adults instead of one for children or teens.

Read children's and YA editor Vicky Smith's column last week on the Paolini Phenomenon.

It's an unpleasant ...

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The Paolini Phenomenon

The arrival of Inheritance, the final book in Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle, was a momentous one here at Kirkus. Not because I'd been waiting with bated breath for it, but because it occasioned so much fuss. Both our reviewer and I had to sign nondisclosure agreements that immediately wiped out any advantage my young nephew has in being related to me. (One perk of the job is the ability occasionally to dole out advance copies of highly anticipated books, which momentarily elevates me to a level of cool I don't usually enjoy.)

Read more new and notable ...

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'Bone Dog': A Video Conversation

Caldecott Medalist Eric Rohmann talks with Children's & Teen Editor Vicky Smith about his new Halloween book, Bone Dog, a sometimes-funny, sometimes-scary and ultimately touching tale. Kirkus praised it for balancing "a tight text full of tough emotions with clear images of an everlasting friendship." Here Eric discusses grief and promises, the universality of the relationship between a child and a dog, and the importance of choosing just the right words.

See Kirkus' 2011 Halloween Picture-Book Roundup.

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An Evening with 'The Werewolf Family'

Last summer I had the good fortune to attend a talk by Jack Gantos. Gantos has been writing for children and teens since the mid-’70s and has won much acclaim, including a Newbery Honor (for Joey Pigza Loses Control) and a Sibert Honor (for A Hole in My Life). His newest book, Dead End in Norvelt, has received rave reviews from just about everybody, including us.

Read 5 fantastic picture books for Halloween.

But Gantos wasn't talking about these books. No, his talk was an extended musing on what one might find in a cemetery for dead books ...

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Let's Keep Kids' Books for Kids Only

So what's going on with all the picture books for grown-ups these days? If I sound like Andy Rooney, I guess I mean to, because I have to say this particular trend brings out the curmudgeon at me.

Read our love letter to Richard Peck.

The big news in the children's-book world this summer was the release of Go the F**k to Sleep, by Adam Mansbach, with illustrations by Ricardo Cortés. It was the No. 1 bestseller on Amazon a month before it even existed officially, thanks to the viral spread of a PDF in the ...

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A Love Letter to Richard Peck

Dear Mr. Peck, If anyone had suggested to me 10 years ago that I would be writing you a love letter, I would have told them they were crazy. I am not in the habit of writing love letters at all, for the first thing, and for the second, I'm not sure you'd have been the target of my first one.

But here I am, wearing my heart on my sleeve for you.

Find more great fiction among our 2011 Best Books for Children. 

I have read just about every kids’ book you have written, Mr. Peck, and ...

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'Liesl & Po': A Video Conversation

Children's & Teen Editor Vicky Smith talks to Lauren Oliver about her ghost-story fantasy for middle-grade children, Liesl & Po. In a starred review, Kirkus called Liesl & Po an "irresistible read." Lauren talks about the role of sadness in children's books, some of her own favorite books and the importance of the word "ineffable."

Find more novels with great girl characters among our 2011 Best Books for Children.

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Following the 'Breadcrumbs'

Reading is an essentially solitary activity. We work to make it communal, either formally in school or more informally in book groups, but ultimately the encounter between reader and book is one that happens in isolation. The reader brings his or her experience to bear on the words the writer has given, creating an individual text that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Read more about finding fun in early readers.

Often that experience the reader applies is with other books. The books we have read before help us read the book in front of us now. We ...

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Finding Fun in Early Readers

Learning to read is hard. A colleague of mine pointed that out when she asked that we relabel the "Easy Reader" section in my library's children's room. What kind of message are we sending to children who might be struggling with literacy that they should find the task "easy"? It was a good point.

Read Every Thing On It, a new book of verse by Shel Silverstein.

Go into any children's room in any public library in the country, and you will find that the section with the heaviest use is the one that holds books designed ...

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Rethinking Thomas Jefferson

Blame Ken Howard. Or those orange biographies. I can't remember which came first, but at about the same time my parents took me to the film musical 1776, which starred a young Ken Howard as the very romantic Thomas Jefferson, I also read the Childhoods of Famous Americans biography of Jefferson. From kindergarten on, I revered our third president.

Find more great books exploring the past among our 2011 Best Books for Children. 

I don't recall exactly when I learned about Sally Hemings, but it sure wasn't when I was a kid. At some point I became ...

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How to Talk to Kids About 9/11

As the nation pauses to remember 9/11 on its 10th anniversary, like most Americans, I find myself remembering the day and its aftermath. Those of us who worked with small children had one abiding concern—to protect them from the savagery. If the attacks punctured our collective innocence, or at least our sense of invincibility, they also threatened the individual innocence of our children. How could we allow them to know that their world was so fragile?

Find more children's books about 9/11.

This attitude persisted for some time, even years in some quarters. Children just should ...

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