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MTYT: Alma and How She Got Her Name

By Dorea Kleker, University of Arizona and Maria Acevedo-Aquino, Texas A&M University-San Antonio.

TFOB
This month we discuss four picturebooks by authors and illustrators who will join us at the Tucson Festival of Books in March. We chose to focus on these authors’ and illustrators’ most recent picturebooks, all of which were published between 2016-2018.

Written and illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal, Alma and How She Got Her Name follows Alma as she learns the meaning of her very long name that respects her ancestors and heritage. As Alma’s dad tells her ancestors’ stories, she finds inspiration and learns they had similar interests. With a newfound appreciation for her name, Alma begins her own life story.

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USBBY Award-Winning Books: The Role Literature Plays in Supporting Music

By Janelle B. Mathis, University of North Texas

USBBY LogoBoth the prestigious American Library Association Awards and the USBBY Outstanding International Book Award lists in children’s and young adult literature were recently announced. This list of 39 translated books that cut across age levels from Pre-K to YA offers many genres, themes and countries of origin with a variety of potential uses in the classroom. While the OIB committee, on which I served this year, suggests potential thematic connections in their discussions as well as in the School Library Journal article announcing the list, I would like to share some personal connections I made while reading and discussing these books. Most of these connections cut across the award list, but later this month, I will share some excellent books that didn’t make the final list as well as other recently published books. Continue reading →

WOW Recommends: Book of the Month

WOW Recommends: The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle

Cover from The Truth as Told by Mason ButtleMason Buttle is a sweaty mess of a kid. He says so himself. Mason understands where he resides in the pecking order at his school and at his bus stop, where he is apple bombed daily by the local bullies for being, well, Mason Buttle. What Mason doesn’t understand is how the rest of the town views him. He doesn’t learn that until later, when the looks he thought meant “sorry your friend died” really questioned whether or not he was the one who killed his friend. But what no one understands is that Mason is not a liar, and his good, good heart has kept him innocent until his newest friend Calvin Chumsky goes missing. The condemnation that had been hidden from him is revealed, but then, so is the truth —-the truth about so many things in Mason’s life and family. Continue reading →

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MTYT: The House of Lost and Found

By Janelle B. Mathis, PhD, University of North Texas and Katie Loomis, Librarian and Doctoral Student, University of North Texas

In this last installment of January’s MTYT, Janelle B. Mathis and Katie Loomis talk about the picturebook The House of Lost and Found, translated from Swedish and written by Martin Widmark and Emilia Dziubak. The theme for this month focuses on child agency and situations where children can relate to adults through personal relationship, actions, words or questions. This is the heartwarming story of how a chance encounter with a child turns into a positive life changing beginning for the main character.

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The Batchelder Award: An Entryway to Translated Children’s Books

By Kathy Short, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

Batchelder MedalThe American Library Association held its highly anticipated annual press conference on January 28, 2019, to announce the major youth awards, including the Caldecott, Newbery, Pura Belpré and Coretta Scott King awards. The award committees worked behind closed doors for 3 days to make final decisions, submitting their award-winners in great secrecy to ALA staff so they could prepare for the press conference and subsequent news releases. This year, I had the honor of serving on the Mildred L. Batchelder Award committee. Continue reading →

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MTYT: The Visitor

By Janelle B. Mathis, PhD, University of North Texas and Katie Loomis, Librarian and Doctoral Student, University of North Texas

In the fourth installment of January’s MTYT, Janelle B. Mathis and Katie Loomis talk about the picturebook The Visitor, written by Antje Damm and translated by Sally-Ann Spencer. The theme for this month focuses on child agency and situations where children can relate to adults through personal relationship, actions, words or questions.

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MTYT: A Story Like the Wind

By Janelle B. Mathis, PhD, University of North Texas and Katie Loomis, Librarian and Doctoral Student, University of North Texas

In the third installment of January’s MTYT, Janelle B. Mathis and Katie Loomis talk about the picturebook A Story Like the Wind, written by Gill Lewis and illustrated by Jo Weaver. The theme for this month focuses on child agency and situations where children can relate to adults through personal relationship, actions, words or questions. This fable tells the story of a young boy who uses his agency to provide hope to fellow refugees through song and story.

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MTYT: A Drop of the Sea

By Janelle B. Mathis, PhD, University of North Texas and Katie Loomis, Librarian and Doctoral Student, University of North Texas

In the second installment of January’s MTYT, Janelle B. Mathis and Katie Loomis talk about the picturebook A Drop of the Sea, written by Ingrid Chabbert and illustrated by Raúl Nieto Guridi. The theme for this month focuses on child agency and situations where children can relate to adults through personal relationship, actions, words or questions.

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MTYT: The Old Man

By Janelle B. Mathis, PhD, University of North Texas and Katie Loomis, Librarian and Doctoral Student, University of North Texas

Contemporary literature has examples of the relationships that children develop with adults—parents, grandparents, and people they meet unexpectedly through shared experiences. The books discussed this month each reveal children relating to adults in very authentic ways— sometimes through a relationship and sometimes through their own impulse to act, speak, or ask questions. In thinking about child agency, the books show how the most natural or simplest of connections can resonate in powerful ways with adults.

The Old Man Banner with bibliographic information that is also listed at bottom of this post. Continue reading →

WOW Recommends: Book of the Month

WOW Recommends: The Cardboard Kingdom

The Cardboard KingdomThe graphic novel The Cardboard Kingdom is a cheerful story capturing children’s imagination and creativity, friendship and exploration of conflicts with families, friends and even their own identity. Chad Sell created this book in coordination with ten other writers, including Jay Fuller, David DeMeo, Katie Schenkel, Kris Moore, Manuel Betancourt, Molly Muldoon, Vid Alliger, Cloud Jacobs, Michael Cole and Barbara Perez Marquez. Continue reading →