Jiggy

Still wearing green today?
Perhaps the world would be a better place if we all spent more time in tap shoes and less time waving our arms about. Next stop--Riverdance.

Charlotte Zolotow Award

It's Writing Wednesday. To look for examples of picture book stories that are considered top notch, one place to check is the Cooperative Children's Book Center's annual Charlotte Zolotow Award winners. It's the major award for excellence in picture book story writing. This year's winner is What Can You Do With a Paleta? by Magaly Morales. There are also plenty of honor books and recommended titles here. These books would be well worth checking out from the library and studying. Not to mention fun, too!

Retro Pix

It's Illustration Tuesday. Flickr is an image hosting website-- basically a place to store pictures. All kinds of pictures. A great resource for illustration styles of the past can be found on a Flickr group called "Retro Kid" here. It's chock full of members who love illustrations from the mid 1940's to the mid 1960's which are targeted towards children. It can be a nifty resource for illustrators interested in drawing from the past for their own style. And it's a fun place to find all kinds of old children's books, advertisements, packages, toys, etc. from yesteryear. Check it out, and get in the mood, below.

Children's Literature in Academia

It Monday--Picture Books Past. One group of people who are most interested in children's books from the past are academics who study them as part of literature as a whole. It seems the field grew significantly in the 1970's. The Children's Literature Association (here) was established and colleges and universities added new classes in children's lit. Two journals on the subject are the "Children's Literature Association Quarterly" (here) and "Children's Literature" (here.) An example of an academic program is here. A conference is here. A professor giving a lecture on Sendak is here. It's another facet of the world of picture books.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

It's Friday, Book Business Day. Let's poke around a little at the mega-publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Here is some background on the company. Headquarters is here (notice how an iPhone app is front and center on this homepage.) Look at their many divisions here. Their handsome online HMH Spring 2010 children's catalog is here (including Clarion and Harcourt, too, if you keep turning the pages.) So take a look around and get to know this corner of the book business just a bit better. Below are a book trailer and promo piece from HMH.

Hugs, Snugs, and One Little Scream

It's Thursday, Real Kids Day. I could watch this stuff all day.

Classroom Themes

It's Writing Wednesday. How about jumping in and writing a new picture book story? But what to write about? If the well's dry, trying thinking the way a teacher of young children does. Most classrooms use subject themes (like dinosaurs, snow, or ocean life) at times. And they read books to go with those themes. Look here for a list of preschool themes for examples and inspiration. Click on any of those themes to find links to songs, books, art projects, and more. Take one of these themes, imagine a character, and put it together with a plot type here. It may start to click!