Omnivoracious: End-o'-the-Week Kid-Lit Roundup

End-o'-the-Week Kid-Lit Roundup

by Paul on July 26, 2009

Quick links from around the kid-lit blogosphere:

Wimpy Kid ice cream truck tour. Attention, all citizens, be on the lookout for this truck:

I'm unclear on the actual ice-cream-availability details, but next month Jeff Kinney is driving coast-to-coast to 40 libraries in 30 days to promote the newest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, Dog Days. (via PW)

"Go, Joe!" I may never get tired of saying that next month—especially if the upcoming G.I. Joe movie is either very good or very bad. School Library Journal has the skinny on several book tie-ins for the movie, across various age groups, including Knowing Is Half the Battle (grades 2-5).

Kids want more bedtime stories. A recent British study of three- to eight-year-olds says that two-thirds of kids want their parents to read to them more often. Also, notable, "Reading is actually so popular with kids that it was voted their favourite pastime with a parent (51%), ahead of other forms of entertainment such as watching television (17%) and playing video games (7%)." (via Jen Robinson's Growing Bookworms newsletter)

"Don't be the tree." John Schwenkler over at The Amercian Conservative rounds up some thought-provoking grown-up assessments of Shel Silverstein's classic The Giving Tree.

Review: Rebecca Stead's First Light. Also via Jen Robinson this week: we've mentioned Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me here before, and now Jen has a review of her earlier book First Light. ("I am always on the lookout for quality science fiction (as an alternative to fantasy) for middle grade readers, and First Light fits the bill.")

"The trouble with Harry." The AP has an interesting story on how younger kids new to the Harry Potter series are probably too young for the scarier and more sophisticated later books, because they haven't gotten to age along with the series like its original fans. ("As a librarian, the issue of young children and Harry Potter is a constant concern," said Paula Laurita in Athens, Ala. "Rowling intended for the first book to be for children 9 and 10 years old. Naturally, as Harry aged so did the plots. In reality, books six and seven are young adult literature, not juvenile literature.")

No More Diapers for Ducky! Potty training has become a new topic around our house (please feel free to chime in with parental wisdom), so I was interested to see this recommendation from Twenty by Jenny for No More Diapers for Ducky!--which she describes as "one of the best I’ve seen on the topic of potty training." As with so many things kid-related, the customer reviews are all over the place, ranging from five stars ("Best book ever!!!!") to one star ("Unrealistic, poor advice!").

Phelps on Conan. How did I miss this? Fourteen-time Olympic gold-medalist--and now kids' book author--Michael Phelps was on Conan O'Brien recently, and they talked about his book, How to Train with a T. Rex and Win 8 Gold Medals. Publishers Weekly has the story, or you can watch for yourself on Hulu (starts around 4:15):