Día 2019

Today is El día de los niños / El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day), “a celebration every day of children, families, and reading.” We love librarian AnnMarie Hurtado’s idea of “Lucha Libros: Bilingual Battle of the Books.”

Lucha Libros started in response to the growing body of research on the importance of bolstering kids’ reading skills by third grade, and from hearing so many parents (especially non-English-speaking parents) tell me how hard it was to motivate their children — boys in particular — to read…I wanted the program to be bilingual, with books in Spanish as well as English, so that Spanish-speaking parents could be engaged in reading the same books as their kids. And so Lucha Libros was born.

How are you recognizing and supporting the needs of your bilingual library patrons? How do you celebrate Día? Follow REFORMA and Latinx in Kid Lit for more.

from The Horn Book http://bit.ly/2UNaQKd

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International Jazz Day 2019

Cover of the January/February 2017 Horn Book Magazine by Francis Vallejo.

Today is International Jazz Day. Here are some links and resources from The Horn Book about America’s art form. Click the tag jazz for more.

Illustrator Francis Vallejo’s Boston Globe-Horn Book Picture Book Award Speech for Jazz Day

Author Roxane Orgill’s 2016 Boston Globe-Horn Book Picture Book Award Speech for Jazz Day

Bryan Collier’s 2016 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award acceptance for Trombone Shorty

Profile of Bryan Collier by Tamar Brazis

Review of Jazz Owls: A Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots by Margarita Engle; illus. by Rudy Gutierrez

Review of Little Melba and 
Her Big Trombone by Katheryn Russell-Brown; 
illus. by Frank Morrison

from The Horn Book http://bit.ly/2PG2x20

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Review of The Vanishing Stair

The Vanishing Stair [Truly Devious]
by Maureen Johnson
High School    Tegen/HarperCollins    373 pp.
1/19    978-0-06-233808-2    $17.99

In this absorbing continuation of Truly Devious (rev. 1/18), amateur gumshoe and anxiety sufferer Stevie Bell is still trying — from afar, her parents having removed her from Ellingham Academy at the end of the first book — to solve both the eighty-year-old cold case at Ellingham and the recent murder of one of her classmates. (While Johnson skillfully weaves in critical plot points from Truly Devious, this is a true sequel, so reading the previous book is highly recommended.) After being returned to the Ellingham campus by a surprising ally, Stevie continues her investigation, focusing on the mysterious contents of an old tea tin she discovered in the room of a potential suspect. As the pieces of the past puzzle slowly come together, Stevie finds herself overwhelmed in the present when a shocking tragedy occurs — concluding book two. Johnson judiciously doles out some satisfying partial answers to the historical case while (presumably) saving the big reveals for the next installment. This fulfilling second volume will gratify serious mystery fans; and many readers will enjoy seeing themselves reflected in Stevie’s diverse and eccentric group of friends.

From the March/April 2019 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.

from The Horn Book http://bit.ly/2UScLgu

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Operators say government should lose oversight of rail

Long-distance routes should also be serviced by more than one company to spark competition, they said.

from BBC News - Home https://bbc.in/2PD6ioK

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Climate change: Electric car target 'needs to be sooner'

The government's plan to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2040 is too tame, its advisers will say.

from BBC News - Home https://bbc.in/2XTHj3o

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Labour to discuss 'confirmatory ballot' for Brexit

The party's governing body will decide whether to back a confirmatory ballot in the EU elections.

from BBC News - Home https://bbc.in/2PDXkr7

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IS leader al-Baghdadi appears in first video in five years

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who has not been seen on camera since 2014, vows revenge for his militants.

from BBC News - Home https://bbc.in/2UPvYzk

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