Archive for September 2006

Shortlist announced for children’s fiction prize

Kids read the darndest things. Judging by the Guardian children’s fiction prize shortlist, which was announced over the weekend, young readers are enjoying books about cloning, art history, subversive printing presses, and environmental devastation. These heady subjects are, of course, explored through captivating characters and thrilling story lines. It’s quite the list of outstanding juvenile […]

“To Kill a Mockingbird”: much loved, often challenged

Powerful writing has a way of removing our social blinders. That’s why good books can also feel so dangerous to some people. Harper Lee’s sole and Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is considered to be one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century. It is also one of the era’s most banned […]

Bill Bryson returns as the “Thunderbolt Kid”

Brysonians, rejoice! Bill is back.
Bill Bryson is a hoot. He’s also a Renaissance man, having summarized his galactic knowledge in the humbly titled A Short History of Nearly Everything and expanded on his global travels in tomes like In a Sunburned Country and A Walk in the Woods.
The wry Bryson has returned to entertain his […]

Challenged books depict challenging young lives

Lois Lowry’s The Giver, Robert Newton Peck’s A Day No Pigs Would Die, and Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War are three extraordinarily well-written young adult books with strong plots, healthy protagonists, and compelling themes. These three books are similar in another way: According to the American Library Association, they have all been challenged, which means […]

Your vote counts in the 2006 Quill Book Awards

Call them The People’s Choice Awards for books and you won’t be far off. The nominees for the 2006 Quill Book Awards have been announced, and now it’s time for you, dear reader, to be heard. Five nominees in each of 19 categories have been assembled by a venerable and invited group of librarians and […]

“Fractured Fairy Tales” enchants tired old fables

A steady diet in childhood of golden eggs, witches, trolls, enchanted frogs, dragons, elves, evil queens, good fairy godmothers, and other strange beasties is enough to put most folks off fairy tales forever. The traditional stories are ancient: They creak; they moan; they gasp; they totter; and sometimes they fall flat. Sliced, diced, animated, illustrated, […]

Read books others would want to ban or burn

This month begins with Labor Day, is crowned by September 11th remembrances, and ends with Banned Books Week. It’s a momentous month and a perfect time to celebrate freedom. In a world where riots break out over controversial cartoons in newspapers, where authors have been targeted for murder for publishing their opinions, and where books […]