The March issue of our newsletter is out now! Bringing book industry news, info on new releases and cool websites, book reviews, opportunities to win free books, tech news and much more straight to your inbox! Not signed up for our email mailing list? It’s easy- just find the Join Our Mailing List link on the right sidebar of this blog. (Or, click here) In the meantime, just in case you didn’t get one, check out the newsletter here. The March Newsletter Giveaway is now closed, the winner was Martha K. Thanks for entering!Read More →

From School Library Journal (3/1/12): Though it happened more than 50 years ago, I keep the sensation of that moment. It’s every bit as vivid as the memory of pedaling my bike down the sidewalk and suddenly realizing I was alone, that my father was no longer there steadying and guiding me. Or the feeling of counting backward under ether, “ten…, nine….” I was in first grade, I know that, in Miss Carnahan’s class, though I don’t think I was in school when it happened. Most of the specifics of the event have fallen away. There’s really just this high-magnification, slow-motion rendition, a single momentRead More →

It’s her lungs that have been ravaged by cancer, and she needs an oxygen tank to breathe. It’s his bones, and he has a prosthetic leg. And you know, even as you begin the tale of their young romance, that the end will be 100 kinds of awful, not so much a vale as a brutal canyon of tears. Still you press on. At least I did. And I’m hardly alone. Some 150,000 copies, including e-books, of “The Fault in Our Stars,” a novel by a hugely gifted writer named John Green, have been sold since it was published last month. Twice that many areRead More →

The National Center for Learning Disabilities (1/20/12) reports: A recent study published in the journal Child Development shed some light on the which comes first (as in “chicken or egg”) debate about reading, looking specifically at elementary school-age children and investigating whether reading achievement at age 10 predicted independent reading behavior at age 11. (Read an abstract of “Associations Between Reading Achievement and Independent Reading in Early Elementary School: A Genetically Informative Cross-Lagged Study.”) Parents and educators have long emphasized the importance of independent reading for fun or leisure, assuming that getting kids to read more on their own will lead to improvements in theirRead More →

School Library Journal (2/3/12) reports: The Tucson Unified School District‘s (TUSD) decision to shut down its Mexican American Studies (MAS) program and remove seven titles that were used in the program has sparked a rallying cry among librarians and other educators. National groups, including the American Library Association (ALA) and the network of Teacher Activist Groups, are protesting the book removal, demanding that the titles be returned to classrooms. “Students in the TUSD MAS Program develop critical thinking skills through the study of literature written by ALA award-winning authors,” reads ALA’s resolution. “And students have demonstrated proven academic success, graduating from high school at theRead More →

Publisher’s Weekly (2/2/12) reports: More good news for Maggie Stiefvater fans: hot off the author’s Printz Honor for The Scorpio Races at last week’s ALA Youth Media Awards, Scholastic has announced the publication of a new four-book series from Stiefvater. The first book in the series, The Raven Boys, will be published by Scholastic Press on September 18; three additional books in the Raven Cycle will follow.  “Maggie has an extraordinary ability to balance epic storytelling and deeply personal truths, exploring both the mythology that surrounds us and the myths we tell about ourselves,” said David Levithan, Scholastic Press publisher and editorial director, in announcingRead More →

From eye on early education (1/31/12): There’s more evidence of the long-term benefits of high-quality early education, this time from the Abecedarian Project in North Carolina, one of three major longitudinal studies of the impact of early education on low-income children. The low-income children who participated in the Abecedarian Project attended a high-quality, full-time, year-round early education and care program from infancy until kindergarten entry. The children engaged in activities that promoted their language, cognitive and social-emotional development. At age 30, participants in the Abecedarian program: Were four times more likely than members of the control group to have earned college degrees, with 23% ofRead More →

In case you missed it, on Friday 1/27/12 Debby Hipes presented her list of “What’s New in YA Lit” for the Bureau of Education and Research. 2011 was a great year for YA books and there are some good ones on Debby’s list.  Curious to see what she chose?  We’re happy to share! Download PBC’s MS Excel order form to view the entire list and order any books you need for your collection.  Click HERE to download. Happy Reading!Read More →