CCBC Choices 2025 is Now Available

CCBC Choices 2025, recommending 251 books published in 2024 for children and teens from birth through high school age, is now available!

CCBC Choices 2025 is a digital publication. Entries for each book include full bibliographic citation, annotation, age recommendation and cover image, and a link to the book’s entry in the CCBC-Recommended Book Search database, where custom lists can be created. The publication also includes an introductory essay and name/title index. A citation list (bibliographic information only) of CCBC Choices 2025 is also available on the CCBC website.

If you’re interested in hearing about some of these titles, the CCBC librarians will present two webinars hosted by South Central Library System this spring highlighting selections from CCBC Choices 2025. The first is Great New Books for Children (Birth – Grade 5) on March 19, 2025, from 9-10am and the second is Great New Books for Older Children and Teens (Grades 6-12) on April 16, 2025 from 9-10am. See the CCBC events calendar for details about these online opportunities, as well as other outreach events around the state.

Indigenous Reads Rising: a new resource!

As seen in the IFLS Youth Services Round-up newsletter, 11/15/23

Thanks to Kathy Larson from River Falls for sending this to me.  Indigenous Reads Rising is a new resource from We Need Diverse Books.  There is a wealth of great stuff on here, including a wonderful collection of booklists of recent and upcoming releases for Young Adults, Middle Grade, and Picture Books, including books divided by subject/genre (graphic novels, adventures, speculative, family stories, and more).  You can also find some excellent resources for teachers and librarians, including best practices, learning about Land Acknowledgements, state-by-state resources, and an excellent FAQ section. 

- Leah Langby

No We Don't Get Paid to Read at the Desk

Image by Marisa Sias from Pixabay 

Karen Jensen, co-founder and blogger at Teen Librarian Toolbox at School Library Journal (SLJ) is well-known for her deep and incisive essays on teen services. 

As a collection development specialist she has some important things to say in light on the censorship efforts around the nation. One aspect of "the solution" the book banners propose is that librarians read every book before purchase. 

Karen writes: "As you may be aware, there are groups of people pushing for widespread censorship and book banning in our libraries. Though they are often focused primarily on public school libraries, public libraries are sometimes targeted as well. One of the continually proposed possible resolutions to this problem is to have librarians read every book before they purchase it for a library. Today, I am here to tell you why that is not possible in any way, shape or form."

To read her post, stop here. [Jensen, Karen. Things I Never Learned in Library School: You WOn't Get Paid to Read and You Will Never Read Anything in Your Library Collections (See Also: Why we can't pre-read the books we purchase, even when facing massive book bans). Teen Librarian Toolbox. School Library Journal. June 12, 2022]

Young Adult Book Lists

Here is a quick, but hopefully helpful, tool for those of you providing young adult reader's advisory and collection development. The tool is called The Hub, and it is sponsored by YALSA—the young adult division of ALA. 

Available on the site:

• "Selected Lists" book lists from 2022 on the homepage
• 2019-2021 lists in the archives
• A Book Finder Database
• "Teen Choice" top ten lists  

National Book Festival Announces Youth Authors

The poster art for this year's festival was
designed by Dana Tanamachi.

The virtual National Book Festival is coming up fast! Scheduled for Sept 17-26, the Festival will be available online and through on-demand videos with content archived for access after the Festival.

The youth book creator line-up includes:

"Children’s authors and their featured books are:

• Derrick Barnes, “I Am Every Good Thing”
• Kacen Callender, “King and the Dragonflies”
• Kate DiCamillo and Sophie Blackall, “The Beatryce Prophecy”
• Rep. Sharice Davids of Kansas, “Sharice’s Big Voice: A Native Kid Becomes a Congresswoman”
• Nikki Grimes, “Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance”
• Dan Gutman, “Houdini and Me”
• Brayden Harrington, “Brayden Speaks Up: How One Boy Inspired the Nation”
• Ann Clare LeZotte, “Show Me a Sign”
• Meg Medina, “Merci Suárez Can’t Dance”
• Lupita Nyong’o, “Sulwe”
• Jerry Pinkney, “The Little Mermaid”
• Guy Raz and Mindy Thomas, “Wow in the World: The How and Wow of the Human Body: From Your Tongue to Your Toes and All the Guts in Between”
• Ali Stroker and Stacy Davidowitz, “The Chance to Fly”

Children’s authors participating in live Q&A sessions are: Derrick Barnes, Rep. Sharice Davids, Dan Gutman, Jerry Pinkney and Mindy Thomas. Teen authors doing live Q&A sessions are: Traci Chee, Tahereh Mafi, Kekla Magoon, Trung Le Nguyen and Jason Reynolds.

Select children’s videos, featuring Kate DiCamillo and Sophie Blackall, Ann Clare LeZotte, Meg Medina, Guy Raz and Mindy Thomas, will include short vignettes related to the featured books that demonstrate activities for families to do together using Library’s collections.

Teens authors and their featured books include:

• Traci Chee, “We Are Not Free”
• Jay Coles, “Things We Couldn’t Say”
• Sharon G. Flake, “The Life I’m In”
• Tahereh Mafi, “An Emotion of Great Delight”
• Kekla Magoon, “Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People”
• Trung Le Nguyen, “The Magic Fish”
• Jason Reynolds, “Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks”
• Angie Thomas, “Concrete Rose”
• Katie Zhao, “How We Fall Apart”
• Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam, “Punching the Air”

Stop here to read more details from the festival's Sept 10 blog post and here to see a detailed schedule.

Finding Recommended Books on the CCBC Website

 

The CCBC has created a nifty video tutorial to help you navigate fining recommended books and booklists on their website. CCBC Librarian Megan Schliesman created this short 14 minute tutorial that explores the process and includes recommended books searches. As described, "This video will provide you with a brief overview of ways to find CCBC-recommended books. on the CCBC website focusing on CCBC booklists and the CCBC-Recommended Book Search. Both of these are comprised of books that we've recommended across the years in our annual best-of-the-year list CCBC Choices."

Check it out here!

2020 Teens' Top Ten Announced

Way back in August we shared the news that teens around the country were being invited to vote for their favorite books.  And now the results are in! Stop here at the Hub blog for the exciting choices and links to more information.

Teen Books for Black Joy

SandraRosa, one of the contributors to Teen Services Underground, recently shared a great list of books featuring books by Black authors featuring Black characters. 

She writes, "When I was younger, I craved books about people who looked like me going on adventures, falling in love, and just living life. More and more books by Black authors featuring Black main characters are being published and it makes my heart sing.."

Check out her whole list at this Teen Services Underground Blog post

The Prince and the Dressmaker Musical, Coming Your Way!

Calling all musical lovers...

Jen Wang's The Prince and the Dressmaker is going to be turned into a movie musical!

                  

You read that correctly...Kristen and Bobby Lopez, of Frozen fame, announced that their next project will be an adaptation of the popular 2018 graphic novel!

Here's a link to the Playbill article...and another featured on The Mary Sue.

No official timeline has been released for the project, but keep it on your radars!

CYBILS Awards Announced

The winners of the  CYBILS (Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary) Awards have been announced. The mission of the awards? As their website says: "The Cybils Awards aims to recognize the children’s and young adult authors and illustrators whose books combine the highest literary merit and popular appeal. If some la-di-dah awards can be compared to brussels sprouts, and other, more populist ones to gummy bears, we’re thinking more like organic chicken nuggets. We’re yummy and nutritious."

Stop here to see and read about the winners!

A Brief History of Modern YA Literature

One of my go-to teen services blog has long been Teen Librarian Toolbox, written by a group of front-line passionate YA advocates and librarians. Karen Jensen, with the help of her colleagues recently shared a great infographic looking at some the highlights of YA lit from the 1960's through now.

To read the post and see the graphic, stop here.

High School Hallway Transforms into Giant Books

A recent post from Kelly Jensen links to the Mundelein IL High School District 21 where the English Department hallways have been transformed with giant book covers.

Read more about the project and see the stunning results at this Book Riot post.

John Green Talks Teens and Mental Illness with CBS News

It's SO important that adults are open about their dealings with mental illness.

Being upfront and willing to talk can truly make a difference in a young person's life, especially if they happen to be coping with similar issues--or, perhaps, just feel alienated and alone.

John Green, YA author extraordinaire and proud Nerdfighter, recently spoke with CBS News about teens, Nerdfighters, and mental illness.

Jon Wertheim: You've said that it's important for young people to be able to see successful, productive adults challenged by mental illness.

John Green: Yeah.

Jon Wertheim: Expand on that.

John Green: Well, I have a really wonderful life. I have a really rich, fulfilling life. I also have a pretty serious chronic mental health problem. And those aren't mutually exclusive. And the truth is that lots of people have chronic mental health problems, and still have good lives.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

Oh...by the way...

THE HATE U GIVE: Angie Thomas Shares Her Thoughts On Challenges

Recently, Angie Thomas was interviewed by Entertainment Weekly, where she discussed her best-selling book The Hate U Give and her thoughts on the recurring resistance her book has faced since its publication. 

Many of the adverse parties are concerned about the graphic depictions of drug use, police brutality, and the regular use of explicit language throughout the story.  Thomas responds as such:

“When you say ‘Black Lives Matter’ to three different people, you get 30 different reactions,” Thomas says. “There are so many misunderstandings. There’s the assumption that it’s an antipolice book, when the fact is it’s anti-police brutality.” She continues, in regard to the language: “There are books with way more curse words in them, for one. And two, there are 89 F-bombs in The Hate U Give. But there were 800 people killed by police officers last year alone.”

Read the whole article HERE.

With the film adaptation being released in select theaters this month, the book and its story are likely to be a topic of conversation for quite awhile.

And speaking of the movie, have y'all seen the trailer?!  

Voting for Teens' Top Ten Open

Thanks to Tasha Saecker at Waking Brain Cells blog, we have a beautiful graphic image post with all the nominees and information for YALSA's Teens' Top Ten (a teen choice list) voting which runs through Teen Read Week, Oct 7-13.

To read all about it and get your teens involved, stop by Tasha's blog.

Stranger Things are Heading Your Way...

If your Tuesday isn't going the way you'd like--and/or you are a Stranger Things fan like me--get ready to turn your frown Upside Down. (See what I did there? *eyebrow waggle*)

Just a few days ago, I read an article on Book Riot about a partnership that was announced between Netflix and Penguin Random House.  The plan?  To publish an assortment of books set in the Stranger Things universe.  (But which one?! 😱 Meep!)

The first few books (due out in November of this year) will be behind-the-scenes companions and gift books.  As the partnership continues into 2019, however, novels for both adults and young readers will be added to the selection, including a prequel novel about Eleven's mother, written by the fabulous Gwenda Bond.

Is anyone else as excited about this as I am?!?!

Charlotte Zolotow Symposium Coming in October

Children’s and young adult book creators Angie Thomas, Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Candace Fleming, Crescent Dragonwagon, Eric Rohmann and Javaka Steptoe all are part of the CCBC sponsored Charlotte Zolotow Symposium: Illuminating Experience, on Saturday, October 13, at the Pyle Center at UW-Madison.

Registration is now open for this daylong event: early bird price is $75.

Maximize the weekend’s literary experience by attending the Charlotte Zolotow Award presentation to author Bao Phi for A Different Pond  (5pm) and the Charlotte Zolotow Lecture by author Benjamin Alire Sáenz (7:30 pm) on Friday, October 12, at Union South on the UW-Madison campus.

For more information on all these events go to this symposium registration link and check out this CCBC blog post for more background

More than a Princess

Carrie Fisher, known to millions as Princess Leia, died yesterday.  But her legacy also included shining a light onto the struggles of people with mental illness.  She spoke and wrote with honesty and humor about her bipolar disorder at a time when it was taboo to discuss such things.

Books, as many librarians and writers like Carrie know, are a wonderful way to raise awareness and also to support those who are struggling and need recognition.  School Library Journal provides a mental health booklist for teens in its recent article "Bibliotherapy for Teens: Helpful Tips and Recommended Fiction."  YALSA offers an action plan for raising awareness and offering support in the blog post "The Calm Before the Storm: How Teens and Libraries Can Fight Mental Illness."

Get Smart!

If you are like me, learning new ways and being inspired by my peers is what I love best in my library practice.

The Spring 2015 (well in WI, spring also includes a healthy dose of winter) schedule of UW-Madison's Continuing Education courses is out and it is filled with youth services folks from WI (and many YSS members!) presenting online courses with content of value to everyone working with kids-  whether you work in Wisconsin or not!

Here, for your edification, in calendar order are some great learning choices! Registration is open now; costs are reasonable and learning potential is unlimited!

Power Children's Programming - on a Budget
January 26-March 5
Strategic thinking and savvy tips combine with crowd-sourced ideas from students to make programming ideas and planning a snap. Everyone wins. Disclosure - taught be me!

Connecting Teens with the Best in New Teen Lit
February 10-March 21
Ruhama Kordatzky-Bahr returns with her powerful and friendly window into the world of recent teen books. Always a worthwhile course - with the bonus of gaining chops in booktalking!

Exploring South Asia through Children's and YA
February 23-March 20
Wisconsin's own Svetha Hetzler and the dynamic Rachel Weiss (THE founder and tireless advocate of the new South Asia Book Award) open up a world of books that feature children from a part of our world that we all need to discover. Global power!

Child Development, Library Space and Behavior: Set Up Your Library for Success
You've read her blog, you've heard her present at workshops and conferences, now get some direct peer-to-peer learning from our colleague Sara Bryce (aka S. Bryce Kozla; aka PLSanders). She breaks down spaces, behaviors and gives brilliant tips on making library use by kids a forever win-win.

A Couple of Tidbits

Looking for a vacation? Head down to Diagon Alley!

Authors recently featured on various Wisconsin Public Radio shows:

• Patrick Ness
• Joelle Chabonneau
• Kevin Henkes