Google's challenge to Wikipedia

...is knol.  Authors are identified, but articles aren't screened.  There's a comment section, but not the same editing of articles as is possible with Wikipedia. 

Oh, and did you wonder about ads?  Yup.  Ads can appear on the page, and the author and Google share the revenue.  Which seems likely to influence the articles written - wouldn't you likely get more hits on an article about, say, breast augmentation than the battle of Thermopylae? 

Sydney Morning Herald article here.

From a teaching point of view, another resource which we need to discuss with our students for its benefits and limitations - not just let 'em use it blindly.

The invention of children's literature and libraries

Courtesy of Chicken Spaghetti, a link to a fascinating article from the New Yorker about the beginnings of public libraries for children in the US, and the intertwining of the careers of Anne Carroll Moore, librarian for children, and E.B. White, author.

Imagine this world, given our thinking today:

Between 1881 and 1917, Andrew Carnegie underwrote the construction of more than sixteen hundred public libraries in the United States, buildings from which children were routinely turned away, because they needed to be protected from morally corrupting books, especially novels. In 1894, at the annual meeting of the American Library Association, the Milwaukee Public Library’s Lutie Stearns read a “Report on the Reading of the Young.” What if libraries were to set aside special books for children, Stearns wondered, shelved in separate rooms for children, staffed by librarians who actually liked children?

In 1896, Anne Carroll Moore was given the task of running just such an experiment, the Children’s Library of the Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn, built at a time when the Brooklyn schools had a policy that “children below the third grade do not read well enough to profit from the use of library books.” ...

In each of the library’s branches, Moore abolished age restrictions. Down came the “Silence” signs, up went framed prints of the work of children’s-book illustrators. “Do not expect or demand perfect quiet,” she instructed her staff. “The education of children begins at the open shelves.”

Today, children’s book publishing—an industry richly described in Leonard S. Marcus’s excellent new book, “Minders of Make-Believe”—is one of the most profitable parts of the book business. But that industry exists only because, in much the same way that the nineteenth-century middle class invented childhood as we know it, early-twentieth-century writers, illustrators, editors, and publishers—and, most of all, Anne Carroll Moore—invented children’s literature.

Reworking YA book covers

Print online magazine has an interesting discussion of young adult book covers in the US - eg the variations which have taken place on The Outsiders over the years (image above from this article). It's interesting to note that it's not just old favourites being re-covered, but one book mentioned has had five different covers over ten years. Read more here.

It's true to say, though, that covers can seriously influence a book's borrowability by our students - thus my cheerfulness at finding newer covers on Rosemary Sutcliff's novels (recently blogged).

Image source.

Twilight companion books

I see from Amazon.com that Stephenie Meyer has written a companion to the Twilight series and another to the film.  One due for publication in October 2008, the other December 2008, both available for pre-order from Amazon.  The Twilight Saga: the official guide and Twilight: the complete illustrated movie companion.  I'm sure bookshops here will stock them too, or be able to obtain them.

(No, I am not on lucrative kickbacks for mentioning anything Twilight - I've got a bunch of fans here at school who are reading this series avidly, and then going on to other books too, and I know from TL feedback about this blog that I'm not the only one with a bunch of Twilight fans.  If Twilightery gets 'em reading, or  reading more, there ain't no arguing coming from this little black duck.  It's the old, old, still valid Enid Blyton argument.)

The Tale of Desperaux trailer

As promised, details of another book being made into a movie and coming soon.
Your library may have a copy of The Tale of Desperaux by Kate Decamillo and Timothy Basil Ering.  There's an animated film of it opening in Australia on Boxing Day.




Here's the trailer link:

http://www.trailerspy.com/movie-trailers/view/682/The%20Tale%20of%20Despereaux%20Trailer/

and the imdb entry is here.  Lots of big names in the voice cast, and as you'll see from the trailer, a different look to the charming animation.

Parallel importing/the Australian book market (and a teeny rant at the end)

Books in Australia aren't cheap, and the internet gives us access to know this more than ever before.  As teacher librarians, our budgets aren't large, and every cent counts.

There are discussions going on about the book market in Australia, in relation to parallel importing.

Read Garth Nix's letter about it here, and Justine Larbalestier's blog entries Preventing the destruction of Australian publishing and The problem of being a small English-speaking country to be aware of the pros and cons from the perspective of these Australian authors.

Found out about this one from reading Justine Larbalestier's entertaining blog.  She and her author husband, Scott Westerfeld (see yesterday's blog entry) live a bi-summeral life between New York and Sydney.  See?  Lots of things you can learn from blogs.

Also, while I'm talking books, as this teacher librarian blog seems to a lot: why is it that the techno-TLs (if they want to use an old fashioned term like 'teacher librarian' at all) rarely if ever talk about books, specifically fiction?  I'd much rather have the narratives of skilful writers than the burblings of Second Lifers, and never once do I mistake the magazine-readingness of most blogs for the engagement of a fiction narrative.  I'm no Luddite - as I think I've said in this blog before - but I wonder why the techno-TLs ignore fiction as they seem to do?  Does it scare them?  Don't they see how hungry human beings are, bone-deep, for stories?

Scott Westerfeld (esp. Peeps)

In the recent holidays I skidded through Scott Westerfeld's Uglies trilogy - Uglies, Pretties, Specials. (I've saved Extras for later).  Excellent sf, I don't think they'd skew to one gender more than another, and as previously mentioned, they catch the Twilightery crowd too.

I also read Peeps.  Oh my goodness, that was FUN!  I ignored several important things to keep reading, and don't give two hoots.  It's funny, and clever, and has really really disgusting detail about real parasites, as well as a fraffly clever idea about the origins and purposes of vampires.  Horror, adventure, a mention here and there that would probably suggest prereading if you're catering to a primary school audience and just a wonderful voice and energy.  Terrific stuff.



Scott Westerfeld has a website here; a blog here; a finish-your-author-assignment factsheet here; is interviewed here; and there's a TV spot on YouTube that I'll put below (but which may not, of course, work on your net connection if it's blocked by your server.  So the link's provided, too).







Summer reading spot on You Tube link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=XZ8talx7vmE



Peeps cover image from Amazon.co.uk.