Welcome to the Carnival of Children’s Literature: November 2011 Edition

November is a time of community, when we gather together with friends and family. Let’s celebrate some of our wonderful children’s and young adult community events.

First of all, November is Picture Book Month, honoring of the importance of print picture books. As the news release says,

The New York Times declared, “Picture Books No Longer A Staple for Children” in an article published in October 2010. The controversial article incited a barrage of responses from the children’s book industry, many in defense of the venerable picture book. In addition, the digital age has ushered in an unprecedented amount of ebooks and, with devices like the iPad, the color Nook, and the Kindle Fire, picture books are being converted to the digital format.

Thus, Picture Book Month was born. Founder Dianne de Las Casas decided it was time to celebrate picture books in their printed format so she created an initiative to designate November as “Picture Book Month.”

Fitting the theme, Wendie O has Why Picture Books are Important, And Why They Are for Everyone, a guest post by picture book author Rick Walton at Wendie’s Wanderings.

November’s Fiction Picture Book Reviews:

Read Aloud Dad presents The Caboose Who Got Loose: Phenomenal Picture Books.

Katy at Library Mama highlights the lovely picture book Pocketful of Posies by Salley Mavor.

Blogging at Shelf-employed, Lisa has a Picture book roundup – Dynamic Duos, looking at Stars by Mary Lyn Ray and Marla Frazee, and The Sniffles for Bear by Bonnie Becker and illustrated by Kady MacDonald.

Erik Metz presents Kid Book Ratings: Five Silly Monkeys posted at Kid Book Ratings.”

Margo Tanenbaum presents Book Review: Jingle Bells: How the Holiday Classic Came to Be, by John Harris (Peachtree Publishers, 2011) posted at The Fourth Musketeer, saying, “A charming new picture book for the holidays about a classic song.”

Nichole reviews Gerald McDermott Trickster Tales – A Foundation for Oral Storytelling…and Dance posted at Just Children’s Books.

Jackie Castle presents Perfect Square by Michael Hall posted at The Castle Library…, saying, “Good Day Friend Readers! The Queen here with another perfectly fantastic read and activity adventure for you. I love the way Hall takes an ordinary square and transforms it into an out-of-the-box experience for young readers. This proves, things are more than what they seem. I do hope you’ll take the adventure challenge and see where your own imagination will take you. Happy Reading!”
Wendy Braun presents Lifting The Veil: Booker T. Washington at Good Books For Young Souls, saying, “A beautiful (fictionalized) picture book about Booker T. Washington, originally posted on my blog on November 14th, the anniversary of his death. “He Lifted the Veil of Ignorance from his people and pointed the way to progress through Education and Industry.”

And something a bit longer:

Pamela Jorrick presents The Invention of Hugo Cabret posted at Blah, Blah, Blog, saying, “While this is an older post of mine, the new release of the movie Hugo brings the book back into the limelight. It’s a good read with amazing illustrations if you have not yet discovered it!”

I Can Read is a monthly meme that focuses on easy readers and illustrated chapter books to encourage kids on the way to becoming successful readers.

Jeff introduces The Abandoned Lighthouse by Albert Lamb and illustrated by David McPhail, an engaging easy reader adventure in the vein of Maurice Sendak’s Little Bear books at NC Teacher Stuff.

November’s I Can Read Carnival is at Chapter Book of the Day. Edit: Sorry this link is broken.

Events for almost every day of the week:

Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. We invite you to join us. For more information and a schedule, stop by Booktalking to see who is hosting each week.

Corinne Robson, Associate Editor, PaperTigers.org presents Anti-bullying Week is Just the Beginning? posted at PaperTigers Blog.

Kathy Stinson presents Three Trees for Highway of Heroes posted at Turning the Pages: Kathy Stinson’s Blog.

Catherine Nichols presents Balloons Over Broadway, about puppeteer Tony Sarg, who invented the gigantic balloons used in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, posted at The Cath in the Hat.

Kelly hosts BookTalk Tuesday at Lemme Library. It is a place to post book reviews for librarians and teachers to use in the classroom, levels K-8.

Mary Ann Scheuer raves about FANTASTIC visit with Jonathan Auxier!! at Great Kid Books, saying, “Earlier this month, we had an amazing, fantastic, captivating visit at Emerson School from Jonathan Auxier, the author of Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes. He brought such energy and enthusiasm to our students as he shared about his book – the whole room was captivated, each and every student.”

Sarah A. presents The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe posted at The Book Nook.

Illustrator Wednesday celebrates children’s book illustrators.

Candace has an intriguing post titled The Picasso Picture Book Scale: The Art of Bullshifting and the State of the Contemporary Picture Book at her Book, Booker, Bookest blog.

Interview Wednesday gathers interviews with children’s book authors.

Uma recently hosted Interview Wednesday at her blog, Writing with a broken tusk.

Kakie says “Meet D.G. Bahtouh: Author of Nap-Nap, Quack-Quack,”  at Bur Bur & Friends Blog.

Pat Zietlow Miller presents An Author You Should Know: Audrey Vernick posted at Read, Write, Repeat.

Kerry Aradhya presents An Interview with Author Ann Bonwill posted at Picture Books & Pirouettes, saying, “I had a lovely time interviewing author Ann Bonwill about the inspirations behind Naughty Toes, a new picture book about a spunky little girl who discovers that even though she may not be a natural ballerina, there just might be another type of dance for her!”

Katy Manck presents World traveling, page by page (reflective) posted at BooksYALove, saying, “Looking back at recent YA fiction set in places outside the USA, recommending great books beyond the bestsellers.” She has a regular feature called World Wednesday.

Read Aloud Thursday is a weekly meme which gives participants the opportunity to share family-friendly books that they are currently reading aloud. Here’s a recent post.

Poetry Friday is a gathering of child-friendly poetry posts.

Kate Coombs blogs about Mother Goose in Flight at Book Aunt, saying, “Two new takes on Mother Goose plus a look at some classic versions.”

Heidi at “my juicy little universe” hosted the post-feast poetry fest: black friday recently.

Anastasia Suen presents Read and Write Sports posted at Anastasia Suen’s Book of the Week, saying, “Use this Poetry Workshop Inservice to help you guide student writers.”

Carmela Martino presents Of Thanks and Thankus!, saying, “In this post, Esther Hershenhorn shares a thank-you note to her writing mentor as part of our Ten Days of Thanks-Giving. We’re encouraging everyone in the Kidlitosphere to participate, too.” You have a few days left to write your own “Thanku” haiku and submit it to Teaching Authors.

And don’t forget Poetry Stretch with Tricia, which runs weekly.

STEM Friday is a relatively new meme to highlight Science, Technology, Engineering and Math books.

Shirley Duke presents Enterprise STEM posted at SimplyScience Blog, saying, “Enterprise STEM defines the subjects and explains who and what can be involved with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.” Congratulations on your newest book, Shirley!

Zoe from Playing By the Book has a lively pop-up book, How The World Works, that is a tremendous introduction to topics as diverse as the solar system, evolution, plate tectonics, the water cycle, weather systems, photosynthesis and food chains.

Eric Van Raepenbusch’s Happy Birthday Janell Cannon – November 3 is about a trip to the zoo to celebrate Janell Cannon’s birthday (and picture books), posted at  Happy Birthday Author. It is a fine example of informal science in action.

Amy Broadmoore presents 10 Children’s Books About Math posted at Delightful Children’s Books.

On Sundays, Charlotte rounds up posts about middle grade science fiction and fantasy at Charlotte’s Library. Charlotte’s contribution today is Circus Galacticus, by Deva Fagan.

What are Cybils? The acronym stands for children’s and young adult bloggers literary awards. Bloggers who specialize in children’s and young adult books have developed the Cybils awards to highlight some of the best books published in the previous year.

Jen Robinson presents the 2011 Fiction Picture Book Nominee Blackout: John Rocco at Jen Robinson’s Book Page.

Jennifer presents Jean Little Library: Cybils 2011 posted at Jean Little Library, saying, “Reviews of Cybils Nonfiction Picture Book Nominations – specifically biographies.”

Kara has a Cybils Review: Hummingbirds: Facts and Folklore from the Americas at Not Just for Kids. The book was nominated for a Cybils in the Middle Grade/Young Adult Nonfiction category.

At The Nonfiction Detectives, Louise reviewed Digging for Troy: from Homer to Hisarlik by Jill Rubalcaba and Eric H. Cline. It is also a MG/YA nonfiction nominee.

Amy has Armchair Cybils: November link-up,  a link-up for reviews of Cybils books at Hope Is the Word.

This year Cybils has a Book Apps category:

Curating Book App Mom presents Age: 2 – 5: An original app for toddlers and preschoolers: Winken, Blinken and Nod posted at Curating Book App Mom.

Book Projects:

Susan Stephenson presents Ideas for Children’s Christmas Gifts posted at The Book Chook, saying, “Are you beginning to think of buying for Christmas? Books make great gifts. As Stephen King said, ‘Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. What I wonder is why everybody doesn’t carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.’”

Finally, Myra and the folks at Gathering Books also participated a number of events and memes this month. Head on over for Highlights of November and Carnival of Children’s Literature for their November roundup.

(Note:  If I somehow overlooked your personal favorite children’s book community event, please leave a comment with a link.)

That concludes this edition of the Carnival of Children’s Literature. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of Children’s Literature using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page. (Yes, we have been around since 2006!) For an email reminder of the location of the next carnival and announcement when it is posted, subscribe to the Carnival of Children’s Literature reminder blog.