A blog for nerdy parents and their offpring.

Mary Bannister is the librarian at Nate’s school. I went to a presentation that she gave at PTA meeting earlier this year and I was blown away by her passion for getting kids to read. It’s reassuring to know that my kid is in the hands of a real book geek. This is Mrs. Bannister’s first year at Whittier, and Nate’s third. I don’t think it’s coincidence that this year he has become a voracious reader.

In this week’s newsletter from school Mrs. Bannister did a great write-up on this year’s ALA winners. She has graciously allowed me to share this with you. Hopefully you are inspired to go out and pick up one of these noteworthy books to share with your kids. For ease of purchase I have linked all the titles to their respective Amazon.com pages (Disclosure: Parenting Geekly recieves a very small percentage of these sales which go to site maintenance). I actually encourage you to check these out from your local library or buy them from your local independent bookseller.

New Book Awards from ALA

It was thrilling January 11th to see the list of the new book awards from ALA this year, especially as I was introduced to many of these titles, authors and illustrators at the DC ALA Conference in June 2010.

The most well known awards are the Caldecott and Newbery, however the Newbery title (best written) took many by surprise. Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool is the 2011 Newbery Medal winner. The book wasn’t available in several local bookstores. Hopefully Amazon will come through for me. I had the order placed within 5 minutes of the awards list being posted!

Babymouse author, Jennifer Holm, took a Newbery Honor for Turtle in Paradise. Other Newbery Honors went to Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus, Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman and One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia. This book also won the Coretta Scott King author award. (The book was highlighted at my Readers Workshop class this summer, where we were predicting it was a strong contender for awards!) These books are being provided to the library by a WITS grant.

The Caldecott medal for best picture book went to A Sick Day for Amos McGee illustrated by Erin E. Stead. A copy is already in our library thanks to a quick call to Mockingbird Books. We were able to get this title and the three Geisel award winners with book sales profits!

A Caldecott Honor and Corretta Scott King Illustrators award went to Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave illustrated by Bryan Collier, written by Laban Carrick Hill. At the ALA conference in DC this summer I was able to get a signed copy by the author and illustrator as well as a poster which is up already in the library!

Another Caldecott Honor went to Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein and is certain to be a kids favorite!

I hope to acquire a copy of this year’s Pura Belpré Author Award The Dreamer by Pam Muñoz Ryan, a favorite author of ours! In DC I picked up a personal copy signed by the illustrator of the Pura Belpre illustrator honor award Me Frieda. The award went to Grandma’s Gift illustrated and written by Eric Velasquez, and the other honor books were Fiesta Babies illustrated by Amy Córdova, and Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin by Duncan Tonatiuh. All of these Pura Belpre titles would be excellent additions to the Whittier Library!

A favorite award of mine is the Geisel award in honor of Dr. Seuss for the most distinguished beginning reader book. This award started 5 years ago, which was my first year as a school librarian, so it is no wonder it has a soft spot in my heart. The winner was from an author that usually writes for older children, Kate DiCamillo in partnership with Alison McGhee for their title Bink and Gollie. The Geisel Honor Books were Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same! by Grace Lin, a favorite author of picture and chapter books. The list wouldn’t be complete without an appearance of a Mo Willem’s title…this year’s honor went to We Are in a Book! All three of these books are already in our library waiting for read-alouds to our youngest students!

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Check out Mrs. B’s Library Blog here.

Star Wars fans everywhere will be able to geek out to the films in all their BluRay glory come September. Last week at CES Twentieth Century Fox announced that it will release three separate sets of BluRay Discs (The Complete Saga, The Prequel Trilogy and The Original Trilogy).

According to the press release at StarWars.com:

Star Wars: The Complete Saga on Blu-ray will feature all six live-action Star Wars feature films utilizing the highest possible picture and audio presentation, along with three additional discs and more than 30 hours of extensive special features including never-before-seen deleted and alternate scenes, an exploration of the exclusive Star Wars archives, and much more.
Star Wars: The Complete Saga on Blu-ray will be available for $139.99 US/$179.99 CAN and the Star Wars: Trilogy Sets for $69.99 US/89.99 CAN. Pricing for each set will vary by international territory.

“With all six episodes available for the first time in one collection, this is a great way for families and home audiences to experience the complete Saga from start to finish,” said Doug Yates, Vice President of Marketing, Online, Distribution, Lucasfilm Ltd. “And with the quality of high-definition, Blu-ray provides the most immersive home experience possible.”

You can see a preview here, read the whole press-release here and pre-order your copy from Amazon here.

So will this be the version where Han shoots first or the version that was re-released with the “improvements”? Are you going to shell out the $90 (Amazon’s pre-order price) for this?