Once upon a time, nonfiction books for children routinely included concise, stodgy writing. Most of the books were text heavy, with just a few scattered images decorating, rather than enhancing, the content and meaning. But nonfiction has changed dramatically over the last two decades, evolving into a new breed of visually dynamic, engaging texts…

School libraries are no longer solely repositories for the information that has traditionally been published in books. School library professionals are providing education and access to information in many different formats and technologies. The role of the school librarian is much more than just literacy; it is about visibility, culture, and…

Coming of age themes are common in young adult novels, and graphic novels in particular often address these issues as illustrated memoirs. This article explores engaging and interesting graphic novels about growing up, useful resources for school librarians and other educators using this format, and the value of using graphic novels to support…

Teen literature expert Carstensen, creator and editor of "School Library Journal"'s Adult Books 4 Teens blog, presents this comprehensive resource for serving the reading interests of teens in all types of libraries. Moving far beyond merely offering lists of book titles, this RA guide specifically helps librarians and educators in…

As classroom teachers face continued pressure due to prescriptive standards and high-stakes testing, school librarians continue to look for ways to make learning more dynamic and authentic for the diverse students in our schools. However, adolescent literacy research as a field operates largely apart from the research about school libraries and…

This article explores all the actions and opportunities school librarians take to reinforce reading instruction and reinforce learners' growing reading skills. It also details ways to enhance reading instruction through technology and makerspaces.

Librarians in many types of libraries frequently find themselves positioned as instructors in formal and informal educational settings. Librarians can help ensure that learner needs are better defined and addressed by gaining basic competency in instructional design (ID), an intentional process used to create effective, efficient educational and…

Need a one-stop resource for jumpstarting sleepy library visitors? Ready to add punch to classroom discussions? In this companion to his best-selling book "Reid's Read-Alouds", children's lit guru Reid dips back into the classics to highlight outstanding titles published between 1950 and 1999 that continue to connect with kids and teens today.…

Due to the development of new 21st-century technologies, the world of children's and young adult literature is continually changing. For example, one of the fastest-growing multimodal formats that today's visually literate youth embrace is the digital graphic novel. Digital graphic novels are graphic novels produced on and/or accessed on some form…

Updated to include the 2012 award and honor books, this new edition of the annual guide to the Newbery and Caldecott awards gathers together the books deemed most distinguished in American children's literature and illustration since the inception of the renowned prizes. Librarians and teachers everywhere rely on this guidebook for quick reference…

As academic librarians' professional and personal lives become busier and more varied, the need for tools to assist with accomplishing a myriad of tasks in a short time becomes even more necessary. Due to its ability to provide anytime and anywhere access to information, mobile technology offers a number of advantages for staying connected and…

This article describes interviews with 40 elementary school librarians conducted by pre-service and in-service teachers. The purpose of the interviews was for education students to understand the responsibilities of the librarian, how the librarian might support them as teachers, and the future of the position in today's schools. Results suggest…

In their Top Trends of 2012, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) named data curation as one of the issues to watch in academic libraries in the near future (ACRL, 2012, p. 312). Data curation can be summarized as "the active and ongoing management of data through its life cycle of interest and usefulness to scholarship,…

Today's young adult (YA) literature is every bit as complex as the audience it's written for, unflinchingly addressing such topics as homosexuality, mental illness, AIDS and drug abuse. In this much expanded revision of his 1996 book, veteran author Michael Cart shows how the best of contemporary YA lit has evolved to tackle such daunting subjects…

Based on more than twenty years' experience working to get boys interested in reading, the author now offers his first readers' advisory volume. With an emphasis on nonfiction and the boy-friendly categories of genre fiction, the work offers a wealth of material including: (1) Suggestions for how to booktalk one-on-one as well as in large groups;…