Yesterday the American Library Association announced the winners of the Youth Media Awards, an event one colleague compared to opening a pile of holiday gifts. The “gift” that made me the happiest this year was the Pura Belpré Award for…
Author: lynmillerlachmann
The Birthday Party Pledge
For the past two years, I’ve spent the middle of January at the residency for Vermont College of Fine Arts’ MFA program in Writing for Children & Young Adults, but before I enrolled in this fine program, I staffed a…
The War Comes Home II: A Review of The Knife and the Butterfly
Last October I spoke on a panel with four other authors, including fellow Pirate Tree-huggers J.L. Powers and Nancy Bo Flood, on the topic of children’s literature and war. My part on children as combatants included G. Neri and Randy…
How to Be Outspoken
One of the great pleasures of being a book review blogger is getting to know other bloggers, hearing what they’re reading, and sharing notes. I met Maggie Desmond-O’Brien two years ago when she reviewed Gringolandia, and we’ve stayed in touch…
Egypt on the Edge: A Review of The Glass Collector
Nearly a year ago, the people of Egypt toppled the long-standing dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak and last week conducted their first democratic elections in many years. The revolution—the largest and most successful of the Arab Spring—began with a sit-in at…
Marriage Equality for Kids: A Review of Operation Marriage
After years of struggle and frustration—including a close call in 2009—same sex couples gained the right to marry in New York State this past summer. The victory followed countless demonstrations, endless negotiating, the declared support of newly elected Governor Andrew…
Portraying War Through Magic Realism: A Review of The Midnight Zoo
At the regional IBBY conference in Fresno last month, three of us from The Pirate Tree spoke on a panel about war and children’s literature. The books we discussed were for the most part realistic depictions of war past and…
Teen Book Bloggers Forge a New Reviewing Model: An Interview with Maggie Desmond-O’Brien
This weekend I have been in Chicago for the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) conference, followed by the ALAN workshop. (Many have wondered about this: ALAN stands for Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE.) As part of…
What History Can Teach the Occupiers: A Review of Round & Round Together
Six weeks ago, I took my first trip to the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park. Since then, the numbers have grown in New York City, and the Occupy movement has spread to hundreds of other cities in the…
The War Comes Home: A Review of Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty
We think of war as happening to children in other places. In doing so, we fail to think about young people in the United States whose everyday lives mirror the lives of young people in the world’s combat zones. For…