Looking Forward . . . and Back

Today is the first day of summer vacation, and I am looking forward to tomato and basil sandwiches, star gazing, and time with my kids.  I am also looking forward to The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer Holm, The Family Romanov by Candace Fleming, and the final book in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha trilogy, Ruin and Rising.

• If  you plan to be anywhere near Provo, Utah in July, you should attend BYU's excellent Symposium on Books for Young Readers.  Nathan Hale, Katherine Marsh, Paul Janeczko, Steven Kellogg, Maggie Steifvater, and Sy Montgomery are all on the schedule this year.  I am especially looking forward to hearing Sy Montgomery talk about one of my favorite new books this year, Chasing Cheetahs.

• Although it is a little early to be thinking about fall, you can put Utah Valley University's Forum on Engaged Reading on your calendar now.  October should be lovely in Deer Valley, and  Laura Vaccaro Seeger and Steven Sheinkin will be among the featured speakers.

• And that brings us in a round about way to . . . The 2014 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children's Literature.  The judges selected Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown as their Picture Book Award winner.  The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin (you see the connection now, right?) was selected as the Nonfiction Book Award winner, and Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith was chosen as the Fiction Book Award winner.  You can read more about the award and the winners here.

• And while we are talking about books from the past year, check out the 2013 favorites that Tara and I reviewed in the spring edition of The Utah Journal of Literacy.