NEWS AND NOTESBay Area Book Festival:
ALSC PRECONFERENCE IN SAN FRANCISCO:
The program, entitled "Distinguished and Diverse: Celebrate the 2015 ALSC Honor Books," will spotlight 2015 Honor Book recipients for the Newbery, Caldecott, Batchelder, Pura Belpreé, Sibert and Geisel awards. The keynote speaker for the program is K.T. Horning, and there will be a panel facilitated by Judy Freeman. The event will feature authors, illustrators and editors such as Cece Bell, Jacqueline Woodson, Lauren Castillo, Mary GrandPré, Candace Fleming, Yuyi Morales, Jillian Tamaki, Katherine Roy, John Parra, Patricia Hruby Powell, Mark Siegel, Christian Robinson, Jon Klassen and Melissa Sweet. ALSC members receive a special discount (use code: ALSC2015) on registration. Author Ellen Conford Dies:
Caldecott Medalist Marcia Brown Dies at Age 96:  To top of page BOOK AWARDS Katherine Roy Named 2015 Beatty Winner:
Katherine Roy is an author and illustrator who is fascinated by the web of life, and her stories reflect and explore the beauty of the natural world and the intricate relationships between creatures large and small. The Beatty Award is given to the author of a distinguished book that best promotes an awareness of California and its people. An engraved plaque and $500 prize will be presented to Ms. Roy at the California Library Association Annual Conference in Pasadena, November 5-8, 2015. The 2015 Beatty Award was judged by a committee of seven librarians, confirmed by the President of the California Library Association, Robert Karatsu, to reflect state-wide representation. Lana Adlawan, Oakland Public Library; Amy Bradley, Los Angeles Public Library; Tiffany Bronzan, Sonoma County Library; Hillary George, Los Angeles Public Library; Carolyn Tucey, Sacramento Public Library; Jana Waitman, Ontario City Library; and Ashley Kagan, Committee Chair, Palos Verdes Library District. Rob Biddulph Wins Waterstones Prize:
Anne Izard Storytellers' Choice Awards:
Recipients of the 12th Anne Izard Storytellers' Choice Awards are: To top of page Hands-on STEAM for Kids STEAM, or Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math, is currently a dominant theme in education. Libraries can hold entertaining STEAM programming, offering many different experiences for a wide age group. Here are some ideas you can adapt to a library of your size: Several games and crafts can be set up in the library's outdoor area for this program. Each table should have at least 2 high school volunteers to run the activity at that station. If you run out of materials at a station, close it. Community groups that could be partners: High school service clubs could be helpful in providing teen volunteers to run the various stations. Refreshments of fruit slices and water could be provided. Icebreaker activity:
Penny Peck, SJSU iSchool To top of page Maletsky, Sophie. Sticky Fingers: DIY Duct Tape Projects. Zest Books, 2013. $16.99, ISBN 978-1-936976-54-6. 
Check the young adult nonfiction area of your library and you may find you already own this wonderful resource. In fact, you might want to purchase another copy just for in-house use, since it is packed with projects you can offer at a tween or teen Do-It-Yourself library program. The book begins with a detailed section on types of duct tape, supplies and tools needed, and many basic constructions like closures essential in making the items in the book. There are 58 different projects in the book, from things that take less than 10 minutes to make, to a backpack that can take two hours to construct. The chapter for each item is very detailed, with many color photos and step by step instructions. There are also lists of all the supplies and tools needed for each craft. Most of the crafts are jewelry, purses and wallets, bookmarks and book covers, and locker or desk accessories. Any of the items would work for a craft program on making gifts, or part of a Maker space program. One of my favorites is the checkerboard, complete with checkers, which takes less than an hour to make. Nearly all of the projects could be made easily by anyone in middle or high school, and some things can be made by children age six to ten with some adult guidance. The author Sophie Maletsky is a former actress who now teaches and specializes in party planning. She lives in San Francisco and often visits libraries to conduct craft programming for tweens and teens. To contact her, visit her website at: www.sophie-world.com or her blog www.sophie-world.com/blog. Her website contains a calendar showing various libraries who have booked her to conduct a program this summer: http://sophie-world.com/sophie-friends/sophie-action. Penny Peck, SJSU iSchool To top of page My allergies have alerted me that it is Spring again, and time for our semi-annual Board Book Round-up! Here is Part I, with some mini-reviews of new board book series and individual titles released in early 2015. Next month in Part II we will finish with new books with popular characters, and board books derived from picture books. BOARD BOOKS - Series Dicmas, Courtney. "Wild!" Series. Child's Play, 2014. 14p. $4.99 each. 
Wild! Bathtime. ISBN 978-1-84643-686-4.
Wild! Bedtime. ISBN 978-1-84643-687-1. Wild! Mealtime. ISBN 978-1-84643-684-0. Wild! Playtime. ISBN 978-1-84643-685-7. Groups of parent and child animals are celebrated in these simple books with brief rhyming texts. In Playtime, dogs, weasels, herons, foxes, kangaroos, and lions are shown playing with their offspring, depicted in soft pastel colors with some colored pencil outlines. In each books, a wide variety of animals are included, from birds, to mammals, to ocean creatures. The scenarios are very relatable to human parent-child interaction, including bathing, getting ready for bed, and more, so these do a great job of reinforcing positive behavior. They also have a loving, joyous quality that can help parents convey affection to their children. Thompson, Carol. "Whatever the Weather" Series. Child's Play, 2014. 12p. $4.99 each. 
Rain. ISBN 978-1-84643-683-3.
Snow. ISBN 978-1-84643-681-9. Sun. ISBN 978-1-84643-680-2. Wind. ISBN 978-1-84643-682-6. Toddlers can learn words for various weather conditions along with onomatopoeia in this delightful series. From the crunch of footsteps in the snow to the plip-plop of raindrops, the brief text is well-matched to the light watercolors with thin ink outlines used in the illustrations. The round-headed, culturally diverse children shown in the pictures are similar to those in Helen Oxenbury's work. Yang, Belle. Hurry Home, Hedgehog!: A Bilingual Book of Sounds. Candlewick, 2015. 24p. $6.99. ISBN 978-0-7636-6598-2.
In 2012, Yang offered two delightful bilingual English/Mandarin books for toddlers - A Nest in Springtime which focused on numbers, and Summertime Rainbow which demonstrated colors. These two new books in the series also use animal characters in nature to teach a concept (sounds and seasons). Each spread features Chinese on the left and English on the right, with a two page gouache illustration under the texts. The pictures are quite pleasing and avoid the greeting card-look of many board books. The text is also distinctive, using onomatopoeia selectively. This format works very well, and children who only speak one of those languages can fully enjoy the book. The final page in each book contains the pinyin pronunciations for the Chinese.
Harrison, Kenny. "Hide and Seek Harry" series. Candlewick, 2015. 20p. $6.99 each. 
Hide and Seek Harry On the Farm. ISBN 978-0-7636-7370-3.
Hide and Seek Harry At the Playground. ISBN 978-0-7636-7347-5. Two more books featuring this sweet hippo join the first two in the series which were published last Fall. A simple rhyming text describes Harry, who is hiding (in relatively plain sight) from two children. Even young toddlers will be able to pick Harry out in the illustrations, because he is only partially hidden. The full color digital illustrations have a cartoonish quality that will also appeal to this age group, making a nice series that gives the reader a sense of achievement. Church, Caroline Jayne. Sweet Child of Mine. Cartwheel/Scholastic, 2014. 26p. $8.99. ISBN 978-0-545-64771-7. 
Not the song by Guns and Roses, this is one of Church's board books featuring a curly-haired blond child, also seen in How Do I Love You? (2009) and Goodnight, I Love You (2012). This latest book continues the theme with a rhyming text declaring �I love you in the morning at the start of every day.� Each spread continues with a sentence beginning �I love you�� which could invite repetition from the child listener. The full color illustrations resemble gouache or acrylic, with colorful patterned backgrounds. The covers are padded, and the pages are not board but laminated cardstock. This is a nice alternative for very young children to McBratney's Guess How Much I Love You? series, which have wordier texts.
Patricelli, Leslie. Hop! Hop! Candlewick, 2015. 26p. $6.99. ISBN 978-0-7636-6319-3.
To top of page BOARD BOOKS - Individual Titles Cohen, Miriam. Daddy's Busy Day. Illus. by Ying-Hwa Hu. Star Bright, 2014. 28p. $8.99. ISBN 978-1-59572-668-1. 
Using light soft-focused watercolors and a first-person text from a child's perspective, this describes the day of a preschooler and the stay-at-home dad/caregiver. The child could be a boy or girl, and the depiction of dad shows him doing the laundry, making lunch, taking the child to the park, and more. Mom is seen at the beginning and end, going to work and returning home. A wonderful story in its ordinariness, this will have universal appeal and is perfect for the toddler age group.
Friedman, Maya. 3 Falafels in My Pita : A Counting Book of Israel. Kar-Ben, 2015. 12p. $5.95, ISBN 978-978-1-4677-3472-1. 
Kar-Ben Publishing does a fine job of making books on Jewish issues of young people and this book is no exception. Using food and other everyday items, this counting book describes things a preschooler might find when visiting Israel. Some of the things shown like the Western Wall or camels are specific to that area of the world, but other things like friends or oranges can be found anywhere. The full color cartoon-like illustrations almost look like cut paper, and are very good are showing the thing to be counted. Although this would be most useful to a child visiting Israel, any child would benefit from learning about another country.
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Submitted by : Penny Peck
SJSU iSchool
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