New Children's Books

Peep: A Little Book about Taking a Leap - Maria van Lieshout
Peep is afraid of jumping off the curb, but with a little encouragement from his mother and sisters, he finally gives it a try.

Snow White: A Three-Dimensional Fairy-Tale Theater - Jane Ray
Retells, in six dioramas with accompanying text, the tale of the beautiful princess whose lips were red as blood, skin was white as snow, and hair was black as ebony.

Princess Hyacinth: the Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated - Florence Parry Heide
Princess Hyacinth is bored and unhappy sitting in her palace every day because, unless she is weighed down by specially-made clothes, she will float away, but her days are made brighter when kite-flying Boy stops to say hello.

New Christmas Books

What's Coming for Christmas? - Kate Banks
While a farm family bustles about, preparing for the arrival of Christmas, they do not notice the great anticipation spreading among the animals, who know that something very special is on its way.

The Christmas Magic - Lauren Thompson
As Santa prepares for the upcoming holiday season, it is the Christmas magic that truly makes everything happen.

New Pop-Up Book

White Noise - David A. Carter
Modern and elegant paper structures create displays to stimulate the senses. Poetic text guides readers through the bold and colorful paper structures that create their own unique sounds.

New Children's Books

The Dream Stealer - Sid Fleischman
A plucky Mexican girl tries to recover her dream from the Dream Stealer who takes her to his castle where countless dreams and even more adventures await.

Sweethearts of Rhythm - Marilyn Nelson
A look at a 1940s all-female jazz band, that originated from a boarding school in Mississippi and found its way to the most famous ballrooms in the country, offering solace during the hard years of the war.

A Book of Sleep - Il Sung Na
While other animals sleep at night, some quietly and others noisily, some alone and others huddled together, a wide-eyed owl watches.

New Christmas Books

The Night Before Christmas - illustrated by Jan Brett
Presents the well-known poem about an important Christmas visitor.

The Nutcracker - Susan Jeffer
An abridged version of the story of Marie Stahlbaum, who helps break the spell on her toy nutcracker and watches it change into a handsome prince.

New YA Books

Gateway - Sharon Shinn
While passing through the Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, a Chinese American teenager is transported to a parallel world where she is given a dangerous assignment.


Breathless - Jessica Warman
At boarding school, Katie tries to focus on swimming and becoming popular instead of the painful memories of her institutionalized schizophrenic older brother.

New Children's and YA Books

The Twelve Days of Christmas - Gennady Spirin
On each of the twelve days of Christmas, unusual and fanciful gifts arrive to celebrate the season.

Under the Snow - Melissa Stewart
A journey through the fields, forests, ponds and wetlands to see how animals survive in the snowy winter months, and when the sun's rays grow stronger, join all the animals as they get ready for springtime.

Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia - Brandon Sanderson
When Alcatraz and Grandpa Smedry make a pilgrimage to the Free Kingdom city of Crystallia, they are shocked to find the city under seige by the Evil Librarians--led by Alcatraz's own mother.

Peter and the Sword of Mercy - Dave Barry
James, one of Peter's original Lost Boys, is now working for Scotland Yard and suspects that the heir to England's throne, Prince Albert Edward, is under the influence of shadow creatures who are after starstuff hidden in an underground vault which has only one key: the Sword of Mercy. Molly is determined to help, but when she suddenly goes missing, it's up to her eleven-year-old daughter, Wendy, to keep the starstuff out of the creatures' clutches ... and Peter Pan may be her only hope in saving the world from a shadowy doom.

The Twilight Zone: Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up - Mark Kneece
Bus passengers stranded in a diner during a snowstorm become suspicious that someone there is really a Martian from an unidentified flying object that has been reported in the area.

The Small Adventures of Popeye and Elvis - Barbara O'Connor
In Fayette, South Carolina, the highlight of Popeye's summer is learning vocabulary words with his grandmother until a motor home gets stuck nearby and Elvis, the oldest boy living inside, joins Popeye in finding the source of strange boats floating down the creek.

November 2009 Newsletter

Children's and Young Adult Literature Database Enhancement

When the Children's and YA Literature Database first went online in May 2006, it included just over 1500 titles.  As of this writing, it now contains 5668 titles.  Because of the increased size of the database, users were getting a very long list of hits for some searches.  For example, searching for realistic fiction (without including a reading level) returns 815 titles, a rather daunting search result.  Although users have always been able to limit their searches by selecting reading levels, a new way to limit searches has been added to the search screen.  Thanks to Kyle Linden of the Computer Services department, users can now limit their searches by publication year.  Doing a search for realistic fiction with a publication year of 2009 returns a much more workable list of 47 titles.  So for users who want to know what the latest books are, limiting by year will prove to be very useful!

Website of the Month

Blogging is becoming more popular by the day, and the world of children's and young adult literature is certainly part of the blogging revolution.  The website KidLitosphere Central contains a list of some of the most popular blogs about children's and YA literature.  It's a long list, so here's a few selected ones to get you started:

Collecting Children's Books

The Brown Bookshelf

100 Scope Notes

New Materials

Additions to the CMC in October included a large number of fiction and nonfiction trade books, new health posters, an in-depth September 11 curriculum, and several new math and science DVDs.  Click here to see the complete list.

New YA Book

Vanishing Girl - Shane Peacock
In broad daylight, a high society girl vanishes on a crowded street. Days pass, then weeks; the daring abduction remains an impenetrable mystery, without a ransom note, a single clue, or even public information. The moment young Sherlock Holmes reads about it, he knows that it's the case that will make his name.

New Activity and Idea Books

The complete learning disabilities handbook : ready-to-use strategies & activities for teaching students with learning disabilities
An overview of the field of learning disabilities -- Research in the field of learning disabilities -- Understanding the laws -- Early childhood education for at-risk students -- The student study team process -- Formal assessment and identification of the student with learning disabilities --Planning for the student with learning disabilities -- Classroom management for teachers -- Academic management considerations -- Interventions for specific problems -- Reading and the student with learning disabilities -- Writing, spelling, and speaking -- Teaching mathematically challenged students -- Adolescents and adults with learning disabilities -- The role of the family -- Education in the new millennium

The Civil War : literature units, projects, and activities
This unit uses literature to teach the story of the Civil War. Six core books -- two works of historical fiction (Across five Aprils / by Irene Hunt ; Bull Run / by Paul Fleischman), two informational books (The boy's war / by Jim Murphy ; Undying glory / by Clinton Cox), and two biographies (Lincoln : a photobiography / by Russell Freedman ; Behind rebel lines / by Seymour Reit) -- are used to build the unit.

Sequencing. Grade 4

New DVD

In Plain English: Making Sense of the Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis presents information with illustrations explaining the Federal Reserve. This includes information about the three divisions of the Federal Reserve and the duties of each division.

New CD

SPEECHercise
Songs and stratgies for easy speech practice

New Computer Software

The Great Depression
This curriculum guide for the Great Depression for grades 9-12 was produced by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

New Children's and YA Books

In Too Deep (Book 6 of The 39 Clues) - Jude Watson
Amy and Dan cross the oceans on the trail of a famous aviator, but they find more than they're looking for. Their enemies are becoming more vicious, and the truths they discover more crushing than ever.

Sylvie and the Songman - Tim Binding
Sylvie Bartram's beloved dog, Mr. Jackson, has lost his bark. The birds have stopped singing. And in the growing silence, her dad has disappeared. Determined to find him, Sylvie and her best friend, kite-flying, tone deaf George, are drawn into the nightmare world of the Songman, a world haunted by the terrifying Woodpecker Man in his swan-powered balloon, a world where nothing can sing and no one can speak. Only Sylvie can save the earth from its terrible voiceless fate.

Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas - Jane O'Connor
Nancy is devastated, which is even worse than heart-broken, when her fancy Christmas tree topper breaks, threatening to ruin Christmas.