Snow, ice and cold weather have been so much a part of our lives the past few months. It seems as if winter will be here forever. It won't. Spring begins this month in the northern hemisphere with the vernal equinox occurring March 20th at 1:32pm. I am certainly looking forward to coming out of hibernation, which occurs for me on March 17th. It is a vision of forty shades of green and the golden yellow of the flowering gorse that does it. Mind you, growing up in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains where we often had a snowstorm on St. Patrick's Day, a dream and a vision were all we had of the coming of spring. It is a season of hope, after all.

Here at the Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD) we hope you will find this month's features to be helpful. While we are limited in the number of features we can offer each month, remember that there are no limits as to what you can create with your subscription to CLCD. For example, this month you can highlight the 45th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery March, which began on March 7, 1965. You also can prepare to celebrate International Children's Book Day on or around Hans Christian Andersen's birthday, April 2nd which is widely celebrated throughout the world. A different National Section of IBBY is selected each year to be the international sponsor of ICBD. A prominent author and illustrator of the host country are selected to create a poster based on the selected theme. This year's theme is: A book is waiting for you, find it! For more information, go to the IBBY web site at http://www.ibby.org/index.php?id=269.

If spring is here, then summer cannot be far behind. Which means, of course, it is time to start planning the summer reading programs at public libraries. CLCD is the perfect tool for creating your summer reading lists. You can quickly and easily find age appropriate titles for your reading themes. With CLCD you can go far beyond a keyword search. Just this morning I searched the John Burroughs List of Nature Books for Young Readers to see which titles would be appropriate for this summer's theme of Make A Splash. There were titles I had forgotten about, and some that were perfect but might not have stood out in a simple keyword search. Of course you cannot put every book on a list, so you will want to have CLCD available for the entire library staff to use to make sure all the children and young adults who enter your library will find just the right books to satisfy their interests and needs. Your adult services and reference librarians, as well as your young patrons and their parents, will thank you! To begin a free trial, or to order a subscription, go to www.childrenslit.com now.

CLCD On the Road

CLCD will be in Portland, OR at the PLA Conference from March 24 to March 26. Stop by to see us at Booth 901 for information on how to quickly and easily create your summer reading lists.

Twitter

If you were receiving our tweets this past month, you would have been among the first to learn about "An Author's Six Rules for Better Readings;" the 2010 Audies nominations; and Touch the Earth, a tactile book by Amy Hansen about the biomes of the earth for blind and visually impaired readers.

Our Blog

Interesting perspectives, keen insights, and practical applications are what you will discover on our blog. Go there to read writing tips from Steve Watkins, author of the 2008 Golden Kite Award winner Down Sand Mountain; and Janet Morgan Stoeke's thoughts on reading reviews for inspiration.

Quote of the Month

"CLCD is my favorite database, and I was delighted to see it received an A in School Library Journal."
Julie Ranelli
Children's/YA Librarian
Queen Anne's County Free Library
Kent Island Branch, Stevensville, MD

If you work in a library with kids who love to read, I will bet that you get asked "what else can you recommended that would be like this book I just finished and just loved?" One way to find similar books is to look up the particular title and then use the subject headings to execute another search to find other works on the same or related topic. Of course there is also the possibility that the author has written other titles that might appeal to the reader.

Monthly Features

Our features present selected titles. For a more comprehensive and complete list of published titles with multiple reviews, use the CLCD.

This is the 30th anniversary of Women's History Month and the theme for 2010 is Writing Women Back into History. Writers of children's and young adult nonfiction have been doing just that, and the result is a rich selection of books that provide fascinating information about scientists, writers, musicians, feminists, and abolitionists, to name a few. Where to start? Right here, of course - with Sojourner Truth's Step-Stomp Stride by Andrea Davis Pinkney and illustrated by Brian Pinkney.

St. Patrick's Day is March 17th. Acquaint your readers with some Irish tales and folklore and how people celebrate the day. Suggest they read a story set in Ireland and written by an Irish author, such as Eoin Colfer's Benny and Babe.

Passover begins at sundown on March 29th. Our feature includes golems, introductions to the seder, and a story of the oldest surviving synagogue in Europe, Built by Angels: The Story of the Old-New Synagogue by Mark Podwall.

Because Easter is Sunday, April 4th this year, we are including it with our features this month. Among the titles are a reissue of a Caldecott honor book, a new book by Jan Brett, and bunnies galore, including Bunny's Easter Egg by Anne Mortimer.

Author Features

Sandra Day O'Connor made history by being the first woman U.S. Supreme Court Justice when she was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Honor her on her 80th birthday on March 26. For this feature we have included books by Justice O'Connor herself as well as books about the Supreme Court, such as The U.S. Supreme Court by Anastasia Suen and illustrated by Matthew Skeens.

Deborah Heiligman, author of Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith, explains how she came to write this award-winning and fascinating book, and why she writes for children.

Reminder: if you missed a newsletter or want to check on a previous feature, please note that all the newsletters are posted for your convenience here.

Children's Literature currently assists schools, museums, conferences and other organizations in identifying authors and illustrators for speaking engagements. Authors and illustrators provide valuable insight into their craft and connect their audience with the world of literature. In each issue we will highlight several of our booking service participants. To learn more about this service, please go to http://www.childrenslit.com/bookingservice/bs-home.html

Audrey Penn

A new addition to our booking service, Audrey Penn is the author of The New York Times best-selling children's book The Kissing Hand. Before Audrey started writing children's books she was a professional ballerina, dancing with such companies as the National Ballet, New York City Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, and the Danny Diamond Dance Theatre. Later on, because of her experience with children's theatre and dance, Audrey turned to writing children's books as a new creative outlet. Her first book, Happy Apple Told Me, was a Caldecott Medal Nominee. She is also the author of A Pocket Full of Kisses, Chester Raccoon and the Big Bad Bully, Chester Raccoon and the Acorn Full of Memories, and the middle grade series "the Blackbeard Quartet." Audrey lives in Olney, Maryland with her husband, youngest daughter, and two dogs. For more information about Audrey, please visit http://www.childrenslit.com/bookingservice/penn-audrey.html.

Candice Ransom

Candice Ransom is an award-winning writer of over 100 children's books, ranging from fiction to nonfiction, biographies to board books, picture books to young adult novels. She has two new titles coming out in Spring 2010: Hello, Virginia! , a board book about a little girl discovering Virginia, and for creative tweens and teens, Scrapbooking Just for You!: How to Make Fun, Personal, Save-Them-Forever Keepsakes. Candice holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College and an MA in Children's Literature from Hollins University. In addition to writing and speaking, she currently teaches in the MA/MFA Children's Literature program at Hollins. She lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia, with her husband. For more information about Candice, please visit http://www.childrenslit.com/bookingservice/ransom-candice.html.

CLCD Newsletter Editor, Sharon Salluzzo serves as a library and education consultant to CLCD. In addition, Sharon is a book reviewer, a storyteller who often performs with The Genesee Storytellers, and a member of The Children's Book Guild of Washington, DC. Sharon earned her MLS at SUNY Geneseo.

About the Children's Literature Comprehensive Database

Our monthly newsletter is now available to everyone within an organization, not just the primary contact. A new feature at www.childrenslit.com will provide you with a form allowing you to sign up for just the electronic newsletter. The Children's Literature Comprehensive Database, updated mid-month, is your most complete source of information about children's books. Indeed, it is the next best thing to having the book in hand, and the best tool for leading you to the best books. All at a most affordable price. To subscribe to the CLCD or contact us, go to www.childrenslit.com.