Black Males in Children’s Books by Don Tate from Devas T. Rants and Raves. See also my comment on Don’s post.

Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize 2006: “long list” finalists include Tim Wynne-Jones (author interview).

Roaring Brook has slated the YA anthology Boy Meets Girl, Girl Meets Boy for spring 2008. The anthology will feature sets of companion short stories by Jim Howe and Ellen Wittlinger (author interview), Terry Trueman and Rita Williams-Garcia, Joseph Bruchac (author interview) and Cynthia Leitich Smith, Terry Davis and Alex Flinn (author interview), Randy Powell and Sara Ryan, and Chris Crutcher and Kelly Milner Halls (author interview). Learn more about my short stories.

Scandal points to real teenage story of mimicry: Kaavya Viswanathan did a disservice not only to readers but to herself in following a chic-lit formula too closely with her first, and possibly last, novel. By Marina Budhos, special to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune. Cyn Note: A thoughtful analysis by someone who knows YA fiction. Authors that Marina references include: Mitali Perkins; Kashmira Sheth; Tanuja Desai Hidier, author of Born Confused (Scholastic, 2002)(excerpt); Jacqueline Woodson; An Na (author interview); and Karen Hesse. Marina is the author of Ask Me No Questions (Atheneum, 2006)(excerpt)(author interview), which is recommended.

Surfed by Spookycyn lately? I’ve blogged recently about “X-Men: The Last Stand” at the Alamo Draft House; an Austin band called “The Hudsons” at Waterloo Ice House; my Grandma Dorothy’s bluebird collection; my quandry over eating mammals; and more.