Everyone Loves a List

As reported here earlier, during Teen Read Week teens could vote for their favorite book so the name could be placed on a top ten list. Doesn't seem like a major voting motivator, but someone must have done it because the votes have been counted and, sure enough, there is now a list. (Thanks to KidsLit for the link.)

Publisher's Weekly has a list of the Best Children's Books of 2005, a few of which I've actually read. And a couple I actually liked.

Here's my problem with "Best of the Year" book lists, though: I can't help but wonder about the people who make them. Did they really read all the books published this past year? One of my acquaintances at Adbooks has read 300 YA novels since March, and if they were all published in 2005, I guess she could take a shot at making her own list. But something tells me she's an exceptional reader. (I hope so, because I've only read about 62 books so far this year.) So once I start wondering about how many books the listmaker actually read, I've got to start wondering about all those other books. And then I've got to wonder if Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is really that much better than everything else that's out there, or if the people who made the list just haven't read very much. (Thanks to Adbooks for the link.)

Kidlit Scandal! Yes!!!

Clement Hurd smoked! Who knew?

This is a big enough deal that I've read about it in more than one place in recent days. (This particular link came from Read Roger.) I'm not jumping up and down about it, myself, because deleting that cigarette is not censoring Goodnight Moon,which Hurd illustrated, since neither the cigarette, nor this picture of Hurd, appear in the book. I do agree, though, that when a publisher changes historical fact, it raises questions about what else it is willing to change. Just who can you trust?

The folks at HarperCollins certainly did clean that picture up nicely, though, didn't they? Clement Hurd was kind of hot.