Today's New York Times has several reviews of new books for children (see Chicken Spaghetti)! Hilary McKay's latest There's a Dragon Downstairs and Mordicai Gerstein's The Old Country look like library requests to me.

The New York Times "Bookshelf" is also devoted to the youngsters today. David Gordon (The Ugly Truckling is a particular favorite at our house) has a new one, The Three Little Rigs, and there are some interesting non-fiction works on the list as well.

The London Times Children's book of the week is an old one. Nicolette Jones reviews Janusz Korczak's King Matt the First. I wonder who translated this one? It must be a reissue of an older translation.

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A YA sidenote:

While I was abroad I didn't watch much television. That's probably a good thing. I did follow one of my favorite writers on the web, Kim of TWoP fame, and her recaps of The Real World. She mentioned that the show had finally crossed the line this season in filming a cast member's reactions to the death of his mother. My other favorite web writer, Heather Havrilesky, concurred in a August 7 article for Salon. (I don't know what it means when two of the best writers out there are writing about reality t.v....) Well, I saw the repeats a night or two ago and I have to say, I'm boycotting after years of semi-regularly following the show.