Happy Children’s Book Week! The Children’s Choice Book Awards winners will be revealed at a gala ceremony tonight.

If you are a teacher, librarian or parent interested in teaching kids about the Children’s Book Week Award finalists, here are more resources for the finalists: K-2, 3-4, 5-6, Teen, Author and Illustrator. In addition, here are some more ideas for celebrating with kids:

Host a Children’s Book Week party. Check out more of our book celebration ideas on Pinterest! Organize a visit from a local author or illustrator. Contact the publisher of his or her most recent work to find out if a visit can be arranged. Stage a Read-In. Hold a poster contest in your classroom, or organize a school-wide door decorating contest. Hold a contest asking students to submit 75-word reviews of their favorite books. Post the reviews in the library, on the class website, or in the school paper. Show and Read: Ask students to select an illustrated book from the library to read in class during Children’s Book Week.

Universal Studios Florida will add a new section inspired by J.K. Rowling‘s Harry Potter book series.

Opening in 2014, Diagon Alley is named after the magical shopping district in the fantasy series. The new cover for Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone (created by artist Kazu Kibuishi) shows Harry exploring the magical shopping district.

Perhaps the architects will use this illustration as inspiration for designing the new section?

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Young readers can sign up for the Scholastic Summer Challenge, a free project to help kids keep track of their reading and win prizes this summer. The contest lasts from now until September 6, 2013.

Kids can sign up at this link. Schools around the country will enter the contest, vying to break the minutes spent reading record set last year. Here’s more about the contest, from the release:

Now in its seventh year, the Scholastic Summer Challenge is a free online reading program where kids can log their reading minutes to earn rewards and help set a new 2013 world record for summer reading to beat last year’s record of 95,859,491 minutes. The school that logs the most minutes will win a visit from Captain Underpants author Dav Pilkey.

Happy National Poetry Month! All throughout April, we interviewed poets about working in this digital age. To end the month, we spoke with writer Marilyn Singer.

Throughout her publishing career, Singer has written more than ninety books (fiction, nonfiction, and poetry) for children and young-adults. Check out the highlights from our interview below…

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At the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books last weekend, three writers shared advice for aspiring children’s book authors.

During the “Pictures on the Page: The Art of Children’s Books” panel discussion, Blue Chameleon author Emily Gravett, Hang Glider & Mud Mask co-author Brian McMullen and Not a Box author Antoinette Portis talked about their craft and writing lives.

Below, we’ve collected their advice for aspiring authors…

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Over at the Muddy Colors blog, children’s book author and illustrator Adam Rex shared his creative process behind Chu’s Day–his picture book collaboration with Neil Gaiman.

The post includes a brief glimpse of Gaiman’s script for their next children’s book project, but we also get priceless shots of storyboards and character sketches from the current book. Here’s an excerpt from the essay:

In a novel you can just throw a bunch of blanks at the end to round out another eight pages if you have to, but with a picture book you need to be more precise. Add to this that nearly all picture books are either 32 or 40 pages long, and it gets even more restrictive. Few PBs are more than 40 pages. None are less than 32 (board books don’t count). I draw 32 or 40 or whatever little boxes on a single page of my sketchbook and start filling them in. I only have the most rudimentary notion what each page is going to look like, but this is where I usually discover the ideas that will make this my book as opposed to a book that was merely illustrated by me. Once I have all my pandas in a row I probably sketch character designs.

Do the kids in your life ask to read the Berenstain Bears books over and over?

Sourcebooks will help you customize a Berenstain Bears book for that child with its Put Me In The Story app. Our sibling blog AppNewser has all the details:

The app lets readers insert their child’s name and photo into eBooks. Home Sweet Tree will be the first Berenstain Bears title to be available through the app, followed by The Berenstain Bears’ Pet Showand The Berenstain Bears and the Talent Show. The stories will be available for purchase from within the app, timed along with the print editions. In addition, custom print orders of The Berenstain Bears’ Home Sweet Tree will be available in June for $32.99 beginning in June.

Happy National Poetry Month! All throughout April, we will interview poets about working in this digital age. Recently, we spoke with award-winning children’s book author and illustrator Betsy Snyder.

In the past, Snyder (pictured, via) has published two picture books that feature haikus, Haiku Baby and I Haiku You. She has been celebrating poetry by tweeting one haiku a day all month long. Check out the highlights from our interview below…

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Freckless Productions will release The Phantom Tollbooth Turns 50 documentary this summer. Back in November 2011, director Hannah Jayanti raised $31,000 on Kickstarter to cover the production costs.

The official trailer is embedded above–what do you think? The movie will include appearances by author Norton Juster, illustrator Jules Feiffer, and Emmy Award-winning actor David Hyde Pierce (who narrated the audiobook edition). Here’s more about the film:

We follow Norton and Jules as they return to the house in Brooklyn Heights where Norton began writing a little story ‘to get his mind off of what he had to do.’ Working as an architect, Norton was awarded a grant for a book on Urban Perception, which he promptly didn’t write. Instead, he created Milo. When he showed his notes to his neighbor, a young political cartoonist bent on overthrowing the government, Jules began sketching – and The Phantom Tollbooth was born. 

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Tomorrow marks the 70th anniversary of the American publication of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

The famed French aviator’s children’s novella has been translated into more than 250 languages and dialects. The Little Prince‘s official Facebook page has attracted 1.1 million “likes.”

To commemorate this anniversary, we’ve put together a list of five ideas on how fans can celebrate…

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