By KAREN MACPHERSON, Scripps Howard News Service

Even as a preschooler, Jimmy Gownley loved to draw and write.
His parents encouraged him, and also read aloud to him from all kinds of books, including comic books like "Batman," "Superman," and paperback collections of "Peanuts" comic strips. Gownley's mother would ask him to make up stories to go with vocabulary words she wrote on index cards.

In 1969, two librarians, Glyndon Flynt Greer and Mabel McKissack, decided it was time to specifically honor children's books created by black authors and illustrators.
Their goal was twofold: promote the few books by blacks that were being published at the time, and also push publishers to offer more children's books created by blacks.

When an editor first suggested that best selling author Carl Hiaasen consider writing for children, he laughed.
"My reaction was that this person hadn't read my adult novels or they would never ask me to write for kids," Hiaasen said in a recent telephone interview from his South Florida home. "The idea was just too scary to contemplate."

Here's a look at some new children's books focused on Abraham Lincoln:

Neil Gaiman was planning to sleep late this past Monday morning, but the phone in his Los Angeles hotel room rang before dawn. On the line was his assistant, saying that Gaiman needed to wake up and take an important call on his cell phone.

Just hours after "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!" by Laura Amy Schlitz won the Newbery Medal last year, it zoomed from 8,536th to No. 17 in book sales on Amazon.com.

Just hours after "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!" by Laura Amy Schlitz won the Newbery Medal last year, it zoomed from 8,536th to No. 17 in book sales on Amazon.com.

Check out these three new novels for young readers:

Mississippi "Mibs" Beaumont is looking forward to turning 13. Yes, she'll finally be a teenager, but, more importantly, she'll finally discover her "savvy," or special power.

Is your child or teen looking for a good novel to read? Check out one of these new books: