books

Locked doors. Secret discussions. Shredded notes.

The cloak-and-dagger life of a spy? No, this is the life of a librarian elected to one of the children's-book-award committees sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association.

If you have a young reader who loves nonfiction, check out the 2012 winner of the Robert F. Sibert Medal, and the four 2012 Sibert Honor books.

Milo Manara is one of Europe's most famous artists, known for his beautiful women, meticulous craftsmanship, sweeping landscapes, storytelling skills and even pornography. He's been reprinted in America before, but Dark Horse is doing it in a huge and comprehensive way, commensurate with the Italian artist's international stature.

In the past 25 years, they've created more than two-dozen CDs for kids and adults and won two Grammy Awards.

Now singers/songwriters Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer have turned to a different audience: babies and their parents.

For those who have only heard about "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" and decided you hated it, the Tiger Mother has a request: Read it. All of it. And then decide.

The memoir, a global best seller that has prompted anger, scorn and vitriolic emails, is Amy Chua's account of raising her two daughters "the Chinese way."

TAMPA, Fla. - Banking pioneer Bob Samuels was ready for sun and relaxation by the pool. He told all his friends he was retiring to Tampa to write his memoirs.

That was 20 years ago. He self-published the book in November.

If you could live your life over, you undoubtedly would do a better job simply because experience has a way of revealing what works, or at least what doesn't.

Shalom!

Jack Gantos kept his hopes for winning a Newbery Medal -- given annually by the American Library Association to the best-written children's book -- in "lockdown mode" over the past few months.

WASHINGTON - William Howard Taft was a supersized man who many contend left a puny legacy, but the nation's 27th president changes the shape of things to come in the world imagined by Jason Heller in "Taft 2012: A Novel."