Carnival of Children's Lit, March '09

Jenny's Wonderland of Books plays host to the March Carnival of Children's Literature; you'll find links to blog posts on Jacques Cousteau, James Joyce's book for children, and heists. Yes, heists—and more. Go check it out.

Comments

[Carol Baicker-McKee]

I love your blog and lurk here regularly.

Please forgive my non sequitur comment. I'm a children's book author and illustrator on a mission to save vintage children's books, which are under threat from a law that went into effect in February. Under the CPSIA, or toy lead law, no products intended for children 12 and under can contain lead (above a low level that will be dropping further over the next year and a half). Unfortunately, books printed in 1984 or earlier sometimes had small amounts of lead in the inks. The books are only dangerous to children if they eat them (mouthing is okay), but because they might have some ink, it is now illegal to sell, give away or otherwise distribute (like from a library or school) any of these old children's books, unless they are rare, adult-only collectibles.

Congress is not showing any willingness to amend the law, and I (and many others) fear these old, loved books will simply disappear. The vast majority of older children's books are out of print in any form and so will not be preserved for future generations to enjoy. The books are safe -I'd give them to my own kids (or grandkids, as my kids are past the target age) without hesitation.

You can learn more about this law and how it affects children's books at overlawyered.com, bookroomblog.com, heartkeepercommonroom.blogspot.com, amendthecpsia.com, and my blog, doodlesandnoodles.blogspot.com, as well as from articles in Publisher's Weekly (here's the link to the most recent article about it - you can get to their others from there: http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6648646.html?nid=2788)

Sorry for such a long, intrusive post. But if more people don't join the fight, old books are just going to gradually fade away. Congress so far is not interested in making any changes to the law.

Thanks.